AZspot

And why is a minor traffic accident interesting? As it turns out, when Arizona’s attorney general hit another car and drove away without leaving a note, he very likely would have gotten away with it, except, unbeknownst to him, Horne was being followed by FBI agents who saw the incident and reported what happened.

And why were FBI agents following the state attorney general? Because federal law enforcement suspects Horne may be guilty of breaking federal campaign finance laws, illegally coordinating with an outside political group.

What’s more, making this just a little more entertaining, the Arizona Republican drove away after hitting that other car in part because his passenger is one of his subordinates, with whom Horne has had an extra-marital affair.

Incidentally, Horne, ostensibly Arizona’s top law-enforcement official, initially lied about hitting the other car and declined to cooperate in the police investigation.

Private prisons, touted as a cost-efficient alternative to state-run penitentiaries, are not living up to their promises in at least one state. A new study of Arizona’s private prisons finds that the state is actually losing money — $3.5 million a year — by turning their inmates over to for-profit corporations.

Eugene C. Pulliam had great power. He would have unleashed an old-fashioned newspaper crusade against Arpaio, something today’s chain-owned Arizona Republic has been afraid to do. Evan Mecham was removed from the governor’s office in 1988 thanks to a business community that no longer exists — big headquartered companies, some developers, local business leaders who cared about the community, along with the old political elite and the Republic. Compared with Arpaio, Mecham was a schoolboy. But he had become an embarrassment to the state and they acted. And they had clout.

Old Arizona saw heroes in abundance: Cochise, Geronimo, Father Kino, Gen. George Crook, along with the Apache scout Elsatsoosu, Frank Luke Jr., Silvestre Herrera and Ira Hayes, this latter group all winners of the Medal of Honor. It was the birthplace of Cesar Chavez. Although without traditional power, one can imagine a battle between Chavez and Arpaio. The Salt River Valley bloomed thanks to heroic acts, and the farmers, including my great-grandparents, who pledged their land as collateral to build Theodore Roosevelt Dam under the Newlands Act. In some cases, of course, heroism is in the eye of the beholder. More on that later.

Arizona still cherishes Barry Goldwater as an unalloyed hero. It was not always so. Pulliam didn’t endorse him for president in 1964, and I was one of only two students at Kenilworth School, his alma mater, who openly supported him. In reality, Goldwater was an archetype Arizona flawed hero. He opposed civil rights, a position he later regretted but by then it didn’t matter. JFK was actually concerned about a very tight presidential race against Goldwater because the South was solidly behind him because of his position on civil rights. Still, the man in full represented much of the best of us, individualism but also concern for the commons (as a city councilman and even later, he never met a bond issue he opposed). As the GOP grew more extreme, Goldwater became a pariah (“I will be remembered as a liberal,” he said). Barry’s race problem was not uncommon. Carl Hayden, the father of the Central Arizona Project, was a reliable ally of the Southern segregationists. Ernest McFarland, father of the G.I. Bill and Senate majority leader, may come the closest to a genuine Western white hat. Arpaio would have wilted under any of these men.

Today much of Arizona admires and cherishes Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman named to the Supreme Court. The retired Justice recently lamented the loss of civility in the public square. I have yet to see her use her position as elder stateswoman to directly confront the brutish behavior and racism of Arpaio. Centrist and liberal Arizona forgets that O’Connor usually voted with the conservatives on the court. Worse, and this will taint her once the hagiography wears off with the years, she voted with the majority in Bush v. Gore, likely to be seen by future historians as a critical turning point in the loss of the American republic. She never stopped being a partisan, even though she wasn’t a Kook.

By 2009, half of the 25- to 34-year-old population had earned a college degree, the fifth-highest percentage in the nation. Even more impressive, no other metro area in the country had as many young people 25 to 34 with a graduate or professional degree.

The reality in Phoenix is quite different. In just-released data from the Brookings Institution, a mere 27.2 percent of Phoenix metro residents had earned a college degree, ranking it a dismal 66th among the nation’s top 100 cities.

While a college degree these days is no guarantee of success, it has shown to be a reliable marker of longer life expectancy, lower divorce rates and higher household income. Moreover, a solid core of college grads not only communicates to business leaders that the city possesses an able and ready workforce, it also helps drive the creative dynamic that attracts and holds talented people.

In contrast to our city, Austin is ranked eighth nationally with 39.4 percent of its residents holding a college degree. Given its similar climate, similar status as a state capital and similar reliance on a single major university (University of Texas-Austin), we might expect similar educational attainment.

A student from Arizona in my world religions class in my evangelical seminary told me that he would never give a cup of water to an illegal immigrant because it is against the law in Arizona. Whether or not it is against the law in Arizona, it is not against Jesus’ law to give a cup of water to such a person. In fact, it would be against Jesus’ law not to give the cup of water to this neighbor, this fellow created in God’s image. Where did my student learn to think this way? From reading his Bible? From hearing sermons of this kind? He didn’t even struggle with his conviction, at least not outwardly. What would Jesus do? What would he have us do? Jesus tells this scholar (me) and that student’s pastors back home to go and do like the illegal Samaritan did and cross customs and boundaries and borders that keep people apart and care for the neighbor in need. If we do so, not only will they live, but also we will live. As Jesus tells the religious leader, so he tells us now: “Go and do likewise” (Lk. 10:37).

