Contraception question booed at Republican debate
A question about contraception caused a flareup in the culture wars during the last Republican presidential debate before next week’s Arizona and Michigan primaries and “Super Tuesday.”
The question drew boos from the audience and impassioned statements from the four candidates on the stage in Mesa, Arizona, last night.
“Since birth control is the latest hot topic, which candidate believes in birth control, and if not, why?” was the question posed via cnnpolitics.com.
It sparked a lengthy discourse by the candidates on religious freedom, contraception, and family structure. None of the White House hopefuls directly responded to the question.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has taken on the media in previous debates, said it was legitimate to question “the power of the government to impose on religion activities which any religion opposes,” before questioning CNN moderator John King and zeroing in on Democrat Barack Obama.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney provided backup, saying Obama had launched “the worst attack on religious conscience in the history of the United States.”
“Through the eyes of a child”
President Barack Obama faced two tests when he spoke Wednesday night at a memorial service for the six people killed in the Arizona shooting — make an emotional connection and comfort a grieving community.
Obama honored heroes and victims, but his tribute to the youngest victim may have helped him connect with people who attended the service in Tucson or watched on television.
“And then there is nine year-old Christina Taylor Green,” Obama said. “In Christina, we see all of our children.”
Christina had gone with a neighbor to meet Representative Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday at an event where a gunman opened fire.
Obama described her as a curious and trusting child who was “just becoming aware of our democracy,” who saw public service as exciting and her congresswoman as a potential role model.
“She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted,” Obama said.
“I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us — we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations,” said Obama, a father of two young girls.
Arizona sheriff sees others like Loughner
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik sounds worried about the possibility of other attacks on elected officials like Gabrielle Giffords.
Not that he’s got evidence of another shooter or anything. But Dupnik says there are thousands of people like Jared Lee Loughner, the shooting suspect described as a mentally disturbed loner.
“These people are very susceptible to emotions like anger and paranoia and so forth, and I think that the tone of rhetoric that has occurred in this country over the past couple of years affects troubled personalities,” he tells NBC’s Today show.
Dupnik also says the unhealthy rhetoric is being driven by people who foment discontent for their own living and the benefit of some politicians.
“There are people in this country who make a living off of anger towards the government, which I think perhaps benefits some people in politics.”
“Constantly 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, making the people angry at government, public officials, elected officials and so forth, may benefit some party. But I think those people have to consider that they may have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future,” he tells ABC’s Good Morning America in a separate interview.
Dupnik doesn’t mention names.
Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Fox and the Tea Party are directly responsible for the massacre in Arizona. They should be ashamed of themselves. Mark Montgomery NYC, NY boboberg@nyc.rr.com
Ben Quayle’s famous last name a double-edged sword in Arizona House race
David Schwartz takes a look at the latest Quayle seeking to go to Washington.
Ben Quayle knows how to spell potato.
The son of former vice president Dan Quayle also knows that his famous last name is a double-edged sword when running for elected office.
“You get name recognition right off the bat,” said Quayle, vying to represent the Third Congressional District in Arizona. “It also opens you up to more scrutiny and immediate ridicule. Some people enjoy picking on Quayle again.”
In his first run for office, the 33-year-old is regarded as the front-runner when voters in his Republican-heavy district go to the polls Nov. 2 to replace veteran GOP Rep. John Shadegg. Quayle faces Democrat Jon Hulburd.
Quayle, whose father served under senior President George Bush, is courting voters on the campaign trail with many of the same themes resonating throughout the United States this election cycle.
Photo credit: Reuters/Enrique Castro-Mendivil (potatoes in Peru)
McCain hails Palin power in the mid-term elections
Arizona Senator John McCain says his former running mate former Alasaka governor Sarah Palin is a “visionary” for the United States.
“She has had a tremendous impact on this election cycle, as you well know, by supporting certain candidates,” McCain said in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline. “It is really a remarkable thing to observe.”
The 2008 Republican presidential nominee again defended his decision to pick the then relatively unknown Palin for the number-two spot on the ticket.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the campaign she waged,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of her or her performance and her continued performance. So, I think, you begin to think about legacy and I think that Sarah Palin will play a very big role in the American political scene for a very long time.”
McCain, a war hero who ran against Barack Obama for president in 2008, has represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate since 1986.
He handily defeated conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth in a bitter battle for the Republican Senate nomination.
During the primary, McCain took some heat for shifting his stance on several issues, including “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and immigration.
I have often wondered if he picked Palin simply so the Repubs could lose and then blame the Dems for all the problems.
He might have had my vote if he had picked any other candidate than the seemingly delusional quitter from Alaska. Every time I hear her speak I wince at the number of people who claim to be followers. I have got to believe that they either are not truely listening to her, or are for anyone who is anti-Obama (a movement that started even before he was elected).
Worship at her “alter” makes me truely fear for the American that I have faithfully served while I was in the Army.
McCain, Napolitano shoot it out, rhetorically speaking, over US-Mexico border
When Arizonans John McCain and Janet Napolitano started arguing over border security in the Senate on Wednesday, it sounded briefly like the pair could be heading for a modern day shootout at the O.K. Corral.
But it ended in a Mexican stand-off instead, with each cow poke flanked by an imaginary posse of sympathetic sheriffs.
The trouble started when McCain, a Republican senator, got his chance to ask questions at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, a former Democratic governor of Arizona, was a testifying witness in discussions that had been all about Islamist militancy up to then.
But McCain turned the conversation sharply toward the southwest to ask about security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What in the world is going on here?” an irritated McCain asked after suggesting that Napolitano had lost her sensitivity to the plight of border communities facing cross-border crime and violence since joining the Obama administration.
