Glad this is coming out now...

...because if the Bush Administration had heard of this idea, most of America would be imprisoned by now.

From the Christian Science Monitor -

In Thailand, three years in jail for ‘insulting’ royalty

Not long ago, Harry Nicolaides was another aspiring novelist toiling in obscurity. His self-published debut “Verisimilitude” sold only seven copies.

Today, he got his 15 minutes of fame. But it wasn’t exactly the publicity he might have craved.

A Thai court sentenced Mr. Nicolaides, an Australian, to three years in jail for offending the monarchy, a criminal offense in the Kingdom of Thailand.

His book, which was virtually unknown, was, interestingly enough, contained in the collections of Thailand's National Library until recently.

It took me a few minutes to find, but here is the "offensive" passage, from the English blog 'Late Night Bohemians' -

“From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives “major and minor “with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever.”

Ummm..."Lese majeste" is definitely not a concept that fits with the American psyche (that pesky 'freedom of speech' thing :) ), but there was a period early in this decade when some might have accepted such a law in a "trading freedom for security" sort of way.

So just imagine if Bush and his "Justice" Department (with the enthusiastic aid of the lapdogs in Congress) had been able to put similar provisions into American law (like say, the USA PATRIOT Act)...

...Every non-Faux News commentator and pundit would be in jail...

...Thousands of bloggers and letter-to-the-editor writers would have joined them (including me)...

...The hundreds of thousands of readers of those blogs and letters would be in prison, too...

...As would the nearly 51 million people who voted for Al Gore in 2000...

...And so would the more than 59 million who voted for John Kerry in 2004...

...Or simply the 73 percent of the country who disapprove of the job Bush has done as president.

On a positive note, with that many people imprisoned, the unemployment rate would be nearly zero.

Everybody who wasn't a prisoner would find work as a Bush Administration guard/torturer.

Obscure (but important) elected positions in Maricopa County

And some will even be on next year's ballots.

There are a number of elected offices on boards and commissions in Maricopa County that are important in their impact on County residents but frequently escape notice due to their unpaid, non-partisan* status.

* = "Non-partisan" in an official sense, but not always in a practical sense.

Over the next few months leading into the next election cycle, I'll try to cover those boards, emphasizing the ones that will be up for election next year. Today's post will just cover basic background and membership.


First up is the Governing Board of the Maricopa Community College District (MCCD). The board oversees the operation of MCCD.

The members of the board are elected in staggered six-year terms to represent County Supervisor districts.

Current members, District, end of current term (terms that up for election next year are bolded)-

Dr. Donald R. Campbell, SD5, 2012

Colleen Clark (Board President), SD1, 2012

Randolph Lumm (Board Secretary), SD4, 2014

Debra Pearson, SD3, 2014

Jerry Walker, SD2, 2010

This board has a prime example how partisan a member of a "non-partisan" board can be. Member Pearson is a Republican PC in LD11 and the 'public service' portion of her bio emphasizes her credentials as a Republican PC, LD officer, county and state committee member.

The Board next meets on Tuesday, January 27 at the District's offices on West 14th St. in Tempe (agenda here; minutes of previous meetings here).


Next up is the Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD). I wrote about them in 2006 here. CAWCD oversees the Central Arizona Project as it delivers water from the Colorado River throughout central AZ to as far south as Tucson.

Board members are elected by county to six-year terms.

Current members, County, term expiration (terms that up for election next year are bolded) -

Lisa Atkins, Maricopa, 2012

Susan Bitter Smith, Maricopa, 2010

Timothy Bray, Maricopa, 2010

Gayle Burns, Maricopa, 2012

Daniel Donahoe, Maricopa, 2010

Paul Hendricks, Maricopa, 2010

L.M. "Pat" Jacobs, Pima, 2014

Terri Kibler, Pinal, 2014

Mark Lewis, Maricopa, 2010

Jean McGrath, Maricopa, 2012

Sharon Megdal, PhD., Pima, 2014

Pamela Pickard, Maricopa, 2012

Warren Tenney, Pima, 2014

Janie Thom, Maricopa, 2012

Carol Zimmerman, Pima, 2014


Agendas for future meetings and minutes of past meetings can be found here.

