Blog For Arizona

The New BlogForArizona is Live

By Michael Bryan

Tonight we updated the DNS servers to point all our domains to the new Word Press hosted site. BlogForArizona.com, BlogForArizona.net (until the DNS are all updated this is link for new site), and .org will all point to the new site, at which all new content will appear.

The Typepad site (arizona.typepad.com) on which you are reading this post, will become an archive site. Eventually, all comments will be disabled. If you are arriving at this site via a search engine or a referring link, please consider joining us in discussing Arizona politics at:

www.BlogForArizona.com

Thanks for your patience and patronage during this transisition

 

A New BlogForArizona

By Michael Bryan

For the past several weeks, we here at BlogForArizona have been working quietly on a complete redesign of the blog. We are now in the process of rolling out the redesign. Over the next few days we are asking for your understanding and patience as we implement the new site.

The main difference you will see as readers is that the new blog will be accessible at www.blogforarizona.com, and the current site will be archived at arizona.typepad.com. If you have bookmarked BlogForArizona, you might want to check and see if you have might have bookmarked the address of the archive site.

All our old posts will also have been transferred to www.blogforarizona.com, but some may lack graphics and some links may be problematic, so older posts might look better on the archive. Once the transition is complete (we estimate early next week), all new posts will appear at www.blogforarizona.com only.

You may need to re-register for commenting at the new Word Press-based site. Hopefully, we will have better response and load times, better searching, better social media integration, and some great new features enabled by the richer ecosystem of Word Press application developers. We will be experimenting over the coming weeks and welcome your suggestions.

Thanks for your support and interest. New posts may continue to appear below until the transition is complete. Please continue to access our blog at www.blogforarizona.com to ensure you are seeing the latest version of the blog.

Federal Court Ruling: Is this Beginning of the End for Net Neutrality?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

If you don’t like the way Facebook shovels advertising and promoted posts into your “news feed”, instead of the latest photos of your friends’ vacations, you’re really not going to like the new and improved Internet.

Yesterday, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the power to regulate net neutrality. What does this mean for you? Internet providers like Verizon can now cut deals with corporate giants to accelerate their content, while leaving non-commercial Internet content–like those pesky independent blogs– in the dustbin of a Google search.

From Think Progress…

Net neutrality rules were issued by the FCC to prevent broadband providers from favoring some content over other content, potentially even their own. As the two-judge majority explains, “a broadband provider like Comcast might limit its end-user subscribers’ ability to access the New York Times website if it wanted to spike traffic to its own news website, or it might degrade the quality of the connection to a search website like Bing if a competitor like Google paid for prioritized access.”

Even as they struck down these rules Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit judges concede that this concern is real, writing, “broadband providers represent a threat to Internet openness and could act in ways that would ultimately inhibit the speed and extent of future broadband deployment.” The problem, however, derives from an earlier FCC decision that even advocates of net neutrality like Free Press president Craig Aaron say was a failure of FCC leadership to “ground its Open Internet rules on solid legal footing.” [Emphasis added.]

Thank You David!

By Michael Bryan

I think I can safely speak for the entire staff and readership of BlogForArizona when I say "Thank you!" to David Safier for his last 6 years of hard work, and the fun and satisfaction we have all derived from David's efforts. We are all looking forward to his continuing contributions to public discourse with his new and larger platform at Tucson Weekly's The Range.

Speaking just for myself now, I want to acknowledge David's contributions and praise him mercilessly. I am gratified and excited by David's new project and I think Jim Nintzel incredibly wise to have sought out David to add some punch to the Weekly's blog.

When I first met David during the election integrity trial of 2007, and invited him to co-live-blog the event, little did I know what an ideal partner and collaborator he would become. At that point, BlogForArizona was still just my own private obsession. David changed that for the better by making BlogForArizona his own obsession - and we are all better for it. David deserves a great deal of the credit for the successful transformation of this blog into a group project over the past several years.

David has brought his intelligence and wit to bear on a project that too few of us undertake, and less of us succeed at: public citizenship. David has become one of Arizona's most vocal and eloquent public citizens. It has been one of my chief satisfactions in founding and running BlogForArizona that it has become a platform for David, and the other excellent public citizens who collaborate on BlogForArizona, to answer that vital calling.

David has cultivated his entrepreneurial energy, his deep love of public policy, his concern and compassion for our childrens' futures, and his engaging and interesting authorial voice, to create a public personae that will deservedly continue to grow in influence and authority. Through his selfless efforts and energy David been a tireless advocate and resource for Arizona's citizens. He has become a regular guest on Buckmaster's Blogger Beat, a regular contributor to the Explorer's op-ed pages, and more recently, a frequent contributor to the Tucson Weekly's opinion page, all while blogging regularly and engagingly here on BlogForArizona.

Most impressively, David has accomplished all that not by being a bomb-throwing, divisive gadfly, but by being a well informed, fair, and thoughtful citizen seeking to share his concerns and insights with the public. David is role model and exemplar of how the internet has empowered citizens to take an active role in making their communities better.

BlogForArizona is poorer for David's departure, but Arizona is better off because more people will be able to engage with this extraordinary citizen's work.

If you haven't yet done so, please share in the comments your thoughts and well-wishes for David as he moves on to his next project.

My Newest Follower: Robert Reich :)

Posted by Bob Lord

If I were David Safier, the title of this post would be "Shameless Self Promotion" but my doing so would be "Shameless Plagiarism."

So, last night, I did what I suspect many egotistical writers do -- googled the title of my op-ed piece to see where it was picked up and, lo and behold, found this:

Robert Reich‏@RBReich20h

Right wants us to forget that top 1% is getting lion's share of income, and blame bottom 1% instead. More lies. http://otherwords.org/trumped-war-welfare/ …

Expand              Collapse   

• Reply
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  • Embed Tweet

• 166 Retweets     
• 66 Favorites                     
• 

12:27 PM - 16 Sep 13                 · Details

Apparently, the piece reached Mr. Reich's 154,933 followers, and of course Reich himself, and the readers of the 66 retweets.

And Truthout picked up the piece as well: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18888-a-trumped-up-war-on-welfare

Still better stick to my day job of practicing law, though, huh? Oh well. 

MAS Redux: Tucson Weekly & MalintZINE Dare to Tell the ‘Rest of the Story’

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Sexism and sexual violence cross all ethnic, racial, and class boundaries. This story focuses on the struggle against misogyny and sexual violence in Tucson’s Chicano community.

For years, the Tucson Weekly’s Mari Herreras has covered multiple aspects of the rise and fall of Mexican American Studies (MAS)– the chaining, the chanting, the demonstrations, the fundraising, the controversies, the personalities– but A Broken Community, the cover story of the July 18 issue, was one of the more fascinating stories about the evolution of MAS.

Maybe it’s because I gave up reading the Three Sonorans blog years ago, but I haven’t heard or read much about MAS since the former director of the program, Sean Arce, was charged with domestic violence back in December 2012.

At the time, the silence surrounding the Arce’s charges and what happened between him and his wife that night in December at La Cocina was deafening. As I wrote, “Bloggers who regularly post ‘news’ stories every time Arce catches a cold are mute, and none of the mainstream media have touched his story.”

A handful women bloggers wrote about the Arce story– most notably, a relatively new blog, MalintZINE. “Dear Sean”, a moving essay about machismo and sexism in the MAS movement, was one of the first few posts on this blog, and at the time, the author(s) was/were anonymous to the general public, myself included.

Herreras’ TW story updates us on this thread.

Rape and Violence

Without naming many names, Herreras gives us the back story on sexism, sexual abuse charges, and fallen idols in the MAS program, with accounts dating back to 2011 (more than a year before the December 2012 Arce incident). At the core of the story is former MAS spokesperson and former cover girl for the Precious Knowledgemovie Leilani Clark and the womyn of MalintZINE. In the early heyday of the MAS protests, Clark was everywhere. I heard her speak with poise and fire  about the MAS struggle at multiple events, and then… poof… she disappeared from the scene.  She was everywhere, and then, nowhere. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who wondered what happened to her.) 

