GOP caucus in the lege finds a way to suppress public input by calling it an "improvement"

For the record, I *really* hope I'm wrong about the motivation behind this, but given the character and track records of the people behind this move, I'm not holding out much hope for that...

From an AZ House GOP press release -





The section most important to concerned citizens and other lege watchers is at the bottom of the press release (emphasis added) -

Important to note:
• All users will have to create a new account to access the new system; old accounts will not be carried over to the new system
• Setting up a new account requires a visit to the Legislature, once setup the account will work for committee meetings scheduled in both the House and the Senate
• After the account is setup, users will be able to access it remotely in order to make a request to speak at a committee meeting

To make a long story short:

The Arizona Legislature has a "Request To Speak" system for people to sign in to if they wish to weigh in on a measure that's up for committee consideration, whether in person at the Capitol or remotely via the internet.

Users, even remote users, must set up their account while physically at the Capitol.  Inconvenient, but the current system has been in place long enough that most people who are interested in doing so have been able to set up an account.

That includes people people who tend to criticize the lege, but who, because of a conflicting work schedule or simple sheer distance, cannot travel to the Capitol on a regular basis.

Now, in the name of "efficiency", those people have all had their ability to have direct input on measures before the lege removed.

Much like the higher campaign contribution limits in last session's HB2593, it grants greater influence to the lobbyists.  HB2593 enhances the effect of lobbyists' deep pockets; this move enhances the effect of lobbyists' constant presence at the Capitol.

It's also kind of like the voter suppression moves in HB2305, but done in a way that the voters cannot block or overturn.

2014 Predictions: Arizona edition

My last post was all about 2013; this one is all about 2014.

It's also all about satire, or at least I hope it is.  However, given the frequent bizarreness of politics in Arizona, anything could happen...

Inspiration, and format, shamelessly stolen "gratefully borrowed" from Eli at Deep Thought.

Note:  All of the below is satire.  I hope.



January -

- With great fanfare, the Arizona Legislature convenes its 2014 session.  Among the promises made during the opening day festivities:  that the lege will spend less time attacking public employee unions and education and more time on bringing jobs to Arizona.

The first proposal considered by the lege is a bill from State Senator Al "Slave Labor" Melvin that would have prisoners from the state's correctional system "volunteer" to work for political campaigns of statewide candidates who are former members of the Merchant Marine.

Senate President Andy Biggs tries to show that the 2014 Arizona Legislature is a "kinder, gentler" lege, run by "compassionate conservatives".

He assigns Melvin's bill to every Senate committee that Melvin isn't on.  Melvin gets the message...sort of.

He abandons the measure, but promises to keep working on the issue.

- In late January, after a meeting between him, the finance director of his faltering gubernatorial campaign and a lobbyist for a manufacturer of body armor, Melvin proposes that the state's prisoners be put to work for a private contractor, manufacturing body armor for the state's law enforcement officers.

- In other news, State Rep. Carl Seel submits a resolution expelling all of the members who voted for Medicaid restoration in 2013.  In an effort to gain Democratic votes, he offers to amend the measure to only include the Republicans who supported Medicaid.

It doesn't work.


February -

- Melvin's proposal sails through the lege on a party-line vote and is immediately signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer.  Well, "immediately" after her "advisers" meet with the same lobbyist.

- State Rep. Adam Kwasman offers a "reverse secession" proposal, that would expel the legislative districts represented by Republicans who voted for Medicaid expansion from the state of Arizona.

The measure fails when the members of Arizona's Congressional delegation point out that such a scheme would result in fewer seats in Congress for Arizona, fewer seats for state legislators to aspire to.


March -

- Quality assurance tests on the first sets of body armor produced under Melvin's proposal indicate that maaaayyybe someone didn't think through the ramifications of having the state's convicts supply body armor for the state's police officers.

The title of the report of the testing: "Paper Mache".

After production is stopped, and at the suggestion of Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, the few complete sets of body armor are given as gifts to the heads of each public employee union in the state.

- State Rep. Bob Thorpe introduces a striker that requires all public school systems to supply body armor to their students.  When it is pointed out that school budgets won't be able to afford both body armor and books, Thorpe reminisces "my Bible and my slate were good enough when I was a child, they're good enough for today's children".

