Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Tags: comics , cartoons , politics , Nike , Just Do It , Kaepernick , Image
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Saturday I was a guest on the John C. Scott radio show. John and I were discussing the push to arm teachers, which I find abhorrent. A caller wanted to let me know how wrong I was. Here's what she said.
"There was a massacre in 1974 in Israel called Ma'alot. There were 31 children and 4 teachers killed and 115 people wounded. The next day the military moved into the school, and they taught the teachers how to protect the children with guns. Since 1974 there has never been another school shooting in Israel."It's a perfect story. Children harmed, teachers armed, children safe. Perfect. Too perfect.
It's a safe bet, stories this neat and tidy are either complete lies or they leave out important details. That's why as I listened, my Bullshit Detector was maxed out at eleven, lights were flashing and sirens were blaring. But what could I do? I'd never heard of the incident, so I couldn't tell the caller she was wrong. Yet I was damned if I was going to leave what sounded like a perfect fabrication hanging there without a response.
If she was lying, or if she was retelling an inaccurate story she believed, any chance of us carrying on a reasonable discussion was gone. For people to talk about something with the purpose of understanding the issues and arriving at conclusions, not just winning, both sides have to play fair. Otherwise, it's just a question of who's better at fighting dirty.
My sense was, purposely or not, she was fighting dirty. But was the Ma'alot story she told incorrect? I couldn't be sure.
The one card I had to play was my knowledge of how restrictive gun laws are in Israel. It's much harder to get guns there than in the U.S., so the notion that their schools would be filled with gun-toting teachers doesn't make sense. Did the caller know anything about Israeli gun laws, I wondered, or was she just repeating a story she heard?
When she finished talking, I asked, "Do you know anything about how difficult it is to get a gun in Israel?" Silence. Either she knew nothing, or she had already hung up.
I took a chance, figuring the odds were with me.
After I explained how difficult it is to own a gun in Israel, I said, "With all due respect, I'm going to look this up after the show is over, but I don't believe teachers are armed in Israel's schools. I think that's a bogus argument."
After the show, I looked it up. I was right. The thrust of her argument and most of the details were wrong.
Tags: School shootings , Ma'alot massacre , Israel , Gun regulations , Fox News , NRA , Image
Kyl said at a press conference that he would serve until the 2020 special election and not seek re-election.
There were rumors Ducey might appoint Cindy McCain to take the late senator's place. But Cindy McCain tweeted Tuesday morning that Kyl is a dear friend and it's a tribute to her husband that Kyl is "prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."
Kyl served with McCain as one of Arizona's U.S. senators from 1995 to 2013 and was Minority Whip starting in 2007. Before being elected to the Senate, he served in the House of Representatives.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Garcia said in a statement that he would have appointed someone with "a history of independence and bipartisanship," such as Cindy McCain or former Arizona attorney general Grant Woods.
“Jon Kyl has served as Brett Kavanaugh’s 'sherpa' through the nomination process and will undoubtedly vote for his confirmation, which puts many rights we take for granted at risk, chief among them are women’s reproductive rights, civil rights, voting rights, environmental rights and workers rights," Garcia said.
Kly has been leading Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, through the confirmation process, which started today.
Kyl could be sworn in on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Tags: politics , U.S. Senate , John McCain , Jon Kyl , House of Representatives , replacement , succeed , republican party , Cindy McCain , Image
Tags: comics , politics , cartoons , media , repetition , seeing is believing , Trump , Image
Monday, September 3, 2018
Friday, August 31, 2018
Depending on the day, the hour, the minute, I'm either riding a political merry-go-round or a roller coaster. Sometimes it's the regular emotional ups, downs, around and arounds of a horsey ride with insipid calliope music playing in the background. Other times it's a slow ascent to exhilarating heights followed by a stomach-dropping plummet into the depths of despair.
At this moment I'm riding the post-Arizona primary merry-go-round.
The winning Democratic candidates look promising, even if they aren't all my first choice. Analysts are coloring the state purplish. It's well within the realm of possibility that we'll see Democrats win statewide races — Governor Garcia, anyone? — not to mention the chance we could witness a no-McSally twofer, where she loses her Senate race to Kyrsten Sinema and her old congressional seat goes to Ann Kirkpatrick. Thoughts like that boost my hopes that we'll see some change for the better in this Republican-run state.
