The Phoenix Mars Lander has touched down on the surface of Mars.

Confirmation of the successful landing came right on time at 4:53 p.m. this afternoon. A crowd at the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab's off-campus Phoenix mission headquarters cheered as the words "Touchdown signal detected" were transmitted via a feed from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Pasadena headquarters.

The landing is the culmination of an effort that began in 2002, when Peter Smith of the UA LPL proposed the Phoenix mission to NASA.

The first images from Phoenix are expected to arrive around 6:45 p.m. this afternoon.

More info here.

Pima County is one step closer to delaying a ballot proposal to ask voters to approve the sale of $900 million in general-obligation bonds for a variety of projects, including open space and parks.

The county's bond committee met this morning and voted to advise the Board of Supervisors to scrap the idea of holding an election in November 2008. Instead, they'll be advising supes to schedule a November 2009 election for the bond package, says Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

Huckelberry says the committee still needs to whittle down about $1.4 billion in requests from various sub-committees to a total package of no more than $900 million, not counting about $560 million in revenue bonds for the sewer system to rebuild the Roger Road treatment plan and deal with a list of environmental requirements.

Here's another short NASA film with some way-cool animation of the Entry, Descent and Landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander that's set to touch down on Sunday, May 25.

Our friends over at KUAT-TV are airing Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice tonight at 9 p.m. (It will also air at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on KUAT-HD, which can be found at digital 27.1, Cox 706 and Comcast 220.)

The show, which takes us inside the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory as scientists build and launch the Phoenix, has been picked up to run on PBS stations nationwide tonight. Congrats to producer Tom Kleespie, photographer Martin Rubio and editor Steve Bayless.

Here's the Phoenix home page. And here's the latest release from the UA about the Mars Mania this weekend.

From UA press office:

Mars University

The University of Arizona community is celebrating the Phoenix Mars Mission.

The Phoenix Mars Lander is days from ending its long journey and beginning a three-month mission to explore Martian soil and buried ice. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Sunday at approximately 4:38 p.m. PDT (7:38 p.m. EDT).

The University of Arizona will mark the occasion with public celebrations taking place across the campus. The mission will last about 90 days and the UA – which is the first public university ever to lead a mission to Mars – will provide several ways for the public to access the mission and the news it will generate.

Public Landing Celebration

On Sunday, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Flandrau: The UA Science Center will host a public landing celebration on the campus mall in front of Flandrau and the neighboring science buildings – the Sonett Space Sciences Building and the Kuiper Space Sciences Building.

It will feature live coverage of events taking place at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, plus provide access to the science center, children’s activities and presentations by UA scientists involved on the Phoenix and other Mars missions. Many of the buildings will feature displays of extraordinary space images generated by instruments developed by UA scientists.

The UA Museum of Art also will host a landing celebration in conjunction with its exhibit of the work of legendary space artist Robert McCall.

Kuiper Building: 3-8 p.m.

NASA TV streaming in atrium and rooms 301, 308, 309 and 312

Space Imagery Center tours from 3-4 p.m. (Room 450)

Children’s science activities and experiments

Presentations by Bill Boynton, Daniel Janes, Alfred McEwen and Rob Bovill, all with the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Sonett Building: 3-8 p.m.

NASA TV streaming in lobby and small conference room

The “HiWALL,” a floor-to-ceiling computer display of the giant and dramatic images of the surface of Mars, taken from the UA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera that now orbits the Red Planet.

Video presentations

Flandrau: The UA Science Center: 3-8 p.m.

NASA TV streaming in gallery

Exhibits will be open top the public at no charge

Free planetarium shows at 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. A telescope will be opened for Mars viewing after dark (Mars will be visible in the western sky around sunset)

Campus Mall: 3-8 p.m.

Overflow seating in case of large turnout (main tent will seat 100)

NASA audio feed

Solar telescopes for viewing from 3-5 p.m.

Physics Factory shows

UA Museum of Art: 1-4 p.m.

Robert McCall’s space art exhibit, “Imagination Unbound,” will be open to the public

Presentation by the Postal History Foundation about McCall’s postage stamp design

Hands-on children’s activities that merge science and art

There will be free parking in campus garages for landing-day events. Bathrooms will be available inside the Sonett, Kuiper and Flandrau buildings.

TV Coverage of Landing

Coverage of the Phoenix landing will be broadcast live on:

NASA-TV: 3:30 p.m. PDT/6:30 p.m. EDT

The Science Channel: 4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. EDT

Discovery Channel Canada: 4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. EDT

Cox Communications announced this week that it will add the digital NASA-TV to its local lineup in Tucson so that its viewers can enjoy the coverage of the Phoenix landing and science operations.

