Late season candidate committees

Yes, it is getting late for candidate committees to form, with only a little over seven weeks remaining before nominating petitions are due at the Secretary of State's/County Clerk's/City Clerk's office.

However, at least a few intrepid souls are giving it a shot.

- Rick Fowlkes of Mesa has started a $500 Threshold Committee for a run at the Arizona Corporation Commission (filer ID 201000533). No party is listed in his entry on the Secretary of State's website, but he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for ACC in 2008.

Update, courtesy a comment from regular reader Thane: Fowlkes' website identifies him as a Libertarian. I thought he might have made the move officially (in the 2008 campaign, he ran as part of a team that was more Libertarian than Republican), but I wasn't sure.

- Frank Fairbanks, who I think is the same Frank Fairbanks who recently retired after nearly two decades as City Manager of Phoenix, recently formed a $500 Threshold committee to run for the Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (aka - Central Arizona Project).

- Republican Justin Pierce, an attorney from Mesa, has filed to run for Maricopa County Attorney. Turns out that is a lousy name for a Google search. I think he is a Young Republican who is active in tea party circles, but I'm not sure.

- Libertarian Sean Shepherd has formed a committee for a run at Scottsdale City Council. Seems to be active in tea party activities and a Republican drinking group.

Later...

Trying to have their cake and eat it too, and making AZ's taxpayers foot the bill

I'm leaning more and more to voting against the temporary sales tax hike on the ballot in May.

Not because I don't think that the revenue is needed for Arizona's schools and infrastructure, but because it is looking more and more like the move is nothing more than an attempt to further shift the state's tax burden away from corporations and the wealthy on to the backs of AZ's poor and middle class residents.


Exhibit one:

The Yes on 100 campaign, supporting the passage of the sales tax hike. From the boilerplate at the bottom of the main page - "Major funding by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry..." Also on the list of supporters are some Chambers of Commerce, including Tucson's.


Exhibit two:

This letter, courtesy the website of the Arizona House Republicans, lobbying for passage of HB2250, the R caucus' laundry list of corporate tax cuts (fiscal note here). One of the 29 signers of the letter?

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Also on the list of signatories?

Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (as well as a number of local C-of-Cs.)


There are other areas of overlap between the memberships of the two groups, but those two examples are the most direct.

Part of me is still willing to bite the bullet and vote for the sales tax increase, but if the lege passes its corporate tax cut package (or something similar) before the election, or is even still in session come election day, waiting for the polling places to be closed before passing the package, I'll be voting "no" on Prop 100.

I cannot support increasing taxes on Arizona's residents only to backfill tax cuts for corporations.

Period.

The coming week - everybody but the lege edition

As usual, all info gathered from the websites of the relevent political bodies/agencies (except where noted) and subject to change without notice.

Changing up the order this week (normally, the lege schedule is posted first), because, well, mostly because I feel like it.

Oh, and one of the most interesting events of the week won't be at the lege. :)

On to the post...

...Both chambers of the U.S. Congress are still in recess this week.

...The Arizona Corporation Commission doesn't have any regular meetings scheduled for this week, but it will have a special meeting on energy preparedness for this summer on Thursday and Friday. The ACC's hearing schedule is here. The only item of interest, in fact the only item on the docket this week, is a public comment session on some rate hike proposals from Arizona American Water. If you live in the Anthem Water District, Sun City Water District, Anthem/Agua Fria Wastewater District, Sun City Wastewater District, or Sun City West Wastewater District and do business with AAWC, you may want to attend the meeting in Anthem on Wednesday evening.

...The highlight of the week has to be Monday's special meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to discuss and take action on Andy Thomas' resignation as County Attorney. They are expected to initiate the process for naming an interim CA to replace Thomas in the office.

Expect *lots* of smiles on West Jefferson (where many county offices are located). :)

...The Tempe City Council isn't meeting this week. Their Council Calendar is here.