Edit on 1/20/2009 to add -

The Maricopa County Recorder's Office has a list of offices up for election from 2010 thru 2014 here.

End edit.

'Anything possible,' Obama tells joyous crowd

The headline on AZCentral.com's main page says it all, even if that headline refers to something as mundane as the election and soon-to-be inauguration of the first African-American president in U.S. history.

The Arizona Cardinals proved all of the naysayers and doubters wrong when they mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the scrappy Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game. With that victory, the Cardinals earned their franchise-first Super Bowl berth.

That game will be held in Tampa in two weeks, against either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Baltimore Ravens.


Last August, you could have told me that on January 19, 2009, headlines all over the country would read...

"McKinney/Barr/Nader prepares for inauguration"

"Phoenix digs out from monster nor'easter"

"George W. Bush appears on 'Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?' and wins"

...and I would have thought any of those would be more likely to be true than...

"Cardinals beat Eagles, clinch berth in first-ever Super Bowl"

Congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals, their players, coaches, and fans.

One more game to go...

Crash Course On School Finance - Public invited

From the sidebar of an AZ Republic article on successful traditional educational programs at public schools -

What: Rep. David Schapira, ranking Democratic member of the House Education Committee, and Rep. Rich Crandall, House Education Committee chairman, invite the public to a Crash Course on School Finance, a presentation focused on educating legislators on the financing of Arizona schools.

When/where: 9-11 a.m. Thursday at the House of Representatives, - House Hearing Room 1, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix.

Details: The forum, hosted by Arizona Business and Education Coalition Executive Director Susan Carlson and moderated by Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, will focus on the business side of schools and school-finance reform.

House Hearing Room 1 is accessed via the main lobby in the House building.

On a related note, over at Blog for Arizona, David Safier has been doing stellar work covering the state's budget crisis and the intention of the lege's Republican caucus (aka - the Arizona Chapter of the Flat Earth Society) to use the budget deficit as political cover to shred funding for public education...while protecting funding for things such as prisons. (Safier references an Arizona Guardian article here)

I'd just like to point out one thing to those that think that Arizonans' tax money is better invested by imprisoning people than by educating them -

Arizona spending per prisoner, FY2001 - $22476
US average for that year - $22650
No rank listed in the linked report, but you can see AZ was nearly average in this regard, so the rank was probably in the mid-20s.


Arizona spending per student, School year 2000-2001 - $5100
US average for that year -$7284
Rank: 49

Arizona crime rate rank, 2001 - 1


So could someone explain to me how solidly funding prisons while cutting, even destroying, public education funding, is cost effective in the long term?

Note: I used 2001 figures to compare apples to apples as 2001 was the most recent year that I could find reliable figures and ranks for all three areas (prison spending, education spending, crime rates)

John Sydney McCain Memorial Crappie Award

Didn't have to look far this week to find the "winner" of this dubious award. In fact, the award, named after Arizona's senior Senator, is going to...


Arizona's junior Senator, Jon Kyl.


On Thursday, Senator Jon Kyl issued a press release touting the Senate's passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act.

From the presser -

The U.S. Senate today approved S. 22, The Omnibus Public Land Management Act -- a catch-all package that consists of more than 150 separate public land, water, and resource bills, including two that were authored by U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and several that he cosponsored.

He wrote or cosponsored many parts of the bill, so it wouldn't be shocking that he supported the bill, right?

So naturally, he voted *against* the bill. (Senate roll call vote 3)

Nice flip flop there, Senator.

To be fair to Senator Kyl, in his press release he actually did admit to voting against the bill, citing the cost of the non-Kyl additions to the bill, and the fact that no amendments to "improve" the bill (aka - remove the non-Kyl provisions) were allowed.

Apparently, the only worthy projects related to public lands are the ones that he supports.


On the other hand, at least he is finally doing some work for Arizona.


Even if he is voting against it when it comes before the full Senate.



Later!

Arizona's week in the House in review

...Stacy over at AZ Congress Watch does a good job of keeping up with this stuff (though not this week :) ). This is just a summary.

This upcoming week will be a fairly short one, with the first half of the week being taken up with Inauguration activities and the MLK holiday and with the expectation that the House will finish its legislative business by Thursday evening.

