From Random Musings, just add this to a list of strange things that have happened in what will likely be seen as a historic and bizarre week in the Arizona Legislature. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, immigration bills proposed by Russell Pearce were having trouble getting out of committee because Sens. Adam Driggs and John McComish were siding with Democrats. So...

Given that the committee had eight members, that meant the best possible outcome for the measures was failure on a 4 - 4 tie vote. A measure needs five out of eight members to support it in order for it to go forward.

Note the use of the past tense "had" in the last sentence.

Pearce could have simply removed Driggs or McComish, or both, from the committee. That's his privilege as Senate President.

However, internal politics make such a peremptory move problematical - McComish and Driggs are both incredibly conservative and cannot be attacked as "RINOs". In addition, McComish was Pearce's chief rival for the Senate presidency, and arbitrarily removing him from a committee could smack of unwarranted retribution. Pearce's position atop the Senate pecking order, while not exactly "tenuous," is based in no small part on a promise to complete the budget before pushing through his pet anti-immigrant bills.

A promise that he has thoroughly broken.

So he has now done the next best thing - he has simply added another, more pliable, member to the committee, bringing its membership count to nine.

Wednesday, he added Sen. Scott Bundgaard to the committee without removing anyone else.

By handling things in this manner, Pearce kept the number of votes necessary to pass a bill at "five" but also was able to add a fifth reliable vote to the committee. He also was able to bring the committee back under control without appearing to be vindictive (he may, in fact, *be* vindictive, but this doesn't make him *look* that way).

So, maybe this is a little too optimistic, but at some point will the sane Republicans get sick of these tricks? What about the House? You'd think the Republican senators would be a little irritated that Pearce lied to get the President gig, but who knows?

[Random Musings/Blog for Arizona]

Hello all! There was no good news at 1700 West Washington this week — on anything. In the environmental realm, they continued the march backward to the 19th Century by advancing bills to ignore federal laws (keep the cash coming, but hold the clean air and clean water requirements), oppose endangered species protections, and to condemn federal public lands. Senator Jackson added an amendment to the bill that said this condemnation authority does not apply to Native American lands. Interpreted broadly, I do think that would mean the bill would not apply to any lands in Arizona.

Also advancing in the Senate was the “Big Bad Wolf” measure, the “We don’t need no stinking Clean Water” bill, and yes, the “License to Pollute.” You will be pleased to know that Senator Smith — not really a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” type — added an amendment on SB1393 to try and limit regulation of particulate emissions. Apparently he thinks we have too much clean air.

Please plan to come for Environmental Day at the Capitol. Meet legislators and advocates and hear more about what is happening at the legislature and beyond. We are focusing on Protecting Arizona’s Environment — the next 100 years, as a lead up to Arizona’s centennial next year. We will be gathering on the Senate lawn at the State Capitol on Tuesday, March 8th from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Let us know if you are coming and plan to meet with your legislators that day. We will have a brief program, displays, and cookies and lemonade.

Please take this opportunity to contact your senators one more time on the following bills. After this week, they will likely be over in the House. Also, contact House members on the anti-wolf message. It is always helpful to call, when you can, to establish a relationship with your legislators, but feel free to use the easy email links too.

Help Protect Wolves and Other Endangered Species! Ask your senator to vote no on SB1392 and SB1395. Click on Protect Wolves and other Endangered Species to s

• Rebekah Zemansky/Cronkite News Service
• Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson, co-author of legislation outlawing spice, says the substance is dangerous because its side effects vary by brand, batch and person.

How crazy is this legislative session? It's so crazy that a Democrat got a bill passed. Rep. Matt Heinz of Tucson worked with GOP lawmakers to ban faux-weed Spice. Rebekah Zemansy of Cronkite News Service has the story:

Spice, a chemically treated blend of herbs marketed as incense but often smoked as an alternative to marijuana, is now illegal in Arizona.

Gov. Jan Brewer held a ceremonial signing Tuesday for a bill classifying substances used to make spice as dangerous drugs. Anyone caught making, selling or possessing spice can be charged with a Class 2 felony, which carries a minimum four years in prison.

“All law enforcement that we are aware of certainly support the bill and will enforce it and will prosecute under it,” said Brewer, who in fact signed the measure into law last Friday.

Because the legislation has an emergency clause, requiring approval

• Arizona State Parks
• The Homolovi II ruins site at Homolovi Ruins State Park.

Now the Hopi Tribe is saving Homolovi Ruins State Park from closing. There’s just one caveat—-they want the name changed.

