Free Republic

Veteran Jesse Kelly (R) is noncommittal about how he would vote in party leadership races should he be in Congress after the November elections, much like his Democratic opponent in Arizona’s competitive special election. “It depends on who is running,” he said in an email on Monday when asked if he would vote for Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) to lead his party in the new Congress. Democrat Ron Barber voiced a similar sentiment in an interview with Roll Call on Monday when he was asked if he would support Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Kelly’s general consultant, Ed Brookover, criticized...

TUCSON, Ariz. — Ron Barber, the Democrat running to succeed ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, remains noncommittal on whether he would vote for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to lead his party after the November elections.

Explanation: Have you contemplated your home star recently? Pictured above, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by earthlings contemplating the eclipse below. The above menagerie of silhouettes was taken from the Glenn Canyon National Recreational Area near Page, Arizona, USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the unusual event to interested gatherers. Also faintly visible on the Sun's disk, just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of sunspots. Although exciting, some consider this event a warm-up act for next week's chance to comtemplate the...

A group called the Tombstone Shovel Brigade is planning an event in the Huachuca Mountains in June in an effort to make additional repairs to the cityÂ’s water supply. The City of TombstoneÂ’s waterlines and reservoirs in the Coronado National Forest were damaged by mudslides after last yearÂ’s Monument Fire, and the U.S. Forest Service refused to let the city use heavy machinery in some areas, citing the Wilderness Act. Tombstone filed a lawsuit to prevent the Forest Service from interfering with its ability to adequately access the water, but a federal judge recently ruled against the city. According to...

Here's the official 'Verification of Birth' document submitted by Hawaii's Department of Health to the State of Arizona in response to SoS Ken Bennett's request for verification of Obama's birth, allegedly in Hawaii.Note that Obama's alleged DAY OF BIRTH IS OMITTED from the listed items. Shouldn't the DAY of Obama's birth be present in this document?Now, if Obama can be proven to not have been born in Hawaii, it would seem Alvin T. Onaka Ph.D. would have some 'splaining to do.. Unlike the 'official' birth certificate released by the White House, at least there's no 'smiley face' drawn into the...

Jesse Kelly (R-AZ), Congressional candidate: Who are you supporting for president in November? Ron Barber (D-AZ), Congressional candidate: My vote is my vote, Mr. Kelly, as yours is too and I will not be talking about other elections. I'm focused on beating you on June 12th, that's what I'm focused on.

Arizona special election candidate Ron Barber, who talked around a debate question about who he's supporting in the presidential race, released a statement clarifying that he's an Obama guy. Here's the statement from spokeswoman Jessica Schultz: Ron’s point last night was that the election on June 12 isn't about president Obama, or any other national figure--it's about who is going to do the best job fighting for middle class families in southern Arizona. While Ron does not agree with the President on everything, of course Ron has supported and will support President Obama in the election. His primary focus as...

A bill that would close an IRS tax credit loophole that allows the IRS to funnel over $4 billion to illegal immigrants is being held up by Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, has been vocal in his disdain for the blatant misuse of taxpayer monies: I’m disappointed that the Majority Leader objected to our effort today to prevent billions in tax credits from being wrongly sent to illegal immigrants claiming they have dependents, many of whom do not live in...

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett said he was satisfied with information he received from Hawaii proving President Barack Obama's U.S. birth. The Cold Case Posse of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio may be harder to please. Lead Investigator Michael Zullo has not seen any documents and is "reserving comment" until he knows more. Read more: http://times247.com/articles/17hawaii-certification-may-not-deter-cold-case-posse5

Ariz. election official says Obama will make ballot, birth-certificate questions 'closed'By Justin Sink - 05/23/12 03:06 PM ET The Arizona elections official who suggested last week he might remove President Obama from the state's ballot without confirmation that his birth certificate was legitimate said Wednesday he considers the issue closed. "Late yesterday, our office received the 'verification in-lieu of certified copy' from officials within the Hawaii Department of Health that we requested in March. They have officially confirmed that the information in the copy of the Certificate of Live Birth for the President matches the original record in their files,"...

