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Hyper-vigilance is alive and well in LD 6.

April 11, 2008 by 7 Comments

Mafioso is hearing voices again and has posted a story about some vague conspiracy to highjack the May 10th state convention. Will someone please get him back on his meds. He writes that there is some plot to defeat McCain supporters in the district elections but cannot name the district. Far from it. The problem most district will have is finding a full slate of delegates and alternates to a convention at which few crucial issues will be settled. There is no one we know of who is contesting the national committeemen slots. McCain already has the nomination sown-up. The resolutions always pass. In fact the McCain people are acting a little strange with loyalty-oath phone calls, early start times for the meetings, and not sharing the list of PCs. Despite all of this most LD meetings will be congenial and orderly. With no proxies the issue is finding people who will want to set aside the better half of a Saturday to sit inside when the outside temp is still below 100.

Mafioso completely misses the real story. The state party and the McCain forces are working together to get all Republicans elected in 2008. We have a great slate of candidates lined up for the legislature and have a good shot at taking back one or two congressional seats. Sure, McCain was not the first choice for some but come November the vast majority of Republican in Arizona will gladly vote for him given the alternative. Lots of Independents will also go for McCain since he is from Arizona. McCain fans should be confident, not paranoid.

Some advice to a fellow GOP blogger. Take a deep breath and relax. Your guy won so now is the time to play nice with the other kids in the sandbox.

Filed Under: Political Parties

Hannity and Colmes tonight: Is Village Voice publisher Lacey a racist?

April 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

VillageVoiceracist.GIF

We’ve just been told that Hannity & Colmes will have Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on to discuss Phoenix New Times/Village Voice publisher Michael Lacey’s offensive use of the phrase “my n*****” to refer to a deceased subordinate employee. The Village Voice apparently condones remarks like this, because they’ve been completely silent. Now would be the time for the Reverend Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton to appear on the show as well to denounce this. If not, they’re hypocrites for giving the left a free pass when it comes to making racist statements. Racist statements are always wrong, whether uttered by a Republican or a Democrat.

Filed Under: Media, Race Relations, Uncategorized

US/Mexico Borderland- Gaza Strip Bound?

April 11, 2008 by 1 Comment
by Gayle Plato-Besley, M. Ed.     

Sitting in Phoenix, the Arab-Israeli conflict along the Gaza Strip seems constant and doesn’t even blip on the radar of the average American.  Why should it?  Because we’ve a chance to see the parallels of our borderland conflicts. We must stop the exponential growth of warring organized crime now becoming a political stronghold at our doorstep. 

Whether Phoenix, El Paso, Tucson, or Tijuana, all borderland states’ populated cities are part of the drug cartel super highway bleeding out over the Mexican border. Crystal Meth is liquid gold for Mexico.  In fact, there is a growing middle class, community infrastructure, and a war-lord feudal state reaching a political tipping point. We may jabber on about the cheap labor taking over our cities or the funds we spend on social programs for illegal aliens, but we are missing the real issue.  Look to Gaza- Hamas, the former PLO, Israeli and American push-me/pull-me politics with the Gaza Strip, and see how a borderland goes ballistic. 
One of the most accurate and insightful experts about Gaza and the crisis upon the region is Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Prime Minister and current Likud Party Leader.  He often explains the dire consequences of the 2005 Israeli pull-out of Gaza.  He said then that the region  will become a puppet entity of Iran, and he was right.  Hamas is backed by Iranian extremism, private Saudi funds, and international Jihadist Evil ( thats with a capital E). 
Hamas started in February, 1988, in the Gaza strip as a counter movement to Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Their charter states that their focus is to keep Palestine in Muslim hands and to wipe out Israel.  They profess daily  to keep up the Muslim Jihad . But the layers of Hamas are ignored often by the Western media.  They are not a one-dimensional entity.  Hamas has a branch that funnels money into the community too, grooming loyalty of the locals.  Gaza has been a crowded world of Muslim, Jewish, and Christians.  They were cheap labor, and worked fertile soils of organic foods for instance.  Gaza went back to Palestinian control and all Hell broke loose.  While Hamas promised a peace with Israel, it didn’t happen.  See Mr Netanyahu speak on Hannity and Colmes here:

While, we are not a small nation like Israel, carved out of a political region just 60 years ago.  We cannot deny what our borderland might become.  Drugs are a growing business and the beginning of political process:
“Cartels can challenge — and supplant — governments. Between huge amounts of money available to bribe officials, and covert armies better equipped, trained and motivated than national police and military forces, the cartels can become the government — if in fact they didn’t originate in the government. Getting the government to deploy armed forces against the cartel can become a contradiction in terms. In their most extreme form, cartels are the government.”  (http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/geopolitics_dope)     

Startfor.com defines the future dilemma I see as a critical facet of out REAL border battle.  The local politicians and criminal justice operatives of all U.S. Border states need to come together, and push to problem-solve. A prophetic take by political analyst and writer, George Friedman  is detailed here:
“The likely course is a multigenerational pattern of instability along the border. More important, there will be a substantial transfer of wealth from the United States to Mexico in return for an intrinsically low-cost consumable product — drugs. This will be one of the sources of capital that will build the Mexican economy, which today is 14th largest in the world. The accumulation of drug money is and will continue finding its way into the Mexican economy, creating a pool of investment capital. The children and grandchildren of the Zetas will be running banks, running for president, building art museums and telling amusing anecdotes about how grandpa made his money running blow into Nuevo Laredo.
It will also destabilize the U.S. Southwest while grandpa makes his pile. As is frequently the case, it is a problem for which there are no good solutions, or for which the solution is one without real support.”     

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Border, Crime and Punishment, Illegal Aliens, Illegal Immigration, International Trade, National Security

Is this the end of Michael Lacey’s career?

April 11, 2008 by 4 Comments

Thanks to Red State Arizona for getting up the letter the publisher of Philadelphia City Paper wrote condemning Lacey. We don’t see how Lacey has any choice at this point but to step down – there is no one left defending him unless you count the KKK. He needs to do the right thing for the good of the Phoenix New Times, the Village Voice, and all alternative newsweeklies and resign. By staying on, he allows the perception to remain that alternative publications condone racism. It is arrogant of him to remain and drag down the newspaper.

Filed Under: Media, Race Relations, Uncategorized

So much for regionalism, Green Valley wants out.

April 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment

     Some Green Valley residents are researching having the county lines moved so that they are part of Santa Cruz County instead of Pima County. Motivation? Taxes. According the story Pima County tax rates are 45% higher than those in Santa Cruz.

Filed Under: County Government, Taxation

More money to the classroom, less for lobbying.

April 11, 2008 by 2 Comments

     The snarky Rum Romanism and Rebellion and highly partisan Blog for Arizona sites have gotten all worked up about a silly ad produced by The Education Finance Reform Group and paid for by certain public schools districts. RRR and BfA are trying to spin this as a Tim Bee issue. It has nothing to do with Tim Bee and everything to do with government entities wasting precious taxpayer funds on lobbying. The travesty is not that the ad mentioned a politician. The real shame is that public schools are allowed to waste public funds on producing and airing ads.

     There is a bill in the legislature that would address the misuse of taxpayer funds evidenced by the wasteful thank you ad. The bill is SCR 1009. Out understanding is that is stuck in a Senate committee. Now there is a relevant question for a senator, what is you position on SCR 1009? Much more important than whining about a useless ad for which the senator was not responsible.

     Speaking of SCR 1009, the Arizona Chapter of Americans for Prosperity has lots of good information about the issue. Here are some links on the bill. SCR 1009 introduced and SCR 1009 stuck in committee.

     How about it RRR and BfA? Do you really care about education money going to the classroom or were you just trying to score a hit against Giffords’ opponent? I hope that you join us in calling on the legislature to pass SCR 1009.

Filed Under: Education, Legislation, Spending