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.

ARIZONA-WHERE STUPID LAWS ARE BORN

First, Gov. Doug Ducey proposed cutting Arizona education budgets to fund private prisons. Then Dr. Gov. Ducey declares his medical credentials in the passage of  Senate Bill 1318, termed "voodoo"  medicine, "ordering that henceforth doctors must tell women that drug-induced abortions might be reversible." Not possible scientifically and the first state in the nation to do this reports Laurie Roberts in the AZ Republic. He's joined by Arizona radical, Cathi Herrod, of the Center for Arizona Policy, another home-grown bunch of fanatics. A couple of doctors here in the state who are experts in the field of abortions say it's not only bad but it could be dangerous.

If you hang around long enough I'll have more of these gems for you. Thought we had rid the state of crackpots like former governor Jan Brewer but apparently Ducey has picked up the mantle.

Arizona gun huggers and other stupid Wild West stories

Arizona is a state in which someone with absolutely no training can go out and buy a gun, carry it as a concealed weapon without a permit, and even take it into a bar.  That is the kind of rhetoric that has made the Grand Canyon State the laughing stock of the country.  The GOP-controlled legislature prides itself in passing the most asinine and loose gun control laws in the U.S. and then flaunts it to those hysterical over this obsession with guns.  And then you must add to that a foggy headed Governor, Jan Brewer, with shifting desert sand for a brain.

What more could the media ask for, particularly progressive bloggers like myself.  What is most disheartening about living in a state like Arizona is these fruitcakes are serious.  Their worship of guns transcends any reasonable approach to gun control and approaches the level of placing their weapons on a pedestal to be considered a divine entity.  I did a blog back in January, “Religious leaders say the worship of guns is a form of idolatry,“ that examines just how gun fanatics feel about their firearms.  The findings are pathetic.

But the religious community is reacting in force.  Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington Nat’l Cathedral, said, “Everyone in this city {Washington} seems to be in terror of the gun lobby. But I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.”  Rabbi Saperstein, dir. of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said: “Is the need for sensible gun control a religious issue?  Indeed, it is, for our worship of guns is a form of idolatry, the random distribution of guns is offense against God, and the only appropriate response is sustained moral outrage.”

Spoof on Arizona gun laws:

So where do these Arizona gun nuts come off pushing all these ridiculous gun laws to put even more guns on the street in the hands of completely unqualified owners when the state ranks eighth nationally in firearm deaths, with 15.1 deaths per 100,000?  They don’t care because they choose their celestial guns over human life.  Another source shows that in Arizona 65% of all murders are committed using firearms.  And yet another survey reports that there are 232 Arizona gun murders a year, or about 4.5 per week. 

Even considering all of the above, which really only scratches the surface, an Arizona legislature of Republican lunatics continues to propose and pass more bizarre gun legislation.  And it is all but guaranteed that the discombobulated Governor will sign the trash.  As an example, the gun bubbas got all up tight when a Tucson city Councilman did a gun “buyback” offering $50 gift cards for unwanted guns.  But the obsessed firearms crowd would have none of it and proposed a law to bar any destruction of guns in Arizona.  There’s lots more.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Another bill would allow people to carry guns into public buildings, unless secure gun lockers are provided which are expensive to construct.  Not a law, but another pitiable fact; Arizona ranked third in the nation for guns confiscated at the Phoenix airport checkpoints in 2012.  And Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is arming his 3,000 member “volunteer” posse with 400 military-style assault rifles.  That’s right, at least 400 scantily trained part-time upholders of Arpaio’s style of Arizona law on the streets with lethal weapons.  Hard to believe but true.

And now House Bill 2326 forbids state and local government agencies and federally licensed gun dealers from maintaining a database of people who own or sell guns.  State Attorney General Tom Horne, who himself has lawsuits filed against him for acting illegally as a candidate for office and leaving the site of a hit and run accident, wants to arm the teachers in Arizona schools.  And finally, a local pediatric cardiologist by the name of Dr. Scott Schnee responded to Denver reporter Adrian Dater re. something he wrote about the Phoenix Coyotes:

The Twitter user BabyDocScott tweeted "Go catch a movie in Aurora" and said Dater could "join Jessica for all I care." Dater was friends with Jessica Ghawi, who was killed in the Aurora movie theater shootings July 20.  Beyond pathetic.

