Showing posts with label Arizona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arizona. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2015

[EDITORIAL] Elites v. Patriots


TPATH~ The root causes of our approaching national demise may be many but most could have been averted had any branch of government honored their oaths of office to preserve and protect our Constitution. While classrooms across America teach that the Constitution is archaic and no longer adequate for a modern people, its preamble sets the stage for an equality between "We the People" and those in government. That was unique when it was first penned and remains unique to this very day. The concept of those that govern do so by the consent of the governed and is expressed in our Constitution as first set forth in our Declaration of Independence. It states: "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." This principle of equality is also set forth in the New Testament (Romans 2:11 and Acts 10:34) that tell us God is not a respecter of persons. It is this very principle of establishing true equality among our citizens that was designed to curtail the emergence of a ruling class in our Constitutional Republic. And - it is this principle of equality that is under assault and has unleashed a pandemic of elitists' attitudes cloaked in anesthetizing speeches that sound good to the ear but mean nothing when analyzed by the brain.


If it can be argued that America has undergone a soft coup de tat that empowered a ruling class of global cabalists, it can also be argued that the popularity of the GOPs non-establishment presidential candidates represents the beginnings of a soft counter-coup. Whether or not this soft counter-coup will prevail rests upon the ability of We the People to resist the propaganda that will most certainly bombard the airwaves over the 2016 election cycle. And the people's resistance will in turn rest on their ability to stay informed of the facts and not be swayed by some of the most effective spinmeisters the world has ever known. Once again, there are several Bible verses that tell us we are to be informed, and not being informed will result in our demise (Hosea 4:6; Job 36:12; Prov. 5:23 and 10:21). This ability to separate fact from the fictional spin will be especially challenged by the $100,000,000 Jeb Bush has raised to date, the deep pockets of the Clinton Foundation, and wealthy, power-crazed men like George Soros. In this war between the establishment cabalists and the patriots, the battle strategies will not be designed around tanks or nuclear warheads. They will be cloaked in political speak and cunning phrases that can fool even the most ardent constitutionalist – if possible.

But how does America decode the disingenuous speak of the career politician from the true American patriot? They look for the facts and identify the double standards. For example, politicians who hold the citizenry to one standard but exempt themselves from the same standard, i.e.:

The swift investigation and sentencing of General Petraeus for compromising classified information with his biographer and girlfriend, resulting in a $100,000 fine, two years of probation, and forcing the General to retire. Compare this to Hillary Clinton's email scandals, currently revealing over 300 security issues in just a small sampling of her recovered emails. Perhaps General Petraeus should have considered running for the presidency instead of resigning.

On the subject of emails, elite NY firefighter and U.S. Marine Corp. Forces Reserve Major Jason Brezler is facing a less than honorable discharge for emailing a single classified report in a desperate effort to save the lives of three marines who were in danger. Brezler is being prosecuted (or should I say persecuted?) for breaking security protocol by sending classified information over an insecure line. Once again, compare this to the situation with Hillary Clinton, who conducted all national security communications over an insecure line.

Of course there is Attorney General Eric Holder's refusal to produce documents requested during a congressional investigation regarding the "Fast and Furious" scandal and claiming "executive privilege", which is the administration's way of saying they are above the law. Can you imagine what would happen to you if you so defied a congressional investigation?

Let's not forget that Congress is not bound by the Security and Exchange Commission's regulations and laws regarding insider trading. Martha Stewart certainly wasn't able to claim an exemption for something far more trivial.

While on the subject of Congress, consider ObamaCare – a health care debacle that was seriously opposed by the American people and passed by Congress without so much as these elitists having the decency to even bother reading it. Then, after it is passed, what do they do? They exempt themselves and their staffs from living under the same laws they have pressed upon us.

What about all the Second Amendment infringements that state legislators and governors have passed, arguing that guns are the fault of the rise in violent crimes around the country? How many of these legislators pack heat to protect their families and themselves but deny us the same protection?

Or what about the re-election of John Boehner as Speaker of the House after a reported 60 percent of Republican voters urged their representatives to vote against Boehner? With the exception of 25 congressmen who listened to the wishes of their constituents, is it reasonable to ask if the other members of the House of Representatives really "derive their just powers from the consent of the governed?

Of course I could probably fill a library with books written to document the unfulfilled campaign promises by elected politicians – like the revocation of ObamaCare and the securing of our borders. But I could fill even more libraries with books documenting the unconstitutional decisions rendered by our judges. In my home state of New Jersey alone, decisions that boldly proclaim that the judges understand that their decision is unconstitutional but will rule adversely anyway are mind-boggling.

