Arizona mock Gov. Jan Brewer takes racism back to pre-1964

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Monday February 27, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/27 · 07:00

It was July 2, 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation.

It was bad enough that a troubled, less-than-capable head of state Jan Brewer greeted the President of the United States to Arizona with a finger-wagging in his face in an attempt to dominate him. That was more than adequate to prompt charges of bigotry against the leader of a state known for its racists and an intolerant conservative legislature that, along with much of the state’s population, also hates Hispanics.

Now Brewer is not the greenest saguaro in the desert but Politico thinks she has ignited a “firestorm” around the potential of race becoming an issue in the 2012 election. And there is no state better than Arizona to coddle this movement with known racist, bigot and recalled state Senator Russell Pearce and his buddy J.T. Ready, another racist and also a neo-Nazi, to fan the flames. However, jaundiced Jan didn’t stop with her finger in the face of Barack Obama.

NastyJack

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Friday February 24, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/24 · 07:00

When is the last time you saw anything in a junk mail catalog that didn’t end in 99 cents? Well maybe sometime they fudge with 95 cents but that’s pretty rare. I spent 35 years in this business as a data broker and consultant and when I first started it was impressed on me the value of using the word “free” and never using a rounded off price. And it’s not only junk mail; traditional retail establishments use the same ploy.

Gasoline prices end in 99 cents. Dollar stores even sell many of their products at 99 cents. Amazon.com has a 99 cent Lady Gaga album and authors sell their e-books for 99 cents. The Dish Network has 99 cent movies and one game maker was selling its games for 99 cents. Some companies have an offer to ship your merchandise for only 99 cents and one 99 cent chain is in the middle of a huge buyout that will no doubt end in a selling price that includes 99 cents somewhere.

Do they think we’re stupid? No, so thought David Gold in 1982 when he opened his first 99 Cents Only store in California. The move was prompted when he tried using the 99 cent approach to selling wines in his liquor store he wanted to move, and friends told him he had a concept that should be expanded. Dollar and 99 cents stores are now found in most cities around the country. One of Gold’s first promotions was selling a limited amount of TVs for 99 cents.

NastyJack

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Thursday February 23, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/23 · 07:00

It’s all but guaranteed. Mitt Romney supports the 2nd Amendment but his more moderate politics may lead some to believe it is also where he stands on gun rights. Even if not true, his conservatism is not quite fanatical enough for Arizona Republicans, some of which think a middle-of-the-roader is a bleeding liberal. Rick Santorum, on the other hand, goes all the way with his views, so far to the right that he almost circles the political globe back to the left.

All the polls report that Santorum and Romney are close in the latter’s home state of Michigan leading into Wednesday’s debate in Arizona, and the Christian Science Monitor reports that a new CNN/Time poll announces that Santorum may now be closing the gap in Arizona. Romney does still have a lead prior to Wednesday.

But all Ricky boy has to do to get the majority’s attention in Arizona is to swagger into the debate wearing a Glock 19 at his side, an AK-47 over his shoulder. I can see it now. With a tumultuous applause including standing ovation, Santorum tells his loving audience, I feel your pain and one of my first acts as President will be to pass a law that will make it legal to shoot illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Forget the fence; just work on improving your aim.

NastyJack

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Wednesday February 22, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/22 · 07:00

I did an article back in November of 2011, “Reckless parents endanger children by not vaccinating,” when this whole fiasco started about parents who adamantly decline to have their children inoculated properly. It all started over a study done by a doctor in Great Britain that was proved to be wrong. But families persisted in their refusal to vaccinate and now some pediatricians who have lost patience with this attitude are “firing” them from their practice. Good riddance!

As a result of this denial, whooping cough is back, mumps are back, measles are back. As of November 2011, there were 152 cases of measles, double a typical year; the biggest outbreak in 15 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the pre-vaccine days, this disease killed between 3,000 and 5,000 Americans a year. Doctors are only attempting to protect their other patients when they tell the stubborn ones to take a hike.

But, where do they go?

NastyJack

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Tuesday February 21, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/21 · 07:00

In talking about the “Fast and Furious” fiasco, Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, “anyone can walk in and buy anything,” referring to firearms. F&F occurred in Arizona, which just happens to have the loosest gun laws in the USA, perhaps in the world. The Senator’s home state has more stringent weapons laws such as a ban against assault weapons compared to Arizona that allows their sale.

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) filed a lawsuit in August of 2011, challenging a new federal regulation requiring gun merchants in states along the border with Mexico to report bulk sales of certain semiautomatic rifles. The key word here is “bulk” as if NRA members need 10 or more assault rifles to protect their homes. The organization was prominent in the appeal of the assault weapons ban

The NRA has the state of Arizona by the balls and yet it continues to push for more laws that will allow firearms everywhere in the state. The latest to come out of this demented Republican legislature is a bill to force guns onto college and university campuses; you can already take them into bars. The NRA has succeeded in diluting Arizona weapons laws to the extent that anyone can buy and carry a handgun concealed with absolutely no training.

NastyJack

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Monday February 20, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/20 · 07:00

If you look at the latest stamina of President Obama’s rhetoric on issues you would have to agree that it is far more forceful than a year ago. And it was just a little more than a year ago that the Occupy Movement started; Occupy Wall Street held its first demonstration on September 17, 2011. At that time the Tea Party was going full blast and deciding much of what was going on in Congress.

TPers still have their influence but it is waning, evidenced by recent GOP conciliations on the payroll tax cut.

Arlen Grossman, writing in OpEdNews, talks of how the President was willing to make all kinds of deals with the GOP on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the taxing of the rich back in early to mid-2011. And then the Occupy Movement began to do their number in September and the American public suddenly realized there were several inequities in the system that needed to be fixed.
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Starbucks position on open gun carry laws creates nightmare

NastyJack

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Friday February 17, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/17 · 07:00

If you are a Starbuck’s fan, and I am, and if you are an advocate of sane gun control, which I am, you might be looking for a place other than your local Starbuck’s store to get your daily coffee fix. And I might just do that too if the gun bubbas attempt to bully their way around where my wife and I migrate to at least three or four times a week for our favorite brews.

So far I have not seen one open-carried weapon where we frequent—we are in Arizona and that’s not normal—so maybe there is still hope. However, that doesn’t mean that half the people we’re sitting around with don’t have a Glock in their pocket. Hey, they can carry loaded handguns into bars in this state so why not their local Starbucks? The whole concept amounts to sheer lunacy.

This past Tuesday the National Gun Victim's Action Council (NGVA) called for a boycott on all Starbucks stores because the company allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states). There is the implication by NGVA that Starbucks has been pressured by the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) due to its 2010 Pro-Gun Agenda where the "open carry" movement began meeting in popular major retail chains.

NastyJack

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Thursday February 16, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/16 · 07:00

Ladd Everitt Director of Communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has written an article on racism as a concept to explain gun control. You might laugh at the thought that the gun nuts would come up with this ridiculous hypothesis, but in his piece, Ladd quotes author Adam Winkler, who is a UCLA Law Professor, as declaring that “gun control is racist” in his new book, Gunfight.

According to Everitt, Winkler implies that gun control is defined by extremists who want to take away all guns from owners and establish a system much like the United Kingdom. I have been writing on gun control for over seven years now and know this is not true as Ladd Everitt confirms. He even cites others who concur like Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

See video of Ladd Everitt questioning Adam Winkler on gun control and racism here.

There are others that add to this misconception like historian and author, Clayton E. Cramer, who says, “The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws -- and not in any subtle way.” He underlines that with, “Throughout much of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping blacks and Hispanics "in their place," and to quiet the racial fears of whites.” Shades of Mississippi and Arizona.

NastyJack

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Wednesday February 15, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/15 · 07:00

The Republican merry band of stonewalling bunglers started out the new year with their same tactics of saying no to anything President Obama presents. On January 18, the GOP Congress voted to block Obama’s request for $1.2 trillion in additional borrowing authority, indicating the same Republican reaction to “anything Barack Obama” would continue throughout 2012. Oh, that’s right, it’s an election year.

Tea Party flake, Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican representative, said, “Until we have a plan to deal with our fiscal crisis, we should not raise the debt ceiling any further.” In other words, push the problem to as close to the November election as possible, and, by the way, I’m running for Senator. He also voted against the temporary payroll tax extension back in December 2011, the bill to extend payroll tax deductions and unemployment compensation.

NastyJack

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Tuesday February 14, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/14 · 07:00

Richard Florida, who is a Senior Editor with Atlantic magazine and Director of Martin Prosperity Institute of the University of Toronto, has done a study that determines the circumstances that run parallel with firearms deaths at the state level. He recounts all the accusations that might have caused Jared Loughner’s massacre in Tucson, Arizona, just over a year ago, some blaming politics others the shooter’s mental state. Florida says we must look deeper for the answers.

Arizona then and now is the center for the fight against immigration with known bigot and racist state senator Russell Pearce, author of the state’s anti-immigration bill, SB-1070, recalled and voted out of office, while his buddy, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, continues to foster hate against all ethnic groups. Arizona also has the loosest gun laws of any state in the U.S. Richard Florida asks if “tighter gun control laws” could have made a difference. Arizona ranks eighth nationally with 15.1 firearms deaths per 100,000 population.

Florida decided to go to the state level to analyze “…the statistical correlations between firearm deaths and a variety of psychological, economic, social, and political characteristics of states. But he cautions, “…that correlation does not imply causation, but simply points to associations between variables.”

NastyJack

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Monday February 13, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/13 · 07:00

If the Catholic Church outburst over President Obama’s healthcare bill order for religious companies to provide birth control protection, joined now by evangelicals across the country, is any indication of the level of their impact on 2012 voting, it would appear that the White House and Democrats have a fight on their hands. Add to this the fact that Rick Santorum is not only a Catholic but also an evangelical.

The question remains just how much reaction there will be from voting religious beliefs if they aren’t necessarily good for the country.

California megachurch pastor Rick Warren said "I'm not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure." I hate to break this to both Warren and the Pope but 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women practice birth control and those same figures apply to evangelicals and other Protestants. This comes from a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit sexual health research organization.
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States try to legislate unions out of business

NastyJack

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Friday February 10, 2012 · 7:00 AM PST

2012/02/10 · 07:00

I have heard before that there is a cycle between unions and corporate management where one prevails in power for a few years, then the other takes over. It is clear that big business has been in control for several years now thanks to the support of the GOP. Labor unions have been diluted by the right to work laws, the latter which seem reasonable if unions are allowed to continue to organize and encourage membership.

Enter the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), headed up by the Koch brothers, and started some 30 years ago to draft state (sometimes national) legislation that favors big business. You might know it best from its backing of Arizona’s anti-immigration law SB-1070, because ALEC was helping promote private prisons in the state to house the arrested illegals. Arizona’s mock Governor Jan Brewer supported the private prison movement, as did the Republican controlled state legislature.

The fight over union rights has been going on for some time. A bill passed in Ohio was overturned in a public referendum last year. Wisconsin passed a similar bill that would eliminate most union collective bargaining rights. As a result, enough signatures have now been collected to recall Gov. Scott Walker. He actually went to Arizona to promote corresponding legislation for that state that some have said is even more radical than Wisconsin’s.

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States try to legislate unions out of business