Last week, however, had some activity of note -

Over in the House, work started on H.R. 384, a bill to reform the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). A number of amendments were heard (some passed, some didn't), and more are scheduled for this coming week. The highlight for AZ'ers in that area is a proposal by Jeff Flake (R-CD6) to expand the powers of the TARP's Special Inspector General.

That one is expected to be heard on Wednesday or Thursday.

In other business, the House passed H.R. 2, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 by a vote of 289 - 139. The AZ delegation voted along party lines - Democrats Giffords, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Pastor in favor; Republicans Flake, Franks, and Shadegg against.


Bill sponsorships...

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-CD8) sponsored three bills - H.R. 551 (study of water augmentation alternatives in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed), H.R. 552 (to designate the Arizona National Scenic Trail), and H.R. 576 (a refundable investment credit, and 5-year depreciation, for property used to manufacture solar energy property). The text of the bills aren't available online yet.

Congressman Harry Mitchell sponsored H.R. 498, a bill to make permanent some capital gains and estate tax cuts.


Floor speech action...

...Giffords urged her colleagues to vote 'yes' in a 'one-minute' speech in support of H.R. 2. Her press release on the bill is here.

...During debate on H.R. 2, Congressman John Shadegg (R-CD3) spoke against passage of the bill.

...Mitchell also gave a 'one-minute' on H.R. 156, his bill to block Congress' automatic pay raise.


"Extensions of Remarks" (statements submitted for the record)...

...Mitchell gave his reasons for sponsoring H.R. 498, a bill to make permanent recent cap gains and estate tax cuts.

...Mitchell also lauded Dave Graybill and the Pink Heals Tour, an organization dedicated to raising breast cancer awareness.


Press releases (all from House websites)...

...Jeff Flake highlighted his "egregious earmark of the week" here and his bill to deport illegal immigrants convicted of DUI here.

...Trent Franks' (R-CD2) press secretary was prolific this week, producing releases on Franks' vote against H.R. 2, criticizing the New York Times' article blowing the whistle on some U.S. efforts against Iran and Israeli requests for specialized weapons to use against Iran, and commemorating the fourth anniversary of a peace agreement in Sudan.

...Raul Grijalva (D-CD7) expressed his support of the SCHIP renewal bill.

...Ann Kirkpatrick (D-CD1) may have had some press releases this week, but as a freshman Member of Congress, her House website is going to suck until spring. Possibly late spring.

Inauguration festivities for those of us stuck in AZ next Tuesday

Many Arizonans (but few Republicans :)) ) such as Dimitrea Sullivan, D17 Chair (and Obama Supervolunteer) Lauren Kuby, and blogger Maneegee will be in frigid D.C., witnessing history in person next Tuesday, but most of us are going to have to suffer through a sunny day with temps in the mid-70s here at home.

However, there will be a number of celebrations locally where Arizona Democrats will gather to watch Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States.

Here's a list of some of those events, in no particular order and by no means a complete list...

...In north Scottsdale, the LD8 Democrats are inviting old and new friends to Zipps Sports Grill located at 14148 N. 100th Street in Scottsdale.

Breakfast will be served as will be a complimentary beverage while attendees watch the D.C. festivities surrounded by 21 big screen TVs.

Donation: $25
Reserve your seat here.
Check in starts at 8:45 a.m.

For more info, contact the D8 Dems at (480) 596-8350.

...In downtown Phoenix, the Nucleus Club and the Arizona Democratic Party will be celebrating at Stoudemire's Restaurant, 3 South 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ

Special guests include Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.

Starts at 9:00 a.m. Donation: $15

RSVP: 602-234-6811.

...In Tucson, the Pima County Democratic Party will be holding a free potluck celebration at the headquarters of the county party. 4639 E. 1st St., Tucson, AZ 85717

Call (520) 326-3716 for more details.

...Back in Maricopa County, DFA-MC is holding its celebration at El Penasco Restaurant in Tempe (19 E Broadway - SE corner of Broadway and Mill) between 9:00 a.m. and noon.)

If none of these events in close to you (and given the size of Arizona, they probably won't be), contact your county's Democrats for a list of events in your area.

Later!

