Apparently, it's my week for going "hmmmm..."

...well, in between coughs and sneezes and sniffles, anyway. :)

This is definitely one of those times when I wish I had better sources at the Capitol.


First, there was the scheduled (and then cancelled) meeting of the lege's Joint Committee on Capital Review that was supposed to take place on Tuesday. One of the main items on that agenda was an executive session on a request for information on a "prison concession agreement."

Then, on Tuesday there were a number of hits on this blog (>5) from at least two computers in the office of the Texas Legislative Council (IP address 204.65.67.155) . The same Texas where private prisons are a huge business. The kept visiting the weekly schedule post that mentioned the above meeting.

Finally, Tuesday evening while checking out new committee formations on the AZSOS' website, I came across this one -

Committee Name: Prison Health Services, Inc. Political Action Committee

Status: Active

Filer ID: 201000299

Committee Type: Segregated Fund

Registration Date: 11/9/2009

Last Amended Date: 11/9/2009

Mailing Address: 105 Westpark Dr Ste 200, Brentwood TN 37027

Phone: (615) 376-0693

Email: jparr@pacout.com

Committee Address:105 Westpark Drive, Suite 200, Brentwood TN 37027

Chairman: Walker, Jonathan

Treasurer: Sprouse, James


PHS has some contracts in Mohave County right now, but they are certain to be looking to scavenge some revenue (via a "concession agreement"?) from the lege's push to privatize everything.

Now, let's be clear - I have absolutely nothing beyond by own cynicism to tie these together (especially the Texas Legislative Council stuff), but I learned a long time ago that in politics, coincidence is a rare commodity.

Rarer even than bipartisanship in the Arizona legislature.


The funnest part of this?

Check out the email address of the PAC, PACOut.com.

That's the domain name for PAC Outsourcing LLC, a firm for handling outsourced PAC functions.

In other words, the AZ lege is outsourcing government functions, and seems to be doing so to a corporation that has outsourced its governmental relation functions.

There's a definite kind of symmetrical poetry there...