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AZGOP Bombshell (Victory Plan 2010)

December 30, 2009 By 94 Comments

I’m angry.

Right when we should be organizing to kick Dem derriere in 2010, a small group of people (who like to think of themselves as elite) put together a poorly written plan called Arizona Victory 2010 and try to foist it on the Arizona Republican Party in secret just prior to the state convention in January.

Worse, none of them are on the executive committee of the party (exceot one) and all of them are lobbyists, from outside of Arizona or work for one of the candidates!

Take a look at what got posted Monday to an Arizona-based, libertarian-leaning website (link provided below the quote):

The Arizona GOP will be taken over by the Agenda of “New American Century” with a teleconference vote of Arizona’s GOP leadership Dec 30th,… and there is nothing the rank and file Republican Activists and Elected Officers of the party can do about it.

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/063261-2009-12-28-declare-your-independence-with-ernest-hancock-morning-december-28th-2009.htm

Notwithstanding the obvious libertarian objection in the quote above, the concerns to Republicans, conservatives and AZGOP party grassroots activists should be obvious.  There are so many issues I dont even know where to start.

First, where the heck did freedomsphoenix get a copy of this from?

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/001/Media/Arizona_Victory_Plan_Draft_for_ExComm_091218.pdf

Second, note the stakeholder list, it’s the same old McCain crew trying to take over the party again and spend all the party’s money with no accountability and with no representation from the grassroots PCs and State Committeemen.

Third, note the cryptic comment about “holding the governor’s office”.  Given the “stakeholder” list that includes no elected Republican party officers except for one, does that mean that they will be supporting John Munger against Jan Brewer?  Does it mean that they will throw Dean Martin under the bus if he ends up filing to run?

Fourth, is creating a “division” of the Arizona Republican Party which behaves like a PAC even legal?

Fifth, why would we as a party permit the state party to incorporate the “worst of” into our Victory Plan?  This plan includes the “worst of” Karl Rovian holdovers like Allan Philp and the “worst of” top-down authoritarian-style party management apparatchiks like Shiree Verdone and Lisa James.

Sixth, the plan appears to give this list of unaccountable and unelected “stakeholders” the power to spend party money in primary races, essentially giving them the power to anoint party-supported primary winners and losers not just as the federal level but also in state house and senate races. 

Seventh, have the teaparty movement and the New York race taught us nothing?  Protecting the same old retread candidates who brought us TARP (and yes that includes some Arizona Republican elected officials) and who voted for the largest spending programs ever (at the time under Bush) is not acceptable to the large and growing conservative independent voters who left the Republican party over the very shenanigans this group of “stakeholders” is trying to pull right here in this very “Victory” plan!  Should a “Victory” plan not try to incorporate those teaparty voters as part of our plan to win in 2010?

Bottom line….. this is a bad plan. 

State party officers, if you are reading this hopefully and presumably in time before voting on it today, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that heals the party, not further divides it, as we enter this vital 2010 election cycle. 

Please go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that energizes the base to go out and do the groundwork.  Please come up with a plan that takes the teaparty movement into account and brings those conservative independents back to us – a plan that will bring us fiscal conservatism and smaller government, both at the state and federal level.  A plan we can all live with and a plan that will ensure Victory for Arizona Republicans in 2010.

Filed Under: Campaigns & Elections, Political Parties

Oops! Is Brewer Padding Her Resume On Purpose?

December 30, 2009 By 6 Comments

brewer oopsThe Arizona Guardian today reported that Governor Brewer has included her membership in a “handful of community organizations and government boards” on both her official and campaign biographies that, evidently, she does not actually belong to anymore.  Oops!  These include the Maricopa County System on Justice Intervention for the Seriously Mentally Ill and the Japanese American Citizens League according to its popular “Guardian Angel” blog.

Why would Brewer feel it necessary to pad her resume?  And maybe more importantly, did she do it on purpose?

According to Brewer’s spokesman, her ”staff has the responsibility” of making sure that her resume is accurate and this controversy should been seen as nothing more than an mere oversight.  Basically, it’s not really her responsibility because she is just too busy with more important matters to be bothered with, you know, little details about her previous community leadership experience.

Mistakes are bound to happen.  That’s a given like death and taxes.  But when they do you are probably just better off by owning up to them, taking responsibility and set things straight – not shifting the blame.

Filed Under: Advertising, Ethics, Government, State Government

’09 was a pivotal political year

December 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

By Emil Franzi, Special to The Explorer

Measuring the relevance of important dates usually comes later. Some, like 1941 and 9-11, are immediately obvious, others need time to sink in. In October of 1929, nobody thought “wow, we’re starting the Great Depression.”

Often converging events need their dots connected. The year 2009 had a lot of converging events.

Like 1929, 2009 started with a new President and large majorities for his party in both houses of Congress where the numbers are strikingly similar – 58-39-1 and 267-167-1 then for Republicans, to 58-40-2 and 256-178-1 for Democrats now. Biggest difference was Herbert Hoover won by 17 percent to Obama’s 7 percent, and carried 41 of 48 states.

The 1930 election gave Democrats eight more Senators and 53 Representatives. GOP popularity sank while Hoover instituted counter-productive proto-New Deal measures. He was smashed in 1932 by FDR and Democrats gained 90 more House seats and 13 Senators. After FDR’s 1936 re-election, it was 76D, 16R, 4I, and 331D-76R-4I.

The tide turned in 1938 with heavy Republican gains. The New Deal was out of gas, unemployment was rising and an arrogant President tried packing the Supreme Court. The events of 2009 are accelerating and compacting that process for President Obama, who is far more arrogant and less skilled than FDR.

As Michael Barone notes, 60-plus years of mounting federal bureaucracy make it impossible for any President to do what FDR did when he told Harry Hopkins to simply put the unemployed on the government payroll. “Shovel-ready jobs” are a myth. Civil service, due process, union deals and environmental regulations make it impossible to hand anybody a shovel without months, often years of red tape. Unemployment will remain high until the private sector creates more jobs.

FDR and other successful Presidents focused on implementing the popular portions of their agenda first. Obama and Democrat Congressional leaders in 2009 exposed the degeneration of the federal legislative process in forcing an unpopular health care measure upon too many people. In doing so, they exhibit a political cluelessness rivaling those members of Czar Nicholas II’s Court ,who had no idea who Vladimir Lenin was up to the moment he had them shot.

Too many liberals look down their elitist noses at millions who are part of the latest populist reaction to bad governance that emerged in 2009 in the Tea Party movement. About the only thing that could prevent massive Republican gains, including the White House in 2012, would be the failure of the GOP to absorb Tea Parties and force them into their own party. The only hope for liberal Democrats is that the GOP is as inept as they are.

The year 2009 also exposed the massive manipulation occurring by pseudo-scientists supposedly compiling the climate data used to justify their political agenda. While attention focused on the sleazy e-mails (probably leaked, not hacked), more relevant was the databases exposed that have folks like Russian scientists wondering where the real data they sent disappeared to. Warm Earthers and their Democrat co-religionists took a bath on this one.

Strikingly obvious in 2009 was the almost total collapse of the old elite and in-bred media. They’ve been gradually replaced by a combination of cable news, talk radio and the internet, which continue to report what they ignore or, worse, misunderstand.

Finally, only the clueless believe “there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats.” The year 2009 ended with all 60 Democrat and Independent senators voting for Obamacare and all 40 Republicans voting against it. Polarization and partisanship have never been greater.

That polarization gives us the clarity needed to make real decisions and exposes the trite notion that somehow everything can be compromised. It may well be the greatest contribution we got from 2009.

Hear Emil Franzi and Tom Danehy Saturdays 1-4 p.m. on KVOI 1030AM.

Filed Under: Guest Opinion, Political Parties

Is JD Hayworth a Rino Hunter or Poser? Or should John McCain be given a free pass this election?

December 30, 2009 By 24 Comments

This in today.  There is to be a conference call in which the doctrine outlined in the Victory Plan Draf will be ratified.  This appears to be being done outside of AzGOP State Mandatory Meeting slated for next month.  Now who could be behind this nefarious plot?  Hmm… maybe the man who brought us President Obama by not waging campaign 2008 with the vigor he should have.  Thank him for the current POTUS.  Oh, and they’re doing it on the eve of the New Years Holiday so you will be otherwise distracted and wake up with this hangover come January 2, 2010.  Flush the John!

Attention Big Game Hunters - Target Sighed

Attention Big Game Hunters - Target Sighed

I have read the many concerns about the Arizona 2010 Victory Plan Draft.  I agree with all of them.  However, the most egregious part of the plan to me is the third bullet under overview and goals.  “Reelecting all current federal office holders”  The special deal “earmark” for federal office holders is a prime example of why the American voter rates the Congress , both Republican and Democrats, so poorly.  The hubris in the directive that we reelect all current federal office holders is unfathomable and hypocritical.  The back-up for it, “popularity of our incumbents” is just down right  untruthful.
Have the Stakeholders not read the polls indicating how out-of-touch with the Republican base the Republican voter believes our federal representatives are?   In essence, the stakeholders are telling us they have done away with the primary elections for our federal incumbents.   They believe the governor should go through a primary but not our special privileged federal office holders.   I know Campaign Finance Reform was an incumbent protection act, but I had no idea it would be taken to this length.
The Stakeholders like to proclaim that the Republican Party is a bottom-up organization.  This plan proves otherwise.  The Stakeholders have become like the Congressional Democrats they complain about who abuse their political power.
Rob Haney
Chairman
Maricopa County Republican Committee
Filed Under: Campaigns & Elections, Liberals, Political Parties, Political Science

Tax-Payer funded Phone points illegal border crossers to water

December 30, 2009 By 4 Comments

The insanity that spews forth from the bleeding red state of California is getting worse ever day.  Now, our tax dollars are being used to develop GPS phones to help illegal aliens navigate their way to the US.

SAN DIEGO Faculty at University of California, San Diego are developing a GPS-enabled cell phone that tells dehydrated migrants where to find water. It also pipes in poetry from phone speakers, regaling them on their journey much like Emma Lazarus’ words did a century ago to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” on Ellis Island. [Except those immigrant were coming to America legally.]

The Transborder Immigrant Tool is part technology endeavor, part art project. It introduces a high-tech twist to an old debate about how far activists can go to prevent migrants from dying on the border without breaking the law.

The designers – three visual artists on UCSD’s faculty and an English professor at the University of Michigan – are undeterred as they criticize a U.S. policy they say embraces illegal immigrants for cheap labor while letting them die crossing the border.

“It’s about giving water to somebody who’s dying in the desert of dehydration,[While breaking the law.]” said Micha Cardenas, 32, a UCSD lecturer.

I just had to Google this Micha fool and not surprising, this is what I found.  [Remember we are talking about California.]

Micha Cárdenas / Azdel Slade is a transgender artist, theorist and trickster [whatever the hell that is]. She is a Lecturer in the Visual Arts department at UCSD. She is an Artist/Researcher at the Experimental Game Lab at CRCA and the b.a.n.g. lab at CalIT2. Her interests include the interplay of technology, gender, sex and biopolitics.

If California wants to not only continue but now enhance their own demise, fine, let them.  But there must be something that the rest of the United States can do to help California secede from the union.  We can no longer wait for that giant earthquake to send them sliding into the Pacific Ocean.

Filed Under: Border