...The Scottsdale City Council will meet on Tuesday. The agenda includes the City's monthly financial report, issuing the official call for this fall's elections (OK, the primary will be in August, but that's close enough for blogging :) ), and discussion of possible projects to include in the 2010 bond election. The City's Community Meeting Notice is here.

An AZ Republic article on the City's proposed budget is here.

...Not meeting this week: Arizona Board of Regents, Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Governing Board of the Maricopa County Community College District, Boards of Directors of the Central Arizona Project and Maricopa Integrated Health System.

Later...

Trent Franks - coming through for his district...or NOT

From AZCentral.com -

Trent Franks pulls $10 million earmark for Surprise roadwork

A team of Surprise officials received disappointing news about federal funding during a recent lobbying trip to Washington, D.C.

Congressman Trent Franks, R-Arizona, pulled a $10 million earmark that would have helped build an interchange at Bell Road and Grand Avenue, said Michael Celaya, intergovernmental relations director, at Thursday's City Council work session.

Maybe if Surprise invaded Wittman (an unincorporated area northwest of Surprise) to look for WMDs or drugs or something, he would find it appropriate to help out - according to the House GOP's own website on earmarks, last year Franks put his name on over $2.63 billion worth of earmark requests.

Less than $15 million, or 0.56%, were for non-military and non-police uses.

Of course, even including military and police uses, only 1.6% of his proposed earmarks were for uses in CD2.

Thrasher for Congress. It's time for send someone to D.C. who will actually represent CD2.

Strikers running wild on West Washington

The "strike everything" amendment, aka "striker", is a tool in the legislature where the text of one bill is changed (amended) by replacing it with completely new (and usually unrelated) text.

The official definition, from page 84 of the Legislative Manual (page 90 of the .pdf) -

Strike Everything Amendment: An amendment to a bill that begins “Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert:”. A strike everything amendment proposes a new version of the bill, sometimes changing the nature of the bill completely, by replacing the provisions previously introduced or adopted.

The striker is used for many reasons, some of which are even good.

It can be used to...

- revive a bill that died in committee or even failed to get a hearing

- introduce an emergency measure whose need wasn't foreseen early in the session

- introduce the budget and its related budget reconciliation measures (in years where the budget wasn't handled in a scripted special session, anyway...)

However, more often than not, it is used to introduce and pass a bad bill quickly, before opposition within or without the lege can organize.

Next week, most of the lege's committees are have agendized strikers, and some of them are doozys.

For instance -

Republican Rick Murphy (LD9) has introduced a striker to mandate how Maricopa County's Library District allocates revenue (all revenue from unincorporated areas stays there, while revenue from incorporated areas is split with unincorporated areas). That one will be heard in House Ways and Means on Monday.

- Republican Rich Crandall (LD19) has introduced a striker to mandate that all eighth graders in AZ take and pass a shortened version of the US citizenship test. House Education on Monday.

- Republican Chuck Gray (LD19) has one up that eases self defense rules as they relate to using deadly force and records of firearms. Senate Judiciary on Monday.

- Republican Al Melvin (LD26) is floating one that creates something called the "Arizona Border Security Commission." Senate Appropriations on Tuesday. Melvin is the vice-chair of Approps, and nativist extraordinaire Russell Pearce is the chair. This one will pass.

- Republican Jack Harper (LD4) has taken up the "let's remake college campuses as armed encampments" mantle and is proposing a striker to allow college faculty members to carry concealed weapons on campus. Senate Finance on Wednesday.


This list is far from comprehensive, and there are a few others with interesting subjects (clean elections, corporate taxes "reform" [my quotes], and so on), but the text of those hasn't been posted yet. You get the picture though - legislators have time on their hands and plenty of havoc to wreak between now and sine die (best guess on that date right now - end of April).

And their tool of choice when looking to engage in a little malicious mischief?

The strike everything amendment.


...Full details on next week's committee activity in this weekend's schedule post.

Later...

Thomas announces resignation...

...of course, he made the announcement that he will resign to run for Arizona Attorney General on April 6 (next Tuesday) on April Fool's Day, so take it with a grain of salt.

...of course2, if he actually wins the AG race, we will be the victims of the biggest April Fool's joke ever...

From AZCentral.com -

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced Thursday that he would resign effective Tuesday to run for Arizona Attorney General.

Thomas is withholding comment on his resignation until Friday. His staff learned of his resignation at a 2 p.m. briefing.

Possible candidates to replace Thomas include: Boyd Dunn, Mayor of Chandler; Jay Beckstead, a former prosecutor in Maricopa and Yavapai counties; Bill Montgomery*, a current Maricopa County prosecutor and former R nominee for AZAG (2006). All three are Republicans. There may be others (Rick Romley?) lobbying more quietly for the job.

Normally, that would be the end of it - the Board of Supervisors gets to appoint a replacement CA to serve until a new one can be elected in November. However, Thomas is trying to do an end run around them by convincing Jan Brewer to appoint one.

Either way, though, there will be a race for Maricopa County Attorney on November's ballot. When a Democrat (or Democrats) announces for the race, I'll update on this blog.

* - In 2006, Montgomery wanted to shore up his anti-immigrant bonafides, so to show how much he was opposed to undocumented immigrants from Mexico coming to the US to find work, he hired undocumented immigrants from Mexico to appear in his campaign spot. Oops.

From a joint statement on Thomas' impending resignation issued by Felecia Rotellini, David Lujan, and Vince Rabago, the three Democratic candidates for AZ Attorney General (via email) -

"It's rather fitting this was announced on April Fool's Day. After forcing Arizonans to endure his costly and ethically bankrupt legal battle with county officials, Andrew Thomas now has the nerve to ask voters for a promotion. He talks as if he's tough on crime, but his actions reveal a politician who cares more about pursuing his own political vendettas than about keeping our streets safe from violent criminals. Arizonans want their law-enforcement officials to spend tax dollars wisely and keep criminals off our streets. Andrew Thomas has failed on both counts."

Later...

The AZ Lege in a cartoon

From Full Frontal Nerdity (thanks for the heads-up from friend who emailed it to me) -















The strip is almost a year and a half old, but it easily could be drawn today, with the Arizona Legislature as its inspiration.

If you want to be anonymous, don't sign petitions

First things first - my name is Craig McDermott, and I stand by everything that I've written here. I will apologize for and correct any typos or errors of fact that are pointed out to me and I reserve the right to change a position when new facts become available. However, I do not apologize for holding positions and expressing opinions that some may disagree with or even find to be offensive.

That's politics, folks. Disagreement happens.

On to the main part of the post...

From AZCentral.com -

Larry Stickney speaks passionately as he tries to explain why the names of people who signed a 2009 Washington state ballot measure against gay rights should be kept secret.

"I had been in the political game for 16 years, but we had no idea the viciousness that we would come under," says Stickney, a former state legislative aide, active opponent of abortion rights and campaign manager for Protect Marriage Washington, who now is involved in a major free-speech case that will come before the U.S. Supreme Court next month.

More thorough NY Times coverage of the issue here.

The issue seems to boil down to balancing the concerns of the signers of the petitions for an anti-gay rights measure who are afraid of being harassed by gay-rights supporters and the concerns of those who want to verify that ballot petitions are legitimate.

On one hand, there is nothing about harassment and threats that is an appropriate part of civic discourse (see the posts about the tea party/Republican types who have been threatening Democrats over health care reform). It isn't appropriate when right-wingers harass, intimidate, and threaten; it isn't appropriate when left-wingers do the same things.

On the other hand, transparency in the political process is vital to preserving our (or any) democracy. People have to be able to trust that the questions and candidates on election ballots are there legitimately.