The list of double-standards could go on and on but most reading this will already be aware of many additional items that qualify. The point is that America has enabled the emergence of these elitists. However, there is good news. America seems to be waking up. The double-talk of Jeb Bush regarding his stance on Common Core didn't score him any polling points with the public. Although his answer was well-rehearsed and well-crafted, its disingenuousness did not escape the eyes of the now alert public. The identifiable pattern continues with the full-of- himself Governor Chris Christie, who in the past has redefined sin, explains away NJ's troubles as resting on the shoulders of a Democratic legislature, and defends his record of violating the Fourth Amendment, as he sees fit of course. This behavior is to be expected from the ruling class elitists whose actions prove that they believe they are above the law and the public is too stupid to look beyond their talking points. (Many thanks to Donald Trump for restoring the word "stupid" to our vernacular.)

The so-called phenomenon of Donald Trump, Dr. Carson, and Carly Fiorina may not be a phenomenon at all. It may just be the longed-for evidence that the sleeping giant once known as the silent majority is no longer swallowing the sweet-talking lies of career politicians. But the battle for the heart and soul of America is far from over. And if my analysis is correct, we can expect a smear campaign launched against all of the would-be citizen representatives - the likes of which we have never seen before. In this case, skeletons will not just emerge from the candidates' closets, they will be conjured up and paid for by the once all-powerful ruling class. So my advice, America: don't fall for it. It's time to rally the troops and circle the wagons. The elitist cabal will not go down without a fight. Are you up to the challenge?



Sunday, July 12, 2015

Trump in Vegas, Phoenix: Illegals 'Wreaking Havoc on Our Population'

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump criticized U.S. immigration and trade policies on Saturday in speeches that veered from accusing Mexico of deliberately sending criminals across the border to professing respect for the Mexican government and love for its people.

Speaking to a gathering of Libertarians in Las Vegas before headlining an event in Phoenix, Trump repeated his charge that Mexico was sending violent offenders to the U.S. to harm Americans and that U.S. officials were being "dumb" in dealing with immigrants in the country illegally.

"These people wreak havoc on our population," he told a few thousand people attending the Libertarian gathering FreedomFest inside a Planet Hollywood ballroom on the Las Vegas Strip.
In the 4,200-capacity Phoenix convention center packed with flag-waving supporters, Trump took a different view — for a moment — and said: "I love the Mexican people. I love 'em. Many, many people from Mexico are legal. They came in the old-fashioned way. Legally."
He quickly returned to the sharp tone that has brought him scorn as well as praise. "I respect Mexico greatly as a country. But the problem we have is their leaders are much sharper than ours, and they're killing us at the border and they're killing us on trade."

His speeches in both venues were long on insults aimed at critics and short on solutions to the problems he cited. When he called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the audience in Las Vegas groaned.
In a break from the immigration rhetoric that has garnered him condemnation and praise, Trump asserted that he would have more positive results in dealing with China and Russia if he were president and said he could be pals with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked by an audience member in Las Vegas about U.S.-Russia relations, Trump said the problem is that Putin doesn't respect Obama.

"I think we would get along very, very well," he said.

Trump has turned to victims of crime to bolster his argument that immigrants in the U.S. illegally have killed and raped. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, he brought on stage Jamiel Shaw Sr., a Southern California man whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed in 2008 by a man in the country illegally. Shaw vividly described how his son was shot — in the head, stomach and hands while trying to block his face — and how he heard the gunshots as he talked to his son on the phone.
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Shaw said he trusted Trump, and encouraged the crowds in both cities to do the same.

Trump's speeches were filled with tangents and insults leveled at business partners such as Univision and NBC that have dropped him in the wake of his comments that Mexican immigrants bring drugs and crime to the U.S. and are rapists. He also directed familiar barbs at other presidential contenders, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton ("the worst secretary of state in the history of the country"), news media figures ("lyin' Brian Williams") and President Barack Obama ("such a divisive person"). He called journalists "terrible people."

As Trump lambasted Univision for cancelling its broadcast of the Miss USA pageant, one of his many business enterprises, a group of young Latinos unfurled a banner pointed toward the stage and began chanting insults. They were quickly drowned out by the crowd, and nearby Trump supporters began to grab at them, tearing at the banner and pulling and pushing at the protesters. Security staff managed to get to the group and escorted them out as Trump resumed speaking.

