COVID-19 & Healthcare

District 11 can do way better than Steve Smith – elect Jo Holt to the Arizona Senate

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SteveSmithRep. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa), running for the Senate in Legislative District 11, is part of the anti-immigrant “Super Friends,” with Russell Pearce, Cap’n Al Melvin, John Kavanagh, and Joe Arpaio.

There is no problem in Arizona for which the “Super Friends” do not blame on people for breathing while brown.  Smith is an ideological extremist of the first order, for whom the voters of Legislative District 11 should hang their heads in shame for having ever elected him.

Smith carried the disgraced Sen. Russell Pearce’s anti-immigrant bills  after his recall that would require school districts to count the number of students who are in the country illegally, HB 2289 (2013), and to require hospitals to report patients who cannot prove their lawful status. HB 2293 (2103). Both measures are unlawful under existing law.

Smith also sponsored the bill to build a border fence using private donations. Arizona legislator ends bid to build privately funded border fence.

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Beware an epidemic of Rand Paul ignorance

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I saw this stunning headline in the Arizona Daily Star this morning: Sen. Paul: Ebola can spread at cocktail party:

aquabuddhaU.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told a group of college students Wednesday the deadly virus Ebola can spread from a person who has the disease to someone standing 3 feet away, and said the White House should be honest about that.

His comments directly conflict with statements from world health authorities who have dealt with Ebola outbreaks since 1976.

Paul, a doctor and potential GOP presidential contender, made his comments during a stop at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire on Wednesday. In his remarks, he called Ebola “incredibly contagious” and suggested it could spread at a cocktail party attended by someone who is symptomatic.

Note to AP reporter Kathleen Ronayne: Sen. Rand Paul aka Aqua Buddha is not a doctor of internal medicine with any particularized expertise or speciality in infectious diseases, he is an ophthalmologist, and a self-certified one at that. Dr. Paul: Not board-certified, but self-certified. (An ophthalmologist performs operations on eyes, so they are both surgical and medical specialists).

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Let’s talk about parental notification, shall we?

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

robert graham intense“I obviously know more about any 14 year old’s family situation than she does!”

Anti-choicers hold two positions that are broadly popular with the public. One is support for late term bans, as antis have somehow convinced the majority of Americans that women will abort perfectly healthy pregnancies in the sixth to ninth months with alarming frequency unless the law stops them. The other is parental notification, which is one of those things that sounds reasonable if you don’t really think about it much (and most people don’t). So it’s no surprise that Arizona Republican candidate Doug Ducey would end his silence on reproductive rights throughout the general election campaign with an attack on Democratic candidate Fred DuVal over parental notification.

Here’s part of the statement that AZ GOP chair Robert Graham (pictured above) put out about it:

“Mr. DuVal’s position to remove parents from a decision of life and death is completely reckless,” said Pastor Jose Gonzales Q, of Harvest Bible Church. “Regardless of your position on abortion, we cannot possibly leave these types of decisions to developing minds. We are entering an age where parental involvement is increasingly important, but to even suggest that a minor – much less a 14 year-old – can intelligently comprehend the long-term impact of such an action is absurd.”

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The GOP war on women stumbles at the Supreme Court

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Two weeks ago the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a major blow to women’s reproductive rights in Texas, allowing the state to begin enforcing the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation.

Screenshot-13Acting with unusual speed on a request for a stay of the Fifth Circuit Court order, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday enjoined the Texas anti-abortion law from being enforced while the case is on appeal. Even more surprising to court observers was that the decision was 6-3, with only Justices Thomas, Scalia and Alito dissenting that the law should be allowed to be enforced.

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog writes, Court blocks abortion limits in Texas:

Over the dissents of three Justices, the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening barred Texas from enforcing two parts of its new abortion-restriction law — one part as it applied throughout the state, the other as it applied to two clinics in the southwest part of the state.

The state may not now enforce a requirement that all clinics in the state upgrade their facilities to be hospital-like surgical centers, even when they perform abortions only through the use of drugs, not surgery.  And it may not enforce, against the clinics in McAllen and El Paso, a requirement that all doctors performing abortions have privileges to admit patients to a hospital within thirty miles of the clinic.  That requirement can continue to be enforced elsewhere in Texas, the Court indicated.

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HRC AZ disappoints with Ethan “Bros Before Hoes” Orr endorsement as news media fawn over his weed announcement

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

e orr

I learned via good sources on Facebook earlier that the Human Rights Campaign of Arizona has decided to endorse incumbent Ethan Orr (R) along with Dr. Randall Freise (D) for Legislative District 9. It’s bad enough they are snubbing Orr’s seatmate Victoria Steele (D) but they are throwing their support to a guy who has a lousy voting record on human rights issues. (CORRECTION: I have since learned that HRC AZ is endorsing Steele. They picked Orr over Friese.)

I understand that Orr is nominally pro-LGBT rights and, who knows, maybe he has finally come out in support of marriage equality. HRC AZ may be rewarding him for voting against SB1062 (not that it mattered since the bill passed anyway). If that’s the case, I would urge extreme caution about that. Ethan Orr strongly opposes a woman’s right to choose, which should be upsetting enough if you believe that human rights should be a full meal for all, not a cafeteria plan for some. But what that also means is that if/when SB1062 comes back, it will be (as I’ve explained many times) disguised as a “Hobby Lobby”-type measure. They’ll just say the magic word “abortifacients” and Ethan Orr will be on board. Thus, he really cannot be pro-LGBT if he is also anti-choice.

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