Funeral arrangements for former state representative Ben Miranda

Highly respected attorney, community activist, and former state legislator Ben Miranda passed away suddenly last week.  His funeral services will be held tomorrow, Monday, November 25, 2013.

Picture courtesy Arizona Capitol Times

Details, courtesy his wife, Rep. Catherine Miranda -

Date: Monday, Nov. 25

Services -

Place: Saint Agnes Catholic Church, 1954 N. 24 St, Phoenix, AZ 85008

Time: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. followed by mass. 

Burial -

Place: National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, 23029 N. Cave Creek Road, Phoenix, AZ 85024 

Time: 2 p.m. 

Reception/Memorial -

Place: American Legion Post 41, 715 S. Second Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85003 

Time: Following the burial

Miranda was elected to the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District in 2012.  From his bio page there:

Ben Miranda was born in Texas into a migrant farm worker family. In his younger years, the family traveled across the United States harvesting throughout the year. They finally settled in Gila Bend, Arizona, prior to moving to the inner-city projects of Phoenix. On this journey, he attended one room rural schools and resided in labor camps with up to 5,000 immigrant farm workers. He proudly served 13 months in the Vietnam conflict where he was awarded the country’s Bronze Star. After attending Phoenix College and undergraduate studies at Arizona State University (B.S. Political Science), he graduated with the Deans Award from ASU Law School (Juris Doctorate-Law), where he led a recruitment effort that increased minority law student enrollment by 50 percent.

In 1994, he received the City of Phoenix’s First Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Living the Dream” Award. He oversaw over $100,000 in donations from the firm and contributed hundreds of hours in support of Cesar Chavez of the United Farm workers. He served on the Roosevelt School Board where he has been recognized for the hundreds of volunteer hours that he contributes to children. He was elected to the State Legislature in 2002, he served with his brother senator, the first brothers elected to serve together as state level office holders. He has twice been selected by his peers to serve as Chair of the Arizona Latino Caucus of the State Legislature.

He has also served on the boards of the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association, American Red Cross, and Valle del Sol. He has represented the city of Avondale, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Local 383 Union. His passion for helping the underserved has led him to establish Proyecto Manzana which is focused on increasing access to a higher education for all youth in need.

He has acquired a well-deserved reputation for devoting countless hours of free legal advice to people in our community who could not otherwise obtain legal services.

Finally, and most important to him, he is married to Catherine, Arizona House of Representatives District 16 Member, and is a devoted father to his daughters Maritza and Elisa, son-in-law Aaron and grandfather to Mariella, Abraham, Erin Marie and Naomi.

 Deepest condolences go out to his family and many friends.

Short attention span musing

...What do Anthony Weiner, Bob Filner, and even Congressman Trey Radel have in common as we approach Thanksgiving?

They are all glad that Toronto mayor Rob Ford is around to distract everyone from their own "issues".

Ford is the gift that keeps on giving in his apparent quest to explode the stereotype held by Americans that Canadians are "boring, but really nice".


...Speaking of exploding that particular stereotype ("boring, but really nice"), New Mexico, via its state police force, have accomplished the same thing.

In late October, an officer of the New Mexico State Police pulled over a minivan with a mother and her four children for speeding.

The stop didn't go smoothly.




The above video shows that the mother, Oriana Farrell, was completely in the wrong...up until the point where the officers got violent toward her and her children, including an attempt to kill them all (starting at approximately the 12:35 mark).

The prosecutor in NM has filed a number of charges against Farrell, most of which she apparently deserves.

However, she has also been charged with child abuse because the police officers shot at her and her family.

While she was completely wrong for most of the encounter by the side of the road in New Mexico and should be held responsible for her bad acts, she should NOT be held responsible for the bad acts of the officers involved.

Nothing she did during the encounter, including driving away from the police officers, endangered the officers or anyone else.  The use of lethal force was not warranted.

Period.

...For the "responsible gun owners" file:

From the Austin American-Statesman, written by Claudia Grisales -

Texas State Rep. Drew Darby is facing a felony charge after he attempted to take a weapon through a security screening at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport this month, according to court documents.

Darby was shown as booked into Travis County Jail at 7:22 a.m. on Nov. 14 after he was found to be carrying a .38 caliber Ruger and six rounds of ammunition in a magazine during the security screening that morning, the affidavit said.

Don't be surprised if the NRA ponys up funds to cover his "legal fees"...even though he is an attorney (hey, he could bill himself for services rendered, then pay himself, the be reimbursed by the NRA for money that he paid...to himself).

Cynicism is charming, right?  :)

...Lesson learned today:  Arizona's term limits law does not cover all state-level offices equally.

Joe Hart, the current State Mine Inspector, has filed for another run at the office.  Since he was first elected to the office in 2006, and term limits in AZ are eight years, this was a little surprising.

Then I read the section of the Arizona Constitution that covers term limits.

From Article 5, Section 1 (emphasis added) -

Section 1. A. The executive department shall consist of the governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction, each of whom shall hold office for a term of four years beginning on the first Monday of January, 1971 next after the regular general election in 1970. No member of the executive department shall hold that office for more than two consecutive terms.

Not to worry though - we aren't stuck with Hart forever.

From Article 19, Section 0 of the state constitution (emphasis added) -

No mine inspector shall serve more than four consecutive terms in that office.

Whew!!! :)

...OK, so who had "before the end of the year" in the George Zimmerman Arrest Pool?

From CNN, written by Steve Almasy -

George Zimmerman was charged Monday with felony aggravated assault after allegedly pointing a shotgun at his girlfriend, according to Dennis Lemma, chief deputy with the Seminole County, Florida, Sheriff's Office.

Zimmerman, who was acquitted earlier this year of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin, was arrested after the incident at the home of Samantha Scheibe, Lemma said. He also was charged with two misdemeanors -- domestic violence battery and criminal mischief -- in connection with the same incident, Lemma said.

I just hope he ends up in prison before he adds to his body count...

50 years ago this week, part 5...

Instead of capping the week by focusing on the end of the JFK presidency, I would rather focus on the beginning, when he represented the hopes of a generation.

Courtesy UCSB, John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address -

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice president Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe-the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom-and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free."

And if a beach-head of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again-not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

For people who would rather hear speeches than read them....

50 years ago this week, part 4: The others

When JFK was shot while riding in his limousine in Dallas, he was not alone; he wasn't even the only one shot.

The other five people in the car that day - 

...Bill Greer, the Secret Service agent assigned to drive that day, came in for a heavy dose of criticism for slowing down upon hearing the first shot, instead of immediately accelerating away from the scene.  He passed away in 1985 after a fight with cancer.

...Roy Kellerman, the senior Secret Service agent in the limousine, eventually rose in the ranks of the Secret Service before retiring in 1968.  He passed away in 1984.

...Nellie Connally, the wife of then-Texas governor John Connally, survived that day, and for many years more.  She was the last to pass away of the people in the limo that fateful day, living until 2006.  She was the author of a critically-lauded book about that day, "From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy".

...John Connally, the governor of Texas, was seriously wounded during the assassination, but later recovered from his wounds, going on to serve as Texas' governor until 1969.  He continued on in business, politics and government for many years, passing away in 1993.

...Jacqueline Kennedy, JFK's wife, survived that day.  She later moved on, marrying Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1968.  When Onassis died in 1975, she became a widow for the second time.  She had a second career, becoming a publishing executive (actually, an editor) until her death in 1994.

Portrait courtesy C-SPAN

Note: the brevity of the bios is for the purpose of just that, brevity, only.  Their lives were far more interesting than I could truly convey in a few sentences.  However, as with the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination and its aftermath, writing about them in-depth would keep me writing until the 100th anniversary.

50 years ago this week, part 3: TV news comes into its own

A "where were you when" moment is one that is an almost universal cultural touchstone, one where pretty much everyone who was alive at the moment in question remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about a particular event.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the first "where were you when" moment of the television age, and when most people recall that day, one of the things that they recall is the emergency news bulletin from CBS' soon-to-be legendary newscaster Walter Cronkite.

50 years ago this week, part 2: The picture

It's not often that one can say that the New York Daily News did, or does, journalism proud, but they did with this, a picture of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting the casket of his slain father.

This picture became one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th Century. 

The Daily News has an article about the photograph here.

Another of the most iconic photographs of the 20th Century won the Pulitzer that year, a picture of Jack Ruby shooting and killing Lee Harvey Oswald.  However, looking back, as significant as that one was, I think that this one has a far greater emotional impact.

50 years ago this week, part 1: The Warren Commission report

50 years ago this week, on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX.

While many outlets, blog and MSM alike, are putting forth retrospectives of the days and events leading up to that fateful day in Dallas, here I'll be switching things up a little and starting with the aftermath.

Tonight:  The Warren Commission report into the assassination.

