Latino Chants of "¡Si se puede!" as Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio loses big

The Hispanic community of Arizona can rest easier after the decisive defeat of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Tuesday's election, at least until January 20, 1917. I talked to one Latino as he finished grooming our yard, ready to ask him if he voted but he asked me first. I said, "Yes, did you?" His answer was a quick "Yes." I didn't ask him who he voted for but I'm betting as far as the Sheriff's race is concerned, it was probably Paul Penzone, Arpaio's opposition.

Don't know how my guy voted in the Presidential election either but Hispanics accounted for 11% of the total vote and favored Clinton by better than two to one. In 2008 Obama received 67% of the vote but the Latino turnout was only 9%. Once again this ethnic group did not step up to the plate. They also offered no help in the Arizona legislature where the stupid laws like the 2010 immigration bill that was eventually gutted.

I am more inclined to believe the white population of Arizona was finally fed up with Joe Arpaio, sick of the grandstanding to feed his ego, and at least $55 million in lawsuits against him and his department. And recently he was personally indicted on contempt of court charges he will have answer without his shield to back him up. Not sure what state's position will be on paying future legal bills. Knowing this state, anything is possible.

Hillary Clinton was supposed to ace the Hispanic vote but she barely held on to Obama's 2008 numbers. Either the Dems just aren't approaching the Latino community right, the latter just don't give a shit about their future, or it's all Hillary's fault. The future of the Democratic Party is significantly in question right now. Where are you Bernie?

Arizona Stupid Laws Just Get Stupider-Doctors Have to Sue

The Arizona legislature is capable of passing the most brainless laws of any state in the country, evidenced by the loose gun laws this state has. All it takes is a warm body to buy a handgun and then walk right in a bar and buy a drink. But Cathi Herrod, pictured, is responsible for some of the worst on the books, like the latest, a law that requires abortion providers to tell patients that it is possible to reverse a medication abortion. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, argue there is no "credible, medically accepted evidence" that a medication abortion can be reversed. But this dumb bunch of wingnuts in the Arizona legislature let this radical fruitcake, Herrod, convince them to pass the bill.

Scottsdale physician Julie Kwatra, the legislative chairwoman for the Arizona section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the law violates doctors' ethics and is harmful to the doctor-patient relationship. Arizona Republic Opinions states: 

"The law at question requires doctors to tell patients they can reverse a medical abortion by quickly taking high doses of progesterone. There are no studies supporting this view, just anecdotes and the belief of anti-abortion advocates. Other doctors say they've seen the abortion pill fail when a woman doesn't take the second dose."

And...

"This is a case where the state's response should be:Yeah, you're right, the Legislature was wrong. It won't be, of course, because lawyers are paid to make the best argument possible, even when they have nothing."

When will the people of Arizona who vote for these blockheads wake up and realize they are ruining our state?

ARIZONA-WHERE STUPID LAWS ARE BORN

APRIL 2014-PHOENIX, ARIZONA: A demented state legislature has just passed a new bill that would ban the passing of any future legislation banning plastic bags. Slate says it is in the bidding for worst state of the week, a place Arizona has enjoyed repeatedly in the past, especially when Jan Brewer was governor. State Sen. Nancy Barto proposed the bill that now waits for Gov. Ducey to sign. Barto is the fruitcake that recently pushed through another piece of mind-boggling legislation making it a law for Arizona doctors to tell women getting an abortion that it is reversible. The medical community says this is not only impossible but could be dangerous.

The meeting of the Arizona legislature reminds me of that movie from 1948, The Snake Pit, covering a woman's life during her stay in a mental institution.

Gov. Jan Brewer, the mouth of Arizona conservative propaganda – From Fast and furious to Border Agent Nick Ivie

It’s all about guns in the state of Arizona, no matter which side you are on.  In the case of the blunderingly elected and sorely unqualified Gov. Jan Brewer, no matter what the particular issue is, if it has anything to do with President Barack Obama, she is against it.  It’s because Brewer could see in the finger wagging incident photograph that Obama was thinking to himself, ‘Why am I wasting time on this moron.’  My words but don’t you agree it’s possible?



AZ Border Agent Brian Terry

Now Fast and furious was a botched event with the death of Border Agent Brian Terry that is still getting some attention, especially since the recent killing of Border Agent Nicholas Ivie.  Re. Fast and Furious, the GOV said, "With today's release of the Inspector General's investigation, it is clear that ‘failure' is the word that best describes the ill-conceived gun-walking probe known as Operation Fast & Furious.” 

This is basically true but hardly credible coming from someone who runs a state with the loosest gun laws in the country and one that supplies most of the arms for the Mexican cartels, assault rifles with which they carry out their slaughterhouse south of the border.

AZ Border Agent Nick Ivie

And then there was the sometime mentally challenged Brewer’s outburst over the death of Nick Ivie, a false claim that the whole incident was Barack Obama’s fault for not securing our border with Mexico.  She did it in haste and with the same arrogant disdain she uses in any criticism of the President.  She was wrong, of course, even criticized by Arizona Sen. John McCain, because later it was determined that Ivie was killed by friendly fire.  Brewer had no comment.

You can see her whole statement on Fast and furious here.

