Republican Schmuck Alert

And no, I'm not talking about the former GOP candidate for the AZ House. :)

This is the first in an irregular series of posts, one that I expect will have unfortunately frequent entries.

Today, there are two candidates for schmuck-hood.

First up, the ever-loony Rep. Andy Biggs of Gilbert (thanks go out to David Safier at Blog for Arizona for spotting this one). From the AZ Daily Star -

"Education does not create jobs," he [Biggs] said. "Entrepreneurs and businesses create jobs."

Biggs added that it wouldn't matter whether Arizona has the best-educated work force in the country if higher taxes drive companies out of business.

Apparently he believes that entrepeneurs and businessmen don't need educations, nor do they need a workforce knowledgeable enough to adequately staff their businesses. I expect Biggs to be a regular honoree here.

Also up for consideration is State Superintendant of Public Instruction Tom Horne.

From the Yuma Sun story about the House Education Committee's vote to kill Rep. David Schapira's bill to raise the minimum age for dropping out of school to 18 -

Horne even poked some fun at Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, who is sponsoring the legislation.

"I think there should be a bill that says no one can propose it unless they spend a year teaching kids who don't want to be there,'' he said.

Prior to his current gig, Horne, the chief educator in the state, was a lawyer. (Note: he's already formed a committee to "explore" running for AZ Attorney General next year.)

Prior to *his* current gig, Schapira, a member of the House Ed Committee, was a teacher.

When it comes to matters of teaching and education, that difference creates a credibility gap that only a full-blown schmuck would dive into, and dive into head first, at that.


Sad to say, but there will be more entries in this series sooner or later.

And probably sooner than later.

Last night's budget forum at ASU

For nearly three emotionally-wracked hours on Monday evening, 14 members of the Democratic caucus of the state legislature listened to Arizonans tell of the devastation to their lives caused by the draconian budget cuts imposed on the state's education and human services structure.

Hosts Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill and Reps. David Schapira and Ed Ableser (all representing LD17, the home of ASU) were joined by colleagues from all over the state - Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia and Representatives Rae Waters, Kyrsten Sinema, David Lujan, Pat Fleming, Lynne Pancrazi, Daniel Patterson, Matt Heinz, Chad Campbell, Tom Chabin, and Christopher Deschene, who all graciously took the time out of their lives to visit Tempe.

While there were folks from all parts of society there, the developmentally disabled community was particularly well-, and heart-breakingly, represented.

ASU Web Devil coverage here; AZ Republic coverage here. In addition, Rep. Patterson's blog entry covering the event is here.

I'll have more later after I get the pics of the event uploaded, but Patterson's blog post touches on something I want to mention now.

On Thursday, there will be a rally at the State Capitol from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. to support saving services for Arizona's Children with Disabilities.

Everyone is urged to attend to make your voice heard.

More later...

Edit to add (info courtesy Rep. Steve Farley's latest Farley Report):

Next Thursday, March 5, there will be a similar forum at U of A in Tucson.

Time: 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Location: U of A Student Union, South Ballroom, 1330 E. University Blvd., Tucson

State Rep. David Schapira: column on education and the state budget

State Representative David Schapira (D-LD17) wrote a column that was published by the Arizona Republic in Saturday's edition of the community news section in Tempe. There's no link available - I couldn't find it on their website. It was there though - I read it.)

Fortunately, however, he sent it out as part of an email reminder of tonight's budget hearing at ASU (6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., Ventana Room (#241), Memorial Union).

From the email -

Last week, in a Tempe Republic column, Editor Tom Spratt wrote that legislators owe it to constituents to share budget updates.

I couldn't agree more.

Legislative leaders have broken their promise to be open and transparent, and they have not addressed the impact of deep budget cuts to the people they will affect.

The fact is that the legislators who voted to pass the 2009 budget had not publicly discussed the impact of their decision with constituents, K-12 students, parents and teachers or with the universities.

They didn't even discuss it with legislative Democrats or rank-and-file Republicans before it was up for votes on the House and Senate floors.

