Representative Juan Mendez stands tall

This past Tuesday, State Representative Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) gained national notice when he started a floor session by courageously announcing that he is an atheist and asking the House to "celebrate their shared humanness".

To the best of my knowledge, he is the only openly atheist, or even non-religious, state or national level elected in the country.  And that makes him one of the bravest people I know.

Mendez at the Capitol on the first day of the 2013 session.  Pic courtesy Mendez' Facebook page.

Rep. Mendez' Reddit.com thread on the subject here.

From the Reddit thread, the text of his remarks -

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask you not to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people of our state.

This room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my Secular Humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

Carl Sagan once wrote, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” There is, in the political process, much to bear. In this room, let us cherish and celebrate our shared humanness, our shared capacity for reason and compassion, our shared love for the people of our state, for our Constitution and for our democracy - and let us root our policymaking process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans regardless of religious belief or nonbelief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

The video of Rep. Mendez' comments -


Most of the reporting and commentary on this that I've seen has been neutral or supportive.  However, Mendez' colleague, State Rep. Steve "Ode to Imperialism" Smith (R-Maricopa), was so afraid of divine retribution that on Wednesday that he felt it necessary to offer a second prayer that day to "make up" for Rep. Mendez' lack of servile reverence Tuesday.  Smith's actual term was "penance".



State Rep. Brenda Barton, a Republican from Payson, chimed in with a condescending FB update on Saturday -

However, at least one of Smith's colleagues, Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai (D-LD7), a Navajo legislator, stood up and expressed heartfelt support for Rep. Mendez and any other members who are non-Christian in their beliefs, or are non-believers.



For the record, I'm not an atheist, but neither am I a follower of a particular set of religious beliefs or dogma.

Unless "prove it" is considered "dogma".

To put it simply, good people are good, bad people are bad, and my assessment of that categorization is based on behavior toward others, not simply professed religious beliefs or non-beliefs.


Representative Juan Mendez is good people.


Steve Muratore at Arizona Eagletarian offers a take that is far more in-depth than this one, here.

Fun with social media time

Thought about doing this for a while, and Brett Mecum served one up today, making this a good time to begin this.  Posting in this series will be infrequent at first, but posting frequency should pick up as 2014 draws nearer...

Modern elected officials have (for the most part) embraced social media.

Some, like President Obama, are skillful users of this modern mode of mass communication; others, like former Congressman Anthony Weiner, aren't.

This series will focus on Arizona-based politicos.  While I would love to tell you that this is going to be all about "educating" and "informing" and other high-minded activities, that would be a lie.

This is going to be about mocking.

To be fair, it's not about mocking policy idea tweets and FB updates and the like; in that case, that would be all I could ever write about here.  However, I do reserve the right to mock when I think the *presentation* of those ideas is...ummm..."less than ideal".

For example, expect to see a *lot* of Sen. Al "Atomic Al" Melvin's tweets in future editions.  His 140 character "pearls of wisdom" tend to be mindless spewings of Fox News talking points.

To whit:

As the 2014 campaign season heats up, some of the back-and-forth tiffs between opposing candidates will be featured.

To whit:

Occasionally, somebody will post something that just sounds bad, such as this update from last August from State Rep. Brenda Barton (R-LD6) that hints at a "pay for play" mentality -

Most of the time, however, these posts will focus on something worthy of snark, maybe something loaded with irony.

To whit, this week's Tweet of the Week:

When I read this one earlier today, all I could think was "Brett "Speed Demon" Mecum and Tom "Hit and Run" Horne on a road trip?  Together?  Holiday travelers, look out!"

Tea Party: "If it isn't in the Constitution, we're opposed to it"

Thing like taxes on corporations, black guys as President, and health care aren't mentioned specifically in the US Constitution, and tea party types have loudly, and frequently, expressed their opposition to them all.

Well, "public works projects in Surprise" aren't mentioned either, and guess what?

