Category Archives: Arizona

The South Will Rise Again!

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The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to shoot down sections of the Voting Rights Act may be one giant step backward in our nation’s centuries-long fight for equality and civil rights. It also represents an unprecedented power grab by the Court.

The Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson to prevent widespread voter suppression throughout the South. The law required offending states to obtain pre-clearance by the DOJ (Department of Justice) for changes in voting laws, including any attempts at redistricting aimed at marginalizing the minority vote. For years, this mandate has not only helped African-Americans and Latinos vote, it has helped them get the representation they deserve.

Yet, despite the law, states have never stopped trying to block minority votes.

For example, just last year, the DOJ prevented Houston, Texas from reducing voting centers from 84 to just 12. The plan was to eliminate voting centers in predominately African-American areas of the city. And last year, Teapublican-controlled legislatures throughout the country imposed strict new voter ID laws aimed at reducing minority voter turnout for President Obama. They also drastically reduced polling hours in some states, forcing minorities to stand in line up to 6 hours in order to vote.

All of this has been done under the guise of “vote integrity” to prevent felons and undocumented immigrants from voting, despite the fact there is absolutely no evidence of such illegal voting.

In gutting the Voting Rights Act, which was renewed by Congress in 2006 with near unanimous support, the Court has, in essence, overruled Congress. And, by stating that it is now up to Congress to come up with a new and more equitable way to enforce voting rights, it has given Congress a task the Teapublican-controlled House and the filibuster-prone Senate are clearly not capable of handling.

As a result, racists in Congress and in legislatures throughout the nation, particularly in the Old South and in Arizona, will feel free to run amok again. If you doubt this, all you have to do is to look at the way Teapublicans have pushed through Voter ID laws and anti-abortion laws with an array of bullying tactics and parliamentary tricks.

Arizona’s War On The Environment.

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Arizona has a long love affair with the gun. Its legislature even named the Colt .45 as the state’s official gun. Gun shops are everywhere. And there’s at least one gun show in the state every weekend. On the other hand, there are few gun clubs or official firing wages.

So where do Arizonans go to fire all of these weapons?

They simply go into the wilderness. They shoot virtually anything in sight, whether it’s legal or not. They blast away at targets and bottles, leaving spent cartridges, broken bottles, targets and other trash in their wake. Increasingly, they leave the forest smoldering.

Over the last few years, dozens of wildfires throughout the West have been caused by hot lead. It’s difficult enough to keep Arizonans from camping when there’s fire danger; from starting campfires; from off-roading; even from flicking cigarette butts out their car windows. But no one’s going to keep Arizonans from exercising their “God-given”, Constitutional right to set the wilderness on fire.

A case in point is the Doce wildfire near Prescott. It has already been determined that the fire was human caused, but it’s not yet certain that it is the result of gunfire. What is known is that the fire has consumed thousands of acres, threatening homes. And that it began in the Doce Pit, an area popular for target shooting.

A Fine Example Of An Arizona Conservative.

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Last Tuesday, a federal jury convicted former Arizona Congressman “Slick” Rick Renzi on 17 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, extortion, racketeering, money laundering and making false statements to insurance regulators. He was acquitted on 15 other felony charges because some evidence was ruled inadmissible.

I was especially interested in the outcome of the case, since the Republican’s conviction confirmed my character judgment. You see, Renzi represented my congressional district, and I became convinced of his corruption after my very first exposure to Mr. Slick. Indeed, only months afterward, rumors of Renzi’s abuse of power began to surface.

Renzi was indicted on charges that, while in office, he tried to force a mining company to purchase a former business associate’s land as part of a federal land exchange for copper mining. When the mining company balked, he engineered another federal land swap that included a payment of $4.6 million for land owned by James Sandlin, who then paid Renzi $733,000 for his help.

Renzi was also charged with embezzling more than $400,000 of customer premiums from his insurance business in order to fund his 2002 congressional campaign.

“Former Congressman Renzi’s streak of criminal activity was a betrayal of the public trust and abuse of the political process,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a statement released after the verdict. “Mr. Renzi now faces the consequences for breaking the laws that he took an oath to support and defend.”

Sadly, Renzi’s conviction isn’t the end of political corruption in Arizona. But it’s a start.

Sore Losers.

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Following the expansion of Medicaid in Arizona, which was pushed by a very conservative governor and passed by a bipartisan coalition of both Republican and Democratic legislators, the so-called “patriots” of the Tea Party are trying every trick in the book to overturn majority rule.