Spratt wrote that legislators could do more - travel around their districts, meet with constituents, hold forums, answer questions and explain exactly what people should expect as a result of the cuts for this fiscal year and the proposals for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.

Legislative Democrats have hosted six public budget hearings in the last two months to discuss the impact of the deep budget cuts and to hear concerns of citizens in the community about the impact of the budget.

We've held these hearings in Casa Grande, Phoenix, Yuma, Tucson, Prescott and Flagstaff. Our seventh in this series will be on Monday at Arizona State University in Tempe, followed by hearings in Sierra Vista and at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

We hope to continue to hear from constituents and community members about how these cuts will impact their lives and the concerns they have about the 2010 budget.

I share the concern of many Arizonans with regard to the deep cuts to education for this fiscal year and those that are being proposed starting in July.

I have worked hard in recent weeks to get the word out about the education cuts. I meticulously detailed the proposed cuts in public Education Committee meetings and budget forums in Flagstaff, Tucson and Phoenix, and I will do so again at the public budget hearing on Feb. 23 in Tempe. At each forum, I went into great detail in publicly questioning school administrators and university presidents as to the impact of the proposed cuts on their schools.

In addition to participating in public meetings, I appeared on Channel 8's "Horizon," submitted an commentary regarding the budget to The Republic and responded to many reporter inquiries on the proposed education cuts, speaking extensively about potential impacts.

I also have made all of this information available on my website and in email updates to constituents who sign up there.

I fought hard for education on the House floor in the middle of the night, doing my best to convince my Republican colleagues that thousands of jobs will be lost and we would lose major parts of ASU, our community's economic engine. I also pleaded with them to consider the impact on student learning in our state.

I have worked hard to protect education in District 17 and in Arizona, and I always will.

I encourage all constituents to attend our public budget hearing on Monday from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at ASU's Memorial Union in Ventana Room 241. We will present detailed information on the budget and seek public comment.

Also, please take a moment to sign up on my website, www.DavidSchapira.com, to receive future budget updates and information.

State Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe, represents District 17.

See you at tonight's hearing!

2009 Legislative Loon Award

It's been tough finding a "winner" of this year's Legislative Loon Award. The problem hasn't been a dearth of candidates, because the rightward lurch of the GOP caucus in the lege has created a surfeit of them. (And so ends this blog's Thesaurus sentence of the year :) )

As in previous years, the likes of State Sens. Russell Pearce and Jack Harper were frontrunners for this award, as was Representative John Kavanagh. In addition to their nativist enthusiasms, Pearce and Kavanagh are the chairs of their respective chambers' Appropriations Committees, and have the influence to further the more radical parts of their ideology. Harper is, well, *Harper,* the man who never met a bill or utterance too outlandish or ignorant for him to put his name to it.

In a normal year, there would be no more than one or two others in serious contention (Trish Groe will be missed...OK, not really.)

But this year, a huge percentage of their colleagues have given free rein to their inner whackjob, in ways that go beyond the usual "appeal to the wingers back home" bills that go nowhere, and were never meant to.

Before we even enter into a discussion of some of the horrific bills proposed this session, there's the "colorful" utterances of some of the legislators to consider -

- Rep. Frank Antenori, a resident of Tucson and elected to represent part of Tucson, expressed objections to newspapers designating him as "R-Tucson." Apparently, he has a problem with the "hippies" that run the city.

- Sen. Pam Gorman, from her blog, on the prospect of devastating budget cuts for education and the rest of the state's budget (emphasis mine) - "Essentially, we will get to sit around in small groups brainstorming on ways to cut government spending instead of the normal nauseating disputes about how to spend more. Yippee! Now, where’s my party hat? "

- Sen. Jack Harper, responding to a story that Arizona, the rate of people applying for food stamps is rising at twice the pace of the U.S. as a whole (from Seeing Red AZ) - "One of the reasons so many people are signing up for welfare is due to so many welfare offices being opened up by the state and making it easy:," followed by a listing of all DES offices in the state.

No acknowledgement that maybe the reason that more people are applying for food stamps and other assistance is that more people *need* the assistance.