Thorpe's measure passed the lege on a party-line vote and is immediately signed by the Governor, whereupon the state and the lege are sued by nearly every parent in Arizona.


April -

- A court enjoins the new school body armor law, so the lege, desperate to be seen as doing *something* about the rash of school shootings in the US, cites the danger...to legislators...and bans school groups from visiting the state capitol.

- Thorpe tries to insert language into a budget reconciliation bill that would make it a Class 6 felony to be shot while not wearing body armor.  The effort fails when someone tries to amend the language to exempt legislators.

- The lege starts wrangling over the budget, and fears rise that the session may go on into June.  Then someone reminds them that this is an election year and that they need to get to campaigning.  With that, a budget is proposed on Monday, April 21 and passed by both chambers of the lege on Thursday, April 24.  The session wraps up in the wee hours of Friday, April 25.


May -

- Disheartened by the occasional sanity exhibited by their candidates for governor, a delegation from the "bay at the moon" caucus of the AZGOP journeys to Toronto to recruit the mayor, Rob Ford, for the race.  The delegation is made up of former state senators Lori Klein, Ron Gould, and Frank Antenori.  Ford considers the proposal, and then looks the trio straight in the eye and informs them that he may be utterly crack-addled but still isn't stupid enough to go for a job where he would have to deal with people like them on a daily basis.

On their way back into the US,  they are stopped at the border and barred from reentering the US.  The border agent read some of the proposals submitted by the threesome during their times in the lege and decided they must have been on drugs.  And based on their visit to Ford, still are.

They're thoroughly searched, even being subjected to MRIs, colonoscopies, and brain scans.  Nothing is found, except by the colonoscopies.  However, even those show nothing unexpected, just a volume of material that is almost unprecedented in the annals of human biology, and they are released.

June -

- Governor Jan Brewer finally succumbs to massive outside pressure and sends a letter to CPS head Clarence Carter requesting his resignation.

When the letter reaches the offices of CPS, it is ignored.

- Al Melvin's campaign for governor ends when it turns out that his nominating petitions were circulated by the same Abraham Lincoln he frequently quoted during the campaign.

A Lincoln that didn't exist.

All of the petitions that were signed on the back by "Honest Abe Lincoln" are thrown out, taking Melvin's signature quantity below the threshold required.


July -

- At a debate involving the Republican candidates in CD1, there's a little "I'm more conservative than thou" tit-for-tat.

Candidate Andy Tobin proposes requiring lifetime drug testing for welfare recipients, even when they no longer receive public benefits.  Fellow candidate Adam Kwasman goes for the Grover Norquist endorsement and counters by proposing that welfare recipients be decapitated.  A third candidate, Gary Kiehne, urges compromise - decapitation for welfare recipients, and lifetime drug testing for the headsmen.

Onlookers start muttering about drug testing debate participants.

- The Cardinals open training camp with a revamped team,  The Bidwills, following the example of the University of Arizona marching band, rent the defense of the Northwestern State (LA) football team.  And rent the UA marching band to serve as the offense.

- News breaks that President Barack Obama has found a cure for cancer.


August -

- The Arizona Legislature convenes in a special session to pass a resolution in support of...cancer.

- GOP operatives sue to bar people who would be disenfranchised by HB2305 from voting on the measure in November, saying that they have a conflict of interest.

The case is promptly heard by the Arizona Supreme Court, who dismiss the lawsuit with a brief opinion.

Loosely translated from the Latin:  "Thanks for a laugh, but you are morons." (It sounded more profound and professional in Latin, hence the use of Latin in the opinion)

- The results from the primary election late in the month indicate that Republican voters have ceded some of the November races:

 Tom Horne wins the nomination for Attorney General, setting up a rematch of the 2010 race against Felecia Rotellini.

 Ev Mecham is written in by a majority of Republican voters in the race for the nomination for governor.  They are expressing their disappointment over the failure of Al Melvin to make it on to the ballot.

  In CD1, "none of the above" is the choice of R voters to face incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick.


September -

- After a televised gubernatorial debate, local pundits are turned off by Democrat Fred Duval's use of complete sentences and words with more than two syllables and declare the corpse of Ev Mecham to be the victor.