Jack Harper up to his usual mischief - Updated

Proposals like the one covered in this post won't put him over the top for the Legislative Loon Award (though it won't hurt his chances there, either! :)) ), but they will certainly help him win the Republican nomination for Secretary of State in 2010...

Now he wants to give political action committees the ability to disenfranchise voters at will.

From Howard Fischer, published in the Arizona Daily Star (emphasis mine) -

A state lawmaker who represents an area with a lot of elderly people wants the ability to report registered voters who are dead.

The legislation by Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, would require the secretary of state to set up a place on the Web where political candidates could report when they "have reason to believe that a registered voter is deceased."

Any political action committee could file a similar report.

The bill in question is SB1109. The relevant section would amend ARS 41-121 thusly -

13. PROVIDE FOR THE RECEIPT OF INFORMATION FROM CANDIDATES AND POLITICAL COMMITTEES THROUGH THE SECRETARY OF STATE'SWEBSITE IF THOSE CANDIDATES AND POLITICAL COMMITTEES HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT A REGISTERED VOTER IS DECEASED. ON RECEIPT OF INFORMATION FROM A WEBSITE SUBMITTAL, THE SECRETARY OF STATE SHALL FORWARD THE INFORMATION TO THE COUNTY RECORDER FOR THE APPROPRIATE COUNTY.

Hell, the only way to make this more perfect for Republicans looking to stem the rising tide of Democratic voter registrations would be if he wrote the bill so that only Republican candidates and committee could use it. Of course, since any reports filed under this proposal would be filtered through the Republican-run Secretary of State's office, such a provision could prove to be redundant.

As it is written, all it would take is a campaign worker knocking on a Democrat's door or calling their phone number and not getting an answer to start the disenfranchisement process.

SB1109 is sponsored or co-sponsored by a Republican rogues' gallery - State Sens. Linda Gray, Sylvia Allen, Ron Gould, John Huppenthal, Al Melvin, Jonathan Paton, John Nelson, and Thayer Vershoor.

Paton and Nelson have been known to do some professional work in the lege (though there may not be much of that from them in light of the new, harsher, Republican legislative caucus), but the rest?

As much interested in partisan gamesmanship as genuine public service.

Anyway, I've got an email out to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice inquiring if this proposal would violate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Under its provisions, any changes to voting in Arizona is subject to DOJ approval (a map of all such affected jurisdictions is here.)


Wouldn't it be ironic if a Secretary of State wanna-be was behind a federal civil rights violation even before his campaign officially started?


Later!

Update on 17 January -

Scot Montrey of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice emailed a reply to some of my questions concerning this proposal. He couldn't determine if this ploy has been attempted elsewhere, but he did say this regarding my query about whether voter registration/unregistration policies were subject to DOJ review -

"Because the entire state of Arizona is covered under Section 5 of theVRA, any changes to systems or practices in election systems require pre-clearance."

Mr. Montrey also pointed me toward a possible resource for research here (FOIA). We'll see what's available via that route of inquiry.

End update...

2010 candidates getting started early

The candidate picture for 2010 is already getting cluttered. A quick glance at the AZ Secretary of State's website shows the following 2010 committees have been formed (some are 'exploratory') -

Christopher Tolino, Republican, State Rep., LD20, filer ID 201000001

Michelle Reagan, Republican, exploratory - no office or district listed, filer ID 201000002

Tom Horne, Republican, exploratory - Attorney General, filer ID 201000003

David Lujan, Democrat, exploratory - Attorney General, filer ID 201000011

Chad Campbell, Democrat, State Rep., LD14, Committee to Re-elect, filer ID 201000015

Bob Burns, Republican, exploratory - no office or district listed, filer ID 201000016

Bill Konopnicki, Republican, exploratory - no office or district listed, filer ID 201000018

Bob Gilby, Democrat, exploratory - State Rep. LD27, filer ID 201000019

Katie Hobbs, Democrat, exploratory - State Rep. LD15, filer ID 201000020

Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat, exploratory - State Senate LD15, filer ID 201000021

Robert Meza, Democrat, exploratory - State Senate LD14, filer ID 201000022

Steve Gallardo, Democrat, exploratory - State Senate LD13, filer ID 201000024 (I'm not sure how his recent resignation his House seat affects this, but since the SOS still lists the committee as active, I'm including it here.)