- Rep. John Kavanagh, speaking gleefully on the effects of cuts to the state's universities - "Since our cuts are going to send ASU back to the Middle Ages, the question is how many monks will they need?"

And that's just skimming the surface.

Then we move on to the transparency of the budget process (and balancing the state's budget in the face of the current fiscal crisis), something that the wingers complained about on an annual basis, when the moderate Republicans in the lege worked out a budget with then-Governor Napolitano and were able to garner enough support for it on both sides of the aisle to pass it. So what do the wingers do now that they've ousted most of the moderates in the Republican caucus and have fellow traveller Jan Brewer in the Governor's office?

Determine which programs to cut, and how savagely, behind closed doors.

They've even made their blog, Capitol Ideas (http://azhousegop.blogspot.com/), available to "invited readers" (i.e. - "true believers" in their view, "fellow Kool-Aid drinkers" in mine) only.

And then there are the bills.

In addition to their now-annual moves to repeal the state's equalization property tax, a dedicated funding source for education (SB1107, among others) or moves to repeal other taxes (HCR2034, et. al.), they've got the bills with the usual nativist pablum (with Russell Pearce lending his name to at least 16 of them), the anti-choice screeds (such as HB2564), and, of course, the gun fetish bills (SB1270, HB2171, and others).

But wait, there's more -

- The myriad bills against the use of photo radar, the most colorful of which may be Rep. Andy Biggs' HB2124, which won't allow photo radar to be used to issue tickets for going less than 35 mph in a school zone or less than 85 mph on a freeway. (Thanks to blogger Mike McClellan at AZCentral.com for the heads-up on HB2124)

You know, I can understand the 85 mph requirement in the rural portions of the state, where the speed limit is 75 mph, but 35 mph in a school zone? If there is one area that calls for strict enforcement of speed limits it's school zones.

- Sen. Ron Gould's SB1359, which would allow cities and towns to "construct, operate and finance the construction of toll roads within the corporate limits of the city or town."

- Sen. John Huppenthal's SB1393, a measure written so broadly that it would turn the public school system into a religious school system.

- Rep. Warde Nichols' scheme to disband the Arizona Board of Regents, HCR2002.

- SB1123, a Republican move to make Tucson's municipal elections non-partisan, mostly because Democrats win in Tucson.

- SB1147, which would bar state agencies from adopting any rules or policies regarding greenhouse gases or fuel economy without the express direction of the lege. The same lege that is run by Republicans who think that scientific evidence regarding global warming and human impact on the environment is a fraud.

There are more, but the point is made - Pearce, Kavanagh, and Harper have a LOT of company this year down on West Washington.

As such, the winner of this year's Legislative Loon Award is...


The entire Republican caucus of the Arizona Legislature.


God help us all.


Note: to be fair, I should note that there are still a few members of the Rep caucus who take the idea of public service seriously, however, most of them have to keep silent or face a primary challenge from hardliners. And in today's AZ Republican Party, the reality is that few of them are safe from such a challenge.

Republicans: Opposed To Big Government Helping People...

...But Not Opposed To Big Goverment Restricting People...

...Thanks go out to That's My Congress! for pointing this one out...

This may be a shock, but it turns out that not all Republicans are supporters of the ideal of smaller government.

Well, under specific circumstances, anyway.

Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Lamar Smith, both representing Texas, have each introduced identical bills to end and criminalize anonymous use of the internet.

Under the guise of fighting child pornography, Cornyn introduced S.436 and Smith introduced H.R.1076, the "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth (SAFETY) Act of 2009."

Most of the Act does, in fact, address child porn and exploitation of minors.

However, both bills have the same overreaching section.

SEC. 5. RETENTION OF RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS.

Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(h) Retention of Certain Records and Information- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.'.

And as Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent for CNET points out -

The legal definition of electronic communication service is "any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications." The U.S. Justice Department's position is that any service "that provides others with means of communicating electronically" qualifies.

That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too.

At a press conference touting the bills, Cornyn said (quoted in the CNET article) -

"While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children."

Umm...yeah.

If all Cornyn and Smith were interested in was restricting child porn, there would be specific safeguards in the bill's language to limit the availability of records retained under section 5 to child porn investigations.

