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Loading ...Az Gay State Sen. Accuses GOP Of Ethics Breach
07.22.2008 5:27pm EDT
(Tucson, Arizona) One of two openly gay senators in the Arizona legislature is calling for an ethics investigation into what he calls dirty tricks that resulted in approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban sex marriage.
Sen. Ken Cheuvront (D) has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to issue a formal reprimand against Sen. Jack Harper (R). The complaint accused Harper of “conspiring” with other Republican leaders to cut off microphones last month during a Democratic filibuster aimed at killing the anti-gay measure.Cheuvront’s complaint says by cutting off the microphones the GOP intentionally broke Senate rules.
“If we cannot follow our own rules, how can we expect people to follow the rules we set for them?” the Arizona Republic newspaper quoted Cheuvront as saying.
Republicans accuse Cheuvront of political posturing.
After the microphones were cut Republicans forced an immediate vote on the proposed amendment. It passed on a 16-4 vote. It had previously been approved by the House.
The issue now goes to voters in November.
In 2006 a similar amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions failed when put to voters.
Public opinion polls have showed that while most people in the state oppose same-sex marriage they do not want to enshrine that in the constitution.
The current amendment proposal does not mention civil unions.
Cheuvront’s complaint was filed with Sen. Jay Tibshraeny (R), chair of the Senate Ethics Committee. Tibshraeny said he will make his decision this week.
“Public opinion polls have showed that while most people in the state oppose same-sex marriage they do not want to enshrine that in the constitution.”
This reminds me something that my composition teacher kept saying before each assignment; “Don’t tell me, show me”. What companies did the polling; When did the companies do the polling and when were the polls published?
Now the thoughtful reader has extra research steps to do in order to fact check what was written.
Good for you Kenny! We will patronize your restaurant to show support.
Seriously man. This is a news article not an academic paper. This is more about giving a little bit of context to the overall piece in a format that’s easy to consume. Are many of these “context facts” skewed. Sure. We live in a world with a biased media. Any poll is suspect anyway. I always wait till I have seen several polls on a subject to start to form an real view of public opinion anyway. That’s just life. Don’t complain about it.
it is no surprise to me that the fascists are in control of the legislature. let them put it to the public vote, they’ll be smacked down again. just as they were in the last election.
Most Republican politicians are an ambarassment to this country. God-willing, the end of their sick reign will be soon be over.
I understand space and time limitations both in the print and broadcast mediums. Further your point about the contextual information is understood as well. However, I disagree with your criticism about expecting more from news reports with your assertion that I expect them to be more academic. It is not that I expect them to be more academic; I expect them to be accurate and informative.
It is irresponsible for a reporter to paraphrase an individual then not cite the source of the paraphrase well following that same logic if the same reporter is to give information the source from which her/she received the information should also be cited.
I refuse to be complacent and accept inferior, irresponsible and inaccurate news reporting. News writers write to the lowest common denominator which now is at a fourth grade level and given the American school systems that is very low. I expect the news media to be respectful to their consumers and not condescending to them by continuing to accept what they have to say as fact. They should list their sources so the news consumer could double check the facts if one so chooses to do so.
God is a Republican. Didn’t you know? He voted for Reagan - twice!
The Republicans would be livid had this been done to them - but who really expects decency or equality from NeoCons??