From the Arizona Republic, written by Lesley Wright -

Surprise “tea party” members told Surprise’s transportation chief this week that they oppose a $40 million project to lift Bell Road over Grand Avenue.

While city leaders and state transportation officials say the upgrades will help relieve congestion on one of the Valley’s busiest roads, the party’s members worry about how it will impact merchants.

“It would have a negative effect on businesses at that intersection,” tea-party member Bernard Paluch said. “We have stores that don’t want to run the risk of being put out of business.”

{snip}

Tea-party member Larry Templeton said he does not foresee the population booming again and is opposed to the Bell-Grand improvement and other large projects that would burden the taxpayers.

“I want the ‘no-build’ option,” he said. “Let’s be cautious in spending money we don’t have.”

To be fair, the Constitution wasn't mentioned in the article, so I suspect that it wasn't mentioned during the meeting.

Also to be fair, here in Scottsdale we have the same sort of "we don't know what it is, but if it is new, we don't like it" sort of folks who mask their fear of the future with a sincere-sounding concern for local businesses (and then do their shopping at Walmart because of their low wages/low quality/low prices business model).

Don't believe me?  Just go to any neighborhood meeting here, stand up, say the words "light rail",  And then duck.


Anyway, for now, I'm going to assume that the project isn't going to go forward.  The only question that I have is how many of the reflexive naysayers will raise their hands when their neighbors wonder why traffic congestion is so bad, and who's to blame?

I expect the number will be somewhat less than "one".

Things are starting to get testy at the legislature

As the days are getting longer, tempers are getting shorter at and around the legislature.


...On Tuesday, State Representative Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) now-famously led the House in a non-prayer "prayer", honoring the secular humanist tradition that a growing percentage of Americans embrace.  Today, State Representative Steve Smith (R-Maricopa) insisted that the House do two prayers this afternoon to make it up to the God he believes in.  Apparently his God is an accountant.  Or just simply in need of constant positive reinforcement.

Still, while Smith's actions are completely mockable, they're also relatively civil.

...Today, Governor Jan Brewer carried out her threat to begin vetoing bills until the lege passes Medicaid restoration and a budget.  The bills vetoed include SB1178, which created an exemption to all laws and regulations based on expression of religious belief.  Other bills vetoed include SB1088, SB1236, SB1323, and SB1445.  So far, she has vetoed only "unimportant" bills (those that are needed, but the state will keep functioning even if they aren't enacted) or "were probably going to be vetoed anyway bills because they were pretty likely seriously unconstitutional" (such as SB1178).  Her veto letters can be found here.

Still, while a few legislators will be unhappy (and Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Theocracy Policy is probably utterly livid since they *really* wanted SB1178 to become law), this is relatively minor.   The rest isn't so minor.

...Republican members of the House who are supportive of Medicaid restoration, or at least not publicly and intractably opposed to it, have been receiving threatening phone calls and emails.  The threats are being investigated by House security and the Department of Public Safety.

...Representative Bob Thorpe (R-shoot environmentalists "your guns in the air") sent an email to his supporters suggesting that they contact legislators who support Medicaid restoration and "persuade" them to change their minds.  (Same article that's linked in the previous paragraph)

...And the Republican members of the AZ Senate who voted for Medicaid restoration are being threatened by AJ LaFaro, the chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party.  He used phrases like "their days are numbered".  Some might try to pooh-pooh LaFaro's language as misunderstood, misspoken, or simply overheated.  The problem with that?

This isn't Lafaro's first bay at the moon.


If this keeps up, the lege will have to replace "pledge and prayer", its standard way of opening its floor sessions, with "duck and cover".

Medicaid and the budget in the AZ House: Let round two begin!

Well, it didn't take long for the lege to get back to "hurry up and wait" mode.

Remember the 10 budget bills that the Arizona Senate passed so dramatically...way back in the mists of time...last Thursday?  They were transmitted to the House, where...

...They are just sitting there.  Not heard in committee, not assigned to committee, not even officially introduced in the House.  And they're not scheduled to be introduced any time soon (though that could change at a moment's notice).

