This guy is an election official:
The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November.
Bennett’s comments came in an interview late Thursday with conservative radio talk show host Mike Broomhead on Phoenix station KFYI.
Bennett said he was following the lead of the state’s eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president’s birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery. Bennett said he is now trying to get verification from state officials in Hawaii that the certificate is authentic.
In doing so, Bennett caved to a fringe group of activists and writers who believe in a conspiracy theory that just never seems to die no matter how much proof they get. Hawaiian officials have said time and again that Obama was born there in 1961, yet the theory persists.
Bennett, the state’s No. 2 elected official just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), said his investigation isn’t personal. He said the reason he started looking into it is because he got more than 1,200 emails asking him to do so after Arpaio’s investigation came out.
“I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was,” Bennett said on the show. “But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”
Bennett’s newfound birtherism also breaks with Brewer, who led the secretary of state’s office in 2008 when Obama last appeared on the Arizona ballot. Brewer said last year that despite her disagreements with Obama, she is fully convinced the president is eligible for office and believes the birth certificate issue is a “huge distraction.”
“It’s just something I believe is leading our country down a path of destruction and it just is not serving any good purpose,” she told CNN’s John King.
It’s really a perfect match, because the scam that conservative lawyers, paid activists and PAC’s like True the Vote are running on “voter impersonation fraud” is really very much like birtherism.
They’ve taken an ordinary state process, birth records, and so convoluted it that they’ve turned it into something I don’t recognize, and I work with birth records all the time, as do millions of other people. They’ve done the same with registering to vote, and voting. There are no zombie voters. There is no “voter impersonation fraud”. But it doesn’t matter.
This is absolute lunacy. It’s just sad to watch.
4tehlulz
Too nutty for Jan Brewer.
That says it all, I think.
japa21
They must really be worried Obama will win in AZ, which is not totally unrealistic.
Elizabelle
Will this or whatever verdict the John Edwards jury returns get more coverage?
Kay
@4tehlulz:
He got caught shilling to the base with a conservative talk show host, and an honest person would have admitted that was what they were doing. He didn’t. He’s decided to defend what he said on substantive grounds. Now he’s not at all credible as someone who is fit to run elections.
He should resign.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Can he be fired?
Catsy
@japa21: This. And I say go for it. Birferism doesn’t play well with non-crazy people. It’ll do nothing but help Obama. Can you imagine the *nationwide* outrage if AZ and AZ alone refused to put Obama on the ballot because of a discredited conspiracy theory that has Joe Arpaio and Orly Taitz as its leading proponents?
Hunter Gathers
Has Mittens taken both sides of this yet?
BGinCHI
“Mike Broomhead” is made up. Come on, Kay, you can’t fool me there.
I’m starting to think most of politics is performance art. If so, we are in a Golden Age of Asscrackery.
The Dangerman
This reminds me of the Onion classic of “I’m not gay, so why do all these homosexuals keep sucking my cock?”
the Conster
Birtherism is such a great identifier. It’s the pink triangle of politics – as soon as someone spews birther talk, you know every single other thing out of their mouths can be automatically dismissed as the ravings of a nutjob.
Hal
Um, haven’t they done this a million times already? And really? “Nothing personal, I believe, at least I hope…”
What complete bullshit. But I say keep going. I’ll grab the marshmallows so I can male smores after these idiots self-combust.
Hal
@Hunter Gathers:
He has, but he can’t remember, but whatever side he took, he stands by that side.
EconWatcher
@Hal:
That goof was as bad as Kerrey’s, “I was for it before I was against it.” I hope we have it on tape.
Left Coast Tom
From the article, at least this part is awesome:
PWL
Well, what did you expect from people who saw Reds under every bed and Communist plots in fluoridated water?
4tehlulz
@Kay: If he was merely shilling, he certainly covers all the bases beforehand:
He is going to remove Obama from the ballot, and the country will go into the abyss, unless Jan Brewer of all people manages to stop him.
Kay
@Hal:
Birth records are accepted in court without the record keeper appearing as to authenticity.
The whole fucking world would grind to a halt if we didn’t accept a birth record with a raised seal in this country, and instead insisted on a personal appearance.
The Secretary of State of Arizona knows this, because everyone knows this. Yet, he has to keep this scam going, so he’s willing to play along.
