Just in case you need some inspiration as you leave work for your polling place today (before 7 p.m), here's a song from Tierra that covers SB 1070 and provides a Chicano history lesson, too. Enjoy!

Social media is filled with images of last Sunday's All Souls Procession, which is wonderful for those who didn't get a chance to observe or participate. Of course, Daniel Buckley was there filming and put together this handy video of the evening:

Nate Silver, of the oft-mentioned FiveThirtyEight blog where he offers statistical analysis of this year's political races, has recently come under attack for being, well, statistically-minded.

The creator of the PECOTA system, one which analyzes baseball players to track and predict their performance over a given season, Silver has applied similar analysis of polling data, demographic data, and a host of other factors, into a system to gauge the outcomes of this year's elections—and not just the Presidential race, in which he forecasts a 76% chance of Barack Obama winning re-election. In Arizona, he's predicting a 74% chance for Republican Jeff Flake to overcome Democrat Richard Carmona in this year's U.S. Senate race; Mitt Romney has a 97% chance of pulling out the win in the Presidential race here.

But as a result of this statistical analysis, Silver is catching flak from political pundits...much in the same way he was attacked for his PECOTA system by sportswriters — which is what Deadspin.com writer David Roher covers in this fantastic feature-length piece currently hosted on Deadspin's emergency downtime site (Gawker Media sites are still down as a result of the effects from Hurricane-turned-Superstorm Sandy).

Here's an excerpt, though I thoroughly recommend you read the full piece, which you can find here:

With the election just a few days away, analysis based on state poll aggregation—Silver’s included—suggests that Barack Obama is a heavy favorite against Mitt Romney. The president holds a slight but strong lead in key electoral states. This doesn’t sit well with many political pundits, who insist that the outcome is anyone’s guess and headed down to the wire. Many of these people have directed their anger toward Silver, whose New York Times-hosted blog has predicted a strong probability of an Obama victory since June. They insist he is biased or sloppy in his methodology, even though they seem unaware of how he makes his predictions and of statistical analysis in general. They say—and I’m not kidding—he’s too gay for this sort of work.

In retrospect, we should’ve seen it coming. It was only a matter of time before the war on expertise spilled over into the cells of Nate Silver’s spreadsheets. In fact, in some ways it had already. Turns out that nothing could have prepared Silver better for the slings and arrows of a surly and willfully obtuse pundit class than working on the fringes of sportswriting over the past decade.

Silver became well-known among baseball statisticians in 2003, when he debuted his PECOTA projection system on Baseball Prospectus. While other projection systems already existed, PECOTA had two key strengths: It based its player projections on the past performances of similar players, and it gave a probability distribution for each player to reflect the uncertainty of the measurement. For example, if a hitter battled an injury through the season and his production suffered, he’d hit his 20th-percentile PECOTA projection rather than miss the mark entirely. Some players are harder to project than others, and Silver’s methodology let the reader in on his relative confidence. None of this was unique to baseball; scouts have always relied on player archetypes, and front offices have always understood that production tends to fall within an expected range rather than on a straight line. All Silver was doing was taking that analysis out of the realm of the gut.

Again, for the full piece, head over to Deadspin.

Forget about Precious Knowledge. The newly released documentary Outlawing Shakespeare: The Battle for the Tucson Mind is controversy-free and gets to where the other documentary left off — from how the Tucson Unified School District's governing board failed to fight for the program and protect its students to why we're in this mess to begin with lovely interviews and quotes from Tom "Carmen Chenal" Horne.

So reschedule that documentary screening — with Outlawing Shakespeare.

A friend recently helped me get over the beginning of a terrible week with this video of Sweet Brown, an Oklahoma City woman who shared her experience escaping an apartment fire. So if the madness continued into Tuesday, remember: "Ain't nobody got time for that.” Forward.

While it was unfortunate that the fundraiser and screening of the documentary Precious Knowledge was cancelled Thursday, the biggest casualty was a former Mexican-American studies student who planned to raise money selling concessions during the show.

Crystal Terriquez also happens to be a student featured in the documentary about the MAS classes, program, teachers and students. The last time we talked to the Tucson Magnet High School graduate was in Nov. 2010, several months before the documentary first screened at the Fox Tucson Theater. In the interview, Terriquez talked about her arrest that happened that spring at the state building in downtown Tucson when then-Superintendent Tom Horne was visiting.

From that interview:

As a sophomore, Crystal says she suffered through school, particularly a world-history class.

"We were this little group of Mexican kids in the back corner that (the teacher) didn't pay attention to," says Terriquez, who now attends Pima Community College and wants to become a court interpreter.

One day, Terriquez says, that teacher told them about "'some classes for you Mexicans that will help you out.' A lot of people have asked me, 'Did you take that as a racist comment?' At first, I thought (it) was, but after I took those classes, I wished she was still teaching there so I could go thank her."

