Predictions for 2009

Kevin at Exurban League did one of these, and inspired something of a counter-post...then I found a similarly-themed post by Eli Blake at Deep Thought that was a lot funnier than Kevin's or mine...

...What with fines for license plate frames and the transformation of I-10 and the rest of the state's freeways into one massive photo enforcement zone, the Arizona Department of Public Safety will change its name to the "Arizona Department of Revenue Enhancement."

...The newly-emboldened Republicans in the Arizona legislature will seek to cure the state's revenue shortfall by cutting revenue...oh wait...Sen. Jack Harper (R-Surprise!) has already proposed doing just that...how about...

...Harper's scheme passes the lege, but soon-to-be governor Jan Brewer ticks off the Club for Growth/Goldwater Institute wing of her party by merely thinking about vetoing the proposal, saying "Yes, I want your support when I run for state Governor in 2010, but I want there to be a state left to govern if I actually win. I have to think about this."

...Comedians are *really* going to miss George W. Bush. They're going to have to start writing their own material again.

...Scottsdale's wags, who have been stridently opposed to allowing a light rail line within sight of Scottsdale, much less *in* Scottsdale (the "West's Most Western City"), will see the crowds of people spending money in businesses near the light rail route in Mesa, Tempe, and Phoenix while Scottsdale's sale tax revenue continues to plummet.

Then they'll mutter something about the railroads being a vital part of the Old West's character and start making plans for a spur right up the middle of Scottsdale Road.

...State Sen.-elect Russell Pearce will find out that there is a place right next to AZ called "New Mexico" and that there is traffic across the border between there and AZ on a daily basis. He will then call for the deployment of the AZ National Guard there to stanch the flow of green chiles into the state. When informed that New Mexico is a state, and that it has been a state even longer than Arizona has been a state, Pearce will reply "New or Old, it doesn't matter. If the federal government won't do its job and protect the sovereignty of our cuisine, we're going to have to do it ourselves."

...Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will hear that, nod his head, and deploy his volunteer Brown Shirts Posse to the easternmost reaches of Maricopa County. Upon discovering that there are no TV cameras there, he will send 200 of his deputies and some armored vehicles into Mesa to conduct raids upon some small, locally-owned restaurants (i.e. - the kind that don't have corporate legal departments backing them up), searching for suspected non-native Arizona chiles.

...There will be a proposal to rename the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors as "The Montagues" and the offices of the County Attorney and County Sheriff as "The Capulets."

After some discussion of how most products of Arizona's chronically underfunded education system won't understand the Shakespearean reference, the County will settle on the names "The Crips" and "The Bloods."

...In a related note, the actual Crips and Bloods will sue, saying that the County is infringing on their trademarks, and doing so in a way that diminishes them. From a press release from the lawyers handling the case, Wolfram and Hart -

"While our clients are known for...unjustly of course... known for narcotics, murder, assaults, robberies, vice and worse, but that's still better than the raging bigotry, rampant corruption, petty backbiting, and the complete unprofessionalism of the elected officials in Maricopa County."

...On that day in December when the Phoenix temps inevitably journey below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the state's Republicans will proclaim that global warming is a hoax...oh wait, they already do that on any day ending in "-y."

...Those same Reps will be vacationing at their mountain lodges or in air-conditioned resorts in July when that same Phoenix temp hits 120 in the shade.

...Of course, any AZ Reps who do acknowledge the reality of climate change will blame it on some combination of Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano, gay people who want to get married, undocumented immigrants, and union workers.

...That same combination will also take the blame for the bursting AZ's real estate bubble, lightning strikes during the monsoon season, male pattern baldness, simple chronic halitosis, and pretty much everything else that the Reps don't like and/or don't want to take responsibility for.

...The Cardinals will lose in the NFL playoffs to a team that can run the ball, and the Bidwills will respond in the offseason by firing Ken Whisenhunt and hiring 84-year old Don Coryell to pump up Arizona's passing attack.

...And in a year, some wiseass blogger will sit down and do this again.

:))

Later!

Take a deep breath...

...and try to keep the appointment of Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat in perspective. Yes, Governor Rod Blagojevich is under a *dark* cloud of suspicion and may be as corrupt and self-serving an elected official as there is in this country, and Burris is a longtime ally and fundraiser for the Governor.