To find out, follow the jump.

Google Is Killing Google Reader as of July 1: Now What?

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Corporate giants work in mysterious ways. A case in point is Google's decision to abruptly end its popular Google Reader service, which allows users to get "feeds" from their favorite blogs. 

Blog for Arizona has almost 900 followers. (Hey, thanks!) The problem is that more than half of these followers are using Google Reader to stay up-to-date with our musings.

What's a person to do? So, you know the theory that if you ask the universe a question, the answer will appear to you? Well, that's what happened today.

I Googled something completely unrelated to Google Reader's death and up popped the following post about transporting your Google Reader blogs to Feedly.

Digging a little deeper, I found several other stories about what to do post-Google Reader. The catch is: If you want to maintain your current list of blogs to follow and you want to transfer said list to another service, you have to do it before July 1, 2013! (Or you are SOL and you have to re-essemble your favorites list.)

Here's what The Verge says about Feedly...

Feedly appears to be the heir apparent to Google Reader’s throne, a modern take on RSS that blends some of the niceties of Flipboard (like a “magazine view”) with useful Reader features like keyboard shortcuts and tags. But its biggest advantage may be that it’s the only RSS application that also has excellent and free companion mobile apps. In a world without the ubiquitous Google Reader API, building your own mobile apps is the only way to make sure you can pick up where you left off — in this way, Feedly is the only real Google Reader alternative.

Connecting by Feedly and other links, after the jump.

 

ADI Swipes Story and Still Gets It Wrong

By Tom Prezelski

Re-posted from Rum Romanism and Rebellion

To quote Truman Capote: "That's not writing, that's typing."

There is talk from Bob Lord and others among the happy bunch over here that some response has to be made to a recent post at the Arizona Daily Independent regarding the discussion that happened last week after my post making a case for why my friend, Representative Chad Campbell, should not run for Governor.

There is no reason to provide a link to ADI. If you want to find the story, you are free to look for it yourself. I will also resist the temptation to point out all the things that are wrong with their article, except to say that the anonymous scribbler responsible for it outright misrepresents the exchange as some kind of effort by The Man to keep a brother down. He also misspells my name as well as Fred DuVal's. Otherwise, it has the flaws of a typical ADI story: lousy grammar, poor sourcing, and just plain terrible writing.

BlogForArizona Welcomes Tom Prezelski of R3

By Michael Bryan

Exciting blog news! Former Arizona Representative and blog brother Tom Prezelski is going to be posting here at BlogForArizona as well as his blog, RumRomanismAndRebellion. Tom brings a wealth of legislative experience and a deep fund of knowledge of Arizona's political and cultural history to his pithy and insightful commentary.

Tom recently took over R3 from his brother Ted, who was obliged to stop blogging by professional obligations. Tom has decided that life as a solo blogger is just not as fun as being part of a community (and he's not able to post as often as he'd like due to work and his new book deal - which I'm sure he'll tell you about himself), so he decided he's like to cross-post over here at BlogForArizona.

Welcome, Tom! Glad to have you here.

 

 

Washington Post Names BlogForArizona Arizona's Best Political Blog

By Michael Bryan

The Washington Post has named BlogForArizona the best political blog in Arizona.

Congratulations to the wonderful bloggers who have hung their shingles here at BlogForArizona! I think our bloggers are the best, so it's nice to know that readers think so, too.

I will note that we did not campaign for the nomination, nor the selection. The selection was entirely based on readers' spontaneous nominations. Thanks to all of you!

New posts will appear below...

Blogging like a fugitive

by Pamela Powers Hannley

In recent months, John McAfee's life has been the stuff B movies are made of.

In a nutshell, the expatriot anti-virus software pioneer had six guard dogs and "a contingent of armed guards" patrolling his estate in Belize; his neighbors didn't like the aggressive, barking dogs, and one filed a formal complaint; the dogs were poisoned; a few days later the neighbor was shot dead; McAfee went into hiding-- including burying himself in his yard (to hide from police in Belize) and faking a heart attack (to be released from jail in Guatemala).  

As if that's not enough to keep a guy busy, apparently McAfee had the time to blog during his ordeal. 

Ragan's PR Daily says that bloggers can take a few queues from McAfee's blog to spice up their writing. How does one "blog like a fugitive"? Read tips from the article after the jump. (Image: John McAfee on his property in Belize. Credit: Brian Finke.)

The writing life: Writing routines of the rich and famous... and me

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Years ago, I heard author Barbara Kingsolver give a talk on "The Writing Life"-- inspiration vs blockage... stolen moments on sleepless nights, writing in her closet... writing boring technical reports as an information specialist at The University of Arizona... and her life before she became famous. Having been an information specialist at the UA, I could relate easily to her stories about writing for work vs stealing away time to write for yourself.

I also enjoyed learning about her writing routines-- like writing in a walk-in closet at night in their tiny Tucson house, so she wouldn't wake her husband. I recently stumbled upon an article detailing the writing habits of famous authors-- Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradburry, and others.

For a peek at their writing habits and their lives, read on.

'Black Thursday' backlash continues against big box stores

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Retail employees who work for Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, Toys R Us, Kmart, Tanger Outlets, Gap, and Meijer can forget the Norman Rockwell-style Thanksgiving Dinner again this year.

Although Wal-Mart is getting the most heat for requiring employees to work on Thansgiving, they are not alone. Corporate greed runs deep in the US. Fortunately, so does Internet-based activism. According to CNBC, a "Black Thursday" backlash is building against retailers who are hawking Thanksgiving Day sales. Read more after the jump.

Sonoran Alliance says 'grassroots effort' (not dark money) defeated Props 121 &204

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Sonoran Alliance-- a conservative mouthpiece-- has reported that a "strong grassroots effort" by staunch Arizona conservatives defeated Proposition 121 (open primaries) and Proposition 204 (permanent 1 cent sales tax to fund education) in the recent election.

The video accompanying the story features dark money king Robert Graham lauding volunteers for making phone calls, writing letters, and talking to their friends about the two propositions and thus triumphing on election day.

This a great fairy tale to make the base feel good. Too bad it's not true.

Both propositions were defeated by huge dark money donations by Americans for Responsible Leadership, who funneled $900,000 in out-of-state money into Arizona to defeat Prop 204 and $600,000 to defeat Prop 121. The same group also funneled $11 million worth of dark money into two California campaigns.  Talking Points Memo reported that Americans for Repsonsible Leadership admited to "campaign money laundering" related to the California donations. 

Former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams is the president of Americans for Responsible Leadership, and Graham is the director. Graham has a vested interest in making Arizona's Republicans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He wants to be their next statewide chair. 

Having a dark money Koch Brothers puppet as head of the Arizona Republican Party-- now that is scary. Watch the Graham video after the jump.

BlogForArizona Gets a Little Facelift

By Michael Bryan

Post-election is always a nice time to do some tidying up around the blog.

A few things have changed:

• The Navigation bar across the top of the page, just under the site's banner, now has links to posts by a particular BfAZ authors. In case you like to follow a particular author and would like to see what they have posted lately, you can see posts by that author only easily with these links.
• Weeded out some dead links and dead wood in the sidebar features. Look for new features and links in coming days. Please suggest your favorite liberal and progressive groups and organizations in AZ whom you think deserve some recognition.

More changes will be coming soon. Stay tuned, and please leave us suggestions of features and changes you would like to see in the comments, and you can take our survey.

Our New Anti-Carmona Ad

By Michael Bryan

Many of you will notice that we have a wonderful new ad that suggests Richard Carmona and Barack Obama have a secret deal with labor to make everyone pay union dues. Most of our readers will be happy to hear it, if only it were so.

I accepted the ad for one reason: it paid me personally, as the owner of the blog, $92.46, after commissions to display it for the next two weeks until the election. Usually, I use such revenues to pay for blog hosting, or to take my bloggers out for a breakfast on me, or other such blog-related expenses.

This time, I'm donating the money to the Carmona campaign. You should contribute, too. I'm asking 50 BlogForArizona readers to donate any amount to Push for Victory, an Act Blue campaign for the closest Congressional campaigns in Arizona. Please join me.

So, to the advertisers who wanted you to know about Dr. Carmona's nefarious secret deal, I'm sure that Dr, Carmona thanks you for the contribution :)

 

White privilege? Video is worth a thousand words (video)

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Dave Safier posted a short story this morning-- Presented Without Comment-- about the Three Sonorans' putdown of Safier's endorsement of Kristel Foster for the Tucson Unified School Board (TUSD).  (Whatever, I said I didn't agree with Dave either. People are allowed to have their own opinions.)

What Safier failed to mention was that the Three Sonorans also used the occasion to crack on Blog for Arizona and progressives, in general, and me, in particular. So, what else is new? Morales likes to pick on women who are vocal and active in politics. Just ask Loretta Hunnicutt, Kyrsten Sinema, Dolores Huerta, Janet Marcotte, DeeDee Blase, Adelita Grijalva, Gabby Giffords, Regina Romero, and Kristel Foster--to name a handful of his past targets. 

Sexism aside, I take issue with Morales' assertion that progressives take action and protest on the street corners when unions need our help but not when Latinos need our help. This false dichotomy implies that only white people belong to unions and that's why only white people care about them. Wrong. 

After the jump, watch the anti-SB1070 protest video, the protest video against anti-union legislation proposed by the Arizona Legislature, and testimony regarding anti-union activities at the IBEW Hall. You'll see progressives standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Latinos in all three videos.  (BTW, in the photo above, that's me in the turquoise dress, between the two cops, covering the UnDocuBus protest in Charlotte.)

Blogging the DNC2012: The inside scoop from the Tucson Progressive

by Pamela Powers Hannley

Want the inside scoop on blogging the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte? The parties? The people? The protests? The politics?

Check out my interview on The Lou Show.

If you want to hear my pearls of wisdom in person, come to the Laughing Liberally Tucson Comedy Showcase on Tuesday, September 18 at Casa Vincente. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Here I am with Arianna Huffington, a very gracious lady, and Krzystzof Piotrowski, another Huffington Post Off the Bus blogger, at the Huffington Post Oasis at the DNC. You can hear my interview and see part of his video after the jump.

Meet The Unconscious Press

Posted by Bob Lord

It really sucks that so many people rely almost exclusively on TV for information.

I’m doing something I almost never do -- watch Sunday morning television. I’m currently watching Sunday Square Off, and Braham Resnick actually did a pretty good job of helping Andy Thomas make an ass of himself.

I was much, much less impressed with Meet the Press. The topic of course was the so-called war on women and for the point and counterpoint segment they had Kirsten Gillebrand and Michele Bachman. The point that Bachman hammered was how Obama’s policies had caused gasoline prices to double during his term. I’m guessing every reader of this blog knows what a bullshit charge that is. The oil market is a world market. Obama’s policies could not materially impact world prices. And, even if drill baby drill could impact world prices, it would take years for new drilling to have such an impact.

Although Bachman repeated this charge three times, nobody remotely questioned her on it. I understand why Gillebrand didn’t. She had her own points to make, and didn’t want to be distracted. That makes sense. But where was David Gregory? He didn’t confront the misinformation at all. That might be ok if it was just an incidental misstatement, but this was a point she was hammering. Worse, when the show turned to the panel discussion, they spoke about how women are more sensitive to the price of things like milk and gasoline. That‘s probably correct, but when the panel made this point as an acknowledgment of Bachman’s remarks, it had the obvious effect of validating her spurious charge that Obama caused gasoline prices to rise. That’s incompetent journalism. That’s being asleep at the switch.

So, score one for Bachman, Mitt Romney and the Tea Party, with a huge assist from NBC.

Get Arizona Donkey Feed to Keep Up With Arizona's Political News

Posted by Michael Bryan

Did you know that BlogForArizona offers a customized newsletter of (nearly) every day's top political news from Arizona's meanstream media and blogs (both liberal and conservative)? It's a great way to keep abreast of Arizona's political news, opinion and events. (BTW, you can get a great run down of upcoming political events anytime you want by clicking the BfAZ Political Calendar link at the top of the page)

Did you know that the service is totally, 100% free?

It's the Arizona Donkey Feed!

Did you know that you can get this useful feed in many convenient formats?

You can just look at the top of the right sidebar under 'Mike's AZ Politics News Clips', where the 20 most recent items are displayed.

Or, you can click on the Donkey Feed graphic, or on the AZDonkeyFeed link at the top of the page, to go to the webpage where all the items are displayed (with either a full text of the item, or a synopsis, whichever the publisher chooses to publish in their RSS feed).

Or you can click on the Subscribe To Feed graphic, which will take you to a Feedburner page on which you can subscribe to the custom RSS feed in your preferred RSS reader, or elect to receive a daily email of that day's links.

The email option is great. If you want a pre-view of a what a day's newsletter looks like, just click the continuation link to see an example of today's email.

Sign up today! It's free!

Changes to BfAZ Format

Posted by Michael Bryan

I've often got feedback about this blog that it can be hard to keep up with the volume of posting. Things can often just fly off the front page and never been seen between visits. Also, sometimes the front page can load very slowly due to all the media trying to load up.

So, we are going to try to do something about that.

I have asked our bloggers to make some changes to the way they post. Of course, that means a change in the way you read.

Bloggers will put a continuation link in after the first 3 or 4 paragraphs, if they are going to write more than that. That means there will be a link at the bottom of longer posts that you have to click in order to continue reading the rest of the post.

Also, all embedded media, such as videos, embedded PDFs, and the like, will only be after the continuation link. This should significantly improve load times.

As a result of these changes, I believe that we will be able to expand the number of most recent posts on the front page from the current 20, to up to 50. We'll see.

We ask for your patience and your imput during this process. Let us know how we're doing, and how you are finding the reading experience in comments or by writing to us at [email protected]

New posts will continue to appear below.

Mike's 2011 Top Ten

Posted by Michael Bryan

I thought I would get in the spirit of reflecting back on the past year by taking a look at my posts over the course of 2011 with an eye to picking out a few of the 'best'.

What I found is that I hadn't done all that much :) It may or may not be news to some readers that I was pretty distracted by health concerns this year. I basically didn't post between July and November. I had a quadruple cardiac bypass in early August and was pretty much disabled in the months prior and subsequent to that event.

So, in thinking about things I'm grateful for this year, top of the list is, of course, my continuing survival and returning health, and the support and love of my family that got me through the crisis.

Here in the blogosphere, my gratitude goes out to the wonderful bloggers who have joined me here at BlogForArizona who continue to make this a lively and informative forum for political junkies of Arizona to come and get their fixes.

A blog is like a broadcast. Dead air is the enemy. This blog would absolutely no longer exist if smart and public-spirited folks like David, Meanie, Craig, Karl, and all our occasional guest authors weren't here keeping BlogForArizona on the air. This year proved to me that BlogForArizona is truly become a community. I'm grateful beyond measure to be a part of that, and grateful to all of you who read and comment and contribute to keep that community alive.

Now, for my Top Ten:

The year started out on a tragic note with the January 8th shootings. Everyone on the blog chipped in to keep up with the terrible news (Gabby, Our Thoughts Are With You). In the days following I got pretty intemperate about what that tragedy revealed about the state of American politics (The Hypocrisy of the Right-Wing on the CD8 Shootings).

