Top 10 Outlandish Republican Ideas in AZ
For the past 18 months, Arizona’s economy has taken a nose dive, jobs have been lost, and schools have been starved of funding. Have the Republicans who control the state Legislature fixed these problems? No. But they have kept themselves busy!
Here are 10 of the most outlandish things Arizona Legislative Republicans spent time and taxpayer resources on in the past year:
- Invoked the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to protect (wait for it) … light bulbs … from federal energy requirements. (But only the bulbs made in Arizona, of course.) (source)
- Eliminated the requirement for training and a permit to carry a concealed weapon. (Driver’s license tests are still around, in case anyone is concerned about public safety) (source)
- Passed legislation banning human-animal hybrids in Arizona. (Our state is now safe from mermaids and centaurs.) (source)
- Voted to deny more than 47,000 children access to KidsCare health insurance. (They’re kids, they’re young, they’re plenty healthy, right?) (source)
- Allowed guns in bars. (Bar owners, for some strange reason, did not support this legislation) (source)
- Increased property taxes and asked voters to tax themselves, but refused to close tax loopholes for the rich. Their country club memberships, spa treatments and pet grooming are exempt from the sales tax. Middle-class folks buying clothes and school supplies, however, are subject to the tax. (Darling, we already tip the help … isn’t that enough for you people?) (source)
- Made it a crime for teachers to talk to students of color about their own history and heritage. (There’s only one version of history – duh!) (source)
- Based environmental policies on the belief that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, as cited by a state senator. (The Hohokam people apparently migrated to Arizona on the backs of dinosaurs.) (source)
- Cut off services to 36,500 seriously mentally ill patients, allowing those individuals to wander Arizona’s communities homeless, untreated and unmedicated. (Shhh, just let the Democrats worry about this one.) (source)
- Jumped on the “birther” bandwagon, pushing legislation that would require presidential candidates to show proof of U.S. citizenship to be on the Arizona ballot. (Hey, don’t call it a fringe movement – we don’t want to offend the Tea Party now do we?) (source)
Arizona has seen 40+ years of a Republican-controlled Legislature, but this absurd list is from only the past two years! And though my blog may sound a bit tongue-in-cheek about the ideas listed above, it is only because of the seriousness with which I view the impact these policies are having on my native state.
We can no longer afford political games and rhetoric aimed at diverting the attention away from the critical issues facing our state. Arizonans need to elect leaders who will get serious about fixing our budget, bringing jobs back, and making us competitive once again.
Democrats are outnumbered in Arizona, but we want everyone to know we’re working hard to win key races in November and get our state back on track — and off of The Daily Show.
Original Article: Chad Campbell: A top 10 list of the … ideas in AZ – Huffpo
I’m going to say an outlandish thing, and please forgive me for it. I have to say it, though.
If people, out of tribalism, willful ignorance, hatred or bigotry (I could not yet figure out which ones) keep voting Republicans to enact these idiotic policies, in the meanwhile rob them blind, don’t you think they, as a whole, deserve it? It’s not just about Arizona, it’s about the US in general: two disastrous wars (one of them is based on lies), an economic collapse, torture, kidnappings and hit-squads operating around the world, and yet people are still voting republican. They voted Bush back in 2004, and now they seem to have a good chance for a comeback in the midterms.
Don’t you feel like just giving up, and saying: if they want them so much, let it be? Let the whole dismantling of everything that the 20th century bought (education, healthcare, minimal wage, clear water and air, and so on) begin? Maybe then they’d learn?
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TheFitz is right. Anytime you see any opposition to civil rights, education etc it’s those over the age of 65 screaming the loudest.
And right now it’s the baby boomers. A year before the end of that boom but I’ll be damned if the attitude of my parents isn’t one of self entitlement. It drives me nuts. That’s who is spending our retirement money right out from under us.
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Its all the old retired people that move out into the desert and think that nobody else live and/or is born and raised around here. The school system has declined considerably in the years following my own graduation, things like art and PE are too much for the schools to provide, and even my old middle school closed down because the vote that would cost a penny on every dollar spent was declined. To say that these politician have lost sight of what the public needs is assume they had any idea in the first place, this place is gonna be mad max style soon,a nd we’re gonna party like its 1899!
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As someone who lives in Arizona I approve of the ban on hybrid human-animals. Last thing I want to worry about is pissing off some centaur packing heat at a club.
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Some of these are hard for me to believe, do you have sources for the human/beast hybrids and allowing concealed carry (without permit) into bars?
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UncaJoe Reply:
July 17th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
@Sources, Sources have now been included for each law.
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Sources Reply:
July 17th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Much appreciation. It looks like the 2 concealed carry laws are relatively new; I’d love to see data after whatever time period a pollster would consider a “real” sample group. 5 years maybe?
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On #2 – Alaska and Vermont never had those requirements, either.
You *cannot* tell me that those are dangerous states to live in, either from a standpoint of
firearm crime or accidents.
New York State, as strict as it is about handguns, doesn’t require any permits for longarms, and even its rigorous handgun permit requirements do NOT include live-fire training.
On #5 – This sounds crazy, but plenty of states allow bar carry, and it hasn’t been a problem there either. Bar owners, if they’re sufficiently miffed about this revision to the law, need only spend a few bucks on a sign forbidding the carry of firearms into their establishment.
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Is there something in the air or water down there, or is it just the heat?
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UncaJoe Reply:
July 16th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
@Buffy, It must be the “
Maverick” err… “Independent” mentality.No you’re right, too much heat, not enough water and lack of compassion for others are probably the cause.
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Hugh Jorgan Reply:
July 17th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
@Buffy, It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity
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