He's 71 and hasn't won an election since the early 90s. And even if people ignored those facts, he is so tainted by his association with Rod Blagojevich and the mess surrounding the filling of this seat, he doesn't have a snowball's chance in Phoenix (in July! :)) ) of winning election to a full term in 2 years.

In other words, he's a placeholder and nothing more.

And after the furor dies down, cooler heads will realize that anyone appointed to fill the seat right now would have credibility issues, both with their Illinois constituents and with their D.C. colleagues. Some of the other schemes to remove the appointment from the hands of the Governor (special election, appointment made by the IL lege, etc.) are fraught with their own issues that would tend to undermine the validity of the appointment (twisting the law tends to do that).

The appointment of a placeholder now actually clears the way for a legitimate race in 2010 (OK, "legitimate race" in Illinois politics equals "arm-twisting, rabbit-punching, eye-gouging back alley brawl" anywhere else, but I digress...).

Both the eventual winner and the citizens of Illinois will thank God for Burris' appointment.

Later!

Short Attention Span Musing

...Think the Palins aren't good* Republicans? Read on...

From the Washington Post -

Bristol Palin gave birth to her much-anticipated baby son on Saturday, People.com reported this evening.

The first grandchild of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, weighing in at seven pounds, four ounces.

Anybody who would name their son/grandson after Linda Tripp definitely qualifies as a hardcore Republican.

* = In this context, "good" means "freakin' loony."

...The U.S. Senate's Democratic leadership can posture all that they want, but they're kind of screwed here.

Also from the Washington Post -

Two Chicago newspapers are reporting that scandal-tarred Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans this afternoon to appoint 71-year-old former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

In this letter from earlier this month, Sens. Harry Reid (NV) and Dick Durbin (IL), the Senate's Majority and Assistant Majority leaders respectively, threatened to not seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.

Too bad for them that the Supreme Court has said that the Congress can only judge if members meet the Constitutional qualifications for their chamber.

From Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution -

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.

So unless Burris or whoever Blagojevich appoints to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat fails to meet those basic criteria, the Senate Democrats (and the Senate as a whole) probably aren't going to have much choice about seating the appointee.

More later...

The John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

This edition of the award goes not to an individual or even a group of politicians, but instead to an entire federal Cabinet department.

From AP via AZCentral.com -

MIAMI - U.S. prosecutors want a Miami judge to sentence the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 147 years in prison for torturing people when he was chief of a brutal paramilitary unit during his father's reign.

Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9 by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga. His conviction was the first use of a 1994 law allowing prosecution in the U.S. for acts of torture committed overseas.

A recent Justice Department court filing describes torture - which the U.S. has been accused of in the war on terror - as a "flagrant and pernicious abuse of power and authority" that warrants severe punishment of Taylor.

Umm...so the Department of Justice is prosecuting an American citizen for torturing others (the appropriate section of the US Code here). Sounds great, except that the reason the guy has been prosecuted isn't that he is a torturer, but that he wasn't a torturer for the Bush Administration.

On the other hand, when those who are ordering or performing the torture are doing so at the behest of the Bushies, the FBI and the rest of the Department of Justice turn a blind eye to those crimes.

Torture is wrong, period.

It's one topic where that widely-held moral position matches up with long-established U.S. law and international treaties.

And for hypocritically forgetting that fact just because it's convenient merits bestowing a Crappie Award to the entire Department of Justice.


Note - just to be clear here, my problem isn't with the sought-after sentence for Taylor (147 years). If anything, it's far more merciful that he deserves. Nope, my problem is with the double standard that says torture is OK if it's practiced to further the Bush Administration's agenda.

Something to keep an eye on...

Thanks for the heads-up on this go out to Seeing Red AZ (of all places! :) ) Evidently there is at least one thing that both Democratic and Republican bloggers can agree on...

From the Idaho Statesman -

State Rep. Steve Hartgen, a former newspaper publisher, says he might introduce a bill to force people to use their real names when posting comments on the Internet.

"A modest proposal that simply required the posting of a true name with respect to comments and blogs would go a long way," Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, told the Times-News, adding that the absence of such a provision "discourages people from participating in civil life. To me, it reflects a coarsening and cheapening of public debate, which I think is not healthy for Idaho."

Yes, this loon is from the land of Larry Craig, survivalists, and white supremacists, which means that one of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed types on West Washington could pick up on the notion and try to run with it here.

