sb1062

AZ Republic endorsement of Ducey is a giant FU to women and naive besides

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Frowny Ducey

I expected this since the AZ Republic endorsed three Dems for statewide races and the publisher of the paper, and publisher John Zidich is known to be a pal of Ducey, but I was struck by the sheer obtuseness of their endorsement of Doug Ducey for Governor.

He speaks of the need to streamline an executive branch that sprawls across an organizational chart. He promises to be a vigorous and visible salesman for the state, speaking the language of CEOs.

He knows what national business leaders look for, and that’s why we have no fears that a Ducey administration would usher in anything like SB 1062, the right to refuse service bill. For one, when Ducey led Cold Stone, the company provided insurance for the unmarried partners of its employees. “The things that are the right thing to do are good for business,” he says. “That’s how you attract good people.”

For another, he knows when SB 1062 did the most damage to Arizona’s image: after it was passed but before Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it. “I’d rather it not get to my desk than have it get there and have to veto it,” he says.

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How do you like your Hobby Lobby now, Doug Ducey and other GOP candidates?

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Crossposted at DemocraticDiva.com

hobby lobby

Per Ian Millhiser:

Citing Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court’s decision last June holding that the religious objections of a business’ owners could trump federal rules requiring that business to include birth control coverage in its health plan, a federal judge in Utah held last week that a member of a polygamist religious sect could refuse to testify in a federal investigation into alleged violations of child labor laws because he objects to testifying on religious grounds…

…The federal child labor investigation arose from a CNN report investigating claims that Jeffs “ordered all schools closed for a week so children could go to work picking pecans off trees at a private ranch” in Utah. The report included video of “hundreds of children, many of them very small” working on the ranch. When the reporters arrived, CNN also caught video of the FLDS children fleeing the cameras.

Yet, according to an order signed by Judge David Sam, a Reagan appointee to a trial court in Utah, the federal officials investigating this alleged violation of child labor laws will not be able to require an FLDS member named Vernon Steed to provide information that could aid the investigation because Steed objects to giving certain testimony on religious grounds. Steed claims that he’s made “religious vows ‘not to discuss matters related to the internal affairs or organization of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’” According to Judge Sam’s opinion, that’s enough to exempt him from providing the testimony he does not want to give.

Whoops.

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Fixing Arizona’s image: tolerance and inclusion

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Brewer-ObamaThe Arizona Republic today posits that the Next governor will aim to fix Arizona’s image.

Arizona’s image to businesses and to people who would relocate here has been severely harmed by Arizona’s far-right ideological extremism, from Jan Brewer embracing the anti-immigrant “papers please” SB 1070 to gain election in 2010, to Gov. Brewer and the Tea-Publican legislature enacting anti-government Neo-Confederate “states rights” legislation routinely struck down by the courts as unconstitutional, to Gov. Brewer showing disrespect to the president by waving he boney finger in his face, to this year’s “right-to-refuse-service” aka Religious Bigotry bill, SB 1062, that caused such a national furor.

Brewer’s would-be successor as the next chief executive must repair this state’s reputation and avoid future embarrassments that damage the state’s potential for economic growth. From The Republic:

Repairing the state’s image has come up at nearly every major governor’s forum, including Wednesday’s debate. Pollster Mike O’Neil said the issue resonates with many in the business community and ­offers an opportunity for DuVal to attract ­independents and “country club” Republicans — those less concerned with the social issues behind recent ­Arizona controversies.

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Cathi Herrod’s law firm spreads lies about birth control in federal suit

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Herrod

Anti-choicers don’t have the truth or popular opinion on their side where birth control is concerned but that has not stopped the movement in its unrelenting quest to strip women of access to it. So they have devised a three part strategy to fool the public:

1. They have claimed repeatedly that effective forms of hormonal contraception used by women (IUDs, morning after pills, and even regular pills) are really “abortions” due to the slight theoretical possibility that such methods might interfere with a fertilized egg implanting on the wall of the uterus. I have yet to have an anti-choicer explain to me exactly how often they think an IUD or birth control pill snuffs out a fertilized egg* as opposed to working the way that the current scientific consensus holds that they do – by blocking fertilization. But scientific evidence is largely irrelevant to the anti-contraception crusaders.

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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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