Jan Brewer

Correction! Arizona In 2011 Is Both Mississippi And South Carolina!

Ronald Leave a comment

The author has already labeled Arizona, with its anti immigration legislation targeted at Latinos and Hispanics, as the equivalent of Mississippi in its treatment of African Americans in the 1960s.

Now, Arizona must also be compared to South Carolina, with its threat of nullification of federal laws and the Constitution, which went on from the 1830s with John C. Calhoun, all the way up to Fort Sumter and the Civil War in 1861!

It is extremely ironic that just as we are about to commemorate the tragedy of the Civil War’s beginning on April 12, we now have the Arizona State Senate passing legislation declaring the power to nullify federal laws and the US Constitution if they do not like what is being done!

This idea of defiance was supposed to be settled by the Civil War prosecution by Abraham Lincoln, and also supposed to be resolved by US National Guard intervention in Arkansas in 1957 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and in Mississippi and Alabama in 1962 and 1963 by President John F. Kennedy!

Now, however, State Senator Russell Pearce of the Arizona legislature is promoting defiance of the federal government, not only on immigration matters and the health care law, but also on anything else that he and his followers believe is unconstitutional!

Apparently, they have learned nothing from history, and the reality that only the Supreme Court can declare actions of the executive and legislative branches unconstitutional!

To advocate anything else is TREASON, subject to prosecution by the federal government if action is actually taken, and if need be, Presidential control of the state National Guard to enforce federal laws and federal court decisions, just as in the South in the 1950s and 1960s!

Anyone living in Arizona should be ashamed of what their government leaders are advocating, a path that would lead to chaos and lawlessness and abuse of power by state outlaws, and it might be necessary at some point to enforce federal law by intervention by Federal authorities!

Hopefully, before we get into that kind of crisis, cooler heads will prevail, as states may not defy the US Constitution and be allowed to get away with it!

This is a warning to Governor Jan Brewer, State Senator Russell Pearce, and other radical right wingers: Shape up or else suffer the consequences of disobedience of constitutional law!

Arizona Is At It Again, Adding To Its Image As The Mississippi Of The 1960s!

Ronald Leave a comment

Arizona, the state of the near assassination of Gabrielle Giffords due to its loose regulation of who can purchase guns; the state denying 96 citizens, who need transplants, of any assistance because of budget cuts, but giving tax breaks to corporations; the state of discriminatory legislation against Latinos and Hispanics that is now being contested in the federal courts; now is adding to its horrible image as the equivalent of Mississippi in the 1960s, despite Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s belief that his state was a paragon of virtue in its treatment of African Americans in that decade!

Governor Jan Brewer, a person who evades explanation and responsibility for her wretched administration of the state government, is expected to sign new discriminatory legislation against illegal immigrants within the state, which is being considered by the Arizona legislature.

Under the proposed and likely legislation, illegal immigrants would not be allowed to drive within state boundaries, enroll their children in schools or receive most public benefits. Additionally, their children would have special birth certificates that make it clear they are not considered to be Arizona citizens.

School officials would have to ask for proof of citizenship for students, and hospitals would have to ask for papers of citizenship for those receiving non emergency care.

Also, no licenses would be given to illegal immigrants, including marriage licenses. And if one person in a family was an illegal immigrant, then a family could be evicted from public housing units. Additionally, if caught driving a car in the state boundaries, an illegal immigrant would face 30 days in jail and lose ownership of the car.

These laws are obviously unconstitutional, but the promoters of them hope the Supreme Court, unduly influenced by conservative business interests including the Koch Brothers, might continue their practice of acting in a manner which makes one wonder as to their qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court due to conflict of interest.

These new proposed laws would challenge basic freedoms and rights, which Arizona fails to understand is guaranteed to all who live in the United States, not just citizens.

Arizona citizens, who are decent people and do not promote hatred and prejudice as government policy, are embarrassed and upset as what the Arizona legislature is about to do only adds to that state being seen as a pariah and a disgrace!

And, by the way, if all illegal immigrants were somehow forced out of the state, the effect economically on Arizona would be massive, and the public relations damage done to Arizona’s image already will not be overcome any time soon, if ever!

Arizona The Capital Of Anger, Hate And Bigotry: Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

Ronald 2 Comments

It is a telling factor that the Sheriff of Pima Country, Arizona, Clarence Dupnik, with Tucson as its major city, has declared that the state of Arizona has become the capital of anger, hate and bigotry in America. This was his reaction to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords!,

As the author stated just shortly before this tragedy, Arizona has become the new Mississippi or Alabama of the the second decade of the 21st century, with its promotion of right wing views on illegal immigration and health care legislation and its advocacy of insane gun freedoms without controls! 🙁

Can any Arizonian be proud of the racist, discriminatory legislation, which victimizes Latino immigrants, many of them Mexican-American? Can anyone be supportive of banning Mexican American studies in Tucson, as the state Attorney General has done, while permitting ethnic studies programs for Asian American, African American, and Native American groups?

Can anyone be supportive of gun laws that put basically no limits on gun ownership and carrying of weapons, and the push to allow such weapons on school and college campuses?

Can anyone be other than embarrassed at the failure to cover poor people who need transplants of all kinds of organs, putting the lives of 96 patients at risk, all over $1.2 million, a paltry amount of money that could easily be covered if state officials cared about poor, mostly minority patients?

Arizona’s state government should hold their collective head in shame! 🙁

Governor Jan Brewer and other state officials should be roundly condemned and be held accountable for the loss of any of those 96 lives of transplant patients and the two who have already passed away! 🙁

Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl should be censured for their total lack of concern for the racism, discrimination, and denial of medical care to needy patients, and their support of gun laws which will only raise the level of violence that occurred yesterday, leading to the tragic circumstances we now are reeling from! 🙁

If Arizona wishes to regain its respectability, it needs to change its course on these various issues, and start acting in a civilized manner!

Another Outrage From Arizona State Government: Banning Of Mexican American Studies Program While Retaining Asian American, African American And Native American Studies Programs! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

Arizona is indeed becoming the new Mississippi or Alabama, gaining the horrible reputation both of those states gained in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

The new Attorney General of Arizona, Tom Horne, who used to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, has banned the Mexican American Studies program in the high schools of Tucson, while continuing to allow Asian American, African American, and Native American Studies programs to continue.

This is adding to the image of Arizona, which is now the DEATH PANELS state, cutting $1.2 million from the budget of Medicaid, and therefore preventing 96 transplant patients of all kinds of organs from getting necessary surgery, and two patients already passing away, while it would be easy to find that small amount if Governor Jan Brewer really cared about life! 🙁

This ethnic discrimination is being appealed, and the decision of the attorney general, enforcement of a law he originated as education administrator, should be reversed as also illegal conflict of interest by the man who claims to enforce the law, and then shows totally outrageous prejudice on the level of Bull Connor, Birmingham Police Chief in the 1960s, or Governor George Wallace of Alabama!

A case on this issue may have to be brought to the Supreme Court eventually, as now we have demonstration of a new racism against Mexican Americans, as we had in the past against other groups. This issue, along with the new Arizona law, on checking for illegal status of anyone who looks Hispanic, is in the worst traditions of racism and hatred that we would like to think had already passed into history, but sadly is alive and well! 🙁

Irony Of Republican Attempt To Repeal Obama Health Care Plan: It Would Add To National Debt, Raise Health Care Costs, and Be A Job Killer! :(

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The House Republicans are attempting to repeal the Obama Health Care legislation, which will fail, in any circumstances, with the Democratic controlled Senate and President Barack Obama standing in the way!

But the irony is that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office makes it clear that doing such a repeal would add to the national debt, raise the cost of health care for everyone, and be a job killer to boot! 🙁

Medical spending would go up by $125 billion by the end of this decade; add $2,000 annually to each family’s health care premiums; and destroy 250,000 to 400,000 jobs annually over the next decade.

As Democrats have also pointed out, it would help promote more deaths of people who have no access to health care; would take away coverage of young people to the age of 26; would restore pre-existing conditions as a method insurance companies could use to deny health care coverage to millions, including many children; and open up the “donut hole” for medications for seniors, which is starting to close up, with 50 percent cut in the cost of brand name prescriptions newly instituted.

The truth about the Republicans is that they have no concern that millions have been denied health care coverage! They also have no concern that transplant patients in Arizona are being denied the ability to survive, with two already having died because the Republican Governor, Jan Brewer, has no compassion or interest in helping sick people, all over budget issues, when one can be sure there are other ways to cut budgets besides setting up what are the equivalent of “death panels”! 🙁

It is extremely ironic that Republicans argued about so called “death panels’ in the Obama Health Care legislation, which did not exist at all, but yet now REAL “death panels” are occurring in Arizona, and probably soon elsewhere! 🙁

Where are these Republicans now, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl. and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? Why is it that they are not outraged by this, and feel the need and moral standing to speak up for LIFE, particularly when they are all supposedly PRO-LIFE for fetuses, but not apparently for sick people of all ages?

The Republican Party should be condemned for their lack of compassion, empathy, and concern for those who are sick!:(

They forget: “There but for the grace of God go I!”!

The Reality Of Budget Cuts To Come In The 112th Congress: The Poor, The Young, The Retired To Suffer Greatly While The Rich And Privileged Suffer No Pain! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

We hear a lot these days about “cost cutting”, and “budget cuts” and “reckless spending” as code words for what the 112th Congress under House Speaker to be John Boehner will be addressing next year.

What it comes down to, though, is that the rich and privileged and the corporations will suffer no pain at all, and instead the poor, the young, and the retired (mostly elderly) Americans will bear the brunt of such a dramatic slashing of the budget!

It means that medical care will be denied, as it is, for instance, in Arizona to Medicaid recipients who need heart, lung, kidney and liver transplants, and instead will die, being given a “death panel” decision by Governor Jan Brewer! 🙁

It means that class sizes will be dramatically raised, making educational conditions in thousands of school districts across the country far worse than they already are!

It means that crime fighting and fire fighting will be impeded, which will affect poorer communities more than wealthier areas within the states!

It means many prisoners will be released because of overcrowding and budget cuts in state prisons, and that will add to the crime rate, particularly in poorer areas!

It means that college students in community colleges and state universities across the nation will, in many cases, be priced out of higher education, or go so deep into debt with rising tuition and housing costs, that they will be forced into bankruptcy in future years! 🙁

It means that dedicated civil service employees who have devoted their lives to serving the public in many capacities will now be cheated out of labor arrangements and retirement plans that they thought were legally binding!

It means that basic amenities such as parks, beaches, libraries, and other public services will be cut back dramatically, making the quality of life far worse!

It means that basic services to the elderly poor will be cut back, endangering many in their health and safety, and the whole concept of the “golden years”!

The more one thinks about this series of realities, the more the inequities of the situation scream out. So the rich and privileged will do just fine, while large portions of the population will suffer in an age of selfishness and greed, unparalleled since the 1920s and the previous Gilded Age (1865-1897), which one would think we would not repeat.

And now we will have a Republican leadership that does not apologize for this circumstance, and instead embraces it with impunity! 🙁

Republicans Gone Mad: Jan Brewer And Mitt Romney Go Neanderthal! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

It is very obvious that the next two years of Republican control of the House of Representatives is going to be a literal “nightmare” for the country, and the attempt to promote “compromise” or “common ground” as Speaker to be John Boehner terms it, is almost certain to fail, and not because Barack Obama is causing it.

But it is not just Congress that will be a center of conflict. It is already showing up in other ways that are very alarming! 🙁

We have Arizona Governor Jan Brewer denying transplants to about 100 very sick people, and saying they should ask the federal government for more stimulus money, something the GOP has been totally against until now! 🙁

But the cost involved for these approximately 100 patients is only 5 million dollars! So Republican Governor Jan Brewer does not believe in the “right to life” for transplant candidates, but insists that every fetus must come to term! And this is the party of Sarah Palin who talked about Obama’s health care plan promoting “death panels”! And what is this going on in Arizona, and probably soon in other states? Have we lost all our humanity? 🙁

Then, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, seen by many intelligent, rational people as probably the best potential nominee for President in his party, including the author, suddenly starts to appeal to the extreme right wing of his party by proposing that unemployment compensation be privatized, a shocking idea that people should open up accounts for the threat of unemployment in the future, with their own investments in the stock market, similar to what George W. Bush proposed for Social Security in 2005, which if it had been done, would have totally destroyed Social Security in 2008 when the stock market crashed! 🙁

If Romney is trying to appeal to the hard right of his party, heaven help us! Who is there out there that we can call a sane, civilized candidate who this nation could live with? Has Mitt Romney gone mad in his quest to be President, that now he backs away from his own state health care plan in Massachusetts, and obviously will now promote privatizing of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? How will he differentiate himself from the “loonies’ in his party if he is to adopt every demagogic concept they advocate? 🙁

This is not just being partisan, what Brewer and Romney are advocating, it is TOTAL INSANITY! 🙁

It is attempting to take all morality, all decency, out of American politics!

It is aiming to destroy the New Deal and Great Society which has humanized this nation over the past 75 years!

It is saying everyone is in this world just for himself, and to hell with anyone who is suffering from illness, unemployment, poverty, deprivation!

The message being sent is that this is a country of, by, and for the wealthy, and the “American dream” is to take as much as one can gain, no matter how it is acquired, as basic common decency no longer applies! To hell with those less fortunate or needy, as this is unadulterated laissez faire capitalism at its best! 🙁

The GOP is declaring war on common decency and morality and ethics, and the fight must begin to overcome this threat to our principles! The future of this nation as a beacon of freedom and opportunity is at stake! 🙁

“Death Panels” And “Pulling The Plug”: The Ultimate GOP Hypocrisy! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

During the long debate over the Obama Health Care reform legislation, the nation heard from Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, among others, that President Obama was promoting “death panels” and “pulling the plug on Grandma”! These were, of course, totally false accusations, but since when does the GOP care about the truth? 🙁

But now, it turns out that the state of Arizona is indeed promoting the equivalent of “death panels” and “pulling the plug” in order to cut Medicaid services for their poorest citizens! 🙁

The cut involves withdrawing Medicaid coverage of certain kinds of transplants as a way to save the state money. But it is also saying life is not important if you are poor and cannot afford such surgery because you lack the ability to pay for health care coverage! 🙁

Suddenly, the “right to life” comes after saving money, but do you hear Senator Grassley or former Governor Palin or Arizona Senators John McCain or Jon Kyl speaking up in outrage? 🙁

Does one hear Governor Jan Brewer show any concern about the death warrant the cut in Medicaid services brings? 🙁

There is a 32 year old man in Arizona who desperately needs a liver transplant, has a wife and four children, but lost his job and medical coverage, came under Medicaid, and now is told he can only have transplant surgery if he comes up with $200,000 as a deposit to the hospital! 🙁

Is this the kind of country we want to become, where money stands in the way of saving lives? Are we comfortable with a young man in his thirties with children to have to die while the government stands by and does nothing for him? 🙁

A thought crosses the mind, considering we are talking about Arizona! Could it be that there is lack of concern in that state, the infamous one of the new illegal immigration law designed against Latinos now being contested in the courts, BECAUSE the young man in his thirties is a Latino? Good question to wonder about, heh? 🙁

And what about all those “good Christians” out there who claim to care about life, and are not yet rushing to provide financial support for this young man? How about it, don’t just preach and moralize, and take some action to back up your rhetoric! Don’t bet on it! 🙁

What a total example of hypocrisy by Republicans, conservatives and “good Christians” who claim to be against so called “death panels” and “pulling the plug”! 🙁

The Total Arrogance Of Republican Politicians! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

We are now witnessing total arrogance of Republican politicians, feeling no need to face news media or participate in debates, and yet expecting the voters to elect or reelect them! 🙁

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had a “brain freeze” at a debate with her opponent, Attorney General Terry Goddard, yesterday, but more significant than that, was that she refused to answer his charge that she had fabricated the idea that headless corpses have been found in the Arizona desert, an assertion that has been denied by county governments near the border with Mexico, but constantly repeated by Brewer as a way to stir up support for the immigration law passed by Arizona and now in litigation!

As a result of the embarrassing “brain freeze”, Brewer has now declared that she will not participate in any more debates during the campaign! What gall and nerve, and it should be rewarded by the voters defeating this woman who is best at lying and being a demagogue than governing the state in a competent manner! 🙁

In Florida, gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, who spent $50 million of his fortune to win the GOP nomination, now refuses to debate Democratic nominee Alex Sink, and has shown a high level of arrogance, including referring to himself as the “bald, handsome guy!”

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul and Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle have both refused to be interviewed by mainstream media, favoring Fox News Channel only!

None of these or other candidates have any solution to the problems their states or the nation faces, but they seem to think they can ride on the discontent of the population to win office without having to deal with hard questions and real challenges as to their competence for office!

Hopefully, the people of these states and across the nation are not going to reward these arrogant politicians with the responsibility for high office!

Lies And Fabrications In Arizona About Illegal Immigration: Governor Jan Brewer A Disgrace! :(

Ronald 21 Comments

With the Arizona Immigration law being challenged in court by the Obama Administration, less than a month before it is supposed to go into effect, the supporters of this discriminatory law are hard at work promoting fear and hysteria through the use of lies and fabrications about the effects of illegal immigration on the state!

The leading proponent of deception is the disgraceful Governor Jan Brewer, who sees it as a method to win reelection this fall, and could not see the truth if it stared her in the face! 🙁

Investigation of numerous accusations about illegal immigrants shows the following realities:

1. Bodies have been beheaded and left in the deserts of the state–NOT TRUE!
2. Border violence is on the rise–NOT TRUE!
3. Phoenix has become the Number Two Kidnapping location in the world–NOT TRUE!
4. Illegal immigrants are responsible for the deaths of most law enforcement officers–NOT TRUE!
5. Most illegal immigrants crossing the border are involved in drug dealing–NOT TRUE!

The Arizona Republic newspaper and the FBI statistics show all of the above are fabrications, and that crime has not increased, and in many areas has declined in recent years!

But Jan Brewer and Senator John McCain are utilizing these lies to promote fear among Arizona citizens to win reelection, without any concern for the truth!

Both should be ashamed of their fear mongering, which is now also leading to a new movement–to deny birthright citizenship to children born in this country of illegal immigrants, a move which would be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution! 🙁

But then, does the Constitution really matter, if one does not agree with it? It is amazing how people manipulate the Constitution for their own benefit and claim to be respectful of that sacred document, but only when it benefits their prejudices! 🙁