In Arizona, campaigns regularly check the petitions of opposing candidates, hoping to find grounds to have them disqualified from the ballot. Anonymity would only invite widespread fraud.

In this situation, I'm going to have to side with transparency (hence the opening paragraph of this post).

There are laws on the books to deal with harassment and violence. There is nothing in the First Amendment that protects users of intimidatory tactics from those laws. (IMO, anyway - a judge friend of mine has advised me that under certain circumstances, courts have found that such tactics are protected.)

In summary, there is no public benefit to anonymity, at least not one that outweighs the benefits of transparency.

Oh, and not lost on me is the blatant hypocrisy of the supporters of a public initiative to harass and injure one part of society want that support to be anonymous, out of fear of the possibility that that part of society may want to harass them right back.

More hypocrites running for lege

The Arizona Republic's website has a story up about a member of the Peoria Unified School District Governing Board opposing the temporary sales tax hike question on the ballot in a May special election.

In fact, she is so opposed to it, in spite of the fact that if it fails, PUSD will have to cut another $15 million from its annual budget (on top of existing cuts of $21 million), that she is the treasurer of axthetax.com, the primary political committee formed to oppose the ballot question.

From the article -

Parents are expressing concern and disappointment towards Peoria Unified School District board member Diane Douglas over her opposition to a one-cent sales tax increase as part of axthetax.com.

The district has said it would face a $15 million shortfall should the tax be rejected at the ballot box May 18.

Note: there is one error in the Rep's piece - her group is AxthetaxAZ.com.

The hypocritical part isn't just how as a school board member, elected to guide and advocate for the public schools in her district, she is actively opposing adequate funding for those schools, but in how as a candidate for State House of Representatives, she is stressing her experience as a school board member. (Her campaign website is at dianedouglas.com, but I won't like to it. Use Google.)

...Oh, wait - that part isn't really hypocritical either. She spends all of her time talking about "fiscal responsibility," not "improved education."

So where's the hypocrisy?

Her lege campaign committee (filer ID 201000152) is seeking public funding via Clean Elections. Her website includes a page asking people to send her CE fives.

Fighting against adequate funding for public schools while holding out her hand for public funding of her candidacy for legislature?

Now that's the sort of breathtaking hypocrisy that shows that if she actually wins a seat in the lege, she'll fit right in with the rest of the Republican caucus on West Washington.

BTW - On her website, she touts the endorsements of folks like Joe Arpaio, Andrey Thomas, and Jim Weiers. Even without the stuff listed above, those endorsements alone show that she is unfit for a move to the lege.

8th Special Session: Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

OK, they're not so "special" any more, but this one is definitely a "show". In fact, it is almost *all* show with no "substance," but that isn't stopping Jan Brewer and the Republicans in the legislature.

On Monday, the opening curtain rose, and some bills were introduced in each chamber for the special session.

HB2002/SB1001 states that federal health care reform infringes on states' rights (much like certain groups used to say about federal civil rights legislation) and giving the Governor the authority to bypass the state's Attorney General Terry Goddard in order to pursue a lawsuit against the health care reform law.

HCM2001/SCM1001 is a postcard to the U.S. Congress demanding that Congress pay all state costs associated with health care reform.

The House versions will be heard in the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in HHR1; the Senate versions will be heard in the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at 9 a.m. in SHR1. The respective chambers' Rules committees will hear the bills shortly after the main committees hear the bills.

Sharp-eyed readers may have noted that the relevant House Bill is numbered 2002, not the expected 2001.

Well, it turns out that one Democrat was quicker on the draw than the House's Republicans were.

HB2001 was introduced by Rep. David Lujan, the House Democratic leader as well as a candidate for Attorney General.

His bill would bar the use of taxpayer monies to fund such a lawsuit as is planned by the Republicans.

In an unsurprising non-development, Lujan's bill hasn't even been referred to committee, much less agendized. In other words, the Rs won't even allow the bill to be discussed, much less publicly voted on.

