In Today's Flash Flooding News

Our cousins in Winnipeg are dealing with the celestial overflow that triggered flash flooding.  The Weather Network attributed it to the, by now standard, slow-moving rainstorm that hit the city and lingered long enough to deliver more than 75 mm. or 3" of rain in about 90-minutes.

 

It's been a common story this summer.   Heavy rainstorms that used to move steadily eastward, spreading rainfall across wide areas, now loiter.  When these storms park over one area they deliver amounts of rainfall that quickly overwhelm first storm sewers and then other infrastructure such as roads.

In the States, flash flooding has hit Chicago and parts of Arizona.

The Most Powerful Advocate for Gay Rights in America - The Fortune 500

Big Business had its boot firmly on Arizona governor Jan Brewer's leathered neck this week when she vetoed a bill that would have allowed business owners to discriminate against gays.

...a letter arrived at her office early this week with a stern warning from some of the biggest names in the local business community.

Signed by the heads of four Arizona business consortiums, with board members including officers of Bank of America, Intel and the Arizona Cardinals football franchise, the letter urged Brewer to strike down the measure known as S.B. 1062. The letter raised the prospect that the legislation could stain Arizona’s national reputation and touch off a wave of unpredictable litigation thanks to the bill’s broad, vague wording.

"We are troubled by any legislation that could be interpreted to permit discrimination against a particular group of people in the marketplace,” the missive read. “We all have a fervent desire for Arizona to be a welcoming, attractive destination for the top talent that will be the cornerstone of our continued economic growth.”

It was a sharp admonition from some of the groups — including the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry — that represent the tent poles of the state’s economy. And over the next 48 hours, the private-sector pressure on Brewer just kept growing.

What Arizona proved, as much as any other in recent American politics, is that there’s currently no more powerful constituency for gay rights than the Fortune 500 list.

The corporate community’s engagement in the fight over S.B. 1062 was overpowering: American Express wrote to Brewer on Tuesday asking her to veto the law, according to a spokesman for the credit card company, which has a large presence in the state. JPMorgan, with its 11,000-odd employees in Arizona, said on Wednesday that the legislation “does not reflect the values of our country or the State of Arizona and should be vetoed.” The national bank Wells Fargo also opposed it, along with Apple, Marriott and other big corporations with significant Arizona-based investments.

Christian Fundamentalists Score Another Win. Uganda Implements Anti-Gay Law.

What do Arizona governor Jan Brewer and Uganda prez Yowari Musevini have in common?  They both preside over homophobic governments oppressive to gays.

Brewer is widely expected to sign into law a bill that allows discrimination against pretty much anybody who strays too far from the dictates of Christian fundamentalists.   Her Ugandan counterpart, Musevini, has approved a law imposing tougher penalties on gays.  Musevini has stopped short of approving a bill that would introduce the death penalty for homosexuality but that may become irrelevant.

Uganda, whipped up by the exhortations of American Christian fundamentalists, has turned rabidly anti-gay.  And now the local newspaper, Red Pepper, has published a list of names of 200-prominent gay Ugandans.  I wonder what that's all about?

Homosexual acts were already illegal in Uganda, but the new law bans the promotion of homosexuality and covers lesbians for the first time.

In 2011, Ugandan gay activist David Kato was killed in what rights activists said was a homophobic attack.

His name had appeared on a list published by the now-defunct Ugandan Rolling Stone magazine, calling for the execution of gay people.

U.S. state secretary, John Kerry, says his government will review its foreign aid to Uganda that currently totals $400-million annually.  Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark are cutting off their aid to the Musevini government.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait to hear from Sideshow Steve Harper.

Religious fundamentalism is a dangerous disease whether it's Christian or Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or whatever. 

It's a Start

I couldn't resist borrowing the Ann Coulter line.  A woman in the state that thinks Jan Brewer should be their governor has run down her husband because (a) he didn't vote and (b) Barack Obama won re-election to the White House.


Holly Solomon, 28, was arrested after running over husband Daniel Solomon following a wild chase that left him pinned underneath the vehicle.

Daniel Solomon, 36, was in critical condition at a local hospital, but is expected to survive, Gilbert police spokesman Sergeant Jesse Sanger said.

Police said Daniel Solomon told them his wife became angry over his "lack of voter participation" in last Tuesday's presidential election and believed her family would face hardship as a result of Obama winning another term.

Witnesses reported the argument broke out on Saturday morning in a parking lot and escalated. Mrs Solomon then chased her husband around the lot with the car, yelling at him as he tried to hide behind a light pole, police said. He was struck after attempting to flee to a nearby street.



 

Tucson Wasn't an Aberration. Arizona Is a Nuthouse.