When it comes to immorality and irrational thinking, look no further than Sheriff Joe “I’m Not A Racist Because I have a Half-White Grandchild” Arpaio.

Last night, it was reported that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his squad arrested a A SIX YEAR OLD, A FIRST GRADER BASICALLY who was forced against her will to immigrate here.

Now, this goes beyond enforcing the law, this is racial bias, pure and simple. It’s not like he’s sending her to a hotel or anything. No, in fact, this six year old girl will be in the custody of the Immigration Customs and Enforcement, which has a questionable human rights record [see the Colorlines investigation linked here].

This just makes me sick to my stomach, but hey, I guess this is a message to the over 800,000 immigrants that basically got new lease on life on Friday, with the big half of the DREAM ACT authorized by executive order(mixed feelings about the executive order fact, but support the policy).

1. Forcing Women To Sleep In Their Own Menstrual Blood: In Arpaio’s jails, “female Latina LEP prisoners have been denied basic sanitary items. In some instances, female Latina LEP prisoners have been forced to remain with sheets or pants soiled from menstruation because of MCSO’s [Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office] failure to ensure that detention officers provide language assistance in such circumstances.”

2. Criminalizing Being A Latino: “During raids, [Arpaio’s Criminal Enforcement Squad] typically seizes all Latinos present, whether they are listed on the warrant or not. For example, in one raid CES had a search warrant for 67 people, yet 109 people were detained. Fifty-nine people were arrested and 50 held for several hours before they were released. Those detained, but not on the warrant, were seized because they were Latino and present at the time of the raid. No legal justification existed for their detention.”

3. Ignoring Rape: Because of Arpaio’s obsessive focus on “low-level immigration offenses” his officers failed “to adequately respond to reports of sexual violence, including allegations of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse of girls.”

4. Widespread Use Of Racial Slurs: “MCSO personnel responsible for prisoners held in MCSO jails routinely direct racial slurs toward Latino prisoners, including calling Latino prisoners ‘paisas,’ ‘wetbacks,’ ‘Mexican bitches,’ ‘fucking Mexicans,’ and ‘stupid Mexicans.’”

5. Widespread Racial Profiling: “[I]n the southwest portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are almost four times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct… . In the northwest portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are over seven times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct… . Most strikingly, in the northeast portion of the County, the study found that Latino drivers are nearly nine times more likely to be stopped by MCSO officers than non-Latino drivers engaged in similar conduct.”

I have no idea who this mammal is, but he perfectly encapsulates the retrograde ignorance that holds Arizona back. And he is an example of the endless streetcar hysteria that has enveloped the city since it began work on a (sit down, now) 3.9-mile line scheduled to open in 2013. Oh, the socialism! The Islamo-fascist-madness!

First, Roger, Portland enjoys a 52-mile light rail system with four lines and one under construction. It also has a streetcar that runs from downtown proper to the adjoining Pearl District. Both have been enormously successful, as virtually every light-rail project is including in Phoenix (we built it, you bastards). Second, never in Tucson’s wildest fantasies could it achieve the level of Portland’s livability, energy, magnetic draw for smart people or economic and cultural assets. You should get out more.

Poor Tucson voted down light rail at least twice. Unlike in Portland or Seattle or even Dallas, one is pretty much required to have a car. And this is not the sacred free market at work, but rather Sprawl Keynesianism. For decades, tax dollars have heavily subsidized roads, freeways, autos and oil — right down to our armed forces as a petroleum protection force. None of the externalities of this misadventure — from environmental damage to ruined city cores — has been priced in. The cost per-square-foot of car-based American suburbia, if calculated, would be astronomical.

This never enters the American mind. Instead, my Arizona researcher has sent me dozens of articles from the Tucson media about the fears and disruptions of this little streetcar line. Funny, the media never write about the very real damage of freeways and roads, which do not even begin to pay for themselves, or the lack of choices and inefficiencies in places with inadequate transit.

Private prisons are big business in Arizona. The “industry” played a major role in crafting SB 1070, the anti-immigrant Jim Crow voter suppression law. That has since been turned into a national model by ALEC, the infamous right-wing group that hands out extremist legislation to be passed, word for word, into law in statehouses nationwide. Are they good for inmates or even taxpayers? Not so much, according to an article in The Nation that further gives Arizona publicity that money can’t buy.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed saying that inmates are denied adequate medical care and mental-health care. No doubt. The mentally ill without means are now warehoused in America’s prisons or on its streets. As for the just-plain-ill behind bars, they will be dealt with by a private company (what else?) with an odor trailing it.

But who cares, especially among the Elect? They are, after all, the Elect — their power and affluence show that God smiles upon them. Or so they think.