So that’s the latest on a gun culture out of control from the Wild West state of Arizona, which for many of us is a beautiful and pleasant place to live.  But for those of us who want sane gun laws in our state, and throughout the country, the day is definitely on the horizon to get this accomplished, and the gun huggers will just have to go to the movies to get their violence.

Arizona gun nuts or…bring on the clowns

When you live in the state of Arizona and regularly experience the insanity of a Republican state legislature led by a correspondingly moonstruck governor, it is hard to reconcile that these apparently unbalanced individuals are running your state.  I grew up in the South and went through the States’ Rights movement and actually participated in a Dixiecrat rally in 1948.  I thought these people were crazy then, and I think the states’ rights fanatics in Arizona are equally insane.  And there are many who will agree with me.



Arizona State Legislature at work

The Blog For Arizona chides Arizona’s citizenry of gun nuts in attempting to pass legislation to close the loophole in allowing law enforcement to destroy guns not wanted by their owners by saying, “They seek to make the secular sacred by force of state law. In doing so they seek to use the power of "Big Brother" government to trample the rights of individuals to do with their private property as they see fit, which these groups comically pretend to defend.”  BFA asks if Arizona is on the verge of making “idolatrous gun worship the state religion?”

I thought it already was.

“These people are truly insane,” says the BFA, quoting Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik as follows:

"This bill clearly illustrates that some people don't view guns like toasters. When it comes to guns, it's as though they hold some magical or sacred designation in their lives," Kozachik said. "They go around proclaiming to be for private property, but civil liberties are out the window when it comes to guns. I guess the message is, we can't do what we want with our property in this state if that property is a firearm."

Then another state legislative lunatic, Rep. Steve Smith, a Republican naturally, wants to make it illegal for any public servant to enforce "any act, law, statute, rule or regulation'' of the federal government relating to personal firearms or accessories as long as they remain inside Arizona.  The problem with this, as even confirmed by a National Rifle Assn. (NRA) board member, is that it is putting federally licensed firearms dealers smack in the middle of a fight between the loonies in Arizona and the federal government.  If passed, will probably end up in a court battle.

But it took Bloomberg to change Arizona’s designation from Valley of the Sun to “Valley of the Gun.”  Arizona leads the nation in licensees to manufacture firearms.  Add that to the loosest gun laws in the U.S. and you have a potential powder keg.  They are calling it the “Insurrectionist Ideology,” which is what the current gun culture is all about.  Bloomberg quotes one of the top gun control advocates today:

“It plays into this insurrectionist ideology that is at the core of the gun-rights movement: If the government is going to shackle me, I’ll become my own gunmaker, my own gun dealer,” said Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “There has been a really strong resurgence in this type of mentality that started when Obama was elected president.”

 Bloomberg calls this country an “American Arsenal,” and rightfully so considering the approximately 300 million firearms owned by U.S. citizens which breaks down to an average of about 2.5 guns per household.  However, since the concentration of gun ownership is confined to one-third of all households, the family arsenal is even bigger.  Additional alarming figures are 10.8 million guns were sold in 2011, and in just January of 2013, there were 2,495,440 FBI NCIS background checks, the prelude to gun ownership.

And if you remember Tea Party-backed State Sen. Ron Gould, the head Arizona gun worshipper who ran for Congress and lost, well another crackpot gun nut has taken his place in the name of Sen. Kelli Ward, who mirrors Smith’s legislation, above, in the Senate.  In many other states in this country these people would be labeled certifiable and committed.  Ward’s legislation goes so far that Blog For Arizona says she would change the 2^nd Amendment as follows:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Wayne LaPierre, the head gun worshipper at the NRA, would be proud of her.

