Blog For Arizona

Tom 'banned for life by the SEC' goes on trial today

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The job of the Attorney General of the state is to conduct investigations and to prosecute trials. Arizona's Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne must have misunderstood the job description, because since he has been in office he has been under investigation and is being prosecuted at trial. The man is a disgrace and embarassment to lawyers and law enforcement. If he had any sense of morality and decency, he would have resigned his office long ago -- and saved the taxpayers of Arizona the expense of investigating and prosecuting him.

Howard Fischer reports, AG Horne's campaign finance case heads to trial today:

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne heads to court Monday. But this time the state's top law enforcement officer isn't the prosecutor.

Instead, Horne and one of his aides are facing civil charges of violating the state's campaign finance laws when he ran for re-election four years ago.

Horne and aide Kathleen Winn deny the allegations that they illegally coordinated spending in his 2010 election while she ran an independent committee called Business Leaders for Arizona.

The charges were brought by Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk in October. A three-day hearing is scheduled before an Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings judge starting Monday.

Gov. Chris Christie's 'Sgt. Schultz defense' begins to unravel

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A few highlights from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's "Bridgegate" statement at his press conference on January 9, 2014. Full transcript:

• Well, let me tell you, everybody, I was blindsided yesterday morning. I was done with my workout yesterday morning and got a call from my communications director at about 8:50, 8:55, informing me of this story that had just broken on the Bergen Record website. That was the first time I knew about this. That was the first time I had seen any of the documents that were revealed yesterday.
• [T]the emails that I saw for the first time yesterday morning, when they broken in I believe the Bergen Record story, proved that that was a lie. There's no justification for that behavior. There's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government. And as a result, I've terminated Bridget's employment immediately this morning.
• And I'll say one last thing, just so we're really clear. I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or it execution, and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. Regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover, this was handled in a callous and indifferent way, and it is not the way this administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it will conduct itself over the next four.

This is what is known as the "Sgt. Schultz defense," named after the Hogan's Heroes character Master Sgt. Hans Schultz, who had a recurring line in the show of "I see nothing!" or "I know nothing!"

We need LAW ABIDING GOVERNMENT

In preparation for the State of the Union Address, they have been soliticing input from the public, via http://my.barackobama.com/State-of-the-Union-Survey   You are encouraged to go there and contribute.  FYI, here's what I submitted:

We need LAW ABIDING GOVERNMENT.

The stuff that is going on with Menendez and Christie and McDonnell is only 0.01% of the tip of the iceberg.  As far as I can tell, a great deal of what K Street does is a flagrant violation of the bribery statute 18 USC § 201 and the Hobbs act 18 U.S.C. § 1951.

Abramoff pled guilty to bribery, but then asked:  “Why me? What have I done that’s any different than anybody else?”  Indeed.  Good question.

On top of that, prominent persons go on TV and brag about committing torture and war crimes, yet for political reasons they are not prosecuted.

Wealth inequality means that the über-wealthy can purchase favorable treatment from the government, leading to yet more inequality.

Bottom line:  We demand that the laws be faithfully executed.  You could start by enforcing the bribery statute 18 USC § 201.  I'm not saying it's easy, but it needs to be done.  Now.

For details and references, see
  http://www.av8n.com/politics/big-issue.htm

They're baaack! The gun worshippers and fetishists file a slew of bills

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

They're baaack! The gun worshippers and fetishists in the Arizona Legislature have a slew of new bills to honor and worship their false idol god. Howard Fischer reports, Laws upping gun owner rights coming to Legislature:

A Senate panel voted Thursday to strengthen laws allowing people to bring weapons into public buildings if there’s not an easy and immediate way to check them.

Dave Kopp, lobbyist for the Arizona Citizens Defense League, said a 2006 law says individuals are permitted to arm themselves. He said that law allows those operating public buildings to tell people their weapons are not welcome only if there are convenient lockers available .

He said some government agencies claim having lockers near entrances would be too costly. Kopp said that puts those who refuse to disarm themselves at risk of being arrested on a charge of misconduct with a weapon. SB 1063 (.pdf) would end that risk.

“The only thing the bill changes is it basically says if you are not providing the required storage that’s been required since 2006, then folks can just walk on in,’’ Kopp said.

Why "reinventing" CPS might not change anything

Today was the first day of Arizona's legislative session and also the day that Governor Brewer delivered her State of the State remarks. One of the highlights of her speech was her announcement that she was "abolishing" Child Protective Services via executive order. The agency will be spun off into a standalone, cabinet-level department. It will no longer be part of the Department of Economic Security (DES). I'm relieved that the Governor didn't put the agency under the aegis of law enforcement, as some conservatives have suggested, due to the chilling prospect of Arpaio's deputies demanding "papers" before investigating reports. 

But I don't see it changing much, if anything. At best, there could be some minor improvement initially due to hypervigilance but I predict things will return to exactly the way they were so long as CPS remains chronically underfunded. Defenders of Brewer's administration and Republican rule of the state will claim that cuts to CPS were inevitable due to the recession and that government agencies are bloated anyway. Isn't it funny, though, how child abuse prevention and enforcement had to be cut (along with education, health care, and social services) while prisons were spared? Obviously shrewd private prison lobbyists and their profit motive play a role in that but Corrections eats up 10% of the state's budget (which is about as much as we spend on higher education, by the way) and private prisons are only a fraction of that. The majority of state prisoners are in state-run prisons. Seems like it would be a ripe target for spending reductions and there are numerous effective alternatives to imprisonment at our disposal but they weren't considered. No, we had to hold prison spending harmless even though the actual number of prisoners in the state has decreased slightly. 

It's really easy to dismiss this as "that's Republicans for you" but this interview by Joshua Holland on Bill Moyers' site sheds some light on why certain things in government are prioritized over others. 

A growing body of academic research suggests that the wealthy see the world differently than the rest of us.

These studies are more than a matter of passing interest. Last week, the Center for Responsive Politics released a report that for the first time ever, a majority of those representing us in Congress are millionaires. And studies by political scientists Larry Bartels at Princeton and Trinity University’s Thomas Hayes have demonstrated that lawmakers vote to advance the interests of the wealthiest Americans. So in an effective plutocracy, the worldviews of ‘high-status’ individuals translate directly into public policies that affect us all.

Building on earlier research that found that those at the top tend to see themselves as being inherently more deserving than average working people, UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner and Michael Kraus, a colleague at the University of Illinois, looked at how those views might influence the way they view our criminal justice system in astudy published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The researchers found that the wealthier the subjects were, and the wealthier they perceived themselves to be in relation to others, the more likely they were to attribute their good fortune to their innate superior qualities. Keitner and Kraus also found that wealth correlates with what they called a retributive versus restorative model of criminal justice.  

What we’ve learned in this study is that if you think that there are just bad people out there, because of their genes, because of their temperament, because of their biological makeup, you won’t have much hope in restorative justice or restorative punishment. You won’t think there’s really any opportunity for them to change.

And what we’ve found is that because they have this belief that the people who aren’t doing well aren’t doing well because of their genes, upper-class individuals — or people put into this upper-class mindset — are more likely to endorse harsher, more retributive forms of punishment. That’s true when thinking about crimes and also kids cheating in schools — all manner of transgressions. I think that’s really worrisome.

Our state government is not full of elected officials or bureaucrats of considerable wealth but that does describe many of the people with the most influence over it - the lobbyists, advisers, board members, etc. 

Keltner:

And I’m not only worried about our punitive tendencies. I’d also extend this analysis to other policy areas. For example, the idea of devoting resources to those in need, people who are struggling, is a foundational element of a strong state. And our data would suggest that the well-to-do, who are more likely to be in office, won’t have that intuition about directing resources to those in need. I think there are many applications of this work.

Most CPS reports are for neglect, not abuse. While abusive parents are found at all socioeconomic levels, neglect is probably more often a function of lack of resources rather than malice. But if wealthy people are likelier to believe that poor parents are simply constitutionally inferior than to see them as worthwhile people who need help, you can see how this could put abused and neglected children from poor families in a double bind. Prisons might be taking precedence over assistance to poor households for reasons people designing those policies haven't even given much thought to. 

As Income Disparity Grows, Tucsonans Protest Low Wages at Walmart & McDonalds

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Protests against the low wages paid by multinational corporate giants have been sweeping the country, since the Occupy Movement raised the consciousness of the 99%. On Black Friday, Nov. 29, at Walmart stores nationwide and again Thursday, Dec. 5 at McDonald's restaurants nationwide, workers, unionists, progressives, and other liberal activists protested unfairly low wages and barriers to unionization for millions of US workers.

With profits, CEO pay, and wage disparity at all time highs, isn't it time to raise the minimum wage to a living wage?

Here in Tucson, protesters chanted and waved signs in front of the Walmart on Valencia and the McDonald's in midtown. (For more on the Walmart protest, check out the video here.)

At McDonald's, approximately 80-100 citizens braved chilly temperatures and intermittent rain to protest low wages. In the days before the local protest, right wing radio host Jon Justice shared PDA Tucson's Facebook announcement about the event and urged his Facebook followers to come to the midtown McDonald's, show their support for the fast food chain, and eat some good food. (Excuse me, but McDonald's hasn't served "good food" in decades-- if ever.) This resulted in a flurry of comments on the PDA page and Justice's page about the "entitlement mentality", people being "paid what they're worth", and the fast food industry being "one key stroke away from 80% automation"-- justifying Arizona's $7.80/hour minimum wage and offering support to McDonald's franchisees who make millions on the backs of workers.

Jennifer Longdon interview on Canadian TV

I've had the good fortune of knowing a fair number of Canadians in my time. When I was stationed in Japan in the Navy twenty years ago (!) I hung out with a pack of expats in Tokyo most weekends, several of whom were Canucks. From 1995 to 1997, I was stationed at Keyport, Washington where I was part of a unit that did weapons training ops, mostly off the coast of Vancouver Island. We spent most of our off duty time in a town called Nanaimo, hanging out with locals. I developed a fondness for Tim Horton's that I still have to this day. 

Based on my experience, there are a couple of generalizations about Canadians I can safely make: 1. they think our for-profit health care system is insane and 2. they think we are completely batshit crazy with the all guns and the shootings down here, eh.

The Volcker Rule to prohibit risky speculative bets by the banksters of Wall Street

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Five years after the "masters of the universe," the banksters of Wall Sreet, who nearly collapsed the world's financial system and destroyed our economy with their reckless casino capitalism by engaging in risky speculative bets on securitized mortgages, derivatives, credit default swaps, etc., the final "Volcker Rule" to prohibit such risky speculative bets by the banksters of Wall Street using your federally insured customer deposits has finally been approved. Final Volcker Rule limits on bank trading released by regulators:

Government regulators adopted a sweeping rule Tuesday to prevent big banks from trading for their benefit rather than on behalf of customers, three years after the Obama administration called for the measure.

The “Volcker Rule,” named after former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, bars banks from making trades merely for profit and prohibits them from owning hedge funds and private-equity funds. The centerpiece of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law took years to complete as government infighting and intense lobbying by banks slowed the process.

Lawmakers devised the measure to prevent banks with government backstops such as deposit insurance from making risky trades for their own benefit, because the bets could endanger taxpayers. The challenge for regulators has been restricting such proprietary trading without impeding acceptable practices, such as firms trading on behalf of clients as market-makers or hedging their risk against fluctuations in interest rates.

On Tuesday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board as well as the Federal Reserve unanimously approved the final version of the rule. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3 to 2 in favor, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted it with a 3 to 1 vote.

Supervision will ultimately be the responsibility of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the CFTC and the SEC.

Mythbusters: No, 'illegal immigrants' are not voting in Arizona elections (but you already knew that)

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In the reality-based community where facts matter, this is old news. But in the conservative media entertainment complex world of conspiracy theories, where Tea-Publicans routinely demonize Mexican immigrants and falsely claim that they are voting in elections to support voter I.D. requirements that have a disparate impact on the elderly, the poor, minorities and college students -- a form of voter suppression -- this is "new" news. The Arizona Republic today reports, Illegal immigrant vote-fraud cases rare in Arizona:

Arizona has spent enormous amounts of time and money waging war against voter fraud, citing the specter of illegal immigrants’ casting ballots.

State officials from Gov. Jan Brewer to Attorney General Tom Horne to Secretary of State Ken Bennett swear it’s a problem.

At an August news conference, Horne and Bennett cited voter-fraud concerns as justification for continuing a federal-court fight over state voter-ID requirements. And some Republican lawmakers have used the same argument to defend a package of controversial new election laws slated to go before voters in November 2014.

But when state officials are pushed for details, the numbers of actual cases and convictions vary and the descriptions of the alleged fraud become foggy or based on third-hand accounts.

An examination of voter-fraud cases in Maricopa County shows those involving illegal immigrants are nearly non-existent, and have been since before the changes to voter-ID requirements were enacted in 2004.

In response to an Arizona Republic records request, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office provided a list of 21 criminal cases since January 2005 in which the suspect was charged with a felony related to voter fraud. A search of court records found 13 other cases.

Of the 34 Maricopa County cases, two of the suspects were in the country illegally and 12 were not citizens but living in the U.S. legally, court records showed. One of the suspect’s legal-residency status was unclear from the records.

Red light runnners and illegal campaign signs

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tucson Weekly today explores a dead-letter issue in the Tucson City Council race now that Tucson's political gadfly, John Kromko, and his political committee Tucson Traffic Justice failed to qualify a ballot measure banning traffic cameras for the November ballot.

The report itself is relatively innocuous, pointing out that Democratic city council members support the red-light cameras at designated intersections because they have substantailly reduced the number of accidents (the number of collisions at the monitored intersections has decreased from 188 in 2006 to 74 in 2012) and prevented injuries. It's fair to say the cameras have probably saved lives. The Tea-Publican candidates have doubts about the red-light cameras because "freedom!" to run red lights and to jeopardize other motorists on the road, or some such nonsense. Candid Camera Conflict.

One comment from Tea-Publican candidate Mike Polak jumps out:

"How do you know it didn't malfunction?" Polak asked. "They do malfunction, because our roads are in such poor condition here."

Polak's initial question is fair. I have challenged the cameras in court, to no avail (Arizona's courts treat the calibration of the cameras as proprietary and a trade secret not subject to discovery).

But Polak's statement that cameras malfunction because our roads are in poor condition? Damn, Dude. "Mr. Science" you are not. There is no cause and effect between a malfunctioning camera and poor road conditions. And by the way, our roads are in such poor condition because your Tea-Publican friends in the Arizona Legislature have been sweeping stealing HURF funds and state revenue sharing from the City of Tucson for years to "balance" the state budget with gimmicks. Maybe you should demand that your friends in the Arizona Legislature give back the money they stole from the City of Tucson.

Tom 'banned for life by the SEC' Horne violated campaign finance laws

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After the tag team of Arizona Secretary of State Ken "Birther" Bennett and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery totally mucked up the initial investigation into Arizona Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne and had their case dismissed for not following the law, a second investigation by Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk has again concluded that Tommy Boy violated campaign finance laws. Arizona AG again found to have violated campaign law:

For the second time in a year, a county prosecutor has determined Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and his political-ally-turned-staffer Kathleen Winn violated campaign-finance laws during Horne’s 2010 run for office.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk on Thursday gave Horne 20 days to return nearly $400,000 in donations to an independent-expenditure committee, Business Leaders for Arizona, that Polk said illegally coordinated its efforts with Horne’s campaign.

* * *

Polk, in her order, said several e-mails and the timing of phone calls “provide convincing proof that Horne and Winn coordinated” on the development of the anti-Rotellini ad and on raising money to pay for the ad.

Therefore, Polk said, the cost of the ad must be counted as in-kind contributions to Horne’s campaign and not to the independent-expenditure committee.

Campaign laws forbid coordination between candidates and certain activities with independent-expenditure committees.

AIRC Update: Are Nixon's Plumbers back in business?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I don't know . . . the cops may want to interview G. Gordon Liddy to see if he alibis out. This sounds an awful lot like Nixon's White House Plumbers. I wouldn't put anything past the Tea-Publican operatives who are behind the effort to destroy the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC). Thieves steal computers from redistricting panel:

Burglars hit the offices of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission over the weekend, stealing portable computers, paperwork and a staffer’s personal effects.

Ray Bladine, the commission’s executive director, said staffers discovered the burglary Monday morning, when they arrived at work. The burglar or burglars entered through a ground-floor sash window on the north side of the commission’s office, which is in a 120-year-old Queen Anne-style building. An alarm system apparently did not work.

“Some of the files were turned over on the floor,” Bladine said. “All of the portable computers but one were stolen.”

He said he didn’t suspect any political motivation for the break-in, although the commission has been at the center of heated partisan debate for more than two years and is the subject of three ongoing lawsuits challenging the new political boundaries it drew for Congress and the Legislature. The state Department of Public Safety’s major-crimes unit is investigating.

It's All Fun And Games Until One Of Your Deputies Gets His Eye Put Out

By Tom Prezelski

Re-Blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Folks who claim that our modern border militiamen are part of a proud Arizona tradition would do well to read what Captain John G. Bourke, an officer who accompanied General George R. Crook during the pursuit of Geronimo, had to say about their 19th century antecedents. Bourke characterized them as "rum-poisoned bummers" and "senseless cowards who sought to kill a few peaceable Indians and gain a little cheap notoriety." The captain went on to describe how their gun-happy amateurishness did nothing but make a bad situation on the frontier even worse.

The latest manifestation of the worst of the wild west spirit comes, of course, from Maricopa County, where a member of one such band of self-styled "militia minutemen" is in serious trouble for having pointed a rifle at a uniformed Sheriff's deputy in the desert near Gila Bend.

Sen. John McCain calls for review of Arizona's 'stand your ground' law

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Careful, Johnny. Arizona's "Ms. NRA," Governor Jan Brewer, will be sticking her boney finger in your face next like she did to President Obama. Brewer: Fla. case doesn't change her mind on 'stand your ground'.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Sen. John McCain joined President Barack Obama's call to review so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws in the aftermath of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting of black teen Trayvon Martin. NBC reports, McCain joins Obama in calling for review of 'Stand Your Ground' laws:

Sen. John McCain, Ariz., a prominent Republican who's been known to break ranks with fellow members of the GOP at times, urged state legislatures to review Stand Your Ground laws in the wake of the Zimmerman trial, which became a national flashpoint for race relations in America.

"I can also see that Stand Your Ground laws may be something that needs to be reviewed by the Florida legislature or any other legislature that has passed such legislation," McCain said on CNN.

Asked whether his home state legislature should consider revising its own similar law, McCain said yes. 

"I think that, yes, I do, and I'm confident that the members of the Arizona legislature will because it is a very controversial legislation," he said.

President Obama asks the pertinent question

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In all the media coverage of the George Zimmerman trial, I do not recall anyone posing the pertinent question: "What if Trayvon Martin had been carrying a firearm? Would he have been justified in using deadly force to 'stand his ground' when he was lawfully where he had a right to be and was accosted by George Zimmerman?"

In President Obama's remarks today on Trayvon Martin, he posed the pertinent question. Lawyers are like that.

President Obama: 'Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Making a surprise appearance in the White House press room today, President Obama discussed his views on the Trayvon Martin verdict in a remarkably personal manner, speaking extemporaneously, and described how it feels as an African-American to have these "inescapable" experiences.  "I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that -- that doesn't go away," he said. Video below the fold. Full transcript (excerpt):

The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week, the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling. I gave an -- a preliminary statement right after the ruling on Sunday, but watching the debate over the course of the last week I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.

First of all, you know, I -- I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers, as well as Michelle’s, to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they’ve dealt with the entire situation. I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s -- it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it.

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there are going to be a lot of arguments about the legal -- legal issues in the case. I’ll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues.

The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a -- in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.

Attorney General Eric Holder's speech to the NAACP convention

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the annual convention of the NAACP on Tuesday, and in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial in Florida, he addressed the legitimate concerns of African-Americans that simply being a black male in America renders them a "criminal suspect." Attorney General Eric Holder denounces ‘stand your ground’ laws:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. strongly condemned “stand your ground” laws Tuesday, saying the measures “senselessly expand the concept of self-defense” and may encourage “violent situations to escalate.”

* * *

“These laws try to fix something that was never broken,” Holder told cheering delegates of the annual convention of the NAACP, which is pressing him to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman. “The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent.”

The attorney general, who is the first African American ever to hold that position, drew parallels between his own life and the claims of many here that Zimmerman racially profiled Martin after spotting the teenager walking through his father’s neighborhood in a hooded sweatshirt. Martin was African American. Zimmerman’s father is white, his mother Peruvian.

Holder recalled being pulled over twice by police on the New Jersey Turnpike as a young man and having his car searched, “when I’m sure I wasn’t speeding.” Another time, he said, he was stopped by law enforcement in Georgetown while simply running to catch a movie after dark.

A license to kill

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

No, I am not referring to James Bond, 007. Any American living in a state that has lax gun laws and stand your ground laws, and which permits its citizens to engage in vigilante justice (like Arizona) has the tacit approval of the state for a license to kill. It is a sickness in our culture.

There are two good opinions on this topic that I have read. The first is Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal Blog, who writes, Licenses to Kill:

[T]he more I think about it, the real aberration in law and society that’s been exposed by this case involves the incentives offered to Zimmerman and people like him—not just in Sanford, Florida, but in much of the country. At TAP, Scott Lemieux nails it:

Carrying a deadly weapon in public should carry unique responsibilities. In most cases someone with a gun should not be able to escape culpability if he initiates a conflict with someone unarmed and the other party ends up getting shot and killed. Under the current law in many states, people threatened by armed people have few good options, because fighting back might create a license to kill. As the New Yorker’s Amy Davidson puts it, “I still don’t understand what Trayvon was supposed to do.” Unless the law is changed to deal with the large number of people carrying concealed guns, there will be more tragic and unnecessary deaths of innocent people like Trayvon Martin for which nobody is legally culpable. And to make claims of self-defense easier to bring, as Florida and more than 20 other states have done, is moving in precisely the wrong direction. And, even more importantly, no matter how self-defense laws are structured the extremely unusual American practice of allowing large number of citizens to carry concealed weapons leads to many unecessary deaths. (All 50 states, it’s worth noting, permit concealed carry.)

George Zimmerman verdict: let's change the law

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It is simply too easy to assert that the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial was due to racism, although racial profiling and stereotyping, and appeals to racial prejudice were certainly part of the defense strategy in this case.

In the end, the defense successfully put Travyon Martin on trial rather than George Zimmerman. The defense made Travyon Martin the perpetrator rather than the victim of the crime. They were able to do so because of Florida's perverse criminal laws.

I was deeply offended by defense counsels' statements after the verdict, when asked if the race of the individuals  had been reversed, would the outcome of the trial have been the same? Defense counsels asserted that there never would have been a trial because civil rights organizations would not have pressured prosecutors into bringing charges against an African-American -- a perverse claim of "reverse racism" that the race-baiters at FAUX News Fraudcasting have been hyping incessantly to their white grievance audience. (FAUX News was promoting the possibility of post-Rodney King verdict race riots breaking out after the verdict in this case. FAUX News is a malignant cancer in American journalism). As defense counsels tell it, George Zimmerman was the innocent victim of a lynch mob of civil rights organizations and the media. This is an alternate reality designed expressly for consumption by the conservative media entertainment complex. Defense counsels are shameless.

NSA leaker comes forward

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Washington Post is reporting Edward Snowden identified as source of NSA leaks:

Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old system administrator and former undercover CIA employee, unmasked himself Sunday as the principal source of recent Washington Post and Guardian disclosures about top-secret NSA programs, denouncing what he described as systematic surveillance of innocent citizens and saying in an interview, “it’s important to send a message to government that people will not be intimidated.”

* * *

Snowden, whose full name is Edward Joseph Snowden, said he understands the risks of disclosing the information, but that he felt it was the right thing to do.

“I intend to ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy,” Snowden told the Post. The Guardian was the first to publicly identify Snowden. Both media organizations made his name public with his consent.

“I’m not going to hide,” Snowden said Sunday afternoon. “Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.”

“I’m not going to hide” and “I intend to ask for asylum" are contradictory statements, Mr. Snowden. True courage means turning yourself in to stand trial in the U.S.

The surveillance society that Americans chose to live in

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So everyone is having a freak-out today over Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman’s big scoop in The Guardian on the secret court order compelling Verizon to turn over to the NSA basically all of its call record data (as do other communications networks).  NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily.

I don't know what everyone is so excited about. Congress overwhelmingly approved the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and Americans terrified of terrorist attacks after 9-11 overwhelmingly approved surrendering their liberty for a false sense of security. Have you all forgotten that?

I fought the USA Patriot Act, and I have fought every extension of the Act -- which the American people and Congress also overwhelmingly supported. You all got what you wanted. There is no surprise here. The government has been doing exactly what you asked for since 2001.

As the Senate Intelligence Committee co-chairs said today, ‘It’s Called Protecting America’: Senators Defend NSA On Phone Records:

The top two senators on the Intelligence Committee on Thursday defended the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records after it was reported in The Guardian.

“It is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress,” Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told reporters at an impromptu news conference in the Capitol. “This is just meta data. There is no content involved. In other words, no content of a communication. … The records can only be accessed under heightened standards.”

“I read intelligence carefully. And I know that people are trying to get to us,” Feinstein said. “This is the reason we keep TSA doing what it’s doing. This the reason the FBI now has 10,000 people doing intelligence on counter-terrorism. This is the reason for the national counter-terrorism center that’s been set up in the time we’ve been active.”

“And it’s to ferret this out before it happens,” she said. “It’s called protecting America.”

"Crack babies," "Super predators" and prisons

by David Safier

Remember crack babies? They were children who were said to be permanently damaged because their mothers smoked crack when pregnant. The infants held their bodies at weird angles, didn't respond to affection, had no attention span and would be hanging around clogging up our prisons and social service systems for the rest of their lives. All because their mothers smoked crack. Not powder cocaine, crack. That's one of the many reasons given for making five grams of crack result in a five year mandatory minimum prison sentence while it took 500 grams of powder cocaine to yield the same punishment. We've got to think of those poor babies.

Except the "crack baby" scare was basically a crock, as discussed in an article in today's Star. Most of the overblown effects on children born of crack-smoking mothers stemmed from other factors, and studies have shown those children are similar to other children from similar socioeconomic circumstances, minus crack, now that they're grown up.

Crack was mainly a ghetto drug -- black and urban. More expensive powder cocaine was often a plaything of the white and wealthy. Crack enforcement in the black community was the War on Drugs on steroids.

Remember super predators?

Ronstadt Center Re-Development: When Is a Public Process Not Public?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

More than 90 days have passed since the Tucson City Council voted to begin a 60-90 day public comment period to gather information and ideas related to the proposed re-development of the Ronstadt Transit Center. During that time,  the Tucson Bus Riders Union held a public forum at the Rialto, compiled and organized hundreds written comments collected at the forum, met with City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, and participated in collecting 2800 surveys from bus riders.

What has Corky Poster done? Poster is the architect and planner who was City Council hired to gather the public input. Rumor has it that Poster has held eight "stakeholder" meetings in recent weeks. With the information gathered at those meetings, he has compiled a report outlining consensus goals and objectives and said report was to be delivered to the City Manager's office last week before Poster left town on vacation. More photos and details on the secret public process and who the real stakeholders are after the jump.

New Research: Regular Marijuana Users See Pre-Diabetes Benefit

by Pamela Powers Hannley

A new research study published today in the American Journal of Medicine found that current marijuana users had significantly lower fasting insulin, were less likely to be insulin resistant (a pre-diabetic state), and were more likely to have high HDL (good cholesterol). (Read the study here.)

Marijuana (Cannabis sativa) has been used for centuries to relieve pain, improve mood, and increase appetite. Outlawed in the United States in 1937 and further restricted under the Controlled Substances Act by the Nixon Administration, marijuana use has continued to increase. There are an estimated 17.4 million current users of marijuana in the United States. Approximately 4.6 million Americans smoke marijuana daily or almost daily. With the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington and Colorado and the legalization of medical marijuana in 19 states and the District of Columbia, US public opinion has moved toward less stringent laws.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Joseph S. Alpert of the University of Arizona College of Medicine calls on the federal government to open the doors of medical research to marijuana, allowing free investigation of the drug. Study details after the jump.

World of Beer Brings More Beer to Downtown Tucson. A Perfect Storm?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

A World of Beer franchise will be opening on the ground floor of The Cadence, that giant, six-story, white student housing complex rising from the old dirt lot next to the Rialto Theater downtown.

What could be more perfect than a 3000-square-foot bar located under a maxi-dorm with 465 apartments? This sounds like a capitalist's dream and a parent's nightmare.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am not a beer drinker, so I don't see the point of opening another beer joint downtown-- especially a franchise (owned by some guy from Tempe). World of Beer will be in direct competition with local beer joints already in the immediate vicinity of The Cadence, namely The Shanty, Thunder Canyon Brewery, Gentle Ben's, Barrio Brewing, and Borderlands Brewery. More about beer after the jump.

UPDATED with New Events: Progressives, Mark Your Calendars for April Events!

April3 Update: New events have been added for April 6 and 9.

It’s only April 1, but already there is an impressive line-up of progressive events taking shape this month. In addition to these educational events, there are multiple fund-raisers for candidates, parties, and causes in April.  The list below is not meant to be all-inclusive. (Check out Facebook and the Pima County Democratic Party calendar or the calendar on Blog for Arizona for other events-- including multiple opportunities to donate.) The Tucson events included here are all free and are related to one or more Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) core policy issues: economic and social justice, universal healthcare, clean elections, ending corporate personhood, clean environment, or ending the wars.

April 2: Community Vision for the Ronstadt Bus Center

The Tucson Bus Riders Union and the Primavera Foundation are sponsoring a community forum to gather Tucsonans’ ideas on what should be done with the Ronstadt Transit Center on Congress Street. For several years, developers have been eyeing the Ronstadt Center for demolition and relocation out of downtown. If you believe that it is important for a sustainable city to have a bus terminal downtown—near restaurants, retail shops, major employers, and the new street car line—come to this meeting at the Rialto Theater, beginning at 5:30. For more information, call 624-0312 or email busriders@tucsonbusridersunion.com or go to the event’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/events/496939023698809/.

April 3: Solar Energy Efficiency vs the Status Quo

The Tucson Chapter of Drinking Liberally is sponsoring a joint presentation by Bruce Plenk, City of Tucson Solar Energy Coordinator, and Russell Lowes, Sierra Club Rincon Group Energy Chair and Research Director forwww.SafeEnergyAnalyst.org. The DL social hour begins at 6 p.m., with the speakers beginning around 7 p.m. on the patio of The Shanty. For more information, check out DL’s Facebook event http://www.facebook.com/events/104680899727634/.

More events after the jump.

Tucsonans Fight to Keep City Safe for Guns-- Not People (videos)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

If only Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik had kept his big mouth shut about this whole gun control thing...but, no, he dared to discuss gun control at a public forum, he sponsored a local gun-buyback-and-destroy program on the anniversary of the Tucson Massacre, and he pushed for (and passed) an ordinance requiring gun show background checks.

Now to combat Koz's jack-booted attempts at sensible gun control laws to take away their freedoms, Tucson gun nuts patriots Charles Heller and Sean McClusky are working hard at make Arizona a safer place for guns-- lots of guns.

Heller opposed Koz's gun buyback because innocent guns were destroyed. Instead he supported fromer State Senator Frank Antenori's parking lot gun sales which allowed private citizens to freely sell their guns to strangers, which held on the same day at basically the same location. More recently, Heller appeared on the Daily Show touting the merits of a new law in the Arizona Legislature which would bar law enforcement from destroying guns.

McClusky-- working with The Armed Citizen Project-- also wants to break down barriers to gun ownership-- by giving them to Tucsonans who live in high-crime areas-- specifically the Pueblo Gardens Neighborhood, the Midvale Park Neighborhood, and midtown Tucson neighborhoods. (What could go wrong?) Videos and details after the jump.

After 42 Years, The Pima County Attorney Still Will Not Admit a Mistake

By Tom Prezelski

Cross-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

One would be hard pressed to meet an old-timer in Tucson who believes that Louis Taylor was guilty of setting the 1970 Pioneer Hotel Fire. One friend of mine who was raised in Barrio Viejo and knew Taylor growing up described him as a guy who would stick up for neighborhood kids who were getting bullied. He was hardly a model citizen, however. My friend, who later shared a cell with him at Florence, also told me about how he and Taylor used to shoplift from Woolworth’s and steal sneakers from another Downtown store.  Likewise, Taylor was hanging out at the Hotel that night in the hope of sneaking away with some dessert or liquor from a Christmas party. None of this, of course, speaks to a pathology which would lead one to set a fire that killed twenty nine people.

Tucson was a different place back then. Though the legendary Tom Price was leading a small band of reformers in the bureaucracy who were out to modernize city government, an old boy network was still in control and hostile to change. This was a city where building codes were often ignored and the fire department was ill-equipped to handle a blaze in an 11-story building. The same local leadership also wanted to find someone to blame for what happened,  and a black kid from Connie Chambers, even one who helped rescue people that night, was a convenient scapegoat.

The Old Pueblo has largely changed for the better since then. Unfortunately, some things remain the same.

Today, comes the news that Taylor is to be set free after forty two years in prison. Doubts have been expressed by people involved in this case from the very beginning, but it took over ten years of work by the Arizona Justice Project, Barry Scheck, and former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley Feldman to get this result, largely because of the lack of cooperation and occasional stonewalling by the prosecutors. One wonders, at this point, why they would even bother.

This story provides a window into the special pathology of the insular decades-old political machine which is called the Pima County Attorney’s office. The insistence, for example, that “victims” be consulted on any deal in a case that dates to the Nixon Administration is not only absurd, but speaks to the same disturbing attitude that got Taylor arrested in the first place, namely that something bad happened, so someone, anyone, has to pay for it. Barbara LaWall’s own embarrassing performance on 60 Minutes, wherein she seemed unclear on the concept of reasonable doubt, she was unwilling to admit that her office or her predecessors might have gotten something horribly wrong, even in the face of questions about whether the fire was an arson at all.

There may be a good reason for this. It could be argued that they are simply looking out for the Pima County taxpayer in case Taylor decides to sue for the fact that we basically ruined his whole life. If this were true, then it would have been best to simply say nothing rather than sticking to a story which was discredited years ago. This is an office which has always been far more concerned about winning than justice. LaWall’s attitude in this case makes one wonder how many other Louis Taylors are stewing in prison because of her inability to admit that sometimes the wrong guy gets accused.

This community owes Taylor an apology, at the very least, and that includes LaWall along with the rest of us.

The Politics of Easter

Republicans seem to think Jesus was strongly in favor of the death penalty.  This strikes me as a bit odd somehow.

Brewer on Immigrant Prisoner Release: Misplaced Blame

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is pissed off at President Obama for releasing immigration prisoners from jail. She believes that the administration is playing some sort of high school payback game to punish Arizona. Puleeezzz.

If Brewer wants to blame someone for the nationwide immigrant prisoner release, she should blame Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain who stood with all of the other Republican Senators and allowed sequestration budget cuts to move forward.

You'll note that Brewer is not complaining about the tens of thousands of jobs that will be lost in Arizona, or the $17.7 million that Arizona's primary and secondary education programs will lose, or the empoverished Arizona children who will be tossed out of Head Start. She only cares about losses to Corrections Corporation of America's bottom line. 

Immigration Prisoners Released-- Thanks to Republican Filibuster of Sequestration Vote

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Even though the majority of US Senators voted to end sequestration and stop automatic budget cuts on Thursday, February 28, there were enough Repulbican Senators to filibuster this action and trigger the accross-the-board cuts that no one said they wanted. 

One unintended consequence of allowing sequestration to go forward is the nationwide release of hundreds of immigration prisoners from federal prison.

ICE claims it is releasing prisoners around the country-- including Arizona-- in order to live within its budget constraints. According to the New York Times, before the budget-cutting sequestration release,  ICE had a $2.05 billion incarceration budget and was holding 30,773 immigration prisoners. By releasing them (but not dismissing their cases), ICE reduced its per-prisoner cost from $122-164/day to hold them in a federal prison to $0.30-$14/day to allow them to live at home with their families while their cases are processed. (Why weren't we doing this already? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The Corrections Corporation of America and the American Legislative Exchange Council want to make big bucks on immigratants.) 

Check out the full story in the New York Times: Mass Release of Immigrants Is Tied to Impending Cut.

Whatever comes from sequestration, I lay the consequences at the feet of those two dysfunctional Senate twins-- Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. Reid because he didn't have the balls to change the filibuster rules a fee weeks ago when he had the chance-- even though the majority of Senators and US citizens wanted him to. (Didn't he see this fight on the horizon?) And McConnell because yet again, he put ideology and ego before the good of the people. Don't be foooled, these bastards knew what level of havoc they would wreak on the American populace with this non-step.

Dealing with the Devil: Should Maricopa County Latinos 'Play Nice' with Arpaio? (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Earlier in February, Maricopa County Latino leaders, organized by Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, met with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and offered prayers and support-- not protest signs or recall petitions. 

Should Latinos play nice with Arpaio in hopes of winning him over, or should they work to recall the "toughest sheriff in the US", stop deportations of hard-working, law-abiding people, and push for immigration reform?

If there is any doubt in your mind that we all should fight back against the racism that Arpaio embodies, check out this video by Dennis Gilman after the jump. 

Arrests, deportations, protests: Is Tucson an immigrant-friendly city or not?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

On Sunday, Tucson Police and the Border Patrol arrested Rene Meza Huertha, in front of his wife and children, and arrested activist Raúl Alcaráz Ochoa, who was trying to prevent the arrest of Huertha. This action by TPD is in direct violation of the City Council's vote in August 2012-- making Tucson an "immigrant friendly" city. From the Arizona Daily Star...

"We don't want people to feel fear when traveling to work, to school, to the store," [City Councilwoman Regina] Romero said before the meeting. "We also don't want people to be afraid to call the police to report a crime."

She said a conversation now will begin among the city, immigrant communities, businesses, the Tucson Police Department and others about how to make the city more welcoming.

Activists are calling for a protest and press conference today, Monday, February 18 at 4 p.m., outside of TPD. 

On a related note, the American Friends Service Committee, Border Links, Derechos Humanos, and other immigrant supporters, including the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, will hold a press conference and protest of Operation Streamline on Tuesday, February 19, at 12:30 at the Federal Courthouse. The Operation Streamline action leads up to a Congressional hearing on this policy on February 22 in DC. Details and background on both of these actions after the jump.

Tucsonans Voice Opinions on Background Checks at Gun Shows (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Last week, in an historic move, the Tucson City Council advanced a resolution to require universal background checks on all sales at gun shows on city owned or city managed property. 

This action was taken during the afternoon study session. Council chambers were filled to capacity later that day for the regular meeting. By far, proponents of gun control outnumbered the people against it. This was obvious because they were wearing "Common Sense Gun Laws" buttons. During the call to the audience, 20 people volunteered to speak in favor of the gun show resolution; three volunteered to speak against it-- two Tea Party representatives and one gun show promoter, whose family has profited from shows at the Tucson Convention Center for 20 years. After the jump, watch the video from the call to the audience.

How many gun shows is too many?

 

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Gun Show Trader boasts the "largest gun show list" in the US. According to this website, there are 1137 gun shows currently scheduled. 

Given the recent Tucson City Council decision to require background checks of any gun show conducted on city property, I looked up the number of gun shows coming up in Arizona. As of today, February 6, 2013, Gun Show Trader shows 30 gun shows scheduled for Arizona in 2013 and 2 so far for 2014.

For 2013, there are 7 gun shows scheduled for Tucson, 6 for Mesa, 5 for Phoenix, 3 for Glendale, and the other 9 are everywhere else in Arizona. To put this into perspective, one must compare the number of gun shows scheduled for Arizona with other states. Which state has the most upcoming gun shows? Texas, of course, with 103. (That was too easy.) The spread of scheduled gun shows nationwide is 0 to 103. Check out the data by state after the jump.

Tucson City Council advances gun background check resolution: Voice your opinion at Feb 5 meeting (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

During today's study session, Tucson's City Council voted unanimously to advance a resolution which would require background checks on every gun purchase that occurs on city-owned or city-managed property. The resolution further states that there will be "no permits for gun shows on City owned or managed property until the provisions of the above are enacted." 

City attornies said that since this is a resolution and not an ordinance it does not conflict with state law.

Today's vote paves the way for a council vote on the resolution on February 20, but citizens can use the February 5 (tonight) City Council meeting call to the audience to voice their opinions on this matter. Here is the link to the proposal brought forward by Council members Steve Kozachik and Karin Uhlich. More background and a video of local leaders talking about gun control after the jump.

Mr Parraz goes to Washington (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

This past Saturday, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) sponsored the People's Inauguration in Washington, DC. 

Citizens for a Better Arizona leader Randy Parraz was one of the speakers. Thanks to Loneprotestor, you can see a video of his speech after the jump.

They're baaack! Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders are back

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It was just last week that the elite political media of Arizona were reassuring us that the 51st Arizona legislature would not be as extreme and divisive as the last Arizona legislature. That self-delusion didn't last long.

Once again, Arizona's Neo-Confederate dead-enders are back promoting the long discredited theories of "interposition and nullification" to oppose desegregation gun regulations under the banner of "state's rights."

Last year, wingnut Rep. David Gowan (R-Sierra Vista), who has now been promoted to House Majority Leader, sponsored HB 2434 which would have required employees of federal agencies to first notify the sheriff of the county "before taking any official law enforcement action in a county in this state." 'States' Rights' Tea-Publicans run amok:

Gowan said it's a simple matter of state sovereignty.

"If you look in your Constitution, you will not find there are any police powers granted to the federal government," he said. And Gowan said the 10th Amendment says any powers not given to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people.

"That means the states have the inherent right to use law enforcement,'' he said.

Border Patrol removes blankets, water left by humanitarian aid volunteers (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Border Patrol agents have been caught on video destroying water jugs and removing clean blankets that No More Deaths humanitarian volunteers left in the Arizona desert for border crossers. 

From No More Deaths...
 

Tucson, AZ- A hidden camera video released by Tucson-based humanitarian organization No More Deaths shows an agent of the U.S. Border Patrol removing clean blankets and food intended for migrants in distress. 

Videos of Border Patrol behaving badly and more details after the jump.

Let DREAMERS drive: Protesters arrested at AZ State Capitol (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA) leader Randy Parraz and others protested Governor Jan Brewer's denial of Arizona drivers' licenses to undocumented people who are eligibile for deferred deportation under President Barack Obama's executive order regarding the DREAM Act.

"These people [DREAMERS] already have clearance to work in this state. What does she [Brewer] gain by denying them a drivers' license?" Parraz asked on Monday, January 14, the first day of the new legislative session.

"We want a new level of respect and civility in this state... I'm tired of second class citizenship [for DREAMERS]," he added. "They're good enough to graduate from ASU but not good enough to apply for a drivers' license? That type of mentality has to stop in Arizona."

For more comments and footage of DREAM Act protesters being arrested at the Arizona State Capitol, check out the video by Dennis Gilman after the jump.

Ward 6 Roast: From immigration reform to potholes, politicians answer voter questions (videos)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Although gun enthusiasts threatened to disrupt last week's Ward 6 Roast, the event featuring a dozen politicians who represent midtown/downtown Tucson came off without a hitch. 

Organized by City Councilman Steve Kozachik and moderated by political cartoonist and commentator David Fitzsimmons, the roast featured local, state, and federal politicians answering questions from the audience, which numbered about 400. Rather than severely edit nearly two hours of video, I have created separate videos for candidate introductions, the immigration reform question, the gun violence question, the F35 question, and the neighborhoods/roads questions. Watch the first three videos after the jump. More to come.

For me, the biggest surprise of the evening-- besides how outnumbered former State Legislator Frank Antenori and the gun nuts were-- was Congressman Ron Barber. Check out his responses to the questions on immigration reform and gun violence; he sounds far less Republican than he has in the past on those issues. 

Evil twins ALEC & the NRA: Working to keep America safe for capitalism

by Pamela Powers Hannley

While many Americans are clamoring for gun control legislation on multiple levels, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) are working hard to maintain the status quo-- which ensures the safety of gun manufactures and sellers-- to the detriment of the American public. Tea Party minions-- like former Legislator Frank Antenori [So, doesn't Raytheon find this employee's antics a bit embarrassing?] and the nuts behind this event-- are marching in lockstep behind their corporate masters. 

For another look at the evil twins-- ALEC and the NRA-- check out this story from ColorOfChange.org...

Pressed hard for a response to the tragic shooting deaths of 20 young children and 7 adults in Newtown, the National Rifle Association (NRA) finally broke its silence to announce that the solution to gun violence is more guns. It just doesn't make any sense — unless you're in the gun business.

As a long-time funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — and co-chair of its Public Safety and Elections Task Force — the NRA has directly authored dozens of "model" gun access laws that fly in the face of commonsense efforts to reduce gun violence.¹

And now, despite the wave of bad publicity ALEC's received for pushing Florida's NRA-drafted "Shoot First" law out to 25 other states, it's clear the NRA isn't prepared to clean up its act. 

More commentary and lots of links after the jump.

New US immigration report reveals 'formidable' & expensive machinery to secure border

by Pamela Powers Hannley

A detailed new report release by the Migration Policy Institute reveals the sophistication and cost-- both human and monetary-- of the United States' immigration policy in recent years.

According to the nearly 200-page report, the US system is based upon 6 pillars: border enforcement; visa controls and travel screening; information and interoperability of data systems; workplace enforcement; intersection between criminal justice system and immigration enforcement; and detention and removal of noncitizens. Each area is described in detail. 

The report includes a wealth of information about the intricacies of the Department of Homeland Security and how immigration enforcement intersects with the criminal justice system, the FBI, and the CIA. Probably the most dramatic finding is:

The US government spends more on its immigration enforcement agencies than on all its other principal criminal federal law enforcement agencies combined. In FY 2012, spending for CBP [Customs and Border Protection], ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and US-VISIT reached nearly $18 billion. This amount exceeds by approximately 24 percent total spending for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Secret Service, US Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which stood at $14.4 billion in FY 2012.

Judging by resource levels, case volumes, and enforcement actions...immigration enforcement can thus be seen to rank as the federal government's highest criminal law enforcement priority.

Whoa. More key findings after the jump.

Our society must move beyond violence against women

by Pamela Powers Hannley

This week the story of domestic violence charges against former Mexican American Studies (MAS) Director Sean Arce bubbled up on the Arizona Daily Independent (ADI) blog and on Facebook, where discussions continue to roil. Prior to ADI's initial blog post on December 27, 2012, rumors were swirling around regarding what happened on December 9, 2012, the night Arce and his compadres celebrated his birthday. Now we have ADI's account-- written from the police report and reaction from people across the political spectrum, including this blogger. Unfortunately, none of the lame stream media outlets have chosen to cover this story.

Did Arce aggressively confront his ex-wife in a local restaurant? Did he follow her home, break into the house, and break windows-- causing Essence Arce to flee? That is for the courts to decide, but, in my opinion, the police report (which alludes to dried blood on Arce's hands when he was arrested) is very damming. 

My goal here is not to try Arce's case in the court of public opinion, but to point out that IF the domestic violence charges against him are true, we have yet another local case of a powerful man abusing his power and acting in a violent or at least highly inappropriate manner toward women. In recent months, Arizona has seen SIX powerful men charged with domestic violence or sexual harassment.

Women are murdered every day in this country by husbands, lovers, and former partners. In the workplace, women are subjected to harassment and discrimination. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. For more details, continue reading after the jump.

Jimmy Carter calls for legalization of marijuana (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Former President Jimmy Carter has given a "full throated endorsement" of states' efforts to legalize marijuana.

Alluding to a 1979 speech in which he called for decriminalization of marijuana, Carter said the US has gone backwards in its policies. (He called for decriminalization in 1979? How did I miss that? Oh, yeah, 1979, I ... er... must not have been paying attention ... for some reason.)

In an interview with CNN (video here), Carter also said that the nation's marijuana-related incarceration laws discriminate against blacks, Latinos and the mentally ill and are unnecessarily imprisoning far too many US citizens. For every person imprisoned in 1979 for marijuana, there are 8 in jail today, according to Carter.

More details, check out the CNN video, this story in the Huffington Post, or this story from ABC News. After the jump, watch the documentary Breaking the Taboo, in which Carter says the War on Drugs has failed, and the US should rethink its drug policies. (Well, duh. I'm glad a well-respected elder statesman like Carter spoke up. President Obama, the ball is in your court.)

'CCA, go away': Florida residents say 'no' to nation's largest deportation center (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Private prisons are a "infecting our nation like a virus," according to Florida activists who are fighting against the construction of one of the nation's largest immigrant deportation centers. 

From their website...

We do not agree with the federal government privatizing our immigration detention centers throughout the nation when there is clear evidence that privatizing our prisons creates a clear public safety threat. For ICE to continue to privatize these institutions and bring this safety threat through their "secure communities Initiative" to our community is unacceptable. Depriving someone of their liberty is a non-delegable governmental function and privatizing of such a function is infecting our nation like a virus.

What about Arizona? Governor Jan Brewer and many in the Arizona Legislature are loyal private prison boosters-- to the detriment of our residents. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) runs six private prisons in Arizona. In addition to the well-know immigrant detention centers, CCA also runs DUI prisons. CCA likes to have all of their beds full. Is it any wonder, then, that Arizona has some of the toughest immigration laws and toughest drunk driving laws? Watch anti-CCA protesters in Florida after the jump.

