Procter & Gamble top former executive spreads bigotry

Lou Pritchett was VP Sales and Customer Development for soap giant, Procter & Gamble, and it was during his recent retirement that he wrote the ultra-conservative, extremist “You scare me” letter to President Obama.  It was confirmed by Snopes.com, if you have confidence in their judgment.  It was also panned by bloggers, which I will cover later.  It is notable that Pritchett sent the letter to the New York Times but it was neither acknowledged nor published.

Here are some of his comments with my retorts:

·       You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.  (NJ) Only an idiot could say this after the last 20 months.

·       You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no Visible signs of support.  (NJ) Like most of us peons did, working our way through.  And what “upscale lifestyle?”

·       You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.  (NJ) This borders on prejudice and an anomaly in that you are obviously a right wing fanatic.

·       You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.  (NJ) Not a bad idea to consider social Democracy that could spread the wealth in America.

·       You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest  standard of Living in the world.  (NJ) Poverty in the U.S. has hit a new high climbing to 15.1 percent or 46.2 million people.  A top economist, Nouriel Roubini, places the blame fully at the feet of George W. Bush.

·       You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.  ("Another Hitler in the making," bigoted comment by person sending email.)  (NJ) This one is tough to figure out; apparently you were struck dumb during the totalitarian governing of Geo. W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

There’s much more you can read on the above link to Snopes.com.

This man scares the hell out of me.  Let’s start with the fact that he is a Tea Party Patriot, which explains a lot of his confusion.  You can hear his rantings on the Fox News Mangrum Report where he says employers should stop hiring, and that it is perfectly OK to move U.S. jobs overseas.  So much for the American dream.

A blog by the name of Wall Street Jackass pokes fun at Pritchett’s letter.  Its comments are much more tolerant than mine but nevertheless interesting.  By the way, he has a Southern drawl, which could account for some of his statements.  I can say this having grown up in the South and more recently writing about some of its age-old issues.

What scares me even more than Pritchett is the fact that a friend of ours mass circulated this email to a number of people, many of which are probably Tea Party members.  It is this sort of thoughtless bigotry that has this country tearing itself apart.  If it isn’t stopped we may follow in the footsteps of the fall of the Roman Empire.  Peace!

ARIZONA POLITICS: Is stealth “candidate” Olivia Cortez really running for Russell Pearce’s Arizona State Senate seat?

AZ State Sen. Russell Pearce

I’ve heard of stealth bombers, stealth helicopters, even a stealth attraction.  But it took Phoenix New Times columnist Stephen Lemons to come up with Olivia Cortes as a stealth candidate.  Stealth means secretive, clandestine, and that is just what Cortes has been; not answering her phone or a knock at the front door.  Not defining her candidacy or what she actually stands for.  In the absence of any statement, one might think she stands for…Russell Pearce.

Lemons confirmed himself that petition circulators are telling signers that getting Cortes in the race will help to split the vote in favor of Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce.  The Phoenix New Times writer actually went to the Mesa, AZ, library and was asked to sign the petition to place Cortes’ name on the ballot.  That’s when he affirmed what the petitioners were saying.  You can read more about his conversation with the petition company here.

This is also is supported by a reporterfrom the Arizona Republic, GaryNelson, who says, “A vote for Olivia Cortes is a vote for Russell Pearce.”  He had the same experience as Stephen Lemons in being asked to sign a petition that he was told would split the vote to help Pearce.  This all substantiates an earlier allegation by Randy Parraz, one of the Pearce recall organizers, who said he had heard the same thing.  Parraz’s comment when hearing the latest was, “She’s busted.”

Russell Pearce says he has nothing to do with Cortes running against him, but even a two-year-old could figure this out.  These are the same bullying tactics Pearce has been using for years and they have finally caught up with him.  Arizona politics continue to provide the nation’s media with the most laughable gang of idiots running a state in the country.

I’ll even bet there are a number of his Republican cronies who are rooting for Lewis and will be happy to see this bigot go.  They won’t be alone.  Amen.

Worst governor’s race features Arizona’s own Jan Brewer

If you Google “List of worsts,” you come up with 647 million hits.  Everything from films to baseball games to sitcoms, even tomatoes.  Tiger Woods tops the list of worst celebrity tippers.  In the 10 worst Presidents, Richard Nixon came in ninth, and George W. Bush didn’t qualify apparently.  On my list of Presidents, GWB would be a solid first.

