Blog For Arizona

The Farley Report - January 31, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Time once again for the Farley report from Rep. Steve Farley (D-Tucson):

There are many caucuses in the Arizona Legislature besides the Republican and Democratic caucuses, including the Children's Caucus, Native American Caucus, Tourism Caucus, Animal Caucus, and others organized around important issues.

There is one glaring omission, especially for a state with as many older citizens as Arizona -- a Senior Caucus. So I set out to create one and find members of both parties to help. 

Living with my mother's four-year struggle with dementia (which ended in her death last April) made very clear to me that we need to work together in a bipartisan way to educate ourselves and develop policies that confront the very real issues associated with aging.

The first expression of this nascent caucus is a trio of bills I introduced yesterday, each of which was co-sponsored by Republicans Kimberly Yee (Phoenix), Rick Gray (Sun City), and Cecil Ash (Mesa):

HB2713 establishes the Arizona Long-Term Care Trust, a program whereby taxpayers can set aside funds from their paycheck into a savings account that can accrue tax-free interest and be withdrawn for long-term care expenses when needed. Increasing numbers of us are needing long-term care of some kind, and we are going to face a major financial crisis as a society due to increasing costs unless we find a way to pay for it. This trust makes saving for long-term care more attractive to all of us.

HB2714 requires that financial institutions with reasonable suspicion that an elder is a victim of financial abuse must report that suspicion to the Attorney General's office for possible investigation. Elder financial abuse has become an increasing problem across the country as more vulnerable adults are depending on others for their financial decisions, some of whom do not have the elders' best interests in mind. Door-to-door and other financial scams that take advantage of trusting seniors would especially be targeted.

HB2715 establishes a registry of caregivers of seniors and the developmentally disabled in both institutional and at-home settings who have a substantiated history of abuse toward their clients. Currently abusive caregivers are hard to track in a business that has high employee turnover rates. This would enable seniors and care facilities to find out any past history of abuse before any hire.

These are strong, bipartisan bills that help seniors and those who love them. They deserve a fair hearing. Sadly, the Speaker of the House Andy Tobin (R-Paulden) appears to be making Democratic bills' road to passage very difficult this year through unfavorable committee assignments. 

AZ Republicans go after the police and the firefighters

by David Safier

We already knew Arizona Republicans hate teachers and the unions representing them. We also knew they hate the unionized government workers who keep the wheels of state turning and provide services to Arizonans.

Now we know they hate the police and firefighters as well. They want to crush them, decimate their unions, lower their pay, lower their benefits, shrink their pensions and fire them at will. The Republicans are equal opportunity haters when it comes to workers represented by unions.

We'll find out if they've gone too far. They have enough Republicans to pass their anti-union legislation, which people say is worse than anything Scott Walker has done in Wisconsin, easily. But will the the police and firefighters make their voices heard? Will they be loud enough to make some of those Republicans sit up and take notice? Will enough Arizonans recoil from this wholesale decimation of worker protections that a sizable minority of Republicans will decide to vote against the bills, enough to block passage? Will Jan Brewer's advisors tell her to veto the bills if they make it to her desk, tell her even she can't go this far?

Arizona, like so many other states which have been taken over by the extreme right wing, is at a crossroads. If Republicans do what they want to do, it will take decades to undo their butchery -- if it can ever be undone.

Sherman Alexie on the MAS book ban

by David Safier

Sherman Alexie, a Native American who grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation and is a marvelous writer with a wide readership, commented about TUSD's book ban. First his tweet:

Here is his longer statement:

Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.

I have a warm place in my heart for Alexie. When I put together a unit on Native American Literature for my sophomore English students in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, the culmination of the unit was reading works of Alexie's including stories from his wonderful collection, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. We finished by watching the film, Smoke Signals, based on the collection. He presents harsh truth by combining brilliance and humor with an insider's view which let me see what was previously invisible to an Anglo like me. I once saw him give a talk. He may be the best author/speaker alive.

"Lone Ranger and Tonto . . ." was among the texts used in the MAS curriculum. I don't know if it has been removed from the shelves, but the former MAS teachers have to stay away from it. What a shame. What a loss.

(h/t to Debbie Reese, writer and author of the American Indians in Children's Literature blog.)

The GOP war on organized labor: Jan Brewer's bid to be the Scott Walker of the West begins Wednesday

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Heads up people! This is the bid by Jan Brewer to be the Scott Walker of the West that I have been warning you about for months. Jan Brewer seeks to go well beyond the assault on collective bargaining rights that led to the pending recall election of Scott Walker in Wisconsin. She wants to do away with more than 100 years of civil service merit selection system protection to return to the spoils system of political patronage and the days of Tamanny Hall.

And once again, it the evil bastards at the Goldwater Institute, a partner of ALEC, that has drafted the model legislation. You can bet that their media arm at the anti-union Arizona Republic will be all for this.

Brahm Resnik from Channel 12 news reports Brahm Resnik blog - Sweeping bills attack public employee unions:

Arizona's Republican Legislature could virtually wipe out public employee unions in a sweeping new package of legislation far broader than the collective-bargaining bills that shut down Wisconsin's Capitol last spring. 

The bills would:

-Make it illegal for government bodies to collectively bargain with employee groups. Public safety unions would be included in the ban.

--End the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues. 

--Ban compensation of public employees for union work.

Wisconsin's collective bargaining law enacted last year made unions effectively irrelevant by limiting issues that could be bargained by a government and an employee group. Arizona's bills would do away with collective bargaining entirely and also go beyond Wisconsin law by including public safety unions.

Coupled with Gov. Jan Brewer's plan to do away with civil-service protections  for state employees, the new legislation could make Arizona ground zero for union protests during this election year.

The Goldwater Institute  worked with state lawmakers to draw up the bills. The libertarian think tank has churned out research and reports over the past few years highlighting what it views as excesses in public-sector employment.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the guest of honor at Goldwater's annual dinner last November. Walker had some advice for Arizona legislators when I interviewed him on "Sunday Square Off."

The package of bills is scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday before the Senate Government Reform Committee.

Watch for more on this story on 12 News at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

I don't know what the Occupy movement has been doing of late, but this is your call to action. The Madison Revolution in Wisconsin needs to be brought to bear on the Capitol in Phoenix. This assault on the working people of the American middle-class cannot be allowed to stand. It's time to take a stand against the radical extremists of the right. They want Arizona to be ground zero? Bring it! Everyone to the Capitol on Wednesday.

Action Alert from the Arizona AFL-CIO below the fold.

David Crowe to primary Congressman Raúl Grijalva

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

David Crowe, the Republican-turned-Democrat who was running for the U.S. Senate, has now decided to primary Congressman Raúl Grijalva for the new CD 3 congressional seat.

I have had a chance to speak with Mr. Crowe a few times. He is personable and well-spoken, but he has more ambition than common sense. One does not seek a U.S. Senate seat as their first public office. Mr. Crowe thinks mighty highly of himself.

He could not adequately explain to Democrats from whom he was seeking support for his senate bid why he endorsed "Rocket Girl" Ruth McClung over Grijalva. He gave Democrats a lame excuse that it was really the the Arizona Technology Council that endorsed Rocket Girl, not him specifically. I didn't find his answer credible then, and even less so now.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Crowe officially switches races, will challenge Grijalva in primary :

Former U.S. Senate hopeful David Crowe has officially switched races and will challenge U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva in the Democratic primary.

Crowe, a Tucson defense contractor, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 12, according to FEC records.

* * *

Spokeswoman Charla Bailey said Crowe would officially launch his campaign in Tucson on Feb. 8.

Crowe is the president and co-founder of Tucson Embedded Systems, which provides hardware and software to the aerospace and defense industries. [like Raytheon in Tucson]

* * *

Crowe will likely face problems with the party base due to his recent past as a Republican. Crowe was registered as a Republican for 15 years before re-registering as a Democrat in Dec. 2010. He also backed McClung in her 2010 campaign against Grijalva, writing in the Arizona Technology Council’s endorsement that she has the “background, training and practical experience to actually find solutions and solve problems.”

Crowe contributed $500 to Grijalva in May, but the money was refunded about a week later.

Grijalva is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and he enjoys a loyal and passionate following among the party’s base.

Former "conservadem" Sen. Amanda Aguirre of Yuma is also considering challenging Grijalva in the Democratic primary. A spokesman said she will decide her plans within the next two weeks.

