Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

I heard tonight of the passing of local activist Lorraine Lee. She died after a prolonged illness.
Lee had served more than two decades of Chicanos por la Causa. Many people think of CPLC as just a Hispanic advocacy organization, but under Lee’s leadership, it had a broad range of activities, including helping senior citizens with housing, funding scholarship programs and […]

It is not Greg Patterson’s job to satisfy me. As a matter of fact, if I were happy with Greg’s stuff on any sort of regular basis, it would be time for both of us to check our meds. We’d both need more.
But, I have to say I am disappointed in the former State Representative. […]

Joe Biden on Rudolph Giuliani:
There are only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11

The first Democratic presidential candidate has opened up an office in Tucson. Barack Obama’s Tucson office is at 4500 E Speedway, Suite 25-26. Not the best place for street frontage, but so far, this is the only campaign with paid staff in Southern Arizona. This is pretty remarkable, given that only a few months ago […]

Just a follow-up on my bit on Fred Duval’s run for DNC: I recieved an e-mail from a Jeff Latas fan (remember when those folks all thought I was Satan?) who wanted to note that Latas is interested in running for the DNC too.
I’m not sure that Latas can beat DuVal one-on-one, but he really […]

Even as a frequent critic of John McCain, I thought he was pretty clever with his “I was tied up…” jibe when going after Hillary Clinton for funding the Bethel Arts Center, which has been derided as the “hippie museum.”
Of course, “hippie museum” is pretty far from what it actually is.
The only thing that is […]

Saturday’s Political Notebook had a bit on the baby dolls that had been appearing around Rodney Glassman’s signs.
[Lori] Oien said she had no idea that the dolls were set under the Glassman signs, although she said it was interesting that someone in the community felt the same way she does. “I had nothing to do […]

I got a call today from Fred DuVal, who is stumping for votes for the Democratic National Committee slot being vacated by Joe Rios. This would not be DuVal’s first stint on the committee, having served as an “at-large” member in the 1990’s.
DuVal is promising to get more resources for Arizona, something is is very […]

Sometimes, there is no need to elaborate.
A fella named Frank Schmuck is running for State House up in the East Valley.
Yep.

You know, I almost forgot about Tomás Tancredo. He kind of fell off the radar screen for me. Every once in a while, I sit there and think to myself, “Gosh, is he still as much of a gamoń as before?”
It turns out, yes, he is. All is right with the world.
Sen. Dick Durbin had […]

Bill Richardson is releasing an ad featuring testimonials from two pilots he negotiated the release of from Iraq in 1995.

The campaign is providing documentation for this ad here.

George Cunningham, former State Senator and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Governor, has been hospitalized due to a heart attack while hiking in the Grand Canyon. He is resting at a hospital in, appropriately enough, St. George, Utah.
Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Last week, people started reporting baby dolls with the logo “Trust Fund Baby” being placed near Rodney Glassman signs.
Great, Lori Oien’s supporters have entered junior high school.

It looks like folks in the Phoenix media are not buying Andrew Thomas’s excuse that he didn’t know what Dennis Willenchick was acting entirely on his own and Thomas didn’t know he was going to go and have the owners of the New Times arrested.
Come on guys, do you expect Thomas to actually run his […]

Lori Oien’s supporters have been struggling to circulate attacks on Rodney Glassman and his family, but they haven’t been too successful getting them into the local press. This hasn’t stopped local political provocateur Emil Franzi from circulating them by e-mail. I won’t print the e-mail here, but here is the money quote:
Tucsonans need to ask […]

So, this guy in know in Los Angeles writes a soccer blog and he has categories based on players he likes. For example, he has a category called “Cobi Freakin’ Jones” and one called “David Freakin’ Beckham.” Yes, he uses the word “Freakin’” rather than the alternative because he is concerned for the children.
I noted […]

A correspondent reported that they saw a bumper sticker for Dan Spahr. No word on whether the car was being driven by Mr. Spahr.
The correspondent claimed that the sticker said, “Support Our Troops - Dan Spahr 2007.” Um, what?
(I was told at a campaign training I went to back in 2000 not to refer to them […]

Been bad about posting here over the last week. I’m sorry about that. I haven’t had the time or inclination. Besides, it’s sunny out…
I’ll have some stuff up later in the day.

As expected, the President vetoed expansion of the S-CHIP program this morning. His claim is that the program is too expensive.
So, here is my question: the previous congresses have spent so much money on pork barrel projects that even John McCain refered to them as “drunken sailors” (being a Navy man, McCain presumably knows what a […]

I was sent some polling numbers for our primary here in Arizona:
Hillary Clinton 38
Barack Obama 18
Al Gore 18
John Edwards 10
Bill Richardson 5
Compare these to the same poll released in August:
Clinton 28
Obama 17
Gore 17
Edwards 13
Richardson 9
I don’t know why these guys are still including Gore, but hey. It would appear that Clinton not only has a […]