This pretty much puts paid to my prediction that the lege would finish their work this week,  At this point, unless they work out a deal, suspend the rules that require at least three legislative days to pass a bill (or in this case, 10 bills), and pull a couple of marathon days on Thursday and Friday, they'll have to return to the Capitol after the holiday next week.

Courtesy Rep. Juan Mendez' Facebook page

...All of which leaves time for things like this (and this is a good one). 

From the Phoenix New Times, written by Matthew Hendley -

An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon's session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads.

Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his "secular humanist tradition" and even quoted author Carl Sagan.

"Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads," Mendez said. "I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state."

There are a few electeds that I know better than Representative Mendez, but none that I'm prouder to consider a friend today.

David Schweikert: Say whatever else you want about the man, he can sure follow instructions

While I no longer live in his district (thank you Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission), apparently I'm still on the email list compiled by Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZCD6).  I expect that to change shortly after this post is seen by the Congressman his senior staff a junior member of his staff OK, some lowly intern reading this stuff for college credit and chance to make contacts for a future political career.

On Friday, news broke that the Heritage Foundation, an influential Republican "think tank", sent a letter to Republican members of Congress advising them not to bother with trying to "govern" (no proposing or passing responsible legislation) and instead focus their efforts on "getting" President Obama by focusing on scandals, real (IRS scandal and AP phone records, maybe), spun from almost nothing (Benghazi), and completely made up (umbrella-gate).

Note to the Heritage Foundation:  Not to belabor the obvious, but "getting" the President has been the Republican plan since he was inaugurated in 2009.  Advising the Rs in Congress to do what they have been doing all along probably isn't going to enhance your credibility.

Anyway, on to the story...

From theGrio, written by Joy-Ann Reid -

In a letter to members of Congress, which was obtained by NBC News, Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation (which recently found itself in hot water over the racial IQ theories of the co-author of their widely panned immigration reform study, Jason Richwine, who resigned from the think tank last Friday), urged Republicans on Capitol Hill not to govern, and instead, to focus on the would-be “scandals” plaguing the Obama administration.

The letter, which is addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, trumpets the negative media buzz surrounding the White House, saying that, “for the first time, the activities of the Obama administration are receiving a sustained public vetting.  Americans’ outrage over Benghazi is amplified by the Internal Revenue Service’s intimidation of conservative grassroots organizations and a cascade of negative headlines.  There is the real sense the Obama administration has been less than forthright with the American people, the press and lawmakers.”

In light of the white hot media spotlight on the administration, and to deflect attention from the many policy areas where Republicans don’t quite get along, the letter urges: “it is incumbent upon the House of Representatives to conduct oversight hearings on those actions, but it would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference.”

 This diary from DailyKos has the text of the full letter.


It didn't take long for "Foreclosure Dave" Schweikert to "snap-to" upon receiving the letter.

His latest "newsletter", from my email inbox today, from the email address david.schweikert@congressnewsletter.net -

 Schweikert hit all of the high points in the current litany of Republican talking points, even throwing in a demonization of health care reform for good measure.

When dogs perform tricks at their masters' commands, they generally receive treats of some kind; I don't know what members of Congress get when the perform on cue, but I'm guessing there are dollar signs attached.

Oh, and before the Congressman's staff removes me from their email list, I hope they take a refresher course on the use of the possessive in the English language - 

Normally, I'm not a grammar Nazi (as a blogger, I've published too many typos to be a hypocritical hardass about it), but this was (presumably) written by the staff of a sitting member of Congress.  They're supposed to be better than this.

The way that they wrote the last sentence signifies the existence of multiple "White Houses" in the US.  While there are many "white houses" (houses painted white), there's only one "White House" (the seat of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.)

 Tighten it up, folks.

A very tough 24 hours for Phoenix first responders

From KPHO.com (Phoenix channel 5), written by Phil Benson -

A Phoenix police officer and a city firefighter have been killed in two separate incidents, city officials said a news briefing Sunday morning.

