Teapublicans vote to create AZ Tea Party license plate and directly fund Tea Party
New design for Arizona Tea Party license plate. (Image Credit: Pamela Powers)
Just when you thought that the Arizona Senate couldn’t find anything else to diddle around with and waste time on, they found three more pressing issues to address– before tackling the budget or passing legislation to create jobs and build the economy.
What’s so important that they had to further delay the business of Arizona?
1- Passing a resolution in support of union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
2- Paving the way for an new Arizona license plate honoring and financially supporting the Tea Party.
3- Making the Colt single-action Army revolver the official state firearm.
Of the items on this list, the one that bothers me the most is the Tea Party license plate– not because of what the Tea Party stands for but because the funds from the sale of this official state license plate won’t go to the state of Arizona, they go to bankroll the Tea Party in Arizona.
Why is the Arizona Senate using a state agency– the Arizona Department of Transportation– and the Arizona law requiring vehicle license plates to raise funds for a political party? If you want to have license plates that show one’s political affiliation and channel funds to all parties– or better yet to Clean Elections– that’s one thing, but to pass a law that financially benefits one political party is blatant cronyism.
Is it even legal to pass a law to benefit one political party? OK, that’s right, whether or not something is legal hasn’t stopped the Arizona Legislature in the past. One benefit to the new Tea Party plate is that the rest of us will know who’s packin’ heat when we pass them in traffic.
Here are more details from the Arizona Daily Star…
The budget is not balanced. The governor wants to eliminate health care for 250,000 people. Nearly one out of 10 Arizonans who want jobs can’t find one. And there are plans to slash funding for higher education.
But that didn’t keep the state Senate from taking the time Thursday to debate and approve a resolution supporting the Republican governor of Wisconsin in his fight with labor unions.
Senators also voted to create yet another special license plate. But unlike some others aimed at raising money for causes like spaying pets, service to veterans and organ donation, the proceeds from this license plate would benefit tea party groups around the state.And lawmakers gave preliminary approval to declaring the Colt single-action Army revolver the official state firearm.
That last one proved too much for Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.
“Out of all the problems facing the state of Arizona, the citizens of Arizona should rest comfortably in bed tonight knowing we now have a state firearm,” he chided his colleagues.
He recited a list of issues facing the state, including record foreclosures, large numbers of Arizonans without health insurance and people looking for jobs.“I’m sorry,” Gallardo said. “I would bet if we did a poll in the state of Arizona, the people of Arizona would come out and say this is not one of their priorities.” [Emphasis added.]
[tnipoll]
18 comments on “Teapublicans vote to create AZ Tea Party license plate and directly fund Tea Party”
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One has to wonder is this legal, ought the legislators who voted for this be investigated for “unethical/illegal conflict of interest'” if their campaigns get any of this state money? Sounds like someone is either foolish, stupid or both!
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I don’t think the “tea party” has enough shelf life to matter – in a couple of years it will be an historical oddity.
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You are wrong on the shelf life but I dont want them getting money from the plates, Stupid idea.
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…in a couple of years it will be an historical oddity.
Perhaps, but the Law of conservation of Bigotry proves that it will only change form, not essence.
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Thank you for remembering, and that is true 🙂
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The gun fetish thing is baffling. I have to think that it has its origins in repressed sexual fantasies of some kind. This is just one reason why I politely decline when people ask me if I would like to handle a weapon. You really don’t know where those things have been.
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“…..fetish thing is baffling.” Its called the Constitution. 2nd Amendment. Read it sometime there are a few others in there that you may like. Maybe your friends in Cuba and the old Soviet Union would have liked it.
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Expressing a conservative point of view on the Tucson Citizen boards is about as rare a seeing a sign in a Kosher Jewish restaurant announcing tonight’s special as pork chops w/mashed potatoes and red-eye gravy. Hats off to 007, I don’t know how he does it. — Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba
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It goes way beyond that, fraser. Way, way beyond that. It has to be a weird sexual thing of some kind.
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Who or what is the TEA Party? Is there an official organization or multiple?
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Wow . you are commeting on another blogsite. Amazing. How would you feel if you were denied the chance to comment?
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I think the fact that there is no officially registered Tea Party in Arizona makes this license plate fee giveaway deal legal. There are only 4 officially registered parties in Arizona– Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green. Who is the Tea Party? It is a misguided movement fueled by corporate greed and lies generated by FOX News. (I will now don my hard hat and get ready for the barrage.)
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The gun fetish is widely known, many males with a lacking in their trousers try to compensate with proving their manhood virility with a gun, us males with no such ego, low self esteem issues see guns for hunting, have no obsession with toting one 24/7 on our hips, if one wishes to spot a man with a short gun in his trousers he will have a gun on his hip!:-) Odds are pretty good he’s lacking where it counts!;-)
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This is a joke… right?
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If te Tea Party can get a license plate…then could the Free Baja Arizona movement?
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Good idea! Baja Arizona has just as much right to a state handout as the Tea Party. 🙂
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