Here is a special message from Ruth McClung heading into Independence Day. Those who have been involved in Arizona politics for a number of years know that Joe Sweeney is defined as a “Perennial Candidate.” He has run under multiple party labels but will never stand a chance to win. (I’m sure any number of Southern Arizona political activists and observers can attest to this fact.) A lesson to be learned here is that conservatives need to get elected to all levels of office starting with the office of Pima County Recorder. Let’s put Ann Rodriguez, on notice that conservatives are coming after her job!

Independence Day and the Lawsuit

Nominating petitions are one of the ways candidates are vetted. According to one Arizona Supreme Court Decision, nominating petitions are “a mechanism which … weeds out the cranks, publicity seekers, the frivolous candidates who have no intention of going through with the campaign, and those who will run for office as a lark …” Because of this, I made a great effort to obey the rule of law stated on each petition form.  When the petition process was finished, we looked at the petitions of all our competing candidates.  When we examined Joseph Sweeney’s petitions closely, we believed 274 of his signatures were not legal, and another 9 signatures were duplicates from another candidate’s petition.  The result was that Mr. Sweeney was significantly short of 381 signatures for being placed on the ballot.  We filed a Petition Challenge in Superior Court on June 10.

What happened then is very alarming!  The Recorder’s Offices of the 6 counties in CD 7 examined our challenge.  Pima County Recorder’s Office claimed 86 of our challenged signatures were “valid” leaving Mr. Sweeney with just over his required 381.  We again examined these 86, and found that 9 of their “validated” signatures were from CD8, and were therefore not legal in CD7.  In my and others opinion, it appears that Pima County bent the rules to get Mr. Sweeney above the signature requirement.  Instead of being neutral, it appears they sided with a candidate.  They sent three of their lawyers to court to fight against us.  One of their lawyers we are told, is a good friend of Rep. Grijalva.  The Superior Court Judge ruled against us, because we were not specific enough in our original challenge, not because of the rule of law.  Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Sweeney too, but we are not sure of their reasoning, as yet.

What does this have to do with Independence Day?  Our Founding Fathers and the people fought against political tyranny – a government ignoring its own laws and taxing its own citizens without due process.  Throughout this petition challenge, we were not singling out an individual candidate to be malicious.  We were upholding the rule of law that is clearly stated on each petition form. In my opinion during the challenge process, we saw the Pima County Recorder’s office ignoring Arizona’s law; and siding with Mr. Sweeney where they should have been neutral. The numbers and the law were on our side, but the lawyers from Pima County used loopholes to bend these laws and to affect the outcome of the Primary Nomination process.  If the Pima County Recorder’s Office is willing to bend things to get a certain person on the ballot in August, can we trust them to be fair during elections?  Our free elections in the United States are at stake, and we need to be extra diligent to keep watch and fight to keep our independence.  During the Primary and General Election, we need volunteers to follow the election process – to keep an eye open for irregularities and voter fraud. Let us know if you are willing to volunteer.

On a personal note: I felt it necessary to try and uphold the integrity of the elections process, and in that regard I believe we succeeded!  Even though the Courts may have gotten it wrong, our campaign to change government one step at a time has succeeded by raising the bar for candidates’ conduct, and by fighting against the status quo of politics as usual. This petition challenge was paid for by me and not by campaign funds, but we are reporting it to the Federal Election Commission for the sake of transparency.  It would be nice if the Pima County Recorder’s Office would be just as transparent in who paid for their lawyers during this challenge.

Ruth McClung

Whew! Black History Month ended just in time to give Americans—exhausted from a month of vigorous celebrating—time to recover. Promoters of Brown History Month, Yellow History Month, Red History Month, White History Month and Green History Month will continue to have to wait for a month of their own. There was a time when we celebrated the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in February but Liberals put an end to that (be warned, they’re still working on exterminating Christmas). I wonder what Barack Obama does during Black History Month—since he’s only half black maybe he only celebrates half the month?

Black History Month reminds me of that portion of an application form that asks for the race of the applicant; race is not supposed to matter but everyone knows that it does—especially to Liberal policy-makers and administrators. Despite the Civil War, a civil rights movement, several acts of congress, amendments to the constitution and ongoing preferential treatment Liberals are still convinced that new and institutionalized racism is the cure for past racism. They must believe that new injuries cure old injuries.