Bradley Harper, 23, a two-year veteran of the Phoenix Fire Department, died after being crushed between two fire vehicles at a mulch fire Saturday near Lower Buckeye and 35th Avenue, said Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan.

Darryl Raetz, 29, a six-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, died from injuries suffered in a hit-and-run crash early Sunday morning, said Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia.

KPNX (Phoenix channel 12) has video of the press briefing here.

Condolences go out to the families, friends and colleagues of the two first responders who gave their lives while working to protect public safety.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

What started out as a quiet week last week became colorful in a hurry when the Arizona Senate passed a package of budget bills, including provisions for Medicaid expansion.

Now the whole package is scheduled to go over to the House for consideration.

As of this writing, there isn't anything in terms of committee agendas or floor calendars posted for the coming week for either chamber, so all that's left to do is speculate a little.

1.  The bills face a murky path in the House, but speculation is that they are likely to pass.  There just may be a little drama first.

2.  On Friday's Horizon on KAET (PBS channel 8 in Phoenix), the journalists who were part of their weekly "Journalists Roundtable" speculated that the bills won't be heard (and voted on) until after Memorial Day.  According to them, this coming week may see House Speaker Andy Tobin try to push, or at least go through the motions of pushing, his proposal to put the Medicaid restoration before the voters.

However, while there do seem to be enough votes in the House to pass Medicaid restoration, it doesn't seem likely that there is any real support for putting the question before the voters - mostly because they think it will be approved by the voters anyway, and by a wide margin, making the legislature look worse for passing the buck on an easy decision.

Note: As of now, KAET has not posted Friday's episode of Horizon on its website, but will likely do so on Monday.

3.  There may yet be a little more drama over this in the Senate.  Standard procedure is that once a bill is passed by one chamber, that bill is sent, or "transmitted" to the other chamber after 24 legislative hours.  Unless one of the senators on the prevailing side of the vote on the bill moves to reconsider, or bring back, the measure within that time.

No motion to reconsider has been made yet, so far as I know, but the possibility remains open for such a motion to be made on Tuesday.

There have been a few whispers of such a move, but it seems unlikely.  While one of them might want to walk back their vote (Michele Reagan looks like that she it trying to be on both sides of this issue), to actually overturn the measure, five of the six Rs who voted for Medicaid restoration would have to change their votes.

While I expect that there is a lot of arm-twisting going on in R-land this weekend, the Republicans who voted for this knew what was coming when they cast their votes, so they're prepared.  I don't expect any changes in the outcome.

Though a few members may show up Tuesday with an arm in a sling. :)

4.  No matter how this turns out, expect a change in the GOP leadership in the AZ Senate.  The Senate Majority Leader (John McComish) and Majority Whip (Adam Driggs) voted for Medicaid restoration and worked to get it passed over the objections of the Senate President (Andy Biggs).  Something's got to give.

Speculation is that by the end of the week, there will either be a new Senate President or a new Majority Leader and Whip.


Predictions for the week; take with a grain of salt - these are more the product of reading tea leaves and making some wild-ass guesses (WAGS) than the product of facts and talks with the players (for some reason, the members of the R leadership in both chambers don't have me on their speed dial lists.  Shocking, I know :) ):

1.  No motion to reconsider in the Senate.  The bills go to the House and are introduced and assigned to House Appropriations.

2.  The chair of that committee, Rep. John Kavanagh, may try to play games with the package, but at most, he'll strip out the Medicaid language in a committee amendment.  If that happens, the change will probably be rejected in the Committee of the Whole, or COW, session consideration of the bill (all committee amendments have to be approved by the COW; normally, that process is pro forma, but this week it could mean something).