No such provisions exist in the bills.

This is a rather hypocritical "pro-Big Brother/Big Government" turn from two Republicans who joined all but three D.C. Republicans in voting against the economic stimulus that was passed to try to aid the average American during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

You know, the economic stimulus package that has provisions to help kids with their educations...oh wait...that's "helping," not "restricting."

I understand now.


Another take on this from CrooksandLiars.com here.

Later...

Public Forum On The State Budget At ASU On Monday

From a press release -

THE ARIZONA STATE LEGISLATURE HOUSE AND SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES

Invite you to Public Hearings on the State Budget

Members of both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will be in attendance to hear citizens’ questions and concerns about the state budget shortfall and proposed solutions:

Arizona State University - Main Campus, Tempe
Monday, February 23rd, 2009, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the Memorial Union (MU) building, Ventana Room, Second Floor, Room 241

Paid ($2/hr) Visitor
Parking available in Parking Structure 1
Located at Apache Blvd. and College Ave.

For additional information contact:

Cynthia Aragon, Community and Constituent Liaison, House of Representatives, 602-926-3591 or caragon[at]azleg.gov

...In other LD17/Tempe news, on Tuesday, State Senator Meg Burton Cahill and State Representatives David Schapira and Ed Ableser will appear on Tempe cable channel 11 in this month's edition of Let's Talk Tempe. The program is hosted by Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman. The program is taped before a live audience at the Pyle Center (SW corner of Southern and Rural in Tempe) from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. The public is invited to watch and participate in the discussion.

Wonder if Jan Brewer is a fan of The Rolling Stones...

...because they must have had her and the situation in Arizona in mind when they cut the song "Rock And A Hard Place."

The morphing of the GOP into the "Grand Obstructionist Party" isn't confined to all but three members of the Republican membership in Congress.

Across the country, a number of Republican governors have announced that they are considering not accepting some or all of the federal economic stimulus money.

From AP via MSNBC -

GOP govs consider rejecting stimulus money

Opponents say move puts conservative ideology ahead of constituents

BATON ROUGE, La. - A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

The article goes on to note that some of those governors have the luxury of proving up on their "True Conservative" Republican bonafides (apparently, screwing over your constituents is a Republican "principle"), because while *they* may not accept federal stimulus money, they can count on their states' Democratic legislatures to do so for them.

Jan Brewer, Arizona's newly-minted governor (coming up on her one-month anniversary - whooo hooo...right Jan?) doesn't have that luxury - not only does her own party have a majority in both chambers of the state lege, it's the radical, anti-everything positive wing of her party that's in charge.

Which places Brewer, the person who is supposed to be in charge of Arizona's government, in a tough position.

If, as the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) says, she is the one who decides if federal stimulus money is accepted and how it is spent, then her constituents (you know, the ones who will be voting next year), will expect her to look out for their interests. Sen. Russell Pearce, one of the leaders of the radicals, disagrees, but so far he is being polite about it (read the article linked to "says").

So on one hand, if Brewer plans to run for a full term as governor, refusing stimulus money for especially hard-hit Arizona could alienate economically-ailing voters and cost her a general election win.

On the other hand, accepting the money will almost certainly motivate a primary challenge from Pearce's radical wing of the GOP, and given the wingnuts' defeat of moderate Reps last September, such a challenge could very well generate a high enough turnout of the radicals to unseat Brewer even before the general election.

So she's got problems either way she goes, if she pursues a full term.

If she chooses not to seek a full term, that would free her from factoring electoral considerations into her decisions on stimulus money. However, even if electoral considerations are removed from the decision equation, that would leave the best interests of Arizonans competing with her own partisan ideology.

Arizonans - be afraid, very afraid.

Having never met Governor Brewer or any of her advisers, I don't know if they are smart enough to figure a way out of this for Brewer that leaves her with a political future. The tap dancing should be fun to watch though.

That dance has already started, awkwardly, with her trial balloon of a special election to raise the state's sales tax.