They deem the silent Mecham's performance to be "Brewer-like".


October -

- Led by the R members of Arizona's Congressional delegation, the US House tries to implement a limited government shutdown that only covers the delivery of early ballots by the US Postal Service.

The scheme falls apart when it is pointed out that the Postal Service isn't actually subsidized by the federal government and can't be arbitrarily shut down for partisan gain.

The schemers pledge to keep trying.


November -

- The election results show that while the Republicans will retain their majorities in both the Arizona legislature and the US House of Representatives, those majorities will be smaller.

The day after the election, the Republicans respond to the news by sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "LALALALALA - I can't hear you - LALALALA!!", over and over.

The day after the day after, most of the Republicans are admitted to hospitals to have surgery to dislodge their fingers from their ears.


December -

- The Cardinals go winless, and by the end of the season, fanless.  However, the Bidwills call the season a success because they lowered the team's personnel costs to near zero.

- The new GOP caucuses in both the state senate and the state house of representatives announce their mass resignation, citing the fact that the voters of Arizona overturned HB2305 in November.

The tag line of their resignation letter - "Partisan politics isn't much fun when you can't disenfranchise the people who won't vote for you".

- Clarence Carter finally resigns, but only to take a new job in a new agency - Arizona's Department of Fetal Protective Services.  He is recommended for the job by Cathi Herrod and Trent Franks.

Arizona Stories Of The Year: 2013, Politics Edition

Many media outlets, pundits (and wanna-be pundits), and other observers of current events compile "Year End" or "Best Of" lists.

Since this blog focuses on Arizona politics, the list compiled here will focus on...wait for it...


Arizona politics.


I know this is really, truly, deeply, genuinely, shocking.

:)

Anyway, on to the reason that we are all here - the list, counting down from the fifth-most significant/interesting story related to Arizona politics to number one.

Interesting but unplanned-for common characteristic:  I expect all of the following to have an impact in years beyond 2013.


5.  Coming in at number five, the ongoing travails of Tom Horne, Arizona's scandal-plagued attorney general.

He avoided serious repercussions stemming from a hit-and-run accident that he committed in 2012 while leaving his girlfriend's home after a (alleged) nooner.  Paid a small fine for a citation issue in the incident, avoided sanctions from the state bar association over his behavior, and even got his girlfriend to leave her taxpayer-funded job (something that would have looked bad for an AG candidate, much less one running for re-election).

However, he still has that pesky campaign finance violation case hanging over him.

This one will have an impact in 2014, as Horne faces a primary challenge from a GOP establishment insider.  Apparently, even they have a limit to their tolerance for embarrassingly wayward GOP elected officials.

Not that they have a problem with the "wayward" part, but the "embarrassing" part could impact them in the general election, holding down the rest of the ticket.


4.  Joe Arpaio faced the first serious pushback of his political career.

In May, US District Court Judge Murray Snow ruled that the Maricopa County Sheriff (and the office he leads) engaged in racial profiling in his anti-immigrant witch hunts "operations".

In October, the same judge imposed a number of requirements on Arpaio and the the MCSO to ensure their compliance with his ruling.

While he is still appealing the order, his office has become, if not more "professional", more circumspect and less ostentatious about the way they conduct their operations.

3.  Late in the year, news broke that Arizona's Child Protective Service simply ignored more than 6500 reports of child abuse.

Once the news broke, the finger-pointing began, with absolutely no one taking responsibility.  There is an ongoing "investigation", conducted by appointees of the governor.

So far the director of the agency still has not lost his job, the governor still has not faced up to her lack of oversight of the office, and the legislature still hasn't accepted responsibility for its chronic and deliberate underfunding of CPS.

If this scandal had broken earlier in the year, it might have been higher on this list, but most of the fallout, politically speaking, will occur in 2014.

What remains to be seen is how deep that fallout will be -

At what point will the director of CPS lose his job?  Best guess: when he starts to have more value to Governor Jan Brewer as a sacrificial lamb than as a distraction (his real current role in her administration).

At what point will Brewer step up and take responsibility for her administration's failure to do its job properly?  Best guess: Never.  That's what underlings are for.

