AZ New & Blogs

• John Stossel on Drugs and the Drug War
• Immigration, Individual Rights, and the New Deal 
• In fact, until the 1930’s, the US was generally (though not perfectly) open to immigration, because we accepted the premise that someone who was born beyond our borders had no less right to find their fortune in this country than someone born in Boston or New York.  I won’t rehash the history of immigration nor its importance to the building of this country, because I don’t want to slip from the philosophical to the pragmatic in my arguments for immigration.
• My Immigration Reform Plan 
• For the first 150 years of this country’s history, our country was basically wide-open to immigration.  Sure, there were those opposed (the riots in NYC in the 19th century come to mind) but the opposition was confined mainly to xenophobes and those whose job skills were so minimal that unskilled immigrants who could not speak English were perceived as a threat.   It was only the redistributionist socialism-lite of the New Deal and later the Great Society that began to make unfettered immigration unpopular with a majority of Americans, who rightly did not wish to see the world’s poor migrate to the US seeking an indolent life of living off of government handouts.
• This is phenomenal.  After years of being stay-at-home moms or whatever, women in America decided it was time to go to work.  This was roughly the equivalent of having 40,000,000 immigrants show up on our shores one day looking for work.  And you know what? The American economy found jobs for all of them, despite oil embargos and stagflation and wars and "outsourcing".
• Kobach’s Defense of SB1070 
• When our governor is saying that the majority of Arizona’s 500,000 illegal immigrants are all drug mules, that none of them are really looking for honest work, and that all they do is cause crime up to and including beheadings in the desert, I get angry to hear the same stupid arguments that many of our grandparents heard about their ethnic groups (though the beheading thing seems to lack historical precedent).  (more on the immigration non-crime wave here).
•  The language of SB1070 has never matched the arguments supporting it.  SB1070 mainly gives the police power to be more intrusive at certain traffic stops and harass day labor centers.  What in the heck does this have anything to do with drug cartels and armed paramilitary gangs on the border?  If, as our governor says, illegal immigrants are not really looking for legitimate work, then why is most of our enforcement via employers offering legitimate work?
• No, the Arizona travel alert isn’t just a stunt 
• The American Civil Liberties Union is raising eyebrows with the travel alert it has issued for Arizona, even before the state’s infamous SB 1070 (PDF) goes into effect.
• The ACLU points out that police, especially in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Venezuela-esque Maricopa County fiefdom, “are already beginning to act on provisions of the law” and their efforts are “meant to create a hostile enough environment for Latinos and other people of color that they voluntarily leave the state.”
• July 7, 2010: "Guest Workers Aid Border Security" featuring Stuart Anderson 
• @7:14: What we saw in the past is that under the Pesero (sp) program, which is an agricultural labor program, we saw that what happened was the Mexican farm workers were able to come in legally to work.  And when there was increase inforcement around 1953 -'54 what we saw happen was at the same time the US government made it easier for people to come in legally under the Pesero program and while 1953 approximately 880,000 people were apprehended at the border which is kind of a proxy for illegal entry by 1959 the numbers had fallen to well under 100,000, which all told represented approximately a 90% decrease in illegal entry.  The Pesero program was later tightened up in terms of its rules and later abandoned altogether by congress by complaints from labor advocates in 1964 and we saw that that was the beginning of the great increases in illegal entry that we see up to the present day.  End @8:39
• Cartels using children to bring drugs to the US 
• Records kept by Customs and Border Protection show 130 minors were caught attempting to bring drugs through entry ports from Sonora into Arizona during fiscal year 2009, an 83 percent increase over the previous year.
• My thoughts:  Prohibition doesn't work.  Where there is a demand you will get the services if people truly want it.  This article is another good argument for legalizing drugs.  Remember the government can't even keep drugs out of jails and away from children.  What makes people think they can keep our borders safe from drug dealers?
• True News Tucson debunks the closing of parts of AZ 