Much of politics in Arizona over the course of 2010 was driven by Senate President Pearce, unfortunately. I weighed in on his horrible lies about immigrants (The Big Lie at the Heart of the Birthright Citizenship Attacks on "Anchor Babies"), and even got a bit whimsical when I made a video about the issue (Arizona Senator Pearce throws Down with a Mexican Anchor Baby Mama). I also fisked his statement when the 9th Circuit enjoined enforcement of several provisions of SB1070 (Arizona Senator Pearce Attacks the 9th circuit Court of Appeals). Hopefully, Pearce won't be in a leadership position of Arizona's government ever again.

I was appalled by the AZ GOP's utter incompetence and immorality in dealing with this year's difficult budgetary deficit (An Immoral Budget), and their appalling lies about having 'balanced' the budget (AZ GOP's Big Budget Lie).

An entirely manufactured crisis was Jan Brewer's unconstitutional and nakedly political attack on the Independent Redistricting Commission (Janet Wants Her Veto Back) by summarily removing its Chairperson, which I predicted would fail (Arizona Courts Constitutional Crisis Over IRC). Thankfully, I was right for once, and sanity prevailed.

Another ego-driven perennial windbag in Arizona politics had the starch taken out of his pink underwear by the Department of Justice (Arpaio, MSCO and the DOJ Civil Rights Division Findings. What's it All Mean?), and immediately took the fight into the mud (And Arpaio's Supporters Go There Publicly).

Finally, a true piece of shit who besmirched the face of Arizona's politics looks to be about to get what he so richly deserves (Andy Thomas is in Big Trouble). But as the ethics panel's ruling won't actually come until late January, so perhaps this story is really the first Top Ten of 2012. And that, in the "baker's dozen" tradition of Top Tens, is actually 11 posts :)

BlogForArizona was founded in 2003 as the DeanForArizona blog during the 2004 Democratic Primary season. So, Happy New Year and welcome to BlogForArizona's 9th year in publication!

 

 

 

We Are Listening in 2012!

 
Blog for Arizona is pleased to announce the return of a feature for 2012. Because mainstream media do not cover local campaigns except within a narrow window of coverage shortly before a primary or general election, BforAZ will strive to provide our readers with in-depth election coverage throughout the year. With the number and coverage of newspapers continuing to shrink, and the poor quality of local news, some institution needs to fill the growing void. We poor scribblers on the internets are certainly not the whole solution, but we want to do our part.

BforAZ aims to be "election central" for Democratic campaigns in Arizona. It's a tall order, and we have the humility to know we're going to need a lot of help to make a go of it. So we're asking for that help from Arizona's Democratic candidates for office, as well as the assistance of our readers. We are willing to do the hard work of growth and adaptation to make BforAZ a truly collaborative enterprise. We'll only succeed to the extent you want us to, and help us to. We ask for your assistance, your goodwill, and, in anticipation of many errors and false starts, your forgiveness.

Submitting materials to [email protected]

Campaigns are encouraged to submit notices of campaign events to BforAZ at [email protected] (the capitalization doesn't matter, it's just for clarity) at least seven (7) days in advance of the "Weekly Calendar of Campaign Events" to be published on Sundays. Please note"Event Notice" and the date of the event in the subject line.

Campaigns may send press releases to BforAZ at the same address with the note "Press Release" in the subject line. The editors reserve the right of editorial discretion as to which press releases are newsworthy for publication. It will significantly increase the chance of a mention if you have your press release on the web and submit a permanent URL with the release. We are much more likely to link to your release with a comment than to republish.

Campaigns are encouraged to submit your YouTube or other online video host to BforAZ. The best method is to cross-post at your campaign web site and YouTube or other high-volume hosting service (please also provide us a transcript with your video). You may also submit campaign walk-pieces and mailers, if you are particularly proud of the piece. If we think it's pretty great, too, or possibly just the opposite, BforAZ may report on your ads and/or lit. Any press is good press, right? Please note"Campaign Video" or "Campaign Lit" in the subject line, as appropriate.

We here at BforAZ love to deconstruct campaign signs. If you see some in the wild that are new to you, or interestingly placed (or defaced), take some snaps and send them in. Please note "Campaign Sign" in the subject line

The BforAZ contributors are happy to conduct an interview of any Democratic candidate for office. Our minimal method is to submit questionaires via email and then submit follow-ups to answers if we would like elaboration. One of our writers will post the transcript of the interview, with follow-ups inserted appropriately, to the blog. If we decide to conduct a live or telephonic interview, any actual audio or video recording of the interview, made with the candidate's permission, will be posted along with any commentary or excerpts the interviewer or editor decides to post with the media. Requests may be submitted by email. Please include the subject line note "Interview Request" and note your preferences for written, telephonic, or live formats, any recording equipment you can provide and background materials.

A special plea to our BforAZ readers

Help us to help you and our other readers be better informed in 2012. We encourage you to engage in opposition research. We are here to help you get your finds into the mainstream media. They are watching the blogs for leads, and you could provide the next big story. 

If you are attending an event with Republican candidates for office, an audio recording, or better yet, a video recording may be submitted to BforAZ (your detailed handwritten notes may also be considered, but will require confirmation from another source). We're always on the lookout for the next "Maccaca" moment, but we can't be everywhere. But all of you can. If you think you have something newsworthy, let us know! The best method of submission is to upload any videos to a hosting service and send us a link with notes and time stamps of any particularly interesting bits. Audio may be posted directly as an email attachment in any common format, also with notes and time stamps of the good bits. Please include the note "Recorded GOP Event".

Of course, if you have a recording of a campaign event that you think is very favorable to your candidate, you may also submit that. If we find it of interest too, we may post that as well.

As a reader of BforAZ, you can also be an author. If there is an event that you think deserves coverage, by all means, cover it and send us your report. We may edit for length or grammar, but we won't change your viewpoint. We won't promise to post everything sent us, but who knows, you might have a budding blogger inside you just itching to get out. When submitting posts please be sure to note clearly whether you want the byline to identify you, or if you wish to post anonymously. We respect your privacy.

Thanks to all who contribute to make free collaborative media like BforAZ work. Let's all pitch in and help fill the gaps that the traditional media leave as they try to adjust to the world of online collaboration. 

While you are feeling in a contributive mood, you might consider a small donation to help BforAZ defray its costs and take on new projects such as this one.

 

Smart ALECs

By Michael Bryan

In Phoenix, the Arizona GOP state legislative caucus is right now receiving their marching orders from the 1% at the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is essentially just a pimp, arranging assignations between corporate greed-heads and political hatchetmen for hire to ram lobbyist-written model legislative wish lists through the legislatures of Arizona and the other states.

ALEC is not dumb; in fact, they are pretty smart. They want to operate in secret as much as possible. Their corporate sponsors have paid very well to have right-wing legislative hire boys carry their bills back to their capitals and drop them in the hopper, and they don't want any sunlight on their furtive couplings.

BlogForArizona.com asked for press credentials so that we might gawk at the red light district as our state lawmakers let their hair down. It almost goes without saying that, after ignoring us as much as possible, they turned us down. Here's my request:

Ms. Buss,

I would like to apply for press credentials for BlogForArizona.com during the Phoenix Summit for three of our correspondents.

We would also like permission to make video and audio recordings during the event.

BlogForArizona is not a personal blog, but neither is it funded by any type of institution listed in your Media Policy page. We are funded solely through private and reader donations and ad revenues. BlogForArizona has been publishing continuously with since 2003 and has multiple regular and guest authors and has an established a reputation as a news and opinion publication in the Arizona political community. We feel it vitally important that independent media, such as BlogForArizona.com, be allowed to attend your event with press credentials.

If you require further information, or need me, as Publisher, to complete some more formal application process, please let me know what I must do.

Best Regards,

Michael D. Bryan, Esq.

BlogForArizona.com Editor and Publisher

What is most notable about their rejection is the truly risible reason they gave for it. This is the curt note I finally got from their media handler after a bit of waiting and prodding:

Michael:

 Thank you for your interest in covering the American Legislative Exchange Council’s States and Nation Policy Summit November 30-December 2.  We will not be able to issue media credentials for BlogforArizona.com as our media policy states that “[j]ournalists may not register as ‘media’ if their news outlet is funded by a think-tank, political party/candidate, activist/advocacy organization, lobbying organization, trade association or corporation.” Please let us know if you have any further questions.

