According to his post over at Blog for Arizona, he asked Tom Horne about his plans to end social promotion during his live chat that the Star staged yesterday. I don’t know why he thought is was his place to ask our state’s top educator about the natural consequences of that policy. Here is what he asked:

David S (daves): Aren’t you concerned about the potential for raising the dropout rate if we hold students back on a regular basis? The Star article mentioned that as a probable outcome.

Tom H (tomhorneaz): No. It doesn’t do any good to keep students in school if they aren’t learning. Fear of dropouts is sometimes used as an excuse for mediocrity. I categorically reject that.

See, Horne and I agree. We shouldn’t be worried about kids dropping out. I don’t worry about that because, you see, this sort of thing keeps me employed. As a matter of fact, such a policy can lead to more employment as the state would then have to hire hundreds, maybe thousands, more prison guards, probation officers and police after the inevitable rise in crime rates when you have so many young folks with no prospects on our streets. Heck, don’t think of this as an education policy, think of it as a government jobs program. Lefties should love that.

NB - Safier has one more post on Horne’s chat here. By the way, I wrote about the bizarre language and poor grammar on the front page of the Superintendent’s website over two years ago. It’s still there.

It seems that every day we have been treated to news of yet another member of John McCain’s campaign high command being a lobbyist for some sleazy or repressive foreign government. In all of that, I missed this little bit about one of Shadegg’s backers that our man at Random Musings found. A Republican being backed by lobbyists for polluters is one thing, but a Republican being backed by a lobbyist for polluters that have been dumping TCE on his own constituents? Now, that’s special.

There has been so little good news for Shadegg’s campaign (the loss of an otherwise safe Republican seat in Mississippi this week has got to be keeping him up at night), I almost feel sorry for the guy.

Almost.

I am still trying to get over the shock that a straight talking reformer like John McCain even knows any lobbyists, he is their scourge after all. I’m sure that it will turn out that he didn’t even know that thig guy Doug Goodyear was even a lobbyist. I mean, he wouldn’t stock the leadership of his campaign with such people, right?

UPDATE: Et tu, Rick Davis?

I am sorry that I have to vote for this bill. I have found out that there are some people in Arizona that hate their gay neighbors more than they want an otherwise intelligent, thoughtful person regulating utilities. I have decided that I really want the votes of these people. I hope you will respect me in the morning.

So, this now moves on to the Senate. What, pray tell, is Tim Bee to do?

The only thing I can figure is that they are worried that Jan Brewer will become governor. Yeah, that would be a nightmare.

Early on, Robuck told folks that he was running because of his opposition to the Rosemont Mine. Funny thing to use that as a justification to take out Valadez given how many of the actions of the board against the mine have been unanimous. Now he says that he’s not a “one issue” candidate.

He’s been handing out flyers (Xeroxed, come on Ray, get your buddies to open up the checkbook!) that names four issues: Water Supply, Environmental Protection/Sustainable Growth, Election Integrity and Alternative Energy. Three of those issues are ones where Valadez has been strong on, and I realize that election integrity activists are not happy with the guy but he came around after he was pressured. As much as I support that issue, it doesn’t seem to be the one that will take down a candidate as strong as Valadez is.

Not only that, but the bromides that Robuck gives on these issues indicates to me that he doesn’t have the grasp of them that would mean that he could go toe to toe with Valadez, or his potential colleagues for that matter. For example, this is from his flyer:

WATER SUPPLY: Reliable and renewable water resources are the lift [sic] blood of our communities in Pima County and must be effectively managed for our future needs.

We must manage water, because we need it to drink and stuff. Nobody has brought that up in any election for county supervisor in the entire 145 year history of Pima County, right? Geez. You want to show that Valadez is out of touch with the “real issues” and all you can come up with is this kind of Tommy Shanks rhetoric? Those of you out there that are backing this guy (and I’m sure I’ll hear from you) better hope he does a bit better than this before September rolls around.

Hi Everyone,

Last night, I attended the annual Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats banquet, held in conjunction with the conference of the National Stonewall Democrats. It was great to see many friends and elected officials who are our staunchest allies.

Among the speakers was Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who reported that prior to the dinner she heard some bad news.

Rep Marian McClure (R-30) has decided to switch her vote to “yes” on the pending anti-marriage amendment in the House. This means that the bill will likely pass on Monday.

In a nutshell, McClure is afraid that if she doesn’t vote yes, she will not receive the support from conservatives she needs to win her planned run for the Corporation Commission.

Our supporters in the AZ legislature recommend that we all call McClure’s office at (602) 926-3312 and ask her to vote “what she knows is right in her heart.”

While McClure does not support full marriage equality, she knows that this amendment is harmful and divisive and does not want to support it. She also doesn’t want to be the focus of right-wing attacks as the person who stopped it from passing in the house.

Please take a minute to call McClure at (602) 926-3312. Afterwards, please send an email to your contact list asking your friends to do the same. I’d like for this email to be the start of a viral campaign that will produce hundreds of calls to McClure’s office before she arrives on Monday morning.

If you have contacts at other LGBT and allied organizations in Arizona, please ask them to also forward your message and call to action to their members and contact lists.

In a respectful and honorable tone, we need to show McClure that we can be just as active as our conservative opponents.

Thank you,
Jason Cianciotto
Executive Director
Wingspan

Leave aside the fact that the Republicans do have superdelegates, they just don’t call them that (maybe they aren’t so super?), are these primaries really winner take all?

I was hoping to talk to my Republican mole to find out what exactly will happen today when Arizona Republicans select their convention delegates and what these rules are. From what I’ve been able to glean from some Republican blogs, it doesn’t seem that actual allegiance to primary winner John McCain is a qualification, even though he’s the prohibitive nominee. For example, one guy that signed a McCain censure motion is running for delegate. According to Sonoran Alliance, there will be three slates of delegates running, but a Ron Paul faction may make a move to get delegates seated. Paul, by the way, managed to get a bit more than 4% of the vote and would not have even qualified for delegates under the Democratic Party system, much less “winner take all.”

In 1996, we had our first Republican primary which was won by Steve Forbes. Despite being “winner take all,” the delegation that was seated was dominated by supporters of Bob Dole. In 2000, McCain won, but the delegation was headed up by Jane Dee Hull, who famously was a George W. Bush supporter. I’d like to hear from a few of the Republican activists that read me so they can tell me how this process actually works, but it doesn’t seem like the final results have much to do with the winner of the primary.

I mean, how am I supposed to keep up my reputation as a Giffords toady if these people give their exclusives to other blogs? Will I have to start singing “Possum Kingdom”?

That’s okay. Today, Hillary Clinton’s campaign sent a Power Point presentation to House Democrats. So, I called Karamargin so I could get the earth shattering, exclusive news about the results of this move.

She’s still uncommitted. Film at ten.

NB - Yes, I made the “Possum Kingdom” joke only a few days ago. Only one of you got it, so I’m doing it again.