We need more than a Rhinestone Cowboy

It’s a fresh new year and the citizens of Arizona are excited that our governor, lawmakers, and judiciary are all working aggressively to right the ship.    After all we are facing:

·        9.4% unemployment
·        21% living below the poverty line (Mississippi the only state worse off)
·        $2.1Billion structural deficit
·        $3.4Billion budget deficit
·        22% uninsured
·        Arizona Medicaid eligibility is based on 33% of national poverty level (US average is 150%)
·        Millions of dollars in lawsuits between the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, County Supervisors, County Attorney, and County judges.
·        Anti-immigration bill cost the state $140Million in revenue in 2010
·        Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is under federal investigation
·        The state is so broke it cannot afford to deploy its own national guard to protect its citizens

So what does our Senate President, Russell Pearce, do first?  He goes to Washington to promote his plan to allow states, not the federal government, to determine citizenship.  Aren’t we all citizens of the USA?  More importantly this xenophobe wants citizenship to be available only to those born in the state who had at least one parent who already is a citizen or is at least a permanent legal resident.  Pearce even wants to go as far as forcing the Arizona Department of Health Services to issue two different types of birth certificates. One would spell out the newborn is a citizen, the other saying that the certificate shows only birth, not citizenship.   In essence, Pearce and his merry band want to rewrite the 14th Amendment as part of their attack on ‘anchor babies’.  Ever notice how these same folks want lawmakers to comply with the Constitution, except the parts they don’t like?

In other brilliant state news, the hero of the big ambush against drug smugglers last April 30th Pinal County Deputy Sheriff Louis Puroll was fired for making false statements to a reporter.  But have no fear, his boss Sheriff Paul ‘Lil Joe Arpaio’ Babeu still stands by his man’s ambush in the desert story.

So while this state sinks faster than California, Nevada, and Michigan, our states leaders are off on their white men rule campaign.  In Arizona white men and women may be able to jump, but they sure can’t govern.

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