At what point will the legislature start doing its job by providing the resources that CPS needs in order to do its job properly?  Best guess: Never.  That would require the legislature to have concern for children after they are born.


2.  In June, the state and the country were horrified when 19 "hotshot" firefighters were killed while fighting the Yarnell Hill wildfire.

Of the 19 fallen hotshots, 13 were "seasonal", or part-time employees.  Their families aren't eligible for most of the death benefits received by the survivors of the six hotshots who were full-time employees.  Lawsuits have ensued.

In and of itself, not a political story.  However, the aftermath has become political.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, many elected officials, even those that had previously been openly contemptuous of public servants, lavished heaps of posthumous praise on the fallen hotshots.

Now, after a few months have passed and other events have occurred, distracting people who weren't directly affected by the Yarnell Hill tragedy, not so much.

From a press release sent out in early July over the names of Andy Tobin and Andy Biggs, the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and the President of the Arizona State Senate, respectively (for context, the full story from AZFamily.com here) -

"Arizona is in a deep state of mourning over the loss of 19 of the finest young men ever to serve as emergency first responders."

From an Arizona Republic story published in late December on excuses and rationalizations on why legislative efforts to address the disparity in the treatment of the hotshots' survivors - 

Tobin said there are just too many questions right now.

“The members want fairness. But the lawsuits just create an awful lot more questions,” he said. “Do we have to wait for the lawsuits to go through? If we pass a law now, does that mean we have to negotiate with the families?”

Nice touch there - Tobin, an erstwhile candidate for Congress in 2014, passing the blame for the lege's inaction to the families of the fallen.


...Drum roll please...

And the number one story in Arizona politics in 2013 was

1. The restoration of AHCCCS (AZ's Medicaid program) eligibility to the levels previously approved by the voters.

During the waning days of the legislative session, things got a little testy when a coalition of Democrats and Jan Brewer-led Republicans put language restoring AHCCCS eligibility to previous level into a budget bill and then pushed it through over the objections of the Republican leadership in the lege and the TP-est of the tea party types in the rank and file of the R caucuses.

After the measure passed, there was an effort to overturn it by referring it to the ballot in November 2014.  The effort was led by two wingnut former legislators, Frank Antenori and Ron Gould.

The effort failed miserably.

During, and after, the session, there were promises of payback directed at the R apostates.  Whether that happens remains to be seen, but primary season should be interesting.  Many of the Rs who supported Medicaid restoration are from districts that are competitive or are close enough that a primary challenge that results in a "bay at the moon" type becoming the GOP standard-bearer could result in a D pickup. 

As far as payback during the upcoming session, so far most of what I've heard of is restricted to certain committee chairs promising that they will not hear, much less vote for, any bills proposed by the apostates.

There have also been rumors of committee membership shuffling, removing apostates from their favorite assignments, but I don't expect things to be over-the-top nasty -

It's an even-numbered year, and all will be focused on the election, whether they are running reelection to the lege or for another office.  Putting too much effort into intra-caucus knife fights will distract them from their highest purpose -

Staying on the elected official gravy train.


Preview of this post's 2014 edition:  Whatever it may turn out to be, the outcome of the referendum on the voter suppression proposal from the lege will affect elections in Arizona for years, maybe decades, to come.  More so than any of the individual races.


Up next:  a preview of 2014.  Considerably more tongue-in-cheek than this post. :)

Frank Antenori: Gone but not going away quietly

Frank Antenori, former legislator and late of an unsuccessful attempt to block the state from restoring Medicaid (AHCCCS) eligibility to the levels approved by voters years ago, has been known as a loud-mouthed bully.

Whether it has been threatening the Pima County Board of Supervisors into appointing him to the state senate, pledging to completely shun another legislator, a fellow Republican no less, for the "crime" of defeating a close friend of his, comparing the election of Barack Obama as President to the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, or one of his many other examples of "shooting from the lip", his rhetorical style has always been more "loud and angry" than "civil and fact-based".

Even though he failed in his 2012 for reelection to the State Senate, losing to a Democrat who conducts himself much more civilly and professionally, Antenori still spouts off regularly.

Early Christmas Eve morning (shortly after midnight), he tweeted about the Affordable Care Act, aka - "Obamacare".

