Question: What do these statements have in common?
“There had never been an attack on 9/11 either, like that occurred either, before on our shore,” [Rep. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista] said. “But it did.”
“The quality of handwriting and the quality of the written text can be detected and seen on MRI imaging,” said Rep. Brenda Barton, R-Payson.
“What is indisputable is that many people believe it’s happening,” [Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler] said. “You can’t really argue with that. And I think that matters.”
Answer:
• All of them came from Arizona Republican legislators this year.
• All of them were made to justify a bill or a ruling.
• All of them follow the Republican rule, “When you don’t have a good, defensible reason for something you want to do, make shit up.”
The most recent statement, at the top, is House Speaker Gowan’s attempt to explain his jaw-dropping, third-world-dictator-style ruling that all reporters must submit to extensive background checks if they want to be on the floor of the House of Representatives — you know, the place where they do their jobs by talking with representatives about pending issues. Arizona has a 34 year history of reporters with floor privileges without an incident, but Gowan says it’s not safe to have reporters rubbing elbows with legislators unless their backgrounds have been thoroughly checked, because, 9/11. This at the same time he’s been outed for letting legislators carry guns onto the House floor.
The reason for the ruling is obvious to every reporter who has written about it. Gowan is pissed at Hank Stephenson of the Capitol Times who dug through the records of Gowan’s travel expenses and found the Speaker was charging the state for travel that wasn’t part of his duties. Gowan had to refund $12,000 and is having his expenses investigated. Ouch! Now, it happens Stephenson has a trespassing conviction on his record, which means he would be barred from the floor under the new rules. But he can’t admit it’s revenge on Stephenson and a warning to the rest of the reporters, “Watch out what you write, we know where you make your living.” So he said “9/11,” which explains everything nothing.
A few weeks ago, Republicans wanted to make teaching cursive mandatory in Arizona’s public school. The real reason was something like, “If I had to walk ten miles to school each way while writing cursive in the snow with a stick, by God, today’s children can learn to write cursive too!” But since that sounds stupid, instead, Rep. Barton said something about cursive stimulating the brain and MRI imaging, even though the ASU prof whose study she was referring to said she got it totally wrong.
And back in January, Rep. J.D. Mesnard wanted to defend a bill making it a felony to collect mail-in ballots and turn them in. He couldn’t say the real reason, which was, “Those damn Democrats have more feet on the ground to do this kind of work than we do, and all we have is tons of dark money, a majority in the legislature and a Republican governor, so we have to make sure Democrats don’t take unfair advantage of us by making it easier for Democrats to vote.” He would have loved to justify the bill by saying we’ve caught people committing voter fraud, but we haven’t. So he said, even though voter fraud may not be happening, people think it’s happening, and that matters because Republicans have worked so hard to convince people that voter fraud exists, that should count for something. (Republicans also talked about the scenario where evil ballot gatherers were steaming the ballots open in a microwave, then throwing away the Republican ballots, resealing the Democratic ballots and turning them in. I’m not sure what bar they were in when they cooked that one up, but the microwave steaming method doesn’t work. Check out this video from the Arizona Capitol Times.)
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.
And I give you today’s Democratic Party:
“If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”
“Healthcare costs will go down $2500 a year for a family of four.”-Obama
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” BJ Clinton
“It was a protest about a video that killed Ambassador Stevens and three others in Benghazi.” Hillary Clinton
Clinton recently spoke out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement among Pacific Rim nations. Debate host Anderson Cooper called out Clinton on her changing positions at Tuesday night’s debate.
“You supported his trade deal dozens of times. You even called it the ‘gold standard.’ Now, suddenly, last week, you’re against it,” Cooper said. “Will you say anything to get elected?” Anderson Cooper on Hillary Clinton.
And she is running for President.
Hold your collective noses and vote again, hoping for a better outcome than the last 8 years? Bill is.
Another whopper. “She is the most experienced to be President” A COMPLETELY CORRUPTED FAILURE IN EVERYTHING SHE EVER DID!!!
Neither Republicans nor Democrats have a monopoly on lying. Representatives of both parties do it, at the national level, the state level, and the local level, and David Safier knows it very well. When it’s someone on his side of the political aisle, it’s “how the sausage gets made” — don’t come in the kitchen if you don’t like the look of what’s coming out of the meat grinder. When it’s on the opposite side of the aisle, it’s “Those damn lying Republicans, they’re at it again.”
What we need more of are commenters in the media committed to holding politicians on both sides of the aisle accountable to telling truth, not commenters committed to pushing their partisan ball a little further down the field, through licit and illicit means, in every misleading piece they write.
Never ending false equivalency. And never ending non-sequiturs. The writer is talking Arizona State politics. The one party dictatorship in this State seems so afraid of losing power they will do any to hold on. Putin and Kim would be proud of Ducey, Biggs and Gowan. Surpress voters, yes, subvert the rights for referendum and initiative, that might vote something they don’t like, yes, make dark money even more powerful, yes, pack the Supreme Court, yes, pass laws that solve non existing problems, yes, waste never ending litigation trying to regulate every woman’s reproduction, yes. They have every elected State office, and big majorities in the legislature, and they ignore everything that would benefit the whole State. There appears to be only three constituencies the one party dictatorship listens to, ALEC, the Arizona Center for the Taliban, and Koch Brothers dark money. Ask every school district, ask every City, ask all Counties, does the legislature listen to you. They will all say no. I can guarantee if the Democrats were in power and did all this, the Repubs would be having heart attacks and foaming at the mouth.
Did you ever ask yourself, Frances, why, if the Republicans are so conspicuously bad, they win so many elections in this state? Might it perhaps be because the Democrats in this state are not much better? Corrupt in their own way, unable to marshall broad support behind a sane progressive agenda because they’re addicted to dishonest messaging to the public and toxic insider power struggles? You can’t talk to any faction within the party without them slipping little messages into the conversation meant to undermine their enemies: not the Republicans, but some other group within the Democratic party with which they are engaged one of their dirty little wars. If they started treating one another decently and united against external enemies, imagine what they could do. Look at blue states and you can see what an effective, credible, decent Democratic party can do. But that’s not what we have here.
Face it: this state is in the condition it’s in as much because Arizona Democrats are what they are as it is because Arizona Republicans are what they are.
Safier catches the Republicans’ lies…good for him. It’s not that hard to do. But why doesn’t he use his fantastic BS-detector on local targets where it is much needed?
What do these statements have in common:
–No, I have not given raises or bonuses to anyone in my cabinet.
–No, I have never met the President of the Board’s mother-in-law.
–The desegregation authority wants to take funding away from the magnet schools.
I guess what explains all these lies (and others) is that this person is in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing, i.e. a Republican through-and-through, masquerading as a Democrat. That’s why he gets along so well with the AZ legislature, and that’s what he was brought into town to do. Consort with the enemy and talk enough smack about the progressive agenda in Phoenix to keep the money (or some portion of the money) flowing in, for the time being, until Unitary Status is achieved, or until the education budget reaches 49% of the total budget, or until it seems expedient to give millions in deseg funds back to local taxpayers voluntarily…..or until he gets his next job.
We’re all very upset about the Republicans throwing up obstacles to government transparency in Phoenix, and so we should be. The ADLCC just sent out a bulletin soliciting money to elect more Democrats so we can combat these transparency- destroying Republicans. But let’s be honest, shall we? Anyone who thinks Democrats are devoted servants of transparency in government isn’t paying much attention to some of our local institutions controlled by Democrats.
Great questions equal opportunity. Many of us have been wondering that for some time now. Cut the power and cut the purse strings. The rats will scurry for darkness.
I wonder if Safier wrote this from the woman’s bathroom.
Republicans lie. Democrats stretch the truth for our own good.
Here in Tucson, reading any writer’s column in the TW lambasting the state Republican legislators and governor is as interesting and satisfying as beef consomme. Thank you Captain Obvious. We get it, those troglodytes are really awful. But also, here in the Baked Pueblo, it takes the vision impaired or unconscious to stroll past the graveyard of city and county government and not notice the Democrats have screwed the pooch spectacularly.
This cognitive dissonance explains in part the rise of the non-aligned, independents fast becoming the largest voting block registered to vote. It’s no longer simply “vote Republican locally, vote Democrat statewide.” The Libertarians and Green Party candidates are beginning to look like, if not viable alternatives, at least outlets for those who want to vent their rage and will refuse to vote for any of the likely party hacks emerging rank and dripping from the respective parties sausage factories.
While the Republican Party tears itself apart trying to figure out how to embrace or stop the Trump movement, the Democrats are in a no less precarious position. Anger at the political and economic establishment is fueling the Sanders campaign just as it is Trump’s, and it is a justifiable anger.
I’ve been a registered Democrat for nearly 60 years, although I have not always voted the party line. When the Democrats and the Republicans in Washington used the sequester to play a game of Chicken with the lives of millions of Americans I made my little protest by re-registering Green. At least they have an actual program to get America, and our planet, back on track.
I registered Democrat again so I could vote for Sanders, and if he does not get the nomination I will again go Green, and probably stay there, because business-as-usual just doesn’t cut it anymore, and the divide between politicos and real people just keeps getting wider.
Recently a Democratic Party operative was in front of our library gathering signatures to put candidates on the state ballot in our legislative district. I signed, as I would for any candidate. I made it clear that signing did not imply endorsement, not until I knew more about their positions on issues.
We got to talking about some issues, and about Trump, and the similarities to the early days of pre-WWII fascist movements – the scapegoating, the violence, the America First ultra-nationalism. The Democratic Party insider told me it was because Trump appealed to the un- and poorly educated, that the lower classes were easily manipulated by the media. I said that sounded really elitist, and offended her.
But that is the heart of the matter this election: business-as-usual politicos of both major parties are out of touch with real people, and it is real people rising up in the Sanders and Trump movements. Real people who have been hurt by Wall Street greed and are justifiably angry.
Forget the SCOTUS games in Washington. Here in Arizona and Pima County both parties are backing Interstate 11, even though voters in the bond election soundly rejected its eastern wing, the Sonoran Corridor that both parties are trying to resurrect. I-11 will, according to its planners, allow R&D here with manufacture and assembly in Mexico, where wages are expected to be lower than in China. Jobs exported to China will be attracted to Mexico, they tell us. Big deal.
I-11 is also meant to steal American jobs from West Coast ports to Guaymas, and all those container trucks are a gift to the drug cartels looking to feed an insatiable demand that no one is paying attention to. I-11 is a glaring local example of business-as-usual, of crony capitalism and the politicians it owns and controls, of greed.
Herbert Hoover, trying unsuccessfully to organize corporations to blunt the Great Depression, complained, “The only problem with capitalism are the capitalists. They’re too damned greedy!” True then, true now.
The two-party system is not meeting today’s needs or realities. Maybe there should be a four-way contest in November: Perhaps Cruz and Kasich for the Old Guard GOP, Trump and Palin for the rebels, Hillary and Bill for the Wall Street Democrats, Sanders and the Green Party’s Jill Stein for those who still care about saving our planet, our jobs, our integrity.
A Green Tea Party, anyone? Maybe it will take a little socialism to again save capitalism from itself.
AVL is correct except for one point. We’re living in a post Corporate and post democratic world here in America; and especially here in Arizona. This government we have, bought and paid for by Oligarchs whose interest it is to maintain order as jobs are routinely shipped off to the cheapest bidder, isn’t even mediocre. There’s none in Phoenix who has the slightest interest in contributing to the betterment of anyone in this State because thats not what they were paid to do. Their job is not to think. Their job is to suppress, by any legal means necessary and tom thwart the will of the people wholive here. I seriously doubt that any so called piece of legislation that shows up and is voted on by the Republican majority was even promulgated from one of their minds. No; these oppressive laws concerning women, voters non rights, ‘cursive” IN the classroom..in short everything and anything that has absolutely nothing with creating jobs or helping there infrastructure of this State, come from ALEC or some other right wing organization whose job it is to maintain order, discipline,and above all fear. If the people of this State are so blind and so ignorant as to not be able to discern how Arizona has devolved into a place where its getting tougher and harder to maintain any sense of hope for better lives for our kids and watch as they leave the State in droves when they get old enough; it is ultimately their fault for electing these kind of people to lead them.
One thing about living in Arizona, there’s never a shortage of idiot politicians. I swear it’s in the water.
For Juli Heston: “I’m on the Appalachian Trail. Oops, no, visiting my mistress but I still got sent to the senate; I will no longer wear diapers while visiting my prostitute — sent to the senate; he’s just carrying my luggage ; no, I didn’t have sex in the airport bathroom; yeah, my wife has filed for divorce but that taped sexual groping with my assistant didn’t really happen.” Sexually stalking male interns. What did they all have in common: theocratic family values candidates, and just the tip of the iceberg.
Bea
And Bill Clinton? I never had sex with that lady.
Many of the commenters here seem to be confused about Arizona vs. the US government. David Safier is commenting about the STATE, about education and about the seemingly inexorable march towards acorporate controlled, ideologically driven mini-dictatorship. The fact is that we need the press to keep an eye on the legislature – Gowan has shown himself to be dishonest with his misuse of his taxpayer funded expense account – we need the press to at least expose this smarmy “public servant” for what he is. We need the legislature to quit messing with education and fund it. And, if we pass laws and rules about ballot collection, etc. these same rules need to be applied to the same representatives that pass them. I, for one, am tired of the hypocrisy
I think the real point here is that we are sick and tired of lying politicians in both parties. Just yesterday the President said he would not comment on Hillary’s email scandal and then he said she did nothing wrong, just a little careless. Leave it up to the investigators and stop trying to manipulate the outcome with your lies.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/president-obama-says-evidence-not-politics-dictates-fbi-s-review-n553701
And then he says this:
Obama said he continues to believe Clinton didn’t jeopardize America’s national security with her private email server. But he added that “there’s carelessness in terms of managing emails, that she has owned, and she recognizes.”
Why would you comment on an incomplete investigation? Or is it? We now need him under oath. What did you know and when did you know it.
These stinking lawyers!
Obummer would be crazy to let the D.O.J. do an honest investigation of Madam Hillary. If she gets elected they might as well have him fitted for a black robe.
Yeah, I dislike it too!