Even though that teacher's perspective of the classes was wrong—the classes aren't just for Mexican students—Terriquez says the classes were transforming. She entered a very quiet student who just went to school because she had to, and left as someone who wants to learn more.

As threats to the ethnic-studies classes began to grow, Terriquez says, she felt compelled to speak out at protests in Tucson and in Phoenix. Last spring, she and 12 others were arrested for trespassing at the state building in downtown Tucson during a protest.

"The TV news said we were being radical students protesting, and that we wanted to be arrested," Terriquez says. "It wasn't about that. To me, it was about my little sisters. I want those classes to be there for them."

Terriquez says she's been told by their attorney, Richard Martinez—the same civil rights attorney representing 11 Tucson educators who are suing Horne over the constitutionality of HB 2281 (see "Education vs. Fear," Nov. 11)—that a final decision on charges isn't expected until December.

Terriquez's mother, Selene, says she's certain her daughter wouldn't be a college sophomore had she not been introduced to the ethnic-studies classes—and that the classes helped at home, too. "She actually helped us a lot in our family. We were going through a lot of problems."

Terriquez planned to be at the documentary screening on Thursday selling concessions because she lost her job due to that arrest which has yet to be expunged from her record as expected. UA Chicano Studies assistant professor Roberto Rodriguez recently wrote a Truth Out piece on her case. Here's a snipet on

She actually wasn't the only one arrested that day. There were 15 total who were led away. She was one of them. So was I. But truly, it was a student protest. The year before, at the end of June, as a community, we ran from Tucson to Phoenix in 115° heat to protest the same efforts to eliminate Ethnic Studies. During that run, Crystal and her sister were my running partners. They were both overcome with heat stroke. Others were also overcome by heat stroke, whereas one of the runners had a series of epileptic seizures. It was a serious run.

But back to the protest. When students learned that then state schools' superintendent, Tom Horne (the person that engineered HB 2281) was coming to Tucson for a meeting with district officials that morning, some 1,000 high school and middle school students walked out of their classes and surrounded the district headquarters. Rather than face the students, Horne instead went to the state building and held a press conference. Several hundred students then marched over to the state building, and proceeded to occupy the building and successfully shut it down. Some 50 students went upstairs, held a sit-in and eventually were arrested. (I joined them because I saw law enforcement officers roughing up the students). Of the 15 who were taken into custody, charges were dropped on 10 of the arrestees. Five of us were found guilty and were given community service and probation. This included Crystal.

Two years later (last week), Crystal was fired precisely because of that arrest. We had all been told that if we did not get arrested again, after completing the community service and the probation, that the charges would most likely be expunged. That has not happened.

The five of us are currently looking for an attorney willing to file a petition to expunge those records. If all goes right, that will be taken care of soon. But at the moment, Crystal has lost her job. When I say personal, I feel the same way as many in our community do; she has sacrificed of herself many times, and thus our community owes her.

In Arizona, and specifically Tucson, we are seemingly in perpetual crises. Money has to be raised for lawsuits to defend Mexican American Studies and to defend one of the teachers and the former director of MAS, Jose Gonzalez and Sean Arce, respectively from what appears to be a blatantly frivolous lawsuit. But we also have to raise money for SB 1070 related issues. And just as importantly, money for Dream Students who are going through the deferred action procedure.

In Arizona we are tapped out. But so is the rest of the nation. We understand that. The only difference is that Tucson finds itself in a unique position. As we know, SB 1070 is an attack on the body — on the brown color of our skin. HB 2281 attacks both our mind and our spirit. Tucson in effect is where the right wing has decided that our [Indigenous] culture and history is illegitimate and now illegal. But we don't accept that; that's why the youth fight back.

There are many more casualties here in Arizona. Many of them are women. Who can forget May 3, 2011, when 7 women — young students, community members and elders — were arrested for reading at the militarized school board meeting. This was on the heels of the April 26, 2011, student takeover of the school board the previous week, led by the student group UNIDOS, the majority young women. There's been lots written about what has happened here. And yet much of the story is still unwritten. I don't think I've ever read anything that Crystal has written. Actually, she did collaborate with Amoxtli X — The X Codex — about In Lak Ech-Panche Be and Hunab Ku (will attach at the end here) — maiz-based concepts that are taught in Mexican American Studies (MAS)

Some of the students are indeed now writing. Some do great video work. Previously, they had been documenting their history with their footprints, writing their story with their actions; a truly heroic story. Not all of it is romantic, though. Some involves external conflict. Some of it involves internal conflict. This is similar to the 1951 Empire Zinc mine strike (as depicted in the 1954 classic Salt of the Earth). And this is what's important to remember; this is not a movie. We are living this reality... in real time. And it's not all a pretty picture. In the near future, some of those other conflicts will come to the surface.

For now, I feel compelled to support Crystal, who has stepped forward, not once nor twice but many times. Many of the young women like Crystal almost cannot be recognized without their megaphones. Make no mistake, the battle in Tucson has been led from the outset primarily by students, and the strongest of the leaders have been young women.

