Tea Party

Ducey Side Steps Tea Party & Bails on Rally with Palin & d’Souza

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Doug Ducey Bad4AZRepublican Doug Ducey won his party’s nomination for governor last week with dark money from out of state, $3 million of his own cash, and a full Tea Party platform— support for unborn children and corporate persons but not so much for the rest of us.

With backers like Cathi Herrod, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Ducey looked like the Koch Brothers’ Mini-me last week. Ducey’s regressive social policies and “tooth fairy” economic ideas make him one of the most dangerous Tea Party candidates in a long time. He is a cookie-cutter copy of Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Kansas’ Sam Browback, or New Jersey’s Chris Christie. (Check out these Kansas and NJ budget stories linked here; Brownback and Christie destroyed their states’ budgets with the same Tea Party proposals Ducey is peddling in Arizona.)

The dire scenario in which Ducey becomes Arizona governor (shudder) prompted me to write the Top 10 Reasons Why Doug Ducey Is Too Extreme for Arizona Voters and start a Twitter campaign (@Bad4AZ) to educate people about Ducey’s platform and why he and other Tea Party candidates are #Bad4AZ.  (Check it out Twitter here and website here. Fellow Tweeters, help me out.)

Now Ducey appears to be backing away from the Tea Party. Was it something I said?

Details from AZ Central…

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Refugee Supporters & Anti-Immigrant Protesters Face Off in Oracle (Images)

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Supporters lined the main drag in Oracle, with bilingual or Spanish signs welcoming the the refugee children.
Supporters lined the main drag in Oracle, with bilingual or Spanish signs welcoming the the refugee children.

Demonstrators with dueling banners and ideologies lined the roads of rural Oracle, Arizona on Tuesday awaiting the arrival of 40-60 child refugees. An estimated 150 protesters, dozens of law enforcement officers (including the K-9 unit), and every TV, print, and online journalist imaginable came out to “greet” the bus of unaccompanied Central American children.

Oracle residents and other refugee supporters from Somos America, Progressive Democrats of America, South Side Presbyterian Church, and the Alliance for Global Justice gathered at 6:30 a.m.
Oracle residents and other refugee supporters from Somos America, Progressive Democrats of America, South Side Presbyterian Church, and the Alliance for Global Justice gathered at 6:30 a.m.

The original anti-immigrant protest was organized by Oracle’s self-proclaimed “Paul Revere” Robert Skiba, who was tipped off regarding the busload of refugee children by Pinal County’s Tea Party Sheriff Paul Babeu. Babeu’s grandstanding on Facebook about the federal government’s failed immigration policies, and Skiba’s boasting about a bus blockade to multiple media outlets sparked a counter protest initiated by Oracle residents who were concerned about the welfare of the children. E-mail blasts, Facebook, Twitter, blog posts like this one, and a re-Tweet by Rachel Maddow’s blog brought out the crowds, including sympathizers on both sides who drove in from Tucson and Phoenix.

Much of the media coverage has focused on tiny events that occurred during the four hours that we all waited for the bus to arrive. (More details and photos after the jump.)

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CD2 Candidates: Where Do Barber & McSally Stand on the Issues?

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Ron Barber vs Martha McSally
Venn diagram showing where CD2 Congressional Candidates Ron Barber and Martha McSally agree or disagree. (TPP = Trans-Pacific Partnership)

Progressives have their hair on fire regarding Congressman Ron Barber’s (and Kyrsten Sinema’s) recent votes to help Teapublicans in the House of Representatives create a Congressional  witch hunt committee to re-investigate the the terrorist attack in Benghazi in 2012, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. (Seriously, boys, if Benghazi and Monica Lewinsky’s article in Vanity Fair are all you have on Hillary, you’re in trouble. But I digress.)

On Facebook, Democrats and Progressives are vowing never to work or donate to Barber because of his Republican-lite voting record. Some say they may reluctantly vote for him but nothing more! I have often said that women’s issues (healthcare, choice, access to contraception, and equal pay) may save Barber, and that otherwise, he and challenger Martha McSally are pretty close in their views– particularly on the A-10.

Inspired by BfAZ blogger Donna Gratehouse’s Venn diagram earlier today, I offer the above Venn diagram to illustrate what issues Barber and McSally agree and disagree on. [Click on graphic to enlarge.] The information has been gleaned from statements, votes, news stories, and the candidates’ campaign websites. [NOTE: The Venn diagram includes an incomplete list of the “silent” issues. They also both void discussing: the environment; marijuana legalization; private prisons; undocumented workers; unemployment, food stamps, and other social safety net programs; and probably others I haven’t thought of.]

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Arizona Daily Star Declares ‘War on Women’ Over

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War on WomenRecently the Arizona Daily Star announced that it would bow to crank letter-writers from Green Valley and make its editorial pages more “balanced”– in others words, more conservative.  The editors announced that they would publish fewer cartoons by brilliant local commentator David Fitzsimmons and more national cartoons, as well as additional syndicated  columnists to flesh out their lineup of insufferable right-wingers including Charles Krauthammer and George F. Will.

First of all, despite what retiree letter-writers believe, the Arizona Daily Star hasn’t been the “Red Star” in years. A death knell sounded for the Star a few years ago when they laid off dozens of employees, many of whom were writers. Funny how that happens: fewer reporters = less news. Not long after that, the Star reduced the physical page size; eliminated the metro section; started printing press releases verbatim; initiated front-page ads, advertising stickers, and other annoying advertising gimmicks;  and, worst of all, began ignoring real local news (like the Tucson City Council meetings) in favor of feel-good front page stories and wire service fodder.

The editors lost no time in instituting new right wing editorial content.  On Thursday the Star ran a John-Kerry-bashing syndicated cartoon, four national editorials (three of which were conservative), and one local editorial about cheesy Facebook surveys. This is balanced?

The Thursday editorial that really raised my ire was: ‘War on women’ now it just a scattershot weapon.  In a nutshell, columnist Hanna Rosin claims that the War on Women was fabricated by Democrats who mounted major political ad campaigns featuring a handful of stupid Republicans talking about “legitimate rape” and sluts who want government to bankroll their promiscuous lifestyles. (No mention, of course, of the men who benefit from and encourage those promiscuous lifestyles.)

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Hey Doug Ducey, don’t be coy about your health policy advisor!

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It must be true, since the National Journal picked up the press release from the Arizona Democratic Party and published it online.

For Immediate Release: March 18, 2014 Phoenix, AZ-DJ Quinlan, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, released the following statement today regarding comments made by former U.S. Congressman,John Shadegg, a top healthcare advisor to Doug Ducey: “Last night during a tele-town hall conducted by gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey,Ducey’s top healthcare advisor, former U.S. Congressman John Shadegg, called Governor Brewer’s expansion of Medicaid a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and suggested that we should ‘get rid of Medicaid’ and ‘should not have a single government-run healthcare program, period.’ Government-run healthcare programs that Arizonans rely on today include Medicare, Veterans Administration healthcare, and Medicaid.”

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