Somebody Stop the Mayor - He's Gone Nuts

Read the latest ridiculousness HERE. 

Here's what I took from the article....

The Mayor of El Paso and the District Attorney are putting political foes UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION for being... political foes.  Are you serious?  We have church going people being hauled up on to the witness stand and by default being investigated for activities that take place in their house of worship?  And all of this is originating from elected officials?  Are you kidding me?  And please excuse my use of a ridiculously over-used patriotic phrase here, but THIS IS AMERICA!   You can't go persecuting people based on their religion - and that's what's happening right now in an El Paso courtroom.  They aren't hauling Catholics, Jews or Methodists up to the stand to testify against themselves - they hauling up the non-denominational people from a few churches. 

If you don't have a serious problem with this - you're a commie.  No if, ands or buts about it, if you think it's okay to persecute church members like this, you're a commie red and you can't deny it. 

I'd like to see Mr. Esparza walk into St. (pick your Catholic church and put it here) when the dude up on the stage (priest) starts telling the audience what issues and which party they should vote for and haul the guy off in handcuffs. 

Any chance the mayor had at even trying to fight for his life in a recall has disappeared with this move.  All anyone has to do is run ads showing that the mayor will use his political connections with the District Attorney to investigate you if you disagree with him.  The political cronyism here is some the worst I've seen and deal with politics in all 57 of President Obama's states. 

If I was Pastor Brown, I would be filing a civil rights lawsuit TODAYfor religious persecution.  He can easily prove that a narrow swath of people who adhere to specific religious ideology are being targeted by government officials when it's obvious that similar activities are a near daily occurrence in many other churches in the region.  The occurrences being quite obviously legal in all respects too!

I'm no apologist for Pastor Brown - he's a weirdo megalomaniac whose thoughts on equality for all sicken me - however, he has a right to those views and should never be specifically scrutinized by the government for those views.

Comments

[Carl Starr]

I think its interesting that Citizens United was itself a Church or Church advocate org. The issue will turn on thin line difference between a candidate election vs recall petition. The timing of EP matter and Citizens United national news is novel. Since the law is a knife, the other thin line for the law is corporate greed or I should say corporate profit or maybe corporate influence for greed or profit on politics vs nonprofit social justice corporations for humanity vs nonprofit social moral corporations for God ie Churches.

This thin differences are either major or minor is what courts will decide.

Also there is a big difference in what Cook is doing and the DA. As Cook said anyone with $125 can file a suit. I do not think the DA is targeting nondemoninational chasamatic churches in concert with Mayor Cook. Look at Muslims case law re targeting. Again the thin line here is $125 vs Probable Cause.

Brigham Young University Law Review 2010 2010 B.Y.U.L. Rev. 2243 Despite the fact that Citizens United has strengthened the free speech rights of all organizations, including tax-exempt religious organizations, concern for maintaining the separation of church and state under the Establishment Clause may ultimately prevent the courts from completely overturning the political activities restrictions of § 501(c)(3) in favor of entirely unlimited political speech.

2011 North Carolina Law Review Association First Amendment Law Review Winter, 2011 9 First Amend. L. Rev. 448 LENGTH: 15464 words SYMPOSIUM: CITIZENS UNITED: ARTICLE: POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF TAX-EXEMPT CHURCHES, PARTICULARLY AFTER CITIZENS UNITED V. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION AND CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 8 BAN ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: RENDER UNTO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR'S

[Thomas]

David
The D.A. just lost his next election by getting into this.He should of left it to the Texas election commission.The man is not as bright as some believe.I
believe Cook will not win this and the recall will go ahead.Cook is complaining about cost but wait until it goes to the Supreme Court.If,let me say this again"IF"the stories are true Cook is not footing the bill for this to start with,he should be forced to disclose this information and who is paying the bill.

[Resign for the sake of El Paso]

See the pic of Susie and Ortega in the article. i guess Susie is texting Veronica asking will you hire me if i resign and Ortega texting Bayto asking will you hire me if i resign.

Resign and take Cook with you. Take Esparza with you too. He is a worthless D.A.

[Thomas]

Carl
The way I see it the courts will have to use the knife to decide which signatures were gained unlawfully. Remember not all came from Brown and the church. Also the voters signed their names in good faith and signing the petition whether on the street or in the Church. Brown can be held for acting unlawfully but I think the courts will be hard pressed to say the each voter who signed was acting unlawfully and were not within their right to sign, as a voter, no matter if it was in the streets or the church. Seem it would hinge on was these people acting as a body of the church or individual legal voters of the city. I do not still believe the courts will throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Then again these days stranger things have happened with the courts in our nation.
Thomas

[Carl Starr]

I tend to agree Thomas. Also there is one SCOTUS case saying one does not have to be a registered voter etc to gather Petition signers...I think what the case means is in regular candidate election setting one may have to be registered etc but in raw Petition setting setting ie here recall the 'rules' are more relaxed in the interested of 1st Amendment "Right to Petition" be it in church, streets or anywhere, even underground vs Free Speech prong of 1st Amendment only. To me this makes sense ie its true the 1st Amendment is not absolute re time, place and matter...the free speech prong anyways but what is more nearer absolute is the "Right to Petition" because it can be done silent...it is underground already re oppositon whereas the free speech prong is more opinion and free expression vs Right to Petition is closer to Revolt or Recall.