That one seems to have had a unique effect of uniting both caucuses of the lege - the Reps have pledged to only cut programs, not raise revenue, and many Dems (including the non-legislator writing this post :) ) find that raising the most regressive tax in the state (one whose instability as a revenue source is a major factor in the state's budget crisis) is the absolutely worst approach for addressing the state's budget shortfall.

BTW - am I the only one who finds that the Governor's move to put it out to referendum, without even *trying* to get it through the lege, smacks of craven political cowardice? One of the things that a governor has to do is make tough, even unpopular, decisions.

Later!

"Bush league" behavior isn't confined to the minor leagues

...and this post is *not* about George W. Bush...

Perhaps inspired by the commencement of baseball's spring training season (reporting dates here), I've been struck (not for the first time, nor am I the first to make this observation), that politics is has a structure that is very similar to professional baseball.

School committee and city council seats and the like are analogous to A-level minor ball. For many, if not most, of the holders of these offices, these are entry level positions where they spend most of their time learning their professions.

Mayors and state legislators are politics' AA leagues. There are some entry-level participants, and a few are ready to make the jump to the bigs, but most have some experience but still need to hone their craft. Lower level statewide offices tend to fall into this category, too.

Higher-level statewide offices and most seats in the U.S. Congress are the equivalent of AAA. Most of the participants have major-league ready skills, but are in search of an opportunity to move up.

At the major league level are a few Congressfolks (Speakers, Majority and Minority Leaders and Whips, etc.), most U.S. Senators, and, of course, the President of the United States.

The categories are a little flexible, as politics is more about influence wielded than about the office occupied. For example, for the longest time, the most powerful elected official in Massachusetts wasn't the governor or one of the U.S. senators. Instead, the mayor of Boston was often held that distinction. Must have been something about controlling when the State House was plowed out during the winter. :)

Arizonans, Democrats and Republicans alike, should be grateful that Phil Gordon doesn't have the big stick of snow removal available to him. :))

All of which serves as a set up to this - while most political offices and office-holders are "minor league", with the colorful imagery that name can bring to mind, few are "bush league."

"Bush League", courtesy Princeton University - "a league of teams that do not belong to a major league (especially baseball)"

One of the common characteristics in both baseball and politics is that while players are learning the basic skills of their respective professions as they rise through the levels, they also learn the 'soft' skills, the behaviors that lead to long-term success at the next level.

Behaviors that have less to do with knowing how to hit curve balls or how to initiate a quorum call to block a bill, and more with acting like a professional.

The movie Bull Durham has a couple of good scenes about shower shoes and interview cliches that illustrates this phenomenon.


It looks like many Republicans, even putative "major leaguers," have forgotten that as much as anything else, professionalism influences how long someone stays in the big leagues.

Sometimes it's something as trivial as threatening to kill a fellow legislator's bills in a given session of the AZ lege because that legislator (a Dem, of course) dared to publicly and on the record, debunk the Reps' talking points about the state's budget crisis. (Hey guys - it's not Janet Napolitano's fault, no matter how much you want people to ignore the lege's creation of every budget) Still, the AZ lege is definitely a minor league, and that sort of behavior isn't exactly unheard of in the minors.

Some Republicans however, don't have that mitigating circumstance to fall back on.

This week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) put together a web ad crowing about the solidarity of the House GOP in it's opposition to the economic stimulus package that President Obama signed into law today in Denver.

It was set to the song "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the lyrics of the song, it's about a guy...ummm... "expressing his happiness" at getting back together with a favorite hooker and some of their ensuing activities.

Which, coincidentally, are the same things that the Reps in Congress have been doing to America for years.

It's pretty bush league to crow about screwing your employer.

The video had been posted on YouTube, but was later pulled down due to a copyright complaint from the band's management.

Copyright infringement for political gain is pretty bush league, too.

HuffingtonPost coverage here.

Cantor hasn't been having a good month - just last week, his office sent out an obscenity-laden anti-union (AFSCME to be specific) video (SF Chronicle). He defended it by saying it was a satire, but later apologized for it.

It's pretty bush league to attack your employers (yes, union workers are citizens, taxpayers, and voters) as profane thugs.