In the Phoenix East Valley Tribune, Mike McClellan calls Arizona “Mexico’s firearm superstore” as well as “Mexico’s Walmart of guns.”  He also quotes Jan Brewer and mentions Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley’s claim that “maybe the Fast and Furious scandal had something to do with Agent Ivie’s death.”  The Iowa Senator has been a loose cannon on F&F, along with another unreliable Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa from California.  Brewer at least in good company.

McClellan reminds us of the New York Times article that pointed out the fact that Mexico has only one gun store, and residents are restricted to owning no more than a .38 caliber with gun permits taking months.  Then there was the Fortune piece estimating that according to the Mexican government there are 2,000 weapons a day that come into their country from the U.S.  I wrote about both of these issues earlier in this blog in pointing out Arizona’s loose firearms laws.



Mike McClellan



Everyone knows, and Mike McClellan confirms, that the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), makes the laws on gun ownership and use today in many states around the country.  Not inept governors like Arizona’s Jan Brewer and her incompetent Republican legislature.  The NRA has strong support from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that has steadily lost members (41) since it was exposed by the Center for Media Democracy.

Let me leave you with an interesting comment to McClellan’s article:

As an X-NRA member, I agree with you 100%. All the NRA ever wanted from me was money. Unfortunately, our politicians are for sale to the highest bidders and that never includes the people who voted for them.  We can't even keep laws on the books that would limit concealed carry, because the whackos want to be able to pack heat, even on the capitol floor.  NObody would ever need to buy more than one gun at a time, unless they intended to re-sell them.
I'd be OK with a mandatory 5 day waiting period and a one-gun-per-transaction limit, too. Let's just keep dreaming together.

Well said, and maybe we aren't just dreaming anymore.

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Jeff Flake: The Constitution isn’t sacred

It sounds like blasphemy coming from a Republican, especially one who is solidly entrenched in the Tea Party.  All we have heard from these far-right fruitcakes in the last couple of years is just how enshrined this document was and is meant to be.  Especially when it comes to gun rights and the 2^nd amendment.  Although he hasn’t even won his primary yet, and it’s doubtful he could beat his Democratic opponent if he does, Jeff Flake is already attempting to manage his reelection.

Senate candidate Flake says he favors ending the direct election of U.S. Senators, and wants to repeal the Constitution’s 17^th Amendment.



Jeff Flake...precisely



Flake now represents Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 6^th Congressional District and is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Jon Kyl, another “flake.”  There is talk of his opponent in the primary, businessman Wil Cardon, giving up his primary fight; at the end of July Flake led Cardon by 22 points in the polls.  Assuming Flake wins the primary, he appears to be looking ahead to solidify a second term with the Arizona legislature behind him.

As a resident of the great state of Arizona, I cannot imagine putting a decision like naming a U.S. Senator in the hands of these legislative kooks.  I wish I could take credit for coining the term but Laurie Roberts, columnist for the Arizona Republic, gets the kudos for her series started recently called “DeKook the Capitol,” of course, referring to the Arizona Legislature, especially Republicans.  Over the last 3 years, this bunch, along with a completely incompetent Gov. Jan Brewer, has made the state a complete laughingstock.

Agreed, the 17^th Amendment was not given to us by the Founding Fathers like the 2^nd Amendment was; but it was passed by the Congress and on May 13, 1912 was submitted to the states for ratification and was adopted on May 31, 1913.  Tell me.  Is there a difference in the sacred value of a document created in 1787 with one conceived in 1912?  I think not.  Now if you are talking a U.S. Congress of the last few years, then, I would strongly question its ability to devise anything sensible and worthwhile.

Here’s what Jeff Flake is all about, according to the Payson, Arizona Roundup:

Flake advocated additional deep cuts in taxes and spending and the wholesale repeal of federal regulations. He said he opposed any restrictions on guns, ammunition or magazines, despite a string of recent shootings. He also said he favored eliminating both the federal Department of Energy and the Department of Education.

As is Mitt Romney, Flake is solidly behind GOP V.P. contender, Paul Ryan’s radical budget plan, covered in my Monday, August 13, post.  Democratic strategist, Donna Brazile, says that by selecting Ryan as his running mate, Romney has thrown, “…seniors under the bus and undermined their health security by ending Medicare as we know it.  It would increase health care cost for seniors, including those on fixed income, by thousands of dollars a year.”

Now I don’t want to turn this into a referendum for the repeal of the 2^nd Amendment, but if the 17^th Amendment is fair game, then so is the 2^nd Amendment.  Therefore, when an ultra-conservative like Jeff Flake, a solid Tea Party patriot, comes right out and says we should repeal part of the U.S. Constitution, it gives us gun control advocates the right to stand up and say, by the way we have something else to propose that needs the public’s attention.

Like the number of deaths per year due to firearm homicides according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): 11,493.  That’s 3.7 per 100,000 population.  Like the fact that since I have been publishing a Monthly Shooting Report starting this past March, 432 have died from firearm homicides in 1,077 shootings.  And this only represents what is reported by the media which is very conservative. 

There can be no argument today against the fact that something has to be done about this and now.  And the 2^nd Amendment may or may not be the answer.  But the Tucson, Aurora and Wisconsin massacres do rigidly point toward stronger firearms regulation.  Jeff Flake has opened a can of worms in the sanctity of a Constitution that many have claimed cannot and must not be tampered with.  The question is whether this is more important than American lives.