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Arizona's First Political Blog
E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.
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Monday, October 29, 2007
Making the East Valley Proud Exurban League has been getting national blogging love for its coverage of the TNR-Beauchamp scandal..... ... though it seems the boys of the East Valley have a scandal of their own brewing. Thoughts from a Sports Weekend Nice to know that ESPN has switched its Friday night programming from meaningless college football to even more meaningless NBA preseason games.... Ira Newable fever, catch it! I guess congratulations are in order for a given baseball team from New England, but I am too small a man for that. I think I can take small consolation that they will have J.D. Drew on the roster for the next 4 years. Late last month I just knew the Rockies would go ice cold at some point in time but why couldn't they have done it 4 games earlier? After 25 years, my opinion has still not changed; Tim McCarver is an idiot. Where's Deion Sanders and a bucket of Gatorade when you need him? The early Saturday game on ABC had all the makings of a classic. I could care less about West Virgina and Rutgers, what I meant was the weather... late October game in the Northeast with driving rain. Mud city. The only problem is Rutgers plays on an artificial turf field. Perhaps on weekends when they expect rain within a given region, ABC could locate any decent match-up played on a grass field and dispatch a crew to televise it.... maybe put the TV guys on "rain alert" and send them out on 12-hour notice anywhere in the country just like Rapid Deployment Force. Any such game has to better than the Big-12 North game of the week on FSN. As far as ASU, I am starting to believe. I have a bad feeling about this Saturday in Eugene against the Quack Attack but still....... Sunday, October 28, 2007
Shine A Light on Me Let's do a thought experiment.... Person applies to lead a program at a non-profit or public institution. Person is not only hired for the position over several more qualified applicants, but the person in question lacks some critical experience. To top it, the successful applicant's starting salary is about 30% above the advertised maximum for the position. The applicant then quickly turns the position as a major resume builder for a run for public office. It "turns out" that a major financial benefactor of the program in question is the applicant's father. Both the father and the program's parent institution deny any shenanigans; the father claims he would still contribute to the program even if his child wasn't hired and the institution claim that the applicant was the best qualified for the position. To top it all off, the applicant denies any prior knowledge that the father was backer for the program. I am of course talking about Laura Pastor who applied to head a program at Maricopa Community College District. The program has been funded to the tune of millions of federal dollars in earmarks arranged by her father Congressman Ed Pastor. We are asked to believe that an unqualified person is hired over the head of better qualified candidates and awarded an extraordinarily high salary for a position that her father was heavily involved in supporting, but that no favoritism was involved. We are asked to believe that Ms. Pastor was unaware of the fact that her father has steered millions of dollars to the very program she was applying to head... ... yeah right. This is hardly a case on par with the corruption of Cunningham and Murtha, just a stream of coincidences that involved a daughter benefiting from the earmarks issued from a powerful father. There were probably no phone calls or e-mails made on Ms. Pastor's behalf, no meetings or probably not even a helpful hint dropped in the right ear. No trails to follow, no comebacks. All Ms. Pastor had to do was announce her name and the connection would be made and even the most obtuse interviewing officer would understand what needed to be done Twisting other people's arms is for the weak. Getting people to twist their own arms on your behalf... that's power my friends. Friday, October 26, 2007
The Unbearable Lightness of Linda Valdez From the AZ Republic: Thanks to Mayor Phil Gordon for putting the blame where it belongs and sending an invoice to D.C. for what illegal immigration costs Phoenix. Gov. Janet Napolitano did the same. Until there is immigration reform, members of Congress should donate their salaries and benefits to help reimburse the states. I learned that there is no such thing as free in life and that includes snarkiness. If someone in a debate or negotiation is going to jab to make an annoying point, you can pick it up and make some hay with it. Ms. Valdez has written copiously on the subject on illegal immigration and let's just say that she is as far from an enforcement position as you can get. If she wants to invoice the feds for failing to enforce a policy that she doesn't support well then.... There's a number of ways I could go with but let's deal with the invoicing issue. Earlier in the week, Gordon decided to invoice the federal government in order tor recoup costs incurred by the city in fighting illegal immigration. As Gordon said: "If they're making local government doing their work, then we ought to be paid for it," Gordon said. "Our taxpayers have been paying them to do it." This is of course political theater and everyone knows it and the fact that Gordon is trying to deflect criticism for his policy regarding city police and illegal immigrants just makes the whole scheme that much more transparent. However there is no reason politicians like Gordon and Napolitano can have all the fun of "invoicing" one level of government for failure to adequately enforce laws that both Arizona politicians despise. Let's open the floodgates... 