They are threatening to collect enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot in 2014. Even if voters refuse to overturn it, the expansion would be delayed nearly a year after it’s supposed to take effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, the very conservative Goldwater Institute and the ultra conservative Center for Arizona Policy are threatening to sue the state if the bill is implemented. That, too, could hold up the expansion of Medicaid in Arizona.

The irony of all this is that, not six months ago, our “scorpion-eating” Governor Brewer was idolized by the Tea Party Parasites of Arizona. Now these people are crying foul. They claim that they were bullied and ignored…in the same way they’ve treated Democrats in the legislature.

Truth is, all these people really care about is their own narrow ideology. They could care less about democracy and the founding principles they claim to hold so dear. They could care less about the people of Arizona.

They’ve been exposed as the spoiled bullies they really are.

Arizona Turned Upside-Down.

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Mark it down. On Thursday, June 13, 2013, the Earth stood still! The clouds parted. The impossible became possible. Red turned blue. Blue turned red. Tempers cooled, even if the temperatures didn’t.

In a brief moment of clarity and political sanity, moderate Republicans joined Democrats at the behest of our finger-wagging Governor Brewer to pass a state budget that includes an expansion of Medicaid. It was a victory for bipartisanship, responsible government and “Obamacare.”

As a result, tens of thousands more Arizonans will have healthcare insurance.

Of course, the Teapublican legislators are apoplectic. For hours, extending through the evening and into the early morning, they railed against Obamacare and the federal government. They labeled the moderate Republicans and Governor Brewer as traitors. They said they were betrayed; bullied; treated as a minority. Hmmm…as the old saying goes, it seems these Tea Party Parasites finally got a taste of their own medicine. (Pun intended.)

Thank you Governor Brewer and moderate Republicans. Your display of bipartisanship and common sense was great! Unfortunately, I fear the attitude won’t last.

What Passes For Government In Arizona.

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If you think the right wing lunacy in Arizona is limited to the unconstitutional anti-Latino bill SB 1070, anti-federal government nullification laws, unrestricted gun sales, and the nation’s most corrupt…er…toughest sheriff, you haven’t seen anything.

A few weeks ago, the Arizona legislature held a hearing on Agenda 21 that brought out the Tea Party Parasites to vent their paranoia about the non-binding UN proposal to ensure the sustainability of our planet. Of course, the Parasites’ fear and loathing paled in comparison to that of our tinfoil hat legislators…both those holding the hearing and the wacko woman (who is herself an Arizona State Senator) decrying the new world order.

Here are the video highlights for your amusement and enjoyment: Arizona UN Agenda 21 Hearing Highlights.

As you can see, the tinfoil hat crowd can’t answer simple questions about Agenda 21 and basic city planning. All they can do is recite the lies and paranoia of Glenn Beck and others. They hate the federal government and they HATE the UN, yet the State of Arizona relies on generous federal subsidies to even exist!

Trial By Media.

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For some Americans, this promises to be a big week…a very big week.  You see, this may be the week the media circus, also known as the Jodi Arias trial, reaches a climax…er, verdict.

For weeks on end, Americans have been glued to their TVs to make certain they wouldn’t miss a single salacious detail of the trial. They were riveted by testimony regarding the sexual relationship between Arias and her murder victim. They hung on every word of testimony from expert witnesses. They posted their theories on Facebook and Twitter. Many stood in line for hours in hopes they could grab a seat in the courtroom. A few even traveled to Phoenix so they could be near the event and, perhaps, catch a glimpse of some of the participants.

In short, the Arias trial was a media outlet’s dream, certain to increase ratings. The trial had it all…sex, bondage, betrayal, murder, intrigue…it was almost as if Fifty Shades of Grey had come to life.

Of course, murder trials take place daily in courts across the country. But only the most sensational garner such attention. The Arias trial is but the latest in a long line of sensational, made-for-TV trials, such as the OJ Simpson trial, Amanda Knox trial, and the Casey Anthony trial. Only the trials with the most famous celebrities, the most beautiful defendants, the cutest victims, or the most aberrant behavior draw such attention.

Whatever the verdict, such trials say far more about our society and our media than they do about the defendants.

Imagine if that kind of media attention was focused on real issues and problems. Imagine if the homeless and the hungry were covered relentlessly by news outlets. Imagine if the media spent as much time on public policy, politicians and corrupt officials. Imagine if network TV reporters covered the murders of innocent civilians caused by our lax gun laws as voraciously as they covered the murder of OJ’s wife.

Imagine if the public cared.

Government Of The Gun, By The Gun And For The Gun.