I'll be nice and ignore the fact that the employer of the wife of the stridently anti-bailout Cantor received millions of dollars from the bank bailout. (HuffingtonPost)

Piling on would be so bush league. :))

Of course, some of the bush league stuff is closer to home.

Both of Arizona's U.S. Senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, are ignoring the President's visit to one of the state's areas that is most impacted by the collapse of the housing bubble.

They have "other plans."

Ignoring the needs of your constituents because the President isn't a member of your party is pretty bush league...oh wait. They were doing that even when fellow Rep George W. Bush was in the White House.

Never mind. :)

Anyway, not quite falling into the "bush league" category was former Congressman (and eternal blowhard) JD Hayworth's appearance on MSNBC yesterday on the show "Hardball with Chris Matthews."

It was more in the category of "faded player hanging around the independent leagues [i.e. - talk radio] pathetically trying for one more shot at glory."

He insisted that Republican policies of endless deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy weren't the problem with the economy, it was Sen. Charles Schumer and George Soros.

I'm not making this up. Watch the video.

Anyway, it's hardly unheard of for players who don't want to fade quietly into retirement to sign on with an independent league to showcase/maintain their skills while seeking another chance at a season in the sun.

Rickey Henderson, one of the all-time great, perhaps the single greatest, leadoff hitters ever played in a number of indy leagues while waiting for one last call from a major league club. That call didn't come, but he was a first ballot electee to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.

On the other hand, JD was and is no Rickey. About the only thing they have in common is their ability to talk a good game.

However, unlike JD, Henderson could actually *play*.

Of course, Hayworth's appearance may not have been a case of a "pathetic attempt to regain former glory".

It could have been a case of "the Republicans are scraping the bottom of the barrel of people who can spew their anti-average American BS with a straight face."


The take of Tedski at R-Cubed on this, with embedded video, here.

Later!

Events calendar...

Haven't done one of these in a while, but it's been a while since we had a week this event-full :)) ...

Tuesday, February 17 - The Arizona Latino Legislative Caucus is holding a press conference to call on the U.S. Department of Justice and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to investigate Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling and other civil rights-related violations.

Time: 12 p.m.
Location: House Lawn, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ


Tuesday, February 17 - U.S. Reps Gabrielle Giffords (D-CD8) and Harry Mitchell (D-CD5) will be holding a forum on economic recovery, focusing on "science, technology and renewable energy."

Time: 12 noon - 1:30 p.m.
Location: Pima Room, Memorial Union, Tempe campus of Arizona State University


Wednesday, February 18 - President Barack Obama will speak at Mesa's Dobson High School on his plan to address the epidemic of mortgage foreclosures.

Time: 10:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Location: Dobson High School, 1501 W. Guadalupe Road, Mesa

Presidential survey is out

C-SPAN has released the results of its latest survey of historians, ranking the "42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership."

As with C-SPAN's last survey (in 2000), Abraham Lincoln topped the list. In fact there wasn't much movement in the rankings, with a couple of notable exceptions -

Ulysses S. Grant moved up from 33rd to 23rd overall...

Rutherford B. Hayes moved down from 26th to 33rd overall...

And Bill Clinton moved up from 21st to 15th, making him the highest ranked living ex-president. (Gee, ya think that the job his successor did made him look better by comparison???)


As for the most recent ex-occupant of the Oval Office, George W. Bush?


36th.


Worse than Democrats Jimmy Carter (25th), Bill Clinton (15th), Lyndon Johnson (11th), and John F. Kennedy (6th).

The only presidents who were ranked lower than baby Bush were William Henry Harrison (who died one month into office), Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan (all of whom presided over the run-up to the Civil War. The best thing that can be said about their presidencies is that without them, Abe Lincoln wouldn't have had the opportunity to become the greatest president), Warren Harding (of Teapot Dome fame) and Andrew Johnson (who, ya know, was the first impeached president).

It'll be fun to watch the Rep blogosphere spin this one...

Just a suggestion...