Note that I'm not specifying party here - any one of our state's finest is capable of coming up with the idea of encouraging free expression by restricting it.

Later...

In today's GOP, this guy's a shoo in...

From the Washington Post:

Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members this month a holiday music CD that included "Barack the Magic Negro," a parody song first aired in 2007 by talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Salsman is a Tennessean who was the campaign manager for Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential run.

Tennessean status notwithstanding, Saltsman could fit right in with the AZ branch of the GOP.

And Tennessean or not, he and the rest of the national GOP need to accept that Barack Obama won. Resoundingly.

Time to grow up and move on.

Christmas in Marina Del Rey

Non-political post ahead...

It wasn't a traditional Christmas, and it certainly wasn't a white Christmas (the snow was hitting farther north and in higher elevations), but it was fun.

And it''s been years since I've visited the ocean, any ocean.

This pic is of the waves and rains rolling in toward the beach in Santa Monica, CA (immediately north of the Santa Monica Pier)

Other things done on this rather non-traditional holiday - breakfast at IHOP (decent, but packed!), lunch/dinner at a sports bar named "Yankee Doodles" (decent, but packed!), and the new Adam Sandler movie "Bedtime Stories" (decent, but definitely targeted toward a young audience [the Disney brand showing through]). The adults in the theater liked it though, as there was a round of applause for the movie at the end.

Later...

Christmas Colors - Green, Red, and...Pink???

From AP via AZCentral.com -

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, the government said Wednesday, as layoffs spread throughout the economy, more evidence the labor market is weakening as the recession deepens.

The Labor Department reported that initial requests for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, from an upwardly revised figure of 556,000 the previous week. That's much more than the 560,000 economists had expected.

Something tells me that when history looks back at the Bush legacy, even more than failed state building and undermined international credibility, it's going to be the ravaged economy that most people associate with the presidency of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their lackeys.

The fact that he (and they!) have been mailing it in since the election will just blend in with the overall eight years worth of incompetence and corruption.

The Civil War on West Jefferson continues...

From the EV Tribune -

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was stripped of his power to handle civil cases for the county by the Board of Supervisors during a short but feisty special meeting today.

Supervisor Don Stapley, whose indictment by Thomas' office was announced earlier this month, was among the five supervisors who voted unanimously to allow the board to hire outside lawyers.

The Phoenix New Times is also covering the ongoing feud that has the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors facing off against County Attorney Andrew Thomas and County Sheriff Joe Arpaio (with County Treasurer Charles Hoskins apparently uninvolved in this latest conflict, but generally opposing the supes).

Ray Stern of the New Times has perhaps one of the most apt description of Maricopa County's Republicans in his coverage of the latest events -

Maybe we're heading to a big showdown that will end with Thomas giving the sheriff the okay to arrest the supervisors. In this town, with this group of cannibalistic Republicans in charge, anything's possible.

"...Cannibalistic Republicans..." is perfect - they're eating their own.

As a Democrat, normally I'd just grab some popcorn and sit back to enjoy the carnage (with an eye toward some pick ups in 2010 and 2012), but with the county's finances in the toilet (as are the state's and pretty much every municipality in the state's), we can't afford this kind of petty squabbling. There's too much important work to be done.

Of course, this bunch was pretty bad in good times; there's no reason to believe that tough times will inspire them to competence and professionalism.


I've said it before, and I'll say it again -

Can both sides lose this one? Puhleeeze?


Later...

Pour encourager les autres

It's time to wheel out RICO and aim it at the banks and financial services corporations that took some of the $700 billion in bailout money that was approved earlier this year.

It'll tick off the Libertarians, the Republicans, and the other "free market" corporate apologists who think that Big Business can do no wrong and certainly shouldn't be held accountable for their actions, but the white-collar financial sector's misuse of the money from the taxpayer-funded bailout and their utter arrogance about it is breathtaking.

And it needs to be addressed, and not just by taking political potshots at union workers when the more blue-collar auto industry comes begging for bailout money of its own.

From AP via the Asbury Park Press -

Think you could borrow money from a bank without saying what you were going to do with it? Well, apparently when banks borrow from you they don't feel the same need to say how the money is spent.

{snip}

"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.

Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said that while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given any accounting of exactly how the money is being used.

"We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to," Kelly said.

The story had quotes from other Big Bank spokesmen, but the gist was the same from all of them - "Hey taxpayers! How we spend your money is none of your business. Now go away."

Of course, if small businesses or individuals such as you or I were to go to one of the banks to ask for a loan, the first question they'd ask would be "what are you going to do with it?"

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute was originally aimed at the Mob and other criminal organizations, and used quite effectively. Given the banks' actions and practices before and after becoming recipients of Congress' largesse, they definitely qualify as "corrupt organizations."

While the statute itself was written in such a way as to specifically target the Mob, etc., its definitions are general enough that it can be applied to more traditional organizations that engage in criminal activity.

It lists as predicate acts things such as "bribery", "extortionate credit transactions", "embezzlement from pension and welfare funds", "obstruction of justice", and more. They've violated one or more of the applicable sections (personally, I like the "obstruction" sections for this :) ) somewhere along the line, and it's time to use that.

Pick one of the banks (perhaps the one that has received the greatest amount of taxpayer $$$), make a case, make the case stick, seize all of their assets, and put a bunch of executives, officers, and directors in jail.

*That* might persuade the banks to change their practices and attitudes. It might even influence some non-bank MegaCorps to do the same.

Somebody might argue that such a dissolution of a major financial corporation would have a significant and negative impact on the overall economy.

Guess what? The economy is already screwed, and in major part due to the misdeeds and blind avarice of these corporations.

Let them feel some of the pain that the rest of us are feeling (home sales and prices here, job losses here)

Oh, and the next time Congress approves any kind of corporate bailout without stringent and enforceable transparency and oversight provisions, recall 'em.

All of them.

A couple of bribery indictments would be appropriate too.

They (the Congresscritters) might be able to argue that they made an honest mistake with the original bailout in their panic to address the situation before November's elections, which might be true. Even if true, it doesn't speak well for their priorities or their diligence in performing their duties, but I digress.

However, it was a BIG mistake (really, really big), and if they make that same mistake a second time, most people (including me!) won't believe that there's anything "honest" about it.

Later...

To all...

Whatever your political or religious persuasion...

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Winter Solstice, "Just Another Day Ending In '-Y' ", or another holiday...

Whether you are reading this from the balmy climes of central Arizona, from a place that has real winter (for certain family members :) ), or from a place that doesn't experience winter at this time of the year (for certain Aussie readers)...

To one and all, may you have a joyous and safe holiday season (whatever holiday it may be for you)...

I even extend this "Happy Holidays" wish to Bill "Ebenezer" O'Reilly. Even somebody like him should have a little holiday cheer. Maybe he'll find some falafel under the tree this year. :))

So much for those pesky voters

The title of this post was already used today at Seeing Red AZ in this post. My post is closely related in subject matter, but criticizes a politician who's a *lot* closer to Seeing's heart than California AG Jerry Brown.

On to the post...

From AZCentral.com -

Even though voters overwhelmingly said no to payday-loan stores in the November election, an influential lawmaker said the industry likely isn't going away.

Sen.-elect Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he believes the Legislature will give the industry an extension to stay in business.

"I believe in the free market," said Pearce, who is well-known for writing the state's employer-sanctions law as a state representative. "It's not our business to run a business out of business. . . . These are high-risk loans, and it's pretty unfair for us to tell you that you can't take out a high-risk loan."

So let me understand the reasoning on this, and readers are invited to help clarify this for me with a comment or two -

When the electorate votes in a way that Republicans support, that's OK, but when they vote in a way that the Reps don't like, the issue does "not belong on the ballot but before the Legislature..."??? (Russell Pearce, from the article linked above)

This isn't Pearce's first foray into craven hypocrisy. During the last session of the lege, he sponsored HCR2044, which would have granted to the lege the authority to override voter-mandated expenditures when the lege decided that there was a fiscal reason to do so.

Apparently, he (and many others!) think that the will of the voters is great, when that will agrees with their own.

And anyone who disagrees with the outcome of that vote is being "undemocratic" or something similar.

However, when the will of the voters disagrees with their own, then the voters are wrong and must be ignored by the lege.

Folks, we've got two more years of this crap before we get the chance to fix things.

{sigh}

Later...

If D17 decided elections in AZ...

...AZ's Republicans would be in the unemployment line...

In 2006, every major Democratic candidate won in LD17; the same occurred in 2008, too.

Highlights -

...Congressman Harry Mitchell and State Senator not only ran up sizeable margins of victory over their Republican challengers, their victories were broad-based. Not only did they win the overall vote, they won in each and every precinct in LD17.

...Mitchell won his home district (LD17) by more than 19,000 votes, which might lead some people of the "R" persuasion to think that Tempe is the only reason that the longtime Tempe teacher and mayor keeps beating their candidates. If they thing that, they might think wrong - Mitchell won the rest of the district by more than 7500 votes.

To put that number in perspective, in 2006 Mitchell defeated then-incumbent Republican JD Hayworth by slightly more than 8000 votes total, including his Tempe numbers.

In other words, while the CD5 seat was heavily targeted by the Reps as vulnerable for retaking, all their efforts went for naught. Harry Mitchell actually expanded his base of support.

...If LD17 decided things, Barack Obama would have received Arizona's electoral votes. He won 60 of 69 precincts on his way to a 9800 vote margin of victory in the district.

...If LD17 decided things, Ed Hermes would have defeated Fulton Brock for the District 1 seat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Hermes received more than 6000 more votes than Brock in D17 while winning 49 of the 60 precinct that are in both SD1 and LD17.

...Both Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio would be out of our hair. Dan Saban, Democratic candidate for sheriff, took 57 of 69 precincts in LD17 on his way to an 8200 vote margin in LD17. Tim Nelson, candidate for County Attorney, did even better against Andrew Thomas than Saban did against Joe Arpaio.

Nelson won LD17 by more than 9300 votes while taking 63 out of 69 precincts.

...In the race for state representative, the Democratic slate of Ed Ableser and David Schapira took 67 out of 69 precincts (as measured by comparing the combined totals of the two Democratic candidates against the combined totals of the Republican candidates.


...For a little perspective, remember - LD17 is still trending more Democratic (something college towns are prone to do :) ).

In October 2006, the Reps had a 970 voter registration advantage (25101 Reps to 24131 Dems).

In October 2008, that had turned around to become a Democratic registration advantage of 3663 (30096 Dem to 26433 Rep.)

More than the results of this years races, those numbers are something that potential Rep candidates in LD17 and in any jurisdiction that overlaps it (justice precincts, supervisor districts, etc.) are going to pay close attention to before they decide to throw their hats in any ring.

More later...

Look in a mirror, John

When State Sen. John Huppenthal starts looking around for someone to blame for his travails, he *really* should be looking in a mirror when he points a finger...

From AZCentral.com -

State Sen. John Huppenthal R-Chandler has been charged with criminal misdemeanors for cutting down an opposition campaign sign on Election Day.

He's accused of theft and altering or destroying a political sign. A conviction could send him to jail for up to six months.

The nine-term state lawmaker called the charges "a continuation of the sadistic and vindictive smear campaign by the Democratic Party . . . they should drop this and paint a positive vision for the future of Arizona."

Ummm, Sen. Huppenthal? You brought this all on yourself. Admit (to yourself, anyway) that you scuffled with an elderly woman, quietly do your day or two of community service (face facts - that's the most he will get), and LEARN THE FREAKIN' LESSON!

Please Janet - Do as we say, not as we do

From AZCentral.com -

Incoming Republican legislative leaders are asking Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano not to sign any further executive orders, including one she's considering that would empower union representatives of state employees.

Senate President-elect Bob Burns, R-Peoria, and House Speaker-elect Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on Napolitano to hold off on that executive order and any other she may be contemplating before leaving office.

{snip}

"It would be unprecedented for an outgoing governor to issue last-minute executive orders that tie the hands of the incoming administration," Adams said in a statement.

Ummm, Senator Burns? Representative Adams? Your opinion of Governor Napolitano's actions during what are expected to be her final days as Arizona's governor is clear, and of course, you are entitled to have and express it.

But where are your criticisms of President Bush's actions during the final days of his administration? Of the rules changes favoring uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, weakening the Endangered Species Act, weakening worker rights, and more?

Oh wait, what's that you say? It's just another example of "It's OK if you're a Republican"??

Ahhh. I understand now.

Never mind.

BTW - Jane Hull issued her share of executive orders on her way out the door in 2003. As did the Fifester and Ev Mecham before her.

Caveat - due to the rather "unplanned" nature of their departures from office, Mecham and Symington didn't have many executive orders overall, much less last-minute ones.