Arizona's First Political Blog

E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com

By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
The Black Box

In reading (what seems to be ) countless columns and editorials in the aftermath of yesterday's failed immigration bill, the overwhelming consensus seems to be the country missed a great opportunity and the Republicans are to blame.

As to those 2 points, maybe I'll address them another time.

However what's more striking about these pieces is their silence regarding the speed of which the bill's proponents tried to get it passed.

Let's leave aside the failed effort to get the bill passed through the Senate before Memorial Day. When it was reintroduced this week to the Senate floor, the 400-page bill was accompanied by about a dozen amendments. Neither the bill nor its amendments had gone through the committee process or gone through any sort of public vetting despite the fact that the bill language was complex and technical. In short it was a document dump. On top of that, the full Senate had about 48 hours to review, debate, and deal with the amendments before voting on cloture.

Smell funny to you?

Like the supporters of the bill didn't dare expose this bill to democratic debate?

Keep in mind that this is the Senate which is noted for "... pour(ing) legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it." Instead there was a concerted effort to ram through a complicated and controversial piece of legislation; which for all the rhetoric about amnesty and solving national problems, the process alone commends this bill to a well-deserved demise.

I understand that this summer was great timing to get this legislation passed; a Democratic Congress, a lame-duck Republican President eager for one great domestic accomplishment. However those basics were all there back in November and there is no excuse for ramming this through.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 4:59 PM

 
How Did I Miss This?

Pie Town, NM, home of the Daily Pie Cafe.... "The word got around that the best pies anywhere were to be found at 'Pie Town."'

Pie Town is located on US 60 between Socooro, NM and Springerville.... back in the day there used to be a place, I believe in nearby Quemado that had the "World's Largest Chicken Fried Steak"....

Pie? Chicken fried steak? Do I smell a road trip on September 8th?
posted by Anonymous Mike at 8:09 AM

 
For a Job Well Done?

MCCCD Resigns Chancellor for 3 More Years... and gets a raise.

Apparently when it was uncovered (by the press, not the college) that in the past year Maricopa County Community College officials...

* swept criminal wrong-doing and nepotism under the rug

* looked the other way on academic fraud that cost the tax payers, both county and state, thousands of dollars

* had a broken audit system where auditor reports were often ignored and where some board members were kept in the dark about audit problems while others refused to attend audit committee meetings

* is the target of an ongoing criminal investigation by the county sheriff and attorney

.... it's entirely appropriate to reward a guy who was not only the CEO for the past 4 years when all this stuff broke but before then was the CFO responsible designing the system that allowed these things to flourish.

There is no question that this has been a very challenging year, with many flaws in the district brought to light, said board president Linda Rosenthal.

Though the chancellor deserves a share of the blame, she said he is also the right man to reform the colleges.

Gosh if you get 3 years and a raise for your share of the blame how many years and how big a raise do you get for actually doing a good job?

Btw.... back in 2002, MCCCD gave then current chancellor Fred Gaskin a spanking new 3-year contract and ended up firing him a year later, costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in a buyout
posted by Anonymous Mike at 7:57 AM

 
Source of Campaign Funds Revealed!

My favorite e-mailer writes:

"What are you too lazy to go to the City Clerk Office and look up Mayor Gordon's campaign finance records? Here let me do it for you, Gordon has around $575,000 in cash and Jon Talton cleared probably $500,000 on his house. Do the math and put together the pieces."

You have to admit that was pretty sweet deal... or still is as he hasn't sold it yet.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 9:18 AM

 
Endless Summer

This is probably an obligatory post for any Phoenix-based blogger....

Today is the first day of summer. Now pretty much nationwide, people consider the first day of summer to be either Memorial Day weekend or when school lets out but here in Phoenix we have the additional complication that the temperature was above 90 degrees a few months ago.
After all you cannot call it springtime weather when the temperature is 95, no what month it is.

So when is the first semi-official day of summer in Phoenix?

Is it the first day when the temperature hits 100 degrees? That was April...

Is it the first day when the temperature goes above 110? That was a few weeks ago...

Is it the first day when you can use the pool? That was in April....

Is it the first day when you cannot get the ice cream home from the store without melting though you only live 1/2 mile away?

Is it the first day somebody cracks the joke "...but it's a a dry heat"

Is it when the neighbors stop having friends visit them from the Midwest and instead start to visit their friends in San Diego?

Is it the day the Suns get eliminated from the playoffs?
posted by Anonymous Mike at 7:56 PM

 
It's a 90's Thing, I Don't Understand

Dear Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon,

I knew you were up for re-election this year but I didn't realize it was coming up so soon, September 11th as of matter of fact. Caught me a little by surprise you see because where I come from, Chandler, we have our city government elections during a more normal time of year.... March.

Anyway the election is a little over 2 months away and the only person I can find who is running against you is political gadfly and Al Sharpton buddy Jarrett Maupin. I imagine that one reason for the lack of challengers is your large campaign fund which I have read is around $575,000.

Well I am a curious person so I wanted to know where you got that money from so I went to the City of Phoenix web site to look up your campaign finance information and this is what I found:

To review specific information about a committee, visit the City Clerk Department at 200 W. Washington St., 15th Floor, Phoenix, AZ.

Mr. Mayor I am less than pleased.

I remember back in the day when the City of Phoenix had one of the best city government web sites in the country. The year was 1994, you might remember back then... it was when Hillary Care was the national rage, Newt Gingrich was an unknown minority whip, and the whole Valley was alive with Buddy Ryan fever. It was also when it was considered leading edge for a Web site to tell you to get into your car and visit a government office if you wanted real information.

This isn't 1994.

Take a look at cities of comparable size. Houston has campaign finance information on-line, Philadelphia has campaign finance information on-line, and of course Maricopa County and the State of Arizona do as well. So why doesn't Phoenix?

Maybe it's all part of your secret plot to generate human traffic in downtown Phoenix because I don't think there's any place I would rather be on a June weekday afternoon than visiting the City Clerk's office in downtown Phoenix digging up information that should have been on-line 10 years ago.

I think Mayor Jarrett would have had this thing done yesterday... I wouldn't underestimate him.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 6:03 PM

 
The No Look Pass... Again

I shamelessly stole the title of this post from Espresso Pundit who used it describe how enforcement agencies give people of certain persuasions the benefit of the doubt (and then some) when it comes to enforcing the law. Greg wrote:

So what's wrong with the No Look Pass? The problem is that if you aren't a sympathetic character, the enforcement agency will decide not to pass and the newspapers will decide to look.

Let's go back to my post last week regarding Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard's statement regarding the polygamists up in Colorado City.

The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona said in separate interviews they had no intention of prosecuting polygamists unless they commit other crimes such as taking underage brides -- a practice authorities said was rampant in a Utah-Arizona border community run by Warren Jeffs before his arrest in August."We are not going to go out there and persecute people for their beliefs," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

In one sense I guess should be grateful for Mr. Goddard's candor. Prosecutors have a lot of discretion as there are always more crimes to pursue then there are resources. Goddard, when asked how he would deal with the issue, could have just said he had more important crimes to pursue.

However he didn't say that... he said to go after polygamists was "persecution" and he wasn't going to do it. That's way more than just looking the other way or sweeping it under the rug, which I think about every Arizona AG has done with it since Short Creek. Somebody should let Mr. Goddard know that he isn't Louis "l'etat c'est moi" XIV

I guess in comparison he does look a lot better than the Attorney General of Utah, after all as a condition of statehood Utah had to insert a ban on polygamy.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 8:56 PM

 
Mercy

I was keeping an eye on the ASU College World Series game when it was going into the bottom of the 8th with the Sun Devils up by 4 after posting 3 runs in the top of the frame... I come back and it was tied.....?

Does Valverde close for ASU?

First 5 UC-Irvine batters in the bottom of the inning.... walked, walked, walked, hit by pitch, and then 2-run single.

Apparently the ASU closer got the the jitters and let's remember the guy is a freshman. What a way to end the season both for the Sun Devils and for the pitcher as ASU lost in extra innings, my heart goes out to him.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 8:37 PM

 
Memorable Moments in Law Enforcement

Article from Reuters (h/t Instapundit):

The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona said in separate interviews they had no intention of prosecuting polygamists unless they commit other crimes such as taking underage brides -- a practice authorities said was rampant in a Utah-Arizona border community run by Warren Jeffs before his arrest in August."We are not going to go out there and persecute people for their beliefs," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

How about persecuting people for breaking the law?

UPDATED: An e-mailer writes:

"I believe Goddard was misquoted, it was clear from the context that what he actually said was 'We are not going to go out there and persecute people for beliefs that I don't object to... scr*w the law.' If that's not what he actually said, that is sure what he meant"

or this:

"I think he meant to say 'We are not going to go out there and persecute people for beliefs... unless you're also gouging on gas prices or illegally sell cold medicine. Then I'll see you in hell"


posted by Anonymous Mike at 10:58 PM

 
El Gringo is Back

I was getting worried....
posted by Anonymous Mike at 4:22 PM

 
A Prelude to Gaza

Last summer, Michael Totten visited southern Israel to offer a look at Gaza from the outside. For an eerie perspective on the madness there, check out his post from that time.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 7:52 PM