• Boldly risking certain death by decapitation at the hands of ubiquitous Mexican drug smugglers, "Real News Tucson" drives through the section of southern Arizona supposedly ceded to Mexico. Oddly enough, the only trouble they encounter comes at a Border Patrol checkpoint two dozen miles inside the border, where they are definitively told by a BP agent that the notion part of Arizona has been surrendered to Mexican control -- and are therefore inaccessible to Americans -- is "false information."
• Addicted to the Warfare State 
• Retired Mesa police officer Bill Richardson, who worked in counter-narcotics task forces in several Arizona counties, believes that Babeu -- like Arpaio and Arizona state senator Russell Pearce (chief sponsor of SB 1070) -- is "fanning the flames of fear, that the undocumented are the root cause of crime in Arizona. In fact, they are not."
• Feds Challenge Arizona Immigration Law 
• Yesterday, the Obama administration filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s recently enacted law that is designed to curb illegal immigration. The Arizona law has not yet taken effect — that will occur on July 29.  To generate more discussion and debate, Cato will be hosting a policy forum on the legal challenge and related issues on July 21.  If the weather in DC continues to cooperate, it will feel like we are actually in Arizona.
• Big Money Speaks 
• While there was some evidence of statistically significant changes in one of the five goals of Maine’s and Arizona’s public financing programs, we could not directly attribute these changes to the programs, nor did we find significant changes in the remaining four goals after program implementation. Specifically, there were statistically significant decreases in one measure of electoral competition—the winner’s margin of victory—in legislative races in both states. However, GAO could not directly attribute these decreases to the programs due to other factors, such as the popularity of candidates, which affect electoral outcomes. We found no change in two other measures of competition, and there were no observed changes in voter choice—the average number of legislative candidates per district race. In Maine, decreases in average candidate spending in House races were statistically significant, but a state official said this was likely due to reductions in the amounts given to participating candidates in 2008, while average spending in Maine Senate races did not change. In Arizona, average spending has increased in the five elections under the program. There is no indication the programs decreased perceived interest group influence, although some candidates and interest group officials GAO interviewed said campaign tactics changed, such as the timing of campaign spending.
• Additional Medicaid funding stalls in Congress putting AZ in a bind  (Subscriber)
• Hope is fading that Congress will approve hundreds of millions of dollars that Arizona is counting on to operate its Medicaid program, and state lawmakers don’t know whether they’ll have to scrounge for cash, beg for help or drastically downsize the state-run health care system. In late May, the U.S. House of Representatives stripped $24 billion ...
• My thoughts: More reason to stop socialism.  There's no reason that AZ should be beholden so much to the federal government.
• The DailyShow with Jon Stewart:  Arizona's Photo Radar 
• Olivia Munn explores the debate between Arizona's highway safety and the invasion of privacy.
• After Words with Judge Andrew Napolitano 
• The Libertarian commentator debates politics, history and what he considers to be the unconstitutional behavior of both the Bush and Obama administrations, with consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
• My thoughts:  This is very good.  I would highly recommend watching it.
• Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan? 
• Just before dawn on Dec. 24, an American cruise missile soared high over the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, arced down toward the dark mountains above the Rafadh Valley in Yemen's Shabwa province and found its mark, crashing into a small stone house on a hillside where five young men were sleeping. Half a mile away, a 27-year-old Yemeni tribesman named Ali Muhammad Ahmed was awakened by the sound. Stumbling out of bed, he quickly dressed, slung his AK-47 over his shoulder and climbed down a footpath to the valley that shelters his village, two hours from the nearest paved road. He already sensed what had happened. A week earlier, an American airstrike killed dozens of people in a neighboring province as part of an expanded campaign against Al Qaeda militants. (Although the U.S. military has acknowledged playing a role in the airstrikes, it has never publicly confirmed that it fired the missiles.)