So this here is a nationwide appeal. Crystal does not deserve to be in this position. We will find an attorney to expunge the records, but in the meantime, she needs to pay her bills. A PayPal account has been created with the expressed purpose of supporting her. Through legal action hopefully she will get her job back or maybe even a better one. But in the meantime, she has a mortgage to pay, many bills and no income.

Last week, the Arizona Daily Wildcat student newspaper got into some hot water for publsihing a comic that was as unfunny as it was offensive (you can check out our reactions to it here and here); as a result, the comic's creator was canned and Wildcat editor-in-chief Kristina Bui heard numerous calls for her to step down from her position. Considering that she appears to have a spine, she has not.

However, today she published an apology detailing the what caused the comic's publication, the previous editorial process, and the editorial process moving forward. We've excerpted some of it here; for the rest, head over to DailyWildcat.com.

From the Daily Wildcat:

Last week, I made a terrible mistake.

In a distracted rush, I allowed the Daily Wildcat to print a comic strip illustrating a parent threatening his child to scare him about coming out. The child makes a crude joke, both fictional characters laugh.

Its intention was not to be funny in the same way that comics like “Garfield” should be. Instead, it meant to highlight a social commentary about hate speech and crimes against the LGBTQ community. But the cartoon’s message came across as “this should happen” although it meant to say “this does happen.” And the message should have been, “This does but should not happen.” That message could not fit in a four-panel drawing.

The world is full of awful things, and joking about them can work to shed light on them. But the jokes can only work if you use your medium to make those awful things better, not worse.

However, just as progress is hindered by satire that fails to contribute to meaningful discussion, progress is also hindered by moves to quash free speech. And, no matter how offensive it is, offensive speech remains protected.

It’s true that the cartoonist’s employment with the Wildcat was terminated Wednesday night, which led other readers to cite his First Amendment rights. But no one is constitutionally guaranteed space in a newspaper. The cartoonist can still publish. He just can’t do it in the Wildcat.

Yep. I can't stop watching the Body Form video made in response to a man's post on the company's Facebook page regarding women's periods being depicted in commercials as joyous, adventurous occasions. Oh, dear lord, I too wish that monthly visitor brought such happiness to the world.

His Facebook post:

Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn't I get to enjoy this time of joy and 'blue water' and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger

In a piece published in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the co-directors of the ASUA Pride Alliance offer their thoughts on that now-infamous cartoon.

As we move forward from this point, Pride Alliance asks a few things. Similar to what many have been saying and what has been posted by the Wildcat, we ask for more rational editing. While we do not believe in limiting free speech and hope this becomes a dialogue, we also see no reason why a person should find it appropriate to put death threats against gay people in writing. We also invite the Daily Wildcat staff — and the rest of the campus community — to partake in diversity training. ... It would be one step The Daily Wildcat could take to show its commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive campus community after we’ve received this sort of hurt.

Read the piece in its entirety here.

It looks as if the Arizona Daily Star is losing yet another one of its staffers — Brady McCombs, a reporter on the border and political beats, has taken a job with the Associated Press. The Weekly's Media Watch scribe John Schuster obtained this comment from McCombs:

"I will be the AP's Supervisory Correspondent in Salt Lake City, leading the bureau's breaking news and enterprise coverage of the state. I am sad to leave the Arizona Daily Star, but this is a great opportunity for me and my family. I am grateful to the Star for the opportunity they gave me and to my editors and colleagues for the support and guidance they have provided me since I arrived in February 2006. I have enjoyed my time in the desert immensely, learned a ton, and I will always have very fond memories of my time in Tucson."

Here's the AP's announcement, sent out this morning:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Associated Press has named Brady McCombs, a border and political reporter for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, as its new correspondent in Salt Lake City.

McCombs will serve as supervisory correspondent for the AP, reporting on breaking news and enterprise and directing the overall report for the cooperative in Utah. He has worked at the Arizona Daily Star since 2006, covering border and immigration issues and most recently politics ahead of the 2012 election.

McCombs, 33, has led several investigations in his time at the newspaper, including an in-depth project on deaths along the busiest stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border for immigrant and drug smuggling. He was named Journalist of the Year on three occasions by the Arizona Newspaper Association, in 2007, 2008 and 2011. He also was the recipient of the prestigious Virg Hill Arizona Journalist of the Year award by the Arizona Press Club in 2007.

"Brady is a talented reporter and writer with an eye for investigative stories, and the AP is proud to have a journalist of his caliber directing the Utah report," said Traci Carl, AP's director of news for the Western U.S.

McCombs graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Costa Rica for three years before becoming a reporter in Greeley, Colo., and then Tucson.

McCombs is just the latest in a line of departures from the Daily Star, alongside the likes of reporters Josh Brodesky and Rob O'Dell, both now with the Arizona Republic; and managing editor Teri Hayt, who took a job with GateHouse Media.