The new CD 3 is even more favorable to Congressman Raúl Grijalva than the current CD 7. It is Democratic base voters who vote in party primaries. These challengers would be competing for the same small block of anti-Grijalva conservadem voters. They are toast in a Democratic primary.

"Yeah, toast!"

Crandall continues to confound with his free/reduced meals optional arguments

by David Safier

Rich Crandall's latest argument for his bill making it optional for school districts to participate in the federal free/reduced lunch program: Everyone will continue to participate, so it won't make any difference.

Crandall, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said he hasn't heard from a single district in the state that would actually like to drop the program.

"They're not going to go off now,'' he said.

Don't worry your poor little head about my legislation, Crandall says. It's not going to change anything.

The AP article makes a good catch on Crandall's argument that he won't benefit from the legislation, even though he runs a child nutrition consulting company, because he does no business in Arizona. True, he doesn't do business in AZ now, but he has in the past, something he has never gotten around to mentioning.

Crandall owns a company that works in the school nutrition business, reviewing menus and lunch programs for state governments. Crandall said his company does not currently do any business in Arizona, though his company website shows it has in the past.

Crandall said he will not gain anything if the bill passes.

Here's what Crandall's CN Resouce did for Arizona sometime in the past (the website doesn't say when):

USDA 796-2, Revision 3 Training - When the USDA released its new financial rules for the CACFP, CN Resource was hired to conduct training of state agency personnel and sponsors in several western states including Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii and California.

[snip]

USDA Provision 2 & 3 Outreach - When the USDA wanted to expand the use of Provision 2 & 3 in the National School Lunch Program, they awarded grants to several states. Two states, Arizona and Oregon, contracted with CNR to visit dozens of potentially eligible school districts and conduct a financial analysis to determine if Provision 2 or 3 would be a good fit for their NSLP.

Hmm. If Crandall's company has worked on school lunch programs in Arizona in the past, what might be the best way to work on them in the future? Maybe he could consult with districts opting out of the federal program, helping them create lunch menus without federal guidance. Is that what he plans/hopes to do? Only Rich Crandall and his closest associates know for sure, and they ain't talkin'.

Rep. Matt Heinz first Democrat to announce for the Giffords seat

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Doctor Matt Heinz, Democratic Representative for LD 29, is the first Democrat to announce for the Giffords seat. Petitions must be filed 28 days from today. Arizona Rep. Heinz to run for Giffords' seat:

State representative Matt Heinz of Tucson has become the first Democrat to officially announce his candidacy for the Congressional seat vacated by Gabrielle Giffords.

Heinz said he will be running in both the special election and the November general election. Touting his experience problem solving and creating consensus across party lines in the Legislature and as a doctor at the Tucson Medical Center, Heinz said he’s the best person to fill Giffords’ position. Heinz has served four years over two terms in the state legislature.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can move forward and how we can best honor Gabby’s strength, conviction and leadership,” Heinz said Tuesday morning. “One of the best ways we can do that is by moving quickly and making sure that, in this very short time frame, we get somebody in there to fill that vacancy that is going to carry forward her tradition of common sense, moderate, consensus-building and problem solving.”

* * *

Heinz foresees the economy and health care as two of the most vital issues in the upcoming race.

In the general election, Heinz confirmed he will run in what’s now called Congressional District 2. Many of the voters in what is now Congressional District 8 will see two rounds of primary and general elections this year. The special election will be in the existing district of CD8, in which Republicans have an advantage in registered voters. The regular election will be in the new district lines of what's now called CD2, where the gap between Democrats and Republicans is minimal. That means two different campaign-finance reports and potentially two different campaign strategies.

* * *

While he’s committed to all four elections, Heinz said that if Ron Barber, Giffords’ longtime district director, chooses to fill her seat for the rest of the term, he would modify his plans and run only in the general election.

Heinz does not plan to resign from the state Legislature. Because he is in the final year of his term, he does not have to resign from the Legislature to run for the Congress.

The special election primary is April 17, and the special election is June 12.

The general election primary is August 28, and the general election is November 6.

Note: I am still receiving rumors about others considering entering the race. I still anticipate a primary. All I can say is "tick tock" -- 28 days and counting. Time for thinking about it is up.

Conservationists for Nancy Young Wright

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Former Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D-LD 26) is running for Pima County Board of Supervisors (District 1) this year. Below is an Announcement (.pdf) for a campaign event from her campaign.

The First Rule of Holes Revisited

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Oh, geezuz... I have previously explained how 20 years of GOP tax cuts have created a structural revenue deficit hole in Arizona that cannot be filled by "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics. This entirely disproved and discredited economic theory does not work and has never worked. The First Rule of Holes: "The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging." - Molly Ivins.

Yet last year our Tea-Publican legislature passed in a Special Session what was laughingly labeled a "jobs bill" -- it was, in fact a corporate welfare tax-giveaway plan. The GOP's double dose of poison to kill Arizona:

Senate Bill 1001 is filled with tax breaks and incentives for businesses large and small. The legislative budget office estimated its cost at $538 million by 2018 [worsening Arizona's structural revenue deficit], when all the tax cuts are phased in.

* * *

Brewer's advisors acknowledged that there is no guarantee the changes would yield enough new investment and jobs to offset the anticipated revenue loss.

These corporate welfare tax cuts are delayed until May 2013 when the temporary sales tax will expire. These prospective tax cuts have not created one job, making the "jobs bill" label a sick joke. When the corporate welfare tax cuts do take effect, it will dig the structural revenue deficit hole even deeper.

But wait, it gets worse. Yesterday our Tea-Publican legislature debated three bills designed to give the so-called "job creators" of the investor class a huge tax break -- reducing or even eliminating the capital gains tax -- again based upon the "magical" belief in faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics.

And once again it was the "geniuses" (the man's T-shirt in the photo reads "I have nothing to declare except my genius") of the Goldwater Institute promoting this entirely disproved and discredited economic theory that does not work and has never worked.

Mitt's Dream Act is a Nightmare

Posted by Bob Lord

If I could wave a magic wand over all immigrant kids and confer legal status with a clear path to citizenship on them, I would. In a heartbeat. But I’m really not comfortable with the DREAM Act.

There are some positions I took during my campaign that I’m less than proud of. Not my stance on the DREAM Act. When asked, I would explain that I supported the goal of the DREAM Act, but I thought it was too narrow in scope. In my opinion, it needed other avenues for young immigrants to achieve legal status. I didn’t want the only avenue besides college to be the military. The reality is that most kids, including immigrant kids, are not college material. The idea that a non-college bound kid could achieve legal status and ultimately citizenship only by serving in the military bothered me. So my position was that additional avenues -- Americorps, infrastructure building, community service -- had to be added as means for attaining legal status.

A few years later, I saw Rep. Gutierrez, for whom I generally have a lot of respect, on television trumpeting the DREAM Act and how it would provide the military with nearly a million new recruits. Really? Is that a good thing? A million new recruits? In what war are these new recruits going to be used as cannon fodder? I’m guessing Iran, but I suppose it could be a different one that’s too early in the planning stage for us to know about.

So, for the past year or so, I’ve had this debate with several of my progressive friends. They think I’m being paternalistic, and they’re probably right. But the road to hell really can be paved with good intentions, and the thought of half a million immigrant kids dying in yet another imperialistic American military adventure sure seems like hell to me. And unlike poor American kids, these immigrant kids would have nobody to rise up on their behalf to challenge the war. After all, if you’re in the country illegally, as most parents of DREAM Act kids are, you’re not in much of a position to speak truth to power.

Now, enter Mitt. If this son of a bitch gets his way, the DREAM Act will have military service as the exclusive means of attaining legal status for young immigrants. So, he’s taking the opposite of the approach I advocated. No, surprise there, but what a cold-hearted prick. He wants to tell bright, young, college bound immigrants to forget about college and go fight in wars, with the clear message: “We don’t want you becoming doctors or engineers or scientists. You’re immigrants. You’re not worthy of college. We need you to be military grunts. Not officers, mind you. Grunts. College is for white kids, don’t you know?” I guess Mitt is where elitism and racism intersect.

Sorry to say, I’m concerned my fears regarding the DREAM Act are becoming reality. The Republicans no doubt will adopt Mitt’s position. Will the Democrats treat this as a “compromise” and accept it, explaining that the original DREAM Act couldn‘t pass the House? Don’t’ answer that one. Then, could war with Iran to break out. Don’t answer that one either.