AZ News & Blogs 6/19/2010

• Arizona Immigration Law = National ID for Arizonans 
• Despite protestations to the contrary from the law’s sponsor and others, this law turns the Arizona drivers license  (actually any state license) into a national id.
• It’s a common misconception to believe that the national id must be a card or a chip.
• National ID not a card or a chip, but is the data that the federal government has on you.  What the federal government has been attempting to do for many years, most notably under the Clinton administration, was to find a way to integrate all of the various data they have on American citizens into an easily searchable, easily sharable database and data exchange format.
• My thoughts:  Ernest Hancock has been talking about this for quite some time.
• But They Are Politicians 
• Jacob Sullum writes about the gnashing of teeth among Arizona politicians that suddenly must rely on voluntary contributions rather than campaign funds taken by force from taxpayers who may not even support them.
• But if they were reasonable people who considered long-term consequences and took responsibility for their own actions, would they even be politicians.  Is it any surprise that a class of human beings who, in response to looming bankruptcy in Medicare, pass a trillion dollars of new health care spending commitments closed their eyes to what would likely happen when this campaign finance law reached the Supreme Court?
• Court premature in stopping matching funds 
• My thoughts:  Well, the coyote blog said it best.
• Primary Election Debate Videos 
• Republican Candidates for Governor 
• Uptick in Violence Forces Closing of Parkland Along Mexico Border to Americans 
• Lawmaker Warns Parks Takeover by Mexican Cartels, Illegals 'Intensifying' 
• My thoughts:  More reason to resolve the core issues: legalize drugs, get rid of NAFTA, etc.
• Ernest Hancock interviews Nick Dranias of Goldwater Institute on Clean Elections 
• My thoughts:  This is really good.  Don't miss listening to it.
• Ernest Hancock talks on local politics (Mesa) 

AZ News & Blogs 6/12/2010

• Police and Accountability 
• I have written before that the inexpensive handheld video camera is perhaps the most important innovation in police accountability in my lifetime.  So of course, the police want them banned.
• Clean Elections Candidates Advised to Return Public Subsidies 
• At an emergency meeting Wednesday, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission declared that taxpayer-funded candidates who have accepted campaign subsidies cannot withdraw from the Clean Elections system and run with private fundraising. But the Commission is wrong, according to the lead attorney who convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to block the use of matching funds at this point.
• “There is nothing in the law that prohibits withdrawal from the Clean Elections system – provided taxpayer-funded candidates return their government subsidies and run with private financing,” said Nick Dranias, the Goldwater Institute’s director of constitutional studies. “No provision in the Citizens Clean Elections Act addresses the issue of voluntary withdrawal from the system. And no rule prohibits the Commission from allowing candidates to withdraw from the system if they return their subsidies.”
• Strange bedfellows 
• Mills' attorney told the commission that it should reject a request from Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign to invoke an emergency clause and release publicly funded candidates to raise private dollars. It's needed, Brewer's crew argued, because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars the distribution of matching funds to publicly funded candidates.
• Worries increase along with Arizona's debt 
• Paying off that debt will strain state budgets for years to come. For the fiscal year that starts July 1, the state must make a $232 million debt payment out of its general fund.
• Abramoff Released From Prison; close ties to Hayworth linger in the minds of voters 
• This cannot be a good week for Team Hayworth, with reports his campaign is losing steam and this ugly little reminder of just how low some people will go.  You would think after the whole Abramoff “thing”, taking a closer look at folks would have been a good idea.  But, then…I guess some people never learn.   

AZ News & Blogs 6/10/2010

• Clean Elections could allow emergency fundraising (Subscibers)
• The Citizens Clean Elections Commission may consider enacting an emergency clause that would allow publicly funded candidates to raise additional campaign cash, a change that Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign is hoping can alleviate the sudden loss of matching funds. The commission will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. June 9 to discuss the ramifications and ...
• Munger: No regret on ending gov campaign 
• Tucson attorney John Munger says he doesn’t regret his decision to drop out of the governor’s race now that the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked matching funds for publicly funded candidates....And Munger says he’s not changing his mind now. He says he’s already laid off campaign staff and canceled fundraising events.
• Ernest Hancock Interviews Shawn Dow of CameraFraud.com 
• The politicians are out to get us.  What they do when we're not watching.

