Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

The Republican chattering mobs are making a bit more noise lately about Sen. Ken Bennett running for governor next year. He can’t officially announce due to our state’s “Resign to Run” law, but they certainly are talking him up.
According to Espresso Pundit, leading Republicans are saying that “Goldwater’s campaign is going nowhere…Bennett is looking good.”
Going […]

The Arizona Daily Star has cut Ann Coulter’s column. This is a revealing comment from the new editor:
Finally, we’ve decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome. Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives.
I’ll resist saying anything about […]

A sub-headline from Robbie Sherwood’s Political Insider column in this morning’s Arizona Republic:

Another great story undone by overly thorough reporting
I’ll let that stand on it’s own.

Our favorite border vigilante, Chris Simcox, has endorsed Don Goldwater. I’m thinking of that moment in the 1964 election when leaders of the Ku Klux Klan announced their support of Barry Goldwater, Don’s uncle. Someone said, “Goldwater isn’t for the racists, but all the racists are for Goldwater.”
I’ll give this Goldwater the benefit of the […]

This is the latest from the Clean Elections Commission on the case of Rep. David Burnell Smith, which I commented on yesterday:
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission has accepted the decision of Administrative Law Judge Daniel G. Martin in the matter of David Burnell Smith. Earlier this week, Martin upheld the Commission’s original March 25th order […]

Maybe it’s an exercise in ego, but I like to do searches to see who has been linking to me. I found a blog called Just Deserts from here in Tucson that has been linking to my articles for a few weeks. The author goes by the name “Kiva Oraibi,” which is effin’ cool.
Anyhow, check […]

Washington Monthly has an interesting pair of articles in its recent issue. In one, Carl Cannon argues that Hillary Clinton is not the gawdawful candidate some scared Democrats are worried about, and in the other Amy Sullivan argues that she isn’t as bad as they say, but she’d be a bad idea nonetheless.
I am not […]

In another victory for the Clean Elections system, an administrative law judge said that the Clean Elections Commission was right to remove Rep. David Burnell Smith from office for violating the terms of his Clean Elections contract.
The commission unanamously concluded a few months ago that Smith exceeded the limits set forth in the Clean Elections […]

Even though she was turned out of office a few years ago, Rep. Barbara Blewster still feels that she has much to contribute to the debate. She recently sent out an e-mail to the members of the legislature:
Dear Members,
Thank you again for voting for the Stop the Free Trade Area of the America (FTAA) Resolution. […]

State Rep. Russell Pearce has proposed annother one of his incredibly practical solutions to our state’s border woes. He is drafting a bill to call for a referendum to ask for new taxes and fees to raise $580 million to build a wall along the border.
($580 million! Wow, we could use that to give away […]

Governor Janet Napolitano should sit in her office all day and anonymously sign paperwork.
So says former State Senator John Greene, who this week filed a complaint about Napolitano’s activities with the office of Attorney General Terry Goddard. No word on Goddard’s reaction when it crossed his desk, but I’m guessing it was somewhere between indifference […]

I spoke to a friend of mine who is a supporter of Steve Farley’s campaign the other day. He was concerned that Nina Trasoff may be going negative on Farley. I’m not sure I quite get where he is coming from.
His concern was based on comments that Trasoff made in a recent Tucson Weekly […]

Late Wednesday night, three people were killed out on Ajo and Kinney roads here in Tucson. A sheriff’s deputy named Timothy Graham was attempting to apprehend a mentally ill man named Aaron Swyers. A struggle ensued, and a cabbie that had just happened by named Dawud Abusida and attempted to help.
Traffic along that stretch […]

They ran a bit on NPR yesterday on a new survey about Latino students and financial aid. Excelencia in Education, the group that commissioned the study, found that:
Latino students rely heavily on federal aid and on grants in particular, according to the report, given that they are more likely to be first-generation college students (49 […]

I get a regular e-mail bulletin from Charlie Cook. Unfortunately, I can’t remember how it was I managed to subscribe to it, and the posting on his website requires a password.
His latest one, which I recieved yesterday, is a rundown on his thoughts on the special election in Ohio, where Democrat Paul Hackett did surprisingly […]

For some reason, three advertisements got posted as comments to my last entry. I have deleted them. They were all posted anonymously. I like y’all being able to do that, since it seems to maximize the number of you out there that can post. I hope I can continue to do this. I can easily […]

I have resisted the urge to say anything on here about my brother’s troubles. Unfortunately, the Arizona Republic decided to run a smart alecky piece about them. Not only was it expressly an off the record conversation between my brother and the reporter, Mr. Sherwood (Sherwood saying “this is off the record” I guess is […]

In my entry entitled “Johnny’s Last Christmas,” I neglected to include the best speech ever at a YDA convention. Since I no longer will be able to go to conventions (unless I am very pathetic…), here it is.
We met in Charleston, West Virginia in 1995. We had a female president then, Jody Buckley, and it […]

We managed to get Brittany Farbo elected the treasurer of the GLBT caucus of the Young Democrats of America. This was after she lost elections to be the chair and seceretary of the group.
It was all pretty ridiculous, actually. She has done work for EMILY’s List and works for a pretty snazzy consulting firm in […]

I dunno how the heck I forgot about Rep. Barney Frank’s speech. The guy was funny and insightful as usual. One good line:
People are worried about the liberal influence at Harvard. George Bush is proof that you can go to Harvard and Yale and emerge totally unaffected.
I got to drive him around at the convention […]