This is not boding well.

Resignations, plants, and rumors: Candidates update

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

...Confirming rumors of long standing, Andrei Cherny has resigned as chair of the Arizona Democratic Party to run for Congress in the new CD9. He joins State Senator David Schapira and Kyrsten Sinema in the field pursuing the Democratic nomination. No paperwork is up on the FECs website, but his campaign website is already up (bare bones, but it's there). His entry muddies up the race somewhat. Rumored results of recent polling (in other words, take this with a grain of salt) point toward Cherny not being able to win a three-way race, and it looks like he would be unlikely to defeat Sinema straight up. He trails but is closer to Schapira. It will be interesting to see in which direction his attacks are aimed.

...As for the Congressional seat recently vacated by the recovering Gabby Giffords, there's an email circulating saying that Tim Sultan, a former candidate for Congress and the lege and an active member of the Democrats of Greater Tucson, is going to jump into that race. As of last week, he was still officially just "considering" the move, but the email makes it sound like a done deal.

...One John Rowan has entered the race for the Democratic nomination for Maricopa County Sheriff. He's touting himself as a "conservative Democrat". Given that the job of county sheriff in any county in any state should filled by a non-ideological professional, it was a little surprising to read about Rowan's proclamation of his ideological position. However, becomes less surprising when one finds out that until recently, Rowan was a registered Republican.

His organizational paperwork is here. He is serving as both his own committee chair and committee treasurer.

...In Scottsdale, Virginia Korte, a long-time presence in the business community, has opened a committee for a run, not at mayor as was rumored, but for city council. Her campaign co-chairs are Carolyn Allen, a retired state senator, and Jim Bruner, a former Maricopa County supervisor.

'Survivor - GOP Presidential Primary' : Post-Florida

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Willard "Mittens" Romney has used his substantial financial resources to try to score a knock-out punch in the Florida primary on Tuesday. He has outspent Newt Gingrich by some estimates 5-1 in Florida. If polling coming out of Florida can be believed, Mittens should score an easy win in Florida on Tuesday.

The corporate media villagers and Beltway bloviators will all sing from the GOP establishment hymnal Tuesday night that this is a "knock-out punch" for Mittens. But is it really?

Florida is a diverse state with several expensive media markets. Advantage Romney. But upcoming GOP primary/caucus states are less diverse than Florida (more solidly conservative), and have far less expensive media markets. The Not-the-Romney candidate(s) may be able to afford a competitive "air war" with Romney.

Moreover, despite a win in Florida by Romney he still trails Gingrich in national polling. Real Clear Politics polling average. (click for larger image).

Rick "man on dog" Santorum is out of money and out of momentum. His daughter's recent illness may give him a convenient excuse to vote himself off the island after Tuesday. That would clear the field and make it a two man race. Santorum supporters are far more likely to jump to Gingrich than to Romney.

In the NBC/WSJ poll last week Romney’s unfavorability rating among independents spiked 20 points in the last two months. The poll found that among all Americans, Romney is rated very or somewhat positively by only 31 percent, while he’s rated very or somewhat negatively by 36 percent. He's upside down in negative numbers and spiking. The more the public sees Mittens the more they dislike him -- and its only January.

Dozens of national organizations oppose banning of books at TUSD

by David Safier

It's a long and impressive list -- the organizations signing on to a Joint Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District. When groups of this caliber band together to oppose an action by a school district, that's a very significant development. Here are some of the signers:

• American Association of University Professors
• American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona
• Antigone Books
• Association of American Publishers
• Association of American University Presses
• Authors Guild
• Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliate of the American Library Association
• International Reading Association
• National Council for the Social Studies
• National Council of Teachers of English
• PEN American Center
• People For the American Way
• Reading is Fundamental
• Student Press Law Center

You can read the entire statement after the jump. Here is an excerpt which discusses two essential issues: the discretion schools have to chose certain texts and not others, which does not include a restraint of unwelcome information and viewpoints, and the validity of the term "book banning" to describe TUSD's actions.

The First Amendment is grounded on the fundamental rule that government officials, including public school administrators, may not suppress "an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." School officials have a great deal of authority and discretion to determine the curriculum, the subject of courses, and even methods of instruction. They are restrained only by the constitutional obligation to base their decisions on sound educational grounds, and not on ideology or political or other personal beliefs. Thus, school officials are free to debate the merits of any educational program, but that debate does not justify the wholesale removal of books, especially when the avowed purpose is to suppress unwelcome information and viewpoints.

School officials have insisted that the books haven't been banned because they are still available in school libraries. It is irrelevant that the books are available in the library - or at the local bookstore. School officials have removed materials from the curriculum, effectively banning them from certain classes, solely because of their content and the messages they contain. The effort to "prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, [or] religion" is the essence of censorship, whether the impact results in removal of all the books in a classroom, seven books, or only one.

Read the whole statement, including a complete list of signers, after the jump.

Isn't that special! ADP Chair Andrei Cherny steps down

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As Dana Carvey's SNL character the Church Lady would say: "Isn't that special!" Arizona Democratic Party Chair Andrei Cherny, for whom the party had to bend its bylaws last year in order to make him chair of the party, announced that he is stepping down today after only one year into a two year commitment to do what, exactly? He doesn't disclose in his letter to Democrats.

Some quick points. First, this is an announcement Cherny should have made in person to state committee members in Tucson on January 21. Second, when the party bent its bylaws last year to make him chair we were told he was some kind of wunderkind of fundraising. He has not been. I am sure that I was not the only one shocked by ADP Treasurer Rick McGuire's treasurer's report at the state committee meeting in Tucson. The fact that Democrats are doing slightly better than the Arizona GOP is little consolation in the age of Citizens United. Finally, I have had enough of people who use the chair's position only as a stepping stone to seek political office.

This leaves the Arizona Democratic Party with an interim chair, Vice Chairwoman Harriet Young, until the Arizona Democratic Party elects a new chair to complete Cherny's term at its Spring State Committee Meeting in Phoenix on April 21 -- already expected to be a very long and possibly contentious meeting with the selection of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Cherny's sense of timing could not be worse.

And just who is going to step into the chair's position well into a presidential election year who has the capacity to raise a ton of money for campaigns on such short notice? No name immediately comes to mind.

Keep all of this in mind when you read Cherny's self-congratulatory resignation letter below the fold (things ain't as as rosy as he portrays them):

NRA combines viciousness with self parody

by David Safier

This ad for the NRA store would be laughable if it weren't for the use of JFK, assassinated by rifle shots, as a supporter of the perversion of "Freedom" the NRA stands for.

The "I didn't say that," Much-louder-than-a-dog-whistle pairing of the killing a [Democratic] president with the "cost of freedom" borders on the obscene.

But then comes the self parody. How far can you stretch the concept of "freedom" to make a buck? You can sell jackets that allow the buyer to "Pursue Freedom from the Cold" ($79.95)  Further down the ad, you can buy a Peacemaker Wooden Box to "Pursue Freedom from Clutter" ($69.85). Or a Collectible Knife to "Pursue Freedom to Choose Quality." ($199.95). Or an NRA USA Long Sleeve T-Shirt to "Pursue Freedom of Motion" ($19.95)

EXTRA: ANTENORI'S VICIOUSNESS IN OUR OWN BACKYARD: For Frank, this country is a battlefield, literally, the more guns the better. What's the best he could come up with as a tribute to Giffords?

“She took a bullet for her country, just like many other people that I know, and she’s to be commended for that,” said Antenori, who served in the Army Special Forces. “Whether it’s a veteran or a congresswoman, they’re to be respected for that degree of sacrifice."

Frank, you callous son of a bitch, when you go to war with a gun in your hand, you're putting yourself in harm's way. You expect to be shot at. You know you might be injured or killed. When you are elected to office in the U.S., you should not "take a bullet for your country" from a madman who, because of our insanely lax gun laws, can buy guns easily. It's a false, obscene equivalence.

Son of TABOR 2 - Tea-Publican tyranny run amok

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

While I am on the subject of the Goldwater Institute's ready and willing stooge, Rep. Justin Olson (R-Mesa), this piece of work is up to something even more nefarious.

Olson is proposing that the House adopt a procedural rule that would effectively impose the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) by legislative fiat, rather than by law.

You may recall that the "Son of TABOR" bill last year HB 2707 was vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer as being too restrictive. Hence, the back-door attempt by legislative fiat. House GOP looks to rule change for spending limit -Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required):

The rule requires approval by a majority of the 60-member body – 40 of whom are Republicans – to be adopted.

Under the proposed rule, any future budget that exceeds the baseline would be deemed out of order, and lawmakers would be required to vote on whether they wanted to suspend the rule in order to approve the budget.

The change would be more flexible than a statutory or constitutional one, something Olson said remedies Brewer’s complain that last year’s bill tied future Legislatures’ hands. The purpose, he said, is to force a discussion about spending every time the Legislature considers a budget.

“It would require that debate and vote, and members would have to make the case as to why they were growing the budget,” he said.

House Speaker Andy Tobin called the rule “a good first step” in imposing a spending limit.

But when the rule came up during the House Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday, some of his colleagues had concerns.

Although Olson suggested that the flexibility was an advantage, Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, called the rule “a toothless tiger” and said that it would be “embarrassing” if a lawmaker tried to tell his constituents that he had put this measure in place to control excessive spending, only to see the rule bypassed by a procedural vote.

“This is something I would expect out of Congress, not the state of Arizona. Why don’t we just do our job? I think this is beneath us,” he said.

Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, said that she was uncomfortable about the precedent of setting policy rather than procedure in the rules.

“We set the stage for some unanticipated consequences that I’m very uncomfortable with,” she said Tuesday.

Kill this Bill: The Goldwater Institute is a lobbyist organization

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

No single organization has caused more harm to the state of Arizona or contributed more to its image as an ideological backwater than the Goldwater Institute. The Goldwater Institute operates as a non-profit 501(c)(3), which means it does not have to disclose the donors who fund it, and it does not have to register as a lobbyist organization -- even though the Goldwater Institute has its so-called "experts" testifying on bills at the state legislature on a routine basis. They also draft model legislation as a member of ALEC.

The Goldwater Institute is the lobbyist organization trying to kill Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections and is all-in for expansion of Citizens United v. FEC to allow unlimited direct corporate contributions to candidates on the specious legal theories that "money = speech" and "corporations are people."

You may recall that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett had quite enough of the Goldwater Institute operating as lobbyists without registering its members as lobbyists last year. Goldwater Institute ‘lobbies’ against registering more lobbyists - Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required):

In March, Amy Bjelland, elections director for the Secretary of State’s Office, sent the Goldwater Institute a letter urging it to register their analysts — who are testifying in legislative committees and contacting legislators — as lobbyists.

“The Goldwater Institute made 26 requests to speak before the 49th Legislature alone,” Bjelland wrote. “The Ninth Special Session was called at the institute’s urging relating to putting the issue of the right to a secret ballot before the voters… to the extent that employees of the principal will be engaging in the conduct regulated by Arizona law as noted above, each of these people must be added to the principal’s registration.”

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said he disagreed with the Goldwater Institute’s interpretation of the exemption from the statute.

“When you start to express positions on whether legislation is good or bad, that is no longer answering technical questions and that is no longer technical information,” he said.

Bennett said his office would look into new legislation to clarify the language before the impasse with the institute could be laid to rest.

Well, quite the opposit has occurred. The Goldwater Institute had one of its ready and willing stooges, Rep. Justin Olson (R-Mesa), sponsor HB 2565 defining non-profit groups as being outside the scope of "lobbyist" organizations, and thus exempt. Bill eyes definition of who is lobbyist:

The bill is designed to resolve a running debate between the Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Secretary of State's Office by putting non-profit groups such as the institute outside the definition of "lobbyist."

That would mean no need to adhere to state laws that limit gifts to public officials or to identify the interest a person represents when testifying to the Legislature. It also would exempt such groups from requirements to file quarterly public reports on spending.

The coming week, part 1

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

Due to the lateness of the hour, this post will cover only Monday's schedule at the Arizona Capitol. A post on the rest of the weeks schedule will go up Monday night. I'm not going into a lot of depth here tonight, so if an agenda or committee covers an area that you are interested in, click on the agenda and check out the rest of the bills...

All agendas and their specifics, including but not limited to, times, places, and bills to be considered, are subject to change without notice.

Note: All rooms beginning with an "HHR" prefix are in the House of Representatives building; "SHR" indicates the room is in the Senate building.


On the House side of the Capitol -

Rules will meet at 1 p.m. on Monday in HHR4. Long agenda, and mostly, but not completely, non-controversial. Most of the measures will appear on a floor agenda later in the week.

Ways and Means will meet at 2 p.m. on Monday in HHR1. Lots of mischief on this agenda, much of it focused on gutting or completely ending the state's capital gains tax.

Energy and Natural Resources will meet at 2 p.m. on Monday in HHR4. Some "red meat" kind of bills on the agenda, mostly of the "federal government is bad" variety.

Education will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR3. Some bad bills on this agenda, but the "highlight" of the agenda is a presentation on "Biblical Literacy and Academic Achievement" by an academic hired gun from California.

Banking and Insurance will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR5. Short agenda that looks to be pretty harmless.


On the Senate side of the Capitol -

Rules will meet upon adjournment of the floor session in Senate Caucus Room 1. Long agenda.

Natural Resources and Transportation will meet at 2 p.m or upon adjournment of Rules in SHR109. The agenda looks short and relatively harmless.

Judiciary will meet at 2 p.m. or upon adjournment of Rules in SHR1. Some very bad bills on this one. The worst: SB1241, mandating that weapons and explosives used in crimes that are forfeited must be sold off by the confiscating entity within a year, and removes local influence over the process. Note: it is already a requirement in Arizona that such confiscated items be sold and not destroyed. This measure would add a time requirement.

Education will meet at 2 p.m. or upon adjournment of Rules in SHR3. Short agenda, and not too bad. Yet. It's early in the session, though.

Do The Real Job Creators Even Care About The Tax Rate?

Posted by Bob Lord

We can’t tax the job creators! We can’t tax the job creators!

So goes the familiar refrain. The response is more or less to point out that the folks in the top 1% are not really job creators. Heck, many of them are coupon clippers. In addition, there’s the fact that they sure aren’t creating many jobs, those job creators. It’s hard to disagree with those points. After all, they’re true.

But even if Cantor, Boehner and company could get past those basic facts, isn’t all the job creator bullshit still bullshit? Here’s my take on it --

A job creator is just like any businessperson. He wants to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that. So, if a new employee, including benefits, is going to cost, say $50,000, the job creator is going to hire that person only if the net revenue from that job is positive. So, if the new employee will generate more than $50,000 in additional revenue, job creation makes sense.

Here’s where I get stuck. Assume the newly created job will generate $100,000 in revenue, for a net profit of $50,000. Today’s maximum rate corporate tax rate is 34%. So the tax would be $17,000, for an after tax profit of $33,000. Let’s say you increase the rate all the way to 40%. That increases the tax on the net additional profits to the job creator to $20,000. But the job creator still is left with a profit of $30,000 after tax. So unless the job creator is profit adverse, the job will be created, even that the sky high tax rate of 40%. And guess what? The job even would be created if the tax rate were 50%.

I suppose one could argue that the job creators need the after tax profits in order to invest in new job creating endeavors. But that’s a tough argument to make when there’s trillions of cash sloshing around corporate America and the top one percenters who own their own businesses are out there buying luxury items and chasing speculative investments.

So even if the top one percenters really were job creators, the elimination of the Bush tax cuts wouldn’t cost us any jobs. Of course, we already knew that.

Amazing. Genuine (but shaky) old 3-D images on the web

by David Safier

Here's a image taken with a stereo camera in 1905, which, through the magic of gif animation, is rendered in a shaky 3-D.

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

It's on the NY Library Stereogranimator site, with lots of others.

For those not familiar with this old 3-D technnique: Photographers would take two images of the same scene from angles about the distance between your two eyes. They were printed side-by-side, then you viewed them through a device that only let you see each with one eye. It's like the Viewmaster, if you remember those.

Here, they've taken the two images and animated them, so you go back and forth so quickly, you get the sense of seeing them with separate eyes. This isn't a fake. It's a genuine 3-D image. You can read more explanation and see more examples on the site.

Question of the Day

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Why do all the media villagers keep repeating Jan Brewer's version of the facts that Obama was "testy" when sh is the only person present who continues to make this claim, and two others have flatly denied it?

Out of the three officials who met President Obama on an airport tarmac near Phoenix earlier this week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is now the only one who has characterized the president as anything other than cordial.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who was standing just feet away from the president and the governor on Wednesday during their now-infamous encounter, told TPM that Obama seemed calm the whole time.

“He wasn’t tense at all,” Stanton said on Friday. “The guy’s a pro.”

And previously:

Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Ariz., declined to say exactly what he heard Obama and Brewer talk about during their now-infamous tiff next to Air Force One.

But the mayor said he was standing right next to the governor when the exchange took place and Obama didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry to leave.

“There was no sense that he was running to or from anything,” Smith told TPM. In fact, he said, the president stayed and had a pleasant conversation with Smith, who’s a Republican, and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat.

It was “just the four of us,” Smith said. “Mayor Stanton and I had a decent talk with him.”

I expect Jan Brewer to keep spinning her FAUX News Fraudcasting talking points, but why are all the media villagers creating an echo chamber for her false story when two eye-witnesses to the converstation directly contradict Jan Brewer? I know that Howard Fischer will spin only Jan Brewer's version of the facts, but do all the media villagers have to perpetuate her lies?

It's good to be Queen i guess.

UPDATE: Elon Green writes at the Political Animal blog, When the Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend:

Why do I bother pointing this out? Particularly during Presidential campaigns, this nonsense so easily metastasizes into a factoid, Norman Mailer’s term for “an item of unreliable information that is repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.”

His example is the Al Gore "I invented the Internet" mockery of Al Gore. Although Gore never said it, the nedia villagers repeated this incessantly.

Of course, none of this was true. But thanks in no small part to an unquestioning press — voters swallowed it whole.

Political Calendar: Week of January 29, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Political Calendar is posted on Sundays. Please send us notice of your political events prior to the Sunday before your event (7 days would be most helpful). See the calendar icon in the right-hand column of the blog page for easy access to the calendar.

To volunteer to defeat Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and to recall Gov. Jan Brewer go to Volunteer – - Citizens for a Better Arizona. Randy Parraz will focus on Joe Arpaio in 2012, and consider a recall of Jan Brewer in 2013 when she would be the only question on the ballot.

We Are Listening in 2012! Campaigns are encouraged to submit notices of campaign events to BforAZ at BlogForArizona@gmail.com.

Political Calendar For The Week of January 29, 2012

Sundays, 6:00 p.m.: Drinking Liberally, at The Shanty, 401 E. 9th Street (at 4th Avenue). An informal, inclusive progressive social group, and lively discussion. Contact: www.livingliberallytucson.org.

White House Hispanic Community Action Summit in Tucson

Monday, January 30, 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.: White House Hispanic Community Action Summit, at Sunnyside High School, 1725 East Bilby Road (Tucson). The summit will connect senior Obama Administration officials from diverse policy areas with community leaders, business owners, and other stakeholders to discuss issues critical to the Hispanic community, Tucson, and the nation. Please go to this link to complete information to RSVP for this event. White House Hispanic Community Action Summit in Tucson, Arizona.

Monday, January 30, Noon: Democrats of Greater Tucson luncheon, Dragon's View Restaurant (400 N. Bonita, South of St. Mary's Road between the Freeway and Grande Avenue, turn South at Furr's Cafeteria), buffet lunch costs $8.50. Featured speaker is Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. Visit DGT's web site at www.tucsondemocrats.org. Next Week: Pat Fleming, candidate for LD 25 (New LD 14) Senate, and Mohur Sarah Sidhwa, candidate for LD 28 (new LD 9) House.

Tuesday, January 31: Florida Primary.

Tuesday, January 31, 5:30 p.m.: U..S. Attorney’s First Public Civil Rights Forum for Southern Arizona, at the YWCA of Tucson, 525 N. Bonita Avenue. The YWCA of Tucson and the Southern Arizona Hate Crimes Taskforce would like to invite you to join us as we welcome Acting U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel to her first public forum. Doors open at 5:30 pm and the forum will begin at 6 p.m. We encourage the public to attend with their questions for federal prosecutors and federal law enforcement. AUSA Karen Rolley and FBI Special Agent Christopher McKinney will present on how hate crimes are prosecuted using the Shepard-Byrd Act, as well as inform the public on how to report police misconduct and other civil rights abuses. Please invite your family and friends for an educational evening on how to protect your civil rights. For more information please contact Tim Jefferson, Victim Witness Specialist. at timothy.jefferson@usdoj.gov or (520) 620-7461. (h/t Carolyn's Community).

Wednesday, February 1, 7:00 p.m.: Legislative District 28 meeting, at the Pima County Democratic Party HQ, 4639 E. 1st Street (one block south of Speedway and West of Swan). For more information please contact Ted Prezelski at prezelski@aol.com or (520) 326-3716 (leave message).

Cartoon of The Week

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

What's that old Gershwin song from the Fred Astaire movie Shall We Dance? "Let's call the whole thing off."

Very bad news on the voucher front

by David Safier

A judge has given her OK to Arizona's "Education Empowerment Scholarships," which is the state's vouchers-on-steroids bill. She accepted the dual arguments that (1) creating "savings accounts" somehow launders the money of its government connection and it can therefore be used for religious education; and (2) because the parents can use the money cafeteria style, splitting it up for a variety of educational uses, that also takes away the religious education prohibition.

Of course, the decision is being appealed. But if this plan gets a final judicial blessing, it will quickly move from just being for children with educational disabilities or who have been in foster care to being available to every child in the state. That's a full blown voucher system, something which has been voted down every time it has been put up as a state initiative anywhere in the country.

Right now, even though the ink is barely dry on the original "Education Empowerment Scholarships" legislation -- it only passed last session -- an amendment, HB2626, has been proposed to broaden its scope. Children would be eligible if their school gets a D or F on the state evaluation, attended a public preschool the previous year, or -- and this could be a loophole you could drive a Humvee through -- "was deemed eligible by a School Tuition Organization for a scholarship under section 43‑1505." Who can be "deemed eligible"? There's room for interpretation here. It could add many people to the pool.

Another addition is that some of the "Scholarship" money can be used to pay for classes or extracurricular programs at public schools. That means a student could be enrolled in calculus or band during the school day and participate in a sport after school, by paying for those specific programs.

If this legislation is declared constitutional, everything changes in Arizona education -- for the worse, in my opinion, for the better in the opinion of the Goldwater Institute and every other conservative "pro choice," "education reform" advocate in the country. This will be the SB1070 of education bills, the original which is copied by other states.

Andy Tobin taking the lead in the Republican fight against independent redistricting

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

...and the fun part is: he wants the voters to pay $8 million for the privilege of subverting their own will...

Rep. Andy Tobin (R-Paulden), the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, has introduced HB2710, HCR2051, HCR2052, HCR2053, and HR2005. If passed, they would mandate a special election in May where the voters would be "asked" to amend the independent redistricting provisions in the Arizona constitution.

HB2710 would call the special election.

If passed by the voters, HCR2051 would take the "independent" out of "independent redistricting commission". It would take the current 5-member Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), where no political hacks are allowed (meaning no party precinct committeemen, or PCs. Full disclosure: I'm a Democratic PC, so I can call PCs "hacks." :) ) and turn it into a cesspool of hackery, with 12 politically-appointed members. It would also remove the requirement under current law that there be an Independent member of the AIRC. In addition, it would remove the requirement that the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments screen the applicants.

[start sarcasm] Obviously, as the judicial branch of government in Arizona is the only branch the receives, or is even worthy of, respect for its professionalism, so it shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the redistricting process. [end sarcasm]

If passed by the voters, HCR2052 and HCR2053 would scrap the the legislative and Congressional maps, respectively, in favor of maps drawn by Tobin.

HR2005 is a resolution where the legislature (or to be realistic, the Republicans in the legislature) pledge to base their maps on the scribblings and the electoral alchemy of the Republicans' own Andy Tobin.

It's "alchemy" because Tobin is trying to turn the iron clauses of the Arizona constitution into a golden opportunity for job security for the Capitol's elected Republicans.

Even more infuriating than Tobin et. al.'s open contempt for the will of the voters (we are the ones who created the independent redistricting process specifically to take it away from legislators interested only in serving their own self interests above all else) or even the best interests of the people of Arizona (we are served best by public officials who have to answer to the entire electorate in their districts, not just a few partisan extremists) is his plan to have the voters pay (subscription required) more than $8 million for the special election/Hail Mary pass. On top of that, Tobin has defended (subscription required) the secrecy that shrouded his drawing of the maps that he wants to implement, and the use of a taxpayer-funded employee of the legislature, John Mills, to aid him in his quest to overthrow the voters' independent redistricting process.