It’s absolutely disgusting. Unfit for that office. This stuff makes me furious. I want it stopped.
Xenos
I thought this was the most telling part:
A secretary of state who does not want a certified document, but rather some other sort of verification…
the mind reels. This guy needs to have his law degree retroactively invalidated, his bar license pulled, and given an honest job digging ditches or sweeping floors.
Punchy
Id love to be an Hawaiian official who turns the table and demands the SoS give his birth cert first, then continue to declare it insufficient time and time again. No matter what he offers. That would make great comedy.
wag
I used to be disgusted
Now I try to be amused
but its getting harder and harder with each passing outrage.
Xenos
@Kay:
Oh, man, Probate Court would be so much fun under these rules. Every damn divorce or estate administration would be like Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.
Epicurus
I have asked before, and I will ask again; what is it, exactly, about our President which causes all this doubt as to the place of his birth? Hmmm, I don’t recall anyone questioning Bush’s eligibility to hold office, or for that matter, ANY presidential candidate in my lifetime or of whom I am historically aware. Let me think, now, just what could be so different about Obama? Give me a few minutes, I think I’ll put my finger on it. And while it’s popular to discuss sawing Florida off the map, can we do a little surgery to excise the tumor of Arizona from the body politic?
amk
@Left Coast Tom: Exactly. The money quote. HI is fucking with this nutjob.
Hopefully Obama will win AZ and shut up these fuckers for ever.
Linnaeus
Notice the sly rhetoric Bennett uses: “I believe the president was born in Hawaii – or at least I hope he was.” You see this kind of thing from some conservative politicians and officeholders who aren’t directly involved with birtherism, but want to continue to stoke doubt. They can’t bring themselves to condemn birtherism outright, because they see it as politically useful, but they want to retain an image of not being completely off the deep end. So they say stuff like “Well, I think he was born in Hawaii” or “You know, I don’t really know if he was born in Hawaii” despite the fact that the very same evidence the president has produced would be good enough to prove anyone else’s bona fides.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Remember, the Tea Party was started by patriotic Americans who were concerned over deficits and did not care at all about the color of the President’s skin.
What a shameful fucking chapter in United States history we are living through.
Hunter Gathers
@Kay:
Don’t hold your breath. The Press won’t put a stop to it (they can’t help themselves when it comes to tabloid type stuff like this), the GOP couldn’t stop it even if they wanted to and voters refuse to punish pols who dabble in this stuff. It’s not going to go away. Ever.
Yutsano
@4tehlulz: What is really funny is he won’t get an answer either. Hawai’I stopped responding to all birfer requests regarding Obama’s birth certificate. He’d have to sue for the answer and waste even more state resources. I’ll make popcorn.
Linnaeus
@Epicurus:
While I do not wish ill on the citizens of either place, I suspect nature will have some nasty changes in store in the coming decades.
artem1s
It’s the ‘or at least I hope he was’ that makes it art.
Stuck in the Funhouse
For those out there that have not spent much time in Arizona, it is in summer that lasts 8 months out of the year, hotter than hades, but it’s a ‘dry heat’ haha. Mostly populated by aging wingnuts from moderate climes, with nothing much to do but sit inside their cookie cutter swamp cooled Sun City homes, watching Fox News all day, and wanting someone to pay for their misery.
The heat cooks the reptilian cortex to a excitable mass of primal grunting, for a reckoning aimed at those with darker skin and many without the proper papers to exist in white paradise
purgatory, because they are largely soft targets for pale skinned predatory existential angst.So all of this gets caught up in a vortex of insufferable arrogance, and a Joe Arapio is birthered, and others like him, to carry the anglo cause of paranoia and mayhem visited on the powerless for the rush of supremacist validation, and a cleansing of the impure.
And yes, I know, and personally know, any number of decent white liberals living in Arizona, and others that are rightfully offended by the raging fools in their state. But those decent people are in a decided minority, at least when it comes to those who vote on voting day. That may be changing. Let’s hope it does.
amk
The wingers have gone
galtdesperate.Maxwell James
It’s not lunacy. It’s very intentional. There have been numerous signs pointing towards AZ being a competitive state this year. This is their response.
Randy P
I’m guessing Arizona state law defines acceptable proof of eligibility and that he’s got it in hand already. Namely, the birth certificate with raised seal.
geg6
Yeah, any of these assholes who question the birth certificate are full of shit. I have to verify citizenship and birth records all the time as a part of the student aid process.
Mike G
The rightards thought they would turn Iraq into Arizona overnight. Instead, they’ve turned Arizona into Iraq overnight.
amk
@Maxwell James: Yup. Probably, the AZnians have finally realized what kinda nutjobs they have put in charge of their own government (brewer/arpaio/this nuctcase) and thus their own lives.
A win in AZ for dems will be the ultimate schadenfreude.
Kay
@Hunter Gathers:
Do conservative lawyers “believe” in death certificates? What about deeds? Do we need the buyer and seller to testify? Maybe we could all go out to the property and confirm it exists.
Jesus Christ. Documents are his whole job. I don’t have a whole lot of faith in his accepting the documents of disfavored voters. What if they come out of Hawaii? He’s just not buying it.
Jeff Spender
Do you think I should flood this doofus’ offices with request for proof that he isn’t some Soviet provocateur?
I mean, how do we know? He’s probably got white skin, and Ken Bennett just sounds like an assumed name.
It’s the perfect place, too: Arizona. Nobody would suspect a Soviet agent planted there.
In the desert. With aging white morons.
PeakVT
1200 emails!@!1!! Oh noes!
I wonder what he would do if 2400 people sent emails saying Obama was a Vulcan.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Oh, and would like to add.
WHINY WHITE PEOPLE PISS ME OFF AND I DO NOT CARE FOR THEM.
all of them, no exceptions
Randy P
@geg6: I certainly hope you reject those applications and demand a “long form birth certificate”.
Does anyone even know what that is supposed to mean? Has anyone in the history of Planet Earth ever had one?
Clime Acts
I don’t care where Obama was born. Mittens either.
I just want a kick ass progressive in the White House. Obama will do for now, so again I say, I don’t care where he was born. Let the birthers foam at the mouth; it only makes them look stupid to most people.
Also too, the over the top focus on these freaks here makes you look defensive.
J R
Building a small house in Arizona, I recently hired a normal looking guy to hang some sheet-rock. His second day on the job, he asked what is that bumper sticker on my truck, he couldn’t read it from the house. (Of course, he had walked around out there and knew what it said, this was just his way of hearing me say it)
I said “It says “Veterans for Obama” and I’ve had it since he declared his candidacy.”
He said “You really believe he’s the best candidate?” and I said I thought he saved the nation in the first few months of his presidency.
He went on and on, and said he thought the President was Muslim, and made noises about birth making him Muslim, and I said we’ll just have to agree to disagree and get back to work.
He looked so normal. My friend who recommended him did confess that he was a minister in a pentacostal church, which explains a lot.
He wasn’t as good at sheet-rock as the first guy, a musician from Ohio who went out with me last winter.
They’re all so sad about that Ni—Clang! in the white house, and they aren’t even allowed to say why they’re so sad.
I try to be amused, but that will stop in a flash if Williard wins the next election.
quannlace
Fuck. It’s time to investigate just what’s in the water in Arizona. And saying that without a touch of humor.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
All Conservatives should be required to provide the doctor that delivered them when they request an ID that can be used to vote.
elmo
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
So’s a crematorium.
(ETA that I know you’re making fun of the idea that “dry heat” at those levels is anything other than a soul-sucking, dementia-inducing nightmare of misery. I grew up in the desert, and the above is my standard answer to “but it’s a dry heat” like that means anything to the roast in the oven.)
Bubblegum Tate
Being in Italy–Rome in particular–recently made me think of the decline of the Roman Empire and all those stories about how batshit crazy things got near the end, how far up their own asses people got and how vehemently they would deny the plain reality in front of them. The parallels to the unceasing onslaught of stupid and crazy from the GOP are very difficult to miss.
Redshift
@EconWatcher:
Even better, we have it on video.
Romney is just a terrible candidate. With the way the media feel compelled to treat him as a credible, serious person no matter how he constantly lies and no matter how often he fails to act like a normal human, future generations will come to think that “The Emperor’s New Clothes” was about him.
Hunter Gathers
@Kay: The only thing conservatives care about is winning. He’s running for Governor. I imagine that this little stunt will win him the primary. He’ll do whatever he has to win. If that means turning his office into a joke, so be it.
pseudonymous in nc
@Left Coast Tom: yeah, I definitely want Hawaii to do the same quibbling bullshit to all the birfers. I hope they ask for sworn affidavits from his mother’s obstetrician, his elementary school teacher, his first girlfriend, etc.
I’ve said this before, but if you’re not inclined to believe something, no official document will change that belief.
Kay
@Randy P:
It’s turned into a joke. I had to request a birth record from Indiana and the clerk made a joke about whether I needed the “long form”. The only people who are not in on this joke are Donald Trump, the entire political media, and the Secretary of State of Arizona.
I can’t imagine how these people function in their day to day lives. It must be terrifying, yet very dramatic, like a spy novel.
“Sure, you say it’s a driver’s license, but how do I know?”
J R
If Obama wins Arizona, which isn’t impossible, it will in part be because of the amazing behavior of the elected Republicans out there.
Flaming idiots, as crazy as could possible be.
geg6
@Randy P:
You have no idea the temptation I have sometimes, when I’m requesting documentation to verify birth or citizenship and realize I have a raging wingnut in my office or on the phone, to tell them I need the state or federal official who issued the documents to verify that the documents are truly official and not fakes.
I don’t do it because I don’t want to punish the students for the sins of their fathers (and it’s always the fathers). But its also amazing to me that they want as much federal and state aid as they can possibly get (to the point where some of them falsify information on their FAFSAs), but are just fine with our current crop of GOPers in the House who want to end all student aid.
mirele
Ken Bennett…god, there’s so much I could say, but you know, pseudo-birferism ain’t even the least of it. It’s just another example of why living in Arizona makes me want to take cover most days of the week.
SiubhanDuinne
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
I’m in Arizona right now for a family function, and I agree with every one of your observations. I’m committed to stay in the state through next Tuesday, but once my rental car and I cross the border into New Mexico, I devoutly hope I’ll never have to set foot here again*. No offense to the many good people who live here, by choice or necessity.
*Although as long as I’m here anyway, I plan to indulge my FLW obsession and tour Taliesin West.
JoyceH
Has this fellow demanded proof that Romney was born in the US? If not, why not?
rlrr
@JoyceH:
It’s not like Romney’s father was born in a foreign country.
Oh wait…
Violet
@pseudonymous in nc:
I hope someone high up in Hawaii’s state government has given the all clear for this kind of thing. They could just have a form letter calling it “standard procedure” but whatever the person produces isn’t good enough. Frustrating birfers would be a fun job to have.
@Kay:
LOL.
danielx
Of course it doesn’t matter, and lunacy is the correct word. There is no verification or proof that would be good enough, because the fact that a black Democrat is sitting in the White House drives these people crazy and has done ever since January of 2009. That fact alone is proof to them that there is fraud and cover-up going on, because such a person could not have been elected without fraud and cover-up of inconvenient information.
The same reaction would and will occur if and when another Democrat is elected as president, because they don’t accept the validity of the democratic process except when it produces the outcomes they want. The last Democratic president to be accepted as legitimate (however reluctantly) by Republicans was Jimmy Carter, and his election was eons ago in political terms.
Wingnuts do not view Democrats as legitimate presidents, and it doesn’t matter how large the margin of victory is for either the Electoral College or the popular vote. If Obama’s last name was O’Brien and he was a lily white Irish American Catholic, they’d find or manufacture some reason to believe that such a person was occupying the Oval Office through fraud of one kind or another.
Jeff Spender
@geg6:
I think this is actually because they’re so pig ignorant about cause and effect that they can’t possibly envision it means they’ll never be able to send their children to college without incurring massive amounts of private debt.
No, honestly. I’ve talked to a few of them. They can’t connect these things in their heads. Their eyes glaze over as if they try but they don’t have the ability for cause-and-effect thinking. Their lives are run by narratives.
Thor Heyerdahl
OT and not sure if’s been posted before – a story from Kentucky.
“Man buys entire Kmart store, donates everything to charity”
quannlace
Was just thinking about this today. How long has he been running for President? Add to that the years he’s been planning to run. Why is he so damn awful at it? He’s acts like some random dude his campaign grabbed from the crowd and shoved in front of the cameras.
Can just hear some RW apologist saying “Well, that’s just cause he’s not some slick, facile politician.” Uh, sorry, as far as giving off a regular, average guy vibe- he fails miserably at that too.
