Thank you Senator Steve Gallardo for inviting the Civil Rights Division to Arizona to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

Steve Gallardo is continues to stand up for justice against extremism in Arizona.

Sen. Steve Gallardo is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene to protect minority voting rights and prevent the removal of Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission members.

In a letter on Monday, Gallardo, D-Phoenix, asked DOJ to inform Gov. Jan Brewer, Senate President Russell Pearce and House Speaker Andy Tobin that the removal of any commissioners would require preclearance by the department. If they engage in “any further attempts to disrupt the redistricting process,” Gallardo said DOJ should draw Arizona’s new congressional and legislative districts itself.

“The efforts to circumvent the redistricting process are deeply troubling and could have grave consequences to the very individuals the Voting Rights Act was intended to protect. I ask that you act quickly to ensure elections remain fair in the state of Arizona,” wrote Gallardo, a member of an organization that has lobbied the IRC for strong minority representation in the new districts.

via » Gallardo wants DOJ to draw new districts – Arizona Capitol Times.

Now if only Tucson’s Congressman would have the courage to ask the Civil Rights Division to intervene on Ethnic Studies. Here is an example of how you do so.

Professor Roberto Rodriguez responds to the testimony from the state of Arizona’s “expert witnesses,” such as right-wing University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky, against the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson.

Also included in the testimony was that by economics professor Mark Stegeman, who testified that MAS classes are cults, but that’s what you get when you bring an economics professor in to speak about Critical Race Theory and Ethnic Studies that they know nothing about.

Government By Mob Rule

Democracy Failure in Arizona

by ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ

The experiment in Democracy seems to be failing badly in Arizona. Here, government, the state legislature, law enforcement, the educational system, the courts and the media are a testament to this colossal failure. Here, rampant hate and bigotry starts at the top and here, it is government by [ugly] mob rule.

H8ters: Clock-wise from top left; Russell Pearce, Tom Horne, John Huppenthal, John Pedicone, Rich Kronberg, Doug MacEachern, Jon Justice, and Mark Stegeman.

A court proceeding earlier this month in Phoenix – with a decision expected any day now – attests to this experiment gone awry; the court hearing was as absurd as the daily Kangaroo trials in Tucson known as Operation Streamline (70 migrants are charged, tried, convicted and sentenced in one hour).

This Phoenix proceeding was part of an appeals process, being held to determine whether Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) Department is out of compliance with HB 2281, the state’s anti Ethnic Studies or mind control measure.

The program graduates nearly 100% of its students and sends over 70% percent of them to college. Yet, these phenomenal accomplishments are of little consequence for those trying to eliminate it.

This last hearing featured a formidable sounding state witness, Dr. Sandra Stotsky. She testified that multiculturalism is harmful to students. Upon review of MAS curriculum materials, she testified that she saw no evidence that MAS students are being reminded of the virtues of being American citizens (her specialty is teaching the virtues of democracy to students in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe). Her very presence, given her expertise, gave off a disturbing message. She made the further assessment that MAS students were being taught to resent whites [HB 2281 bans classes that teach resentment, create ethnic solidarity and that promote segregation).

Her testimony sounded very damaging to the MAS cause… until she was cross-examined. She readily acknowledged that she was not an expert in Ethnic Studies, Mexican American Studies or Critical Race Theory. She further revealed that she had never set foot in an MAS classroom nor had she ever spoken with an MAS teacher or student, nor read MAS books, though she claimed to be familiar with some of them.

Upon making these acknowledgements, the erudite-sounding scholar and the state’s star witness was thanked and asked to step down.

At the previous hearing, the director of MAS-TUSD, Sean Arce, was forced to defend the MAS curriculum in a manner comparable to the 1950s McCarthy hearings. [Indigenous] knowledge itself was on trial. The proceedings were actually closer to an Inquisition; they were about what can be taught inside of Arizona’s K-12 classrooms. Books, authors and even classroom posters (“Who’s the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim”) were on trial.