 Thank you,

 Kaitlyn Buss 

Of course they don't want independent citizen-journos like me and my crew there, but their justification of their brush-off is just so deeply ironic and revealing. ALEC is funded by dues-paying members who are think-tanks, advocacy organizations, lobbyists, trade associations and corporations. They shouldn't be allowed at their own conference!

They don't really care about whether any 'media' in attendance is biased, however, they just don't want to allow their potential client-base access to their stable of perky legislators for free. You don't get to come to ALEC and rub naughty bits with the political class unless you pay for the privilege: no freebies. And no kissing on the mouth...

Of course, their credentialing policy couldn't possibly apply to BlogForArizona.com. Their excuse for refusing us is absurd on its face. BlogForArizona.com is what we attorneys call 'judgement proof'; we have no funding and no assets. We all volunteer our time and effort. We get an occasional private donation or ad placement that keeps the lights on.

I wrote back to Ms. Buss:

BlogForArizona.com is not  “funded by a think-tank, political party/candidate, activist/advocacy organization, lobbying organization, trade association or corporation.” Your policy does not automatically exclude blogs, does it?

I never got an answer. If you are out there Ms. Buss (and I bet you are reading this), we're still awaiting an answer - and our media credentials. Hey, there's always next year...

In the meantime, if you want a good hard look inside the whore house that is ALEC, try People For the American Way's report on ALEC's activities in Arizona, or the Center for Media and Democracy's website, ALECExposed.org. You can also come to Drinking Liberally at the Shanty on 4th Ave this Sunday at 6pm where Lisa Hoffman will lead a discussion of ALEC.

 

The Donkey is Still Feeding

Posted by Michael Bryan

Note: New posts will continue to appear below.

Just a reminder for you news junkies out there, you can get all the latest Arizona political news in one convenient feed via the Arizona Donkey Feed at www.azdonkeyfeed.com. BlogForArizona's editor-in-chief (that's me) updates The Feed several times throughout the day with all the latest stories from Arizona's blogs and commercial media.

You don't have to go looking for what's news anymore, you can get everything directly from The Feed, or even via an RSS feed or email subscription. Too much effort? No problem, just look on the right sidebar and the last 10 stories I have flagged at right there under Mike's AZ Political News Clips.

Never miss an emerging story or spend time browsing through all your favorite Arizona blogs. I will do the work for you. Hey, I'm doing it anyhow for the bloggers here at BfAZ, you might as well benefit, too.

Note: New posts will continue to appear below.

Face This!

By Michael Bryan

Well, that was hardly as trivial an undertaking as I expected, but I think we finally got the BfAZ FB Page working. Try it out on the sidebar to the left and at the address www.facebook.com/BlogForArizona.

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions while we got this thing up and humming. After this experience I have to question why a company with non-existant tech support and a balky web site that is basically a bunch of buggy scripts is valued at $50 billion.

Cheers!

It just got easier to comment on BfA

by David Safier

We've gotten complaints from readers that it's difficult to comment on BfA, so we took down the hurdles for a month to see how it works.

It's not that we wanted to discourage you from commenting. Really. We love our readers, and we love to see your thoughts and feelings in the Comments section. It's just that we were experiencing regular Attacks of the Trolls, and we thought it was dragging down the level of discussion.

We took down the roadblocks, so comment away! And as Mike says, Please Don't Feed the Trolls. Crazy-base comments are posted to get you to react. Ignore them and they go away.

If things go smoothly, we'll leave the easier-to-use Comments procedure in place.

Flying Our Freak Flag

By Michael Bryan

You might note that we have made a slight alteration to the site banner. We are now acknowledging the de facto split between Baja and Alto Arizona. Of course, the split is not yet de jure, and may never be, but we thought it time to recognize that Baja and Alto are two different states of mind, if not two different states. Yet. Until the people of Baja have a chance to voice their choice through a non-binding referendum on continued union with Alto, our new banner will fly.

You can learn more about the movement to create Baja Arizona south of the Gila at the movement's Facebook Page, or their new homepage, StartOurState.com.

We thought it might be fun to ask BlogFor(Baja&Alto)Arizona.com readers to help design our new State Flag. The mock-up they have on the banner at StartOurState.com isn't exactly inspired.

Basically, just Arizona's flag inverted and with the pizzaz drained out of it. We'd like to see what you come up with. So we are going to have a little contest.

Please submit your designs, or design ideas (we don't expect everyone to be a graphic designer) to [email protected] with the subject line 'FLAG CONTEST' (or something reasonably similar) by June 1st, 2011 and our staff, in consultation with the leaders of the Start Our State movement, will select a winner.

A prize? You want a prize as well as the honor of designing the flag of the 51st state? Sheesh. OK. The winner gets their very own BlogForArizona.com bumper sticker. If you want to donate additional incentives to the eventual winner, we're open to that, too. Let us know what you want to pony up for the contest winner and we'll add it to the kitty.

Here are some resources to get you started and help you make your design not suck: NAVA (the North American Vexillological Association) has a good site on flag design; Design My Own Flag has a nifty online doodad for making mockup flags; and, of course, Wikipedia has a nice entry on vexillology. Get designing!

BfAZ Getting (a Little More) Social

Posted by Michael Bryan

The team here at BfAZ have decided that it is time to address social media a little more systematically. People love their Facebook, so we've decided to do our best to provide as much of our content as possible the way Facebooker's 'Like' it: on Facebook. So while we've had a FB Page for BlogForArizona for a while, we've now actually syndicated our feed to that Page's Wall. If you want, you can now see what's up at BfAZ just by adding our updates to your FB notifications. And you can comment on FB, as well as directly on the blog. Oh, and we have a new little doodad on the sidebar to the left regarding the blog's Page. If you have suggestions or comments about our new approach, we want to hear it.

That brings me to another topic: there have been several complaints about the hoops that Typepad makes you jump through to comment here. We hear you. For the next month (at least) we are going to turn off verification requirements for commenting. We hope that everyone will cooperate in not feeding any trolls that turn up.

Of course, you are also encouraged to connect with us through our personal pages: Mike, David, Craig, Jenn, and BlueMeanie (coming soon) want to hear from you and be your FB Friends. If you have suggestions, stories, events, would like to become more involved in helping to build a community of liberal Arizonans on social media, or want to promote your own liberal cause or group here in AZ, feel free to let us know. We appreciate your readership and we love it when you recommend us to your social networks.

In closing (for now) let me just pass on the following gem about reasoned discussion for you to judge the quality of the (newly 'liberalized') comments. I hope it will guide you in how you choose to respond to discourse here:

The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Will Wreck The Recovery

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Many of you have read "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule," by Thomas Frank. If you have not read it, it is recommended reading.

Conservative economic policies have destroyed America's middle class, and nearly destroyed the world's financial system and economy with an economic meltdown in 2008. Efforts to recover from this economic catastrophe have been hampered or blocked by conservatives in Congress every step of the way.

The modest regulatory reforms that have been enacted have not been funded and Republicans are promising to reverse those reforms. They want to return to the unregulated shadow markets for speculative exotic investment devices in the casino capitalism of Wall Street that caused the economic meltdown.

Conservatives in Congress hampered or blocked every effort at economic recovery by opposing stimulus funding and unemployment benefits to prime the pump and get the economy moving again. Almost every credible economist has said that the stimulus was too small to address the size of the economic catastrophe, and most economists have argued that additional stimulus funding to the states is necessary to prevent a double-dip recession. That additional stimulus will not be forthcoming from the new Republican Congress.

Many writers have suggested that Republicans actually want the economy to fail as part of a political strategy for presidential politics in 2012. The nascent economic recovery underway is now threatened by this partisan political strategy. Republicans want to wreck the economy and blame it on the president -- who has done his best to fight this conservative "wrecking crew."