I noticed the tweet a few minutes after he posted it, and thought it was an implied threat against the President.  I asked Antenori to clarify his tweet.

When I looked at the tweet after a full night's sleep, I realized that it either wasn't a threat or it was a *very* subtle one.

And while many words can be used to describe Antenori, "subtle" is not on the list.

Witness Antenori's replies to my request for clarification (posted around 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve):

To be fair to Antenori, he's consistent.  I don't think his anger would be reduced if someone other than Barack Obama was president.

I'm sure that he would be just as pissed off if Hillary Clinton has won in 2008 instead of Obama.


Hope Santa brought Antenori some civility for Christmas...

Happy Holidays

To all readers, regular or drive-by, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ashura, Festivus, Chrismukkah, winter solstice, or something else (or nothing at all), may you all have a joyous and safe holiday

"Desert racist wasteland": Overly broad but not without merit

On Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals pulled off the biggest upset of the 2013 NFL season by defeating the heavily favored Seattle Seahawks in Seattle.

A Democratic state representative, Joe Fitzgibbon (presumably a Seahawks fan), vented his frustration in an angry tweet -

Screen capture courtesy Huffington Post, which got it from one of Fitzgibbon's Republican colleagues

Fitzgibbon has since taken down the tweet and apologized, but that hasn't stopped many Arizonans, including a few from my side of the partisan divide, and a few more from the MSM, from taking great umbrage at Fitzgibbon's original characterization of Arizona.

I may be one of, say...five...people in Arizona to feel this way, but...


He wasn't that far off.


I have some quibbles with the broadness of the brush that he used to paint Arizona - there are some *great* people here and some absolutely wonderful places too.

However, most of the state *is* desert; parts of all four North American deserts cover portions of Arizona.

As for the "wasteland" part, outside of a few absolutely spectacular spots, there's a whole lot of nothing here.  I firmly believe you can find beauty anywhere, but in some parts of AZ, you have to squint a whole helluva lot bit to see it (example: drive west from Phoenix along I-10.  When the "highlight" of the trip is on the California side of the state border and is aptly nicknamed "Blight"...)

However, the "racist" part, while hardly universally true here, has more than a bit of truth to it.

Between the annual legislative event, passing a bill (or many bills) that demonizes immigrants (it's not just SB1070, folks), a sheriff that would rather conduct camera-friendly immigrant hunts than investigate sex crimes, a governor that has nothing but contempt for DREAMers, and all too many more examples, it's easy to understand why the rest of the country views Arizona as a bubbling cauldron of bigotry.

We also have more than our share of politicos who tend to "shoot from the lip".

Just this year...

...We've had one state legislator, State Rep. Brenda Barton, compare the nation's first African-American president to Adolph Hitler -

...A former state rep, John Fillmore, gave one of the most incoherent and off-topic (I think so, anyway - it was seriously incoherent) responses to a Facebook post that I've ever seen -

...A local branch of the GOP, the LD26 Republicans, auction off a semiautomatic assault rifle similar to the one used in the 2013 mass shooting of adult teachers and young students in Newtown, CT...just before the anniversary of the murders -

...Another legislator, State Representative Bob Thorpe, who expressed support for mandatory minimum prison sentences that disproportionately impact minorities by pointing out that such sentences result in more minorities imprisoned under them -

 

 

...Thorpe was a busy man this year - in April, he urged a group of gun-totin' anti-"green" initiative types to target Sandy Bahr of the Arizona chapter of the Sierra Club while shooting off their guns.

In other words, while Fitzgibbon's social media outburst may have been overly broad, it was nowhere near inappropriate enough to rank with the online splutterings of his counterparts here in Arizona.


Where were the offended folks when it was Arizona politicos spouting off?

AZ Supreme Court says "Merry Christmas" to R legislators, "Gimme" to lobbyists...

...and "Up Yours" to the people of Arizona...

From the Arizona Republic, written by Mary Jo Pitzl -

Higher campaign-contribution limits — up to $4,000 per candidate in a statewide race — are in force for the 2014 elections, in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling handed up late Tuesday.

The five-member court sided with state legislative leaders, who argued a bill that raises the limits and applies them to both the primary- and general-election cycles does not violate the state Constitution. They argued the higher limits are a free-speech right and would help fend off independent-expenditure committees from distorting candidates’ messages.