3.  The entire package will be approved by the full House by, say, a 34 - 26 margin, on Thursday.

4.  After that, it will depend on what other work gets done during the week.  There are still a few things that have strong support for passage (i.e. - Governor Brewer's sales tax "reform" scheme proposal).  If those are completed, they may just do a marathon session on Thursday and adjourn sine die this week to get the hell out of Dodge...errr...Phoenix...before the Memorial Day holiday.  Otherwise, they'll be back next week, with an eye toward finishing up.  If they are unable to finish their work before the end of next week, they may just sine die anyway,  planning on a quick special session later to finish up the work.

Regardless of how it ultimately turns out (and how accurate my fearless predictions turn out to be :) ), keep your popcorn handy this week.  It's going to be more entertaining than any of formula-based sequel/prequels special effects fests playing at the local multiplex this week.

Medicaid Restoration: Credit where credit is due time

The Arizona Senate gave preliminary approval to Medicaid/AHCCCS restoration today by approving an amendment to SB1492 that contained the restoration language.

It's not over yet, as it still must go through Third Read (final approval) in the Senate and then go over to the House for consideration, so bad things could still happen, but for today, thanks go out to...

...All 13 Senate Democrats, who are standing together in their duty of standing up for *all* Arizonans -

- Sen. Ed Ableser
- Sen. David Bradley
- Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford
- Sen. Steve Farley
- Sen. Steve Gallardo
- Sen. Katie Hobbs
- Sen. Jack Jackson Jr.
- Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor
- Sen. Linda Lopez
- Sen. Barbara McGuire
- Sen. Robert Meza
- Sen. Lynne Pancrazi
- Sen. Anna Tovar

...and the five Republican state senators who joined them in standing up for the average Arizonan -

- Sen. Adam Driggs
- Sen. Rich Crandall
- Sen. Bob Worsley
- Sen. John McComish
- Sen. Steve Pierce

Things may change in the future (and I expect them to do so; they are Arizona Republicans, after all :) ), but for now, Sens. Driggs, Crandall, Worsley, McComish, and Pierce can be numbered among the "good guys".

A sixth Republican, Sen. Michele Reagan, also voted for the primary amendment, but she hedged her bets by also voting for nearly every one of the amendments to that amendment offered by Senate President Andy Biggs that were intended to weaken, to the point of ineffectualness, Medicaid restoration.

If, come tonight (the Senate is in session as I write this), she votes for Medicaid restoration, she'll earn my regard as "one of the good guys", on this issue, at least.

If, come tonight (did I mention that the Senate is in session as I write this?), she votes against it, in a shameless attempt to have it both ways for her (expected) statewide campaign next year (she can tell some crowds that she voted for Medicaid restoration, and other crowds that she voted against it), she'll earn my promise that next year, there won't be a day where her shamelessness is allowed to go unmentioned here.

No one, of any political persuasion, likes a flip-flopper, but many people can at least understand someone who changes their positions based on new facts.

However, there's no tolerance for someone who, with obvious calculation and utter brazenness, tries to appear to be on both sides of an issue.


Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic offers her take here.

It may be time for the Capitol Police to start searching legislators for crack pipes...

...'cuz some of them seem to be killing off their brain cells at an alarming rate...

On Tuesday, the House gave its approval, by an almost-completely party-line vote, to SCR1016.

That SCR places a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution on the ballot in 2014.  If passed by the voters, it would add a clause to that document stating that Arizona could "nullify", or ignore, any federal action, law or rule.  AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona has a great rundown of that here.

This post is merely about a little over 40 seconds of the House debate on the measure, specifically Rep. Steve Smith's "explanation" of his vote.  He used his "explanation" of his vote to respond to the previous speaker, Democratic Rep. Albert Hale, the only Democrat to vote in favor of the measure.  Hale felt that such a measure would prevent the federal government from taking land and sovereignty from Native peoples and nations.

Note: There's no actual debate during final votes on measures at the lege, just legislators "explaining" their votes.  Some of the explanations get a little long-winded and even bombastic.  Smith was neither long-winded nor bombastic, but after watching his quiet certitude on the historical rightness of unbridled imperialism, I considered adding a third descriptor to the previous sentence - "drug-addled".  However, lacking the results of an independently administered and analyzed drug test, I chose not to go there.