Do you think the real estate recovery has finally begun? Yes No Undecided

Lord Christopher Monckton, an adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has lectured on the fakery behind the worldwide global-warming fearmongering, appearing on CNN, Fox News, ABC and CBS. He’s delivering his warnings in the U.S., Russia and Australia, earning recognition as a leading expert on the case against man-made climate change. Now he’s scheduled to appear Monday in Sun City West, Ariz., at a meeting of the Surprise, Ariz., Tea Party, which has been integral in advocating for a formal investigation into Barack Obama’s eligibility to hold the presidential office. SNIP It is a fundraiser that will benefit...

A Hawaii official announced late Tuesday that the state gave Arizona’s top elections official the verification he wanted showing President Barack Obama was indeed born there in 1961. The announcement came just hours after Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett backed away from his threats to keep Obama off the November ballot and apologized for embarrassing his own state with a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into whether the president was really a natural born U.S. citizen. It also followed weeks of back and forth between Hawaii and Arizona, with Hawaii officials saying they weren’t sure Bennett was qualified to be investigating...

99%+ hate free unless it is hate pointed at what are perceived to be conservative cave men. One of these days, this state is going to secced from the union. .... Arizonians just hate Black Presidents. No hate here .... the venom was just dripping today

After days of ridicule for launching a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into Barack Obama’s birth certificate, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett on Tuesday backed off his threat to keep the president off the ballot in November and apologized to his state. “If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn’t my intent,” Bennett said in an interview with Phoenix radio station KTAR. “He’ll be on the ballot as long as he fills out the same paperwork and does the same things that everybody else has.” Bennett said he still intends to keep asking Hawaii for verification that Obama’s...

As Arizona officials contemplate whether or not Barack Obama’s name will appear on a ballot this year, the state is being flooded with emails from concerned citizens urging the attorney general to make sure the president is constitutionally eligible to hold the office. Secretary of State Ken Bennett is giving news media a glimpse of the more than 1,200 messages sent to his office since Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced March 1 probable cause exists that Obama’s birth certificate released in 2011 is a forgery. According to KTAR Radio in Phoenix, Brian Reilly of the Surprise Tea Party said...

"His Word" highlights Salmon's record of cutting spending, balancing the budget, honoring term limit promise

Teachers in Arizona would automatically be fired for bringing “partisan doctrine” into their classrooms under a bill pending before the state legislature. Arizona Senate bill 1202 is meant to ensure students get a balanced view of what they’re taught in school, Capitol Media Services reported. In addition to firing teachers who bring partisanship into the classroom, school districts that allow it to happen would face losing state funding. The bill is being sponsored by state Sen. Lori Klein of Anthem, who said she has received complaints about “political indoctrination in the classroom,” according to CMS. Klein, a Republican, is also...

Arizona's secretary of state said Friday he had asked officials in Hawaii to verify that Barack Obama was born in their state in order for the president's name to appear on the November ballot in Arizona. Ken Bennett, who is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign co-chairman in Arizona, said he made the request on behalf of a constituent. Earlier this year, hardline Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that an investigation by his office had found that Obama's birth certificate was a forgery. Most Republican critics of Obama have given up pushing widely discredited long-running allegations that he was not...

A Democrat member of Arizona’s House of Representatives who fights for illegal aliens’ rights, Paul Ben Arredondo, was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury with bribery, fraud, attempted extortion and false statements he made to the FBI in connection with receiving more than $6,000 in tickets to sporting and special events while he was a Tempe, Arizona, council member and a member-elect of the Arizona House, according to a federal law enforcement official. The indictment charges the 63-year-old liberal with one count of federal programs bribery, two counts of honest services mail fraud, one count of attempted Hobbs...

by John HillStand With ArizonaThe Alabama Legislature scored a huge victory on Friday, as Gov. Robert Bentley reluctantly signed immigration law H.B. 658 - after legislators refused to "moderate" provisions Bentley (and open-borders activists) had complained were too "harsh" against illegal aliens. Alabama's immigration law H.B. 56, patterned after Arizona's S.B. 1070, passed in 2011, and has been called the toughest state immigration law in America. But several issues were causing legal Alabamans longer lines to obtain state documents and foreign executives issues with being detained, and those provisions were fixed in the new bill. But H.B. 658 (PDF) also...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said late Friday that President Obama will remain on Arizona’s ballot despite conspiracy theory-fueled threats from the state’s top election official. “The president of the United States is not going to be taken off the ballot,” McCain told Phoenix television station KPNX.