I signed in to the lege's Request to Speak system, not to speak but simply to comment on the bills. If you have visited the lege and set up a profile and login for the RTS system, you may want to do the same, to at least let the lege's Rs know that there are folks in this state who don't drink the Kool-Aid that they're pouring.

Here's the comment that I entered for both HB2002 and SB1001 -

Enough already. If you insist on engaging in partisan posturing, at least do it on the RNC's expense account, not that of the taxpayers of Arizona.

Based on today's news, the RNC has far more cash to burn on lost causes than we do.

That last refers to the latest news from the RNC's financials, which include expenditures on things like visits to a high-priced strip club, complete with leather lesbians, private jets, ritzy hotels, and worse.

I'm not sure where the Republicans' priorities are, but they aren't with the American people, and the AZGOP isn't interested in looking out for the average Arizonan.

Republicans, Recess Appointments, and Hypocrisy: Business As Usual

...with the emphasis on "Business"...

Late last week, after the Senate recessed, President Obama made 15 "recess appointments" of executive branch nominees held up by Republicans in the Senate.

Predictably, the Republicans in the Senate screamed about a "lack of respect" for the Senate, blah, blah, blah.

They ignored the fact that their president, George W. Bush, did the same thing nearly 200 times during his terms in office.

While the Senate's Republicans were blocking all 15 nominees, the recess appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board may be the one generating the most angst.

Mr. Becker has been a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and SEIU.

So naturally, all of the Republicans in the Senate signed off on a letter to President Obama opposing a recess appointment of Becker, saying that Mr. Becker “could not be viewed as impartial, unbiased or objective" because of his union work.

Ummm...where was the outrage and concern for objectivity when Bush used recess appointments to appoint...

- Peter Kirsanow, whose legal practice "focused on representing management in employment-related litigation as well as in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters, and arbitration." (source: his own bio at the US Commission on Civil Rights, where he's been loyally mucking up things for the Bushies)

- Ronald Meisburg, a lawyer for the mining industry and various industry associations

- Robert J. Battista, known as the worst and most anti-worker NLRB chair ever. More on Battista and R hypocrisy on recess appointments here, from the AFL-CIO

- William B. Cowen, a management attorney and union-buster

- Michael J. Bartlett, a former attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Yep - lots of fairness and objectivity there.

Note: Apparently Craig Becker isn't as popular with the US CofC as Bartlett was - they've come out strongly against his appointment.

What a shock. :)

The coming week - everybody else edition

As usual, all info gathered from the websites of the relevent political bodies/agencies, except where noted, and subject to change without notice.

...The schedule of activities at the Arizona Legislature was covered in an earlier post here.

...In D.C., both chambers of Congress are in recess/district work period for a couple of weeks.


...Back here in Arizona...

- The Arizona Corporation Commission has a regularly scheduled utilities meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. The agenda is here. The ACC's hearing schedule is here.

- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has two regularly scheduled meetings on tap this week.

At Monday's "informal" meeting, the normally quiet agenda has a couple of items of possible controversy - an update and some contractual items regarding the Downtown Court Tower project, and a move to initiate litigation over Sheriff Joe Arpaio's purchase of a really expensive inmate transport bus. AZRepublic coverage of that last item here.

The agenda for Wednesday's "formal" meeting includes an item for a settlement in the case of "Robert Cole v. Maricopa County and Joseph Arpaio."

- The Board of Directors of the Central Arizona Project will meet on Thursday. Its agenda is here; its Public Policy Committee meeting agenda is here.

- The Tempe City Council isn't scheduled to hold any regular meetings this week. The Council Calendar of activity is here.

- The Scottsdale City Council isn't scheduled to hold any regular meetings this week. The City's Community Meeting Notice is here.

Also not meeting this week: Arizona Board of Regents, Citizens Clean Elections Commission, Board of Directors of the Maricopa Integrated Health System, Governing Board of Maricopa County Community College District

Later...