Andy Tobin, Republican, exploratory - State Rep. LD1, re-election, filer ID 201000025

Pamela Gorman, Republican, State Senate LD6, re-election committee, filer ID 201000027

Jimmie Munoz, Jr., Democrat, State Rep. LD16, filer ID 201000029

Luis Garcia, Democrat, State Rep. LD15, filer ID 201000030

Jason Williams, Democrat, Superintendent of Public Instruction, filer ID 201000032


In addition to all of these committees that were formed after the end of the 2008 election cycle (hence the '2010' filer IDs), there's at least one exploratory committee formed in 2008 that is active for the 2010 cycle -

Jack Harper, Republican, exploratory - no office or district listed (but it's for a run at SOS), filer ID 200810288, cash on hand as of 11/24/2008 - $1835.00.

There's no guarantee that all or even any of these candidates will end up actively seeking office next year. Actually, it's a safe bet that some won't. Of course, it's a safer bet that that most will. :))

Another likely occurence is that as higher offices open up, there will be a 'trickle-up' phenomenon.

For example, if John McCain chooses not to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2010 (FYI - right now, he is saying that he will run for re-election), it is likely that one or two current U.S. Congressmen, Jeff Flake and/or John Shadegg will pursue the seat. Once that happens, many current state legislators will raise their sights. For example2, during the few days last year when Shadegg "retired," current State Senators Pam Gorman and Jim Waring were rumored to be interested in the job.

In addition, three somebodys will be taking runs at Democratic U.S. Representatives Gabrielle Giffords (CD8), Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1), and Harry Mitchell (CD5).

In short, there will be a reshuffling of candidates before the campaign season really starts heating up (next January or so.)

Note: Jason Williams spoke at the LD17 Dems' meeting last night. After his unsuccessful run at State Superintendent in 2006, he has remained heavily (and enthusiastically) involved in education issues, working as the founder and leader of Arizona School Works and working with other groups to ensure the future of education for our state's children. While his 2010 campaign website isn't up yet, it should be ready to go by the end of the month. Folks who are interested in volunteering for or contributing to his campaign can contact him at helpkids[at]williamsforarizona.com.


Later...

Welcome to the blogosphere, Senate Democrats

The Democratic caucus of the Arizona State Senate has joined the Arizona blogosphere with its creatively named new blog, Arizona State Senate Democratic Caucus.

Look for issue discussions, press releases, coverage from other media, insights into the workings of the legislature and more during the coming months.

The first post is from Senate Minority Leader Jorge Luis Garcia (D-LD27) and concerns the start of the legislative session, the budget crisis, and the blog itself.

Later!

A surprising early contender for the Legislative Loon Award

State Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-LD30) is as conservative as they come in the AZ lege, but he's also intelligent and hard-working, and usually avoids heavy-duty involvement with most of the loonier items to come out of the lege.

Which makes his sponsorship of SB1069 almost bewildering.

This bill, which has already gone through First Reading in the Senate, would impact Justice Court fees. In Arizona, Justice Courts handle a lot of 'minor' matters such as evictions, misdemeanor DUIs, traffic tickets, small claims cases and the like.

'Minor' = not minor to the people affected, but not felonies or high-dollar lawsuits either.

His bill would remove the supreme court's authority to adjust Justice Court fees, a power that is currently limited to the change in the national consumer price index.

Specifically the bill deletes Section 1.F of ARS 22-281 -

F. The supreme court may increase the fees prescribed in subsection A of this section in an amount not to exceed the per cent of change in the average consumer price index as published by the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics between that figure for the latest calendar year and the calendar year in which the last fee increase occurred.

So...did somebody hit Sen. Paton with a Stupid stick? What possible rationalization could he have for throwing down on the entire Judicial branch? I understand that standard Republican position that all taxes and government fees are bad, but Justice Court fees already have stringent limits on their growth. Why pick this fight?

Of course, if this is rooted in some anti-tax/fee ideology, we can expect a bill with provisions that similarly eviscerates a county sheriff's ability to create or increase fees charged to prisoners in his jail. (That's you, Joe Arpaio.)