The text of his "explanation" (emphasis added) -

Mr. Speaker, I think just since we're talking a little bit about history, I think it would be fair to point out that history of virtually every nation on the earth has come about from one people taking from another.  Going back to biblical times.  If we stand on this argument, then God's people never should have occupied God's land. 'Cause they took it from people, too.  I guess I wanted to say that some people look at the United States as a taking nation.  I look at it as the most benevolent and the most giving nation, certainly in our time and frankly, ever.  I vote yes.

The scariest part isn't that he said what he said.  It was in how he said it, with the same matter-of-fact tone that former legislator Sylvia Allen proclaimed that strip mining uranium was OK because the Earth was 6000 years old and doing just fine.

Here's Biggs' deal: Medicaid restoration in exchange for reducing voting rights

Correction added on 5/15 - during my initial perusal of SB1492, it appeared as if some Medicaid expansion provisions were included in it already.  While there are some changes to AHCCCS provisions contained in it, they are minor and *not* part of a Medicaid restoration package.

Well, the Senate has introduced its budget package, placing the Medicaid restoration plan in the budget itself but adding a kicker, SB1493.

It has the rather innocuous subject of "elections; omnibus".

It really should be called "extortion; all-in-one; every bad election-related scheme offered by the Republicans this year".

There's summarily removing voters from the permanent early voting list (PEVL), effectively barring most schools from serving as polling places, making successful recall elections all but impossible, barring organizations and campaigns from collecting and returning early ballots, elevating administrative barriers to initiative petition drives, and more.

Any one scheme would render a bill "unpassable" (and has, many times during this session); placing them all in one bill means that the Senate leadership (read: Andy Biggs) expects factors other than the merits of the proposals to influence legislators' votes on the bill.

The other bills in the package are:

SB1483, general appropriations
SB1484, capital outlay
SB1485, budget procedures
SB1486, revenue; budget reconciliation
SB1487, K-12 education, budget reconciliation
SB1488, higher education, budget reconciliation
SB1489, government, budget reconciliation
SB1490, criminal justice; budget reconciliation
SB1491, environment; budget reconciliation
SB1492, health, welfare; budget reconciliation (yes, probably the one that eventually will have the Medicaid restoration provisions.)


Senate Appropriations is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bills tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11 a.m. in SHR109.  If you plan to attend, plan to arrive early because seats will be at a premium.  Bring a strong bladder, too - it's going to be a long meeting.

More later...

Budget/Medicaid restoration deal coming today?

David Safier and Tom Prezelski at Blog for Arizona (and in Tom's case, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion) and Steve Muratore at Arizona Eagletarian broke the news that a possible deal on Senate passage of a budget and Medicaid restoration could be presented today.

The Arizona Capitol Times finally has the story, but a subscription is required there.

Nothing is clear yet (most of the players aren't talking), but there are concerns that some members of the Democratic caucus are cutting their own deals with Senate President Andy Biggs (R-Publisher's Clearinghouse) to gain passage of a weak expansion of Medicaid in exchange for their support for a Republican "let them eat cake" sort of budget.

Based on what I've seen of the Senate Ds, however, they don't want any sort of "aiding and abetting" of the tea-publicans' attack on society to be part of their legislative legacy.

Especially those who will be involved in a primary next year, whether for a return to the Senate or for another office.

Especially2 when there are doubts about whether any deals that individual Senate Democrats work out will survive in the House.

While there may be some individual senators who feel the tug of temptation, when the smoke from this clears, the caucus will be standing united in their support of the Democratic values of families, education, healthcare.

Some will just have gritted teeth.


Anyway, as of this writing, nothing has been posted on the lege's website, though according to a call to the Senate, a Senate Rules Committee meeting has been scheduled for 1 p.m.  No agenda has been posted, but according to other reports, the purpose of the meeting is to authorize the late introduction of budget and Medicaid-related bills.