Top to bottom, Arizona exemplifies the disease that has afflicted the American psyche.   It's the state with the lowest per capita debt and yet it's one of the most insolvent.   They even flogged off their state legislature building to raise a few bucks.

Arizona, home to that angry old geezer, John McCain, introduced draconian anti-immigrant laws.   Then there was that bizarre mid-term election with lunatic candidates making preposterous claims.   Hot on the heels of that came the Tucson shootings by a guy who demonstrated that, in Arizona, the deranged have no trouble arming themselves to the teeth.

Now it's the state's attorney general, Tom Horne, showing the world the true face of Arizona.   The Horne dog has ordered Tucson-area schools to drop classes in Mexican-American history and social studies.   Horne claims these classes are "propagandising and brainwashing" students into overthrowing the constitutional government and hating white people.

Horne wrote a law barring Arizona schools from holding classes that breached any of four prohibitions: promoting the overthrow of the government, creating resentment toward a race or class of people, focusing on students of one ethnic group or promoting ethnic solidarity.

Of course deciding what class or textbook "creates resentment toward a race" is a pretty subjective matter unless, of course, you see it in the context of how non-whites might perceive whites.   Then it's easy as hell.

It's a phase they're going through in the American southwest.   White majorities are threatened by burgeoning Latino populations.   Soon it'll be Mexican-Americans who are in the majority.   Maybe rubbing their noses in the dirt just before they get majority status isn't such a bright thing.

"That Was an Error, If I Said That"

Jan Brewer, Arizona's Dingbat-in-Chief

Arizona's uber-Right governor Jan Brewer has been shoved off her perch and landed in the bottom of her cage.   The pathetically silly Republican incumbent has been forced to back away from her bizarre claims that Arizona law enforcement officers were coming across beheaded bodies in the state's border desert region.   Ms. Brewer was shamelessly trying to incite fear of Mexican immigrants to divert attention from the truly awful predicament Arizona has fallen into on her watch.

Arizona is teetering on the brink of Tea Party bankrutpcy.   Although it has one of the lowest, per capita debtloads of any U.S. state, its politicians worship at the altar of tax cuts to the point where the state's ability to provide decent services has been truly beheaded.

Ever the weasel, Gov Jan couldn't even muster up the decency to acknowledge what she had said.  From the Associated Press:

"Brewer apparently first referred to beheadings during a June 16 interview with Fox News, talking about "the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings and the fact that people can't feel safe in their community" in discussing controversy surrounding the immigration law.



She went further in a June 27 interview on Phoenix television station KPNX when asked about the beheadings claim.


"Oh, our law-enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," Brewer said.


None of the southern Arizona coroners who handle immigrant cases have encountered headless bodies.


It's not the first time Brewer, who became governor when Democrat Janet Napolitano resigned to became secretary of the federal Department of Homeland Security, has drawn criticism for exaggerated remarks. In June, she said most illegal immigrants entering Arizona are being used to transport drugs across the border, an assertion panned by most people who study immigration."

It would seem that Brewer's polling numbers convinced her that she had to try to put the headless Mexican scam behind her.   I'll bet she wishes that's one body she could bury out in the Arizona desert.

Arizona Kampf - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

America's descent into fascism got a huge boost this week when the governor of Arizona signed a bill into law that orders police to stop anyone "if reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the US". "Reasonable suspicion" is code for appearing Latino. The new law even gives citizens the right to sue local authorities that don't enforce this law. The Guardian reports that the law has sparked outrage and calls to boycott the state of Arizona:

In a sign of the passions aroused, cleaning crews were called to the state legislative building this morning to clear swastikas daubed on it overnight.

Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to victimisation of anyone who looks or sounds Latino. Supporters say the legislation is needed because the state can no longer cope with an estimated 450,000 illegal immigrants.

Among those calling for a sweeping boycott was the San Francisco city attorney, Dennis Herrera, who urged city departments to look at contracts with Arizona that could be terminated.

Posters were created over the weekend supporting a boycott, including one by the Chicano writer and artist Harry Gamboa headed "Boycott Hate State Arizona".

Repugnant as this is, it may be just the beginning of a darker, more violent reaction to illegals from the south. Central America and the northern parts of South America are expected to be hard hit by global warming, hard enough to trigger mass climate migration north. Gwynne Dyer addresses the issue head on in his book "Climate Wars." Dyer contends that America may eventually resort to lethal force, possibly on a mass scale, to seal off its border against climate migrants. While that may sound fiendish, even diabolical, bear in mind that the United States will by then have its hands full just trying to deal with internal climate migration out of the drought-stricken south and low-lying coastal areas. It's akin to the 50's when homeowners prepared to guard their backyard bomb shelters with shotguns to keep out their neighbours, only this time on a massive scale.