Arizona now selling guns on the street…and other stupid stuff

It’s my state and I love it but Arizona does have the largest gang of nincompoops in the country running the state government, and that’s all the way from the Governor down to the Republican legislature.  Jan Brewer, the finger waggin’ Gov. who has been in office since 2003 still does not have a clue about what she is doing.  I have to admit she has lucked into some good decisions—one was the sales tax measure to help Arizona’s economy—but stupid moves like denying qualified illegal immigrants driver licenses is more indicative of her style of bungling government.

Jan Brewer

She is supported by the biggest bunch of incompetent Republican state legislators ever assembled in one state, a clique of gun loving cowboys and cowgirls that have succeeded in passing the loosest gun control measures in the country and which have made Arizona a laughing stock.  The latest example is the reaction to a voluntary gun buyback program organized by Tucson’s vice mayor, Steve Kozachik, at the time a Republican.  When the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) had been successful in quelling any gun control since Jared Loughner’s Tucson gun massacre, Kozachik jumped into action.

In the two weeks leading up to the gun buyback, Kozachik received threats and was referred to as “Hitler,” just because he wanted to take back firearms from people who no longer felt comfortable with them in their house.  Sounds simple enough, and they were given in return a $50 gift card.  As an example of the program’s success, $10,000 in gift cards was distributed during the event.  Kozachik was a Republican at the time but switched parties one week after the buyback.  His contention is that there are some in the GOP who want to do right but the party is still being led by the GOP far right.

During Kozachik’s gun buyback program success, the NRA couldn’t stand the heat so in defiance of Kozachik, a group of gun nuts set up a “cash for guns” firearms flea market close by and right on the boundary of the police department where the buyback was taking place.  Kozachik comments, “In Arizona, it is legal for a person to walk up to another on a street corner, hand him cash for a firearm and simply walk off with it, with no need for a background check into his psychological or criminal history.”  And that’s exactly what this brazen bunch of gun worshippers did.

In talking further about his change from Republican to Democrat, Kozachik said, “It is that rigid ideology that is driving the party into irrelevancy.”

But Arizona’s gun culture could also mean that when the Obama/Biden gun control laws start going on the books, it could be the hardest hit of all the states.  A state law has already been proposed in Arizona saying it does not have to comply with any federal laws it chooses not to.  That’s my state, but I still love it. Charles Heller, co-founder of the Tucson-based Arizona Citizens Defense League, another gang of radical gun nuts, resurrected the now cliché 2^nd Amendment argument making a bizarre comment:

“The idea of the Second Amendment was so we could shoot the cops and the soldiers ... who are trying to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.”  It’s like these people are on another planet.    

 

Dennis Wagner, in the ArizonaRepublic, says, “The National Rifle Association does not maintain a ranking list for states, but its website shows Arizona conforming to nearly every NRA barometer for Second Amendment support.”  Arizona also gets an “F” in firearms safety regulation by The California-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Out of 50 states, Arizona came in 49th behind only South Dakota,” said Lindsay Nichols, an attorney who worked on the report card. “It has some of the weakest gun laws in the country.”

The Brady Campaign gives Arizona a “0” score, last along with Utah and Alaska, for firearms safety provisions.

One can only try and imagine what goes through the minds of such a group of nitwit state legislators who pass these laws and the bonehead Governor who signs them into law.  The term double-digit IQs comes to mind.

How I am even MORE SURE now that Barack Obama has the lead for November

I did a post about this premise on October 2, based on the switch in preference from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama by a family member and friend.  I realize this isn’t scientific but their conversion did represent two individuals who were and still are hard-core conservatives.  I figure if the President has convinced two hard-liners like these two, then the undecideds will certainly be at least up for grabs.  But my new hypothesis is stronger and more methodical based on facts.

Arizona has been controlled by Republicans at least as long as I have lived here which is over 22 years.  Even when Democrat Janet Napolitano was Governor, she had to fight constantly with a GOP legislature that has grown steadily more conservative thanks to a strong Arizona Tea Party.  Today the state is under the complete control of 2 factions: The Tea Party and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). 

Somehow, since Napolitano left, the legislature has turned into a bunch of fanatical conservative lunatics, and the state is stuck with a governor who doesn’t have the slightest clue about what she is doing.  The evidence of this is the ridicule Arizona takes from the national media on a regular basis.

