Martha McSally

House Deportation Tea-Publicans vote to defund DACA Program

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The Tea-Publicans in the TanMan’s House today voted to defund the DACA Program — the Citizenship and Immigration Services is not funded through congressional appropriations, but rather through user fees; this bill attempts to declare these fees cannot be used — including an amendment aimed at deporting innocent DREAMers as well, because Tea-Publicans just cannot contain their visceral hatred for people breathing while brown. The modern day GOP is the new anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party.

The Hill reports, House passes bill to defund Obama’s immigration orders:

ImmigrantsThe House voted Wednesday to block funding for President Obama’s immigration orders, firing the first shot in a high-stakes battle over deferred deportations for the millions of people who are in the country illegally.

The measure passed in a 236-191 vote, with 10 Republicans voting against it and two Democrats voting in favor.

Democrats rallied against the bill, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through September, after Republicans adopted a series of contentious amendments that take aim at facets of Obama’s immigration policy.

One of the amendments would choke off funding for Obama’s executive action announced in November, which would allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the country and obtain work permits.

A second amendment would halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA), which lifts deportation for some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

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Barber Wins Spirited Debate, as McSally Ducks Questions

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Last night’s televised debate between CD2 Congressman Ron Barber and Republican challenger Martha McSally was livelier than I had anticipated. In the end, it was obvious that Barber had won the debate. He answered the questions with concrete, specific examples and ideas, while McSally displayed great skill in avoiding actually answering most of the questions.

Barber was the real surprise of the evening for me. He came out swinging from the beginning with a bow to women’s right to choose and acknowledgement of the landmark SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage (two things McSally is against). It’s a good thing he led with these issues because they differentiate the two candidates and otherwise would not have been raised. (As Donna Greathouse has pointed out, debate moderators have repeatedly deemed women’s rights as not worthy of one question.)

In the beginning of the debate, both candidates tried to prove they were the most independent (since this highly competitive district has so many independents). Barber touted his record as the “fourth most independent” Congressman, which means he bucks the Democratic Party routinely. In fact, McSally’s charge that Barber does what Minority Leader Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi tells him to rings particularly hollow with most Democrats who wish he would do just that!

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Fact Check: McSally ‘Equality’ Ad & Website Reveal Flip-flopping

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Congressional candidate Martha McSally stands with white women.
Congressional candidate Martha McSally stands with young, white women.

When Congressional candidate Martha McSally ran for Congress in 2012, she was full Tea Party:

  • militarize the border
  • protect the military industrial complex
  • fight for big business and small government
  • balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and the poor
  • repeal and replace Obamacare;
  • fight for the “sanctity of life” (because of her deep faith in God)
  • ignore the civil rights struggles of workers, women, immigrants, people of color, the poor, and LGBTQ.

Fast forward to 2014, and we find that Tea Party Martha with her flight pants, t-shirts, and natural hairdo has morphed into Corporate Republican Martha, with a complete makeover of her ideas and her image. God, the sanctity of life, repeal and replace, and War on Women denials have quietly slipped off of McSally’s campaign website.

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Sorry, Martha McSally, “feminist Republican” IS an oxymoron

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barber mcsally

Roll Call‘s Shira T. Center is covering Arizona’s tight CD2 race and sees a formidable candidate in Martha McSally:

Operatives couldn’t make up a better candidate résumé if they tried: retired Air Force Colonel, first in her class at the U.S. Air War College, the first female fighter pilot in combat who flies the very plane — an A-10 Warthog — that’s economically essential to the 2nd District.

At a time when Republicans wrangle with messaging to female voters, this 48-year-old’s spunk and articulate bite is made for television — and unlike anything the House GOP Conference has seen in a while…

…McSally doesn’t talk like the average congressional candidate, instead dropping phrases like “awesome,” “dorked up,” and “bad-ass airplane” before crowds and in conversations. During a live appearance on Fox News Channel in February 2012, she said she wanted to kick former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., “in the jimmy” for his position on women serving in combat…

…“I consider myself a feminist Republican, and that’s not an oxymoron,” McSally tells CQ Roll Call in an interview over a vegetarian burrito slightly smaller than a bowling pin.

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Pima County Seniors Protest Martha McSally’s Attacks on Social Security

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Seniors Mark Social Security Anniversary, Protest McSally’s Support for Privatization Local seniors will gather this afternoon on the 79th anniversary of Social Security’s enactment to call on Martha McSally to stop attacking seniors’ retirement savings and start supporting this important program. McSally has repeatedly said she supports Republican efforts to undermine Social Security by trying … Read more