The coming week - legislative edition

As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice...

The highlight (so to speak) this week looks to be the eighth special session of the lege, called by the Governor to ask for permission to sue the feds over health care reform. More on that set piece here. No bill proposals or committee agendas have been posted for the special session as yet.

Regular session committee work is starting to wind down, and this week's agendas show it - while most committees are meeting, most of their agendas are short ones.

On the House side of the quad -

- Education is meeting on Monday at 10 a.m. in HHR3. Looks quiet so far.

- Rules will meet at 1 p.m. in HHR4. *Not* quiet, but this committee is a rubber stamp. If a measure makes it onto this agenda, it means that the Speaker supports the bill and it will be approved by the committee.

- Natural Resources and Rural Affairs will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR4. The agenda includes consideration of a strike-everything amendment to SB1154, relating to "underground storage tanks". The bill's language hasn't been posted online yet, but the fact sheet written by legislative staff is here. Also on the agenda is SB1349, which mandates that the director of the AZ Department of Administration allow the state parks board to enter into contracts with a "public or private entity or Indian tribes" to operate the state's parks.

- Banking and Insurance will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR5. The agenda is short, but includes SB1348, wreaking all sorts of mischief regarding regulatory rules and rulemaking.

- On Tuesday, Public Employees, Retirement, and Entitlement Reform will meet at 2 p.m. in HHR3. Quiet thus far.

- On Wednesday, Military Affairs and Public Safety will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR3. This one includes SB1070, the Russell Pearce-penned measure to direct law enforcement personnel in Arizona to ignore enforcement of other laws in order to become immigration police, outlaw "sanctuary city" policies, and reduce probable cause requirements for law enforcement officers stopping vehicles and persons, among other things. In short, SB1070 is a potpourri of ugly.

- Health and Human Services will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR4. This may be the longest agenda of the week, outside of the Rules agenda. On the agenda: SB1306 and SB1307, measures written by the Center for Turning Arizona Into A Theocracy Arizona Policy regarding human embryos and human egg providers. Also up: SB1309, relating to expanding parents' rights; SB1314, an exercise in right-wing legislators interfering in family court procedures regarding custody disputes; and SCR1044, a ballot referral of an amendment to the AZ constitution banning the cloning of humans.

- On Thursday, Water and Energy will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR5. Looks quiet so far, but a striker will be offered to HB2561 regarding "groundwater transportation; Big Chino sub-basin." No language posted online as yet.

- Transportation and Infrastructure will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR3. Very quiet so far.

- Judiciary will meet at 9 a.m. in HHR4. This one is full of parting gifts from Jonathan Paton, such as SCR1009, the plan to end Clean Elections in Arizona, and SCR1013, changing the job title of the Secretary of State to "Lieutenant Governor." SCR1013 also removes the requirement for a run-off election if none of the candidates for an executive branch office doesn't gain a majority of the votes in an election. Instead, the legislature would get to choose the occupant of the office, in the event of a tie. Otherwise, the highest vote getter for an office would win that office (I think so anyway - the measure isn't specific on that).


Over on the Senate side -

- Rules will meet on Monday in 1st Floor Caucus Room upon adjournment of the floor session.

- Natural Resources, Infrastructure, and Public Debt will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR109. This one contains SB1445, relating to "groundwater transportation; Big Chino sub-basin." I'm guessing that this measure is a match for the unknown striker listed above, but I have no idea what its real impact will be.

- Judiciary will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. Looks relatively quiet so far.

- On Tuesday, Commerce and Economic Development will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. This one contains HB2337, a measure declaring that incandescent light bulbs manufactured and used in Arizona aren't subject to any federal regulation.

- Appropriations will meet at 1:30 in SHR109. Relatively quiet so far.

- On Wednesday, Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform will meet at 9 a.m in SHR1. Quiet thus far.

