trent franks

GOP caucus pulls 20 week abortion ban bill.

by

Trent-Franks-AP-copy

Wednesday evening brought the surprise announcement that Republicans were withdrawing their bill for a federal 20 week abortion ban scheduled for a vote on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v Wade:

A vote had been scheduled for Thursday to coincide with the annual March for Life, a gathering that brings hundreds of thousands of anti-abortion activists to Washington to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

But Republican leaders dropped those plans after failing to win over a bloc of lawmakers, led by Reps. Rene Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who had raised concerns.

The House will vote instead Thursday on a bill prohibiting federal funding for abortions — a more innocuous anti-abortion measure that the Republican-controlled chamber has passed before.

Gosh, that oughtta make things awkward at Thursday’s march!

Read more

Mr. Anti-Choice goes to Washington

by

HuckabeeHello, ladies…

Anti-choicers – who ought never be thought of as less-than-assiduous in their quest to rid America of the scourge of ladies refusing pregnancy – are really going to town these days!

Per the inimitable Sally Kohn:

“Serious adults are in charge here,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) added for good measure, “and we intend to make progress.”

And then they introduced no fewer than five restrictions on abortion on the first day of the new Republican-controlled Congress. Because, you know, priorities.

Read more

Doug Ducey

Prop 122 & Backers Ducey & Brnovich Are Too Extreme for Arizona

by
Prop 122
Prop 122 would allow any Arizonan, the Arizona Legislature, or local law enforcement (like Sheriff Joe Arpaio) to determine the Constitutionality of federal laws.

Brought to you by the Goldwater Institute and the Koch Brothers, Proposition 122 is the worst idea since the Civil War, and true to form with other Koch Brothers initiatives, it is being sold to us with lies and dark money.

Prop 122 would amend the Arizona Constitution to: 1) confirm that both the state and federal governments must follow the US Constitution; 2) give “Arizona” the right to determine what is Constitutional (instead of the Supreme Court); and 3) give the state government authority to stop all levels of government (state, county, city, town or other political entity) from using personnel or finances to “enforce, administer or cooperate with a federal action or program if the people or their representatives have exercised their authority to restrict such action or use,” quoting Arizona’s Election Guide from the Secretary of State’s office.

In other words, if “the people or their representatives” decide that a federal law is unconstitutional, the state can stop, all levels of government in Arizona from cooperating with the federal government on that law.

This is sedition, it is un-American, and it is backed by our state’s Republican leadership, including gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey. attorney general candidate Mark Brnovich, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, disgraced former Senate President Russell Pearce, Republican Congressional representatives, and …

Read more

The “Managerial Republican” is mostly a fantasy

by

I will say that Ronald Brownstein’s recent column in the National Journal is a bit better than what we’ve been getting lately from the hordes of DC pundits attempting to analyze Arizona. In particular, I liked this bit at the end:

After Arizona’s tax revenues plummeted with the housing market collapse, Brewer backed a temporary 1-cent sales-tax increase to limit spending cuts. But even so, since 2008, the GOP majority’s commitment to squeezing government has produced the nation’s third-largest reduction in per-student K-12 spending; the largest percentage reduction in per-student support for public higher education; and the biggest public tuition hikes. No other choices capture as starkly the contrasting priorities of a ruling GOP coalition that still receives almost all of its votes from whites (many older, rural, and exurban) and a minority population that now represents the clear majority of students in Arizona’s public schools.

It’s refreshing to see a conservative admit outright that Arizona Republicans have slashed public education funding (instead of doing the Goldwater Institute song and dance about how the schools are really funded quite generously if you look at all these charts and squint) and that the cuts are ideological and not fiscal in purpose.

Brownstein’s main thesis is that Arizona’s politics operate along fault lines of age and race, with the older whites voting overwhelmingly GOP and the Democratic base being younger and browner. I take no issue with that assessment. What I do dispute is this:

Read more