An interesting two-step for someone who has criticized the AIRC for spending too much money (expenses incurred in part to deal with the litigation stemming from previous attempts to subvert the process by elected Republicans) and has complained that the AIRC's dozens of meetings and hearings with hundreds of hours of testimony isn't transparent enough.

Note: in this context, "interesting" is a synonym for "hypocritical." In case you couldn't figure that out on your own. :)

Of course, Tobin's scheme pre-supposes that...

a) the other Republicans in the lege go along with Tobin's scheme (IMO, highly likely);

b) the voters go along with Tobin's scheme (IMO, less likely, but given that a special election would be a low-turnout affair dominated by partisan GOTV efforts, definitely possible); and

c) the US DOJ goes along with Tobin's scheme (IMO, highly unlikely given the secrecy and deliberate exclusion of minority groups specifically and the public in general from the crafting of his maps).


On the other hand, Tobin's proposals are so sloppily written that it makes me wonder if this is more about posturing for his caucus or for the inevitable redistricting-related lawsuits than anything else.

As written, HCRs 2052 and 2053 appear to be mutually exclusive. They each propose to amend the same part of the Arizona constitution by inserting identically labelled clauses.

From HCR2052

From HCR2053

Now, I'm just a layman with no advanced (or even beginning-level) legal education or experience, but it seems any credible attempt to amend the Arizona constitution would at least be correctly written, especially as it comes from putative subject matter experts such as Tobin and his "associate" Mills.

However, given that Tobin's maps guarantee him a safe district, credibility may not have been a consideration in Tobin's scheming, just ensuring his continued seat on the West Washington Gravy Train.

As near as I can tell, the measures haven't been agendized for committee consideration as yet, probably because they haven't been assigned to any as yet while they await for the Speaker to "first read" the bills and assign them to committee. The timing of that and the specific committee that they are assigned to is completely within the Speaker's discretion and is often subject to the vagaries of the relationship between the introducing sponsor and the Speaker.

In this case, I expect the measures to be formally introduced, First Read, and assigned to committee on Monday.

Something tells me that Rep. Andy Tobin is on good terms with Speaker Andy Tobin. :)


Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services has coverage here, via the East Valley Tribune.

AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona has his take here.

Steve at Arizona Eagletarian offers his take here.

The Democratic caucus of the Arizona House of Representatives has a statement from Rep. Chad Campbell, House Minority Leader, here.

A New Ironic Insipidity From Representative Gowan

Posted by Michael Bryan

The State House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety passed HCM2005, which expresses the august and considered judgment of the Arizona House that dismantling internal border patrol checkpoints and "relocating these agents from the streets and highways to the border fence, stationing them three hundred feet apart, and providing a constant patrol along the border fence will stop the crossing of illegal immigrants and result in little need for border patrol agents in the interior of this state."

You sure that 200 feet apart wouldn't be a better deterrent, guys? Come on. This sort of attempt to micro-manage Federal immigration policy and practices is just more political grandstanding by the anti-immigrant AZGOP.

The seeming unconcious hypocrisy of folks who complain about the intrusiveness of the border patrol's permanent internal checkpoints, but none-the-less support intruding on Latino-looking American citizens and residents using local police anywhere in the state, never ceases to amaze.

It's sometimes surprising what comes out of the mouths of our elected representatives on this topic. In the following clip you get to watch State Rep. David Gowan (R-LD30) bellyache about how he doesn't like the Federal government bugging folks like him (non-Hispanic-looking folks, presumably) about their immigration status inside our borders. Apparently, however, it's fine with Gowan for the State of Arizona to do so (as he is a proponent of the SB107), which is intrusive in EXACTLY this way.

Gowan says:

“We're talking the difference between the federal government and the State doing law-enforcement. There is a higher criteria that comes with the federal government. And that's the essence of this, is the federal government, what I was talking about earlier, asking about our citizenship inside America is what perturbs me.”

WTF? What higher criteria? I suspect that criteria is simply whether Gowan, and folks like him, feel that the "right people" are in charge of the law enforcement officers in question. If the officers are "properly" trained only to harass brown people -- like Sheriff Joe's crew -- it's OK. But if the officers are "improperly" trained not to racially profile -- like the Border Patrol under the communist Kenyan Obama -- then Gowan no likey.

See Gowan make an ass-hat of himself after the click... (h/t to Sarah Muench for pointing out the video)

Election Deadlines for the Giffords Seat

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There will be two congressional races overlapping one another for the Giffords seat -- a special election and the general election.

Here are the dates you need to know:

SPECIAL ELECTION

Candidate nomination petitions are due Monday, February 27, 2012 by 5:00 p.m.

Legal challenges to candidate nomination petitions must be filed by Monday, March 5, 2012.

Early ballot voting begins Monday, April 2, 2012. (15 days)

Party primaries Primary Day is Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

Early ballot voting begins Tuesday, May 29 , 2012. (15 days)

'Special' Election Day is Tuesday, June 12, 2012.

Here's where it gets tricky:

GENERAL ELECTION

Candidate nomination petitions are due Wednesday, May 30, 2012 by 5:00 p.m. (prior to the Special Election)

Normal statutory rules for legal challenges to candidate nomination petitions apply.

Early ballot voting begins Thursday, August 2, 2012.

Party primaries Primary Day is Tuesday, August 28, 2012.

Early ballot voting begins October 11, 2012.

'General' Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

If House Speaker Any Tobin gets the Tea-Publican legislature to agree to his unconstitutional plan to refer the redistricting maps that he and FAIR Trust operative John Mills put together in secret to a special election, this special election would occur on Tuesday, May 15, 2012, just two weeks prior to the filing deadline for candidate nomination petitions on May 30, 2012. This means that candidates will not know in what district they are running or the contours of their district. I suspect legal challenges and DOJ preclearance will prevent "Tobin's Tyranny" from ever occurring.

Too damn much to write about!

by David Safier

I feel like I'm ten posts behind right now.

These are interesting times, to paraphrase a Chinese proverb and curse.

Fukushima, bailing wire, duct tape and assurances everything is fine

by David Safier

Since Atomic Al Melvin has put the nuke issue back on Arizona's legislative table, a few thoughts about the "perfectly safe" Fukushima nuclear power plant are in order.

The Fukushima plant was deemed absolutely safe -- indestructable -- until the one-two punch of an earthquake-tsunami hit it. Then the danger was contained; then it wasn't. Then there was no meltdown; then there was. Now, it's perfectly stable, according to the Japanese government.

Can it withstand another blow to the buildings and containment tanks, held together by bailing wire and duct tape? I've heard people say it isn't leaking, but no one claims it's safe in its current condition.

Could there be another earthquake in the area?

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Japan yesterday. Nowhere near Fukushima, though, so we're all good.

Japanese university researchers predict a 70% chance an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude or higher will hit Tokyo in the next 4 years. Japan is earthquake central, on land and offshore. There's a reason we've chosen a Japanese word, "tsunami," to describe these events.

Meanwhile, Japanese farmers within a wide circle around Fukushima have been told their crops are perfectly safe. But when they have them analyzed, they find radioactive isotopes far above the allowable limit.

My conclusions: Nuclear proliferation of any kind, peaceful as well as military, is incredibly dangerous. There is no such thing as a safe nuclear power plant, since there is no human estimation and no computer model capable of predicting the kinds of disasters which can hit a plant or a building's ability to withstand any given disaster. Governments will lie to us about the dangers, before, during and after a dangerous event.

Anyone who puts their faith in the I-love-nukes crowd is a fool. Anyone who puts their faith in anything that comes out of Al Melvin's mouth . . . well, fool is far too weak a word.

What Will Gabby Do?

Posted by Michael Bryan

Gabby Giffords finds herself in a fairly unique position: she is no longer a Member of Congress, but unquestionably has a vast reservoir of goodwill, respect, and love from her former constituents, regardless of party. To a far greater degree than any other resigning Member I can recall, Gabby has the power to influence the future political direction of her district. Arguably, should she choose to endorse a candidate for her former seat, that endorsement could have considerable, possibly dispositive, influence over who will take her place.

If her choice is well-considered, it could very well be determinative of the result of the upcoming elections in CD8, and it's successor CD2.

So, who will Gabby choose? I don't know.