SatanicPanic
@elmo: But it does mean it’s tolerable at night. Grew up in the desert myself. Beats hot and humid places where it just never feels ok.
pseudonymous in nc
@Kay:
It’s like a mental illness, where people can’t map concepts to sensory data, and so they refuse to accept that two different looking brown and green things are trees.
shortstop
Apart from all the birther craziness, since when do secretaries of state get to randomly decide ballot requirements all by themselves, election by election?
SatanicPanic
Well if they can prove that he wasn’t born here it means everything that has happened since January 2009 20th is nullified and we go back to life as it was January 19th, 2009.
JoyceH
I just called the office of the AZ Sec of State – asked them if they had received or even requested proof that the Republican presidential candidate was born in the United States.
The person I talked to said she didn’t know but she would pass the question on the Sec State who wasn’t in the office today. I told her to also pass on my comment that if he’s seeking evidence of US birth for one presidential candidate, he’d BETTER be seeking the same evidence for the other presidential candidate ‘or it will be obvious what his game is’.
Let’s all do this. Let’s make these GOP officials who are demanding the same thing be proved over and over again have to treat the Romney eligibility with the same level of scrutiny.
For that matter, why hasn’t Romney publicly released his birth certificate? Why hasn’t it been scrutinized by internet armchair experts for its validity?
You can contact the office of the Arizona Secretary of State at
Telephone number: (602) 542-4285
shortstop
@Kay:
A worthwhile point. Much has been said here and on other blogs about how wingnuts live for fear and loathing, are rageaholics, etc. But many of them also jones for a 12-year-old boy’s idea of glamorous danger and intrigue.
AHH onna Droid
Sooo, I’m thinking sending this dude another 1200 emails, cc’d to Jan Brewer might be a good summer project for emoprogs and slacktivists, assuming they’re not just racists under another banner, or trolls.
Also, too, wouldn’t be that hard with ones own server to send emails from a virtual army.
Randy P
Uh-oh, looks like the election’s all over. Francois Hollande is visiting the White House. Who needs birtherism or Bill Ayers when Obama is entertaining an actual SOCIALIST?
Bubblegum Tate
@Linnaeus:
Some birthers will do that, too–that whole “oh, I personally have never stated that I believe he was born somewhere other than Hawaii, I’m just asking questions” spiel. Funny thing about those people: They fucking hate being called birthers.
pseudonymous in nc
@JoyceH:
White do you think he’d need to do that? Oh.
(The LDS probably has a copy of Obama’s birth cert. on file already, just to be ready to baptise him.)
Cassidy
They don’t Ned “zombie voting”. All they need to know is that black, brown, young, and persons with vagunas are voting?
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
If Bennett, acting as Arizona’s Secretary of State, refuses to accept at face value an official document of the state of Hawaii (e.g. a birth certificate), doesn’t that raise some constitutional issue regarding state-to-state relations? And would Hawaii then be obliged to take legal action against Arizona?
David
Yesterday, TPM reported that the Republican National Committee was worried that AZ is becoming a swing state.
They’re desperate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Linnaeus:
This is precisely why the very artificial life form called the Rmoneytron’s vocal actuators used the word “believe” instead of categorically stating “Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, now shut the fuck up, idiot” when asked about birferism.
shortstop
@Bubblegum Tate: It’s very much like the people who forward emails of a witch doctor Obama or a patch of watermelons on the White House lawn and say it’s just a “joke.” People who spread hate AND are too cowardly to own it are truly the dregs of humanity.
EconWatcher
@quannlace:
You would think he’d know how to sell himself better; he must have had to sell himself to investors to raise capital for Bain Capital. But from what I’ve read, many of his investors were from the Mormon aristocracy. Maybe good looks and the family name were enough in that crowd, without the people skills that would usually be required.
JCT
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
THIS. I can’t do my AM politics web reading without shaking my head and getting pissed off. It is beyond the pale. Sheer lunacy.
I am just continually gobsmacked over how it just goes on and on, talk about wanting to get off this ride.
David
@Amir Khalid:
AZ can secede.
AHH onna Droid
Ooo, the French. I’m scared. Booga booga.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kay: I hear you Kay. It makes my head hurt. I want it stopped. This is what happens when you have people with no background in law in charge of elections. And/or when you have people who are partisan fruitcakes in charge of elections.