Staying Connected

E-mail

Daily e-mail updates will be available via UANow, the UA’s daily newswire. Subscribe at http://uanews.org/signupfornews.

Web

Visit the UA’s Mars main Web site at http://mars.arizona.edu for news, images, links and resources to follow the Phoenix Mission as it unfolds.

Mission Web site: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

UANews: http://uanews.org

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

TV

Watch daily media briefings live on NASA TV, which Cox Communications will carry in Tucson between May 23 and June 26. A live online feed of NASA TV is also available at http://mars.arizona.edu.

Phone

Call 520-621-MARS for recorded Phoenix Mars Mission updates.

Ongoing Campus Activities

UA Visitor Center

Throughout the summer of 2008 the UA Visitor Center will serve as the Phoenix Mission Welcome Center. Located on the northwest corner of Euclid Avenue and University Boulevard, it will serve visitors as a first stop and referral center to all of the exciting events occurring on campus that relate to the Phoenix Mission. It will feature daily mission updates, maps to campus attractions and live pictures and video of the NASA mission in progress.

Weekly Mission Open House

On a space-available basis, member of the public may sign up online to visit the Science Operations Center once a week while the mission is in progress. Those wishing to visit the mission may inquire at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

Flandrau: The UA Science Center

A curved “Mars Wall” in the lobby of the science center will replicate a portion of the surface of Mars in three dimensions. While there, visitors can watch “Mars Quest” under the planetarium dome.

Student Union Memorial Center

The “Mars Lounge,” located on the main level of the Union, will feature an overview of the mission, from launch to the envisioned landing and science operations, plus updated photos and images from the mission. Collectors can pick up mission T-shirts, caps and other logo products at the UA BookStore.

Kuiper Space Sciences Building

The “HiWALL” will be on display throughout the summer.

Sonett Space Sciences Building

The latest HiRISE images will be presented in large print displays, along with a full-scale model of the famed camera.

UA Museum of Art

The entire work and archives of space artist Robert McCall were recently donated to the UA, and an exhibit of his work is on display at the museum through Aug. 10.

The Phoenix Mission is led by Smith with project management at JPL. The development partnership is with Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions are from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

If this week's cover story on the Phoenix Mars Lander has piqued your interest in Sunday's landing, you can learn a whole lot more here at the mission's Web site.

Here's a slick--and short--documentary on the "seven minutes of terror" that that the UA space scientists will experience as the Phoenix enters the Martian atmosphere and attempts to land on the northern arctic plains.

Vol. 25, No. 13 of the Tucson Weekly is online and ready for its loving readers! Feel free to comment on its contents here--but first, enjoy this week's YouTube Ask a Mexican!

Remember when state Rep. Russell Pearce forwarded on that neo-Nazi e-mail in 2006? Russell said he hadn't really read it before forwarding it to all his friends and was just so sorry that he'd passed along something so awful.

Well, he may be hitting that "send" button a little too quickly again. Pearce, a Mesa Republican who has made demonizing illegal immigrants a competitive sport at the state Capitol, sent out a list of people who have been killed or injured by illegal immigrants. At the bottom of the e-mail, there's a lengthy deranged passage entitled "WHERE HAVE ALL THE MEN GONE?" about how the men in this country have turned into a bunch of wusses. The anonymous writer notes that men:

Sit back in their easy chair reading Newsweek or spend their time bare chested at a football game, well filled with suds to maintain those obscene beer bellies, while they have put their wives and children at risk. This nation is being invaded wholesale with illegal aliens who come into this country and kidnap, rape and murder our women and children. Some are caught, most are not. Why do the men turn a blind eye in pursuit of good times?

And there's this choice passage:

While their women and children continue to live in a state of bondage to a tyrannical government, the men simply write checks to the RNC or the DNC, thus encouraging those scoundrels to stay on the same path of the planned destruction of this Republic. By writing a check instead of storming the gates, this gives those men more time for the golf course, doing recreational cocaine or surfing the Internet for countless hours enjoying that great "adult" American pastime called pornography. Their harmless pastime does put their women and children at risk out in society, but they no longer care. Why is this?

And the final highlight:

Our nation was built by men who were self-reliant, independent and strong. Today they are tolerant, sensitive and genuflect at the feet of perverts called "gays." Why is this?

Gays, drug fiends, illegal immigrants, football fans...they're all responsible for the collapse of America!

If you're interesting in reading the entire anti-modern manifesto, you can continue here...

WHERE HAVE ALL THE MEN GONE?