Short attention span musing

...Congressman Darrell Issa and the Republicans have been conducting a major witch hunt into the attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

If I thought that they were legitimately interested in preventing the unnecessary loss of American lives or addressing the safety of American diplomatic personnel, I could actually support the "inquiry".

However, given the huge number of attacks on US embassies during the Bush Administration that took place with little more than a peep from the Rs, the thousands of Americans (and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis) who have died in Halliburton's Wars for Enhanced Profits with nothing more than drumbeats for higher body counts from the Rs, and the 14 dead and 200 or so injured when a Texas fertilizer plant exploded after decades of neglect of safety measures without any interest in finding the root cause of the disaster and prevent future disasters expressed by the Rs, well, it's obvious that saving lives or preserving safety isn't the primary goal of Issa and the rest.

Smearing the current administration and presumed 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is.

Wonder if the witch hunt would be so...so...so...*enthusiastic*...if instead of the American taxpayer footing the bill, the actual beneficiary, the Republican National Committee had to pay for it?


...On this week's edition of Sunday Square Off on Phoenix channel 12, political consultant Chip Scutari predicted that current AZSOS Ken Bennett, who is "exploring" a run for governor next year, will instead challenge fellow Republican Paul Gosar for the CD4 seat and current AZ House speaker Andy Tobin (R-Paulden) will challenge Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick in CD1.

Couldn't find any open committees yet, but each prediction, if accurate, makes a bit of sense.

Bennett faces a Republican primary regardless of the office he goes after.  The race for governor is a statewide race and his power base is in Yavapai County; 75% of the state's population is in Maricopa and Pima counties.  The CD4 race is a "district" race where not being from Maricopa or Pima county might actually help him win against Gosar, who is still viewed as a bit of a carpetbagger in the district.

Tobin is termed-out of the House and has to run for something else.  There were a few whispers that he was looking at a run for governor, like Bennett above.  However, like Bennett above, while he has a strong base of support in Yavapai County, that may not be a strong or broad enough foundation for a statewide run.  On the other hand, that base could set him up well for a run at a northern AZ Congressional district.

...The biggest story of the last week was news breaking out of an IRS office in Cincinnati that certain groups may have been targeted for extra scrutiny if the name of the group included words like "tea party" or "patriot".  Unsurprisingly, Republicans are outraged at the idea that conservative groups are subject to scrutiny because they are politically conservative. 

However, lost in their histrionics is the outrage of liberals, from the President down to the humblest of bloggers.  We all have seen liberal groups targeted for "special" treatment, from J. Edgar Hoover "investigating" everybody who was to the political left of Adolph Hitler to the recent partisan jihad against ACORN.  We know how abhorrently un-American and how damaging such ideologically-motivated witch hunts are.

If it turns out that there was some deliberate malfeasance, a deliberate violation of the American ideal of freedom of expression here, the IRS employees involved and everyone in their chain of command who knew of their misdeeds should lose their jobs.  At a minimum.

...Another story, perhaps one that may more genuinely represent a serious violation of an American ideal, this one of the freedom and independence of the press, broke Monday.

From the Associated Press, written by Mark Sherman - 

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for the Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

 

The AP letter protesting the Department of Justice's unprecedently broad intrusion is here.

Ummm...I don't know what to say about this that hasn't already been said, and far more eloquently than I'm able to, but let me advise any member of the DOJ who was a party to this to take a refresher course on the American Constitution and civil rights.

MIT offers one here.

Harvard Law School offers a number of related lectures here.

There are others out there if you think that MIT and Harvard aren't good enough.

 

 

Ummm2...OK, so it isn't going to be eloquent, but let me say this: the people at DOJ who were a part of this should join the IRS employees above in the unemployment line.  At a minimum.