The report was, and in many respects remains, controversial.  The thousands of hours of testimony and pages of documents were summed up into a single conclusion:  Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he killed President Kennedy.

Many people, including some who were insiders themselves, called the report a cover-up.

Many books have been written about the report (in many ways, the report was almost as historically significant as the assassination itself), so I'm not going to rehash the controversy in its entirety (I'd still be writing when the 100th anniversary rolls around :) ).

If you want to read about the controversy, use Google (the search terms "warren commission cover up" generate 1.8 million results); links to the actual report are below.

The Government Printing Office has released a digitized version of the report; it can be downloaded here.

That .pdf file is more than 900 pages long; if you prefer your reading in more digestible bites, the National Archives offers a web-based version here.

The list of the members of the commission included the names of some of the major players in American politics of the mid- to late 20th century.  While some of the names have faded in prominence over the many years since, some of the people are major parts of American history.

Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and chair of the commission.

Gerald Ford, then a member of the US House of Representatives from Michigan, later to become Vice President when scandal-plagued Spiro Agnew resigned, after that became President when Watergate-plagued Richard Nixon resigned.

Hale Boggs, a member of the US House from Louisiana for more than a quarter-century, and House Majority Whip at the time.

Richard Russell, a member of the US Senate from Georgia for nearly four decades; most famous as a leader of the anti-civil rights forces in the Senate.

John Cooper, a member of the US Senate from Kentucky.

John McCloy, a lawyer and former president of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development after World War II.

Allen Dulles, a lawyer and director of the CIA early in the Kennedy administration.

J. Lee Rankin, general counsel to the commission, a former Solicitor General of the United States.


In short, a list of insiders' insiders.

Picture courtesy PBS.  (L-R) Ford, Boggs, Russell, Warren, Cooper, McCloy, Dulles, Rankin

If at first you don't succeed, give up...at least, if we are talking about healthcare reform

There have been glitches in the rollout of Obamacare, so the Republicans in Congress, aided and abetted by 39 Democrats, have moved to completely gut healthcare reform.

Because, ya know, any problem with something new means that we should end that something new.

If the Congress in 1895 had the same mentality that it has now, America would have the best horse-and-buggy-based transportation system in the world.

From Ohio History Central -

World's First Automobile Accident

The world's first automobile accident occurred in Ohio City, Ohio in 1891.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, the city of Detroit, Michigan, was synonymous with American automobile manufacturing. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that was not the case. Instead, Ohio innovators in Cleveland and elsewhere were at the forefront of this new form of transportation technology.

 As most people are aware, that accident didn't stop the development of the automotive industry.

Per the US Department of Transportation, as of 2011 (a mere 120 years later), there were more than 253 million motor vehicles on US roads.


...Of course, if buggy makers had a PAC in 1895...

Candidate and committees update

First, the toughest news to this point of the election cycle, the toughest news at any point of any election cycle -

...Manny Cruz, Democratic candidate for state mine inspector, and a former candidate for that office (2010) and mayor of Glendale (2012), has ended his candidacy in order to devote his time to dealing with lung cancer and being with his family.

Whatever your preference for situations like this - prayers, good thoughts, best wishes, etc. - send them in the direction of Manny and his family.  Please.  They have a tough fight on their hands and can use all of the help that they get.


On to more mundane developments...

...Doug Little, Republican, has filed for a run at a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission.  He's the chair of the LD23 Republicans.

...Randy Pullen, Republican, has filed for a run at the state treasurer's job.  He's a former chair of the AZGOP and treasurer of the national GOP (aka - insider's insider).  His interest in the job has been public knowledge for months; this is just making things official.

...Linda Gray, Republican, has filed for a run for a House seat from LD1 (Prescott).  She's a former legislator, previously representing Glendale.


Otherwise, things have been fairly quiet on the local (meaning Tempe and Scottsdale) and federal fronts (meaning that any new candidates are "minor" ones until, and if, they gain some electoral traction)...

Santa's gonna need body armor when he visits the homes of Valley Republicans this year...

Normally, I'm not one to give free publicity to a GOP fundraising effort, but this one is way too juicy to accord a free pass...

As the calendar closes in on the end of the year, many groups are looking to do one last major fundraising effort before the election season fully ramps up.  While there is always pressure to raise funds felt by political groups, the ideal is to have most of the money needed to pay for outreach/campaigns raised early, because as election day gets closer, campaigns prefer to focus on spending, not raising, money.

Occasionally, that leads to some "colorful" fundraising efforts.