1) When the umemployed are without proper job skills and must turn to the state for help, have Arizona invoice the K-12 districts where these people went to school for failure to adequately prepare them. I am sure this could also apply to the convicted felons who "had" to turn to a life of crime because they couldn't get a job. 2) When the federal government imprisons people who break federal law after they had been released early from sentences in state prisons, let the feds invoice Arizona. 3) When communities next to federal land suffer from catastrophic wild fires caused in part by inadequate land management policies, let the local governments invoice the feds for full financial relief - none of this generous aid bit as with a natural disaster like a hurricane, the feds should be exposed for their incompetence and forced to pay. I am sure we could draft some invoices that could be sent to the City of Phoenix as well. This all between various levels of government stuff, nothing on the level of private citizen vs. the government but that would be an interesting (yet futile) exercise would it not? Ms. Valdez and Mayor Gordon, let the games begin..... Missing the Point That would be me. Earlier this week I wondered why New Times scandal would ruin Joe Arpaio's political fortunes after all the crap over the past 15 years. To this I get the following e-mail: You're an idiot... you should know that you can have prisoners die in your jail's restraint chairs, rack up millions in resulting legal settlements, entrap people on bogus conspiracy charges, and run a political slime machine as long as you don't touch the media. Soon as you touch a hair on their sacred head, you're done. Yep that's the hard hitting journalism of the Valley of the Sun for you; killing prisoners in your jail is a statistic, jailing the editor of a newspaper is a tragedy. Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Will Joe Go After this No No? Far be it to me to question the acumen of a man who not only has many more years of political experience than me but also runs "Arizona's Best Political Website" but..... .... to think that the New Times Affair will be the political death knell for Joe Arpaio is a little premature. After all this is a man who has won re-election to office after paying out multi-million dollar judgments over people dying in his jails, has been written up by Amnesty International, and has had his deputies entrap people involving supposed threats on Arpaio's life. Why would this necessarily be any different? Of course the guy will be 76 on election day next November.... and even Boss Tweed had his comeuppance. Thank Goodness Times Select is Gone From last week's Maureen Dowd column: “Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream is driving a bulldozer into The New York Times while drinking crude oil out of Keith Olbermann’s skull.” I said it was in her column, not that she wrote it... as they say, read the whole thing For the Good of America.... The Red Sox Must Lose Given the score of tonight’s game this is probably the wrong time to be writing this but spitting into the wind is a bad habit of mine America loves the underdog, the little guy. Sure we drive cars made and fueled by multinational behemoths, take our fashion cues from celebrities who look down their nose at us, and pretend if we drink the proper mass produced beer that chicks will like us. However when it comes to sports or movies we want to see David give Goliath a Purple Nurple, a Wet Willie, or dare I say it the Dreaded Rear Admiral. After all no one roots for the government in E.T. … well I did, I cried when I found out that the little punk was alive and it wasn’t tears of joy. Let’s take this year’s World Series. In one corner, we have the Colorado Rockies. A team that has been hotter than a new pair of snow tires for about a month. A team loaded with guys who either make the minimum or are cast-offs from other teams. A team that pretty much had to every game the last 2 weeks of the season just to make the playoffs and they did. A team you could root for and identify with. In the other corner we have the Red Sox. Back when I started watching baseball 30 years ago, the Red Sox were a monster. Full of homegrown bashers like Yaz, Pudge, Rice, and Lynn. Blue collar, lunch pail type of team. They played gutsy baseball and went down to the wire with the Big Red Machine and the gilt-edged Yanks. I didn’t care for them, didn’t really liked them because they scared me. I still have nightmares from a Monday Night Baseball game in early 1978 where it seemed every Sox batter was hitting it into the corner and taking extra bases. That team was followed by the 1986 Series team. “Nuff said. Personally I blame it all on Calvin Schiraldi. Then you had the 2004 Series team. Bunch of idiots who hung loose, played together, and had some of the best chemistry I ever saw. Damon, Varitek, and even a Nixon. Even though they had a sky high payroll, they were a loveable group of character guys who were trying to do something that hadn’t been done since the Wilson Administration. Then you have this year’s team… which has all the home grown charm of the moneybags Yanks. A team that used its immense revenue to construct a bloated roster through free agency, assuming contracts from poorer teams, and posting fees. Take the third baseman, Mike Lowell, decent guy. With some good stats… maybe not $9 million per season worth of stats but for the Sox to get Josh Beckett from the Marlins, they had to take Lowell’s bloated contract as well… and sign Beckett to a huge contract as well because the Marlins couldn’t afford to pay him. Nice to know that the Marlins are the 21st Century version of the Kansas City A’s. Take Manny Ramirez, all 8 years $160 million of him. Largest contract ever this side of Alex Rodriguez. Yeah he’s got a great bat but the man is a disaster area in the outfield, they should probably DH him but they are already paying another about $13 million per year to do that. Finally last offseason, the team threw more than $200 million for the world-beating trio of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Julio Lugo, and J.D. Drew…. once you start doing that you have finished burying the image of yourselves as the lineal descendant of 2004 and instead are Yankees North. This is team we want to crown World Series camps for America’s Past Time? A team so large and so wealthy that it can give J.D. “75%” Drew a $70 million contract? Pah If there is any justice in his world, and there isn’t, the Sox will lose….. but you know how it will go and this Series will have all the charm of a Donald Trump line of cologne. Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Matter of Trust Arizona Revised Statutes, 39-121.01 "All officers and public bodies shall maintain all records, including records as defined in section 41-1350, reasonably necessary or appropriate to maintain an accurate knowledge of their official activities and of any of their activities which are supported by monies from the state or any political subdivision of the state." Long and short, if you work in the public sector, your actions are open to public scrutiny. This can be taken to certain extremes; a few years ago an angry booster acquired the phone records of University of Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt. Some go to extremes to hide their activity from public scrutiny as with the aides of Eliott Spitzer. The case below falls between the extreme and the ridiculous. Casey Newton at the AZ Republic has learned that several Phoenix city members use private e-mail accounts in order to conduct city business. In one case, Doug Lingner, has been doing so for 10 years. The reasons vary either out of fear inadvertently using a public e-mail system for private use or out of convenience. One council member claims to never do public correspondence at all out of such fears saying he rather do it "in person." As I wonder what Mr. Simplot means by "in person" perhaps somebody should welcome him to the 2oth Century and introduce him to that phone on his desk. I am sure he shies away from using it for the same reason, such as inadvertently using it to order a pizza or some other personal business. I would like to change what I wrote above.... this is ridiculous. The problem with such statements is that they are incoherent. Web based e-mail requires, obviously, some sort of Web client access. If the given council members are accessing their private e-mail accounts from city-owned devices, whether a Blackberry or computer, they are still using public resources but now their e-mail records are outside of the public records system. Second, if council members are having problems either with accessing their e-mail outside of the office or with understanding the intricacies of what constitutes inappropriate use then they should work to get these issues addressed. This is 2007 not 1997 as the fifth-largest city in the country it is not like Phoenix is without resources or staff. What emerges is either inattention or a systemic policy of incompetence by some of the highest elected officials in Phoenix toward public records law. Here's some suggestions to address the problem: 1) Immediately audit the e-mail system to discern any problems with out-of-office access and have those problems solved. 2) Upon resolution of any the e-mail problems, ban the use of private e-mail accounts by any city official using city-owned access devices. This can be enforced both by policy and by code, blocking access to such e-mail sites at the network/firewall level. It's quite simple actually- see problem, define problem, solve problem. That is if the issue of using private e-mail accounts by city council members really is a problem Friday, October 5, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Why Do I Get the Feeling That.... After reading all the pre-game predictions by the national media.... Following the comments by the announcers during the game.... Listening to the post-game comments on Baseball Tonight.... That not only does it seem that no one gives the D'backs, who have the best record in the NL, a chance to beat the Cubs but that it would be a disaster of San Antonio-Cleveland NBA Finals proportions if there is a Rockies-D'backs NLCS. Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Sports Bigamy Due to a prior engagement I won't be able to go to the D'backs playoff game tonight but I expect that there will be, as always, alot of Cubs fans dressed up in their team colors. If regular season forms holds, the overwhelming majority of said fans will be Valley residents and long-term ones at that. Don't get me wrong, Phoenix has alot of Chicago transplants and I will be the first to admit that one's childhood sport loyalties stay with you. I don't expect transplants to engage in "sports bigamy" when those old loyalties conflict with the teams of their new community. However. The D'backs represent your community. For the vast majority of Americans, seeing highlights of D'back games on TV is the closest they will ever get to the realization that grass can grow in Arizona, that we don't ride horses to the ballpark instead of cars, and that we have electricity. Please don't force me to remind you that you support a team that last won the World Series when Teddy Roosevelt was President and has become the symbol for lovable losers; in short Cubs fans represent all that is wrong with America and I can trace the social rot in this country to the loving national embrace of that team. Please don't force me to remind you that the D'backs and Marlins won more World Series, 3, over 16 collective seasons than the Cubs have won in 98 years. So if you are a Valley resident who is going tonight to root for the Cubs, please have a sense of decency and keep the following in mind: 1) Don't comment that Chase Field is worse than Wrigley. Yes we know, your architectural options are somewhat more limited when you need to plan for 100 degree summer days. On the other hand it also has more recent World Series championship banners hanging on the walls than what you'll find at Wrigley 2) However you are allowed to criticize that there are far fewer places to booze up in the neighborhood around Chase before the game than Wrigley. Wrigleyville is a gem in that regard. 3) Stating that Old Style is the best beer of all time may entail security forcing you to wear an authentic Rex Grossman game jersey. 4) Be discrete in your Cubs paraphernalia. A hat or a shirt or even both is fine, bringing extras like signs or a foam finger may get you a box of scorpions mailed to your address 5) Asserting the marginal superiority of Alfonso Soriano over Chris Young is allowed as long as you acknowledge that Soriano makes about 42x Young's salary. 6) Gloating that Dan Bickley is writing for an Arizona instead of a Chicago newspaper is allowed as long as you acknowledge that you now live in Arizona and have to read him as well. 7) You are allowed to tell all D'back fans how much of a rich baseball tradition Chicago has as long as you point to the 2001 World Series banner as you do so 8) If you tell D'backs fans how much better it is to live in Chicago than Phoenix, then you will have to explain why you choose to live in a place that you find inferior. Don't be surprised if you have to wear an authentic Bob Avelini game jersey for your indiscretion. 9) Wearing another team's colors to our stadium in safety is an implicit acknowledgment of both our courtesy and sense of fair play; try doing the same thing in either Philly or New York 10) If you have lived your entire life in Phoenix and yet still root for the Cubs over the D'backs, I have heard talk of a surprise ceremony after the 7th inning where all such fans will be paraded around the field to be subjected to the ridicule for which they so richly deserve. The Lonely Train to Nowhere Thomas over at Bear Droppings follows up on my earlier post regarding the commuter rail story in the Republic with a link to a more detailed analysis at Coyote Blog. While I disagree with important details of the post, mostly he feels that we could lease each rider a new Prius for what New Mexico is paying to operate the system while I'm thinking of a Corolla, he is right right on. The money graph which tells us about the AZ Republic and its reporting style: I am just all aglow for Sharon. But does the project make sense for the taxpayers of the city and the state (and probably nation) that funded it? Well, we don't know. Because the AZ Republic writes 56 paragraphs lauding the system without once telling us anything about the system performance. Does it cover its costs? Are city roads visibly less congested? Is there a net energy savings? Is there measurably less pollution? We don't know. All we know is that three people, Geronimo Trujillo, Briana Duran, and Sharon, like it. Scorpion Blogging, Day 2 From an AP report: MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The package from Hong Kong looked innocent enough, marked "personal clothing." But when customs officials opened it, they were stunned to see about 300 live scorpions and spiders. The scorpions and spiders — which included tarantulas — were packed in nets, bottles and transparent plastic boxes, concealed under clothes, newspapers reported Wednesday. Hmmmm.... I guess Christmas came a little earlier this year then was expected. The spiders and scorpions were later handed over to the parks and wildlife office. Steven Toledo, head of the office's rescue center, said the spiders and scorpions will be "taken care of" and possibly used in exhibitions. He said some of them were still juveniles. I love the euphemism "taken care of" which is code for "stepped on until squished" Tuesday, October 2, 2007
What Would You Do? The Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres played 1-game tiebreaker to decide who would be the NL wildcard entry in the playoffs; 1 game for all the marbles, winner goes on, loser goes home. The game's context was fascinating for a number of reasons. The Rockies had one of the great all-time season finishes of all time, winning 13 of their 14 games. Also both teams were divisional opponents, so they had already played 18 times during the season. Familiar with each other indeed. Game goes into the 13th inning, the drama builds as the Rockies send in former D'back pitcher Jorge "Gas Can" Julio who immediately donates a 2-run lead to the Padres. The Padres counter in the bottom of the inning with perhaps the greatest reliever of all-time who quickly gives up 2 runs to tie the game and has men at first and third, no outs. Any ball to the outfield probably wins the games and ends the Padres' season. Jamey "The Hammer" Carroll hits a looping line drive to the right fielder, game over right? Nope, Brian Giles whips the ball into the plate and it's going to be a close play. If the runner is safe, game and season over. If the runner is out it's now 2 out and runner on second and perhaps the Padres live to see the 14th inning. Padre catcher Michael Barrett blocks the plate, Rockies runner Matt Holliday goes to sweep the corner with his left hand, and the umpire.... hesitates to make the call. It is said that there are times when a man's life flashes before his eyes. It was a tough call but as it happened, I couldn't believe that Holliday got has hand in. Barrett blocked the corner of the plate with his left foot; Holliday couldn't get his hand around the side of Barrett's foot and unless the runner could undo the laws of time and space there was no way he was getting his hand over that foot and drop it right onto the plate. My wife thought that the ump hesitated to get the call right.... I saw it differently. The ump in that brief moment of time realized that: 1) A safe call means the Rockies win, an out call could well prolong the game until a different outcome was reached. 2) He was in a stadium surrounded by 48,000 screaming Rockies fans 3) An out call might mean the animosity of those 48,000 fans would be directed toward him and the possibility that they would find his body up int he hills after the Spring thaw. What would you do? After all they expected to get every call right they would have instant replay. The Hammer of God(dard) From today's EV Valley Trib: The Arizona Supreme Court last week refused to reinstate the single conflict-of-interest charge against Ross that had been thrown out earlier this year by an appeals court. Ross, a Gilbert Republican, was indicted on three felony charges in May 2004. He beat two of the charges during his December 2004 trial. He was convicted on a single count of conflict of interest, but that conviction was overturned in January when the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded he did not misuse his office when he used a public record kept by the agency in a part-time business venture. Corrupt politicians is a serious issue, as the whole mess in Washington indicates. However as this Trib report indicates, AZ Attorney General Goddard's prosecutorial record on the issue involves no convictions on corruption or fraud but instead on reporting technicalities. Nice to know Arizona has cleared up its act since AZScam Monday, October 1, 2007
So Which is It? Please forgive this for being old news but the turn-out for the recent mayoral election in Phoenix, America's 5th largest city, was 17% So is the 17% a bug or a feature? Scorpions on a Plane Once a upon time I learned that not all that crawled on my living room floor was a cricket.... but I never thought to have to check my airline seat. Promises of Boondoggles to Come Beating the drum for commuter in rail in Sunday's AZ Republic with a story on the Rail Runner in New Mexico: New Mexico's year-old Rail Runner Express commuter-train system carries about 3,000 people a day into and out of downtown Albuquerque, removing cars from busy freeways and a lot of stress from people like Hedrich. Good Early reviews of the system are mixed. People like the train's affordability. Some even like the idea that they are helping to reduce air pollution. Critics, however, say operating the $9 million-a-year system is too expensive and not enough people use it. For people like Hedrich, it all boils down to convenience and some quiet time they would otherwise not have. Actually some claim that for the cost of some systems, you could just give each commuter a leased BMW X5. With Rail Runner's numbers you are only looking at $3,000 subsidy per commuter, which would probably put them in a Corolla. So I'll call it better. How much did this thing cost to build? The first phase cost $135 million A bargain at any price. |