...Wouldn't it be sweet if, when President Obama gives his talk about the mortgage foreclosure crisis on Wednesday, he looks around the gathering at Dobson High, and mentions how useful at tool education will be to help ensure that the American economy regains and retains its strength?

Maybe if DHS's principal or one of the people from the school district (superintendent or school board members) talks for a moment to a White House staffer, they might want to mention some of the things that AZ's legislative Republicans are hacking out of education (you know, things like teachers, books, and schools).

Just a suggestion...

Arizona Democratic Party Chair Election

On Saturday, March 7, the AZ Dems' State Committee will meet (again! :) ) at the Wyndham Hotel in Phoenix to elect a new chair of the state party.

Registration starts at 8:00 a.m.; registration closes and the meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. (Meeting notice here)

Thus far, the only official candidate is former chair Don Bivens; Tedski at Rum, Romanism, Rebellion has Bivens' letter to state committee members here. At the end of the letter is a list of Democratic activists who support Bivens' candidacy.

However, there is a Draft Bob Lord movement afoot. Lord was the Dem candidate in CD3 who pushed incumbent Republican John Shadegg (R-Big Healthcare) into the fight of his political career. DBL has a website here. It's unclear if Lord himself is going to run, but if he does, it could be interesting. A number of Bivens' supporters lent their names to his efforts during a period when it seemed that Lord wasn't going to run. However, he has been positioning himself to make himself eligible to run (according to a comment from Zelph on this R-Cubed post, Lord is now a PC in LD11) so it could be an interesting meeting.

Or it could be a 20-minute rubberstamp/acclamation special, and all of the folks from the state's hinterlands who trek to downtown Phoenix for the 2nd time in six weeks will have a legitimate gripe about wasting another whole day for less than 1/2 of an hour's B.S.

Guess we'll have to wait and see...

Obama to visit Dobson High School on Wednesday

Here are the details, courtesy the East Valley Tribune -

President Barack Obama is coming to Mesa’s Dobson High School on Wednesday morning. An “extremely limited” number of tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis at 10 a.m. Monday at the main entrance of Dobson High, 1501 W. Guadalupe Road.

There will be a one-ticket limit per person.

On Wednesday, doors will open for those with tickets at approximately 8:30 a.m.; President Obama is expected to speak from 10:15 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.

More details as they are worked out and publicized...

Arizona's Congressional delegation and the stimulus bill...

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a compromise version of H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The final vote was 246-183, with one answering 'present.' All House Republicans voted against the bill, and all but seven Democrats voted for the bill. All of AZ's Democratic representatives voted for it.

Later on Friday over in the Senate, the same compromise version was passed by a 60 - 38 vote. All Democrats present voted for the bill (Ted Kennedy was out, and Al Franken hasn't been seated yet), as well as Republicans Olympia Snow, Susan Collins (both from Maine) and Arlen Specter (PA). Both of AZ's Republican senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, voted against the economic stimulus package.

AZ's delegation on the stimulus bill, in their own words (from news coverage, press releases, and the Congressional Record) -

Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-CD5), from a press release, courtesy Arizona Congress Watch - “Arizona’s job losses last year were worse than every other state but one. People are facing foreclosure and struggling to make ends meet,” said Mitchell. “The risk of inaction is too great. This bill will create and maintain jobs and we must take this step to get people back to work and get the economy back on track.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-CD7), from a press release - “I voted to support today’s Recovery Act, a bill that is far from perfect, but opens up possibilities for many...The State of Arizona is in a budget crisis that it is translating to cuts in the Department of Economic Security, slashed departments at our public universities and colleges, money taken from our children in elementary, junior high, and high schools, and increases in hunger, poverty, and the ranks of the uninsured. The Recovery Act will help stop this kind of hemorrhaging, which is why I support it."

Rep. John Shadegg (R-CD3), from a press release -

"But one of the bill’s worst provisions has gone almost unnoticed, dangerously lurking below the radar of those exposing the bill’s flaws.

“Comparative Effectiveness Research,” sounds innocuous, but big-government programs always do. The $1.1 billion of the stimulus package earmarked for this project is a significant step toward government-run healthcare

Shadegg from a post in The Hill's CongressBlog, titled "Friday The 13th Horror" - "But of course the greatest horror is not the process – it is the product. At the end of the day we have an economic stimulus without economic stimulus."