Who could she choose? I have a few ideas.

Click through to keep reading...

The GOP war on the AIRC returns with a vengeance

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Just when you thought these Tea-Publican authoritarians had finally learned their lesson, the Tea-Publican tyranny is back, and they want to impose their authoritarian will on us again -- the will of the voters be damned.

House Speaker Andy Tobin introduced several measures on Thursday that would set a special election so voters could decide whether to use legislative and congressional maps drawn by the Legislature instead of those approved last month by the constitutional Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Tobin wants special election on new district maps:

Tobin, R-Paulden, introduced a handful of measures on Thursday that would put new maps drawn by the Legislature on the ballot for a May 15 special election. Another proposal would put a measure on the general election ballot in November to expand the membership of the IRC, among other changes.

HCR2052 and HCR2053 would call the special election so voters could decide on congressional and legislative maps approved by lawmakers. The proposals come as the IRC is preparing to send its own maps, approved in December, to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval.

Tobin said he and House staffer John Mills, who worked for the GOP-backed FAIR Trust and was a regular fixture at IRC meetings, already completed the congressional and legislative maps he wants to refer to the ballot. He said they began working on the maps about three weeks ago, using public input gleaned from seven days of hearings by a Joint Legislative Committee on Redistricting in October.

They did not speak with other lawmakers about the proposal, Tobin said.

Tobin has a laugh out loud lack of self-awareness and sense of irony with this statement:

“I think it’s clear that there should be an alternative to the IRC maps. And I think the voters should see a clear and distinct alternative,” Tobin said. “The politics that drew the IRC maps through the back door with the lights turned down is not going to stand. I think the voters know when they see deception.”

You mean like you and John Mills drawing up maps together? And the highly secretive GOP redistricting organization FAIR Trust operating in the shadows actively seeking to undermine the AIRC for over a year? This guy is a major tool!

Senate panel votes to give the Governor a state militia for the border

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists of our Tea-Publican legislature are at it again. A Senate panel has approved a proposal to create an armed militia that could be deployed to the Mexican border under the direction of the Governor. The bill, SB 1083, is backed by "states’ rights" advocates and anti-immigration zealots. What could possibly go wrong? (Jan Brewer and her teabaggers are recklessly irresponsible enough to create an international incident or start a war).

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Senate panel OKs bill to create state militia for border security, disasters:

[The bill] would set aside $500,000 in one-time funding and $1.4 million annually for the new state militia.

As envisioned, the Arizona State Guard would have its own command structure apart from the Arizona National Guard.

It would be under the direct control of the governor, who could deploy it to respond to disasters and interdict those who engage in “cross-border criminal activity.”

The militia would also have arrest, detention and property seizure powers.

Ah, so what they are really saying is that Jan Brewer will have her own private armed militia that she can use to abuse the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike with the power of arrest, detention and property seizure.

Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, the head of the Arizona National Guard, candidly expressed his reservations during a hearing by the Senate Border Security, Federalism and States’ Sovereignty Committee.

Salazar said he believes he would ultimately be responsible for the new force because current state law gives him responsibility over military organizations in the state. He also said he has concerns about allowing militia volunteers carry weapons, noting that National Guard members go through extensive training before they are armed.

“I’m not saying that weapons cannot be carried, but there’s a lot of things that have to occur before I would be comfortable putting a weapon in a volunteer’s hand,” he said.

Salazar’s remarks prompted Sen. Sylvia Allen, the bill’s sponsor and the committee’s chairwoman, to ask: “How do we fight a war without weapons?”

Salazar said his soldiers that are deployed to the border there are “not fighting the war.”

Rather, he said their mission is to support federal law enforcement. Salazar also said the border issue is a law enforcement and policy problem — not a military one.

“The problem or concern I have is that you cannot solve what I believe is a law enforcement and policy problem with a military solution,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar is a wise man.

American Library Association condemns closure of MAS program, removal of texts

by David Safier

The banning of the use of texts by former Mexican-American Studies teachers infuriates the English teacher in me. I understand, there are some good reasons why some books should not be in schools, but the ideas contained in them is not one of those good reasons.

But if you want to see a group of people rise up against unreasonable banning of books, look no further than librarians. They may seem like a demure group of folks, always speaking in whispers and shushing people in their libraries. But they are fierce defenders of access to books of all kinds.

The American Library Association released a resolution Tuesday condemning both the decision to get rid of the MAS program and the decision to prohibit the use of texts by former MAS teachers. You can read the whole resolution with all the WHEREASes after the jump, but here's the actual resolution:

RESOLVED, That the American Library Association:

1) Condemns the suppression of open inquiry and free expression caused by closure of ethnic and cultural studies programs on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
2) Condemns the restriction of access to educational materials associated with ethnic and cultural studies programs.
3) Urges the Arizona legislature to pass HB 2654, “An Act Repealing Sections 15-111 and 15-112, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to School Curriculum.”

Here's a list of the Library groups supporting the resolution:

[T]he ALA Committee on Diversity, ALA Committee on Legislation, American Association of School Librarians, American Indian Library Association, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Chinese American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, Social Responsibilities Round Table, and the Young Adult Library Services Association.

My advice: Kiss your local librarian -- but be sure to ask first. These people are defenders of our freedom and strong advocates for literacy. (You might ask a librarian how they responded when, during the Bush administration, they were told they had to release lists of books patrons had borrowed if the government asked.)

A MAJOR HAT TIP: Jeff Biggers just keeps writing about the MAS story, on Huffington Post, on Salon, wherever he finds a national outlet. He puts the links on Facebook, then sends them to me and others. I got the link to the ALA resolution from his article Arizona Unbound: National Actions on Mexican American Studies Banishment. (And a literary hat tip if I'm correct in assuming Jeff took his title from Prometheus Unbound, with versions written centuries apart by Aeschylus and Shelley). He sent me links to another group of articles I haven't had time to read yet. I'll post about them when I do.

Read the entire ALA resolution after the jump.

Antenori to run for the Giffords seat - already terrorizing the villagers

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

State Sen. "Don't make me angry" Frank(enstein) Antenori announced this morning that he is running in both the special election and November general election for the Giffords seat in CD 8. Antenori to seek Giffords' seat.

Whoever is elected to the Giffords seat should have the same temperament, character and judgment as Gabrielle Giffords and her sense of decency, fairness and willingness to work with all parties for what is best for Arizona. That clearly is not Antenori who has repeatedly demonstrated that he entirely lacks the temperament, character and judgment to serve in Congress, or any other elective office for that matter.

The Tucson Weekly reported yesterday that Antenori is already off terrorizing the villagers in his own Tea-Publican Party. Congressman Antenori? | The Range:

Rumor also has it that beaten CD8 candidate Jesse Kelly is looking to another run for Giffords’ seat — and Antenori had some harsh words for the man who within a percentage point of unseating Giffords in 2010, and then left Arizona for Texas.

“We went through a period of time in the state where there were a lot of political battles,” he said, citing the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission and the Tucson City Council. “Some of us stayed to fight those battles and work for the conservative cause in the party and some of us didn’t.”

“When the going gets tough, Jesse Kelly gets going,” he said.

Big talk for a guy who starts out trailing badly in a field poll, albeit by the Jesse Kelly camp (and just who paid for this poll - inquiring minds want to know). Jesse Kelly! He's Got a Poll! | The Range:

The beaten Republican candidate who limped off to Texas after nearly toppling Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2010 released a poll today which showed him out front of the pack of probable Republican candidates for the special election to replace Giffords.

According to the survey, Kelly has a combined 35 percent of definite and leaning voters. State Senator Frank Antenori pulls 15 percent of definite and leaning voters, and local sports broadcaster Dave Sitton gets 7 percent.

The poll was conducted on the 24th and 25th of January, 2012 and sampled 300 likely [GOP] primary voters from throughout the current Congressional District 8.

* * *

“What’s really astonishing is that he had no intentions of running in the normal election and he had already started cutting staff away, and all of a sudden Mr. opportunity is back in town,” Antenori said.

Grrrr! The Monster is angry and off terrorizing the villagers again -- more raw red meat!

UPDATE: Antenori told the Arizona Capitol Times he won’t be resigning from his legislative seat. He’ll also keep his position as Majority Whip.

Rich Crandall moves from deplorable to absurd in his free/reduced meals optional argument

by David Safier

I learned long ago, whenever anyone has lots of reasons why something is a good idea or a bad idea, usually none of the reasons given are the real reasons. There's something else going on. Rich Crandall is on my "Too many reasons, too many rationalizations" list.