- Public Safety and Human Services will meet at 10 a.m. in SHR3. The agenda includes consideration of HB2246, deregulating "consumer" fireworks. if this passes, look for a busy brushfire season in Arizona.

- Veterans and Military Affairs will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR2. Quiet thus far.

- Finance will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR3. This one has a lot of bad on it: a striker to SB2001, letting faculty members at the state's community colleges and universities carry concealed weapons on campus; HB2496, letting people who contribute to school tuition organizations this year by April 15 to claim it on last year's tax returns; a striker to HB2598 (language not yet available) regarding the repeal of photo radar; and HCR2056, phasing out the state's business personal property tax.

- Education Accountability and Reform will meet at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1. This agenda is a long one, but the highlights include HB2663 and HB2664, relating to STOs and tax credits (hint: these don't exactly increase oversight and accountability of STOs).

- Government Institutions will meet on Thursday at 10 a.m. in SHR1. Looks quiet so far.

Floor calendars for Monday have been posted -

House Third Read (final passage) is here; Senate COW is here; Senate Third Read is here.

Later...

Current state of the Republicans: a deep, pervasive snit.

Not talking about the various bricks, threats, and epithets that have been thrown about in recent days.

Nope, that stuff goes beyond being characterized as part of a "snit."

Far beyond.

No, I'm talking about petty stuff, like...

...AZ's senior U.S. Senator John McCain pledging to take his ball and go home because of the House's passage of health care reform.

...AZ House Speaker Kirk Adams removing Rep. Daniel Patterson (D-Tucson) from the House's Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee because Patterson had the audacity to criticize State Senator (and Republican/Nativist hero) Russell Pearce (R-Mesa). Who knew Pearce had such tender sensibilities?

...AZ Senate President Bob Burns shelving a bill to raise the two-year statute of limitations on child sexual abuse claims.

...The Arizona House of Representative basically screwing the thousands of taxpayers who have already done their state tax returns by refusing to conform AZ's tax code to the updates in the federal tax code. The deed was done by adopting an Adams amendment to the routine annual bill to conform to IRS changes. Adams' amendment essentially changed the bill to mandate that the state's tax code *not* conform. Adams' amendment does nothing to affect the federal government; they won't even notice its passage.

...Arizona's Governor becoming so incensed at the passage of a health care reform package that could help poor and working families gain adequate health insurance coverage, an enactment that took place mere days after she did away with the state's KidsCare program, that she issued a call for an 8th Special Session of the legislature. She wants to ask them for permission to use scarce state resources to sue the federal government over HCR, because Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard won't do her bidding.

The Republican Party - Formerly the "Party of No"; now the "Party of Pissy"...

Republican Congressional leader targeted for violence

It looks as if House Republican whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has had his district office shot at*, perhaps by supporters of HCR angered by his vocal opposition to the recently enacted measure.

Or not. From the Richmond, VA Police Department press release on their preliminary investigation (emphasis mine) -

A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds. There was no other damage to the room, which is used occasionally for meetings by the congressman.

To summarize - the Richmond PD thinks that someone fired a gun up in the air, and the bullet fell to Earth, and the shooter knew not where.

To be sure, any violence or threats of violence against people because of their political positions is despicable and should be immediately denounced by all civil members of society, no matter the political persuasion of the would-be domestic terrorists.

However, while it is still early in the investigation and different information could come to light, the preliminary results don't cast Cantor in a good light. The wave of vitriol and violence that is sweeping the country is something to be taken seriously; all Cantor seems to take seriously is the fact that the Rs who have whipped up the frenzy are now unable to rein it in, to save for the next time they want to use the Tea Party types.

I am not normally a Bible-quoter (OK, not ever :) ), but there is one quote that works here. I didn't actually know it was from the Bible when I Googled it to make sure I got it right.

From Hosea 8 -

7. When they sow the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind

* - as much as I am loathe to link to a Fox News story, all of the responsible MSM sites had updated their stories on this topic to reflect the Richmond PD's press release.

Later...