Well, guess what?  A new Rocky Mountain poll shows that the Presidential race in Arizona is close: Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 44% to 42%.  Now I am no political analyst but my gut tells me, based on the outlandish antics of the state’s Republican government, and a population that put them in office and up to this point seemed oblivious to what was going on in Arizona, the progressives have great momentum going in Arizona as well as nationwide.  There’s more.

Top Republicans like Gov. Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have basically alienated every voting Hispanic in the state.  There are 400,000 Latinos registered to vote and another 405,000 eligible but unregistered.  Democrats are hoping to get 300,000 of this number registered before November.  The Rocky Mountain poll reveals that 77% of these Hispanics are for Obama, 10% for Romney. 

It is estimated that 21.5 million Latinos will be eligible to vote nationwide in November, and if the 77% figure hold up, the President can almost be assured of 16.5 million potential votes.  But the question is, will Hispanics come out to vote?

And there’s even more.  Democrat Richard Carmona is running against Republican Rep. Jeff Flake for the Senate seat vacated by Jon Kyl.  Flake has been in Congress for six terms and was considered a shoo-in coming into the race but the poll found Carmona leading Flake by 4 points, 44% to 40%.  Carmona is Latino and the former Surgeon General under George W. Bush who, with large support from the President, doesn’t agree 100% with Obamacare.

But if the left can swing Arizona, which has formerly fought off all progressive candidates and issues, what does that mean on the national level?  It is generally accepted that to win the Presidential election, you must win Ohio.  According to Public Policy Polling, as of today Obama leads Romney by 5 points in Ohio, 51% to 46%.  There’s a new presidential debate coming up and Obama has promised to come out aggressive.  Right now, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Arizona.

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 Border Agent killing turns into typical dirty state politics

Although the FBI says that the killing of Border Patrol Agt. Nicholas Ivie was a result of friendly fire, the mouth that never shuts up, Gov. Jan Brewer, stands by her ludicrous claim that the death is the result of the fed’s failure to secure the border.  One media report even stated no smuggler or anyone else other than Border Patrol Agents were present at the incident.  It appears to be an investigation gone terribly wrong, but not so says Brewer and John McCain.



Big mouth McCain

McCain is Arizona’s senior Senator who has been in Congress far past his ability to serve effectively.  He has made comments on the border before that were proved false, and when running against J.D. Hayworth in 2010, the latter, another Arizona conservative lunatic like Russell Pearce that also lost, McCain quickly changed his positive stance on immigration reform to suit state conservatives.  Re. Agt. Ivie’s death, McCain’s statement was:

"When our secretary of Homeland Security keeps telling the Congress that the border is secure and that we don't need to spend any more money to secure it that this obviously contradicts assertions by her and the president,"



Agent Nicholas Ivie

Brewer offered condolences to the Ivie family, as many Arizona politicians did, but then added her unwarranted criticism of the Obama administration’s lack of securing the border, which both other conservatives and the media termed an overreaction.  She was politely told to “Leave politics out of this.”  Another large facial cavity from Iowa, Sen. Charles Grassley, ranted on about the killing and the failures of the Obama administration to secure the border.

Of course, most of the country knows that border violence is down as well as crossings from Mexico into the U.S.  That is except the inept politicians heretofore mentioned, which is just more of the GOP conservative attack brigade started by the master of hate politics, Karl Rove.  This whole issue seems to center around the Fast and Furious episodes, which are bad and a product of both the Obama administration and those of George W. Bush.

Even dirty hands McCain criticizes Brewer:

Jan Brewer’s actual comment following Agent Ivie’s death was, "I am angry. We have been dealing with this issue of getting our borders secure now for many years and still we are told that it's more secure than ever. Unfortunately, today Arizona is seeing and hearing that results of our border not being secure."  Another classic instance of foot in mouth disease by America’s worst Governor.  That’s right, check out my blog of September 16, 2011.