In a must read article, Isaiah J. Poole in a post at truthout.org explains the Top Ten Ways the Right Will Wreck the Recovery:

1. Repeal of Health-Care Reform

2. Diminish the Federal Government's Ability to Support Job-Creation

3. Slash Federal Infrastructure Spending

4. Dismantle Medicare (and Give Seniors "Vouchers")

5. Undo Financial Reform, and Let the Predators Run

6. Support Big Oil and Kill Green Jobs

7. Don't Just Cut Government Waste; Cripple Government

8. Amp up the Insecurity in Social Security

9. Starve Public Education

10. Don't Ask the Rich to Help Reduce the Deficit; Ask Low-Income Americans Instead

In short, conservatives want to repeal the 20th Century. It is a disturbing read, but forewarned is forearmed.

h/t (Photo: Rhys's Piece Is Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

Get the Scoop without the Poop - Sign Up for AZDonkeyFeed Today!

Posted by Publisher Michael Bryan

There's a feature of BlogForArizona that many of you may not even be aware of that could save you literally hours every day, if you like to follow Arizona news and politics.

The AZDonkeyFeed is an RSS stream of the latest and most pertinent news stories from the Arizona media and blogs that is updated by me every day. I select the most important stories, the best commentary from both left and right, and the breaking news that I think readers would want to know about. I don't include posts from here at BlogForArizona, because I figure you're here anyhow. But there is a large volume of news out there and a lot of infrequently updated Arizona blogs that I monitor which you might otherwise miss.

You can always see the latest of the Feed on the right sidebar, but you only see the latest 10 stories, and many days there are more items than that. You can go directly to the Feed on your browser, or you can have it delivered to your mailbox or RSS reader. Just go to Feedburner and signup for email delivery or RSS subscription and you can stay up to date on what's up in Arizona in a flash. I read all the Arizona news every day, several times a day, so you don't have to.

So what do I charge for this wonderful service? Nada. Nil. Gratis. So what are you waiting for? Get it now!

Please note that new posts will continue to update below while this notice remains.

Why do I allow GOP ads on BlogForArizona?

By Michael Bryan

Some folks ask me why I allow GOP and rightwing ads on the blog. Good question.

The main reason is that I know that our readers are a bad demographic for these ads: they are wasting their money. Even more so if readers click through. Plus I always find it fascinating to see what the opposition thinks so important they will pay to drive traffic to it. Costless oppo research. I could put up ad filters to make sure you only see stuff you agree with in the ads - but what fun would that be?

So when you see these wacky ads, know they are costing your enemies money, and cost even more when you click ;)

Rachel Maddow Blog Visits Tucson

By Michael Bryan

Laura and Bill from Rachel Maddow's amazing production and blog staff were in Arizona today reporting on the border for Rachel's show. They did a skypecast to Rachel's show live from Club Congress. Catch today's (August 10th) show to see their report.

Myself and David Safier had a chance to say hello and they sent their greetings to Arizona and BlogForArizona readers:

Drop in on the Maddowblog and say "hi" from Arizona!

Here's the Arizona segment:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And, yes, that's BlogForArizona's own David Safier standing behind Bill and grinning hugely in the skypecast segment.

Become Our Fan!

 The big buzz in blog publishing right now is "Social Media Optimization" - which just means letting your social circle know what you are reading and enjoying. We here at BlogForArizona would like to ask for your recommendation. 

See that "Become a Fan" item on the top of the left sidebar? Great! Just click the "Like" button and it will let your Facebook friends know that you enjoy BlogForArizona and that maybe they should too.

Thanks for reading and recommending us to your social circle! For a little while, new posts will continue to appear below this one.

The Blight and the $Bite$

We are renaming Blog For Arizona, El Blog For Arizona in protest of SB1070. The name will remain until this hateful law is repealed or, more likely, struck down as unconstitutional.

We at El Blog For Arizona are going to be standing firm against SB1070 and the prejudice and hatred it embodies. It's the wrong approach to managing immigration in a free country, it enshrines in law the worst aspects of our nation's history of intolerance, and it is a blight on the image of Arizona among our fellow Americans and the world. We intend to stand firmly and unequivocally against this hateful and foolish law.

Now for the bite: if you want a source of news that will doggedly cover this story, we're it. We here at Blog for Arizona are asking you to support the work we're doing my making a contribution right now.

Writing on a blog is a labor of love, but it's definitely labor. Especially laborious are the value added posts -- weekly calendars, campaign updates, press releases -- which are turning us into Arizona's first choice for Arizona's Democratic campaign news. That labor will become more intense as the campaign season continues and as the national debate SB1070 has created heats up.

We know we have loyal, regular, long time readers. We appreciate your patronage and support. Please consider including a small donation as part of that support. We also know people in the media and in political circles read us and rely on us. We're asking you to help us continue doing what we're doing.

If you can send $5, $10, $20, or more our way, it will help us continue our work, improve our coverage, and directly remunerate our writers for the hard work of helping to keep you up to date on Arizona's politics. Every donation of $20 or more is eligible to receive a complimentary Blog For Arizona bumper sticker as a token of our appreciation. Just include a note with your donation that you would like a bumper sticker and an address to send it to.

You can also support our efforts with your purchase of any of our fine promotional merchandise at Cafe Press.

Please note that while this request remains at the top of the main page, new posts will continue to appear below.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your generous donation.

Best Regards,
Michael Bryan
Editor in Chief, El Blog For Arizona

More Housekeeping

Today, following a hiatus, I restarted the Arizona Donkey Feed feature with new selections of what's news around Arizona. The Feed is the daily (or reasonable approximation of daily) news selections by me, BlogForArizona.com impresario/curator Michael Bryan, from the blogs and news outlets covering Arizona politics and current events. It's a one-stop spot to see what's what in the A to the Z.

To read The Feed you can visit www.AZDonkeyFeed.com directly, or just stop by this blog and see the latest 10 selections on the sidebar. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed in your favorite reader or via email if you prefer.

Another note on the new comment system: if you have a favorite (or the opposite) commenter on BfAZ, you can now subscribe to that person's comments by clicking on the avatar icon next to their comments and choosing FOLLOW. Their comments to any blog then wind up linked to your Typepad Profile page for easy access. You can even make an RSS feed out of a person's comment stream. Remember that now that comments are threaded, you may choose to respond directly to a post, or directly to a comment to a post by choosing 'reply' just below the comment you want to respond to. You must be signed in to your Typepad Profile to see this option.

Housekeeping

I just installed threaded comments. That means you can now reply directly to a comment, or even to a comment on a comment. Your comments will feel more like a genuine conversation now.

The drawback is that you have to sign in and create a free Typepad comment account. This prevents the need to use those damned 'captchas' to prevent comment bots from taking over the blog.

Hope you all like the new shiny shiny.

Democrats' Citizenship Will Be Tested - oh, and Mike Returns

by Michael Bryan

The Obama Administration will test Democrats' in ways that being the loyal opposition during the lost Bush years never could.

We were righteous. We were powerless. We were vindicated. We were innocent. Now, with Obama in the Oval and Democrats in utter control of Congress, we are none of those things. Suddenly, the Democratic Party and its elected officials can shape the world; the question now arises, what happens when what is created is not to our liking?

We knew what to do when the detested Bush and his party of greed and hypocrisy were in charge: march, organize, shout, condemn, etc. But what shall Democrats do when they disagree whole-heartedly with what the Democratic caucus and President Obama are up to?

The temptation is to become apologists for their actions. Research has shown clearly that partisans, confronted with facts that demonstrate hypocrisy by one of their own, will rationalize it away - smooth it over mentally to make it more comfortable. It is much harder to remain open-minded, cleave to your values, and condemn those actions.

Rationalizing away uncomfortable facts is what partisans and politicians do. Making compromises, seeing the other side, achieving what seems possible: this is the role of politicians.

