COVID-19 & Healthcare

President Clinton campaigns for Carmona in Arizona, as polls show race tightening (video)

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Clinton098-sm72

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Despite Arizona’s reputation as a stalwartly red state, with
a capital R, Democrats are hoping to take back one of the state’s US Senate in November.

Although Democrats have held a percentage of the state’s
Congressional seats for years, the Republican Party has controlled both Arizona
US Senate seats since 1994, when embattled Senator Dennis
Deconcini retired, and Arizona Congressman Jon Kyl won it.

Since
early 2012, former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona has been
crisscrossing the state, campaigning
tirelessly to move that Senate seat to the D column. Over the summer,
Carmona climbed steadily in the polls against Kyl’s heir apparent and
six-term, conservative Congressman Jeff Flake. A recently released poll shows
Independent-turned-Democrat Carmona
leading Flake by four percentage points—a statistical dead heat.

This close—and important—Senate race has attracted the
attention of heavy hitters from both parties. While the Koch Brothers’ Freedom
Works PAC has been pumping money into Flake’s campaign, this week Democrats
sent their secret weapon—President Bill Clinton—to Arizona to help Carmona.

Wednesday night, Carmona and Clinton addressed an estimated
5500 Arizonans at an outdoor rally on the Arizona State University (ASU)
campus.

More details and a videos after the jump.

Draw the Line – Sign the Bill of Reproductive Rights

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If we do not stand up and defend the reproductive rights of women, the pro-life forced birth movement will take those rights away and reduce women to second class citizens under the Constitution.

Uterus-stateWe just heard Rep. Paul Ryan say during the vice presidential debate this week that he and Willard "Mittens" Romney intend to put the fundamental constitutional rights of women to life, liberty and property to a referendum vote (disguised as a ban on abortion and most forms of contraceptives). Fundamental constitutional rights are not subject to a vote — that's what makes them fundamental constitutional rights. The minority is protected from tyranny by the majority.

A woman does not lose her constitutional rights to life, liberty and property at the moment of conception, reducing her to a second class citizen to her fertilized egg, and making her uterus "property of the state"  subject to regulation.

Romney-Ryan promises to stack the U.S. Supreme Court with conservative activist judges who will rubberstamp their actions. Take this threat seriously.

Obama campaign ad: ‘Only Choice’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have posted about the Romney plan for Medicaid that President Bill Clinton addressed in his DNC convention speech. Romney's Medicaid cuts would be devastating to nursing home care and the disabled. Almost two-thirds of Medicaid is spent on nursing home care for seniors and on people with disabilities. (The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 63.5 percent –
or $148 billion – of federal Medicaid spending ($251 billion in total)
goes towards the elderly, blind and disabled.)

The Romney plan for Medicaid affects "dual eligibles," and would be devastating to nursing home care for the elderly, which many families simply cannot afford without Medicare and Medicaid. Bloomberg News reported Medicaid to Lose $1.26 Trillion Under Romney Block Grant – Bloomberg.

The Obama campaign is up with a new ad on this issue, entitled "Only Choice." From the ad description:

"It's one of the hardest decisions a family can make …realizing a
nursing home is the only choice. For many middle class families,
Medicaid is the only way to afford the care. But as a governor, Mitt
Romney raised nursing home fees eight times. And as President, his
budget cuts Medicaid by one-third. And Burdens families with the cost of
nursing home care. We have a president who won't let that happen."

Video below the fold.

Why Obama Now (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

After the jump, watch a 3:44 minute video on why anyone who makes less than $1 million per year should vote to re-elect President Barack Obama. 

This is not rocket science, people. If you're undecided, you haven't been paying attention for the past 30 years. Vive la 99%.

The trouble with ‘E.Orr’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

EeyoreI have told you about The troubling Tyler Mott, the Tea-Publican running for state senate in LD 9, but what about his running mate for the LD 9 House, the equally troubling Tea-Publican Ethan Orr aka "E.Orr," the former Young Democrat?

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports House contest in Tucson pits 2 Democrats against a former Democrat:

Republican Ethan Orr spent the first half of his life as a Democrat, volunteering for the party on political campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s first presidential run in 1992 and Eddie Basha’s run for Arizona governor in 1994.

So it’s no surprise that when he’s on the campaign trail for a House seat in north Tucson’s new Legislative District 9, one of the state’s most competitive districts, he can talk the talk that the moderate voters there want to hear.

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Orr says he fashions himself after moderate Tucson Republicans like former Reps. Pete Hershberger and Toni Hellon, and he hopes to work with the southern Arizona Democratic delegation to pass legislation that can help the people and Tucson.

Yeah, not hardly. Hellon and Hershberger were not culture warriors for the far-right social agenda. And aren't they dismissed today as RINOs by the Tea-Publican Party?

Orr’s Democratic opponents, Victoria Steele and Mohur Sidhwa, say Orr’s moderate rhetoric is false advertising.

Orr takes a strong stance on several social issues, including abortion, saying it should be illegal in all cases except when the mother’s life is at risk. He said he doesn’t support making gay marriage legal, but doesn’t support a constitutional amendment against it either.

[Note: Arizona voters already enacted a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, Prop. 102 in 2008. Someone should ask him in upcoming debates how he voted on Prop. 102.]

Though he said he wouldn’t sponsor social bills himself, he said when it comes time to vote, he would vote with his party and his conscience.

E.Orr's stance on abortion means that he supports requiring forced birth for victims of rape and incest — the life of the mother is his only exception. Someone should ask him in upcoming debates whether he believes in Rep. Todd Akin's (R-MO) "legitimate rape" theory which is prevalent among the anti-choice Christian right.

E.Orr says he will vote with his party on social issues. Well, the 20 week restrictions on abortion, waiting periods and forced ultra-sound, the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and permitting employers religious institutions to opt-out of contraceptive coverage in employer-sponsored health insurance plans — all bills advanced by Cathi Herrod and her Center for Arizona Policy — were passed with near unanimous Tea-Publican support in the past legislature.