"I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here," he said. "I think so."
Arizona's tough-on-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio introduced Trump in Phoenix after outlining the things he and the candidate have in common, including skepticism that Obama was born in the United States. He went on to criticize the federal government for what he called a revolving door for immigrants, saying many of them end up in his jails.
"He's been getting a lot of heat, but you know, there's a silent majority out here," Arpaio said, borrowing from a phrase Richard Nixon popularized during his presidency in a speech about the Vietnam War.
A single protester standing outside the room where Trump spoke in Las Vegas was more concerned about the businessman being tied to the Libertarian Party.

"I've been a Libertarian for 43 years and Trump ain't no Libertarian," said Linda Rawles, who asserted that including Trump in FreedomFest set back the party's movement.




Friday, July 10, 2015

[VIDEO] Shock: NBC Actually Goes to U.S.-Mexico Border to Find Ranchers Who Agree with Trump

Amid the ongoing media coverage surrounding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on illegal immigration, Thursday’s NBC Nightly News surprisingly went down to the U.S.-Mexico border to further understand on the situation. 

 Following a news brief that mentioned a protest at the site of a Trump hotel being built in Washington D.C., anchor Lester Holt explained that even though some are “angered” by Trump’s remarks, they “are striking a cord” “for others” as they “believe he’s calling attention to a vital threat along our border.” 

With surveillance footage of illegal immigrants crossing the border into Arizona being played, correspondent Mark Potter explained how “[f]or several years, hidden cameras in the Arizona desert have captured scenes like these, of drug and immigrant smugglers, sometimes armed, hiking through miles of American ranchland after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.

” Potter brought Trump into the equation by revealing that the footage just shown “was shot in May, south of Tucson, just two months before Donald Trump complained about boarder security.”  

Concerning ranchers that are confronted with the problem, Potter introduced “John Ladd, whom we visited several times before along the Mexican boarder fence” as he “and others have long complained...about what they say is an insecure boarder that leaves them facing security threats on their own land.”

 Ahead of Trump’s weekend visit to Arizona, Potter noted that, for ranchers like Ladd, “[t]hey applaud Trump for giving their concerns a national voice.” 

Potter then found two soundbites of business owners in Arizona (with one owning a restaurant near the border) who were against Trump’s comments, but their airtime was far less than what was given to both Ladd and fellow rancher Fred Davis.  Later, the NBC correspondent concluded by noting the GOP candidate has “plans to travel to Arizona this weekend, where he's already drawn lots of attention.” - 

Via: Newsbusters

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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Now fix congressional redistricting

On this July Fourth, it is worth celebrating a ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, lifting the smoke screen laid by John Boehner to stall action on plans to draw fair, competitive U.S. House districts in Ohio. The court upheld the right of Arizona voters to create an independent commission to draw U.S. House districts. It turned back a challenge from the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature, which wanted to regain control.
As House speaker, Boehner used his influence to cloud discussion in the Ohio legislature, also dominated by Republicans. The expressed concern was that the state should not move forward until the Arizona case was resolved. Actually, what is under discussion here would leave the legislature with a dominant role in the redistricting process, the parallel to Arizona a stretch, at best.
When the Arizona legislature sued, it took a narrow reading of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the “times, places and manner” of holding congressional elections “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.”
What the lawsuit failed to consider was that Arizona voters, in initiating a constitutional amendment, were acting in place of the legislature. In a 5-4 decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg found the U.S. Constitution’s reference to the “legislature” included ballot measures such as the one Arizona voters passed in 2000 to create an independent commission.
It now is time for the Ohio legislature to repair how U.S. House districts are drawn here, using as its model a proposed constitutional amendment on state legislative districts that it has placed on the November ballot. Instead of state lawmakers drawing new U.S. House districts after each census, the job would go to the same commission that would be created for state legislative districts.
The seven-member body would be composed of the governor, auditor and secretary of state, plus four legislators, two from the minority party. With incentives to encourage bipartisan action and rules to minimize the splitting of communities, the state’s U.S. House districts would come into better balance.
As matters stand, districts created by the Republican-led legislature do not reflect the real balance of power between Republicans and Democrats. In a state where Barack Obama won twice, and which elected Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate, Republicans control 12 of 16 U.S. House seats. Without sufficient competition, extreme views easily can take hold.
In the state Senate, Frank LaRose, a Copley Township Republican, and Tom Sawyer, an Akron Democrat, have long worked on redistricting reform and are ready to introduce an amendment for U.S. House districts that would mirror the bipartisan plan for legislative districts. In the House, a similar idea has been introduced by two Democrats, Mike Curtin of Marble Cliff and Kathleen Clyde of Kent.
With lawmakers on summer break, action by the August deadline for placing another constitutional amendment on the fall ballot is unlikely. But once back in session, the legislature should make sure an amendment on U.S. House districts gets on the ballot next year. If lawmakers fail to act promptly, voter advocates should take charge with a petition drive.
Via: Ohio.com
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The wrinkle in the Affordable Care Act decision