Glaringly absent was any mention of the independent Cambium Study, which was commissioned by State Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal. It found MAS-TUSD to be in compliance with HB 2281. Despite this, Huppenthal rejected the findings and declared MAS to be out of compliance. This is what triggered the appeals hearings. Inexplicably, neither the Cambium authors, nor Huppenthal, were called to the stand.

TUSD superintendent, John Pedicone, however was. He testified that there were things that bothered him about the curriculum, but admitted that he saw nothing illegal. Eerily, no one was there to ask him why he ordered the May 3rd school board meeting militarized, at which time the neighborhood and TUSD headquarters were occupied by riot officers, students and elders were arrested inside the meeting (some were physically thrown out of the building) and youths outside were beaten.

The hearings revealed that beyond Tucson’s MAS program, it is the discipline, and by extension, a people and their right to history, culture and memory that have [again] been put on trial. Also revealed is that MAS stands accused of being outside of civilization and specifically, outside of Western Civilization, in effect, that its knowledge-base does not concur with the U.S. Master Narrative of history.

Actually, that is not in dispute; MAS’s philosophical foundation is in fact derived from the ancient maiz-based cultures of Abya Yalla or Cemanahuac [Americas], as opposed to Greco-Roman culture. This begs the question: since when is having a different cultural, historical and intellectual tradition, grounds for an intellectual execution?

While the decision is expected in mid-November, it is actually Huppenthal, who campaigned to “Stop La Raza,” that will render the final verdict. If he rules against TUSD, look for MAS to be openly taught in front of the capitol and other state buildings. The suggestion that the MAS curriculum be remanded to the home is an idea that is so 500 years ago.

Roberto Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com or http://drcintli.blogspot.com/

The right-wing media, from Jon Justice to the Jon Justice-praising Arizona Daily Independent, are making a fuss about a stack of fliers found at the OccupyPhoenix about when it is OK to shoot cops.

Tucson TEA Party is part of Occupy at Armory Park.

I don’t know if they realize that TEA Party and libertarians are out there also, and they may be blaming their own listeners/readers.

We know that TEA Party protesters sometimes bring guns to their rallies, for example people like known neo-Nazi JT Ready who attends immigration rallies with loaded guns and with huge knives, and we know that white supremacists (who can hardly be called “liberals” but who usually proclaim the glories of the TEA Party) have planned to use roadside bombs in Arizona.

It is the Minutemen that are armed and that have been charged with murder, for example when a group of them killed 9 year-old Brisenia Flores.

It is the conservative preachers and GOP congressional candidates that say “violent overthrow of the US government is ‘on the table.’” Homeland Security is also noting a rise in right-wing Christian militia groups after Obama became president.

It is the Republicans and TEA Party that love their guns and cannot leave home without them, and yet it is the liberal peace-loving hippies camping out that are ready to shoot cops?

A known TEA Party and Jon Justice supporter who is "80% in support of Occupy" and who is voting in the General Assembly.

Department of Public Safety officials confirm to New Times that a stack of fliers was found at the “Occupy Phoenix” demonstration at Cesar Chavez Plaza in Phoenix yesterday. The fliers basically explain when it’s OK to shoot a cop, hence the title of the document: “When Should You Shoot a Cop.”

Don’t go blaming the anti-establishment “occupiers” just yet, though — DPS spokesman Bart Graves says it’s currently unclear who’s responsible for the fliers.

“At ths point we don’t see any connection between the fliers and Occupy Phoenix,” Graves tells New Times.

via Occupy Phoenix: Fliers Titled “When Should You Shoot a Cop” Found at Demonstration.

Any person can attend and drop off fliers at the parks at Occupy events, and indeed TEA party members and Jon Justice fans are attending also. Who are the ones more likely to be carrying guns and ready to shoot, the NRA members or the lazy liberal hippies who “need to take a shower?”

It could have been anyone that could have dropped off the literature, but it is more than likely not from the nonviolent civil disobedience group, the progressives and “hippies” that are not fighting the police, but getting arrested for their beliefs.

I wonder how different the OccupyOakland events of last week would have been if the OPD were pepper-spraying and shooting at an armed TEA Party rally? Would the cops have even shot at them if they knew they would be shot back?