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You probably thought our government was “of the people.” Not anymore. The NRA, the Republican Party and the Tea Party Parrots have changed that. When gun-lovin’ senators decided to filibuster a bill that would expand background checks on gun sales, they went against the will of 90 percent of the people.

It’s now abundantly clear who these politicians represent, and it’s certainly not us. They have chosen to represent the minority over the majority. They have chosen gun manufacturers over citizens. They have chosen campaign donations over lives.

To show exactly how far this nonsense has gone, in Arizona, the Teapublican-controlled legislature recently passed a bill making it illegal for cities to destroy guns collected as part of gun buy-back efforts, guns seized in crime investigations, even guns used in murders.

No gun shall meet its end before its time!

People, on the other hand, are treated much differently. These same Teapublican legislators have literally voted to withhold Medicaid from the poor that would have saved lives. As a result of the legislators’ decision, a number of people were allowed to die prematurely…people who could have been saved by a simple operation.

Of course, Arizona legislators have also refused to reconsider the death penalty, even in the case of the severely retarded, even when there are serious questions of guilt.

But, in Arizona, all guns will live to shoot another day; maybe even another innocent person; maybe you!

We Pledge Allegiance To The Gun Manufacturers Of America.

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Today, the gun lobby-owned Teapublicans in the US Senate filibustered a bill calling for expanded background checks. As a result, the bill failed on a vote of 54-46. It needed 60 votes to break the filibuster of rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ Teapublicans.

So the Teapublican senators would rather allow criminals and the mentally ill easy access to guns than risk angering the NRA and gun manufacturers!

These are the very same senators who were outraged (outraged, I say!) that the ATFE allowed a few guns to slip across the border in an attempt to get at the leaders of Mexican drug cartels who were using Arizona’s lax gun laws to purchase them through straw buyers. They were outraged by that, yet they’re seemingly unconcerned that thousands of felons and criminally insane will be allowed to continue to purchase military-style guns and ammunition through gun shows, the Internet and person-to-person sales without so much as a background check!

How many more mass murders will it take for our nation to take gun safety seriously? How many more drive-by shootings? How many more innocent children and young adults will have to die?

Nearly 90 percent of Americans are in favor of expanded background checks, including a majority of NRA members. It would seem that the only Americans against such sensible measures are criminals, NRA leaders, gun manufacturers and Teapublican politicians. (And it’s increasingly difficult to tell these groups apart!)

The NRA’s Circular Argument.

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As Congress debated the assault weapons ban in 1994, the NRA offered universal background checks as an alternative. Following the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, the NRA again called for universal background checks. But now that we’re once again looking for solutions to gun violence, the NRA leadership is adamantly opposed to universal background checks!

Their reasoning? Background checks don’t work.

They rightly claim that universal background checks will not work because the database is incomplete; that some states have not supplied necessary data on felons and those with mental health issues. What they neglect to mention is that NRA supporters have blocked the sharing of data.

The NRA leaders also claim that there are hundreds of gun laws on the books that are currently not being enforced. Again, they are correct…but only because an NRA-backed Republican, former Congressman Todd Tiahrt, attached amendments to appropriations bills in 2003 and 2004 limiting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. These amendments prohibit the creation of a national registry of firearms. They require data from background checks to be destroyed within 24 hours. They prohibit the ATFE from releasing any data on gun violence, except in aggregate. They even limit the use of tracing data to suspend a gun dealer’s license.

Worse yet, the ATFE has not had a permanent director since 2006 because NRA-endorsed Republican senators have refused to confirm presidential nominations. Even worse, the ATFE has too little money and far too few agents to do its job. Only a tiny fraction of the nearly 51,000 retail gun dealers can be inspected each year.

Things are further complicated by sequestration. Cuts to Medicaid and mental health care will likely result in even more Jared Loughners and Adam Lanzas being able to purchase guns.

This situation is completely untenable and the NRA knows it because the NRA created it to prevent any realistic limitation on gun sales. The NRA refuses to agree to universal background checks because they are incomplete and unenforceable. And the reason they are incomplete and unenforceable is because of the NRA and its lackeys in Congress!

As if all of this isn’t bad enough, the NRA has written and backed ever more permissive gun laws across the nation. In states like Arizona, any non-felon can walk into a gun shop and buy enough guns to arm a militia. The straw buyer can then walk across the street and re-sell those guns to a crime organization without restriction. If the police or ATFE agents arrest the straw buyer, the US attorney is unable to press charges because no laws were broken.

The laws may not have been broken. But the system is.