Brewer at the border fence

A second Border Agent was wounded when Ivie was killed.  Latest word is that Ivie was separated from the others when he heard a noise and fired, prompting the other agents to fire back.  That is believed to have caused Ivie’s death.  Now that is hard enough for any family to take, especially after being told by Arizona’s official blowhard, Jan Brewer, that it was caused by illegal aliens that were in the country because President Obama hadn’t secured the border.  Pathetic.

So far investigators have found no evidence of an illegal border crossing or any illegal smugglers located in the area at the time of the confrontation, according to the Arizona Republic.  Brewer closed another statement with, “It has been 558 days since the Obama administration declared the security of the U.S.-Mexico border is ‘better now than it has ever been.’ I’ll remember that statement today.”  How long will it be before someone declares Jan Brewer a certified fruitcake?

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and other lunacy in state politics

It wasn’t bad enough that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order that, even if young undocumented immigrants receive deferred action on deportation, they can’t have a driver’s license, The Arizona Department of Transportation agreed.  Many thought there was some leeway between Brewer’s order and what the state Constitution says.  The ADT conducted a review and the decision was also not to issue driver’s licenses.

Jan Brewer

Without them the immigrants cannot drive to work or school.  California will issue driver’s licenses for those in the program but, then, that state is light years ahead of Arizona in progress.  This edict would put 80,000 undocumented immigrants in the state in the position of either hitching a ride or just driving illegally.  Arizona will most likely face another lawsuit to add to SB-1070, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others.  Just another stupid move by the wicked witch from the Southwest.

The Gov. recently stated she is 100 percent sure she knows just what Mitt Romney meant when he told a fundraising dinner that 47 percent of the country “believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.”  The Gov. turned illusionist exclaimed he meant, “We want to make everyone successful.  We want everybody to be successful.”  This kind of statement is one you might expect from someone living on another planet.

But everything this fruitcake politician does cannot change the fact that she has pissed off many Hispanics in the state, and this kind of politics is projected to turn Arizona over to the Democrats in the not too distant future.  There are 589,000 Latinos registered to vote in Arizona and 265,000 of those are expected to vote Democrat. 

Depending on what poll you read, President Obama has a chance of winning Arizona.  To support that, he raised $859,000 in the state in August compared to Romney’s $676,000.  It was also his biggest month nationwide.

Jan Brewer and undocumented immigrant

And there are many ways that a governor can cast aspersions on the state they govern, one of them by insulting one of its largest corporations with corporate headquarters in the state.  It wasn’t bad enough that Brewer was blowing the state’s money needlessly on a trip to Paris, but she and two of her staff caused a $4,100 bill during the fiasco that included cancellation fees for a Best Western hotel where they thought the digs weren’t up to standard for such royalty. 

Moving on to the bigoted side of Jan Brewer and many state residents, she was asked not to attend the recent Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.  This was because the organization that sponsored it, the Family Research Council, is said to have spread demeaning untruths about the lesbian and gay community.  But Brewer not only attended but said she was honored to speak.  And what might we expect?  Other speakers included Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann.

And then there was the recent meandering interview with the New York Times where Jan Brewer showed the true colors of an Arizona fanatic.  Here are some excerpts.  She was hurt when wagging her finger in the President’s face on a Phoenix tarmac he walked off in the middle of her sentence.  Why Obama even took the time to acknowledge her at all is amazing.  She won’t even admit how stupid she was, which thoroughly irks several Arizona progressives.

Jan Brewer announcing
headless bodies

She admitted she didn’t have a clue where the U.S./Mexico border is when asked about her concerns over Arizona border violence; the FBI reported that violence had dropped.  She quoted figures for people who were murdered in Puerto Penasco, a full 60 miles into Mexico.  There was also the beheaded bodies found in the desert that weren’t really there.  And maintaining her stand on loose gun laws in the aftermath of Rep. Gabby Giffords severe wounding in Tucson.

But the clincher was Brewer’s reaction to the law she signed to allow concealed weapons in bars.  The interviewer questioned this reasoning and she replied, “I think a bartender knows who’s drinking and who isn’t.  But he doesn’t know who has a concealed weapon was the retort.  Her only answer was how responsible gun owners are, not how irresponsible they might become after a few drinks.

