Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

I never follow Phoenix city council races, but a corresponent up there in the Valley of the Yakes sent me some information on a certain Michael Nowakowski who is running up there. I don’t know much about him, but one thing is obvious:
He’s a Polish-Mexican like me.
For once, I can engage in genuine ethnic solidarity!
Nowakowski […]

I suppose I should appreciate Mike Barnicle’s writting, but he sucks as a political commentator. His recent turn as a sub on Hardball was untouched by any knowledge of American political life and the inept questions almost ventured into territory previously explored by The Chris Farley Show.
His political commentary gives us such “gems” as this, […]

As a snarky Democratic activist, I love the struggle for the Republican Party Chairmanship. Ours turned out to be so darned dull. I mean, Randy Camacho got elected to a lower office and is singing David Waid’s praises now. What fun is that?
A Republican State Committeeman has a choice on Saturday: either Lisa James, who […]

Most of you, no doubt, have heard the news that Roy Warden was given three years probation for assault and intimidation for an incident back in June when he burned a Mexican flag in front of the Mexican consulate.
Apparently this liberal activist judge did not agree with Warden’s novel legal theory that attacking someone and […]

Rodney Glassman’s campaign sent out an e-mail to his supporters on January 4th. It was a typical fundraising e-mail with some biographical details plus a “why Rodney will win” bit. Then, it ended with:
Please print the attached contribution form that you also need to complete and mail to me. If you have a spouse, partner […]

I wanted to correct an earlier post. A correspondent wrote to me and stated that Jonathan Paton is not, in fact, in the Green Zone, but a camp outside of Baghdad and isn’t, according to the correspondent, “even allowed to look in the direction of the Green Zone.”
I hope that no one thought I was […]

Back in the closing years of the last century, I was regional director for the Young Democrats of America. A month or so into my term, an e-mail hit the YDA listserv (something I started, one of the few tangible accomplishments I made during my brief brush with leadership in that group) announcing that Oklahoma […]

The Hotline has a preview of former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe’s book, What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals. In it, apparently, we get a mention of our own former Democratic Chairman, Jim Pederson. Far better for you to read it yourself.
Who is coming up with […]

I expected that David Waid would win. Before the meeting, I would have said that a decisive win would have been 65% or so. Waid won with a ridiculous 86% of the vote. I don’t know if this means that there wasn’t as much enthusiasm from the new progressive wing about Randy Camacho as had […]

I need to run some errands, so I will give y’all more details later. Here are the folks that won yesterday:
Chair- David Waid (Maricopa)
First Vice Chair- Donna Branch-Gilby (Pima)
Senior Vice Chair- Ken Smith (Navajo)
Vice Chairwomen- Sharon Covey (Cochise), Lois Pfau (Maricopa), Jo Kelleher (Coconino)
Vice Chairmen- Tony Gonzales (Coconino), Randy Camacho (Maricopa), Jeff Latas (Pima)
Seceretary- Judy […]

Republican mahouts are already working behind the scenes to avoid the divisive primary that they feel cost them Southeastern Arizona’s District 8 seat.
The current rumor is that fundraisers and kingmakers have made up their minds that newly elected Senate President Tim Bee will be the candidate, and have been working Rep. Jonathan Paton, currently on […]

I didn’t get one, but apparently there is an e-mail sent by Randy Camacho denying the anti-gay rumors that are allegedly being spread by supporters of David Waid. I don’t know exactly what is going on among the Maricopa County activists, but the only reason I have heard about this rumor is because of the […]

Many of you have probaly read about Virginia Delegate Frank D. Hargrove Sr., who told an African American who was supporting a resolution apologizing for slavery to “get over it.”
I hear this sort of thing from many white southerners when people bring up the past. In one of Ed Bradley’s final stories, he travelled to […]

Political humorist Art Buchwald has died. Last year, he decided to forgo dialysis and his doctors gave him only five weeks to live. Well, he hung on for much longer and was able to even tape his own eulogy (the first line is quoted above). He had been asked if there was anything that he […]

The best part about the race for chair on the Republican side is that they hold their election a week after we do, so I get to make fun of them for seven days after our bloodletting is done.
One of the things you’ll hear from the conservative activists that support Randy Pullen is that their […]

The Weekly ran an item in yesterday’s Skinny that named Adelita Grijalva as a possible candidate to run in Ward 1.
One of the publishers of the old New England Revolution fanzine Pictures of Chairman Mao had a word for such things:
Rumpswab.
I decided not to call Grijalva herself, since she just had a baby and is […]

I finally recieved a mailer from Randy Camacho. I thought it was a bit unusual since it contained what was essentially a very wordy palm card, rather than a letter, detailing his 30/15/8 plan. I suppose that the card contained the same information that would be in a “Dear Democratic Friend” letter anyway. It just […]

There has been a bit of buzz about a straw poll among Maricopa county Republicans that showed John McCain coming in fourth place behind Duncan Hunter (don’t worry, no one else has heard of him either), Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Gosh, how did our own US Senator do so poorly? How did a rather […]

Ward 2 council candidate Rodney Glassman’s campaign website is up and running. You can check it out here.

As I wrote earlier, Gabrielle Giffords made her first remarks on the House floor last Friday. She made them during Special Orders on the topic of immigration:
(Ms. GIFFORDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak for the very first time in this […]