Following your conscience, articulating marginalized (i.e., rationalized away) views, and demanding what you believe is right - even if what is right seems impossible: this is the role of a citizen. Many of us who believed naively that everything would be fine once Democrats were in charge are now going to have our ability to put our citizenship ahead of our partisanship severely tested.

AfPak, detainees, torture prosecutions, Abu photos, Congressional investigations, mountaintop removal, etc.: there is fault out there to find.

There are many very difficult problems that have been left for our creaky and balky political system to deal with. And like it or not, fair or not, Democrats have been left with the responsibility and duty to try to address these many complex and intractable problems. I believe that, within the constraints of their roles, our representatives in Congress and our President will attempt in good faith to resolve these many problems - and frequently they will get it dead wrong. What to do?

I believe that those of who have the interest and inclination to follow public affairs should react as citizens, not just as partisans. We should not rationalize and defend. We should oppose, and explain why.

I write this defense of citizenship because, obviously, I find myself frequently in disagreement with the decisions taken by the elected representatives of my party, including my President. That doesn't mean I don't support my party, or that I wish others to take power instead; it means that as a citizen, I feel it my duty to explain why I think they are wrong, and not to rationalize away my discomfort at finding myself at odds with my faction.

With this ideal of citizenship foremost on my mind, I once again take up my pen. Some of you might have noticed that I have written infrequently on this blog over the past several months. The reason is that I discovered, in the rudest, most abrupt fashion, that I have a heart condition. I needed all my energy to heal, return to normal life, and adjust to managing the problem. Even now, daily life frequently takes everything I have, leaving nothing for this forum. But I hope that as I recover and gain momentum, I will more frequently be a contributor to this forum, rather than mainly an enthusiastic and grateful reader.

David Safier and Arizona Blue Meanie, along with the occasional contributions of a few others, have exceeded my wildest expectations. They have more than filled in, they have transformed and enriched this blog. My most heart-felt thanks to them. Readership is higher than it has ever been while not in the thick of an election cycle. If fact, I imagine that, to many readers, they are the blog - not I. And that's wonderful.

It is perhaps the most satisfying thing about any endeavor to see it grow beyond you. This blog is no longer just about me; it is a forum that has found purpose beyond merely serving as a conduit for my own opinions. I welcome and embrace that. Of course, my opinion will still appear here, but I hope that so will those of others who are deeply concerned about public policy and have a desire to reach out to Arizona progressive community.

BlogForArizona Convention Coverage

BlogForArizona is hosting three convention delegates from southern Arizona during their time at the DNC convention in Denver: retired Brigadier General John Adams, former Pima County Democratic Chairman Paul Eckerstrom, and activist Patricia Canady. Also joining them in Denver will be Patricia's daughter Kelly Canady, who also be blogging from the convention here on BlogForArizona.

Of course, if any other Arizona convention delegates want to post their impressions or share an interesting story, they are more than welcome to post as well. BlogForArizona aims to be the place where the conventioneers write home to Arizona. Also check out Tedski's RCubed coverage as the official DNC Arizona blogger; he's sure to have some interesting insights.

This post will remain front and center through the convention, with all new posts appearing below. If you want to filter posts to only see convention related posts, Just click here or on the logo. Get ready for an insider's look at the convention that will propell the Democratic ticket of Obama/Biden to the Presidency.

If you have suggestions for the blogging conventioneers, please post them in the comments of this post.

iMadork

I just got an iPhone. I'm posting this by jabbing madly at a little screen, even though I am sitting at a perfectly good computer. And have paid an absurd amount of money to do it. Jobs is a genius, and I am a dork.

Just Call Me Number 45

PolitickerAZ has released their analysis of the most influential unelected folks in Arizona politics (as well as those in other states they cover). It's called the Arizona Power List, and a few Arizona bloggers made the cut. Greg Patterson of Esspresso Pundit is listed at #37. Shane Wikfors and John Ellinwood of Sonoran Alliance are listed at #42. And a lone liberal blogger named Michael Bryan of Blog For Arizona is listed at #45.

I may be considered one least influential of the 50 most politically influential unelected folks in the state by some, but it won't go to my head. My wife reminds me regularly that I'm still only the second most influential person living at my address.

Free Political Intelligence

Some of you may have noticed on the sidebar here a feature I call the AZ Donkey Feed. It is the best of the Arizona and national blogs relating to Arizona politics, hand selected daily by yours truly, Michael Bryan, the blogitor and chief commentator here at BlogForArizona.com.

Best of all, it's absolutely free! You can access it here on BlogForArizona.com, or you can go directly to the full feed at www.AZDonkeyFeed.com, or you can subscribe via your favored RSS reader or email from Feedburner. It's a convenient way to catch a whiff of what's brewing in AZ politics, or to drill down and get all the news that's fit to not print.

Still trolling the net, slogging between dozens of sites looking for insight into the issues and events of the day? Stop it! Just get the AZ Donkey Feed, kick back, and let me do the work for you. I visit all the Democratic sites - and all the Republican sites. I look for newsworthiness and quality content, not just sympatico ideology, so whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, you will see things you disagree with - and that's a good thing. Politics is a conversation. Get into Arizona's poltical conversation by taking advantage of the AZ Donkey Feed. It's convenient, timely, and free!

If you aren't seeing your favorite Arizona political site in the feed, leave me a comment with suggested sources. Sign up now!

AZDonkeyFeed.com Live!

Now it's easier than ever to check out what's happening in the Arizona political scene. AZDonkeyFeed.com is continually updated with the latest stories from the mainstream media and the blogs.

One simple URL for a fresh, daily, ad free serving of blog fodder from me, BlogForArizona's blogitor-in-chief, Mike Bryan. I read the Arizona media-scape so you don't have to. Give it a try!

You can also subscribe for delivery via RSS and email.

Arizona Donkey Feed Is Mighty Tasty!

Is your finger tired? Don't want to spend time looking for all the best Arizona political news and commentary, but still want to keep current?

Me too.

Problem is there is no way for me to do that, because the only way to get all your Arizona political news from both sides of the aisle in one place is The Arizona Donkey Feed... And, unfortunately for me, I edit it, which means I have to spend the time scanning all the feeds and lurking on the blogs to point out the best of rest.

But my tired finger is your free ride. So sign up to get the Donkey Feed today via RSS reader or email!

Mule Train Mail Is Taking Your Letters

I'm initiating a new feature here on Blog For Arizona. It's called 'Mule Train Mail' and it is your letters and opinions.

Too frequently, citizen's opinions, views and experiences don't get the space they deserve in our daily newspapers. Excellent letters to the editor or guest op-eds don't ever get published due to space constraints. Well, no more; at least, not if you read Blog For Arizona.

I want your letters and op-eds that didn't get an audience in the daily papers. For that matter, if you would RATHER have your carefully crafted gem mounted in a clean, modern digital setting, rather than a messy paper and ink fishwrapper, send me your thoughts and ideas before you try the dead tree merchants. For this feature I will only accept signed opinions—AZBlueMeanie has the corner on anonymity here at Blog For Arizona. Also, original writing only: no reposts. Though, if you want to submit something to me first and then also submit it to a paper, that's fine with me.

I want to see more citizen media and citizen journalism in the blogs, even people who aren't like me—having a seemingly endless stream of things to say—should get a chance to blog. If you just have a personal hobby-horse you need to ride, or just feel you have to speak out occasionally, or if a particular issue has gotten under your skin, you should have a place to make yourself heard to the community that matters most to you—your home state: I want Blog For Arizona to be that place.

Just send me your writing of any length (though I prefer less than 2000 words) and I, or a member of my highly paid and numerous staff (little joke), will review it. I prefer that the text be pasted directly into the email. If you have supporting documents, attach them. If you have URLS you want to link to, do so. I may request editing.

