Why would uber-social conservative Sylvia Allen push a bill to protect her (alleged) sex abuser son-in-law?

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Edited to correct the name to Senator Allen’s in the title because I apparently can’t keep right wing legislators straight these days.

Sylvia Allen

AZ Republic‘s Laurie Roberts notes the irony of Senator Sylvia Allen (R-Birtherstan) sponsoring a pro-union bill.

Turns out Sen. Sylvia Allen is a champion of unions. Who knew?

The “constitutional conservative” best known for her efforts to create state militias and close public meetings is hoping this year to boost protections for detention officers who find themselves in hot water.

Like, say, her son-in-law.

Last year, then-Navajo County Supervisor Allen tried to interfere with an internal investigation into her son-in-law’s conduct with female inmates in the Navajo County jail.

This year, Allen has moved on to the state Senate where she sponsored a bill aimed at ensuring that others don’t have to endure what she sees as a witch hunt against her son-in-law.

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Nice AGs you’ve elected yourselves there, Arizona

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

prison2Photo: globalresearch.ca

I actually don’t know if Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Weisbard was a Tom Horne or Mark Brnovich hire but does it matter?

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is asking for dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a teacher who was brutally assaulted and raped after being left in an unguarded prison classroom with a convicted sex offender.

The AG’s reasoning is essentially this: the woman knew she was in a prison, so what did she expect?

No, seriously. That’s the reasoning.

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The unmitigated gall of these people

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

smirking ducey

Governor Ducey’s team decided to take a Friday news dump on Arizona by releasing his proposed budget. One of the items people noticed right away was the $75 million cut to universities. Which is weird since didn’t we spend the whole 2014 general election being told how we shouldn’t vote for that dastardly Fred DuVal because he was entirely to blame for college tuition increases while he was on the Arizona Board of Regents? Remember ad after ad featuring stock photos of fresh-faced concerned-looking young people and the ominous voiceover darkly warning of more increases – that would break middle class families! – if DuVal got near the Capitol? Candidate Ducey promised several times to “put more money in the classroom”.

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Doug MacEachern is being icky again

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com and retweeted by Mr. MacEachern himself.

maceachernSeriously, just eww!

So the other day I hauled out a Costco-sized jug of brain bleach and proceeded to read this Doug MacEachern column.

In terms of fundraising tactics, there is not a wit [sic] of difference between the National Rifle Association and, say, America’s premier abortion industry complex, Planned Parenthood.

Now, MacEachern would like everyone to think he’s a world-weary scribe, merely pursuing objective truth on the subject of abortion. He recently sniffed that people shouldn’t describe him as “anti-choice” since he hasn’t stated his position on abortion. However (and protip to Doug), using the phrase “America’s premier abortion industry complex” about Planned Parenthood without even sparing, say, a concomitant “America’s top gun shilling edifice” about the NRA, kind of gives his game away.

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Republican senator signals the return of SB1062 under, you guessed it, the banner of Hobby Lobby

hl 1062

On Monday the AZ Republic featured a pair of op-eds from a Republican State Senator and the outgoing Democratic House Minority Leader about the prospect of a reformulated SB1062 in the upcoming Arizona legislative session.

Here’s Senator Nancy Barto (R) explaining why opponents of discrimination are misguided meaniebutts:

To start — the vast majority of the attacks against this simple bill were at best misunderstandings of the legislation, or at worst outright lies with the endgame of conditioning the public into automatically equating faith with bigotry — in the name of equality and fairness.

On the contrary, SB 1062 brought Arizona in line with federal law and would not have created any “new right” to discriminate (i.e. refusing people taxi, hotel or restaurant service).

The Supreme Court made this clear in June when they said the Green family, who own Hobby Lobby, couldn’t be forced to pay for abortion-causing drugs in their insurance plans as “Obamacare” mandated — meaning they didn’t have to surrender their First Amendment rights simply because they started a business.

This is exactly what SB 1062 would have clarified in Arizona.

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