Immigration reform: What role will Ron Barber play?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

The Republican vs Republican-lite Congressional District 2 race has finally been called. Congressman Ron Barber defeated Colonel Marthy McSally in a very tight contest.

With the special election primary, the special election, and the general election, Barber has been running for office for 10 months of this year. Now, he can finally relax into his new Capitol Hill seat.

But, wait, there's more... now, he has to stand up and be our Congressman.

And immigration reform-- a hot-button Southern Arizona issue, for sure-- is at the top of President Barack Obama's priority list, after his rainbow-hued election win. With his delayed deportation for Dreamers and his focus on deporting undocumented criminals (and not your housekeeper), Obama has been inching forward on immigration reform. 

What will the role of Baja Arizona's new Congressman be? Find out after the jump.

The Border, Drone Technology and Fences

By Karl Reiner

New technology always brings change.  Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) also commonly known as drones have become one of the standard weapons used in fighting terrorists in places such as Afghanistan.  The drone's main advantage is its hushed ability to remain over a target area for hours, something helicopters and other aircraft cannot do.

Unmanned aircraft are manufactured in a number of sizes and UAS technology has numerous civilian applications.  It can monitor transmission lines, count cows, perform crop surveys, collect flood control data, do mapping and support firefighting efforts.  The use of unmanned aircraft is growing, it is expected that 30,000 will be in service throughout the world by 2018. 

The large Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has over 18,000 of its 230,000 personnel working on the Mexican border.  The department also has undertaken a program to build and operate a fleet of unmanned aircraft.  The program, which is in the testing phase, carries a price tag of $240-$250 million.

On the border, properly managed drones can provide the agents on the ground with timely intelligence information.  DHS wants to have 24 drones in the air by 2016.  Including the cameras, antennas, sensors, radar, and spare parts, the price of a single drone runs about $18.5 million.

Drones have been deployed along the Arizona-Mexico border.  The remotely piloted aircraft operated by Homeland Security's  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are the Predator B type.  Weighing over 10,000 pounds, they are 39 feet long and have a 66 foot wingspan.  They can stay in the air for approximately 20 hours.

They fly out of Ft. Huachuca, carrying their sophisticated cameras and sensing equipment.  Often flying at 20,000 feet, they do reconnaissance and surveillance, searching for drug smugglers and migrants. The camera systems can provide identification data from 10 miles away.  

The Predators are not cheap to operate. They cost approximately $3,000 per hour to fly. Critics say they are not worth the expense.  The drones can't fly in bad weather.  They pose a danger to other aircraft.  They have done little so far to stem the flow of illegal migrants or drug smugglers.

The critics may have a point. The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General issued a report last May outlining a host of problems in the CBP program.  The aircraft were purchased before the agency figured out how to achieve a steady level of operation.  The drones have been underused as a result. 

CBP also failed to anticipate operations and maintenance expenses.  Money ($25 million) had to be taken from other programs to cover the shortfall.  The report concluded by saying that no more unmanned aircraft should be purchased until after the operations and maintenance problems are sorted out.

In July 2011, the Arizona legislature passed SB 1406.  The law contains a provision allowing the state to build its own fence on the Mexican border.  A website: www.buildtheborderfence.com was established to solicit donations.  Through early November of this year, slightly over 4,000 people had donated a total of $193,602 online.  Because the website total does not include donations mailed in, there is probably more money in the fund.

Gov. Brewer has said that drones are ideal for border security and counter-drug missions.  Now that the federal program in Arizona has hit some rough spots, the state ought to consider contributing the fence project dollars to the federal drone program.  The state can get by without its own fence project.  Supporting drone technology development would be a better security investment and a good use for the fence donations.  Perhaps the legislature will consider the idea.                     

Life and death on the border (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Loneprotestor has done it again. Check out her poignant video about recent deaths along the US/Mexico-- in honor of the Day of the Dead.

Eight days after Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie was killed by friendly fire on the U.S.- Mexican border, a sixteen year-old boy was shot seven times through the border fence by a Border Patrol agent. Yet - in spite of involving the murder of a child across international lines - one incident received national attention for weeks, but the other was largely unknown except in the town where it happened. On November 2, the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, both sides of the border in Nogales, Arizona, walked to honor Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez and the sixteen others killed by Border Patrol in the last three years, and called for an end to Border Patrol immunity.

Video after the jump.

Prosecuting Abortion

By Michael Bryan

I have had a few thoughts about the idea and practicality of criminalizing and prosecuting abortion, as the GOP seems intent on doing recently. But, wow, this prosecutor discusses it more thoroughly and passionately than I could. Go read it. Here's a few samples:

This is what happens when we start second-guessing reproductive health decisions being made by pregnant girls and women. We wade into a thicket where, suddenly, lawyers and judges and police officers are making decisions that we are so incredibly ill-equipped to make. Where people like me end up telling pregnant women, “hey, what happened to you wasn’t horrifying enough for ME to allow YOU to terminate this pregnancy. Sorry. But remember, this is all part of God’s plan for you.”

...

So, personhood for a cluster of cells means that abortion could equal aggravated murder. Really, do Republicans want us prosecuting girls and women for the aggravated homicide of their zygotes? Is that the plan here? Do they actually want to impose the death penalty, or will life in prison be sufficient to satisfy their pathological need to punish women for the crime of being sexually active? Of course, if the woman is guilty, so is the man who facilitates her in procuring an abortion – boys, if you take your girlfriend to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, we’re going to imprison you both for murder. It’s called a “conspiracy.” In case you were wondering.

...

And all of this chatter and talk is offensive, it is demeaning, it is patronizing, and it is unconscionable. As someone who has worked with rape victims – including some who were pregnant, some who were children, and some who were pregnant children – for over a decade, I would strongly suggest that you all think a little harder about what you really want here and about what you are really proposing.



Amen.

I would just add one comment on the subject. The State should not be in the business of prosecuting people based on religious law. There is no secular consensus about the ethical or medical status of a foetus prior to viability outside of the mother's womb. Abortion activists want to shape the civil law to fit their purely religious conviction (which is of fairly recent vintage, btw) that a foetus, even a zygote, is a full human being with a 'soul', deserving of the same rights and protections as any other person.

Conservatives have a buzz-word for the practice of enforcing religious dogma by the state: Sharia Law. 'Personhood' laws, anti-abortion laws, and contraceptive bans are Christian Sharia Law, plain and simple. The religious right doesn't like Sharia Law because they don't like Islam. I don't like Sharia Law (of any religion) because I believe America is established as a purely secular state. In America, no religion gets to enforce it's dogma through the coersive power of the state.

I find it offensive and unacceptable, and down-right un-American, to prosecute someone criminally for violating someone else's religious convictions. Such use of civil law violates the establishment clause, in my view. The State cannot criminalize abortion or other reproductive technologies, in my view, without establishing de facto a particular religious conviction as the official state religion.

Only after a foetus is viable does the State have any rational, secular interest in relgulating or restricting abortion - that is fundamental holding of Roe v. Wade. There is no rational basis for the abortion and contraceptive laws conservatives want to enforce, other than enforcing their own narrow religious dogma on the rest of us.