I won't promise to publish everything, but I really haven't a limited size to the news hole here, so I don't need to be quite so picky. That doesn't mean I will publish muddle-mindedness, poor prose, grotty grammar, or slanderous soliloquies, however. Only the reasonably readable will be published. I prefer items that focus on Arizona politics and policy, though I will certainly not reject thoughtful writing on broader topics. Please put MULE TRAIN MAIL in the subject line so that you don't get overlooked, or spam-filtered.

We're Number 1... really!

I don't know how the rankings are actually generated, but some folks set some stock in BlogNetNews.com's influence ranking of local blogs. Recently, BlogForArizona.com was honored with the #1 Most Influential Blog in Arizona ranking.

Generally, they have ranked Arizona's Republican blogs as more influential than Arizona's Democratic blogs, so I think it's worth mentioning. And, heck, who doesn't like bragging when someone proclaims you are #1 at something?

I feel quite sure that all credit is due to all my new corresponding bloggers: Dave Safier, John Adams, Pat and Kelly Canady, Russell Lowes, and, of course, the mysterious AZBlueMeanie. Soon, we'll be joined by Jeff Latas blogging about veterans affairs here in Arizona and nationally, and former Pima County Democratic Party Chair Paul Eckerstrom.

Thanks for reading and commenting and I welcome all your suggestions for making BlogForArizona.com a more useful part of the Arizona political community.

We're Number 1... and 2!

I'm so proud. Arizona currently has the top two news stories on the social news site Reddit.

Arizona's GOP is doing its level best to ensure Arizona is famous for our plutocratic Senator, who is running for President at the moment, and for our McCarthyistic and overtly racist politics. The bill introduced by Arizona Republican Russell Pearce (of whom we can all be so proud), which is intended as a swipe at MEChA to froth up the GOP base, aims to de-fund schools who teach courses "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization." What the bill actually means and who gets to define such loose terms like "denigrate American values" is anyone's guess. Can you say, "unconstitutionally vague," class?

Nice to see our lawmakers intent on creating a reputation for Arizona as the political armpit of the nation. That's sure to do wonders for our economy.

CEO to his Board: "Let's locate the new branch office in Arizona! I hear that they are punishing businesses for hiring any illegal aliens by suspending their business licenses, and using their schools as political straw men. Sounds like a place where we should be doing business."

Weekend Meta

Yet another meta-post by Mike.

Arizona Donkey Feed:

I would like to explain my Arizona Donkey Feed. This is what it looks like on the near sidebar.

As you might imagine, I read a lot of Arizona blogs and newspapers. A LOT. I do it so you don't have to.

I don't always want to post an article about what I've read, but I often want to share it with you. In that case, if the story or post concerns Arizona and/or is written by an Arizonan, I mark it 'Shared' in my Google Reader, where I read most of my news.

Those Shared items end up in a new RSS feed that I call the Arizona Donkey Feed. The last 10 items of that feed are posted, as you see here, on the sidebar. A complete list can be seen by clicking on the feeding donkeys, and you can subscribe to my clickstream with an RSS reader, like Google Reader.

I don't limit myself to blogs, nor to only progressive or Democratic blogs; I read the regional papers and the conservative blogs, as well.

Just because I share a link doesn't mean I endorse it, or even agree with it, I just think it is important and contributes to the political conversation here in Arizona.

There are a lot of things I read that I find important, but not necessarily related to Arizona or written by Arizonans. Those links go to my Del.icio.us bookmarks, not the Arizona Donkey Feed. If you subscribe to this blog's posts via RSS or email, a daily compendium of my Del.icio.us bookmarks is sent to you each day.

Otherwise, you will find my last 10 Del.icio.us bookmarks on the sidebar just below the Arizona Donkey Feed. You can access a complete history of my shared bookmarks at Del.icio.us/mbryan.

Look to me as your personal news clipping service. If you see a news item concerning Arizona politics that you think is mighty important, and it has not shown up for a day or two in the Arizona Donkey Feed, please feel free to bring it to my attention via email or chat.

DNC Convention Coverage:

I like to provide a public forum for folks who have something to say. I feel quite privileged to have warranted sustained attention from so many Arizona citizens and I think it's important that it's not just me squawking along.

This August I will have a number of pledged delegates blogging their experiences from the DNC Convention. If you are a pledged delegate from Arizona, I want to make your voice heard, too.

I also hope to have credentialed correspondents who are going to the Convention to report on what is happening from a bit more dispassionate and objective viewpoint. The DNC won't be finalizing any press credentials for blogs until April, so more about this project then.

New Authors:

I have invited some new authors to come and share their views and their communities' news with you. When I invite an author to my blog I generally intend to fill a niche or viewpoint that I can't provide.

I invited David Safier because I thought his passion for educational policy and politics was a wonderful fit for a blog covering a state that ranks nearly dead last in almost every educational metric. Add to that the simple fact that the loin's share of any state's budget is education.

I invited Russell Lowes to post on his area of interest, energy policy as he launches his own blog Safe Energy Analyst.

I intend to add yet more correspondents. Maybe you are one of them.

You've already met one of them. Retired Brigadier General John Adams will be posting about those matters that most interest him: our national security, our armed forces, defending our constitution and the rule of law—subjects on which is uniquely and eminently qualified to address. John will also be blogging from the DNC Convention about his experiences as an Obama delegate for CD 8.

More correspondents will be coming on line very soon. Some are names you will already recognize. All have a their own viewpoints and interests.

I wish to see Blog For Arizona grow into a community of many progressive voices for Arizona. Thanks for reading.

Banned on Blog For Arizona

It is with deep regret that I announce my first (and hopefully last) official banning. Dwight Leister is no longer welcome to comment here. I may give him a pardon or a reprieve someday, but that someday won't be soon. The tribal council spoke loudly in favor of a ban, and while that's not dispositive (ultimately I decide, and any ban is my responsibility) I'm inclined to give my readers what they want on this matter.

For those who just can't get enough of Dwight particular genre of public discourse, he still has his own blog (which I pay for BTW) where he is free to say whatever he pleases to those who are interested. I just will no longer allow him to say it on my blog.

If Dwight were actually adding something other than annoyance, frustration, offensive personal attacks and not-so-vaguely anti-Semitic remarks to the conversation, I would be inclined to tolerate his less savory forum habits. But he seldom did. I won't have anyone run roughshod over me, my guest authors, or my readers in the name of pure freedom of speech. Every freedom includes responsibilities, and those who fail to use this forum responsibly will lose their freedom to use it.

I haven't banned Dwight because I disagree with him. On the contrary, I value the opinions of those who disagree with me. I banned him because he is rude, offensive, consistently ad hominem, has lousy manners, and has proven himself incorrigible regarding these complaints. I don't, and won't, ban someone for one or two instances of poor judgment; only for proving that they lack any judgment at all.

Now, for your entertainment, and maybe your edification, here is a good summary of the etiquette I expect. Don't let what happened to Dwight happen to you.

How To Behave On An Internet Forum

Mike's Arizona Blog Notes and other Social Media

Some of you may have noticed that I quietly introduced a sidebar feature "Mike's Arizona Blog Notes". I have been reading blogs predominantly through Google's Reader for some time now, and their 'share' feature is a very convenient way for me to mark posts I find interesting and informative.

I read everything so that you don't have to. Lucky you. I read pretty widely on both ends of the spectrum and in between, and I share links exclusively to political blogs posts written by Arizonans for about Arizona news and politics. If you write a political blog, or read a political blog that frequently covers Arizona, please let me know about it, if it isn't already showing up in my Blog Notes.

In parallel to the Blog Notes, I also have a feed from my del.icio.us bookmarks, which I use to point out items of broader interest.

Finally, I have been experimenting with Twitter. I am feeding a post history through Twitter, so you can get immediate notification of new posts. I am also frequently posting links to media I'm consuming (books, video, podcasts, etc.) and event notifications. If you are interested, you can follow me if you have a Twitter account, and I will surely return the complement.