Civil & Human Rights

Update: Hearing on the ‘show me your papers before you pee’ bill rescheduled to next Wednesday

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted yesterday about what Brahm Resnik of Channel 12 News in Phoenix has labeled the "show me your papers to pee" bill, Corrupt Kavanagh's disdain for democracy, abuse of power:

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, wants to create Arizona’s first law governing restroom privileges. Under Senate Bill 1432, someone would be guilty of disorderly conduct if he or she uses a bathroom, locker room or dressing room that’s not designated for the sex listed on his or her birth certificate.

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SB 1432 would make it illegal to enter a bathroom if signage indicates it is exclusively for the opposite sex. Authorities could charge violators with a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail.

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The corrupt Kavanagh has an ulterior motive for submitting his "striker" and putting this discriminatory bill on his committee's agenda today — he is stacking his committee hearing agenda to screw with public testimony on Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) Restoration Plan also scheduled for an informational hearing today.

It turns out that the corrupt Kavanagh screwed up, and testimony was not heard yesterday.

Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama, 1926-2013

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(Cross-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion) Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama passed away on Tuesday. The last time I saw Hank Oyama was about 2 years ago. I ran into him at an event Downtown and he asked me to walk him back to his car. It quickly became obvious that he really needed no particular … Read more

The Hispanic voter stereotype shop

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rachel Maddow did a segment on Tuesday night about the GOP's new $10 million outreach to minority voters, in particular, to Hispanic voters.

The village idiot Aqua Buddha, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), addressed the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, "and on his way there he apparently stopped off at the Hispanic voter stereotype shop."

Clip:

Republicans have been losing both respect and votes of a group of people who already identify with many of our beliefs in family, and faith, and conservative values. Hispanics should be a natural and sizeable part of the Republican base. Defense of the unborn, defense of traditional marriage, are Republican issues that should resonate with Latinos.

As Maddow commented, "Should they? Why do you think that? You know if you actually look at the data, more than half of all Hispanics think that gay people should be allowed to marry. On abortion about two-thirds of Latinos think abortion should be legal. So your stereotypes about what Latino voters think, hey, turns out they're wrong. Also, they're stereotypes."

Corrupt Kavanagh’s disdain for democracy, abuse of power

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) is a corrupt politician who uses his position to advance his own personal, often bizarre agenda, rather than to represent the best interests of his constitutuents and Arizonans.

There was this tidbit in the Arizona Republic this morning, Brewer wants Legislature to take up her priorities:

TPT is the state transaction privilege tax. A bill to streamline the tax, which effectively is the sales tax, is set for a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon.

The bill had stalled in the House, where Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, had worried that the bill’s overhaul of the construction sales tax could hurt local governments and where Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, had not scheduled it for a hearing. Kavanagh’s wife, Linda, is Fountain Hills’ mayor.

The House Approriations Committee is not his personal fiefdom to keep his wifey happy. This tax reform bill is important to the state of Arizona and for future economic development. This is an abuse of power.

Arizona Republic editorial: Arizona voter ID law should be overturned

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Republic editorialized in an opinion today that Arizona's voter ID law should be overturned. Voting law isn’t useful:

The Arizona voting-rights case now before the U.S. Supreme Court is more about states’ rights vs. federal control of elections than about the particulars of the case itself.

Yes, that sounds like a familiar, Arizona-centric issue.

From efforts to nullify federal laws to this current question of whether Arizona can pack additional requirements onto a federal voting-rights law, our state is highly prone to challenging federal dominion.