The Shell Shock performance scheduled tonight at Berky's Bar has been cancelled.

Berky's Bar, 5769 E. Speedway Blvd., has recently closed. At this time, there is no word as to when the bar will reopen.

Project White House got some attention earlier this week in the East Valley Tribune--sorta. Trib writer Paul Giblin mentioned that "political pranksters" had filled up the ballot. Giblin didn't tell his readers that many of these pranksters had been inspired by Project White House, although he was kind enough to mention our Reality Journalism escapade in passing in a blog entry and a Sunday notebook item a few days earlier.

What caught our eye in Giblin's story was a suggestion from Secretary of State Jan Brewer that the requirement for running for president in Arizona be increased to stop so many people from participating in the democratic process in the future.

Brewer, the state's top election official, said she favors changing state law to raise the requirements for candidates to appear on Arizona’s ballots.

"Certainly being registered to vote might be a start," she said. "In our presidential preference elections, you do not have to be registered; you have to be qualified to be registered. So it would be nice, I think, that if you're going to participate in the political process, if you’re going to play in that arena, that at least you can vote for yourself."

Wait--is Hillary Clinton able to vote for herself in Arizona? Mitt Romney? Ron Paul? Barack Obama? Seems like only one candidate would benefit from that requirement: Sen. John McCain.

Now that Judge Michael Miller issued his ruling Tuesday that allows the Dems to have the 2006 primary- and general-election data files, all is well, voting-wise, in Pima County, right? 

Well, that depends. At the Jan. 8 Board of Supervisors meeting, the supervisors may decide to appeal and refuse to hand over the files despite Miller’s ruling. 

But let’s say the supes decide the people of Pima County rule this fair land and release the 2006 primary and general election files. What happens next, say ye? 

Election integrity activists like John Brakey and Jim March will do a forensic analysis of the files looking for discrepancies in audit logs and time stamps. If something seems odd, particularly during the primary, Brakey says it should be enough to convince Miller to release remaining files requested by the Democratic Party. 

These are the files that have 2006 RTA election data. And that is the election folks like Brakey and members of the Democratic Party’s Election Integrity Committee suspect was flipped. 

Knowing this is what makes Miller's ruling confusing. The ruling seems split, first siding with the Dems, and then siding with the county. But it allows the Dems access now to a portion of the records--and a chance to later access the remaining records.

Brakey says because the ruling was laid out like this, it is difficult for Pima County to appeal. 

But in a way, the burden remains on the Dems to find something in the files. If they do, they’ll have to go back and convince the court that concerns about what they've found override Pima County's security concerns aboutreleasing all the data. 

During the four-day trial, Pima County threw around words like "chaos" and "mayhem" to describe what could happen if all files were released. One concern is the possibility of outside hacking. 

“Now, remember, in the primary, there are some big problems. (Pima County) had impunity at the primary, because we weren’t watching. Now we’re watching,” Brakey says. 

Brakey says the primary is important to the process because of former District 28 House Rep. Ted Downing. 

Downing, a Democrat running in the primary for the state Senate against fellow Democrat Paula Aboud, was known as an election-integrity activist and a vocal critic of the early Rio Nuevo project. This work that frustrated Secretary of State Jan Brewer, the GOP and developers. 

Brakey says four hours before the election, a roob-call went out (click here to listen to said robo-call), sponsored by the GOP, painting an ugly picture of Downing and telling residents to vote for Aboud. This was an all-Democrat race, but the GOP wanted Downing out, Brakey says. 

He and others suspect the Elections Division may have illegally printed an election summary of early ballots showing Downing was ahead the day before the election. Between that, the robo-call and the use of a port on the elections machines, Brakey says it all seems suspicious. 

“Downing was the first person to introduce major statewide election-reform legislation allowing for hand counts. He was a major election integrity activist, and he was critical of Rio Nuevo,” Brakey says. “He wasn't liked for that, and they wanted him out.” 

Right now, a hard drive that holds election-data files going all the way back to 1997 is locked in Superior Court. One concern of election-integrity activists is that those files were sanitized prior to arriving at their new home in Miller’s chambers. 