Like this one, from the Legislative District 26 Republican Party, based in Tempe and Mesa here in Arizona -

We are approaching Christmas (December 25), a time supposedly about sharing peace and love, and the one-year anniversary of the mass murder of 26 students and teachers in Newtown, CT (December 14), and the LD26 Rs want to make money off "sharing" a weapon similar to the one used by the killer in Newtown.

Take note of the delicious bit of insanity in the way that they are conducting background checks on potential recipients of the assault rifle that they are raffling off.

Hint: it's the kind of "background check" that even someone like Jared Loughner could pass.

I know that I'm a Democrat and we are talking about Republicans here and we don't agree on much of anything, but at what level of raging misanthropic insanity is this appropriate?

Maybe they're trying to appeal to the "let's stock up on reindeer meat so we can save our money to buy more meth" crowd?

To be fair to the LD26 Rs, this may not be a holiday fundraiser for them.  There's no date listed for the drawing, which may mean that this is a "forever" raffle where they are going to keep this going until they stop making money from it.

Something that would be worthy of a post of its own...and possibly a fraud indictment.

PS - If Santa decides to brave the skies over AZ, perhaps he should see if State Rep. Bob Thorpe can hook him up with some state-of-the-art gear.  Thorpe "knows" some people...


Picking nits part of the program:

Whoever runs/maintains their website needs to learn to spell, or at least how to use spell check -

More than one Reagan facing a primary in 2014

It's early yet, so things could change, but for some reason, one non-statewide race is already shaping up to have the most active primary, of the non-statewide races anyway.

In Maricopa County, some of the safest seats are among the lowest-profile seats - Justice of the Peace.

There are 26 of them, each with their own district (justice precincts), and other than one or two, all are "safe" districts, in partisan terms.

In many of the districts, the only real races are in the primaries, and often even those don't happen unless the seat up for election is vacant or the incumbent is an embarrassment (and given that the Arizona judiciary is actually pretty good at policing itself, the embarrassments are usually weeded out before their next election).

Which brings us to the McDowell Mountain Justice Precinct.  The JP there is Michael Reagan, the father of State Senator Michele Reagan (R-LD23), a 2014 candidate for Arizona Secretary of State.

He has filed to run for reelection, so the seat isn't "open", and while his politics are objectionable (hey, I'm a D :) ), his conduct in office has not been embarrassing, so far as I know, anyway.

Yet three (count 'em!) people have already signed up for a primary run at him -

Christina Weisman ($500 Threshold Committee)

Gayle Lee

Kathryn Shearer


On this one, I am genuinely curious. 

What's going on up there (north Scottsdale)?  Have some folks gotten the idea that Reagan isn't running for reelection, something that Reagan himself doesn't know about, since he has filed for reelection?  Is there something embarrassing about his conduct in office, something that apparently isn't widely known?  Is there just something in the water there?

US political economy: less "capitalism", more "capitalized tragedy of the commons"

This started out as a vent, then started developing into something long-winded, dry, and pretentious (think: intellectually speaking, a very low end master's thesis).  Time to return to its roots as a vent.  My spleen needs some venting. :)


Though if someone wants to draw intellectual inspiration from this, they're free to do so.  Just don't pull a Rand Paul and copy some of this verbatim and without attribution. :)

The "official" definition of "tragedy of the commons", courtesy Princeton University -

The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen.

Many societies, including ours, have collectively decided that certain costs should be shared by society as a whole because they are "public goods", available to be consumed by all.  A prime example of this is national defense.

As our society has grown ever closer to the limits of its available resources, a certain, politically influential segment of society (for brevity's sake, let's refer to that segment as "the 1%") has worked to alter public policy in ways that serve to turn public goods, which benefit all, into private goods, for the benefit of a select few.  Short-term profits must be maximized, even if their policies bring long-term harm to society,

We see this phenomenon manifesting itself in many ways, but it usually occurs when accompanied by the battle cry of "privatize!", of declaring that "government" is the root of all of America's economic woes and that all would magically get better if only "government" would get out of the way of private entities' quest for ever more profit.

Witness President Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address in 1981, wherein he declared that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Or witness Grover Norquist, conservative icon and head of the lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, with his stated goal to "to cut government in half in twenty-five years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Or witness the unceasing attacks on public education, public employees, and public service in general.

Whether it is efforts to privatize prisons, public education, national parks, Social Security, roads, and pretty near anything else that somebody (who usually makes campaign contributions to the relevant electeds) thinks that they can make a profit from.

