With results nearly complete, it appears that Project White House candidate Sandy Whitehouse defeated former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel in yesterday's Arizona presidential primary.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, Whitehouse had 554 votes to Gravel's 273.

Project White House candidates Edward Dobson and Richard Grayson also outpolled Gravel. Dobson had 338 votes, while Grayson narrowly edged out Gravel with 287 votes.

Gravel was the only so-called "mainstream candidate" who took an interest in Project White House after Senior Campaign Manager Jim Nintzel sent a final invite in December to every candidate who made the ballot.

In a brief conversation, a member of Gravel's campaign expressed concern that the Project White House candidates were too "low-tier" for Gravel to associate himself with.

The tally as it stands with a small percentage of votes left to be counted:

Republicans

John McGrath: 426

Frank McEnulty: 281

Sean "CF" Murphy: 223

James Mitchell: 162

David Ruben: 95

Michael Shaw: 57

Bob Forthan: 66

Charles Skelley: 44

Rick Outzen: 44

Rhett Smith: 37

Democrats

Sandy Whitehouse: 554

Edward Dobson: 338

Richard Grayson: 287

Karl Krueger: 253

Frank Lynch: 224

William Campbell: 215

Chuck See: 209

Doctress Neutopia (aka Libby Hubbard): 174

Michael Oatman: 167 Rich Lee: 148

Peter "Simon" Bollander: 136

Tish Haymer: 95

Orion Karl Daley: 80

Leland Montell: 79

After getting hammered by an attack ad, Republican Sean "CF" Murphy clears up some confusion about his positions on immigration and abortion.

Remember, citizens: Tomorrow is presidential primary day!

A shadowy independent campaign committee has targeted Sean "CF" Murphy! Not even Ron Paul could withstand this withering attack!

With just about 12 hours to go before the polls open, Republican presidential candidate Sean "CF" Murphy has completed his listening tour and released a campaign ad taking a firm stand on two important issues: Immigration and Abortion.

After reading two amazing articles this past week, I came to the realization that my vegan-bike riding friend in Seattle is the most patriotic person I know. At the same time, she just might be the most effective and happy anarchist I know, feeling no need to throw pesky bricks into the downtown Starbucks. 

The first article I read was from a Jan. 27 issue of The New York Times, and the second is from the most recent issue of National Geographic. If you happen to be looking for a few good reasons to give up meat, and you care about the environment, The New York Times article could bring you to your knees. The National Geographic is straight from home with a focus on the tree-ring project at the University of Arizona. If you're a fan of the Grapes of Wrath, then guess what? By the middle of this century, we might be living those days all over again with our very own Southwest Dust Bowl, minus Henry Fonda. 

The NYT article doesn't completely lean toward giving up meat, but suggests perhaps that hard-core carnivores reconsider not eating so much of it. It also brings up something I've never read about before--meat without feet--produced in-vitro. Now that would make a great plot for a Charlton Heston movie. 

I was moved to commit to a more vegetarian diet long ago when my father told me it saved his life. (I have a nice family health history.) After three years, I went back to my meat-eating ways. Problem was/is my husband is a meat-and-potatoes guy with no hope of having a sudden Martin Luther moment regarding beef and other edible creatures. It's hard to be the lone veg-head in a family. 

That was my excuse back then. I'm just not sure it is such a good excuse today. 

The Tucson Citizen editorial board says we've been baaaadddd. OK, they didn't mention us by name, but they said they were most certainly not amused by Project White House. From the Citizen editorial:

Among the 24 Republicans and 24 Democrats on the ballot are 14 people you likely haven't heard of. It's part of a misguided promotional stunt to show how easy it is to run for president in Arizona.

Yes, it is relatively easy to become a presidential candidate.

Thus on Tuesday, voters will have to plow through a ballot more cluttered than it ought to be.

Before going to the polls, voters are advised to look over sample ballots that they received in the mail or otherwise review the long list of names they will encounter.

Misguided? Snap! Now that stings. And we can only imagine how hard it will be for Citizen readers to "plow through" that "cluttered" ballot. Yikes! Why, we'll bet that a lot of 'em will just give up looking for Hillary and vote for Sandy Whitehouse.

Incidentally, we're not quite sure how the Citizen gang does math, but only "14 people you likely haven't heard of"? Given that there are 48 names on the ballot, guess that means they figure that people have heard of 34 of the candidates. We'd sure like to see that list. Perhaps Doctress Neutopia has more name recognition that we realized.

Republican Sean "CF" Murphy sent his bold challenge to Chuck Norris down to the First Friday Shorts at the Loft Cinema last Friday, but The Powers That Be refused to screen it alongside the many other short films by other local filmmakers. "CF" tells us he was informed that it "wasn't right" for their audience.