My comments here exclude those men who have stepped forward with incredible courage since 1913 to face this tyrannical government, and like our Founding Fathers, have paid an enormous price both personally and financially. People like Bill Benson, our fine gentlemen down in the great State of Tennessee and too many others to list.

Americans forget that the Founding Fathers were the "moneyed class" back then. They were farmers, merchants and men of means. They had a lot to lose, both in land and gold. Yet, they didn't hesitate to step forward against the most incredible odds to build a free nation, not just for themselves, but for their women and children.

My comments are directed at the men of this country, who over the past decades:

Sit back in their easy chair reading Newsweek or spend their time bare chested at a football game, well filled with suds to maintain those obscene beer bellies, while they have put their wives and children at risk. This nation is being invaded wholesale with illegal aliens who come into this country and kidnap, rape and murder our women and children. Some are caught, most are not. Why do the men turn a blind eye in pursuit of good times?

These same men will go vote for the same politicians, state or federal, over and over, who refuse to stop this massive invasion of our country putting their women and children at risk. These same men continue to idolize their party "leadership," while that same leadership refuses to stop this invasion of global riffraff, turning America into a third world dumping ground. These same men would rather spend time, not banding together and having a serious discussion with these politicians, but rather put on their expensive gear and go ride their bike up a mountain, see the latest Broadway show or take a day off work to stand in line to buy tickets to the new Star Wars flick. Why is this?

Today the men in this country sit around watching mindless trash like Survivor or Friends on the boob tube, instead of shouting down the roof against state and federal systems that are utterly and completely rotten beyond redemption. Systems and agencies that are putting their women and children into a state of involuntary servitude for all their lives. Instead they sit back with nary a whisper while state and federal judges to uphold this carnage against the people. Why is this?

Black robed judges continue to hand out welfare and benefits to illegal aliens who are legally entitled to nothing but deportation. Instead of holding their elected public servants accountable for this insanity, men just get up in the morning, go to work at the company store, then return home in the evening to their false sense of security. Why is this? Back in 1776, this breed of men would be called cowards.

Today men will spend endless hours with their stamp collection or at the bowling alley while Congress after Congress continues to pass unconstitutional legislation that deprives their women of their God-given rights - all because their "party" says it's good for our "democracy." Why is that?

Today men will ignore the documented truth that the state and federal governments are all in collusion to bring America into a one-world government, but they will believe any lie that comes out of the mouth of their favorite radio talk show host or TV anchorman. Today men are desperately clinging to their comfort zones while their women and children are at risk from a police state being erected around them. Why is this?

Today men will stand for hours on end feeding one-armed bandits in gambling casinos, while the Bush Administration's henchmen (Ashcroft and Mueller) continue to strip their women of their God-given rights, all in the name of "the war on terrorism." They are putting their children at risk by not demaning this government take the necessary measures to clean out the terrorists in this country, both Chinese and middle-Eastern. Why is this?

For decades, America's men think nothing of spending spend lots of money on music CDs or plunking down big bucks to attend concerts or jazz festivals instead of protecting their own families from state predators calling themselves "child protective services." Everyone with children is now a target. Why won't they band together and surround the state capitols and demand that this evil cease? Back in 1787, the men protected their women and children to the death.

For the older men, their grand children are targets of the state. But, these men have already served their country in the military and now it's time to spend their golden years in the Winnebago, they've done their part. After all, at Christmas they can show the grand children how much they love them by buying them "things" made in foreign countries. Why is this?

Today the men of this country will allow a sleezy, morally bankrupt individual like Bill Clinton get away with treason (selling our most sensitive national defense secrets to the Communist Chinese) because Clinton supports their women's "right" to kill their unborn babies. Back in 1854, this was unthinkable. Today, their blind loyalty is to their political party now instead of what's right. Why is this?

Today men think nothing of sitting down at the local bar every night during happy hour while their women and children are put at risk by agencies like the ATF and FBI making no knock, bust down the door on the wrong house raids, killing innocents inside. It's happened and it will continue to happen. A hundred years ago, this would not have been tolerated in a constitutional Republic because the men would not have stood for it, not for a minute.

While their women and children continue to live in a state of bondage to a tyrannical government, the men simply write checks to the RNC or the DNC, thus encouraging those scoundrels to stay on the same path of the planned destruction of this Republic. By writing a check instead of storming the gates, this gives those men more time for the golf course, doing recreational cocaine or surfing the Internet for countless hours enjoying that great "adult" American pastime called pornography. Their harmless pastime does put their women and children at risk out in society, but they no longer care. Why is this?