I'm not sure where Pitzl got the "$4,000" figure.  The original bill set the limits at $5K - $2500 per election, with the primary and general elections considered  to separate elections for campaign finance purposes - but there was also an argument that while the increased limits could not be stopped, they could be reduced by 20% under the law enacted by the voters that created the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.  $4000 is 20% less than the new law's "$5,000".

Still, whether the new limit is $4K or $5K per contributor, it's way too high for the vast majority of Arizonans.  Under the new limits, only corporations, the very wealthy, and those who do their bidding will be able to afford giving serious financial support to candidates.

My prediction on the first indictment related to the new limits and influence peddling:  Six months after an honest prosecutor takes office at the Arizona Capitol or in Maricopa County.

And this could be the lege's new official song...except that the title includes the word "please", which is not in the lege's vernacular.

Normally, I don't have a huge problem with the decisions of the Arizona Supreme Court.  I may disagree with some of them, but in AZ, the Judicial Branch is the only one of the three main branches of government that is worthy of respect.  While they haven't yet published their opinion on this, explaining the reasoning behind this, this is one that will be examined very closely by people who don't normally focus on the details of such things.

A longer story from AP, via ABC15.com, is here.

The original bill, HB2593, is here.

Selfies, funerals, and context

I'm a little late to this, mostly because once I looked into it, I realized that it was a ginned up controversy and not actually a big deal.  However, somebody I respect a great deal has joined the "Whatever Obama Does Is, By Definition, A Scandal" camp and is wondering why I haven't commented on this.  So here it is. :)

In November, the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary named "selfie" as its 2013 "Word of the Year".

OED's definition:

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media 

In the U.S, "selfies" are generally associated with teens, Kardashians, and Kardashian wannabes.

Most of the time it's used by "fluff" media types such as TMZ, People magazine, and the like.

This week, the word was all over the "serious" MSM and on the lips of pundits across the political spectrum.



On Tuesday, world leaders gathered in South Africa to attend a memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

The biggest news to come out of it, in the American MSM anyway, was that President Obama took a "selfie" picture with his cell phone at the service.

Across America, angst meters pegged at maximum and pearls were clutched, tightly.

Based on the first reports, I thought that the President had taken a selfie at the memorial service of one of the greatest men of the second half of the 20th Century, something that was shallow, disrespectful, and utterly inappropriate in the context of a memorial service.

Regardless of who did it.

At the time I first heard about it, I wasn't in a position to look deeper into the matter.  At that time, my reaction was surprise -

Surprise, at the idea that any American president would be so disrespectful; and

Surprise, that it was Barack Obama.  He just doesn't seem like a "selfie" kind of guy (of course, if the birthers had spent the last five years insisting that Obama was a Kardashian, instead of a Kenyan, maybe there would have been more credibility to this story... :) )


Then, when I had time available, I began to look into the matter.  I was motivated by the facts that I was *really* surprised that Obama would do something like that which he was alleged to do, and also that the people denouncing him the loudest were people who hate him so much that if he were to cure cancer, the common cold, and male pattern baldness, they would denounce him for not doing enough.

First, the picture of the taking of the self-picture.

Picture courtesy TheGuardian.com, credits: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

The first thing that struck me about this picture that was at odds with the initial reports was that the President wasn't the one taking the picture; his neighbor in the seats was.

Still, I supposed it was still inappropriate for the President to participate in a campaign-style moment with some random strangers.

Of course, the two other people in the selfie were unfamiliar to me, they weren't exactly "random strangers".

The man on the far left of the picture is David Cameron, the Prime Minister of England and the woman in the center is Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Prime Minister of Denmark.

Well, even if the President wasn't the one taking the picture, and the other people were his peers, the behavior was still inappropriate for such a somber occasion.  Right?

It would be...if it was a "somber" occasion.

However, South African traditions, like those in many other cultures, hold that funerals are as much about celebrating the lives of the departed as they are about mourning their deaths.

So, to sum up:

No context - President Obama behaving in a disrespectful manner, acting like a Kardashian at a memorial service for one of the most respected people of all time.