Right??

And before somebody protests that the Sheriff's jail is a county function that shouldn't be subject to interference by the state lege, I'd like to point out one thing -

Justice Courts are just as much a county function as county jails.

Later!

Ooops, I spoke too soon...

A couple of days ago, I posted on some political developments in Scottsdale. In that post, I opined that we probably wouldn't see a move in the lege to adjust nomination signature requirements in municipal elections. The problem with the current sig threshold (5% of voters voting in the prior election) is that a number of cities, Scottsdale among them, are now required to hold their elections in the fall on the same schedule as county and state governments.

That has resulted in a greatly increased turnout (> 3 times in Scottsdale) with a corresponding increase in sig requirements for the 2010 elections ( to approximately 5800 in Scottsdale).

To put that number into a little perspective, seven of the eight winning candidates in AZ's Congressional races last fall found their ways to the ballot with far fewer sigs than would be required in Scottsdale (the exception was Gabrielle Giffords in CD8, who turned in almost 12,000 sigs).

Well, it turns out that I spoke too soon.

HB2048 has been introduced in the AZ lege to deal with exactly this situation.

If passed into law, it would amend current law (ARS 16-322, A.8) thusly -

, EXCEPT THAT A CITY THAT CHOOSES TO HOLD NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS MAY BY ORDINANCE PROVIDE THAT THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF SIGNATURES REQUIRED FOR THE CANDIDATE BE ONE THOUSAND SIGNATURES OR FIVE PER CENT OF THE VOTE IN THE CITY, WHICHEVER IS LESS, BUT NOT MORE THAN TEN PER CENT OF THE VOTE IN THE CITY.

The bill is sponsored by state reps Michelle Reagan (R-LD8), Ed Ableser (D-LD17), and Ray Barnes (R-LD7) and State Senators Carolyn Allen (R-LD8), Meg Burton Cahill (D-LD17) and Jay Tibshraeny (R-LD21) (co-sponsor). It's probably not a coincidence that all of those legislators with the exception of Tibrshraeny represent part of Scottsdale.

And he spent 16 years as a councilmember or mayor in Chandler, so it's a safe bet that he understands the impact of the new sig requirements.

Of course, even if the bill is enacted into law, there's no guarantee that a Jim Lane-led majority on the Scottsdale City Council will pass an ordinance allowed by the revised state statute.

I can't make any predictions about the likelihood of passage through the lege yet, but it may make it through committee - Tibshraeny is the chair of the Senate's Government Institutions Committee, the committee that is likely to hear the bill.

The LD17 Democrats are meeting tomorrow night; I'll try to find a moment to ask Sen. Burton Cahill about the bill's chances.

Later!

Jim Rice finally reaches the Hall of Fame

In a long-overdue development, one of the Boston Red Sox' all time great players, Jim Rice, finally received enough votes to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

He will be joined by all-time steals leader Rickey Henderson at the July 26 induction ceremony.

While at 15 years his career wasn't quite long enough to produce the eye-popping totals that some HOF voters prefer, during his prime seasons he was as dominanting as any player in history.

His MVP-winning season in 1978 stands as one of the greatest ever. He hit .315, with 46 home runs and 139 RBIs. He also led the league with 15 triples that year, making him the only player to lead baseball in triples, HRs, and RBIs in the same season. Defensively that year, he even had 13 outfield assists while playing left field for the Sox.

This year's balloting was his 15th and last year of eligibility for the Hall's ballot.

The HOF worthiness of his career has long been debated, partly due to the relative brevity of his career and partly due to the contentious relationship that he had with sportswriters (who, not coincidently, vote for HOF candidates). However, when baseball's steroids scandals came to light a few years back, his accomplisments gained stature, culminating in this year's selection.

Congratulations to Jim Rice.

It's about time.

Rice's career stats are available here from ESPN.

The Real Bush Legacy

Earlier today, George W. Bush, the soon-to-be ex-president, gave his final news conference. During that event, he spent much of his time defending his presidency and its policies, particularly in the area of foreign affairs. (The White House's transcript here)

Last week, a friend of mine who isn't as political as me but who is aware of the blog sent a link to me that I think illustrates how posterity will truly remember the presidency of George W. Bush.

