COVID-19 & Healthcare

Cathi Herrod proves me right on Hobby Lobby decision

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

uterus-state

You’ll recall that after SB1062, the bill that would give business owners and individuals the “religious freedom” to discriminate, went down in flames due to intense public and business lobbyist pressure against it, I observed that it was very much an anti-choice bill in addition to an anti-LGBT one.

We really did dodge a bullet and at risk of sounding cynical, I’m glad the focus was on LGBT discrimination from a purely tactical standpoint in addition to the moral and human rights ones. Having it framed as targeting LGBT citizens was what brought the fiercely negative reaction in the media and the organized business community around to kill it. But make no mistake, this was also very much an anti-choice bill. CAP spokesman Aaron Baer cited Hobby Lobby in a TV interview as an example for why SB1062 was needed. Had contraception access been the main public focus – and I bet CAP wishes like hell it had – there’s a good chance the bill would have been quietly signed into law with nary a peep from the Chamber of Commerce crowd because sluts.

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But what if I want to show people how much I “care” about them as they’re trying to get into the voting booth?

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

clinic protesters

The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision today in McCullen v Coakley, finding that Massachusetts’ 35 foot buffer zone around abortion clinics violated the free speech rights of protesters to harangue and intimidate uh “counsel” women entering them. It looks like the court bought the plaintiffs’ carefully constructed image of kindly “plump grandmothers” being the typical sort of protesters patients would encounter outside clinics rather than the actual intimidating people known to be there. I’m certain that the Justices weren’t thinking about these people when they rendered their decision.

SCOTUS was concerned about the free “transmission of ideas”.

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SCOTUS strikes down an abortion clinic ‘buffer zone’

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gavelChief Justice John Roberts is terrible at writing court opinions. His attention to detail and to judicial precedent is lax, and his legal reasoning is deeply flawed. I believe this is because he has an ideological agenda and is outcome oriented. He is not the “umpire who calls balls and strikes” that he promised to be at his Senate confirmation hearing.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court in Hill v. Colorado upheld by a six-to-three vote a Colorado law that forbade approaching within eight feet of another person within one hundred feet of abortion facility. This is the Court’s abortion clinic “buffer zone” precedent.

The state of Massachusetts’ abortion clinic “buffer zone” law was at issue in McCullen v. Coakley. “It is notable that outside of a brief mention in describing the background of the case (noting that Massachusetts had originally enacted a narrower buffer-zone provision modeled on the statute upheld in Hill), the majority opinion makes no mention of Hill at all.” What is left of Hill v. Colorado? (in contrast with Justice Scalia’s dissent, joined by Justices Kennedy and Thomas, which overtly calls for Hill to be overruled). Kevin Russell at SCOTUSblog.com writes:

Did the Chief Justice effectively overrule Hill or its result as a practical matter, without saying so?

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Huppenthal did drop by Democratic Diva a time or two

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Modified cross post from DemocraticDiva.com AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal has been revealed as a big old internet troll and my friend Bob Lord, whom I blog with at Blog for Arizona, is the one who broke the story. Here’s Bob being interviewed on Channel 5 in Phoenix Wednesday night, in a report … Read more

‘Gale Force Progressives’ Weisser, Woods & Williamson Challenge Arizona’s Tea Party Congressmen

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Progressive Mikel Weisser-- from the Left Coast of Arizona-- is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.
Progressive Mikel Weisser– from the Left Coast of Arizona– is challenging Tea Party favorite Paul Gosar for the CD 4 seat.

Arizona’s Congressional delegation includes nine members of the House of Representatives: five Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1), Ron Barber (CD2), Raul Grijalva (CD3), Ed Pastor (CD7, retiring this year), and Kyrsten Sinema (CC9) and four Republicans Paul Gosar (CD4), Matt Salmon (CD5), David Schweikert (CD6), and Trent Franks (CD8).

At Blog for Arizona, we complain often and loudly about Blue Dog Democrats and their votes, but our country’s real enemy in the fight for freedom, democracy, and self determination is the Tea Party. They pontificate poetically about family values, but they vote for laws that deny food security, basic healthcare, quality education, and a living wage to millions of Americans. They talk about freedom, but they support for-profit mass incarceration and widespread surveillance of Americans– not to mention forcing us to live in fear due to lax gun laws. They wave the flag and promote patriotism, but they send soldiers to fight in useless wars and cut their benefits and ridicule them when they come home. And, above all, they spout folksy, vacuous platitudes, while they dutifully serve their corporate benefactors and ignore “the little guy”.

Arizona’s Republican Representatives in the House are full-fledged Tea Partiers. (In fact, Franks is one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to GovTrackUS.) In the 2014 elections, the “Gale Force Progressives”, Mikel Weisser, James Woods, and W. John Williamson, are challenging Arizona Teapublicans Gosar, Salmon, and Schweikert, respectively, for their Congressional seats.

“I knew it was an uphill battle when I started,” laughs Weisser. “It is about bringing a fight to GOP ideas I know are wrong for America. About stopping Republican terrorism and backwards thinking and working for a 21st century America.” (Public forum and candidate details after the jump.)

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