There’s a list of top worst school massacres, unfortunate in its nature but a sign of the times.  There’s a list of worst airports for delay, which you might want to check before your next flight.  Las Vegas is not on the list of worst housing markets, even though it has led in foreclosures for months.  If your kids go to a public school, there is a list of the worst of those.  There seems to be one for everything.

And now the Transport Union of America has come up with a “Worst Governor Ever”list with notables like Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania, Chris Christie, New Jersey, Rick Snyder, Michigan, John Kasich, Ohio, and the new GOP candidate for President, Rick Perry of Texas.  But guess who takes the honor for “Worst of the Worst Governors?”  Of course, Arizona’s own Jan Brewer.

Most of the reasons for nominating the worst governor were due to legislation they passed and their politics in general.  Jan Brewer can be judged on both of those points but she adds another measure to the pot.  Competence, or a lack of in the case of Brewer.  Jan Brewer is not qualified to be Governor of Arizona, and the only reason she is…her support for State Sen. Russell Pearce’s racist anti-immigration bill, SB-1070.

Already the laughing stock of the country, Arizona politics just keep on rolling.

Read more here.

Hating has turned into a popular participant sport

Compliments Marlith

There is a poll taken that asks the question, “Which celebrity do you hate the most?” and is produced by California-based E-Score Celebrity.  You’d think we had had enough of this kind of crap for a lifetime with a Congress that outwardly hates each other.  As man example, in Arizona the high level of animosity toward Hispanics and just anyone who is different is prevalent all over the state. 

It was in November of 2006 that Michael Richards of “Kramer” Seinfeld fame who went bonkers on the stage of the West Hollywood Laugh Factory club, when an African-American heckler got under his skin.  In a 3 minute tirade, he used the “F” and “N” words repeatedly against the man.  It was so bad that the majority of the audience left, repulsed by the action.  It’s all on video you can see here.

But you’re still wondering about that “Hate” poll;” well, the winner was Casey Anthony, the 25 year-old woman that was tried and acquitted for killing her little girl.  She is currently hiding out and, perhaps, not even aware that she is the “Most Hated” person in the U.S.  Former The Hills reality TV star Spencer Pratt came in second, Nadya Suleman, the unemployed California woman that popped octuplets in 2009 to add to the 6 she already had was third, and O.J. Simpson was fourth.

I decided to Google “Most hated in Arizona,” since that state has such a bad reputation in the “abomination” category, and you’ll never guess what I got.  A FacebookGroup page with the blazing headline, “The Most Hated Women in USA Mrs Jan Brewer The Governor of Arizona.”  Other sites found in the search were, “Arizona, most hated state in the Union” and last but certainly one of the most interesting, “The third most hated Senator John McCain of Arizona.

It’s time to put all this nonsense to rest.

Read more here.

Warren Buffett trashes GOP tax cuts

Compliments Art Comments

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the Republicans selectively eliminated him and other affluent individuals like him when asking the American public to “sacrifice.”  Buffett places himself in the “mega-rich” category while the rest of us suffer in the economic crisis.  It seems there is something like “carried interest’ that allows this opulent group to get a “bargain” 15 percent tax rate.  Buffett feels protected by conservatives in Congress and is calling for them to stop this “coddling.”

Forecasters agree, warning that the direction of the House Republicans demanding spending cuts without tax increases was the “wrong” thing to do.  These critics are convinced that the stimulation of the economy in the short term will do more to create jobs.  Something like President Obama will introduce Thursday in his speech to Congress.  Another source says revenue enhancement and entitlement reform are needed for the long term.

The fact that Republicans say that raising taxes is not on the table, along with Democrats refusing to touch entitlements leaves only discretionary spending, like education, research, the military and the infrastructure, among others.  Based on the inability of the GOP to move outside its ridiculous ideology on tax increases, it seems this impasse will certainly lead to a partisan standoff that could lead this country into another economic crisis by the end of the year.

Buffett paid $6,938,744 in taxes last year, which he acknowledges sounds like a lot.  But this was a rate of only 17.4 percent, compared to 20 others in his office paying from 33 to 41 percent, an average of 36 percent.  Based on Republican claims that high capital gains taxes tend to discourage investors, Buffett says he doesn’t know of anyone deciding against a good investment because of a high tax rate.

He adds, for those who argue that higher tax rates hurt job creation, a net 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000, as compared to since that period when we’ve actually had lower tax rates with lower job creation.  Two Republicans served as President during that period along with Bill Clinton.  George W. Bush was elected and served as President from 2001 to 2009.  Shortly after entering office GWB enacted tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens in America…including Warren Buffett.

Wild West gun laws looser today than during Wyatt Earp’s fight at the O.K. Corral

You can read all about it in Adam Winkler’s new book, Gunfight, The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, published on September 19, already available on Amazon.com.  Winkler is a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and writes for The Daily Beast and Huffington Post.  He is an expert on gun law whose statements you can take to the bank.  In his research for the book, he confirmed that gun control can work.

The author says in a recent article in HuffPost, quoting Chicago Mayor Richard Daley following the supreme Court’s decision confirming the rights of individuals to own guns, "Then why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle it in the streets?"  Winkler adds, “Gun control advocates fear -- and gun rights proponents sometimes hope -- the Second Amendment will transform our cities into modern-day versions of Dodge.”

From the comments I have received from my gun control articles, that is exactly what the gun bubbas want.  In the untamed West you needed a gun to protect yourself from the bad guys and wild animals.  Today we have law enforcement protection to fill that void, and, although strained, manages to do a damn good job taking care of the American public.  What we don’t need is a bunch of untrained vigilante gun slinging cowboys that don’t know what they’re doing like the two at the Rep. Gabby Giffords massacre in Tucson.

But returning to the Old West, Winkler describes the dusty streets of a typical town like Dodge City in 1879 with this huge billboard exclaiming, "The Carrying of Firearms Strictly Prohibited."  Even Tombstone, AZ, location of the “Shootout at the OK Corral,” barred the carrying of guns openly.  It took Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce and Gov. Jan Brewer to open the state up to the loosest gun laws in the U.S. and make Arizona a laughing stock of the country.

And the gun fanatics should take notice; in the Wild West, law enforcement and the general population did find out that gun control can work.  As Winkler put it, “We've always had a right to bear arms, but we've also always had gun control.”  He closes by asking, “Even in the Wild West, Americans balanced these two and enacted laws restricting guns in order to promote public safety. Why should it be so hard to do the same today?”

There is much more on the long time political battle over gun control and the individual’s right to bear arms.  This is a must read for the gun control folks as well as the gun rights activists.

Over and over, anti-immigration fanatics ignore the facts

Migrant deaths have dropped 38 percent on the Arizona border.  Illegal immigrant apprehensions have dropped 44 percent.  At this pace, migrant deaths in the Tucson sector, the busiest in the U.S., will fall to their lowest level in years.  In the Yuma sector, there was only one migrant death this year.  Although one death is too many, these figures are evidence that the border with Mexico is more secure than ever.

The nation continues a 15-year declinein crime with the 100 largest metropolitan areas experiencing a 21 percent drop in violent crime between 1990 and 2008.  Murder, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft have all taken large double-digit declines.  With the continued sharp drop, even through the recession, criminologists are baffled.  Some even ask if the decrease in crime is due to immigration.

There were 11.2 illegal immigrants living in the U.S. in 2010, about the same as in 2009.  Something has to be done to reconcile this situation, and only a fool would think we can deport all of them.  And why would we want to considering many of the immigrants are holding necessary jobs and paying taxes.  The studyby Pew Research found that Mexicans, 58 percent of the total are not leaving the country, prompting more calls for immigration reform.   

It’s time for you anti-immigration extremists to face up to the facts, and stop making Arizona look like the most unfriendly state in the U.S.  Instead, we should force Congress and the White House to secure the border so those coming through are legal, and set up a reasonable system of amnesty for the 11.2 million already here.

Enough is enough. It’s time to challenge the 2nd Amendment-Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I commented on how gun rights advocates had amassed so much power under the 2^nd Amendment, and their constant whining over their rights under its protection.  But even with an improvement in gun violence, there are daily reports in the media about shootings using handguns, with the responsibility clearly on the 2^nd Amendment’s interpretation that allows states like Arizona to pass ridiculous weapons laws.

As an example, in Arizona you need no permit to purchase a handgun, nor do you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon.  No background check in some cases, no gun education classes, just walk in and buy whatever you want and walk out the door.  You might choose a handgun like Jared Loughner used in his Tucson massacre, a Glock 19 with a high capacity gun clip.  It’s all available throughout the state of Arizona, and you can even carry a gun in a bar if you don’t drink.

Texas requires no permit to buy a handgun, but at least they had the sense to place some provisions on concealed carry.  A background check is required and the person must attend classes on firearms education.  They were one of the states, along with Arizona, to reject a guns on campus bill.  In Texas a person can carry a concealed, loaded weapon without a permit while heading to their car.

In comparison, more reasonable states with rational gun laws like California, Illinois and New York make Arizona and Texas look like what they are.  The untamed, backward old west.  More on this later.

Major league basketball is a Social Democracy

Social Democracy is a political ideology of the left and centre-left.  It advocates the creation of a democratic welfare state that combines capitalist and socialistic institutions and practices.  Rather than challenge the capitalist system, its aim is to reform it.  It is sometimes described as a “wide array of welfare and social insurance functions and removing large chunks of wealth and commodity distribution from the market.”  Put simply, it is a sharing of the wealth.

Almost all of the world’s developed countries think of themselves, and are, social democracies; however not the United States.  SD does work in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada.  But what does it have to do with major league basketball?

In a recent article about theNational Basketball Assn. lockout, the owners are crying foul over player salaries and want to slap new caps on them for the future.  In effect, the teams want new contracts that will return them to the black.  In dispute is an argument over how to split a very large amount of money from TV revenue that would ensure that every team is profitable.  The key here is the term “every team.”

The players are already making ridiculous salaries, especially when it comes to what teachers, police and firemen are paid.  In a recent articleon the economy, Paul Wiseman writes that the “economy’s meager gains are giving mostly to the wealthiest…and higher corporate profits.”  In the NBA lockout the general agreement is there should be revenue sharing to make every team—especially the smaller ones with less revenue—profitable.  Sharing of the wealth.

What’s good for the NBA is good for the American public.  A Social Democracy would carve up some of the absurd high salaries of overpaid people in sports, entertainment and the business world, as well as the profits of large corporations, and divide that among the less fortunate.  Just like the National Basketball Assn.

Read more about Social Democracy here.

Add insensitivity to the fanaticism of gun bubbas

by Deadcatdreaming

The Pima County, Arizona RepublicanParty is raffling off a Glock 23 handgun to raise money for Democrat Gabby Giffords reelection campaign.  Rep. Giffords was shot and severely injured by Jared Loughner using a Glock 19 in an attempt to assassinate her in January of this year.  Make good sense?  Of course it does…in Arizona.  The massacre at a Safeway in Tucson left 6 people dead and 13 injured.  Oh, by the way, the winner will also receive three 12-round magazines.

To justify the move, Greg Harris, exec. dir. of the Pima GOP, said that Giffords herself owns a Glock.  I have written about gun dimwits in the past but this guy takes the cake.  Well maybe not.  Mike Shaw, interim Pima County GOP chairman, said: "That Glock is no more responsible for those deaths and the congresswoman's injuries than a Number 2 pencil is responsible for cheating on a test."  A completely, and even more idiotic, new twist to “Guns don’t kill, people do.”

James Kelley, Republican chairman in Tucson’s Legislative District 29, said “I advised against this raffle from day one.  This is insensitive and stupid and a no-brainer.  The chairman and our executive director did the wrong thing.”  To which  the two replied, “Well, we've done it before.”  Kelly responded, “Yes, but not since January 8, and we shouldn’t be doing it now.”  The last I heard, all the raffle tickets had been sold.

As far as I know, Gabby Giffords hasn’t made a statement on the issue yet.  One would have to wonder just how much she still supports the wide-open Arizona gun laws after the January incident.

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer’s beheaded bodies yet to be found

Whoever you are—that group of misguided and misinformed individuals that continues to try and run every illegal immigrant out of Arizona because they are crime-ridden and the cause of all the problems in the state—will simply have to eat crow, or worse.  A Brookings Institution report, something this conglomeration of bigots, above, would never understand, has shown just how outrageous these fanatics are with facts that cannot be denied.

The 2011 report, “City and Suburban Crime Trends in Metropolitan America” surveyed the last 20 years of crime data and discovered that, "crime declines significantly with increases in the proportion [of residents] that is foreign-born and Hispanic."  As an example, the increase of Hispanics, including illegal immigrants, has increased dramatically in the past few years in Phoenix, AZ.  Yet the crime index went from 638.8 in 1999 down to 396 in 2009, a ten year decrease of 38 percent.  Murders were down from 17.5 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 7.6 in 2009.

The Brookings report showed a diversified population helps decrease crime, but input from another expert on the subject, Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," found that “immigrants are good neighbors” and in their drive to succeed discourage criminal behavior not only in their community but in others as well.

Immigration is still a federal issue and something Washington must address.  The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, along with several of Phoenix’s leading businesses was instrumental in stopping five more immigration laws sponsored by the lunatic State Sen. Russell Pearce, who is currently being recalled.  When will the general population finally get the word?

Read more here.

Corporate executive pay tarnishes the meaning of Labor Day

Compliments Kheel Center, Cornell University

Today is Labor Day, a day that was launched in 1882 by the Central Labor Union of New York to celebrate the economic and social contributions of American workers.  It is also the end of summer and the kids are back in school.  It’s a time for backyard barbecues and general get-togethers to eat and drink to the accomplishments of the labor movement. 

But there’s a fly in the ointment that sours the efforts of the working man and woman.  It is that corporate executive pay outpaces any increases the labor force has experienced recently and promises to continue on a path for the future that is literally obscene.  Just look at the facts below.

According to a study reported by David Kocieniewski of The New York Times, “At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes.”  Companies like eBay, Boeing, General Electric and Verizon.  The Institute for Policy Studies report found that CEOs for those companies were paid an average of $16 million annually.  If ever there was a case for sharing the wealth, this is it.

The study concludes that in the regulatory filings of 100 companies with the best paid chief executives, current U.S. policy rewards tax avoidance rather than innovation.  There was “ample evidence” that suggests company heads are prioritizing avoiding taxes now more than ever.  That means the working person ends up paying more taxes to compensate for the shortfall from corporations.  Less pay, more taxes; sounds like the perfect environment for a Social Democracy.   

Business leaders complain of the top corporate statutory tax rate of 35 percent.  However, the report found that many of the country’s largest companies paid far less than this 35 percent figure.  On the other hand, 18 of the 25 corporations had offshore subsidiaries where income can be sheltered.  One author of the study concludes, “corporations are rewarding C.E.O.’s for aggressive tax avoidance.”

by DonkeyHotey

So as we celebrate another Labor Day, think of the GOP conservatives out there in Washington that champion big business and couldn’t give a crap about the workforce that has supported and promoted progress in this country for years.  Elections are right around the corner and maybe the time has come to consider throwing every incumbent out of office and starting over.

Another shooting death in Arizona…So what the hell

I am almost convinced that no matter how many deaths are caused by guns, nothing will be done about it.  I say almost because I still believe in those people who talk about reasonable gun control, and just the one-in-a-million chance they will eventually get the right gun legislation in place.  The laws that are currently on the books obviously don’t work.  A 30-year-old Mesa, AZ, man was gunned down recently.  He got into a fight in a convenience store parking lot and was shot by his opponent.  If nothing else, the public has a right to know:

1. If the gun was registered, did the assailant have a concealed-carry permit?
2. Did the gun come from a gun show where anyone can make a purchase?
3. Did the killer obtain the gun in Arizona?

Based on the ridiculously lax weapons laws in Arizona, these three questions could provide significant input into how to fix the gun laws.

In February of this year a truckleft New York City with a billboard of the running tally of Americans killed by gun violence since the January 2011, Tucson, AZ, massacre by Jared Loughner, which severely injured U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed 6.  As the billboard left Times Square for a 2-month swing through 25 states, the tally of gun violence deaths was 1,300, with 24 more added shortly thereafter.  The driver was Omar Sheeha, whose sister was killed in the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.

 Since Arizona’sgun-death rate is among the worst in the country, the feds should start by analyzing this state’s extremely lax gun laws and pass federal legislation to correct the problem throughout the U.S.  Among those factors to consider are concealed carry, required gun education, background checks, and where firearms can be taken, like bars and schools.  The momentum seems to be building and maybe, just maybe, we could all be surprised

The Tea Party reminds me of the Mafia

When I read the recent Assoc. Press article, “As tea Party reshapes GOP, some cheer, some worry,” by Charles Babington on MSNBC, there was something in the back of my mind that reminded me of a similar gang.  Prodding on I went to the Tea Party site and found they were still bellowing over the same hogwash that we hear from their supporters on a daily basis. 

Stuff like the TP’s ridiculous Cap and Trade bill that went nowhere, getting rid of Obama’s health care reform, and promoting racist, anti-immigration laws like Arizona’s SB-1070.  But what really caught my eye was their “Voter’sGuide,” which I clicked on.  And I found out that these people are organized, providing a complete list of the candidates who ran in the 2010 election with the issues they supported.

Returning to the above article, I learned from a CBS/New York Times poll that “…only 20 percent of Americans and 41 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of the Tea Party…”  And “…just 18 percent of Americans now view themselves as Tea Party supporters…”  This latter figure was 31 percent following the 2010 election.  So how does this group of wackos wield so much power?

I’ll tell you.  The “Family” the Tea Party reminds me of is the Mafia, also known as La Cosa Nostra, the mob.  No organization I can remember had the discipline of these guys, and the same perseverance is prevalent in TP members.  Something—and the only thing—you have to admire them for. 

They even call themselves “patriots” which is hard to stomach when the TPers in the recent debt ceiling fiasco exclaimed they would rather see the USA default than compromise their “principles.”   The mob also never gave ground, and destroyed anyone and anything that stood in their way. 

Just how far will this madness go?

AZ State Sen. Russell Pearce’s version of the Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan was a far-right extremist organization that advocated white supremacy and anti-immigration.  I grew up in the South of the 1940s and 1950s where the Klan was in full bloom and remember the attempts to scare Blacks into complete servitude in order to keep them in line.  It wasn’t a pretty picture, and I wondered then as a young man, just what had these people done to deserve this? 

Although the KKK movement wasn’t designed to run the Blacks out of the South like State Sen. Russell Pearce’s actions to force illegal Hispanic immigrants out of Arizona, it did succeed in a relocation of many Blacks to the North and West.  Southern racists actually preferred to keep the Blacks where they were and maintain an atmosphere of slavery and bondage even though it was illegal.  It would go on like this for years, and still does to some extent today.

Dee Dee Garcia, a conservative Latina activist wrotea letter to the Mormon Church re. the persecution of illegal immigrants in Arizona and how State Sen. Candidate Jerry Lewis is more in tune with the church’s Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, than his opponent Russell Pearce.  She quoted a Mormon canon of scripture as a reference to the humanism of this issue, Pearce in particular:

“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.”  §121:39.

Garcia draws a parallel between Arizona’s anti-immigration fight with the Extermination Order signed by the Missouri Governor of 1838 to drive the Mormons out of his state or be exterminated.  In this case, Joseph Smith, LDS Prophet at the time, surrendered to the Missouri militia, which resulted in the forcible removal from Missouri of virtually all members of the Church.  Precisely what State Sen. Russell Pearce had in mind for Hispanics when passing SB-1070.

The Ku Klux Klan has no stronghold in Arizona but with Pearce’s past association with J.T. Ready, confirmed racist and former neo-Nazi, and the State Senator’s relentless efforts to run all Hispanics from Arizona, he has created his own modern-day version.

It’s time to take the power from the 2-party political system

In Democrat or Republican party partisan primaries, you vote and the top vote-getter from each primary wins, going on to the general election.  In Arizona, as in most states, that is the way it is done today.  But in the Sunshine State, extremist politics slant the system toward candidates that may not actually be the choice of the people.  There is a movement on to correct this with the recent surge of Independent voters.

The Open Government Coalition ofArizona is proposing a single-primary system open to all voters where the two top vote-getters, even if they are from the same party, would advance to the general election.  This primary would completely eliminate party selection as a prerequisite for voting.  The coalition feels it will bring more Independent voters into the fold, thus, making it a more popular vote than the current system.  In Arizona, Independents number 32.5 percent of voters.

As it stands now, an Independent voting in the primary must pick one party’s ballot and go with it all the way. 

The Open Government Coalition is run by Arizona Democrat and Republican business leaders which tells us that the higher-ups are just as fed up with the state’s political extremists as the average person.  The movement started this past spring with organizers’ aversion to state politics moving to the far right.  It is this conservative right wing political manipulation that has “kept us on the front pages,” says former Phoenix Mayor, Paul Johnson.

The coalition plans to start collecting signatures this month to get the issue on the 2012 ballot.

Is it just a ploy to move Arizona politics further to the left?  Now that’s not a bad idea either.

Read more here.

It’s time to dump the Tea Party overboard

In a recent NBC News/Wall StreetJournal poll, most Americans said they want the President and Congress to compromise rather than take the hard partisan party approach.  A strong majority of Independents want compromises by Democrats but almost 70 percent want Republicans to find a middle ground.  Nearly 60 percent favor Obama’s $4 trillion proposal whereas only one-third prefer the Republican’s lower figure of $2.5 trillion.

But then the Tea Party introduced a laughable bill called “Cut, Cap and Balance” that “demands deep spending reductions and congressional approval of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in exchange for raising the nation's debt limit,” according to the Associated Press.  Obama calls it “duck, dodge and dismantle, and vows he will veto it if it comes to his desk. 

As an example, in Arizona, Tea Party backed Republicans voted for the House bill.  They are Trent Franks, Jeff Flake, David Schweikert and Ben Quayle.  These four supposed congressional leaders wasted precious time to meet the Aug. 2, deadline because of the pressure from Tea Party wackos.  The bill passed the House 234 to 190.

The most important finding in the NBC News/WSJ poll is the fact that Americans are more favorable toward raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to balance the budget than cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  Some 52 percent oppose the latter.  Considering the major thrust of the GOP is to protect corporations and the wealthy, isn’t it safe to assume the grand old party has completely lost touch with its American constituency?

Conservative talk-radio stinks

First off, there’s Glenn Beck’s continuous ranting that everything even slightly liberal is a Socialistic plot to overthrow the American government.  Like most conservative talk crackpots, he never gets anything right.  It’s too bad Beck can’t be recalled from broadcasting like politicians from their seat in Congress.  Beck was caught in a big lie recently over Arizona’s Mexican border and Americans’ guns. 

Now he has compared the murdered victims of Norway’s massacre by Anders Behring Breivik to the Nazi youth movement.  Beck said:  "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth, or whatever.”  Then later, “I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?  Disturbing.”  It is beyond me how anyone could follow this maniac after a statement like that.  It only proves the low mentality of his radio audience.  He was kicked off TV.

Glenn Beck is broadcast by KTAR radio in Phoenix, which I never listen to except for the news.  But recently I decided to see what the other side was talking about early AM on my way to take my car in for maintenance.  Two ignoramuses were congratulating President Obama on his birthday, while exclaiming he had done nothing since elected in 2008.  After considering the source, I decided to research Obama’s accomplishments since taking office.

Following are a few, but you can see the complete list of 90 here: Appointed two moderate Supreme Court judges, both female, one Hispanic; moved us closer to Universal Healthcare to cover all Americans; Financial industry reform; Pulled us from the brink of another Great Depression orchestrated by George W. Bush and his band of conservatives; Finally winding down the war in Iraq; environmental legislation. 

The list was compiled by 3ChicsPolitico and there are many more of the President’s feats, but that’s probably all the two KTAR baboons can handle for now.  Sorry, the monkey family didn’t deserve that.

Wacko newspaper relentless in pursuit of Obama birther issue

The Sonoran News, published in cowboy town, Cave Creek, AZ, has been on a harebrained tirade over whether Barack Obama is an American citizen; intimating that he isn’t and not qualified to be President of the United States.  Even another conservative wacko running for Obama’s job, Michele Bachmann, says his birth certificate settles the issue. 

But in a Sonoran News article byLinda Bentley on July 20, the birther thing raises its ugly head again in the form of a Summit on this controversy in March of 2012.  I guess someone has to vent this crap, and it is fortunate that it is in a neighborhood rag tucked away in the Northeast section of Phoenix that has a limited readership.  I’m all for the 1^st Amendment but this comes off like a vendetta.

Some deluded crackpot by the name of Dean Haskins has organized the Birther Summit scheduled to take place in Washington, DC, on March 28-30, in 2012.  He says “Barack Obama’s ineligibility” (to be in the Whitehouse) is the Summit’s “line in the sand.”  Apparently Haskins has spent too many days in the desert talking to too many saguaros that no doubt flipped him off as cuckoo.

Haskins questions Obama as a person and said to the Sonoran News, “Allowing this nefarious band of reprobates to continue refusing to properly resolve this constitutional catastrophe they created will be the death knell of America. Their next assault on our Constitution and heritage will be that much harder, if not impossible, to stop.”  Unfortunately, it’s too far from Christmas to offer this fruitcake as a gift…to the epitome of kooks, the Tea Party.

Read more here.

Enough is enough. It’s time to challenge the 2nd Amendment

How did we ever allow gun rights advocates to amass such power? For years we’ve given in to the gun nuts who scream they have unlimited rights for their weapons under the 2nd Amendment. There are 27 Amendments to the U.S. constitution but the one we hear the most about is the 2nd. And it is also the one that we can thank for the gun violence that is reported on a daily basis in the media. Even though it’s improving, gun killings are still a daily event.

The latest two mass murders by shooting are in Arizona and Texas, and I’m not even talking about the one in Tucson, AZ, last January involving Rep. Gabby Giffords. Three bikers were shot and killed at Mormon Lake last Friday night at a motorcycle rally. The victims were reported to be from the Phoenix area, according to the Tucson Daily Sun. Another woman was shot six times and is just “clinging to life.” The rally, which took place about 35 miles southeast of Flagstaff, had 2,000 attendees.

In Grand Prairie, Texas, six people were shot dead by a gunman at a roller rink this past Saturday. Four others were wounded with their conditions unknown at area hospitals, according to the Chicago Tribune. It was a private birthday party but at least no children were involved in the shooting. The gunman ended up shooting himself and is included in the six dead. Participants say a man drew a pistol during a fight between a husband and his wife. The relation between the gunman and his victims was not clear.

Neither of these killers would have had the firepower necessary to carry out these massacres had it not been for the lax gun laws in Arizona and Texas, made possible by the 2nd Amendment. Has the time finally come to reevaluate the 2nd Amendment and make radical changes to the gun laws throughout the U.S.?

Read more here and here.

Obama vague on medical marijuana but so is Constitution

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According to the Tenth Amendment Center, the Constitution doesn’t really give the feds the right to control marijuana in states.  It is the interpretation from a “group of activist judges that one blogger described as nine unelected and unaccountable bureaucratic central planners who detest the limits of the Constitution,” they claim.  The Tenth Amendment says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Based on commerce laws, the Center states, “the federal government has no genuine constitutional authority to regulate marijuana, medical or otherwise, that is never transported across state lines for commercial purposes.”  As an example, if the plant is grown in and stays in the state of Arizona, it should be regulated by state law.  Is this what Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and AG Tom Horne are going for in their lawsuit?  I doubt it; as opponents of the new law, they just want to stop it.

In November 2010, voters passed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, a citizen initiative, Proposition 203.  It made the use of medical marijuana legal in the state of Arizona and was to begin processing user authorizations in April of 2011.  Instead, Arizona’s boneheaded Gov. and AG filed a lawsuit to challenge the legality of the will of the people.

The infrastructure is all set and ready to go, but the bobbsey twins decided to take it to court and prevent those in Arizona who really need the marijuana for medicinal purposes to get it.  In the meantime the feds have confirmed a lack of interest in prosecution.

Read more here.

Nasty Jack launches new blog for progressive critical commentary

Critical commentary is necessary to keep daily living in perspective, particularly when it comes to politics.  But there is also education, healthcare, government and religion, to name a few major areas.  They all have their issues, and I plan to cover each and every one of them in this blog. 

To criticize is to find fault with, judge, and/or discuss the merits or shortcomings of a matter of importance.  Subjects that are crucial to all of us happen on an hourly basis and need attention to help in rooting out the problems in the system.  The latter is the daily environment in which we live and participate on an individual basis in our attempt to survive.

My intent is to point out these concerns and raise red flags, even create controversies when I think the system is wrong and needs fixing.  You as a reader can agree or disagree, but I will always welcome your comments regardless of where you stand on the issue.  Join me in making Nasty Jack a fixture in progressive thinking.