Arizona Legislature: The coming week

As with the previous few weeks, there just isn't much on the schedule -

- Tuesday's House COW (Committee of the Whole) calendar is here.  Two bills on the agenda, and one of them is a neo-secessionist special: SCR1016, a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution declaring that Arizona can ignore any federal action that it doesn't like.

- On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce, Energy, and Military Committee is meeting to consider executive branch nominations.  9:30 a.m., SHR1.

- On the lege's Capitol Events calendar, there is only one scheduled event - a pro-Medicaid restoration rally and press conference, planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday.

That's it.  Even the governor isn't putting in much effort these days, as she has announced that she won't be signing any bills until progress is made on expanding Medicaid coverage and completing the state's budget.

One senator, Steve Gallardo (D-Phoenix), has suggested that the lege hold impeachment hearings, looking into the actions of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.  It won't happen, but only because Horne is a Republican, not because they have anything better to do.

Still, this is the week that we could start seeing things break on the Medicaid and budget fronts - as Arizona Republic writer Mary Jo Pitzl pointed out in her article linked in the paragraph referring to the governor above, this is the week that legislators start seeing reduced per diem payments (funds to help defray their daily living expenses).

Less money for being at the Capitol = Less interest for being at the Capitol.


Basically, it's "hurry up and wait time" redux; I'd say "quintdux", but I'm pretty sure that isn't a word. :)

Ken Bennett: The man who would be governor already on the Koch brothers' payroll

Turns out that AZ Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a likely candidate for governor in 2014, is already "supplementing" his income like someone who is ready for the 9th floor.

...For the record, to the best of my knowledge, everything Bennett is doing is allowed under Arizona law.

...For the record2, everything Bennett is doing is definitive evidence supporting the idea that the last people who should be allowed to write or enforce ethics laws covering public officials are the public officials themselves.  That's kind of like trusting the Mob with the writing and enforcement of racketeering laws.

From AZFamily.com (Phoenix channel 3), written by Dennis Welch (emphasis added) -

He's the state's top election official, but Secretary of State Ken Bennett is on the payroll of a political activist who spent millions of dollars last year trying to influence campaigns throughout the country.

Since taking office in 2009, Bennett has been paid tens of thousands of dollars by Richard Stephenson, a wealthy businessman and a key player for the political group, FreedomWorks.

Bennett, who had worked for his family owned oil business in the past, draws a monthly $2,000 salary for his work as a board member for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a for-profit company Stephenson started in the 1980s.

FreedomWorks is closely tied to the Koch brothers.  FreedomWorks is the result of a merger of two right wing groups, one of which was founded by the Kochs.

Bennett isn't the first candidate for governor paid off by the Kochs and/or their allies - witness Scott Walker (R-WI),  John Kasich (R-OH), Rick Snyder (R-MI) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

Bennett disclosed the directorship on his most recent financial disclosure forms (for years 2010, 2011, and 2012) without disclosing the amount of his compensation.  Which isn't required under the ethics laws that cover the behavior of elected officials in Arizona.

Additionally, on his 2012 form, he disclosed a gift from Stephenson that was greater than $500.  Which is as specific as he was required to be under the ethics laws that cover the behavior of elected officials in Arizona.

Which begs the question -

Why do we have ethics laws for public officials when they are watered down to the point of ineffectiveness by public officials?


Anyway, this may go a long way toward helping Bennett secure the Republican nomination for governor next year - he's now shown that he can be bought, and that his benefactors have even deeper pockets than Chuck Coughlin, the current governor's "benefactor".

Update on 5/8:  Regular reader Thane added a comment suggesting that I add the word "ally" to the title of this post.  I won't do that, but I will acknowledge the possibility of what I think Thane is trying to point out.  

Stephenson, who is clearly a Koch ally, may be trying to form his own herd of pet governors to supplement the herd of Koch bought-and-paid-for governors.

Either way, Bennett (and the others) are clearly on the payroll of people who place their personal interests before those of the interests of the people of the United States.

Which isn't a big deal, except that Bennett (and the others) all took oaths of office, picking up the burden of public trust.