Civil & Human Rights

Arpaio is a chicken. Call him out! (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio knows that challenger Paul Penzone is nipping at his dusty cowboy boots this election season– so Arpaio is taking the chicken shit standard Republican position of refusing to debate. Public pressure forced Republican Jeff Flake to debate Democrat Dr. Richard Carmona.

Maricopa County is a cesspool of corruption– election fraud, tent city jails, sheriff's deputies shooting citizens, intimidation of elected officials and citizens, people being murdered in jail, immigration sweeps through neighborhoods, racial profiling … need I go on? Arpaio is a big part of the problem. It's time for his retirement.

Let's put the pressure on Arpaio to debate Penzone. Here is a Facebook call to action from Randy Parraz.

 

Today is DAY 15 of Arpaio's NO DEBATE PLEDGE. On October 9th Sheriff Arpaio pledged to NOT debate Paul Penzone AND he thinks he can get away with it. Take action now – Call Arpaio's puppeteer, Chad Willems, at Summit Consulting and ask him why Arpaio is too chicken to debate Paul Penzone: (602) 235-9320. Please post your responses here.

Check out one of Penzone's early campaign speeches and a background video on Arpaio after the jump.

The mythical ‘moderate Mitt’ supports extremist Richard Mourdock

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Monday, Willard "Mittens" Romney cut an ad in support of Indiana Tea-Publican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, one of the rare occasions a presidential candidate has endorsed a congressional candidate in an ad this election cycle. The media villager invention of "moderate Mitt" tied his campaign to one of the most far-right extremist Tea-Publican candidates running for Congress this year. I guess the media villagers must have missed it. Mitt Romney TV ad plugs Richard Mourdock in Indiana Senate race.

Mittens is now learning the hard way why presidential candidates do not tie their campaigns to down-ballot congressional races, especially such controversial candidates. On Tuesday night during a televised debate, Richard Mourdock had this to say. Indiana GOP Senate Hopeful Richard Mourdock Says God 'Intended' Rape Pregnancies:

Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock declared during a Tuesday night
U.S. Senate debate that a woman who gets pregnant by her rapist is
carrying a “gift from God” and thus must have the child.

“I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize
life is that gift from God,” he said. “And I think even when life begins
in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God
intended to happen.” Mourdock, who became visibly emotional while
speaking, supports abortion only to save a mother’s life, not in cases
of rape and incest.

* * *

Mourdock’s Democratic rival, Rep. Joe Donnelly, quickly entered the fray after Tuesday’s debate. “The God I believe in and the God I know most
Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen — ever.  What
Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so
disrespectful to survivors of rape,” he said in a statement.

Mourdock harumphed and said his words were being taken out of context when tried to walk them back after the debate:

“God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does.
Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is
absurd and sick.”

More importantly, Team Romney that had made the mistake of embracing Mourdock on Monday quickly moved to disavow his debate statement:

“Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock’s comments, and they do not
reflect his views,” said campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul.  The
candidate supports abortion in cases of rape and incest, as well as to
save a mother’s life.

Well, that's what Mittens says now as he pretends to be "moderate Mitt" for the feckless media villagers who fall for that crap. He and his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan have supported the most extreme positions on abortion and women's access to contraception until the eleventh hour of the campaign.

Automated vote flipping for Romney: Crony capitalism at the ballot box? (video)

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Vote

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but the US needs serious election reform.

It should have happened after President George Bush and Florida's hanging chads stole the 2000 election. Remember, that was the year that Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote by 271 vs 266, with one abstention. 

For decades, people have grumbled about the Electoral College and how out of date it is. In more recent elections, layers of complaints have been heaped on the pile– complaints about the long, drawn out campaign season; the stupid primary/caucus system; the over-reliance on the opinions of voters in two tiny white states (New Hampshire and Iowa); the unending and increasingly nasty commercials; the evil robocalls and push-polls; the lies and spin (which the current Republican presidential ticket has taken to new heights); hackable electronic voting machines; and– this year in particular– the obscene amount of secret, dirty money that is being poured into the elections. 

Is anyone ready for real reform yet? Do you need more evidence that our "democracy" has been stolen by crony capitalists and big money?

Well… here you go, then…

Rigged Elections for Romney? from The Agonist…

A group of independent researchers caught a pattern of apparent vote flipping during the 2012 Republican primaries that consistently favored Mitt Romney. A form of election fraud, vote flipping occurs when votes are changed from one candidate to another or several others during electronic voting and vote tabulation… [more]

More examples of our broken system, some reform ideas, and a video after the jump.

Maricopa County election fraud: Two official documents give Spanish speakers wrong election date (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Those pesky typos! (Yeah, right.)

The Maricopa County Elections Department has admitted to a second instance of voter suppression… er… poor proofreading. You'll remember that last week ABC 15 and Blog for Arizona reported that Spanish speaking voters were given the wrong date for the election on a document that was included with new voter registration cards.

This week, the elections department says that a bookmark with election details gives English speakers the correct date for the election (Nov. 6) but gives Spanish speakers Nov. 8 as election day.

Giving groups that you don't want to vote the wrong date is a tried and true voter suppression tactic. I didn't believe the first instance was a mistake; giving Latinos the wrong date twice is definitely not a typo oopsy. Seriously, how dumb could they be? Or how dumb do they think the rest of us are?

The Maricopa County Elections Department should be investigated by the feds– now.

Here's the story from ABC Channel 15…

PHOENIX – A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department admits they once again gave voters the wrong date of next month's election.

Yvonne Reed confirms to ABC15 that bookmarks distributed by the elections department incorrectly listed the date of the general election in Spanish as November 8.

The flip side of the bookmark correctly lists the date in English as November 6.

Reed tells ABC15 the bookmarks were distributed at the three election counters throughout Maricopa County and that the department has no way of knowing exactly how many people received the bookmarks.

Randy Parraz, President of Citizens For A Better Arizona, says the blame lies squarely with Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell.

"It shows she's incompetent and not qualified," said Parraz.

For the rest of the story, go to ABC 15 here.

What's really tragic about this suppression of Spanish speaking voters is that there have been gargantuan efforts to get out the Latino vote. This is an important election for all of us, but for Latinos in Maricopa County, it is there best chance in years to oust renegade Sheriff Joe Arpaio. 

Check out the Adios Arpaio video by Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman after the jump.

Obama campaign ad: ‘Seen’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Obama campaign responds to Mitt Romney's flat-out lie
in his new ad that he has never supported banning all abortions with a new ad
entitled "Seen," which includes video of Mittens Romney saying he would be "delighted to sign" a
bill outlawing all abortion. Romney acts like he has never heard of those newfangled inventions like sound recordings and moving picture film and the "tee-vee" and the Internet. Description:

Voiceover:
"Seen this from Mitt Romney? Then take a look at this:"

Anderson Cooper:
"If
Roe v. Wade was overturned, Congress passed a federal ban on all
abortions, and it came to your desk — would you sign it? 'Yes', or
'no?'"

Mitt Romney:
"Let me say it: I'd be delighted to sign that bill."

Voiceover:
"Banning all abortions?"

Mitt Romney:
"I'd be delighted to sign that bill."

Voiceover:
"Trying to mislead us? That's wrong. But ban all abortions? Only…if you vote for him."

Video below the fold.