Calling the governor's proposal unacceptable and politically dead at the Legislature, House Speaker Andy Tobin unveiled his own new plan Tuesday to expand Medicaid, one that would give Arizona voters the final say.

I’d like to thank Bryan Brinkley (“Richardson’s arguments are absurd,” AFN May 3) for taking the time to respond to the “absurd” arguments in my many gun control articles.

Three years ago, in the wake of a new Arizona law aimed at those in the country illegally, tens of thousands converged on the Capitol with a message: Today we march, tomorrow we vote.

Did you catch The Rev. Jesse Jackson the other night on CNN demanding a Senate hearing into why regulators never cracked down on that gruesome abortion clinic in Philadelphia?

Scrambling to find votes for her Medicaid expansion plan, Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday she is now willing to approve legislation to stop Planned Parenthood from getting any of the funds.

Monday was the deadline for another column, and so right now I should be polishing up 500 words or so about why women do more housekeeping than men and bundling it off to the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

Saying the move would make no sense, Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday refused to insert an anti-abortion provision into her plan to expand the state's Medicaid program.

State lawmakers took the first steps Monday to what some hope will be outlawing the "isolation rooms'' used by some schools to deal with problem students.

A federal judge has permanently blocked Arizona from cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood solely because the organization also performs abortions.

A 2008-2010 birth control study to more than 9,000 poor and uninsured St. Louis women proved that when proper information is given, more effective family planning methods are chosen. After receiving free counseling, teens between the ages of 15 to 19 had only 6.3 out-of-wedlock births compared to national rates of 34.3. And for every 1,000 women, the St. Louis general population lowered abortion rates to 13.4, compared to 20, the national rate.

In the wake of all of the tragedies in the news recently, there’s a groundswell of support for tighter gun restrictions in order to protect our children.

A series of new restrictions on abortions in the last four years has propelled Arizona into the Top Five of all states in a list of places considered most friendly to "pro-life'' issues.

Arizonans may finally get a break this year from what has been a perennial debate over two high-profile issues.

I am so tempted to write the words “I told you so” over and over again up to the 500-word limit allowed for a commentary in this newspaper. It would be so easy to gloat about how liberals won and conservatives lost. It would make me giddy to point out how Arizona is so out-of-touch with the rest of the Left Coast.

Jim Taunt’s long-winded critique of the Catholic Church (“What is wrong with my Catholic Church?” AFN, Nov. 7) has an astounding omission: he never mentions the pedophile scandal. Throughout the dismal progress of this immoral fiasco, the Church’s self-perpetuating patriarchy displayed monumental hypocrisy, plus incredible contempt for the priest-molested victims. The Catholic bishops intimidated abused altar-boys’ parents, urging them to keep quiet. They failed to warn parishes to which pedophile priests were irresponsibly transferred; and they failed to report the molesters’ crimes to local law officials.

We’re battle worn. The past two years of campaigns were no less hostile than Hurricane Sandy. Election pundits tell us we’re a nation divided and stuck in this place. All the while, the critical mass of the big government crowd has taken control. We’ve been told this day would come, and it has.

“All people are born alike — except Republicans and Democrats,” Groucho Marx

This is my rebuttal to Mr. Raul Gomez (“Vote and make the correct choice,” AFN, Oct. 28).

PHOENIX -- Two leading anti-abortion groups are urging voters to reject Proposition 204 under a theory that some of the money raised by the tax could wind up in the coffers of Planned Parenthood.

The state’s most active anti-abortion group is taking credit for what appears to be a significant drop in the number of women terminating their pregnancies.

Diarra Hamilton, known as aVoicE, prefers the title “Urban Christian” rather than rapper.

• 23 million Americans are out of work, have stopped looking for work, or are underemployed.

In her Sept. 5 (Spiritual Side) column (“‘Coming out’ for marriage equality — a letter of thanks”) Diane Meehl proclaimed her support for legal and church marriages between persons other than one man and one woman. Meehl urged Christian churches to follow suit, saying “does the church want to continue to be associated with a divisive issue about which we likely will never achieve consensus?” There are many “divisive issues” — including the divinity of Christ and the message of salvation — on which the church must take an unwavering position on principle, not on the nose count of a supposed “consensus.”

There has been uproar over the comments that Todd Akin (U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Congressional District 2) made about abortion. Many people are offended that he referred to “legitimate abortion” and women’s bodies being able to shut down when raped. I am not clear exactly what he meant or where he got his information, but this is clearly a man who is passionate about the anti-abortion cause and is not very good at expressing his viewpoint on the issue.

Clint Eastwood just “made my day” by endorsing Mitt Romney for president. It’s nice to see that there are still some “beautiful people” left in decadent Hollywood that have not been totally taken in by the charlatan Barack Obama and his Godless, anti-life agenda that includes the world-wide advancement of such moral evils as abortion, homosexuality and embryonic stem cell research.