[Gossip Girl]

Perhaps Steve Ortega would be taken more seriously if he would put on a pair of socks with that suit! Yuk!!

[Carl Starr]

i ment manner not matter...shhhh talk about content based...

[voter]

Yes - what was up with the "no socks" look with a suit. I get it with casual dress - but seriously Steve - try to look like you are actually an elected representative.

DavidK's right - this battle has gone on long enough and Cook should devote his time and attention to defeating his recall instead of dragging El Paso voters into court and asking them questions about where they go to church.

[Resign Please]

Ortega is trying to fit in with the no sock will occupy my feet el paso group. Either that or while he was at occupy el paso someone stole the socks off his feet while he was napping.

[no mas]

This goes way beyond wierdo megalomania.

Mayor John Cook testified on Tuesday that if he's recalled, El Paso stands to lose his experience and his vision for the city.

The mayor talked about his vision as he testified that he would be irreparably harmed if the recall went forward.

"We set a vision for El Paso, focusing on Downtown revitalization and improvement of our transportation system," Cook said as he spoke about his time as mayor since 2005.

Cook said he is being harmed by having to finance a legal defense, wage a political fight against the recall and because he might be forced from office in May.

[Texaswoman]

We are here simply because a group of people do not want gays to have health insurance and are willing to sacrifice a 100 or more employees to get their way.

[Cook shitted on my vote]

Wrong Texaswoman. I dont want the city paying any of the dependent care on anyone. If you work for the city then you should have to pay for your spouse(wife,partner,live-in,ho's,horse), kids, and whomever or whatever else you want to add on to the policy. I have to do it in the private sector. So should they. Cook shitted on my vote. I could care less about Tom Brown and Crazy Manny. He is going down for the count.

[Texaswoman]

They do pay.

[voter]

They pay a portion - 30%. In the private sector dependent coverage is paid for 100% by the employee.

[dot]

Texas - Most people were less bothered by the domestic partners than by the news that we are paying for coverage for people other than city employees - including Sheriff Wiles. He makes a better living than I do and can buy insurance on the open market like everyone else does. Very few people like Brown or what he preaches, but most of us signed the petition because Mayor and Council voted to overturned election results they didn't like. On that premise, if they don't like the results of the recall election, then will they overturn those as well?

[voter]

I agree with dot. Private corporations offer domestic benefits. The employees don't care that its available. What we care about is funding 70% of dependent coverage (spouse and kids) for a city employee with our taxpayer dollars. If I can't get that benefit in the private sector I sure as hell don't think it should be available in the taxpayer funded public sector.

I wonder what the conversation would have been if a regular "Joe" taxpayer objected to funding dependent coverage and put an initiative on the ballot to stop funding 70% of dependent coverage. Do you think we would be having this nasty discussion and lawsuits, etc? Maybe that should be the next step.

[Texaswoman]

Sorry but the law allows for the deletion of an ordinance even if it's by petition. I also wonder where people have been. Votes are overturned all of the time. Be it this ordinance to legalize discrimination or Romer v Evans or is it that you want Lilly as your Mayor because if you recall Cook that is what you will get.

[Texaswoman]

Voter

Do you mean to include Police and Fire employee dependents in your demand.

[tired of worthless public employees]

Texaswomen, all employee dependents including police and fire. remember we bailed their pension out for 20 mil. when is someone gonna bail my roth ira that dropped 50 percent of its value. no one, thats who. let the employee pay for all of dependent coverage. if juan or jose wants to have 12 kids, then let him pay for their coverage.

[student]

Commi?
Who cares about the church i dont care what church religion it is.
they arent above the law tec has set guidelines and churches need to follow it also!
and i dont know which jews are going to court? Fool
david when you get your facts straight it'll be a great thing.
your so funny, and yep exactly were in AMERICA, we should all be equal but yet the church is trying to discriminate!
the church has been the reason for the most murders, discrmination, and oppression in the world.
And i have facts to shows you all that!
Commies? Really please dude!
And it isnt against the law to over turn a vote like that!
if Brown would have balls and had just put on the ordinance gays should not have benefits everything would be settled!
And if these people were GODS people its odd to think Brown is so rich!
Thats not what jesus taught!

[David K]

student,

um... go ahead and read what I wrote and try to keep your comments about it on topic.

I think you were having an imaginary argument with strawmen you invented in your head.

I'd like to take your points and educate you on them, but it's obvious that you wouldn't understand in the end. Our public schools have failed you, unfortunately.