While the IRS bleeds a family dry, forcing the woman into the workplace and leaving the children to be raised by strangers, many of whom are pedophiles, the man of the house spends his free time doing the "guy thing" at a NASCAR speedway. Why is this? Why won't these men stand up to this rogue agency called the IRS?

Over the past 40 years, the men of this country have sat back and allowed themselves to be brow beaten into submission and castrated by so-called "feminists" like Rosie O'Donnell and Hillary Clinton (although I defy anyone to show me one single feminine attribute of those females) instead of stand up and saying, "Hell No!"

Hard core feminists aren't out there for equal pay, they're out there to destroy the male and the family unit. How it must gall them that the only way lesbians can "impregnate" their female lovers is artificial insemination by a male sperm.

Over the past 40 years the men of this country have put their material objects and addictions before the well being of the women and children by kowtowing to every special interest group in this country in the name of "political correctness" or for government hand outs. Our nation was built by men who were self-reliant, independent and strong. Today they are tolerant, sensitive and genuflect at the feet of perverts called "gays." Why is this?

The men of this country have laid down their arms in favor of political correctness, declaring open season for two-legged predators on their women and children. Instead of surrounding their state capitols armed to the teeth in defiance of such unconstitutional machinations on the part of cowardly and mentally impaired politicians, instead they grovel on their knees to the likes of Diane Feinstein. This sad state of affairs was unheard of in 1905. Why this inability to resist tyranny now?

PC is a cancer on this nation that has turned a Godly nation into a moral sewer. These men have put their children in harms way via mandatory social indoctrination in the anti-God public school system. Why is this?

The men of this country will go to extraordinary lengths to find the right fishing hole, but they refuse to lift a finger to ensure that their women and children will not be forced into global citizenship under the UN. Why is this?

The men of this country will sit in front of the computer playing games while women and children in different parts of this country are being driven off their land by Nazi-style federal agencies. So what if their fellow countryman will lose his land, his wife and children thrown out into the street? After all, those families in Klamath Falls and too many other places have nothing to do with these other men's lives, so why should they give up any of their free time to stand up to the government to help them? Why is this?

Women in this country spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on "romance books" whose pages are filled with knights in shining armor and genuine heroes coming to rescue the damsel in distress. Why do you suppose that is?

Why do you suppose the men are allowing their women and children to be put at risk in all the ways described above?

Why are the women the ones out there on the front lines battling this government tooth and nail for our children - ready and willing to die if necessary to protect our own?

Because America has lost it's manhood.

So Tom Jenney of the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity went all wonky on us last week after The Skinny made fun of the stupid “Friend of the Taxpayer” pledge he wants local officials to sign in allegiance to him.

You'll find Jenney's full response down lower in this post, but the gist is this: Jenney said that we were the stupid ones because we said that local governments need to increase spending to deal with inflation and population growth, but his research showed that the city and county were both spending less this year than last year.

“Nintzel is often a keen observer of the state and local economy, but he has apparently missed the dozens of news stories and official reports this year projecting sharp downturns in various streams of tax revenue, including state-shared income and sales tax revenue, which will probably come in below last year’s revenues,” Jenney wrote on his blog and in a press release that people keep forwarding to us.

“Even the spendthrift majorities on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson City Council managed to get the news—and have been putting the brakes on spending,” Jenney continued. “So far, the County and City budgets from FY 2009 look relatively modest, with projected spending lower than that of FY 2008.”

First of all, let us say that we agree 100 percent with the “keen observer” stuff.

We’ll also note that Jenney is technically correct: Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has proposed a total budget of $1.460 billion this year, which is slightly less than the overall budget of $1.482 billion for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

But when you’re tossing around more than a billion bucks, it’s a little more complicated than that. Spending in the county’s general fund—the part of the budget that funds day-to-day operation of county government—is increasing from a little less than $489 million to more than $499 million.

The big savings in county government are coming from cutting back on capital projects—which means, in many cases, that the county is putting off projects for the future, when they’ll be more expensive.

However you want to enter that into the ledger, the county will be increasing its overall property-tax levy—the total amount collected in property taxes—from $250 million to $265 million to accommodate the additional spending in the general fund and to make up for anticipated cuts in federal and state funding.

What does that mean? Anyone who supports the Pima County budget doesn’t qualify for the “friend of the taxpayer” merit badge from Jenney’s group.

In the city of Tucson, City Manager Mike Hein has lowered the general-fund budget by $1.7 million, but even Hein admits that’s little more than financial sleight of hand. Operating funds in the city budget are increasing by $82 million, while capital costs are decreasing by about $88 million—and more than $77 million of those cuts are coming out of transportation spending. Ain’t that great news for our overstressed streets?