Florida, Arizona contestants set, still waiting on Alaska…
The contestants are set in Florida’s three-way race for the U.S. Senate and John McCain holds on to pursue a fifth term.
But most of the chatter this morning is about the Alaska surprise where Joe Miller, an underdog candidate backed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, edged into the lead over incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. It may take a week or more to determine the winner of the primary as rural and absentee votes are tallied.
How Miller fares will be seen as a test of Palin’s clout in the Republican Party. She has backed a number of candidates in this primary season and her results are mixed.
The Palin-Murkowski rivalry is not new, the former Republican vice presidential candidate defeated the senator’s father, Frank Murkowski in the 2006 race for Alaska governor.
The Anchorage Daily News quoted Miller saying he was certain Palin’s endorsement was “pivotal” for his 51-49 percent lead. The newspaper also quoted Murkowski taking a shot at PalinTuesday night by saying “I think she’s out for her own self-interest. I don’t think she’s out for Alaska’s interest.”
McCain’s victory in the Arizona Republican primary went against the anti-incumbent mood when he defeated challenger J.D. Hayworth in a hard fought battle in which both candidates claimed the support of Tea Party activists.
In the Florida primary, Congressman Kendrick Meek defeated billionaire Jeff Greene to become the Democratic candidate for Senate. Meek will square off against Republican nominee and Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio and Governor Charlie Crist, who left the Republican party this year to run as an independent.
Lisa was appointed by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski, to his own unexpired Senate seat in December 2002. Is Alaska’s Senate seat hereditary?
Arizona immigration law controversy hits border governors’ conference
The simmering row over Arizona’s tough-as-nails immigration law has led to a shift in venue for the U.S.-Mexico border governors’ meeting, an annual event usually characterized by unity and good will.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, canceled the bash she was due to host after six border governors from Mexico pulled out in protest at the desert state’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants she inked into law in late April.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, stepped in this week to save the meeting which is now set to take place in Santa Fe in late September — although full attendance looks doubtful in the poisoned atmosphere that lingers.
“Governor Richardson is working with other governors to craft a tight, but productive agenda that focuses on the most pressing issues in the border region,” Gilbert Gallegos, Richardson’s deputy chief of staff, told Reuters on Friday.
“Obviously, all border governors are welcome and encouraged to attend, although the governors of Arizona and Texas have said they are not interested in joining a dialogue with their border colleagues,” he added.
Arizona’s controversial new law requires state and local police to investigate the immigration status of anyone that they reasonably suspect to be in the country illegally, in the course of a lawful contact such as a traffic stop.
A majority of Americans support it, according to recent polls, although President Barack Obama’s administration is trying to overturn it, arguing that it is unlawful and will sap police resources.
SB1070 does not “… make it a crime to be in the country without proper documents.” SB1070 makes it a crime to be in *Arizona* without proper documents.
Arizona immigration law prompts ACLU travel alert
As Arizona prepares to implement a controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a travel alert advising visitors to the desert state of their civil rights if stopped by police.
The law requires state and local police to investigate the immigration status of anyone that they reasonably suspect is in the country illegally, during the course of lawful contact such as a traffic stop.
Backers of the measure, which takes effect on July 29 barring a successful legal challenge, say it is needed to curb illegal immigration and border-related crime in the state, which is a major corridor for drug and human smuggling from Mexico. Opponents, among them the ACLU, say it is a recipe for racial profiling.
“Under Arizona’s racial profiling law, people who look ‘foreign’ are more likely to be stopped for minor infractions and then asked for their ‘papers’ if police believe, based on their appearance or accent, that they could be in the country unlawfully,” Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU’s executive director said in a statement.
“We hope the alerts provide people with some measure of protection from illegal harassment from law enforcement and inform them of their rights should they encounter it,” he added.
The ACLU is among plaintiffs in five separate lawsuits lodged in federal court in Phoenix that seek to derail the law. President Barack Obama’s administration is also expected to file a suit challenging the law.
In addition to the travel alerts, the ACLU has made available a guide in English and Spanish setting out individuals’ rights if stopped by law police in Arizona or elsewhere.
Arizona migrant law inspires other states
Arizona’s state law cracking down on illegal immigrants has inspired similar measures in four other U.S. states, although legislators may await the outcome of pending legal challenges before pressing ahead with them, analysts say.
In late April, Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill requiring police in the Mexico border state to check the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect is in the country illegally, during the course of a traffic stop or similar legal contact.
The law comes into effect on July 29, pending challenges in federal court by plaintiffs including two police officers, faith and civil rights groups that charge the measure is unconstitutional and a mandate for racial profiling.
Polls show the measure is supported by a broad majority of Americans in this congressional election year.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says that similar bills seeking to curb illegal immigration have since been introduced in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Rhode Island.
“Although there are many reports of individual legislators or candidates in various states commenting that they would support or oppose similar legislation, we are aware of only four states with similar bills introduced in the weeks after the Arizona law passed,” said Ann Morse, an immigration analyst at the NCSL.
“Until the court challenges have been decided, I don’t anticipate a great deal of action this year. I’m sure (the) 2011 legislative session will see more introductions,” she added.
Man up, freepers, birthers, teaklanners, conspiracy nuts.
It’s time to take your medicine.
Acetracy – your example simply proves the point – even to the detriment of young Catholic girls. the family needs to be protected – the family is the basic unit of our culture which instills values to our children – hmmmm, what happened approx 30 years ago? right! Roe vs. Wade, who’s primary defendant has since regretted having been manipulated like a pawn into allowing abortion in this country. Traditional family values are important. What kind of value will a husband and husband transfer to their non-blood related child who has to grow up like a social chemistry experiment in this country? May God have mercy on this country.