Arizonans have to live with this on a daily basis, and many still support this incompetent poor soul.  Unfortunately it has caused ridicule of the state that will take years to repair.  Disgraced State Sen. Russell Pearce, a Brewer buddy and author of SB-1070, was thrown out of office.  There’s still a chance for Jan Brewer and many progressives are looking for just that.

Gov. Jan Brewer makes Arizona cops jobs impossible…and other asinine achievements

For the U.S. governor that, every time you hear something about her you think you have heard everything dim-witted, Jan Brewer crops up again upstaging herself with new idiocies.  Actually this isn’t old, rather a new break in a past blunder like the anti-immigration legislation SB-1070.  The Supreme Court struck down all but the part where law enforcement has to check the immigration status of individuals thought to be in the country illegally, while enforcing other laws.



Nazis also asked for your papers

However, while letting that clause stand, the Supreme Court made it “explicitly” clear that this kind of enforcement could lead to civil rights violations.  Putting myself in the position of a Phoenix police officer, I wondered how I would react to stopping a car with a mixture of Caucasian, plus legal and illegal immigrants.  I wouldn’t know who was what, so what would I do, check everyone to be safe?  I know the cops are trained for this, but so are the Hispanics to uncover abuses.

Temple University law professor Peter Spiro who has followed the legal battles on SB-1070 says, “Further litigation is imminent.”  What that means is that once judged the country’s worst governor, Jan Brewer, by forcing this law through the Supreme Court, has put the state of Arizona in the position of having to defend dozens, maybe even hundreds, of lawsuits.  Her position is bewildering since 73% of Arizonans support the Dream Act, according to a recent poll.

Video on Arizona "Show me your papers" law:

But there is even more Brewer baloney.  One of her appointees, Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Hatch, had the audacity to lecture a female victim of groping by a drunk police officer, “If you hadn’t been there that night {a bar}, none of this would have happened to you.”  

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer on the job

And yes, the Republican National Convention where some pathetic delegates treated Gov. Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio like rock stars.  The media even begged these losers for interviews and delegates asked for autographs.  The reaction to the Bobbsey Twins in Charlotte was a multitude of boos.

But doesn’t supporting an outright, self-avowed racist, again, sort of give Brewer the credentials of a racist herself?   Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, who is running for Congress in Arizona, said Middle Easterners look like Mexicans and she doesn’t want them in the country “legally or illegally.”  Saucedor Mercer is a Hispanic immigrant herself who gained citizenship in 1991.  Even following the above statement, Brewer reconfirmed her support for Saucedo Mercer.

In the latest example of loose Arizona gun laws supported and signed into law by Jan Brewer, Tucson police raided the home of Douglas Atwood busting him for having drugs and weapons.  In the house were 96 firearms including assault rifles, shotguns, handguns plus thousands of rounds of ammunition.  Oh by the way, Atwood is a federally-licensed weapons dealer.

Dr. Richard Carmona, former surgeon general under GWB, is running as a Democrat to replace the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Jon Kyl.  The GOP, in their fight to retain the position, is trying to discredit the political credentials of the candidate.  But in the past Republicans, namely Jan Brewer and Kyl, tried their best to recruit him for office including Congress and the governor.



Someone with the right to
ask for our papers

And finally, Arizona did win the one exemption in the SB-1070 law to check immigrant papers, but the case has been made repeatedly that the fed’s challenges should have been over racial profiling.  The Supreme Court even commented that even after the papers portion of the law goes into effect, the door is till open to more Constitutional challenges.

I can just see the Phoenix cop now, with all of his or her training but still under severe pressure, asking for the papers of the wrong person at the wrong time.  It goes back to the racially-mixed occupants in the car, above, with so many decisions to be made on the spot.  Just one slip and here comes the feds with another lawsuit, this time over racial profiling.  And Arizonans have Jan Brewer to thank.

