Civil & Human Rights

Saturday Editorial, July 21, 2012

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In the flurry of news and opinion gusting out of our computer screens and smart phones, it is easy to become ‘news blind’ – so focused on the flakes and flurries that we forget where we are headed. We stumble confusedly ahead with no map to our destination. It’s easy to get lost in the storm.

Donkeysatmanger2I personally read almost every news source in Arizona – and keep up with national reaction to our politics, as well – in bringing to readers of BlogForArizona the Arizona Donkey Feed, which appears on our right-hand sidebar every day (you may also have the Feed emailed to you daily). So I, too, often find myself in that blizzard without a map.

I decided I might like to sit down once a week and take some time to look around, and identify what I think are the most significant landmarks around where we stand now. It might not be a map that will tell us where we are headed, but maybe I can get some idea of where we are. Over time, perhaps it will become a map of sorts.

I would also like to let you all know that Matt Heinz, candidate for Congressm in AZ’s CD 2, will be guest-host at Drinking Liberally in Tucson. Come down to the Shanty of 4th Avenue this Wednesday at 6pm and enjoy a beer with Matt.

So, here are some thoughts on what I think are the most important, or just most interesting, developments in the past week in Arizona’s politics…

Rep. Trent Franks disenfranchises the residents of the District of Columbia in his anti-abortion crusade

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Posted by AzBlueMeanmie:

Arizona's Tea-Publican controlled legislature passed the nation's most restrictive abortion measure earlier this year in part to assist Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in his anti-abortion crusade to impose a similar 20 week abortion restriction in federal law on the District of Columbia. Franks is behaving like a tyrannical "Mayor of D.C."

This is part of the anti-choice, anti-contraception agenda of the Christian Taliban that wants to get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in the belief that the conservative activist Justices of the Court may overturn Roe v. Wade.

The ACLU has filed suit against the Arizona legislative measure, but Rep. Trent Franks doesn't want to have to wait as long as it will take before Arizona's law is in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Franks continues to push for the 20 week abortion ban on the District of Columbia because, if it were to become law, a lawsuit would be filed in the D.C. Circuit Court and have a direct line of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

UPDATE: See Sarah Kliff at Ezra Klein's WonkBlog. Arizona v. Roe v. Wade.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton for the District of Columbia discussed Rep. Frank's disenfranchisement of the residents of the District of Columbia by refusing to permit her to speak on their behalf at committee hearings, and his attempt to gain a federal imprimatur for the 20 week abortion ban during a segment of the Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday night (video below the fold).

McCarthyite religious bigot Rep. Trent Franks shames Arizona (again)

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona has more than its fair share of embarrassing politicians somehow elected to public office. But a contender for the title of "most embarrassing Arizona politician" is Rep. Trent Franks. This guy is such a rank embarrassment, the rest of Arizona has the right to demand from the constituents of his district "what the hell were you thinking?" Don't make the rest of Arizona come to your district to beat some sense into you. . . get rid of this clown!

Back in October 2009, "A quartet of Republican Congressmen, including Arizona's own Reps. Trent Franks and John Shadegg, convened a press conference this week to demand that the House Sergeant at Arms investigate the organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), because this advocacy organization does what every other advocacy organization does, but they do it while being Muslim."

They claimed that "(CAIR) is infiltrating Capitol Hill with undercover interns, and they're basing the charge on a World Net Daily-published book that itself is based on the work of a man who posed as a Muslim to infiltrate CAIR as … an intern!" Reps. Trent Franks an John Shadegg engage in McCarthyism, religious bigotry againt Muslim-Americans:

Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson put this loony right conspiracy into it's proper context:

RACHEL MADDOW: Do you think that the secret ploy to "Islamize" America starts with interns?

EUGENE ROBINSON: (laughing) Yeah, that's where you want to start. You know the interns, they're the one's who control the real power on Capitol Hill. If you get the interns then you've got the whole city, and then you've got the world! You know this would be funny, it actually brings to mind that other great old movie Doctor Strangelove and General Jack D. Ripper and the plot he perceived to zap and impurity all our precious bodily fluids, that's kind of the way they sounded. But it's not funny, because it's dangerous and bigoted…

George Bush after 9/11, from the beginning, tried to make clear to everyone that the war on terror that he was prepared to wage was not a war against Islam, that this was not a religious war, that this was not a clash of civilizations, yet World Net Daily clearly didn't get the memo, and nor, amazingly, did some members of the U.S. Congress, and this is really scary stuff in that sense.

Planned Parenthood sues to block defunding of women’s health clinics

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Our lawless state legislature and Governor are like a full employment program for lawyers and judges. Tea-Publican authoritarianism and religious extremism leads them to violate the law and the constitution constantly. How many times do they have to be beat down by the Arizona Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court?

Uterus-stateA lawsuit was filed last week to challenge the unconstitutional abortion bill passed by our lawless legislature. On Monday, another lawsuit was filed to challenge the unconstitutional attempt by our lawless legislature to defund Planned Parenthood women's health clinics. Planned Parenthood wants court to block law forbidding Medicaid funding to abortion providers – East Valley Tribune:

Planned Parenthood asked a federal judge Monday to block a new law which would bar it from getting state Medicaid funds.

The complaint says the Legislature acted illegally in approving a measure which forbids any funding from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's health insurance for the poor, to any organization which also provides abortions. It asks Judge Neil Wake to prohibit Arizona from implementing the law as scheduled on Aug. 2 and, eventually, to declare it void and unenforceable.

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According to the lawsuit, Planned Parenthood has more than 66,000 patient visits a year, including about 3,000 from those eligible for AHCCCS. Services provided include pap smears, breast exams, contraceptives and tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases.

It also provides abortions at five of its 13 Arizona locations.

Current federal law precludes Medicaid funding for abortions except in narrow circumstances.

A little manufactured outrage perhaps?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Republic's AZ/DC blog today published second quarter fundraising numbers in the new CD 2, AZ/DC Blog – Quick look at fundraising reports:

Incumbent Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., raised $333,000, with cash on hand of $195,000, blowing past his Democratic primary challenger state Rep. Matt Heinz. . . Heinz reported donations of $34,000, with cash on hand of $42,000.

Ouch! Heinz received most of his donations in the last two weeks of June after the Special Election, and after Ron Barber cast a couple of inexplicable votes for which he has been roundly criticized by Democrats.

Which may explain the press release today from his opponent, Matt Heinz, trying to manufacture outrage (for fundraising purposes) where I believe "outrage" is unwarranted in this instance, especially since this story is from last week — suspect timing given the above report: