I couldn’t stay for the press conference after the Tuesday Arizona House floor session, but I did arrive at the gallery in time to see AZ Rep. Juan Mendez deliver his now-viral secular invocation on the House floor.

Hat tip to Hemant Mehta for the transcript:

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you to take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment...

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You may remember (I do since I blogged about it) back in late 2011, when ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, held a big conference right here in the Valley of the Sun. Some folks from the Occupy movement wanted to welcome them with signs and In These Times reporter Beau Hodai tried to talk to some of the attendees of the event. The ALEC organizers did not take kindly to that. They enlisted the hotel and local police to eject Mr. Hodai from the premises.

Making my way to the door, L...

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So budget bills got through the Arizona Senate Thursday, which were surprisingly decent, and the Medicaid expansion won a decisive majority vote. Political strategist and former legislator John Loredo said it best on his Facebook page:

Tonight Senate Democrats along with a handful of courageous Republicans passed a reasonable, responsible budget. Dems learned that when you have serious leverage, you can hold out for some pretty amazing victories – if you don’t throw in the towel too ...

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Craig McDermott captured an interesting thing Rep. Steve Smith said Tuesday about a ridonkulous bill before the Arizona Legislature, that prevents the evil Federal Government from sapping our Stately essences. Or something.

Per Craig:

The text of his “explanation” (emphasis added) -

Mr. Speaker, I think just since we’re talking a little bit about history, I think it would be fair to point out that history of virtually every nation on the earth has come about from one people t...

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AZ Eagletarian has a concise run-down of a rumored deal by AZ Senate President Andy Biggs (which I hinted at on my Sunday Square Off appearance) to ram a budget through the Senate by tacking a Medicaid expansion amendment on it and dangling some district pork in front of a few Dem Senators to get their votes.

Here’s the scenario as it was set forth to me earlier this evening:

Senate President Andy Biggs, who has been declaring all along that he is dead set against the Medicaid expansion, w...

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Christine Bauserman, whose Facebook page proudly boasts all her conservative and Republican affiliations, believes that poor people getting health care in Arizona is a Marxist plot. She wrote a hilarious LTTE to the AZ Capitol Times about it.

Just how desperate are Gov. Jan Brewer and political wizard Chuck Coughlin to force Obamacare on an unwilling Arizona? Dwindling resources, loss of votes, and lackluster public support seem to be a reason for the fraught Republicans to enlist the support of...

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(Sorry for the lack of posts all last week. Just needed a break.)

I came across this interesting press release from the North Carolina Democratic Party about their current Republican Governor Pat McCrory.

McCrory: Moderate No More

RALEIGH, NC—NYT Poll Analyst and data guru, Nate Silver, is out with some damning figures that erase the façade of Pat McCrory as a moderate Governor of North Carolina. Silver’s data blows McCrory’s cover as a moderate and shows him to be to the right of Tea Par...

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The preferred narrative of the pundit/consultant/business establishment types in Arizona about the root of our current political woes, as I’ve described here numerous times, goes like this: Arizona was long a bastion of bipartisan collegiality and cooperation until just a few years ago, when Clean Elections and hyper-partisan primaries ushered into office a bunch of disagreeable unwashed ruffians with extreme views. On both sides! The obvious solution, therefore, is to do whatever it takes...

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On the Twitters yesterday some Tea Party trolls were baiting AZ House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, accusing him and other Dems in the Legislature of saying they wouldn’t support the Medicaid expansion unless it “funds abortion”. When asked to substantiate the claim, they cited this article, with no reporter named in the byline, from the “Arizona Daily Independent”.

That is complete hogwash. No Democratic lawmaker said that and no taxpayer funds are allowed to go...

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In 2006 Prop 107 would have added the following words to the Arizona State Constitution:

“To preserve and protect marriage in this state, only a union between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage by this state or its political subdivisions and no legal status for unmarried persons shall be created or recognized by this state or its political subdivisions that is similar to that of marriage.”

It was defeated by nearly three points in the election that year,...

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Late Wednesday afternoon, the Arizona House of Representatives Appropriations Committee made a large group of people wait several hours before they could hear testimony and comment on committee chair John Kavanagh’s “bathroom bill”. Kavanagh’s bill is basically retribution for the recent Phoenix City Council vote to include gender expression and disability in the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which gave Cathi Herrod of Center for Arizona Policy a big old con...

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I am speaking, of course, of Arizona Republic columnist Bob Robb patiently white man-splaining race relations to us.

Racism is ugly and has been a searing experience in American history. It undoubtedly still exists.

Unjustified accusations of racism are perhaps less ugly, but intolerably ugly nonetheless. And a decent case can be made that the false claim of racism is at least as prevalent in today’s politics as is racism itself.

Take the reckless accusations in Arizona about supposed attempt...

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