Turns out it was those pesky women that convinced Obama to intervene in Libya, with their "emotional arguments" about trying to prevent mass genocide.

Salon's Justin Elliot points out that Sen. John McCain has a very selective memory:

Speaking on CBS' "The Early Show" today, McCain twice cited the fact that Moammar Gadhafi has "American blood on his hands" as a reason the U.S. should try to oust the dictator. McCain specifically referred to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which was indeed carried out by a Libyan agent.

What McCain is apparently forgetting is that, apart from the past few weeks, the last decade has been a period of rapprochement between the United States and Libya. It started with President Bush announcing in 2003 that Gadhafi had agreed to give up his "weapons of mass destruction" programs. In 2006 Bush removed Libya from the official list of state sponsors of terrorism. In September 2008 Condoleezza Rice traveled to Libya to have talks with Gadhafi. And just a few days before the 2008 presidential election, Bush signed a settlement under which Libya compensated families of victims of Lockerbie and other '80s-era attacks.

Who else was involved in the effort to forge better ties with Gadhafi? John McCain. In August 2009 he led a delegation of senators, including fellow hawks Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, on a trip to visit the Libyan leader in Tripoli. Discussed during the visit was delivery of — get this — American military equipment to Gadhafi (a man with American blood on his hands no less).

"We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of non-lethal defense equipment to the government of Libya," the AP quoted McCain as saying at a press conference. McCain also noted that "ties between the United States and Libya have taken a remarkable and positive turn in recent years."

[Salon]

Elizabeth Taylor died at the age of 79 in Los Angeles this morning.

Probably the best tribute that can be offered to Taylor is to look back on an outstanding film career, which TCM is doing on April 10th. The schedule, includes a stretch from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Giant which is about as good as film gets.:

6 a.m. — Lassie Come Home (1943), with Roddy McDowall and Edmund Gwenn; directed by Fred M. Wilcox.

7:30 a.m. — National Velvet (1944), with Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere and Angela Lansbury; directed by Clarence Brown.

10 a.m. — Conspirator (1952), with Robert Taylor and Robert Flemyng; directed by Victor Saville.

11:30 a.m. — Father of the Bride (1950), with Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett and Don Taylor; directed by Vincente Minnelli

1:15 a.m. — Father’s Little Dividend (1951), with Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett and Don Taylor; directed by Vincente Minnelli.

2:45 p.m. — Raintree County (1957), with Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor and Agnes Moorehead; directed by Edward Dmytryk.

6 p.m. — Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), with Paul Newman and Burl Ives; directed by Richard Brooks.

8 p.m. — Butterfield 8 (1960), with Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher; directed by Daniel Mann.

10 p.m. — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), with Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis; directed by Mike Nichols.

12:30 a.m. — Giant (1956), with James Dean and Rock Hudson; directed by George Stevens.

4 a.m. — Ivanhoe (1952), with Robert Taylor and Joan Fontaine; directed by Richard Thorpe.

Right now, counties determine their own boundaries for supervisor districts. Seemingly, that's been working so far, but this is the golden age of Arizona Legislature micromanagement, so why not set up another committee? Even better, why not set up committees that likely benefit Republicans well into the future?

State Sen. Lori Klein, late of the controversy over a bigoted letter that she read on the Senate floor, has proposed a strike-everything amendment to HB2289, one that is scheduled for committee consideration at Thursday's meeting of Senate Finance.

It concerns the redistricting of county supervisorial districts.

Her proposed measure would set up an "independent redistricting committee" in counties with five supervisorial districts.

Currently Maricopa, Pima, Cochise, Coconino, and Yuma counties each have five supervisor districts. Because of the population counts of the 2010 Census, Mohave, Pinal, and Yavapai counties will have to go to a five-district plan.

The "independent" committee would be made up of the current supervisors (either five or three, as appropriate) plus *six* members appointed by legislative Republicans and the Governor.

Specifically, the Speaker and majority leader of the House would each get to appoint one person, as would the President and majority leader of the Senate. In addition, the governor would get to appoint two members of each county's "independent" redistricting commission.

Those folks, the legislative leadership and the governor, are all Republicans, who can be reasonably be expected to appoint fellow Republicans. And there is nothing in the proposal to require that the commissions be partisanly balanced or even non-partisan.

Based on this model, the redistricting committee for Pima County would like be made up of eight Republicans and three Democrats. At least we get a little more evidence to prove that from Republican legislators, "limited government" means "limited to us".

[Random Musings]

Ward 3 Councilwoman Karin Uhlich responds to Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik's recent letter to us regarding the city's new stance on mini-dorms:

Councilman Kozachik recently wrote to ask "what changed" in response to the City Zoning Administrator's finding that minidorm operators violate zoning laws by leasing group dwellings which are explicitly prohibited in R1 and R2 areas.

Despite eight years of good faith effort on the part of neighbors and elected officials (including my predecessors), nothing changed. Minidorm developers continued to tear down houses and construct minidorms without care for the neighbors they impacted. They disregarded legitimate concerns as countless hours were spent by neighborhoods and city staff to find mutually acceptable ways of reducing harm. Then they filed lawsuits against those attempts at compromise to let it be known they'd fight the community at any cost to amass their profits—good faith be damned.

So neighbors fought back. They organized across neighborhood boundaries, did their homework, raised thousands of dollars and filed a formal action with the City—organizing a movement to push back against harm. That movement has been fueled by the aggression and disregard that minidorm developers could have abated themselves long ago. But they didn't and so they're now facing the results of their own egregious practices.