Arizona has the tenth highest adult incarceration rate in the country. That rate has no correlation with population and little connection with crime rates. With one exception, the top 10 are Southern states, plus Arizona which remains red-and-Southern in much of its outlook. No matter how many people are locked up — or face the inhuman treatment before prison from the Badged Ego — the white-right still cowers inside its gated properties and segregated “master planned communities.”

Aunqué soy Boricua, mi corazón está al lado del pueblo mejicano, aquí en Arizona. ¿Porqué no hablas contra “La Bruja Mala del Oeste” Gobernadora Jan Brewer, “El Leon Cobarde” Ex-Senador Russell Pearce, “El Hombre Hecho de Lata” Alguacil del Condado Maricopa Joe Arpairo, “El Hombre Hecho de Paja” Abogado General Tom Horne y en final, “El Brujo de OZ” Superintendente de Instrucción Pública John Huppenthal?

Somos Quien Somos

You don’t need a Spanish-English dictionary or your pocho co-worker to figure out what the question above refers to: the continued insanity that is Arizona. We’ve covered its pendejos throughout the years, especially Horne and Huppenthal, who earlier this year declared the Mexican-American Studies program at the Tucson Unified School District illegal because it doesn’t hew to the traditional view in American history that teaches Mexicans are shiftless, lazy rapists. Part of that effort was to boot out of Tucson schools books ranging from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz’s Drown to works by authors ranging from Sandra Cisneros to Sherman Alexie to and even Howard Zinn. They’re banning American history in Tucson! In other news, Satan called: The Prince of Darkness wants his disciples to join him back in Hell.

The upshot of this is threefold. First, it reminds us that contingent events matter. Absent the war, there would probably have been an Arizona territory eventually — the five big holding territories of the post-1848 west (Washington, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, and New Mexico) were all subdivided into multiple territories and eventual states — but it would quite likely have been the southern state desired by the territorial residents, rather than the western state placed by Congress in response to war concerns.

Second, it illustrates that the process of bounding the proto-states was both shaped by contemporary politics and consequential to future politics. Time and time again — in Michigan territory, in Minnesota territory, in Washington territory, in Iowa territory, and so forth — the final boundaries of the new state or the new territory are both contestable and contested. As such, the territories and future states are first and foremost political constructions. And it’s not always the case that interests wish to be part of new states; in many territorial divisions and final statehood boundary fights, the politics takes on the character of a core vs. periphery battle, with each side sometimes interested in keeping the periphery in, and sometimes interested in getting it out.

Finally, the division of the New Mexico territory suggests that interests in both the territories and in Washington have goals to which different boundary lines can strongly influence, and thus strong incentives to shape the new territories and states to their preferences. The political development of new states is not simply an admissions game in DC, nor is it simply a settlers game out in the territories. Instead, the local goals of western residents combine with the goals of Washington politicians to create the political structure of development. Local leaders petition Congress, territorial legislatures memorialize Congress, and territorial conventions write state constitutions. But political actors in Congress have their own goals, to which the territories are often instruments. And almost uniformly, the key playing field for these two groups to meet is the House and Senate Committees on the Territories, whose influence on the process is still felt today, with its large role on the political footprint of the west.

Glendale’s libraries are facing severe cuts next year. During the past several years, cuts have resulted in a 45% reduction of library hours and a loss of over 37% in money for books.

Proposals for next year would further reduce book money, library hours, and end programs for children, teens and adults. Some proposed cuts include only opening Main Library for 3 days/week and branches 2 days/week, or closing both branches and leaving Main Library open. There is even a proposal to close all three libraries, cut staff and open storefront libraries.

And so, the retreat of civilization, into the throes of darkness, continues… :-(

Arizona might have less symbolic importance than Michigan, but it is probably of more practical significance. That is because it’s one of the few Republican states to award its delegates on a truly winner-take-all basis, without any qualifications or complication. Get one more vote than your rivals in Arizona, and you take all 29 of its delegates.

The most tangible advantage in Arizona belongs to Mitt Romney, and it is because the state has a reasonably high Mormon population. In the 2008 primary there, Mormon voters constituted 11 percent of the electorate — and Mr. Romney won 88 percent of their votes, versus 8 percent for John McCain.

If Mr. Romney posts similar numbers among Mormon voters this year in Tuesday’s primary — and there’s no reason to think that he won’t — that works out a nine-point built-in advantage in the state.

Without that Mormon edge, in fact, the state would essentially be a toss-up. Mr. Romney is now projected to win the state by 11 points over all, according to a FiveThirtyEight forecast model, which works out to an 89 percent chance of winning given the uncertainty inherent in the forecast.

Women have wrinkles, pores and curves. And there’s a movement across the world to make sure advertisers can no longer pretend otherwise.

Now, that movement has come to Arizona.

House Bill 2793, proposed by Rep. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, would require advertisers who alter or enhance a photo to put a disclaimer on that ad alerting customers that “Postproduction techniques were made to alter the appearance in this advertisement. When using this product, similar results may not be achieved.”