What the deuce? It was good enough for Comedy Central!

We'd remind The Loft of their own rules for First Friday Shorts:

We'll play anything you've made that's under 15 minutes long and is brought to us on a dvd, vhs, or mini-dv (one film per person, dvds must be playable on a regular dvd player). Submissions are only taken on the day of the event and films are played in the order that they arrive. Every film is guaranteed to play for 3 minutes, but after that it can be gonged if the audience so chooses. If the gong is struck the film is stopped and the next film begins. If your film is gonged you can re-work it and bring it back and see if the changess you've made have pleased the audience. This is a great way to try out new things and see what an actual audience responds to, so take advantage.

Perhaps they have a different definition of "anything" than we do. Some people just can't handle the truth!

Here's your chance to see the banned short film that the Loft does not want you to see.

New Arizona polls numbers from Rasmussen show that Hillary leads Obama, 46 percent to 41 percent, while McCain leads Romney, 43 percent to 34 percent.

Meanwhile, over at Salon: Jim Nintzel introduces us to the Arizona conservatives who hate John McCain. An excerpt:

When Republican Rob Haney goes door to door to stump for candidates, he asks them to rate John McCain on a scale from 1 to 10. "The people who don't know much about politics rate him a 9 or 10," says Haney, who is a state party chairman in Arizona's 11th Legislative District. "The people who know what's going on rate him a 1 or a 2, or ask, 'Can I rate him a minus?'"

Haney, a 66-year-old retired IBM engineer, has been a persistent thorn in McCain's side in recent years. One of his main missions is to reveal what he sees as the truth about McCain: "We in the conservative Republican base do not feel he is a Republican. He is a liberal-moderate."

Haney isn't alone in his contempt for McCain. In a January straw poll of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, Mitt Romney won the support of 26 percent of the 721 activists who voted, while McCain came in fifth (behind Fred Thompson, Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter), with just 11 percent. McCain did score big in one survey the GOP group did: 59 percent of the activists named him an "unacceptable candidate."

A Project White House bulletin: With less than 48 hours until sunrise on Election Day, Republican presidential candidate Sean "CF" Murphy is making a last plea for votes from YouTube viewers. Featuring a Mentos-powered Pepsi explosion!

I'm sitting at the Tucson airport waiting for a flight to Oakland. While I hate flying, I have a fondness for airports, probably from doing way too much traveling as a youngster. There was a brief part of my childhood spent living with my mom in the Republic of Panama when she worked for the Panama Canal Company.

I'd get shipped off to Tucson a couple of times a year. Back then, there was no security. My large extended family would greet me when I got off the plane--lots of kisses and hugs. Tucson's airport, small today, was much smaller then. My cousins and I would run down the ramp leading to baggage claim and then take a look at the resin-encased scorpions for sale in the gift shop.

Today, we have all grown accustomed to getting to the airport early, going through security and putting on our shoes on the conveyer belts. The extra time is good for reading, but I can't help but keep my eyes on a family standing around their father on the other side of the terminal.

The father is wearing U.S. Army fatigues. It's obvious where he's going. His wife, almost too beautifully dressed and coiffed at 7:30 a.m., keeps a smile on her face, and his daughter and two sons talk to him during the wait. (Military families, unlike regular families, are still allowed to go to the departure gates.) The announcement for boarding goes out. The family starts to walk him to the line. They begin to say regular goodbyes. Everyone gives him a hug, but his daughter refuses to let go and walks him up to the line.

I keep staring. I can't stop. And my eyes tear up. I had already started reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, which didn't help matters before the family caught my eye. As I go to wipe my eyes and make sure real tears aren't descending down my cheeks, I see a guy sitting across from me staring at me. Great, I think. Is he thinking, "This lady is losing it?" He has no clue I'm doing my own staring--completely entranced by this family's deeply private moment. I can't help it.

The family decides to stay aside with the father up until the last minute, up until final boarding call. The daughter holds on to one side of her father, while the mother holds on to the other. The boys stand in front of their father. The mother's body begins to shake as she cries once final boarding call is announced. The daughter cries, too, while the sons look on and sometimes look away.

I'm thinking about a previous blog post I made about how, right now, Americans aren't prepared to make the sacrifices needed to help repair what we've done to the environment. There are Americans, however, that are making sacrifices in the crazy war this Bush administration has gotten us into. This family is one example. Those daughter's tears and her arms wrapped around her father--how can I forget that image?

As the father turned away to board the plane and his family stood there holding on to each other, I realized that while I didn't have any right to stare, I certainly have no right to forget their airport goodbye.