While we’re on the subject of needless celebrations maybe it’s time we resurrect one of the ancient celebrations and replace Black History Month with it. The Romans had some exciting ones to pick from and none of them have yet been ruined by Liberals. We could have it in February and best of all, all Americans could participate—not just the preferred few.

On behalf of all the writers here at Sonoran Alliance, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Here are a few video clips from some of the best Christmas movies:

In a not-really-surprising-anymore move, local officials embracing the nanny-state mentality are making it illegal for you to gather around the fireplace on Christmas Eve.

The Maricopa County Air Quality Department declared Christmas Eve a no-burn day after the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality posted an air-pollution health watch for today.

Increasing levels of small particulates, morning and evening temperature inversions, cold weather and light winds combined to create the no-burn conditions. Fires add to the particulate pollution, as do vehicles, unpaved roads and equipment such as leaf blowers.

On a no-burn day, residents are asked not to use wood-burning fireplaces, woodstoves or outdoor fire pits and to abstain from burning trash.

Sorry Timmy, NO FIRE FOR YOU!  We all have to do our part to save the planet, and this Christmas Eve is the day we will remember for years to come that we saved Mother Earth.  Now put your fireplace DVD into the machine and quit your whining.

Got to love the comments from this story.

Sorry, we can’t afford the high electricity costs of lighting the furnace. We’ve been burning wood for the last week to keep warm. With no job and no money coming in we have to burn. We are just lucky to have a fireplace and wood. Well, not much, our neighbor’s been stealing some of it when we are gone from the house.

Continuing to highlight these happy times

Being unemployed doesn’t lend itself to firing up the heat pump for a little warmth. We have plenty of wood stored up from tree cuttings around the nieghborhood this year. THere is an exception to the EPA burning rules if the burning is used as the source of heat for the house. BUT I’m not sure if it has to be the ONLY source of heat. Unfortunately, I don’t think they make exceptions for unemployment poverty.

And finally, a man’s man after my own heart.

Really hadn’t planned on having a fire tonight. The lack of a fireplace in my home may have had something to do with that. But after reading this crap, I all of a sudden find myself craving some toasted marshmallows! Nothin like a few pallets from work to spark up the company x-mas party this afternoon! Dont think there will be any problem with getting donations to cover the fine. Think everyone has pretty much had enough of our politicians (inappropriate term) for the year! Comply and conform they say! LOL
And to that, I say………….Kiss My A-S-S and MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone! Just look for the flames and bring your own marshmallows!

Might even have to give the kids their quads a day early and let em rip up and down the dirt road fer a bit! Get some use outta those new off road use tags I paid for ! Don’t ya love x-mas!!!! lol

Have a happy low-impact, small carbon-footprint, artificial-tree, Jimmy Carter sweater-wearing, recycled paper, Cristmakwanzzakkah.

Some things are just wrong. Let these photos tell a thousand words. These are the ornaments that are hanging on the Christmas Tree in the Whitehouse.

By Judge Gerald A. Williams, North Valley Justice of the Peace

Most modern Americans grew up watching Charlie Brown specials during the various holidays. While “The Great Pumpkin” certainly makes for a good story, it is hard to match the meaningful beauty of the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

At the climax of this iconic special, Linus retells the birth of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Luke. It may be only time many hear those words this year and I cannot help but wonder whether such a cartoon would even be made today.

Oddly, government plays a key role in how religion in general is viewed. Governor Jan Brewer deserves credit for calling Arizona’s Christmas tree, a “Christmas” tree. Our previous governor preferred the term “holiday tree.” Even so, it is usually the judicial branch, not the executive, that is setting the rules in these areas.

The First Amendment reads in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” Over time, the U.S. Supreme Court has tended to focus more on the “establishment” clause than the “free exercise” clause.

Of note, the Constitution does not contain the phrase that most people believe it does. The actual text says nothing about a “separation between church and state.” That phrase became law in a 1947 case called Everson v. Board of Education.

The Court in Everson ended up holding that tax dollars could be used to provide transportation to students going to church schools as well as public schools. The case because famous for Justice Black’s rhetoric, which stated, “the First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”

If religious liberty is valued, then government efforts to always avoid anything that looks religious may not always advance that goal. While I am aware of nobody arguing for an official government religion, the size and scope of modern American government agencies have expanded into most aspects of daily life. The unfortunate consequence from that expansion is that religion often gets forced out.

While others have an absolute right to disagree with me, I still believe that Christmas is a religious holiday designed to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. If you hold a different view, I only request that you be as tolerant of my views as you would like me to be of your own. Merry Christmas.

Judge Williams is the presiding justice of the peace for the Northwest Regional Court Center. His column appears monthly in The Foothills Focus.

Brought to you by the Arizona Republican Party

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the state house,

Democrats were complaining, continuing to grouse.

With the budget a bust, and no money to spare,

The Democrat solution? Never cut! Don’t despair!

“Blame Brewer, blame Republicans,” the Dems all agree,

“We have no answers or solutions!” They would decree.

Lujan and Sinema nestled snug in their beds,

With visions of stimulus flowing in from the feds.

Running out of options and all out of dough,

They seemingly just say – “nothing must go!”

As Republicans work into the night to close the gap,

It’s as if Democrats just woke from a long summers nap!

When out on the Capitol lawn there arose such a clatter,

The media sprang from its perch to see what’s the matter.

Away to the windows they flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

When, what to their wondering eyes should appear,

But the state’s AG, and the ninth floor so near.

The perennial candidate so lively so quick,

His repeated defeats, so comic, so tragic.

More rapid than eagles his patrons they came,

He whistled, he shouted, and called them by name.

“Now Kyrsten, now David! Now Albert and Rebecca!

Now Chad! Now Phil, Martha and Anna!

Let’s hang them out to dry, let’s blame them for it all!

Next year’s an election, we must hinder and stall!”

“But what if the voters should find out our course?”

Said the group’s leader without an ounce of remorse.

“You shouldn’t be worried,” said the AG,

“The third times the charm, and you’ll surely see,

A special present for taxpayers around our great state.

Return to reckless spending, and a burdensome tax rate.”

And they heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,

“Good riddance to prudence, and thanks for your support,

You’ve set the state back for which there is no retort.

I’ll see you on the trail, for it’s still in my blood,

Even if year after year, they’ve found a me a dud.”

In the spirit of spreading Christmas cheer, here is the speech that Representative Ed Ableser gave on the floor of the House last Saturday. Charlie Brown couldn’t be any prouder.

Today we celebrate the 388th anniversary of Thanksgiving – a Holiday that many of us still consider to be an important religious observance in our Republic’s history. It wasn’t until October 6, 1941 that the U.S. Congress officially recognized and established the holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November. (In December of that same year, the Senate had to pass an amendment changing the date to the 4th Thursday of November.)

Regardless of whatever the US Congress decided, Americans across the country have been giving God thanks for a very long time.

Today, despite the secularization of our culture, our country will celebrate this important religious occurrence by spending time with family and friends and by reaching out to others in need.

Today, prayers will be lifted, thanks will be given to God and hopefully, relationships will be renewed and strengthened.

As you gather with those you cherish and those who may test your ability to extend grace, may God bless your time together and may you remember from Whom all blessings come.

On behalf of all the writers here at Sonoran Alliance, we wish you a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

By Byron Schlomach, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
 
It is often said that if we don’t study history, we are condemned to repeat it. The Pilgrims of yesterday have a valuable lesson for Americans in today’s health care debate.
 
Many today do not know that the Pilgrims initially faced continuous famine of their own making. In his history of the colony, the Pilgrims’ long-time governor William Bradford described the crisis and the eventual solution.

The colony initially practiced a form of socialized agriculture in the belief that it put them all “on an equality throughout.” But, this didn’t produce enough food, so the Pilgrims decided to allow “each man to plant corn for his own household.”

Bradford wrote:

This was very successful. It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been…The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to plant corn, while before they would allege weakness and inability; and to have compelled them would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

Contrast the Pilgrims to today’s leaders in Washington, DC. The Pilgrim leaders chose to fundamentally change direction rather than rely on the collective to meet their needs. Facing the same choice today, President Obama and Congress are choosing the opposite course.

The health care bill voted out of the U.S. House is a case study in government collectivism. Every person would be compelled by government to buy health insurance. Subsidies would be taken from some to pay for others. Employers would be forced to provide health insurance or face harsh financial penalties. All of this would directly interfere with our freedom to make our own health care decisions.

The practice of medicine would also be more highly regulated than it already is. Government would create a National Health Service Corps and a Public Health Workforce Corps. Physicians would be prohibited from owning hospitals–that is like keeping mechanics from owning car repair shops. And medical practice would essentially be dictated by the government through comparative effectiveness research and other controls.

Yes, some might gain a measure of security from increased health care collectivization, but the American people will pay a steep price in terms of a rising deficit, the loss of freedom to make their own health care decisions, and a loss of overall quality and innovation in health care.

When the Pilgrims made individuals instead of the collective responsible for raising food, everybody won. Everybody ate more even as some were able to eat more than others. To have continued as they had, though, would have been disastrous.

The Pilgrims’ famine ended when they recognized the poor incentives they had created and changed them. We have created poor incentives in health care as tax policy and social programs encourage us to rely on others to pay our health bills. Now we are on the path to making incentives worse, not changing them. 

We must change federal income tax policy to allow taxpayers to get the same tax deductions that employers get when buying health insurance. We should expand health savings accounts to allow unlimited saving for our own health care. And we should allow unlimited charitable tax-free distributions from those accounts when we choose to help others.

As William Bradford said, “Let none argue that this (failure of collectivism) is due to human failing rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself.” We have the ability to truly address the rising cost of health care in America, but a government-run health system is not it.

Byron Schlomach, Ph.D., is the director of the Goldwater Institute’s Center for Economic Prosperity.

by Gayle Plato

On Memorial Day, I feel a need to remember the spouses and children of servicemen and women. For centuries, women have kept the home, raised families as the world around them bubbled with economic strife and social restlessness. Now, we see husbands and wives, parents and children holding firm and waiting the return of loved ones in service to our country.ABIGAIL ADAMS
25 October 1782

“MY DEAREST FRIEND,
 The family are all retired to rest the busy scenes of the day are over a day which I wished to have devoted in a particular manner to my dearest friend but company falling in prevented it nor could I claim a moment until this silent watch of the night Look is there a dearer name than friend Think of it for me look to the date of this letter and tell me what ure the thoughts which arise in your mind Do you not recollect that eighteen years have run their circuit since we pledged our mutual faith to each other and the hymeneal torch was lighted at the altar of Love Yet yet it burns with unabating fervor Old Ocean has not quenched it nor old Time smothered it in this bosom It cheers me in the lonely hour it comforts me even in the gloom which sometimes possesses my mind.”

  Familiar letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the revolution

I’ve a warmth for Abigail and John Adams.  Throughout the years of separation due to John Adam’s service, and political involvements, this couple wrote to oneanother.  They always seemed so real, with a love grounded in the daily trials.  They wrote about a love based on mutual respect, a love of their kids, and a hope for something bigger than themselves. Wouldn’t we all be so lucky to find a love so honest, full of letters, about faith in each other?

 Abigail usually addressed the letters to her husband as ‘My Dearest Friend’ ” I like that part most of all.   To those holding down the homefront, many blessings and a wish for peace in this combative world-

Read the Capitol Times article here
(of course the Repugnant didn’t bother covering it, although they devoted plenty of space to left wingers protesting budget cuts at the Capitol – who were probably paid or received class credit to be there, and a Sheriff Arpaio protest, which will probably attract fewer than 20 protesters). No wonder no one reads the Repulsive anymore.

On behalf of the writers of Sonoran Alliance, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas! May God richly bless you and yours during this holy of times.

On behalf of all the writers of Sonoran Alliance, we wish you and yours a blessed Thanksgiving!

We also want to remember those principles which have been endowed and passed on to us by those Americans who have long held and trusted in God’s guiding hand in our Republic’s longevity, prosperity and humility.

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation – October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln