Democrat John Dougherty, who is running against three other Democrats for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican John McCain, launches a Huffington Post blog:

Why would an investigative journalist who made a decent living uncovering one scandal after another decide to enter the seamy world of politics?

The answer is simple: I'm fed up with money-driven politics that brought us to the brink of financial collapse, left the Gulf of Mexico drenched in oil, has given us wars without end, and a 19th Century fossil-fuel-based economy that could reduce America to a second-rate power in our lifetimes.

Local Pride Week festivities kick off Saturday, June 19, and the Weekly celebrates the occasion with its fourth quarterly Pride issue, out this week.

If you thought the House vote in late May to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a nice pre-Pride Month surprise, here are a couple of other surprises from Uncle Sam and his crazy comrades:

According to the State Department, “Beginning June 10, when a passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will reflect the new gender.” Applicants can also obtain “a limited-validity passport” if the physician’s statement shows they are in the process of transitioning to a new gender. No additional medical records are required, and gender-reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance.

Don't forget to add this to your Pride Week calendar:

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) components, including Border Patrol, the Office of Field Operations (OFO), the Office of Air and Marine (OAM), and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) continue to promote cultural awareness through the CBP Special Emphasis Program (SEP). SEP emphasizes the employment, development, and advancement of Hispanics, Asian-Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, Native Americans, Women, and Disabled Persons.

This month we will be celebrating Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride on June 18, 2010. The program includes speakers from Wingspan, Southern Arizona’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, and a performance by Singer/Songwriter Meagan Gipson. Please join us at this event to celebrate cultural diversity.

Nate Silver examines today's NPR poll of swing seats such as Arizona's Congressional District 8:

Broadly speaking, this poll is consistent with the impression I have had of the House picture for almost a year now, which is that the over/under on the number of net Democratic losses is about 40 seats (i.e. they have about even odds of losing the House), with a 90 percent confidence interval of about +/- 20 seats. I also suspect that the race characterizations issued by Cook, etc., are about half a grade too optimistic for Democrats on average, e.g., a "toss-up" seat should be thought of as somewhere between toss-up and lean Republican, and a lean Democrat seat should be thought of as somewhere between lean Democrat and toss-up. But I'm looking forward to completing work on our House forecasting model so that we can be more exacting about this.

Read the whole thing here.

Phoenix New Times' Paul Rubin looks into the shooting of Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll:

The DPS investigation raises more questions than it answers about a scenario that instantly escalated the already tense situation in Arizona stemming from contentious Senate Bill 1070 and the shocking March 27 murder of border rancher Rob Krentz.

Does the DPS scene analysis accuse or even suggest that Deputy Puroll (in the June 5 photo) staged the episode and injured himself slightly somehow for unspecified motives?

Or does it suggest that the deputy may have engaged in a nefarious scheme of his own device—say a shakedown of desert drug dealers or something of that nature (a la the recent arrest of Phoenix cop James Wren for ripping off drug dealers while on duty) when things went awry?

The answer is no to both questions, but with a large asterisk attached.

CNN bulletin:

Government officials raise estimate of oil spewing from a well in the Gulf of Mexico to 35,000-60,000 barrels per day.

Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are "so big you could park a car on them."

It's Saturday, May 22nd, a month into the BP spill, and I've been trying to get to Elmer's Island for the past two days. I've been stymied at every turn by Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies brought in to supplement the local police force of Grand Isle, a 229-year-old settlement here at the very southern tip of Louisiana. Just eight miles long and so narrow in some spots that you can see from the Gulf side to the inland side, Grand Isle is all new clapboard and vinyl-sided bungalows since Katrina, but still scrappy—population 1,500, octuple that in tourist season. It's also home to the only route to Elmer's, a barrier island to the west. I arrived on Thursday with my former University of New Orleans lit prof, John Hazlett; a tandem kayak is strapped to his Toyota Tacoma. At the turn to Elmer's Island Road, a deputy flags us down. Can't go to Elmer's; he's just "doing what they told me to do." We continue on to Grand Isle beach, where toddlers splash in the surf. Only after I've stepped in a blob of crude do I realize that the sheen on the waves and the blackness covering a little blue heron from the neck down is oil.

The bottom line: The news is not good for Democrats.

Bolger says the NPR poll has more evidence of a trend that's been apparent all year: Republican-leaning voters are energized, while the intensity seems to have leached out of the Democratic ranks.