Then I take a look at the primary voting numbers on the Secretary of State website, and my hopes drop into a slough of despond. In the governor's race, Republican candidates pulled in a total of 553,000 votes. The Democratic total was 430,000. That's a 123,000 gap in Republicans' favor, more than a 12 percent difference. The U.S. Senate numbers are similar: 551,000 votes for Republicans, 433,000 for Democrats.
The numbers are a bit less dire in the Education Superintendent's race: 486,000 for Republican candidates versus 414,000 for Democrats, an 8 percent difference. Democrats held more of their voters down ballot than Republicans. But an 8 percent gap is still daunting.
Congressional District 2, a tossup district where Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick will face off against Republican Lea Marquez Peterson, raises my hopes a bit. Democrats cast 76,700 votes, Republicans 66,400. That's 7 percent in the Democrats' favor.
When I climb off the merry-go-round, plant my feet on solid ground and take a more objective look at the political landscape, my takeaway is, Arizona isn't a purple state, not yet. At best, from a Democratic standpoint, it's reddish-purple. Democrats can still come up winners if the predicted blue wave breaks just right and candidates have a favorable wind at their backs, but no question, Democrats are the underdogs. To win, they have to out-campaign and out-hustle their opponents, probably with a fraction of the money available to Republicans, and put together a sensational voter registration and Get Out The Vote effort.
Time for me to climb back on my Arizona merry-go-round. After some MSNBC and a little Bill Maher tonight, it'll probably be back to the thrills and chills of the national political roller coaster.
Tags: Arizona primary , Democrats , Republicans , Image
Tags: comics , cartoons , politics , Puerto Rico , Mollie Tibbetts , grave stones , cemetery , death toll , Image
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Supporters of education should be seeing Red right now.
We need to be Red-hot angry over the decision by Ducey's Supreme Court, backed by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, to take the Invest in Education initiative off the ballot.
We need to be more #RedforEd than ever.
We need to rid Arizona of Red/Republican politicians who vote in lockstep with their rich backers, ignoring the needs of our children. Throw The Sons Of Bitches Out! To paraphrase a slogan Republicans loved in the 60s: "Arizona: Love its children or Leave office." Don't let the Capitol door hit your asses on the way out.
If we can't campaign for Invest in Ed, then we campaign hard for candidates who promote a progressive education agenda: David Garcia for Governor, Kathy Hoffman for Superintendent of Public Instruction and all the other state and local Democrats who are facing uphill electoral battles. It doesn't matter if they were your first choice in the primary. They're your first choice now. The future of Arizona education — hell, the future of Arizona — is hanging in the balance.
Don't get sad. Get mad! And do something about it.
Tags: Arizona Chamber of Commerce , Arizona Supreme Court , Invest in Education , #RedforEd , Doug Ducey , David Garcia , Kathy Hoffman , Image
Luis Gonzales is running for the Pima Community College Board of Governors District 5. But contrary to what some voters might think, this is not a re-election campaign.
Although that seat is currently held by a Luis Gonzales, he's the former state lawmaker who handily won his 2016 campaign over the establishment-favorite attorney Martha Durkin.
The Luis Gonzales running in the November elections is the former Pascua Yaqui tribal councilman and husband of Sally Ann Gonzalez, the Legislative District 3 Representative who just won her primary for the state Senate and goes into the general unopposed.
PCC-Luis said he’s been telling people he knows that he’s not running, but hasn’t made a public statement about it. He said voters are pretty intelligent, and he believes they’ll research their candidate as well as read about it in the news and go to forums.
“In so far as voters being confused, I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” he said. “Like any elected official out there, you may have your retractors.”
He said he encouraged former-tribal-council-member Luis to run for the seat. This Luis couldn’t be reached for comment on whether he thinks voters might be confused about which Luis Gonzales they're voting for or whether he has any plan to make it crystal clear.
Sally-Ann-husband Luis Gonzales' opponent for the PCC District 5 seat, Debi Chess Mabie, said she thinks voters might be confused, but she understands people can't help having the same name.
This article was updated to include comment from PCC Board Member Luis Gonzales.
Tags: names , mix up , confusion , elections , different people , same name , PCC , Image