With context - President Obama wasn't the one taking the selfie, it was more a "teamie" as other world leaders were part of it, and it fit in perfectly in the context of a celebration of Nelson Mandela's life.


I suppose things could have been worse - one of the words that was up for consideration as the Word of the Year was "twerking".


On a positive note, the President's speech from the service -

Remember "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink And Drive"? The 21st Century Version Should Be "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink And Facebook",

...In a way, I kind of hope he was drinking; it would be truly scary if the comment in question was produced while stone-cold sober...

Former state representative John Fillmore (he ran for state senate in 2012, but lost to Rich Crandall in one of the nastier primary battles of that cycle) is running for a return to the legislature.

I think his rhetorical skills have degenerated to the point where debate season could be rather painful for him (to be fair, I didn't pay much attention to him before this; he may have always been a loon).

Exhibit One:

On Thursday, Brahm Resnik of Channel 12 tweeted a picture of Rep. Chad Campbell, the Democratic leader in the AZ House, talking with the editorial board of the Arizona Republic about the ongoing CPS scandal.  That picture made it to Facebook, where a brief discussion erupted, with most commenters joining Campbell in wondering why the current head of CPS isn't the *former* head of CPS by now.

The notable exception was Fillmore, in a comment submitted at 5:42 a.m. Thursday.

 Ummm...say what?!?

Putting Fillmore's comment into larger type -

This man with skin in the game was the only person in the crap my government calls "entitlements" (WELFARE) that asked "how come we do not have an EXIT plan sponsored b y the State for welfare" Chad instead you slobs dumped 300,000 more people on welfare. Bad for them, bad for Arizona, Bad for America,,,, Great for Democrats and liberal Republicans. Mr Carter is just needs time and focus not cuss and dump.

A larger typeface doesn't help - it's still a bizarre but muddled rant. 

IMO, if he wasn't drunk when he posted this, he might not be emotionally or mentally stable enough to be a state legislator.  

Which is saying something, considering the low standard set by the lege in those areas.


Note: I perused a goodly portion of Fillmore's FB timeline.  He's rather far out there politically, but this is bizarre even by his standards.

Gun deaths total in AZ: All about a malicious attitude

And the "malice" isn't just on the part of the shooters...

There's a couple of gun stories going around that, on the surface, are unrelated.  However, they are probably more closely related than "Second Amendment activists" (a euphemism for "gun nuts") would care to admit.

First up: an "effect".

From Mother Jones, written by Dana Liebelson and Stephanie Mencimer -

Back in December, not long after the massacre at Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Bloomberg News published a study suggesting that by 2015, guns would kill more Americans than traffic accidents do.

The comparison struck a nerve, and the factoid has become a talking point in gun control debates on Capitol Hill. But it's clear from the data that the prediction wasn't just a hypothetical. A number of states have already hit this grisly milestone.

From the story, Arizona's shameful numbers -

Yes, in 2010, there were already more gun deaths than traffic deaths in Arizona.

Yet, while there are scads of laws regulating the use of motor vehicles in AZ, there are many fewer such laws regarding the use of firearms in AZ, and those laws are made fewer and weaker seemingly every time the Arizona legislature meets.

Now, a cause (or at least, a contributing factor):

Why this counterintuitive approach to this public health crisis masquerading as a political disagreement?

Attitude.

The Arizona legislature is controlled by Arizona Republicans, who consider possessing and using firearms without restriction a "right" that is more sacrosanct than the right of others to live.

From KPHO, written by Lindsey Reiser -

The season of holidays gatherings is upon us but the raffle prize at one holiday party has some scratching their heads.

District 26 Republicans get together once a month, and also during the holidays. The holiday gathering also happens to be four days before the anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"We don't do raffles hardly at all,  mainly for Christmas and for shock value," joked Craig Ray.

{snip}

"To raffle off an AR15, a military-style assault rifle, the same rifle used to murder those children almost a year ago, is completely inappropriate," said District 26 Democratic committee chairman Randy Keating in response. His group is collecting money for a group called Arizonans for gun safety.

{snip}

The chairman of the Republican committee, Raymond Jones, said it's pure coincidence and wasn't malicious.

Sad to say, this sort of this can no longer really be called "shocking".  

