Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Howard Fischer from Capitol Media Services has a decent explanation of the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, passed by the Tea-Publican controlled Arizona legislature before sine die. GOP OKs series of changes in election law:

Republicans used the final hours of their just-ended legislative session to push through a series of changes in election laws that could give them advantages in future elections.

* * *

Among the additions:

• Making it a crime for volunteer political...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

How many times have I told you that it's never over until sine die?

In a late-night final act of betrayal before saying goodbye, the Senate reconsidered the "omnibus" voter suppression bil, HB 2305, and Republican Sens. Steve Pierce, John McComish and Rich Crandall -- who had earlier voted with the Democrats to defeat the bill -- changed their votes to pass this bill on a straight party-line vote, and to transmit the bill to the governor.

Here is the vote detail on the Mo...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There is very little that Governor Jan Brewer and I have ever agreed upon during her long political career. But I have to grudgingly admire her latest tactical move and give her props to call a special session to pass her budget over the Tea Party minority obstructionists. This is exactly what I would have done. Well played. Gov. Jan Brewer calls lawmakers into surprise special session:

Fed up with weeks of debate and delay on her top legislative priority, Gov. Jan Brewe...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After Monday's dog and pony show in the House Appropriations Committee, the action moves to the House floor today.

The Committee of the Whole (COW) calendar lists the following bills to be debated today:

Bill Number    Short Title 

SB1057            AHCCCS; ambulance services; rates

*SB1069           CPS; psychological assessments and services

                      (s/e:  abortion clinics; regulations; inspections)

SB1337  ...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There is an overflow crowd of interested persons wanting to testify today at the Arizona House Appropriations Committee today on the Senate Health and Welfare Budget, SB 1492, which includes Governor Jan Brewer''s Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration/expansion plan.

As you might expect, the JLBC, AHCCCS, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations, and hospital associations are testifying in favor of the appropriations bill. The Valley Interfaith Council als...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona House Appropriations Committee began its hearing today with the eleventh hour "strike everything amendment" to SB 1069 for the benefit of the Mullah Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) to allow the Arizona Department of Health Services to conduct unannounced inspections of abortion clinics, in violation of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Tucson Women’s Clinic v. Eden (2004) which does not allow surpr...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Nuns On The Bus Tour for comprehensive immigration reform is coming to Arizona. Go to Nuns on the Bus - Network for more tour information and to RSVP.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday, June 10 at 10:00 a.m. in Room HHR 1 to take up the appropriations bill which includes Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration/expansion plan, SB 1492.

The Committee Chairman, John Kavanaugh, R-Fountain Hills, the man who sponsored the "show me your papers before you pee" bill, has also agreed to take up a "strike everything amendment" to SB 1069 (CPS; psychological assessments and services) a...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Yesterday the Arizona legislature took up the so-called election "reform" bills designed to restrict your constitutional rights as an Arizona citizen to citizen initiatives and referendums and to make it more difficult to submit petitions, and to make it more difficult for some people to vote (aka voter suppression). The conference committee approved it in five minutes without any public testimony.

Once again, these so-called election "reform" bills have now been grouped...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in March of this year, the City of Phoenix referred two ballot measures to the city election ballot pertaining to the City of Phoenix Employee Retirement System (COPERS). City of Phoenix Pension Reform, Propositions 201 and 202 - Ballotpedia:

Two City of Phoenix Pension Reform Questions, Propositions 201 and 202, were on the March 12, 2013 ballot for voters in the City of Phoenix in Maricopa County, Arizona. Both propositions were overwhelmingly approved.

Proposition...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

From the Department of Economic Security (DES) standardized AHCCCS eligibility letter:

For a person over the age of 18 to be elibible for AHCCCS Health Insurance they must be in one of the groups listed below

-- A parent or relative living with a child under the age of 18, or age 18 and a full-time student, who is deprived of parental care and support because:

• A parent is continually absent from the home, or
• A parent has died, or
• A parent is physcially or mentally disab...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

When I opened the Arizona Daily Star this morning, I was treated to a Howard Fischer report on how former state legislators Frank Antenori and Ron Gould are planning a referendum drive should the Arizona legislature enact Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan. 2 want Medicaid issue up to voters:

Frank Antenori, who represented Tucson, said Tuesday he already has written commitments from 500 GOP precinct committeemen to gather signatures this summer to r...

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Citigroup knows how to schmooze Congress-- and how to write legislation, apparently.

Ever since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reinstated some regulations on Wall Street gamblers in 2010, the banksters have been trying to reduce or eliminate those regulations.

The newest chapter in this banking regulation saga finds Citigroup writing the latest round of financial regulations and wining and dining Congressional representatives-- includ...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Paul Krugman has more on the good news for the implementation of "ObamaCare" today. The Obamacare Shock:

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, goes fully into effect at the beginning of next year, and predictions of disaster are being heard far and wide. There will be an administrative “train wreck,” we’re told; consumers will face a terrible shock. Republicans, one hears, are already counting on the law’s troubles to give them a big electoral advantage.

[See t...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The “Nuns on the Bus” are revving up their engines for another national campaign, only this time the Catholic sisters are taking their mobile platform for social justice along the country’s Southern border to push Congress to pass immigration reform. Nuns on the Bus - Religion News Service:

“The ‘Nuns on the Bus’ is going on the road again!”

“This time we’re going out for common-sense immigration reform,” Sister Simone Campbell said to rousing applaus...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The banksters of Wall Street perpetrated the largest fraud in the history of mankind, nearly melting down our financial system and doing substantial harm to the world's economy that peaked with the economic collapse in 2008, the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.

At the time I called for Congress to establish a new Pecora Commission to investigate the banksters of Wall Street and the causes of the economic collapse. (Historical note: As a result of th...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It has often been said that people do not want to see the "sausage making" process of legislation, and nowhere is that a truer statement than with the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill.

After multiple attempts by Tea Party senators to add "poison pill" amendments to kill the bill -- all defeated -- there was a death-defying friendly amendment offered yesterday by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to treat gay partners equally under federal law for immigration purposes. Tea...

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I hate it when I have to agree with the Arizona Republic's über-conservative columnist Robert Robb, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, am I right?

Keep in mind that this latest column from Robert Robb is actually the strategy for a legal challenge to Governor Jan Brewer's Medicaid (AHCCCS) restoration plan, likely from his old employer, the Goldwater Institute, which is actively opposing the Governor's plan. If the Governor's plan is enacted by the legislature...