Brakey says that's a possibility. In December 2006, Brakey and March filed a Freedom of Information Act requesting the file allocation table that lists about 800 of the data files. If anything has been changed, Brakey says, he and March will be able to tell by comparing the file allocation table. 

“They don’t want the Pandora’s box open. Each data base has its own audit log. If they’ve been sanitized, we’ll know it,” he says. 

For right now, however, Pandora’s Box remains closed, and Brakey is not happy about that. 

“Here we are, back where we started, right in front of the supervisors all over again,” Brakey says, about the upcoming meeting on Jan. 8. "We’ll be filling the meeting. They can’t ignore us." 

Brakey suggests looking at Bryan Crane's testimony during the four-day trial. (The Google video site has some other gems Brakey worked to film and edit for the Internet.) Crane is the Election Division employee accused by fellow workers of taking home backup disks of the elections database--disks, Brakey says, that could have easily been used to change the results of an election.  

Am I the only one kind of baffled by the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"?

Yeah, yeah, Daddy's supposedly dressed up like Santa Claus or whatever. I get that. But what if that's not the case, and Mommy's just a chubby-chasing ho who lacks the good sense to do her macking out of sight of her kids?

That's all.

On Page 39 in this week's issue, the location for the Michael Blake book-signing is incorrect, due to an editorial error.

The book-signing will be held tonight at 6:30 p.m., at the Arizona Historical Society, 949 E. Second St., and not at the downtown location at 140 N. Stone Ave. Call 327-7922 for information.

We apologize for the error.

Yesterday was a good day for folks like John Brakey, a Tucson Democrat who's been involved in election-integrity issues since 2004.

Judge Michael Miller's rulling--that forces Pima County to hand over election files--came just after Brakey found out he was a new grandfather to a baby girl.

"This gives me lots to celebrate," Brakey said over the phone yesterday. "This is an amazing win. It's a big deal for us."

The Superior Court public information office e-mailed Miller's rulling on Dec. 18 at 3:49 p.m., just as we went to deadline, meaning we couldn't get very much info regarding the ruling into the story in this week's issue about the folks behind the fight for the databases--Brakey, Black Box Voting activist Jim March and attorney Bill Risner.

In an interview on Monday, Risner said he was optimistic Miller would rule in the party's favor. The 2006 general and primary election data was needed, he said, to be able to analyze previous election data and compare it to the 2006 Regional Transpirtation Authority election data. Some election-integrity activists believe vote-flipping may have happened during the RTA election.

In a press release sent out today, Pima County Democratic Party chair Vince Rabago said the ruling was a major victory of national importance for public oversight of elections.

“The judge specifically found that the Democratic Party’s involvement has helped make elections more secure and that the public will benefit from our continued involvement--including our involvement in 'reviewing election management software,'" said Rabago. "This is a victory for the public which should never accept anything less than transparency and accountability in the conduct of its elections.”

But wait a minute, Vince: The data files remain in Pima County's hands. Evidently, the county is planning an appeal, and the Board of Supervisors has put the files on the agenda at the Jan. 8 meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. Board members are slated to discuss whether they will give the files up, or of they will appeal the ruling. The meeting could end up being one of those Ray Carroll vs. Everyone Else meetings--and this doesn't even have anything to do with taxes.

The year's next-to-last issue of the Weekly is online and waiting for your perusal. Feel free to comment here on its contents!

Project White House got some nice ink this morning in the Arizona Daily Star. Thanks to Daniel Scarpinato for the story.

The Project White House candidates are about to receive their first campaign challenge. But before we get underway, we'd like to reach out one last time to any of the candidates who made the ballot but have not yet signed on for Project White House.

Yes, we're talking to you, Hillary. And you, Rudy. And Mitt, John, Dennis and Ron. You're welcome here in Project White House as well. We'd hate to exclude anyone.

So if you've just learned about our Reality Journalism competition and want to sign up, e-mail us at [email protected].

The roster is set for Arizona’s Feb. 5 presidential primary—and we're excited to announce that half of the candidates on the Democratic ballot are participating in Project White House!

One-third of the the candidates on the GOP ballot are also participating in PWH.

For those who came in late: Project White House is Tucson Weekly's first Reality Journalism contest. Presidential candidates—including 12 of the 24 Democrats on the ballot and eight of the 24 Republicans—are competing not only to win the primary itself, but also to capture the coveted Tucson Weekly endorsement.