Nationally recognized conservative organization calls Salmon "courageous leader" EAST VALLEY - Former Congressman and candidate for Arizona's 5th congressional district Matt Salmon today received the endorsement from the Citizens United Political Victory Fund (CUPVF). CUPVF, the affiliated PAC of Citizens United and widely recognized as the "Conservative PAC for Conservative Candidates," issued the following statement from David N. Bossie, President of Citizens United: "Matt Salmon is a principled conservative and it is critically important for him to return to Congress at this seminal moment in American history. Matt will be a courageous leader in Washington from day one, because he...

May 18, 2012 Jonathan Karl Ariz. Sec. of State Wants to See Proof of Obama’s Citizenship Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett wants you to know that he is not a birther, but he says he wants proof of Barack Obama’s citizenship before putting his name on the Arizona ballot. In a radio interview today, Bennett said he is just doing his job of making sure “that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.” He says he has been trying for eight weeks to get documents from Hawaii. In...

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is threatening to keep President Obama’s name off the state’s ballot in November unless he receives confirmation from Hawaii that it has a valid birth certificate on file for him. Bennett, who spoke to Arizona radio host Mike Broomhead Thursday, said he requested the confirmation eight weeks ago and has not gotten it. Hawaii, he said, does not have to supply a certified copy of the birth certificate, merely send him an email confirming that it has one. Asked by Broomhead if he would remove Obama’s name from the ballot if Hawaii fails to...

A New York judge ruled yesterday that the government may not lock up American citizens without due process as allowed by the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Bob Van Voris and Patricia Hurtado at Bloomberg report U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled against President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and the Department of Defense and in favor of a group opposing provision 1021 of the NDAA. The opposition, including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges, filed the complaint January 13....A bit of background: Late last year Senate Armed Services Chairman senior member John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Carl Levin...

As four separate wildfires devour the state of Arizona-burning more than 17,500 acres at last count-it’s instructive to look at how our government has handled its investigation into the two enormous ones which blazed a path of destruction across the state in 2011. According to the Arizona Daily Star, both the Horseshoe 2 and the Monument Fire were caused by humans, which in the case of national forests invariably means illegal aliens and/or Mexican narco-traffickers nesting within wilderness cordoned off from American citizens. The tragedy, which should elicit anger and frustration in anyone concerned about the environment and the lives...

A state official in Arizona has asked Hawaii for verification of the information on Barack Obama’s birth certificate, the document that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s special investigative team has concluded may be a forgery. Members of the Surprise, Ariz., Tea Party, who petitioned Arpaio to investigate Obama’s eligibility, say they are awaiting word from the state secretary of state regarding whether Obama’s name will be on the 2012 presidential ballot in Arizona. Secretary of State Ken Bennett had promised to ask Hawaii officials for verification of Obama’s documentation, vowing that if answers are not forthcoming, Obama’s name will not be on...

The Obama administration has launched a new battle over water rights that threatens not only the the economies of arid Western states, which largely voted against him in the 2008 election, but their very existence. WND reported last month that the federal government was creating obstacles for Tombstone, Ariz., to restore its water supplies following last year’s forest fire and monsoon-triggered floods in the nearby mountains. The federal government said crews could not use machinery to rebuild pipelines and spring-water collection systems. Now, a letter contradicting longstanding federal practice asserts a claim to water in arid Western states, such as...

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to find out if taxpayer dollars received by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office through a federal grant program were used by his deputies to illegally detain Hispanics whom the government alleges were the victims of racial profiling. If so, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, wants the Justice Department to consider ways of getting the money back - a total that could exceed $25 million. “I urge the department to take all appropriate steps to determine whether taxpayer dollars - have been used in connection with the...

by John HillStand With Arizona “They caught the wrong Sheriff on this matter.”Those seven words should have sent the message loud and clear to the Obama administration that they are in for a tough, and potentially embarrassing fight against "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, who has become the nation's most prominent symbol in the fight against illegal immigration, appeared on the Mike Broomhead show on KFYI in his first interview since being officially served with a suit by the Obama administration’s Justice Department. Click below for full interview... Arpaio was, predictably, entirely un-intimidated, condescendingly remarking that “it’s a political...

by John HillStand With Arizona If you needed a symbol of the utterly preposterous lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriffs Department (MCSO), this may well be it. On page 2 of the 32-page complaint, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, the Department of Justice references "insensitive" emails sent by MCSO employees. The prima fascie evidence? Read for yourself... MCSO supervisors involved in immigration enforcement have expressed anti-Latino bias, in one instance widely distributing an email that included a photograph of a Chihuahua dog dressed in swimming gear with the caption “A Rare Photo of...

URGENT: PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AT THIS LINK to show you Stand With Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and AGAINST the political witchhunt of Obama's Department of Justice. This Administration and its open-borders allies La Raza, MALDEF and the ACLU, will stop at nothing to try and destroy the most prominent national symbol in the fight against illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe will not back down. Please sign the petition to show you stand behind him. [UPDATE: MoveOn.org and La Raza have launched their own petition AGAINST Sheriff Joe, and it has already gathered 38,700 signatures, and rising fast as LA RAZA, the...

Providing proof that Sheriff Joe Arpaio intends to continue his investigation of President Obama’s eligiblity, his Cold Case Posse has pressed the director of the Selective Service System not to destroy any microfilm records that may yet exist of Obama’s 1980 draft registration form. In an emergency letter Wednesday to Selective Service System Director Lawrence Romo, Mike Zullo, the lead investigator in the Cold Case Posse, asked for reassurance that the microfilm records still exist. “We would like to be assured of the disposition of the microfilm reel or reels containing President Obama’s Selective Service registration form,” Zullo wrote. “Please...

Washington, DC – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued the following statement after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced it will file a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for civil rights violations and racial profiling. The Department of Justice found reasonable cause to believe that Arpaio’s office has engaged in a pattern or practice of constitutional rights violations, including obvious discrimination against Latino residents, unlawful retaliation against critics and discriminating against Hispanic inmates in county jails.“I commend the Obama Administration and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez for their decision to file a lawsuit against Arizona Sheriff Joe...

PHOENIX (AP) - An audio recording has surfaced of an Arizona sheriff playing his refusal to cooperate in a racial profiling investigation for laughs at a fundraiser for an anti-illegal immigration group in Texas. He ridicules politicians who sought the probe and displayed contempt toward federal authorities who were - and are still - investigating him on two fronts. The dismissive comments in 2009 by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio came as the U.S. Justice Department had already launched a civil rights probe of his trademark immigration patrols and the FBI already was examining abuse-of-power allegations for the sheriff’s investigations...

Here we go. Ever since Obama took office, opponents of illegal immigration knew it would come to this. This Administration has already dismantled the enforcement regime against illegal aliens. They engineered a unilateral amnesty for nearly 2 million illegal aliens by a stroke of Obama's pen last August. They sued to stop states like Arizona, Alabama and Georgia from enforcing existing immigration laws after the Feds failed to do so. The Attorney General has bullied states like Texas and South Carolina, by blocking voter ID laws designed to stop voter fraud by illegal aliens and others. But no matter what...

A state championship high school baseball game is over before tonight's first pitch, after one Arizona team forfeited rather than play an opponent with a girl in the lineup. Our Lady of Sorrows refused to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in Thursday’s scheduled Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship game, because that team has Paige Sultzbach at second base. The 15-year-old agreed to sit out a pair of regular season victories over Our Lady of Sorrows, which is run by the Society of St. Pius X, an traditionalist church that broke away from Roman Catholic Church over Vatican reforms in 1970....

by John HillStand With Arizona Thank you, Granite State! The New Hampshire Senate yesterday joined the House in passing a resolution (full text below) proclaiming that "the state of New Hampshire fully supports the State of Arizona’s right to protect its borders and citizens" by passing its immigration law S.B. 1070. The resolution's path to passage was very contentious, with opponents testifying hysterically against it in both chambers, and Democrats trying all manner of procedural gimmicks to try and derail it - all in vain. House Concurrent Resolution 2 (HCR2) passed the Senate 15-9 last evening after slapping down an...

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - A big fire occurred at Whiskey Row in Prescott on Tuesday. Three businesses were destroyed -- including the Bird Cage Saloon, leaving more than 30 people without jobs.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed off on a bill that will prevent abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving public funds in most cases, her office.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that will cut off public funding for organizations that perform "nonfederally qualified abortions," striking a blow to Planned Parenthood in the state. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that will cut off public funding for organizations that perform "nonfederally qualified abortions," striking a blow to Planned Parenthood in the state.

A week after Supreme Court arguments over Arizona's illegal-immigration law, the arrest, detention and subsequent release of an undocumented woman following a traffic stop added a real-world example to the courtroom debate about how the statute could play out. Araceli Mercado Sanchez, who is married to an American soldier and is in the process of legalizing her U.S. residency, was pulled over Tuesday for making an illegal turn, and sent to immigration authorities when she couldn't produce a driver's license or Social Security card requested by a sheriff's deputy. Federal authorities released her late Thursday after she had spent two...

Rick Santorum Backs Richard Mourdock in Indiana Senate Race By Shushannah Walshe | ABC OTUS News Rick Santorum has weighed in on the fierce primary battle in the Indiana senate race. The former presidential candidate tweeted his support of State Treasurer Richard Mourdock over longtime Sen. Dick Lugar. @RickSantorum: I encourage Hoosiers to help GOTV for @RichardMourdock. If I lived in Indiana he'd have my vote in Tuesday's #INSen race. Lugar has held the seat since 1976, but Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock is waging a serious challenge and is leading in state polls. Mourdock also has the backing of...

by John HillStand With Arizona It's been a busy week for Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) deputies, as they have captured 49 illegal aliens being smuggled into the U.S. in multi-point sweeps across the region over the past 5 days, including 15 arrested this morning alone. And as in nearly 80% of such cases involving MCSO, most of the illegals were headed for states other than Arizona. On Tuesday afternoon, sheriff's detectives were investigating two vehicles near Fountain Hills for human smuggling. The first vehicle contained 10 illegal aliens, including the coyote, which were heading...

The City of Tombstone, Arizona is no longer the only one fighting the federal government for water rights. The latest move by the Federal Bureau of Land Management appears to herald a bigger and much more comprehensive effort to seize water and access rights on federal lands throughout the western states. Just last week, the Bureau of Land Management declared to the Arizona Department of Water Resources that the federal government holds senior water rights across much of Arizona’s San Pedro River riparian watershed. The BLM’s objection to the “Designation of Adequate Water Supply” issued by ADWR to Sierra Vista’s...

Phoenix, AZ -- Transparency in the Obama Administration has a price. The U.S. Forest Service wants $78,935.80 before it will share public records the Goldwater Institute has requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Not only is the U.S. Forest Service blocking emergency repairs to the City of Tombstone’s Huachuca Mountain water supply, it is now hiding the documents that might explain its outrageous conduct.  In a showdown with the “town too tough to die,� the U.S. Forest Service blocked Tombstone from repairing its mountain spring aqueduct after it was destroyed in the 2011 Monument Fire. The Forest Service is...

TUCSON, Arizona – Members of the Hispanic community of southern Arizona marched through the streets Tuesday to demand an end to the deportations and racism provoked by state laws like SB 1070. Hispanics “are the base and strength of the pyramid we live on,” Raul Alcaraz, representative of the South Side Workers Center, told some 200 demonstrators carrying banners through the streets of Tucson slamming Arizona’s SB 1070 and deportations. “We’re marching here to defend immigrants’ rights that are being attacked with unjust laws like SB 1070. This law has hurt many of our communities, sowing terror and breaking up...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will listen to arguments in the Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona's immigration-enforcement law. In advance of the hearing, public opinion polls are showing that by more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans support Arizona's efforts and don't want the high court to overturn it. The recent poll about the Arizona's Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, SB 1070 shows: 65% of voters favor the law, while 31% oppose it. 84% of Republicans favor Arizona’s law, while 46% of Democrats do. 51% majority of Democrats opposes the law. Independents favor the law by a 40...

(CNSNews.com) – If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Arizona’s tough immigration bill, the Obama attorney arguing against SB 1070 predicted “mass incarceration” of Latinos. But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told CNSNews.com that he does not see that as a problem in his jurisdiction. “We lock up people all the time,” Arpaio said in a phone interview last week. “Since I started enforcement, we’ve arrested on the streets, investigated – in our jails over 51,000. “I didn’t see any problem, other than the fact that some activists and politicians in Washington (don’t) like me enforcing the illegal immigration...