The tribe has agreed to enter in a one-year agreement with Arizona State Parks, contributing $175,000 to keep the park, located just east of Flagstaff, open to the public. During early negotiations in November, the Hopi Tribe requested the Arizona State Parks Board take “Ruins” out of the park’s name, according to an information report released by the board.

“To the Hopi, the word ‘Ruin’ in the park name refers to ‘something dead.’ They would prefer ‘Ruin’ be replaced with another noun or remove it,” the report says.

The park will re-open on March 1, with its grand re-opening set for March 18, regardless of whether the name is changed, says Ellen Bilbrey, public information officer for Arizona State Parks.

The Arizona State Parks board will seek input from the public on the potential name change at its March 17 board meeting.

Until recently, the name changed seemed a virtual certainty to state parks officials.

“Yes, we’re going to change the name. ‘Ruins’ is just being dropped,” Arizona State Parks Assistant Director Jay Ziemann told the Tucson Weekly three weeks ago. “It may happen as early as February.”

Arizona State Parks is asking those with suggestions or comments on the name change to either come to March’s board meeting at the Winslow City Council Chambers or send a message via the “Contact Us” tab at azstateparks.gov.

AP reports that a ludicrous GOP plan to eliminate AHCCCS in Arizona—supported by Republican Sen. Al Melvin, who rules over the Catalina Foothills and Oro Valley—would cost the state $7 billion, cause unemployment to skyrocket and drive doctors from the state:

Arizona's economy would be devastated and roughly one in every five residents would be left without health care if the state ends its Medicaid program and loses $7 billion of federal funding, the state program's director said Wednesday.

Under a bill approved by a Senate committee, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System would be abolished to help close a state budget shortfall.

The bill would replace AHCCCS with a greatly reduced system that would serve only a small fraction of the 1.3 million people now enrolled.

If that happens, unemployment would skyrocket and the state's network of hospitals and other health care providers would be irreparably damaged, choking any growth of the state's economy, said AHCCCS Director Tom Betlach.

A state-only system couldn't even cover all of the 50,000 elderly and physically and development disabled people now enrolled, Betlach said.

"This bill does not even provide sufficient funding for our most frail citizens," he said. "How do we care for these citizens? Where would they go?"

Doctors and other care providers would flee the state as the level of uncompensated care becomes untenable, Betlach said.

Mr. Betlach, Al Melvin doesn't care about this state's most frail citizens. He just cares about tax cuts and ensuring that children are born, not that they're cared for once they're alive.

It's possible to have legitimate policy differences—say, as to whether the state should cut back the expansion of AHCCCS as a result of the Healthy Arizona proposition. But arguing that Arizona should dump Medicaid altogether is nothing short of lunacy masquerading as conservatism. And those who support it—we're looking your way, Al—reveals themselves to be utterly unserious ideologues who should be laughed out of office.

It's the shame of the state that, at a time when we need sober people to make smart decisions for the state, we have Russell Pearce and Al Melvin instead.

On Feb. 3, The Range wrote about the CAP-supported legislation. The Center for Inquiry's Gil Shapiro, in his own Feb. 7 Star guest column, examined the CAP's right-wing ideological influence over the state Legislature and governor's office.

In Herrod's column, she wrote that her organization “promotes and defends foundational principles impacting Arizona families.”

“The fact is it's easier for people like Dr. Shapiro and the Center for Inquiry to make baseless claims than to debate us on the merits of the issues.”

In response, Shapiro sent a letter to the Star on Feb. 20 with a letter attached that he sent to Herrod on March 29, 2010 asking to do exactly that—sit down with Herrod and her staff to talk about their differing views.

Shapiro asked the daily to consider moderating such a debate.

“As I mentioned to you previously, according to a state senator, Gov. Brewer and leaders of Arizona’s House and Senate contact the Center for Arizona Policy before making any legislative moves. This strengthens the claim that CAP is widely acknowledged to be one of the most influential lobbying organizations in Arizona,” Shapiro wrote.

In the March letter to Herrod, Shapiro made it clear where the Center for Inquiry comes from, with a mission to “…foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.”

Reason? Remember that? Almost brings The Range to tears.

Herrod's perspective of being a pro-family organization is interesting during a time when Gov. Jan Brewer is getting ready to drop 280,000 people off the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state's Medicaid program. I mean, if your organization touts a mission to support and care for Arizona families, then why not put pressure on the governor to protect those losing health care, and those dying because they can’t get the transplants they need?

After the jump, read Shapiro's letter to the Star and the letter sent to CAP in March 2010.

Congressional Republicans, in their zeal to slash the federal budget (without cutting the military, Social Security or Medicare), have voted to cut back on border security:

With both chambers in recess until the week of Feb. 28, Senate Democrats are mounting a public relations blitz this week highlighting specific cuts in the House bill that may be unpopular with the public, such as funding for cancer research. Democrats are also seizing on some line-item cuts to paint Republicans as "schizophrenic" in their "indiscriminate budget cutting," a senior Democratic leadership aide said.

For instance, the bill would cut at least $272 million in border security and immigration enforcement, including fencing and surveillance technology. A Democratic analysis shows this would scale back the number of agents patrolling the Mexican border from 21,370 to 20,500.

"For gosh sakes, we've had everybody talking about secure the borders, secure the borders, secure the borders, and then instead of making some reasonable adjustments in checks we write to oil companies, they're cutting border security," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said on "Fox News Sunday."

That can't possibly sit well with Arizona Republicans. Details here.

TNR's Jonathan Chait notes:

A couple points here. First, Republicans almost surely made cuts like this (and others to things like cancer research) in the assumption they wouldn't come to pass. Democrats control the Senate and White House, there will be negotiations, so Republicans can make cuts they don't want to actually take place and still retain support from their base.

But second, this shows again how utterly at odds with reality the conservative view of the budget is. There just is not a lot of waste to be found. Republicans like to say they've just made a first step, but if the first step means weakening the government function they've been demanding to strengthen, then you have to wonder how many other steps there could be.

Most of what government does is either necessary, popular, or both. Now, people don't understand that — they think there are huge savings in foreign aid, welfare, and useless bureaucracy. Republicans can win power by appealing to popular misunderstandings of the budget, but actually implementing a program on the basis of a misunderstanding of reality is quite hard.

We're not talking about just scaling back the expansion of health-care to 100 percent of federal poverty level that Gov. Jan Brewer supports. We're talking about the entire health-care support system for the indigent in the state.

From the Arizona Republic:

Biggs, R-Gilbert, said the state can't afford the program and the taxpayer-funded program makes people dependent on "socialized medicine."

Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, said the reality is that if the state ended the program as of Oct. 1, "by Christmas, there won't be any rural hospitals."

He urged a more deliberate study if the state is serious about such a move. "You don't replace your entire health-care system with a couple of urgent care centers inside a Wal-Mart." However, in a 1:30 a.m. vote, the committe voted 8-5 to move the bill to the full 30-member Senate.

Read the whole thing here.

As the Republic noted earlier this year, dumping AHCCCS entirely would mean the loss of $7.5 billion in federal matching funds for the state, which would pretty much cripple the hospitals that we all depend on.

The Start Our State movement is underway:

Start Our State (SOS) has been formally established as a political committee registered in Pima County. SOS is dedicated to creating the 51st American state in Southern Arizona, separating us from the extremists in Phoenix. Our mission is to establish a new state in Southern Arizona free of the un-American, unconstitutional machinations of the Phoenix-controlled Arizona legislature and to restore our region's credibility as a place welcoming to others, open to commerce, and friendly to its neighbors. Our first and immediate goal is to place a referendum before the voters of Pima County on the 2012 ballot on the question of statehood.

We welcome other Arizona counties that wish to join this effort. In the meantime, we shouldn’t forget that, with a population of 1,020,200 (2009), Pima County has more people than Montana, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. With an area of 9,189 square miles, Pima County is bigger than Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. There is legal precedent for the separation of a portion of an existing state from the original state in order to form a new one. In 1820, Maine split off from Massachusetts and was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.

Find ’em on Facebook here.

Random Musings rounds it up here. The Arizona Capitol Times has deets here. Howie's story here.

It gets heard in today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. The agenda includes the birthright citizenship bills, a bill requiring hospitals to check immigration status before treating patients, a striker calling for drug testing of welfare recipients and the complete elimination of Arizona's participation in the federal Medicaid program. Yes, the complete elimination of federal funding for health care for the destitute. Here's one unintended consequence we can see from that one: The complete collapse of Arizona health-care system. That'll show the feds!

Rhonda talks to Hispanic activists who are making more noise about a boycott. She gets great quote from Sen. Ron Gould:

Republican Sen. Ron Gould of the Lake Havasu area said he wasn’t too concerned about the threat. “I suspect it will work about as well as the last boycott,” he said, adding, “With any luck, we can get Raul Grijalva to endorse it again and then we can go after him next election.”