And since placement on the ballot was determined by drawing lots, Project White House contestants snagged the top slot of both ballots. Sandy Whitehouse of Vail—who says her last name is her best qualification for the office—is atop the Democratic ballot, while James Creighton Mitchell Jr. of Illinois is the first name on the GOP ballot.

"I plan on starting at the top and remaining there," Whitehouse said. "I am ready to rumble!"

We're sorry to say that paperwork problems prevented some of our would-be candidates from making the ballot. For example, an application from Jim Anderson, owner of the legendary Meet Rack saloon, appears to have been rejected

And regular readers may remember Daniel Kingery, who is campaigning for the presidency as he travels the country—and lives—in an ancient Crown Vic. We told you a few weeks ago about how Kingery once transformed a New Hampshire junkyard into a stripper performance venue to resolve some zoning issues.

Well, Kingery called last week to let us know he was told by staffers at the Secretary of State’s Office that they were rejecting his application because he had listed "Willcox" as his street address. Guess being homeless in America means you’re not welcome to run for president in Arizona.

It sounds kinda unfair, but when it comes right down to it, we reckon that if you can't manage to properly fill out a two-page form, you're probably not quite ready to take control of the Free World.

Check back regularly for more details on Project White House!

A couple of weeks ago, my mother got on the phone to my cousins and me to make an important announcement: "On Saturday the 16th, I'm making tamales. If you want any, you better show up and help make them." 

I've read The Little Red Hen to my son enough times to know she meant business. Yeah, I wanted some of her red chile tamales. I also wanted to take in a little Tucson history.

My mother buys her masa at the Grande Tortilla Factory on North Grande Avenue a block south of the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind.  Ernesto Portillo Jr., columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, announced last week that the Pesqueira brothers, who own the factory, are retiring. Thus, so are the 60 years of memories, masa and tortillas the store has provided to Tucson families since 1947.

This is the last Christmas season my mother would make her way to the store, so I invited my son and me along for the excursion. 

When I was a kid, making Christmas tamales was a love affair for my mother and her two sisters, especially her oldest sister, who always hosted the family get-togethers back then. The large dining table in my aunt's house was covered with dozens and dozens of three different tamales. 

These days, the family is smaller, and my mother is the only one left of those tres hermanas. When my mother tells her friends how many pounds of meat and masa she plans to buy, they laugh. She bought 10 pounds of masa on Saturday and made five pounds of beef tamales with red chile. One of her friends acted like the 10 pounds was hardly worth the effort; they were buying no less than 40 pounds of masa. 

At the Grande Tortilla Factory on Saturday, I counted and watched almost 40 people come in during our half-hour there leaving with large shopping bags of masa, as well as pots brought from home for menudo. Seeing the pots made me realize my mother forgot the little pot she's brought for menudo. Menudo is a perfect breakfast food, probably where its hangover remedy roots developed. It is also good fuel for the assembly-line work of tamale making. 

"Mom, where's your pot?" I asked.

"What pot?" she returned.

"You know the one you bring for menudo, so we can have a little while we make tamales? That pot."

My mother gave me the look, that says, "Cut this old lady some slack," and a little of, "You could have brought your own pot." Nonetheless, we left the store with our 10 pounds of masa and a quart-size plastic-foam container of menudo. My mother took the masa. I carried the menudo. 

Everyone met up at my mother's house, washed hands and put on aprons. Two people were in charge of spreading the masa on the dried corn husks; two others put in the meat, and others folded, while my mother supervised. During the process, my mother lamented a little on how different today was compared to her youth, when her own mother got everyone up at 5 a.m. to make pot-fulls of tamales. We made 65 tamales that fit in my mother's tamale pot perfectly, but it was hardly a tribute to the family's past.

That first tamale is delicious, but the best tamale is the last one sitting in the fridge after Christmas. It calls out in the morning. I'm the first one awake, so I hear it loud and clear. There is nothing like a couple of eggs and cut-up tamale cooked together.

Before I left the house Saturday, my mother reminded me of this family breakfast tradition. I smile and nod, preparing myself for a culinary true meaning of Christmas.