And they have a tough case to make to prove that raffling off the type of weapon used to massacre children and teachers in Newtown, CT is "pure coincidence".

From a 2011 ABC News story, written by Amy Bingham -

Forget quilts and cookies, the Pima County Republican Party in Arizona is auctioning off a handgun at their next party fundraiser. And not just any handgun, the same series of pistol that was used in the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabriel Giffords in January.

“Help Pima County get out the vote and maybe help yourself to a new Glock .45. Get yourself a new Glock 23 .40 cal handgun for just 10 bucks- if your name is draw. That’s right for just 10 dollars this gun could be yours,” reads the Pima GOP’s flyer that was sent to supporters Aug. 26.

{snip}

“This raffle shows a stunning lack of judgment and sensitivity in raffling of the same make of weapon used in the January shooting,” said Jeff Rogers, the chairman of the Pima Country Democratic Party. Pima County includes Tucson. “It’s a slap in the face of a grieving community.”

Well, no one can accuse them of being them of being inconsistent.

However, given their track record of trafficking fundraising from the same types of weapons used in infamous mass shootings, we can all accuse them of being malicious, no matter their protestations to the contrary.

To contribute to Arizonans for Gun Safety, go to the LD26 Democrats' donation page.

Guest post: Children Don't Vote

By Jerry Gettinger

First our schools were targeted to be used as a well, where our legislators could go to, when there was a drought of money.  

Children don’t vote.  

And parents are too busy holding down two jobs to notice that their youngster is in a class of 30 plus students.  

Then suddenly Mr. Parraz became curious and subsequently discovered that the sheriff and his gang, oops, I mean his deputies, let a somewhat large number of child molestation complaints go unnoticed.  

Some would call Mr. Parraz rude while others characterize him as brave. I am of the latter.   

Although by now some of the children in the cases are adults.  The children grew up while the sheriff made excuses for the “oversight.” 

Whatever one calls it, the children once again suffered.

Children can’t vote and in some cases the parents might have been perpetrators.  The children continued to suffer.  As I mentioned, children don’t vote.  

And now there is the CPS scandal, where case after case has gone uninvestigated.  

 Is there a common thread or am I just imagining that the children of our state have a very difficult time while they are growing up?  

Schools, helpless at the hands of perverts and are just plain helpless.  The victimization of our children must stop.  

It is not only the school system that is in shambles, it is the entire system that is preying on the young.  

What has been done is borderline criminal.  No one person is to blame. 

It’s the whole bunch.  

The executive branch, county sheriff and a school system that has been robbed of its ability to teach.  

Remember this on Election Day.  

A Jewish prophet once said, “Suffer thy children unto me...”  

I am certain he did not mean make them suffer.

Affordable Care Act: personal stories

I know most of the people in the video below, and even count one or two of them as friends.  That doesn't lessen the impact of their stories of how the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, has helped them; it deepens that impact.

We all know someone whose life has been made just a little bit better by the ACA - maybe those of us who just can't afford a decent policy on the private market, maybe a child who is able to be part of their parents' insurance until age 26, maybe a neighbor or friend with a preexisting condition - and those people shouldn't be sacrificed on the altar of frustration with a website that wasn't perfect from the start.

Nelson Mandela passes away at 95

There aren't too many foreign leaders who become ingrained into the American consciousness - aside from Mandela, maybe the English royal family and the Pope - but Mandela not only became part of the American consciousness, he became an inspiration to most of a generation here.

And an absolute icon to most of the rest of the world.

There also aren't too many foreign leaders who have deserve to have an American national holiday in their honor, but Mandela is one, perhaps the one.

However, instead of commemorating his birth (July 18), showing respect for his death (December 5), we should honor him on the day he was freed after more than a quarter century's imprisonment by the apartheid regime in South Africa - February 11.

A brief bio of Mandela from Nobelprize.org is here (he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993).

President Obama's statement on Mandela's passing is here (text) and here (video).

I'm not going to link to a specific news story; there are too many good ones to choose from.  If you want to read some more in-depth stories (and you should), visit any MSM website or just Google his name.

Since his life was an inspiration to millions across the world, his death is not, and must not be, a cause for sadness.  

His speech upon receipt of the US Congress' Congressional Gold Medal -