The toy security checkpoint is available on Amazon.com for $55.00; no word on how much the optional Cavity Search Room with REAL Latex Gloves costs. As a special bonus, it comes packed in shredded Bill of Rights packing material to cushion it in transit.

If perhaps that $55 price tag is a little too much to afford during the Bush economic collapse, save a few dollars and purchase a toy police checkpoint for the bargain price of only $49.99. It features the same loss of civil liberties and also comes shipped in the same shredded Bill of Rights packing material as the airport checkpoint.

Soon to be released -

The Gitmo Water Boarding Room, complete with torturers, MSRP TBD.. That one comes packed in shredded Geneva Conventions.

Arizona's week in Congress

This past Tuesday, the 111th session of the United States Congress began with much of the normal procedural routine that occurs at the beginning of every session. Additionally, there were a few measures that passed that were definite slaps at the outgoing Bush administration.

And all in all, the votes of the AZ delegation broke along strictly partisan lines.

On Tuesday, the House convened and the first order of business was selection of the Speaker. As expected, incumbent Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) easily defeated Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), 255 - 174. (AZ: Democrats Giffords, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Pastor voted for Pelosi; Republicans Flake, Franks, and Shadegg voted for Boehner) After that, the House debated and approved H. Res. 5, its rules for the new session by a vote of 242 - 181 (with Ed Pastor, of all people, crossing over to vote with the Republicans. Otherwise, the AZ delegation followed party lines - Democrats for, Republicans against.

On Wednesday, the House approved two "open government" measures related to Presidental records and Presidential libraries.

H.R. 35, an act that would override a Bush administration executive order that basically allowed former Presidents or their family members to stop the release of any Presidential records that they saw fit. It passed 359 - 58, with all of AZ's Democrats supporting the measure and all of AZ's Republicans opposing it.

H.R. 36, an act to require disclosure of info about contributors to Presidential library organizations. It passed 388 - 31, again with all of the Democrats in the AZ delegation supporting it and all of the Republicans opposing it.

On Thursday, there was a joint session of Congress with no votes cast, but it may have been the most important meeting of the session - it accepted the results of the Electoral College balloting that officially means that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

Whoooo hoooo!!!

:)

Anyway, back to the boring stuff...

On Friday, the House started on actual legislative business.

It considered and passed H.R. 12, the Paycheck Fairness Act by a vote of 256 - 163. Giffords, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Pastor voted in favor; Flake and Franks against; Shadegg not voting.

It also considered and passed H.R. 11, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, by a vote of 247 - 171. As with H.R. 12, Giffords, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Pastor voted in favor; Flake and Franks against; Shadegg not voting.

Congressman Grijalva gave a floor speech on H.R. 11, available here.

Lastly, the House considered and passed H. Res. 34, a resolution "recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process." The resolution passed 390 - 5, with 22 answering 'present'. Among AZ's delegation, Flake, Franks, Giffords, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Pastor voted in support, Grijalva was 'present', and Shadegg was still absent. Flake, Giffords, Kirkpatrick, Mitchell, and Shadegg are all cosponsors of H. Res. 34.

Congressman Mitchell submitted a statement for the record (called "Extensions of Remarks) on H. Res. 34, available here.

Congressman Franks gave a special order speech on the subject, available here.

Ummm...Harry Mitchell's statement was brief, positive, and reasonable (in a word: "statesman-like"); Trent Franks' was, well...not. In fact, it seemed to be as much 'anti-Muslim' as it was 'pro-Israel.'

In other Mitchell news, he sponsored H.R. 156, a bill to block Congress' automatic pay increase and submitted a statement regarding it to the Congressional Record, available here. The text of the measure isn't available online yet, though the list of cosponsors is: Flake, Giffords, and Kirkpatrick from Arizona are among those cosponsors.

In light of the cratering economy and skyrocketing unemployment, most people from across the political spectrum think that this is a brilliant idea, and that Congress should make at least a symbolic statement of standing with and supporting those Americans who are suffering from the effects of the economy. What remains to be seen is if a majority of Congress feels the same way.

Don't bet on it.

The Senate was fairly quiet - it had no recorded votes.

The House reconvenes on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. (D.C. time)

Later...