AZ News & Blogs 5/29/2010

• Immigration Law — Up Close 
• The police are going to ask questions and request to see papers in a variety of circumstances — whether they have reasonable suspicion or not.  From a legal, constitutional, and practical perspective, the key issue is this: What are the consequences, if any, for the person who stands his ground and declines to answer questions or declines to produce identification papers?  If a person declines, will the police back off and say, “Well, that is your right, sir, you may go” or will the police escalate the situation by ordering the person to answer questions, ordering the production of identification, detaining the person, or threaten the person with arrest on bogus charges?
• The police are trained to blur the line between “voluntary” interactions with people (perfectly lawful) and “involuntary” interactions with people (where police power is limited by the Constitution)....
• Man gets by check point without having to give them what they want.  As opposed to this incident .
• Quelland’s bills against Clean Elections went nowhere 
• A package of bills sponsored by Rep. Doug Quelland reads like a list of grievances against the Clean Elections system he’s fought for the past two years.
• Quelland sponsored only six bills in the 2010 legislative session, five of which were intended to expand the rights of candidates accused of violating Clean Elections laws. 
• All five of the bills failed to receive a committee hearing, but they left little doubt about the Phoenix Republican’s feelings about the Clean Elections system that once helped him get elected and later called for his removal from office.
• US warns AZ on park closures; could lose funds 
• In addition to loss of federal funds, park closures will bring a host of liability and public safety problems due to the state’s inability to secure park lands from spreading wildfires, drug cultivation, violent crimes and injuries.... “Even California has learned that closing state parks is the epitome of a penny-wise-pound-foolish economy."
• My thoughts:  Goldwater Institute has told us before the state can privatize it and make money on the venture...too bad they don't listen.
• See also: Private companies can manage state parks , New tax for state parks would entrench wrong approach to funding , and Look for a business partner to fund state parks.

AZ Brief Blogs and News

• Promise That Higher Taxes Will “Protect Education” Rings Hollow
•  Apparently 10 years ago the state asked us to do the same thing we are doing now but all it lead to was a bloated bureaucracy.  Also, watch the short video included in the above link.
• My Comments:  In a free market school system we would see more aids than teachers but not wastefully like we see in AZ.  See this article on public school systems and regression to the mean.
• Raza Studies
•  Apparently down in the Tucson area students receive special education on how Latinos are hated.  Legislation HB 2281 is being proposed to stop this type of education.
• Here's the summary "HB 2281 prohibits a school district or charter school from including courses or classes that either promote the overthrow of the United States government or promote resentment toward a race or class of people." 
• My Comments:  It would be interesting to hear the other side of the coin for this one, sorry I don't have any links for you, if anyone has one please put it in the comment section.  In a free society, or education, people would be left to alone to learn what they want to learn, or what their parents would want them to learn.  To truly fix the problem we need to have private schooling across the board and government needs to stay out of education.
•  Dr. Gosar Calls on Congress to Enact Law Limiting Citizenship
•  "the legislation would limit citizenship to children born to parents who are (1) a U.S. citizens or nationals; (2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces."
• Backers of the bill includes: Dr. Paul Gosar, CD1 Republican primary frontrunner, Trent Franks and John Shadegg.
• My Comments:  I'll have to look up the 14th amendment and remind myself it's ramifications for citizenship.  I remembered I don't have my constitution book right now.  Maybe I'll offer an opinion some other time on this one.
• Anti-illegal-immigration bill is still alight in the blogs
• Seeing Red criticizes a newspaper for it's comments on the killing of Bob Krentz.  Krentz was killed on his ranch near the Mexican border it was appears to be drug war related violence. 
• Coyote Blog shows graphs on the lower crime rate even with the higher illegal immigration in his post Chicken Little: The Supposed Arizona Immigrant-Led Crime Wave.
• Coyote blog has a link to Cato on the new national ID legislation in DC.  National ID has been tried to be passed for many years now, previous attempts have been nullified by the states.
• Cato comments on AZ Republics comments on the new bill. 
• My Comments:  In a free society we would have open borders like we have had in the past.  The government has really screwed things up and now are trying to put a band-aid on it instead of fixing the core problems which cause the illegal immigration problem like the drug war, NAFTA, etc. 
• More than 130 Clean Elections Candidates this Year
• My Comments: The headline should read:  130 candidate vie for theft of taxpayers money.