Like it or not, it took a long time for Tucsonans to abandon their preferred path of dialogue and good faith. I for one am pleased that, when residents banded together and stood up to the bullying, they prevailed in their request that the City investigate specific violations and enforce regulations on the books. The fact that minidorm developers "got away with it" for years points to values long held in Tucson—we like to think people mean well and want to work through differences cooperatively. The fact that minidorm developers have finally been called on the carpet points to another truth—we're willing to fight to defend fairness and the fabric of the community we love.

Thank you to the 1,700 fellow Southern Arizonans who received CPR and first aid training from the Red Cross last Saturday as part of Gabrielle Giffords' Save A Life Saturday. What a wonderful response to a terrible tragedy — because of your commitment, our community is now safer.

We have just passed through a week of highs and lows at the Legislature. Since things have generally been so tough here lately, I will start with the good news.

As you probably heard by now, last Thursday — with seven to ten Republicans alongside all nine Democrats in opposition — all five ineffective, unconstitutional, mean-spirited Russell Pearce driven immigration bills were killed on the floor of the Senate.

The five bills would have required teachers and doctors and nurses to act as immigration enforcement officers, allowed police to impound people's cars if the drivers didn't have the right residency papers, created a second-class citizenship for newborn babies if their mothers didn't have all their residency papers at the hospital at the time of birth, and enacted so many more misguided directives.

What all the bills had in common was that none of them would do a thing to solve the real problems. None would stop the criminal gangs involved in drug, human, and gun smuggling at the border. None would remove the incentive for illegal immigration by improving the local economies of Latin American countries. None would urge enactment of comprehensive reform.

Every one of the bills' provisions would stigmatize legal residents and visitors while continuing to broadcast to the world that Arizona doesn't want tourists, shoppers or businesses to help grow our economy.

That's part of what doomed them, even in a Senate led by Russell Pearce. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and most of the state's top CEOs worked hard to kill all five bills because they agreed it was time to focus on the economy and jobs instead of chasing business away with empty ideological statements.

In wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, many professional musicians in Tucson are getting together a concert to raise money for disaster relief.

Organized by Laura and Toru Tanagawa, Emma Noël Votapek, and Keitaro Harada, all of the artists participating in the show are donating their time. Additionally, 100% of the proceeds from the concert will be given to the Japanaese Red Cross Society.

The program, per a press release:

The program will include Arizona Opera violinist Mutsuko Tatman and her husband, University of Arizona oboe professor Neil Tatman, performing music of J.S. Bach, U of A pianist Yuri Chayama playing a Chopin impromptu, TSO concertmaster Aaron Boyd in a duo with U of A piano professor Paula Fan, the DayStar String Quartet, Arizona Opera violinist Laura Tagawa and CDO Orchestra Director Toru Tagawa performing traditional Japanese music, Phoenix Youth Symphony music director and saxophonist Keitaro Harada in a collaboration with pianist Aika Tatebe and traditional Japanese dancer Mari Kaneta on "Sakura," Shinji Inagi on organ, and a string orchestra finale.

The concert will be held on Saturday, March 26 at 4 p.m. at the Rincon Congregational United Church of Christ, 122 N. Craycroft Rd. Visit the church's website for more information.

Update with playlist and download at bottom of post.

One man was so enraged about Taco Bell's increase of the Beefy Crunch Burrito price that he shot an air gun at an employee, fired an assault rifle at police, and then barricaded himself in hotel room.

• Photo Ryn Gargulinski
• Chickens are more at home in a yard than a high school.

Wonder if that got him a discount.

That story and more are up this week on Rynski’s Shattered Reality radio show on Party934.com and FM 94.9 in Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Next show is Wednesday, March 23 (today!), and every Wednesday online at Party934.com. Showtime is noon in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST.

Party 934 is a radio alternative for listeners sick of stations that play one song followed by 500 commercials.

This week’s theme is APOCALYPSE, suggested by a cheery listener.

Thanks! to all who keep the song requests coming.

There are quite a few Planned Parenthood support videos wading through the Internets lately.

However, this one, I like:

In early March, we wrote about SB 1547, sponsored by state Sen. Al Melvin. (See "No Power to the People," March 3.)

This is a bill that would make it easier for an energy company to put up transmission lines throughout Arizona, including sensitive areas near the San Pedro River, by getting rid of a state oversight process through the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee, before heading to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

One community that could see those transmission lines go through their neighborhoods is Picture Rocks, west of the Tucson Mountains in Avra Valley. In "No Power to the People," we talked to Albert Vetere Lannon and his neighbors about their concerns.

Lannon sent out an update today on a vote that took place in the Arizona House and Energy and Natural Resources Committee:

The Arizona House Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 5-3 yesterday (March 21) to send the SunZia Power Line legislation to the full House with a "Do Pass" recommendation. The bill is now SB 1517 and Rep. Frank Pratt (R-Pinal County) is the sponsor.

Ironically, Pratt's website lists as one of his goals, "Rebuild confidence in local solutions." Right — by giving away Arizona's authority to the Bureau of Land Management and New Mexican power companies....

Two amendments were made:

—Changing the mandatory "The (Arizona Corporation Commission) SHALL approve a route..."etc. to the permissive "MAY approve a route...."

—Changing the permissive "The (ACC) MAY" hold public hearings, to the mandatory, if limited, the ACC "SHALL hold a minimum of one public hearing...."

That was enough to change District 25 Representative Peggy Judd's vote to "yes," although she said that more than one public hearing was needed.