America’s worst governor, Arizona’s Jan Brewer, also “terrible human being”

Erin Gloria Ryan is an irreverent writer for Jezebel and I mean that in the most complimentary of ways.  You have to love this lady for her honesty and clever writing; believe me, she holds absolutely nothing back.  Her latest article on Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer starts with Brewer’s illustrious background of being “…Glendale {AZ} Community College's most famous radiologic technologist certificate recipient.”  Apparently perfect training for doing nothing.

Maybe Brewer just needs to
put on her glasses

Her latest bungle in the media is described by Ryan simply as “assholery,” not because the New York Times Magazine article in which she says 99.9% of gun owners were responsible people was released on the day of the Empire State Bldg. shootings, but because of the latter comment and other stupid remarks she made in the interview.  The interviewer, Andrew Goldman, also pulled no punches with questions on Brewer’s most infamous blunders:

Things like what about the “tacky,” and “shouty” confrontation with Barack Obama on the airport tarmac; her obvious racist immigration policy; the incarceration of her son for sexual assault in the 1980s, then as governor pushed to preserve state spending on mental health while cutting funding for rape victims.

But perhaps the classic in the interview was the following:

Q: You signed a law that entitles people to carry concealed guns in bars as long as they don't drink. I wouldn't trust myself in a bar with access to a gun.
A: I think a bartender knows who's drinking and who isn't.

Q: But a bartender wouldn't know who's carrying a concealed weapon.
A: Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people that are gun owners are very responsible.

Erin Gloria Ryan commented profoundly, “Wow, what an asshole. To follow that line of reasoning, we should probably get rid of the driver's license requirement, speed limits, and center lines on roads because 99.9% of drivers are responsible about what side they're supposed to drive on and when they should pass. Let's also get rid of prescription requirements for addictive drugs like Xanax and Valium, because 99.9% of people who use them do so responsibly.”

Jan Brewer on Pres. Obama's executive order for young undocumenteds:

Ryan’s piece on Jan Brewer is by far the best writing I have seen recently but there is more.  The Funny or Die site released a video recently starring Mary Steenburgen as Brewer and a cameo by George Lopez at the end.  This video is a must-see for anyone who thinks Arizona has gone too far with its anti-immigration law SB-1070.  Things like this have made the state the laughing stock of the country.  One local comment after seeing the video was:

“Wouldn't it be nice, just every now and then, to be in the news for winning a Super Bowl or something instead?”  Purely pathetic. 



Jan Brewer hasn't a clue



And Brewer has family problems other than her son, but equally as close to home.  John Brewer, her husband, was fired as the executive dir. of the naturopathic board in 2001 from allegations he shredded public documents and misrepresented his credentials.  And recently Brewer appointed Robt. Gear in that position who has a history of complaints against him by the same board.  He also has strong ties to John Brewer.

The Governor has a PAC to raise money, as she describes it, to help other politicians to be able to govern like her.  God help them!  But the treasurer of the organization is on probation with the board that licenses accounts, and had his registration as a securities salesman revoked in 2009. Robert Hockensmith violated state laws and was dishonest and unethical.  He was fined $200,000 and put on probation for three years in 2010.

But Jan Brewer’s push to turn over Arizona inmate care to private prisons is one of her greatest achievements.  Chuck Coughlin, Brewer's campaign chairman and policy adviser was also a lobbyist for the largest private prison company in the country, Corrections Corporation of America, who operates six prisons in the state.  Professed to save Arizona lots of money by the GOV and the GOP legislature, the move is costing taxpayers $3.5 million a year.

I have said this several times in the past.  This poor soul doesn’t realize what a nationwide example of brainlessness she is.  Brewer plows on making the kinds of statements above and shackling Arizona with the kind of burdens like SB-1070 and the private prison debacle.  The end result is a state in chaos with gun laws that allow anyone, yes anyone, to own a gun.  The problems are numerous and many, including myself, are sick of her and her minions in the legislature.

Like Michael Moore said, I don’t like where this country is going but I have no plans to leave it.  Therefore, guess I’ll just have to change it.  Let’s do it.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s self-serving move on President Obama’s Deferred Action Plan should alienate all Hispanics

Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona only because she supported and signed the state’s anti-immigration law SB-1070, backed by a bloc of radical conservative racist voters, has re-established the state as the most bigoted in the country.  On the day many young illegal immigrants—only because their parents brought them here illegally—were celebrating the possibility of gaining a reprieve to stay as productive citizens, the wicked witch from the Southwest stepped in to stop it.



The typical Jan Brewer

Brewer, America’s worst governor confirmed by a recent ballot, signed an executive order that attempts to thwart President Obama’s directive extending temporary work permits to more than a million undocumented immigrants.  Obama’s directive grants two-year work authorizations to undocumented youth between 15 and 30 years of age who have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least five years.  Brewer did her dirty deed simultaneously for effect.

Everyone agrees the President made the directive when he did to show Latinos that he supports them, conveniently coming prior to the November election.  But it’s a good thing made necessary by the fact that the GOP Congress defeated his Dream Act, designed to accomplish the same purpose.  But the maniac in Arizona’s governor’s office has made it her purpose in life to circumvent anything Barack Obama does on the issue of immigration, no matter how many are hurt.

The goofy Gov did it specifically for politicizing the situation, and to attempt to show an authority used so many times since she took office that has helped make the state the laughing stock of the nation.  Along with a state legislature primarily Republican and called a gang of “Kooks” by a local columnist, Arizona continues to stand out as one of the poorest—if not the poorest—run state in the nation.  Gun laws alone draw criticism from major countries around the world.

Brewer's equally inept Matt Benson talks to undocumented protesters:

What Brewer has done is put Arizona in the position of having to answer a host of lawsuits that are already being planned.  Evelyn Cruz, an Arizona State U. clinical law professor and dir. of the Immigration Law & Policy Clinic says there will no doubt be a legal challenge since Brewer’s order might conflict with federal statues.  The ACLU is already considering a lawsuit against the state if its Dept. of Motor Vehicles refuses to grant the undocumented driver’s licenses.

In the NBC article, “Cruz noted that the REAL ID Act of 2005, a federal law that modified requirements for state driver’s licenses and ID cards, specifically listed immigrants who have been granted “deferred action” as among groups of people eligible for a license.”  Further, “She said Brewer’s order conflicts with both state and federal law.”  Adding, “The state of Arizona has regularly issued licenses to people lawfully present in the U.S. even though they don’t have lawful status.”

Reported in the Arizona Daily Star, Jeff Rogers, Chair of the Pima County Democratic Party said: "Jan Brewer has once again shown that she is nothing more than George Wallace in a skirt.  What's next? Will she personally stand outside the Motor Vehicle office and block entry to qualified 'DREAMers'?"  Arizona U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva commented: "She's just being herself, hurting our economy and pulling families apart to please a small minority of the population."

Marisa Trevino in Politics in Color makes some excellent points calling Brewer beyond being mean-spirited; she “wreaks of vindictiveness” against Democrats and the Pres.  Trevino thinks it sorta seals the Hispanic vote for the Dems and Obama in November.  But what is laughable to the writer is the fact that barring these folks driver’s licenses to get them to work eliminates taxes they would pay to Arizona from their jobs, many of which are unwanted with low wages.



Undocumenteds making their point

Jeff Biggers in the Huff Post says: “By taking public action against President Obama's policy that will potentially grant work permits to over one million undocumented young people, Brewer has once again put Arizona's name on the map as the epicenter of anti-immigrant racism and hate.”  And he adds:

“Brewer and Arizona's right-wing politicos have their own issues with driver's licenses and following the law; in 1988, Brewer failed sobriety tests after a car accident in Phoenix.  Then a state senator, Brewer received immunity from arrest and prosecution.”

Finally, monkey see, monkey do.  Nebraska’s GOP governor, Dave Heineman, has decided to imitate life in Arizona by deciding to refuse the same state benefits to undocumented immigrants in that state.  How any state leader could follow the lead of the inept Gov. Jan Brewer is beyond me but, then, I suppose that places Heineman in the same category with Brewer.  I don’t know about the people of Nebraska, but I do know many Arizonans are tired of this lunacy.