Of course, once they are given the opportunity to profit from what were previously public goods (and services are "goods" for the purpose of this post), they immediately seek to maximize and guarantee those increased privatized profits by increasing the price they charge to the public for the goods (that were previously the public's), decreasing the quantity or quality of the goods provided, or to demand a public subsidy to continue providing that previously public good to the public (i.e. - private prison contracts with guaranteed occupancy rates).

In short, every time someone argues that that some part of society's functions should be "privatized" to enhance "efficiency", the only thing that they want to see become more efficient is the transfer of public resources into private pockets.

Many of the electeds who support these privatization and other related moves cite aiding the creation and maintenance of a "healthy business environment", even if the moves that they support work to degrade the long term economic vitality of our society (i.e. - protecting tax breaks for companies that move jobs and operations overseas).

They ignore the fact that a healthy business environment seems to be a byproduct of a healthy society, not the other way around.

And when they do things like let Wall Street lobbyists write bills to weaken the already weak regulations applied to Wall Street and other financial industry firms, it kind of makes it look like that they are *willfully* ignoring the impact of their moves upon society at large.

I don't pretend to know how to change the ingrained economic predatoriness and arrogance of the 1%'s subculture but we can do something to ameliorate the impact of the attitude, and the behavior that goes along with it.

We can elect public officials who take public service seriously, and un-elect those who sell out their constituents to the highest bidders.


Bob Lord at Blog for Arizona has written a series of posts on economic inequality in America.  While the subject isn't an exact match to this one, it is closely related.  Even more importantly, he's a good writer and his posts are worth of a read.  They can be found here.

Public forum on "stand your ground" laws

Posted by request, and without comment, other than "this could be interesting"...

From a flyer sent by State Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills):

Blocked.

...Almost certainly not intended to be a compliment, but certainly taken as one...

Sometimes while doing this, I wonder if anyone reads this blog, if anyone even notices it.

Sometimes, I find evidence proving that yes, someone notices it.

Oh yeah - Jack Harper is back. 

And he's supporting "Atomic" Al Melvin in the race for the 2014 Republican nomination for governor.

Melvin and Harper working together?

It looks like 2014 is going to be scads of fun to write about. :)

Rick Renzi: From the US House to the Big House

...It was a long and winding road, but the destination is in sight now...

From the Phoenix New Times, written by Ray Stern -

Former Arizona U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi was sentenced today to three years in prison following his June conviction on fraud and corruption charges.

The sentence was a long time coming in this classic case of congressional corruption, but Renzi, a Republican, will finally be doing some hard time. New Times was the first to expose Renzi's disgusting dealings in a 2006 article that preceded his 2008 indictment.

Arizona U.S. District Judge David C. Bury sentenced Renzi in a Tucson courtroom Monday, October 28. Renzi's buddy, real-estate investor James Sandlin, also found out today he'll be serving 18 months in the Big House himself.

While there may be a few political luminaries in Arizona who are as deserving of prison as Renzi, I can't think of any who are *more* deserving.

Anyway, in a just world, he would do his time in the federal correctional institution in Safford, AZ - so far as I can tell, it's the only federal corrections facility located in Renzi's former Congressional district.

In 2008, in preparation for this day, I published a post with the contact information for FCI-Safford; the information still seems to be current.

Now, maybe I'm being a little cynical here, but I don't truly expect him to serve his time in AZ, especially since his current residence is in Fairfax County, VA, just outside of D.C.

However, there's actually a dearth of federal correctional facilities in the D.C. area (Bureau of Prisons map here).

The closest facilities seem to be more than 120 miles away (SW VA, metro Richmond, VA, Cumberland, MD).

So that means the USBOP will probably get a little flexibility on where they house Renzi.

While Renzi has a bit of violence in his history, his history, and the charges he was convicted of, probably don't merit incarceration in places like Leavenworth (KS), Marion (IL), Atlanta (GA) or the Supermax facility in Florence (CO), places that house the most hardened prisoners in the federal prison system.

So what would be the most appropriate place to keep Renzi, someone who is used to being in the middle of luxury, in the middle of "the action", in the middle of *everything*?

Well, while there are some isolated outposts in the federal corrections system, I'd like to nominate FCI-Berlin (NH).

Berlin, NH, is a town located along the Androscoggin River in the White Mountains.

It is a beautiful area.

It is a storied area.

It is an "ass end of nowhere" area.


In other words, a perfect choice for the people looking for a place for Renzi to roost for three years.