Crandall is sponsoring the bill that would make participation in the federal free and reduced meals program optional. Here's his lastest argument, if you want to call it that.

“You’re trying to say, ‘Hey, this is the only way to feed kids.’ And I’m saying, no, it’s not. Our Arizona charter schools show that there are numerous ways to make sure kids are fed,” Crandall said.

Unbelievable. True, charter schools don't have to participate in the free/reduced meals program. But many of our charter schools simply don't feed their students. No cafeteria. No meals. The result is, kids from families who qualify for free or reduced meals don't attend those schools. That's not an option for students attending the local district school.

Crandall has also said, if a school district doesn't provide the service, the kids can always opt to attend another school. Of course, there may be no bus service provided. If it's a rural area, the next school may be 50 miles away, and it may not offer the service either. But Crandall doesn't give a damn.

So, if Crandall's too many reasons mean he's hiding his real agenda, what is it? He insists adamantly it has nothing to do with his Child Nutrition consulting and menu planning company. But in the words of the Immortal Bard, Crandall "doth protest too much, methinks."

Quick Nuke waste dump/reprossing quote

by David Safier

From today's NY Times, an article about problems disposing of our radioactive waste:

Some nuclear power advocates argue that the United States should develop factories and reactors that will recycle some of the spent fuel. But the [Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future] said that no existing technology was adequate for that purpose, given cost considerations and the risk of nuclear proliferation.

I'm sure Al Melvin will poo-poo the quote, given the source. The NY Times is just another one of those Commie Environmental Watermelons he referred to in a recent tweet:

#azright To show the political agenda of  environmentalists, slice a water melon open. It has a thin veneer of green but is Commie red inside

Arizona Daily Star: Governor Brewer embarrasses Arizona

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Daily Star unfortunately relies upon the AP and Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services for its news content on state government. Cheap bastards! You have the money, hire your own capitol reporter and expand the number of eyes and ears watching our state government and add another perspective to reporting. Howard Fischer should not enjoy a monopoly, I don't care that he used to work for the Star.

Leaving this aside, the Arizona Daily Star has an editorial opinion today that is spot-on. Finger-wagging Brewer cast state in a bad light:

Gov. Jan Brewer likes to cast herself in the tough-leader role - and sticking her finger in President Obama's face and jawing at him makes for a handy visual message to her political base. What the rest of the state, along with the nation, sees is boorish behavior from Arizona's top official.

* * *

On Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama a handwritten letter, which she described as discussing immigration and inviting him to visit Arizona again and join her for a border tour. By all accounts, he told the governor her book mischaracterized their last meeting. Heated words were exchanged. Reporters [i.e., Howard Fischer] nearby described the two leaders talking over each other, and then Obama walked away. [Not true according to Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa]

Brewer, as governor, represents all Arizonans and should act as an ambassador for our state. Obama was in Phoenix to visit a major economic accomplishment - a new Intel plant - and the tiff on the tarmac was graceless.

* * *

After initially contending that the letter was not a public document because it was a personal handwritten note, Brewer's office released the letter late Thursday afternoon.

It is what one would expect from a governor to a president of another party - mentioning "hard choices" and balanced budgets, while neglecting to mention, however, the high cost Arizona's citizens have paid in recent years through draconian cuts to school funding, health-care coverage for kids of the working poor and more.

Brewer's digital gesticulation got attention, and that's what any politico trying to raise her profile wants - and sales of her memoir have jumped.

But Brewer's jab comes at the expense of Arizona's national reputation and image.

Text of the snarky and delusional stage prop letter from Arizona's "savior" is below the fold.

David Fitzsimmons once again nails it!

The Barretts, Craig and Barbara: Power couple

by David Safier

Muckety, a website whose mission, in its own words, is "Mapping the paths of power and influence," has posted a power map of Craig Barrett and his wife, Barbara.

Craig currently heads Brewer's A-Wreck (AREC: Arizona Ready Education Council). He's a big player in the conservative Choice/Education Reform movement here in Arizona. In case anyone was wondering, both he and Barbara are big Republican donors.

Interestingly, Craig's position as head of BASIS Charter Schools isn't mentioned here. But his connection with K12 Inc., the huge national cyber school corporation, is.

Craig is very proud of his affiliation with BASIS and brags regularly about how wonderful their elite charter schools are (Sure, they have to accept everyone, but the students who end up enrolling and staying on can be called, in Occupy parlance, the Academic One Percent. The Ninety-nine Percent need not apply).

But I would like to hear what he has to say about this. K12 Inc's Arizona school, Arizona Virtual Academy, is currently one of 27 AZ charter schools on academic probation. The schools have been given conditional renewals.

The conditional renewal requires them to be reviewed annually until they meet their goals. If they fail, the state could close one or more of their schools or revoke their contract.

Mr. Barrett, what's good for your One Percent School is good for your Ninety-Nine Percent School as well. Why haven't you put your considerable energies and influence behind fixing the problems with Arizona Virtual Academy, which apparently isn't doing the job for its 4,000-plus students?

Can Howard Fischer fire himself from Capitol Media Services?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Can Howard Fischer fire himself from Capitol Media Services? His PR work for Governor Jan Brewer and her fictional biography "Scorpions for Breakfast" is an utter embarrassment to someone who is often referred to as the Dean of the Arizona press corps. What a way to tarnish a career.

We have been over this territory before. The wrong way and right way to report the abuse of power by Governor Brewer and her Star Chamber:

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services provides news content to many of Arizona's news outlets, including our sad small-town newspaper the Arizona Daily Star.

Fischer has been publishing what would appear to be nothing more than publisher PR press releases for Jan Brewer's new book "Scorpions for Breakfast" for several months now, including this most recent release on Tuesday, the date of release of her book. Brewer book tells different story of Arizona governor's meeting with Obama.

Color me skeptical of Fischer's ability to be objective in his reporting. He frequently inserts his own editorial opinion into what is purported to be objective factual reporting. Because his reporting is used by so many news outlets in Arizona, Fischer enjoys an outsized influence over public opinion through his reporting not enjoyed by any other political reporter in Arizona, and that is a problem.

Fischer was back hawking Governor Brewer's book this week with her staged political theater greeting the President. Brewer, Obama exchange tense greeting at Mesa airport - East Valley Tribune:

Three months after she published her unflattering description of him, it appears President Obama is still miffed with Gov. Jan Brewer.

[Several paragraphs promoting Brewer's fictional biography]

During the short encounter at the airport, Brewer pointed at the president, with that moment captured in a photograph. But the governor said that, whatever the picture looks like, she was not acting in anger.

"I've always been kind of animated,'' she said.

"We could have been talking about a lot of different things,'' Brewer continued, saying she respects the office of the president. "And I would never be disrespectful in that manner.''

But Brewer said that, the president's complaints Wednesday afternoon about the book aside, she and Obama clearly were not communicating much at all.

"He wants to talk about amnesty and I want to talk about securing our border,'' she said. "We're just not ever going to agree on that.'' [This was never part of their conversation from multiple media accounts]

That, she said, was underscored by how the conversation at the airport ended.

"I was in the middle of a sentence and he walked away,'' Brewer said.

Only that's not accurate. How do I know? Because Republican Mayor of Mesa Scott Smith and Democratic Mayor of Phoenix Greg Stanton were standing next to the governor.

Rep. Eddie Farnsworth Kowtows to Irrational Anti-Vaccination Crowd

Posted by Michael Bryan

Looks like the black helicopter crowd has joined forces with the vaccination conspiracy theorists. Eddie Farnsworth is backing a bill to restrict Arizona's colleges and universities from requiring vaccinations.

Perhaps this is really a problem that is keeping Arizonans from getting post-secondary education, but I sincerely doubt it.

Farnsworth claims "the change is needed because parents of some students from kindergarten through high school decide against having their children vaccinated." This seems merely to be pandering to those irresponsible and wackadoodle parents who still believe, against all evidence and in the face of a major scientific malpractice scandal discrediting the original study linking vaccinations and autism, that children are harmed by vaccination.

Amazing to think that this urban myth delusion has been around long enough that those (surviving) children denied vaccinations may now be approaching college age. It's a testimony to the staying power of irrational beliefs.

Poor form, Farnsworth. And poor public policy in service to an irrational fringe constituency.