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-CD8), as quoted in the Arizona Daily Star - 'The legislation will create or save 3.5 million jobs nationally over the next two years. Approximately 70,000 of those jobs will be in Arizona," she said in a press statement.'

The same article goes on to list a series of informational forums that Giffords will be part of, including one on Tuesday at ASU from noon - 1:30 p.m with CD5's Representative Harry Mitchell. (Pima Room in the Memorial Union)

More info on the forums, courtesy Congresswoman Giffords' website here.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-CD6), from the Congressional Record - "We know enough about this legislation to know that it is bad legislation. First and foremost, the process is bad, but it’s bad legislation...I doubt that John Maynard Keynes would believe that $50 million for the
National Endowment for the Arts would be stimulative. All that it stimulates is more spending later."

Sen. Jon Kyl (R), from the Congressional Record - ...His speech is too long to find one good quote, so I recommend reading it in its entirety at the link. He opposed the bill for a litany of reasons, including ACORN, Filipino veterans, a maglev rail line from L.A. to Las Vegas, money for small shipyards (and not enough $ for big shipyards), and the Davis-Bacon Act (prevailing wage).

Sen. John McCain (R), was quoted as calling the bill "generational theft" on CNN and elsewhere. (NY Times)

President Obama is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday in Denver, and will be in Phoenix on Wednesday to announce a plan to fight home foreclosures. Details as they become available.

Note: In the future, I expect to leave this sort of post to Stacy at AZ Congress Watch - it took longer just to set up the links than to write the rest of the post.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

A 'quick hit' post on goings-on in Scottsdale...

For those of you who thought that the ouster of Mary Manross as mayor in favor of Jim Lane would change the way that the City deals with developers (aka - rubber stamp everything), read on...

From the AZ Republic (emphasis mine) -

Scottsdale Planning Commission will meet March 11 to discuss the proposed Palmeraie project that could bring five-story buildings to the southwestern corner of Indian Bend and Scottsdale roads.

Some area residents are worried about incompatible density and preserving views of Camelback Mountain, and they raised their concerns at a Coalition of Greater Scottsdale meeting late this week at which representatives of Five Star Development met with community activists.

{snip}

The rezoning request in Scottsdale has hit technical hurdles that still must be addressed, however.

Current Scottsdale ordinance requires that any parcel seeking zoning as a planned regional center (PRC) be at least 25 acres in size. The lot going before the Planning Commission is only 20 acres.

20 acres is smaller than 25, so 'no go', right?

Not so fast.

Connie Padian, a City Zoning Administrator, has issued a "Zoning Interpretation Record."

It says that since the parcel in question abuts another parcel owned by the same developer in Paradise Valley, and that the combined size totals approximately 120 acres...well, you can see where this is going.

From Sonnie Kirtley, chair of the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale (COGS), via email -

...You need to get your appeals and comments in the city file prior to that date. So far, there are NO public comments (or staff communications) in that file. Case numbers are 17-AB-2008, 13 ZN 2008 and 13 TA 2008. If the staff "interpretation" is legal, then the developer won't be asking for the 13-TA-2008 text amendment to change ALL properties in the city with 20 acres to be permitted the PRC upzoning. They will just ask that their current Resort Zoning (35 ft max height) be improved to the PRC on their parcel.

Apparently, the wave of change that swept over the country last November missed our quaintly pretentious over-botoxed little desert hamlet, because nothing has changed -

The City genuflected before deep-pocketed developers last year, and they are genuflecting before deep-pocketed developers this year.

About the only this that has changed is Jim Lane's brilliant proclamation to promote tourism in Scottsdale - "Western on Wednesday." He has asked Scottsdale residents to wear "boots, jeans, and other Western attire on Wednesdays" to celebrate the Parada del Sol this month.

I suppose it's better than Pink Taco debacles, but it doesn't really seem like the kind of proactive leadership the city needs to navigate its way through these tough economic times.

Later...