"When you look at the generic ballot for Congress in the Democrat-held seats, the Republican is up by 5 [points]. But among those who rate their interest as 8 to 10, you know, the high-interest voters, the Republican leads in those Democratic seats 53 to 39.

"And what that means is that is in a close election, the Republican enthusiasm will put Republicans over the top, just like in '06 and '08, the Democratic enthusiasm put the Democrats over the top."

The results in districts with CD8's profile:

• 66 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track

• Obama's approval level is at 40 percent.

• Democratic incumbent's approval rating is at 41 percent; disapproval is at 38 percent.

• Only 35 percent believe the Democratic policies helped avert a crisis; 59 percent believe they ran up the deficit.

• Only 31 percent favor re-electing the incumbent; 44 percent say they want to elect someone else.

• 62 percent of Republicans are enthusiastic about voting, while just 37 percent of Democrats are enthusiastic.

Here's a copy of the poll: 5722_NPRBG06152010.FINAL.pdf

Republican Jesse Kelly, one of five Republicans running for the chance to take on Democratic incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in CD8, has won the endorsement of former state lawmaker Randy Graf.

“I think Jesse is the most conservative and the best candidate to run against Giffords in the general election,” says Graf.

It was Graf who turned CD8 upside down by first challenging Republican Jim Kolbe in 2004. While Kolbe knocked back Graf’s challenge that year, he retired in 2006 rather than seeking a 12th term in Congress. Graf won the GOP primary that year, but lost the seat to Giffords in the general election, capturing just 42 percent of the vote.

Graf may have lost the general election, but he’s set the tone for this year’s crop of candidates. With the exception of businessman Jay Quick, the GOP candidates sound like they’re all singing from Randy’s songbook.

The audience members at today's Tea Party-sponsored debate among the Republican candidates in Congressional District 8 picked Jesse Kelly as the winner. Kelly got the votes of 78 audience members, while 56 liked Jonathan Paton and 37 liked Brian Miller. Andy Goss, who was unable to attend, got three votes.

Republican congressional candidates Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly and Brian Miller made a number of remarkable statements in today’s debate in Green Valley. When answering a question about closing the deficit, for example, Kelly proposed a plan to “drop the mother of all bombs—the largest non-nuclear device” on the ocean floor to stop the BP leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Hey, what could go wrong?

BTW: Jesse isn't the only one with the bomb idea.

But the sparks really flew at the end of the debate when Kelly questioned Paton’s conservative bona fides. Here’s the slightly edited exchange:

Kelly:

I’m sorry, Jonathan, but I cannot let you go on with this talking about reining in government spending. You voted for Janet Napolitano’s budgets. In ’08, you voted for her budget that increased state spending by a billion dollars. In ’07, you were given a worse fiscal rating by Americans for Prosperity than Janet Napolitano herself. And this excuse that you were overseas—Americans for Prosperity flat-out refutes that. They say it would have been worse if you’d been back home…. This talk of giving up government spending, now that the state is bankrupt because of decisions you made at the state Legislature, simply doesn’t wash anymore.

Paton:

I wish I knew where this was coming from, because honestly, Jesse, what you’re doing is you’re accusing me of not being a conservative. And the fact of the matter is, I voted for the budgets I voted for—the ones that you’re talking about—because I am conservative. That budget eliminated the state income tax for active duty military. That bill that you’re talking about made sure that

U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman may be ducking the chance to debate his fellow Democrats, but he's willing to let us know about his political fashion statements. This just in from the Glassman campaign:

U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman announced today that he will be adding an Arizona flag pin to his lapel, right next to his American flag pin, as a symbol of his dedication and commitment to the people of Arizona first.

Meanwhile, U.S. Senate candidate John Dougherty delivered a boring press release calling for accountability in defense spending. Like anyone cares about that:

A bipartisan Congressional report released Friday outlines a plan for cutting defense spending by nearly $1 trillion — approximately 10 percent of the projected budget — over 10 years without threatening national security or reducing funds for ongoing wars.

The Sustainable Defense Task Force is offering cost-cutting proposals covering the full range of Pentagon expenditures: procurement, research and development, personnel, operations and maintenance, and infrastructure. For details, visit http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/294024-1&showFullAbstract=1.

"I support the bi-partisan task force's cost-cutting recommendations, particularly regarding a new array of expensive weapons systems that are prone to failure and huge cost overruns," Arizona Democratic Senate candidate John Dougherty said. "Reducing unnecessary military spending is a crucial step in cutting the nation's unsustainable budget deficit."

Dougherty said that he supports quick and orderly