“What chumps!”

— Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., June 29, 2015
Roberts’s intellectual complexity does not prevent him from expressing himself pithily, as he did with those words when dissenting in a case from Arizona. Joined by Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., Roberts’s dissent should somewhat mollify conservatives who are dismayed about his interpretive ingenuity four days earlier in writing the opinion that saved the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, they, including this columnist, may have missed a wrinkle in Roberts’s ACA opinion that will serve conservatives’ long-term interests.
To end gerrymanders, Arizona voters, by referendum, amended the state’s constitution to strip the legislature of its control of redistricting. They created an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) on which no member of the legislature may serve.
However, the U.S. Constitution’s elections clause says, “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” When Arizona’s legislature sued, the IRC’s implausible response was: The Constitution’s Framers did not use the word “legislature” as it was then and still is used, to denote the representative bodies that make states’ laws. Rather, the IRC said the Framers used “legislature” eccentrically, to mean any process, such as a referendum, that creates any entity, such as the IRC, that produces binding edicts.
Implausibility is not an insurmountable barrier to persuading a Supreme Court majority, and last week five justices accepted the IRC’s argument. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said: There is “no suggestion” that when the Framers stipulated that the manner of a state’s elections should be determined by “the legislature thereof” the Framers necessarily meant “the state’s representative body.”
This detonated Roberts, who began his dissent by saying: The reformers who waged “an arduous, decades-long campaign” to achieve ratification in 1913 of the 17th Amendment establishing popular election of U.S. senators could have saved themselves the trouble. They could have adopted what Roberts calls the “magic trick” the majority performed regarding Arizona. What chumps the reformers were for not simply asserting this: Sure, the Framers stipulated that two senators from each state were to be chosen “by the legislature thereof,” but the Framers really meant “by the people.”

Monday, June 29, 2015

Supreme Court upholds use of drug implicated in botched executions

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the use of a controversial drug that has been implicated in several botched executions. Two of the justices said for first time that death penalty itself probably is unconstitutional.
The justices voted 5-4 in a case from Oklahoma that the sedative midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The drug was used in executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma in 2014 that took longer than usual and raised concerns that it did not perform its intended task of putting inmates into a coma-like sleep.
Justice Samuel Alito said for a conservative majority that arguments the drug could not be used effectively as a sedative in executions is speculative.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, "Under the court's new rule, it would not matter whether the state intended to use midazolam, or instead to have petitioners drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death, or actually burned at the stake."
Alito responded, saying "the dissent's resort to this outlandish rhetoric reveals the weakness of its legal arguments."
In a separate dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer said the time has come for the court to debate whether the death penalty itself is constitutional. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Breyer's opinion.
The Supreme Court's involvement in the case began in January with an unusually public disagreement among the justices over executions.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Are Obamacare’s 22 Health Insurance Co-ops Near Financial Collapse?

Ominous signs are proliferating among 22 Obamacare health insurance co-ops of imminent financial collapses that could leave more than a million Americans without coverage, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group analysis.

All but one of the federally funded co-ops are experiencing accelerating net losses. President Obama’s signature health care reform program established the co-ops to provide non-profit competition to private sector health insurance providers.

Many of the 22 co-ops could soon follow an Obamacare co-op that defaulted earlier this year, suffering $163 million in operating losses in a single year.  That collapse left 120,000 customers without coverage on Christmas Eve.

“We’re certainly going to have fewer co-op’s by the end of the year,” Thomas Miller, a resident health care fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, told DCNF.
New figures compiled by Miller and Marie-Grace Turner, president of the Galen Institute, show that net losses for the co-ops reached a record $614 million in 2014. Both AEI and Galen are Obamacare critics.

The figure is nearly three times the $234 million in losses suffered through the first three quarters of 2014 as reported by Standards & Poor’s in a February 2015  report.  It means that the burn rate for the experimental Obamacare co-ops is quickening.

“All but one of the co-ops,” S&P noted, “reported negative net income through the first three quarters of 2014.”

Insurance ratings firm A.M. Best also warned in January that as of September 30, 2014, “the ratio of surplus notes outstanding to capital and surplus exceeded 100% for all of the co-ops.”

Arizona’s Meritus Mutual Health Partners co-op has long-term loans that are nearly 1,000 percent of the value of its capital and surplus, according to A.M. Best.

S&P identified the co-ops suffering the worst capital ratios as those in Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Maryland.

The Community Health Alliance co-op in Tennessee reported that it’s net losses were 314% of its federal funding, according to the S&P report.

Via: Spectacle Blog

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Texas Spending $800M to Create Its Own Virtual Border Patrol

When former Gov. Rick Perry ordered a big reinforcement of security at the Mexico border in 2011, Texas bought six new gunboats that can fire 900 rounds a minute and clock highway speeds. But the boats, which cost $580,000 each, spent more time docked than patrolling the Rio Grande.

That was a small price tag compared with what Texas is about to spend. The new Republican governor, Greg Abbott, this month approved $800 million for border security over the next two years — more than double any similar period during Perry's 14 years in office.

On Texas' shopping list is a second $7.5 million high-altitude plane to scan the border, a new border crime data center, a 5,000-acre training facility for border law-enforcement agencies and grants for year-round helicopter flights. The state also wants to hire two dozen Texas Rangers to investigate public corruption along the border and 250 new state troopers as a down payment on a permanent force along the border.

Other states along the nearly 2,000-mile Southwest border — New Mexico, Arizona and California — do not come remotely close to the resources Texas has committed. And Texas is doing so long after last year's surge in undocumented immigrants crossing the border has subsided.

So why is Texas setting up what appears to be a parallel border patrol alongside the federal force?

"Google 'cartel crime in Mexico' and just put a time period of the last week, and you'll see some dramatic instances of what the cartels are doing in Mexico right now," Abbott told reporters this month following the legislative session. "The first obligation of government is to keep people safe and that means ensuring that this ongoing cartel activity, which is not abating whatsoever, gains no root at all in the state of Texas."

The 320-mile Rio Grande Valley sector of the border was ground zero last year for a wave of Central American migrants, mostly unaccompanied minors and women with children. The Valley sector accounted for 53 percent of all migrants captured in the Southwest during the fiscal year ending September.

Via: Newsmax


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Thursday, June 11, 2015

GOP Critical of New Obama Rules To Create 'Utopian' Neighborhoods

Housing regulations aimed at diversifying wealthy neighborhoods, which some are calling executive overreach for the purpose of establishing a utopia, are expected to be released by the Obama administration this month.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will release the rules with the aim of ending segregation in neighborhoods around the country, The Hill is reporting. 

HUD plans to offer grant money to communities willing to build affordable housing within affluent neighborhoods. On the flip side, the federal agency will also give money to poorer neighborhoods to improve those communities through better schools, parks, libraries and grocery stores. 


"HUD is working with communities across the country to fulfill the promise of equal opportunity for all," a HUD spokeswoman told The Hill. "The proposed policy seeks to break down barriers to access to opportunity in communities supported by HUD funds." 

The regulations are a continuation of a rule made by the Obama administration in 2013, in which HUD started gathering data about diversity in neighborhoods around the country for the purpose of making such policy changes. 

The new regulation has its share of critics, especially among conservatives. 

Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who is working to block the rule, said that the Obama administration "shouldn’t be holding hostage grant monies aimed at community improvement based on its unrealistic utopian ideas of what every community should resemble."

"American citizens and communities should be free to choose where they would like to live and not be subject to federal neighborhood engineering at the behest of an overreaching federal government," Gosar told The Hill. 

Via: News Max


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Friday, May 29, 2015

National Review Editor: ‘#SomeBlackLivesDontMatter’ to Civil Rights Movement

black lives matter except for when rich lowry says soWith just over a year between Rich Lowry‘s newsworthy comments on Arizona’s SB 1062and President Barack Obama‘s apparent hatred for Benjamin Netanyahu, you’d think we have another year to go before the National Review editor makes headlines, no? Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Lowry’s latest column attempts to tackle the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Baltimore’s high murder rate in the month of May with some satire and a new hashtag: #SomeBlackLivesDontMatter, which is also the title of the column. The satire? Not sure.
The essay’s 905 words attempt to devote as much time as they possibly can to rationalizing the hashtag title. Sure, Lowry cites plenty of recent statistics to try and back up his claims. But the real, thinly-cut meat of the matter boils down to his title’s desire to troll the #BlackLivesMatter social media movement.
Lowry’s cynicism stands out the strongest in the sixth paragraph:
Let’s be honest: Some black lives really don’t matter. If you are a young black man shot in the head by another young black man, almost certainly no one will know your name. Al Sharpton won’t come rushing to your family’s side with cameras in tow. MSNBC won’t discuss the significance of your death. No one will protest, or even riot, for you. You are a statistic, not a cause. Just another dead black kid in some city somewhere, politically useless to progressives and the media, therefore all but invisible.
Maybe, maybe not, but Lowry’s narrow focus on Baltimore neglects the protests’ national theater (a few concluding remarks on New York notwithstanding). Again, this all just seems like a ploy to tweet #SomeBlackLivesDontMatter, and many agree:
Via: Mediaite

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Meet the GOP's Unconventional New Star


As the nation’s first female combat pilot, Rep. Martha McSally has always been one to cast aside convention.

Now that she’s a member of Congress, the Arizona Republican is showing no signs of changing.

After winning a recount against Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Barber by just 167 votes, McSally didn’t get in line and keep quiet like other freshman. She began aggressively lobbying Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and won herself a subcommittee gavel and a platform to hold hearings.

The Republican hired former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s top spokesman as her district director — part of a broader push to reach out to Democratic, independent and minority voters she’ll need to win reelection in her southern Arizona district, one of the most competitive in the country.


The retired Air Force colonel and squadron commander also isn’t afraid to admonish fellow House Republicans. In a 30-minute interview with The Hill last week, she warned against GOP messaging bills that fire up the base but won’t pass the Senate.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Why Jan Brewer Vetoed Arizona's 'Anti-Gay' Bill



Just like the Democrats in 1984, today's Republicans are shifting power toward party leaders and away from grassroots activists. It didn't work then, and it won't work now. 

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s veto Wednesday night of a law allowing businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians reveals something important about the divide inside today’s GOP. It’s not only ideological; it’s also vertical.

Brewer faced pressure to sign the bill from below: from the local legislators and activists who passed it. But she ultimately succumbed to pressure from above: from national Republican leaders and their corporate allies, who fear looking complicit with homophobia at a time when homophobia is rapidly becoming a political and economic loser.

There’s been a lot of this kind of vertical wrangling in recent months. In Congress, House Majority Leader John Boehner has tried to push rank-and-file Republican members of congress to unconditionally raise the debt ceiling and support a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. Republican bigwigs have tried to prevent local Tea Partiers from mounting primary challenges that undermine the GOP’s chances of taking the senate. The Republican National Committee has published an “autopsy” of the 2012 presidential race that proposes giving the national party more control of the 2016 primary calendar and debate schedule so as to avoid another lengthy, nasty nomination fight that leaves the eventual nominee drained of cash and far out on an ideological limb.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Gov. Jan Brewer vetoes Arizona’s religious freedom bill: ‘Creates more problems than it purports to solve’

Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer announced she would veto a bill allowing those with religious objections to refuse service to gay people, saying the proposed law “creates more problems than it purports to solve.”
Brewer held a late afternoon news conference on Wednesday to reveal her decision, which was broadcast on Fox News. (RELATED: When ‘leave us alone’ became ‘bake us a cake!’)
The governor expressed her disappointment that despite the problems facing her state, “this was the first policy bill that crossed my desk.” She claimed the bill “does not address a specific of present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona. I’ve not heard one example in Arizona where business owners’ religious liberty has been violated.”
“The bill is broadly-worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences,” she continued. “After weighing all of the arguments, I have vetoed Senate Bill 1062 moments ago.”
She held out an olive branch to those disappointed by her ruling. “I understand that long-held norms about marriage and family are being challenged as never before,” she noted. “Our society is undergoing many dramatic changes. However, I sincerely believe that Senate Bill 1062 has the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve.”
“Religious liberty is a core American and Arizona value,” she concluded. “So is non-discrimination.”
The governor had been under tremendous pressure — including by many in the business community and within her own party — to veto the law.
Via: Daily Caller

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