By the way: Hein is working on the following fiscal year already, which calls for an increase of $10 million in general fund spending to catch up with what he’s not going to be able to spend this year.

The city budget includes a teeny-tiny increase in the property-tax levy of about $600,000, which disqualifies it from receiving that “Friend of the Taxpayer” label from Jenney’s crew.

Yadda yadda yadda—all of this malarkey equals exactly one big “whatevs” to most taxpayers, so before we lose any more readers, let us just say we stand by our larger point:

Elected officials should blow off anyone who asks them for a pledge because they should think about problems like grown-ups rather than behaving like pre-programmed robots.

Anyways: If you’re a glutton for wonky punishment, Jenney and Skinny scribe Jim Nintzel will talk about budgets, revenue streams and the wisdom of taking pledges on the radio between noon and 12:30 p.m. on Charles Heller’s Liberty Watch on KVOI, 690 AM.

Here's Jenney's original letter:

17 May 2008

Re: “Hollow Promise,” The Skinny, May 15 http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Opinion/Content?oid=oid:110922

To the Tucson Weekly:

Skinny columnist Jim Nintzel finds AFP Arizona’s 2008 Local Government Tax and Spending Pledge to be “stupid” (“Hollow Promise,” May 15), because we are asking local officials to “vow not to support increasing government spending at all.”

Nintzel is often a keen observer of the state and local economy, but he has apparently missed the dozens of news stories and official reports this year projecting sharp downturns in various streams of tax revenue, including state-shared income and sales tax revenue, which will probably come in below last year’s revenues.

Even the spendthrift majorities on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson City Council managed to get the news—and have been putting the brakes on spending. So far, the County and City budgets from FY 2009 look relatively modest, with projected spending lower than that of FY 2008.

[Sources for projected budgets:

http://www.pima.gov/finance/PDFs/Budget/RecBdgt/2008-2009/00cbdgtschl.pdf http://www.tucsonaz.gov/budget/docs/09RecBudgetFacts.pdf]

Further, the planned slowdowns in spending come after a year in which local governments went hog-wild with spending. In 2007, Supervisors Bronson, Elias, and Valadez voted to increase the county budget by 15.8 percent, and Tucson’s City Council members voted unanimously to increase the city budget by 14.6 percent. That is more than twice the rate of growth of the Tucson-area economy—even when the economy is in a period of strong growth.

In 2007, the allowable spending increase for the AFP Arizona scorecard was 7 percent, which allowed for population growth, inflation, and real per-capita economic growth. The 2008 tax and spending limits are lower, because of the recession. The people of Pima County and Tucson are going through tough times, and local governments have no business increasing taxes or spending money faster than the economy is growing.

The 2008 Local Government Tax and Spending Pledge is available online here:

Tom Jenney

Arizona Director, Americans for Prosperity

www.aztaxpayers.org

[email protected]

(602) 478-0146

So what if Charles Barkley has $400,000 gambling debt in the Vegas? They build a stage for Celine Dion, and now Cher is returning to town to get in on this predictable Vegas cash cow, but what about Charles Barkley. I love this man. He needs his own show--TV, Vegas, whatever. 

The Wynn is suing Barkley for a $400k loan, but Wynn should build Barkley a special stage, have him wash dishes in public, hook a microphone on and let him talk about George Bush, and running for governor of Alabama in 2014. Fuck Celine and Cher--I'd pay to watch Barkley wash dishes with his clothes on and talk about fake Christians even with a two-drink minimum. 

Forget sports commentator life; he needs to co-host with Bill Maher.

The folks with the Green Party are getting to the heart of their platform--and getting their green on in party fundraising.

Give Sally a call at 245-0395, and she'll pick up your junk, like used bikes, clothes, books, TVs--things you might take to a charity. The Greenies will save you the trip, pick it up, and then resell it at a garage sale near you.

Those dollars go back to the Green Party of Pima County to do with as they wish, like send viable candidates to Jim Nintzel's Candidate School.

Democratic activist Ted Prezelski, who runs the Rum, Romanism and Rebellion Web site, has been tapped to be Arizona's official blogger at the Democratic National Convention.

It ain't Tedski's first rodeo. He's been to every convention since 1992, where he worked as an usher "watching who was going in and out of whose suite and who was meeting with who."

Prezelski thought when he applied that he'd be off in some nosebleed seats somewhere, "watching through binoculars." But it turns out that he'll be right on the floor in the midst of the delegates, "doing my normal thing of just making fun of everyone."