AHH onna Droid
Ooo, the French. I’m scared. Booga-booga.
rlrr
@Randy P:
That’s nothing, Reagan hobnobbed with actual communists.
Nellcote
It’s amazing to me, looking from the outside, how different Arizona and New Mexico are considering their similarities.
Ruckus
Kay
It is sad to watch untreated mental illness, isn’t it?
Mike Lamb
I fucking hate that I live in this fucking state sometimes.
And Clime Acts–this isn’t some fringe freakshow that is pushing this. This is the god damn secretary of the state of fucking Arizona. He’s an elected official that is number 2 behind the governor. I’m more pissed (sort of joking) that Obama nominated Napalitano to DHS than anything else he’s done, because he FUBAR’ed the politics of this state as a result.
japa21
@quannlace: I think he fully planned on having the primaries pretty much to himself and not having to go full wingnut to win the nomination. Then he wouldn’t have to do all these verbal gymnastics to try to get back to the middle. He has a real sense of entitlement where he truly believes he could get elected simply because he exists. Like most Republicans, he lives in an alternate universe. The truly unfortunate thing is how many of them there are.
Suffern ACE
@japa21: Do you think he’s doing verbal gymnastics to get back to the middle? If he’s tacking, I don’t see it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike Lamb:
Yeah, but look on the bright side.
What Obama did was provide an example of just how crazy things can get when you take an adult with a D behind their name and install a whining 3 year old in an adult body with an R behind their name in office.
Some people can’t envision such a thing, they have to be shown, in their face, how bad it can get.
TaMara (BHF)
As I said early this morning. Thanks AZ for taking the focus off the Colorado and Coffman embarrassment. We can always count on you to be kookier.
Ruckus
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
What a shameful fucking chapter in United States history we are living through.
This is true. I’ve lived through a couple and none of them came close to approaching this level. I hate the smell of desperation all the time.
Zandar
Racist fucks will do anything to give the GOP the win and eliminate Democrats and liberals and, oh, I dunno, sane people from the process.
Only the Talibangelicals will remain in White Christian Dominionist America.
Fuck these guys and their “working as intended”.
jibeaux
@Mike Lamb: It’s not worth it. He’s a nearly perfect idiot who thinks there’s too much drama about everything except the imperfections of Obama’s declarations regarding same sex marriage, about which there is not nearly enough fucking drama.
japa21
@Suffern ACE: I think he is trying to, but neither the total RW nuts nor the Obama campaign are allowing him to. This is why he comes off as bad as he does.
FlipYrWhig
@geg6: It’s because _they_ deserve student aid for their kids because they work hard and play by the rules… which makes it justified when they don’t play by the rules… because the _real_ problem is that Those People don’t work hard or play by the rules at all, they just want a handout. It’s like “this isn’t a handout, it’s just temporary, and I earned it anyway. But Those People, they just want handouts and would be happy to get them forever and didn’t earn them at all.”. The fact that extremely few people resemble their caricature of Those People abusing the system doesn’t enter into it. Even one shows that it’s widespread, don’t be naive, and that’s the reason the country has all the problems it does.
Or, in other words, “the Negroes are using the government to steal from guys like me, and I’m just settling the score.”
redshirt
@Ruckus: Last gasps, folks. I take encouragement in the future, when these fucks are dust in the wind.
Mike Lamb
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve heard a couple mentions about how AZ is the example of what would happen if the R’s got control at the federal level. It’s terrifying. And people seem to be happy as clams about the governance here. Which is more terrifying.
We have shit for schools, shit for public services, shit for…well, you get the picture. Attorneys in our fucking AG’s office are like the 48th lowest paid in the nation, and we wear that information like a badge of pride. The sheriff has institutionalized racism and people cheer him on. But our taxes are really low!!! We could raise taxes a touch, pay for a LOT of needed services and still have some of the lowest tax rates in the country.
I wish Tucson didn’t have the UA (I’m an ASU guy), shit traffic, terrible roads, and just generally a down trodden look, because the politics are scads better.
FlipYrWhig
@japa21: I don’t think he’s trying to be moderate, not at all. But I do think he’s trying to clear some space to talk about how he’s a rich guy who will make us all rich, and the fever swamp won’t let him dedicate himself to that. But that’s not moderate, it’s a radical economic vision of giant tax cuts for the richest and slashed services for everyone else.
Joey Maloney
@japa21:
Can’t someone close the goddam portal? Paging Tony Stark.
Ben Cisco
Kay, hope you don’t mind, I’m going to quote something you said to me in the thread last night since it fits here:
BTW, thank you for that.
MattR
@Kay:
Ahh, the David Farrar school of birtherism. He has argued that even if the birth certificate is authentic, that does not prove that Obama was born in Hawaii. It only proves that the state of Hawaii thinks Obama was born there.
kay
@Ben Cisco:
One of my sisters, who has sort of a generational long view, said during the Tea Party protests that she wanted a photographic record.
This is the scenario she imagines:
“Grandma, why were you holding that sign with a picture of Obama with a bone in his nose?”
She wants them personally shamed. Accountable.
Uncle Cosmo
@Linnaeus: I knew some libertarians who treated the whole birther brouhaha like a lotto ticket: They’re far too intelligent to believe that Obama’s BC is bogus, but couldn’t help spending a fair amount of time & energy hoping it was & fantasizing about how they could use it to destroy whatever is left of an American left thereby. Cheap thrills.
JGabriel
Ken Bennett looks like the bastard offspring of an experiment combining the DNA of Gomer Pyle and Don Knotts gone awry.
I’d like to see Bennett’s birth certificate, just to ensure he’s not the figment of the overactive imagination of some Hollywood sitcom writer, sprung to life out of a wacky demonic ritual.
Edited To Add: Seriously. Check the photo I linked and tell me I’m wrong.
.
piratedan
@David: hey now, those of us in Baja are trying to do just that but hell, we have our own battles to fight, trying to get Ron Barber elected to follow in Gabby’s footsteps and we still have that wannabe stormtrooper Jesse Kelly to defeat. Plus the wingnuts are taking the grifters into primaries (Cordon vs Flake). It’s gonna be a very silly season out here.
Ruckus
@kay:
She wants them personally shamed.
It seems obvious to me that conservatives have no discernible shame.
Or maybe they have so much shame for their words and actions that they are over compensating.
Re-read that last and do I ever crack myself up. So much shame. What a concept.
piratedan
@Mike Lamb: and you know why that is Mike? It’s because the State Lege doesn’t let any money escape Maricopa County. I suspect that there’s a reason why most Phoenix High Schools look like Junior College Campuses and Tucson’s have a look straight of 1970, I’ll let you connect those dots for yourself.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@rlrr:
And
terroristsfreedom fighters too.Forum Transmitted Disease
@Ruckus: You are correct, they have none at all. The wingnuts in the office here would happily slap “kill the nigger” stickers on their cars save that they’re afraid that some brown person or “jackbooted government thug” would shoot them for doing so.
Funny how the “jackbooted government thugs” become Heroes Of The State the day a Republican takes the presidential oath.
Tokyokie
Well you could hardly expect the secretary of state of Arizona to accept at face value an official document from a state in which less than a quarter of the population is white.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tokyokie: It’s almost as if the AZ secretary of state fails to comprehend the concept of “self authenticating” documents, which include domestic public documents under seal, which describes a “certificate of live birth” from Hawaii. Go figure.
g
@Left Coast Tom: Heh.
Uncle Cosmo
Just curious, but– What sort of remedy does the AZ Democratic Party have if SoS Wingnutt in fact omits Obama’s name from the ballot? (I realize that sounds too insane to happen, but remember [Godwin alert!] how pretty much the entire world poopoohed Mein Kampf & was caught flatfooted when its author did ex-fucking-actly what he said he would…)
I hope to Jeebus someone is looking very seriously into this & has an injunction ready to fire off in the proper direction at the drop of a name…
A propos of Rmoney, a question: According to his belief system, isn’t the guy in line to get to run a planet or two after he Goes To His Reward? Why the fuck does he need our planet now??
piratedan
@Uncle Cosmo: we got bupkis, the R’s control all state mechanisms, the Govs high chair and both chambers of the Lege
xian
@EconWatcher: no, he didn’t bring in business. he’s an operational type, glorified project manager, kept the trains running on time.
Patricia Kayden
I love Ms. Wasserman Schultz and hope that as the DNC Chair she is contacting Brewer about removing Bennett. That’s what needs to be done now that he has played his hand.
Uncle Cosmo
@piratedan: IANAL & I’d like to hear the take of someone who is. But thanks for playing…
I hear your pain re the political realities of AridZooNA–but don’t the Feds have some jurisdiction re voting rights?
My jurisimprudent guess is that the Dems would go right to federal court requesting an injuction to force Bennett to put Obama’s name on the ballot, noting that his name was on the ballot in 2008 and he is therefore by presumption already qualified to appear on the ballot in 2012–& in any case, any votes cast for him could be retroactively rejected if he turned out not to be qualified, but votes not cast for him because he did not appear on the ballot could not be retroactively cast. I can’t see any sequence of judges being willing to risk a nightmare scenario where Obama is not on the AZ ballot, Rmoney wins the election with AZ but < 280 EV total, and the issue ends up in the courts once again…
4tehlulz
@piratedan: So basically, federal lawsuit on 14th amendment grounds?
Mike Lamb
@piratedan: My wife is a Tucson native and has a similar theory, although there are some nicer, newer schools in Tucson.
piratedan
@Uncle Cosmo: sorry I was unclear, thought u asked about the state level response and as such, the R’s have the state party fairly well marginalized with their majorities in the House and Senate and with the ongoing shenanigans taking place with the state redistricting commission they are doing their best to keep it that way.
The wingnut factor is strong here as you might assume with a state that has a roster that is long and deep in idiocy and casual cruelty such as ours. We can spend money on opening Interstate Rest Areas but not for poor people needing transplants. We can pass “you have to watch” abortion restriction legislation but not allowed to revisit gun control when a Congresswoman gets gunned down, but hey we were finally able to pass that landmark state handgun legislation.
My guess is like others, it would have to be the feds that raise a stink, the local guys would be plugged before their guns cleared the holster.
piratedan
@Mike Lamb: true that and my son goes to one that was built in the last ten years, but there’s not much in the coffers for older established schools to keep pace. The state is filled with yahoos that squawk “why should I pay to send YOUR kids to school”.
Uncle Cosmo
@piratedan: I do feel your pain, PD. OUAT I fell in like with Flag on a brief visit & seriously considered shopping for a retirement condo there–until I found out the place was vised between Deseret Extremists Southern Division & Hey-You-Kids-Get-Off-My-Vestige-Of-A-Lawn City. Dodged that flechette right nice though.
Mnemosyne
And Arizona’s Secretary of State is demanding the same level of proof from the state of Michigan that Romney’s birth certificate is legitimate as he is from the state of Hawaii for Obama’s birth certificate, right?
I crack myself up sometimes.
Lizzy L
I visit Phoenix regularly; my brother lives there. It appears to consist of housing developments, many of them empty and unfinished, spectacular scenery, and malls. My bro assures me that it is not uncommon to meet people walking around with guns, and yes, folks are crazy. I live in CA, which in the last 40 years has done its own financial & cultural meltdown, but at least we have an ocean to look at.
Ruckus
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Hey I got one right!
Of course in this case it was pretty easy multiple choice.
Do conservatives have shame?
1. No
2. None
3. Not a smidgen
4. All of the above
debbyeOh
@Redshift: @JoyceH, I took your advise and called the AZ SoS office, spoke to a poor woman named Sandy. I asked her if he’d ask for the GOP nominee birth certificate too. Said she doesn’t know, just taking the messages and giving them to him. Yay! Com’on guys, everybody let’s call him!
AZLib
@japa21: Yes, it is, japa. Yes, it is.
Trust me on that.
Clime Acts
The Republicans showed their absolutely brazen, naked, no shame willingness to do absolutely anything to pervert the election process in 2000 when the retarded Bush Boy seized power.
Isn’t it awesome how elected Dems and the party apparatus have worked so tirelessly and efficiently all across the nation since then to protect our voting rights and make sure this shit wouldn’t happen again? Even it better, isn’t it great how the Dems have kept this issue in the public consciousness by endlessly talking about it every chance they got and doing everything they could to protect voting rights thru legislative remedies?
No? Oh, wait a minute…
Mikaela
That’s unfortunate that we are all judged based on what a few idiots with temporary power are doing. Please trust when i say those who can and are willing are fighting these idiots. Please support us instead of throwing us all in one category.
Mikaela
@debbyeOh: yes!!!