Arizona state legislator attacks public media in Tucson

Although the AZ Daily Star reported it here in the 1/23/09 op-ed section, "conservative" yah-hoo Al Melvin, the freshman Republican senator from Legislative District 26 did walk in to KUAT's offices and threaten to cut funding to public media in southern Arizona unless somebody conservative enough for M. Melvin starts to appear on KUAT's Arizona Illustrated segment "Weekend Roundtable." This segment, which already includes a conservative voice (usually somebody from the Star) has caused this fucking right-wing moron asshole Melvin to waltz in there and pretty much threaten "well I'll cut your funding unless you put a paid right wing radical mouthpiece on your program." And this guy is supposed to represent the people who supposedly elected him.

This just illustrates the right wing backlash retaliation effort in Arizona, now that Janet Napolitano has answered the higher calling and departed for Washington D.C. The clowns come out of the woodwork, and acting cocky, they immediately want to slash k-12 and higher education, arm every redneck creep in the state, and twist public media to broadcast their phony, destructive crap. What's next? Prayer meetings for State employees? Hire Blackwater to be the police force? Teach creationism in the schools? Fire State employees and University faculty members who are not right wing "christians?"

Blogger's Rights

Read up on blogger's rights at the EFF.

San Francisco bay area celebrates in a diverse and normal way

Gee why is everybody crying? Maybe they are relieved at the end of the Bush Administration and its army of publically and privately-paid spies, and its intention of stamping out every liberty we hold dear.

The Chron says it all, just read the examples. Here in Tucson there were some fireworks on election eve but up there in the City, tonight? People are really cutting loose as we say goodbye to an 8-year USA Nightmare on Elm St.

We got a ways to go, people. There is whining, yes, we are now all commies, lots of other bad names that have been around since the beginning of time. The local CBS affiliate, KOLD TV, or somebody upstream, quickly cut off the sound in Katie Couric's interview w/ Rev. Jessie Jackson, and then dumped the video all together. The sound and vid was miraculously restored as soon as it was time for the next commercial break.

As a "Unicorn chaser," continue reading the San Francisco Chronicle's on-the-ground coverage of the tangible spirit of elation and relief in a city where diversity is the norm, and where the politics of the Bush administration were obvious poison from the very start.

Watching history

Good thing they did not use a Chrysler limo, it would have probably broken down halfway there

(From an email)

Observations:

When it looks cold on tv back there, it really is. I fucking been
there. Jr. High, outside for fire drills, or waiting on the schoolbus
stands out to this day. Good thing the [Maryland] fall and spring were so nice. ...I
totally went to school with a whole ton of black folk back there and got to
know the dirt-poor and the proto-yuppies both. I heard a lot of ugly things said and race riots were common a year or two ahead of me at my highschool. Somehow I got perspective and hope and now I am honestly not surprised to see a black man be president. We used to smoke the weed with kids whose big brothers had fought just a couple years ago. I am honestly blown away to see MLK day and Obama's inauguration on consecutive days. All the talk about Lincoln, [and] Illinois. Interesting. People treat history like a joke, like it does not matter unless it's pop entertainment, but now you can see [the subject of] history's not something add to the "useless liberal arts" category. All of us folks who [spoke up] and [said] "hey this is wrong, it needs to stop," ... maybe we really can stop some of the really wrong things going on.
And not get tortured, shot, jailed, spied on, slandered, libeled, harassed, poisoned, intimidated, attacked, badmouthed, pushed around, bullied, or psi-opsed.

2. The network anchors are kind of morons, not very good speakers at all,
although what they say is not as stupid you might think. They just string
it all together in one sentence so there's no discreet units of meaning.
The commentary is like junk blowing by in the wind. They just said 3
year-olds love to say "Obama." It's easy to say for them. Michelle Obama
is 5'11" and the 10 year girl is already very tall. They had a whole long
interview about Michelle Obama, and selecting clothing. Relevant, clothing
discussions? You bet. Relevant to at least half the population. [The point being the network "reporters" are not that short on subtance but still weak in style and obviously, for people who are supposed to be journalists, are not that skilled w/ language, meaning these folks are used to being cute and saying what they're told to say.]

My old friend from [Xxxx] posted to "Now I know how you all felt the past 8 years. I'm moving out of the country." [He] is no longer [on my section of that website]. Fuck him, I don't need that shit. I can remember him saying "I like Reagan, he put money in my pocket." Sure he did, and you were [working hard, earning low wages and drinking too much] and living in a hovel and driving a beater car and when you needed treatment you didn't have insurance cuz the employer didn't give a fuck about you. And now you managed to escape those days and still be alive you still you are believing whatever crap [Rush Limbaugh et al] feed you.

New Arizona governor tired of "betting on the come"

WTF?? Brewer adds herself to a long line of whacky Arizona governors. From today's AZ Daily Star:

Brewer has been vague on her own plans for dealing with the budget. But without naming Napolitano, Brewer said in an interview Friday that there has been "irresponsible management" of the state budget.
"There has got to be spending cuts," she said. "We have gone down the path of using gimmicks and rollovers and 'betting on the come' that revenues are going to come in higher than they were projected."
Brewer said many legislators, and even the general public, are not fully aware of the magnitude of the problem facing the state.
"I believe the people of Arizona are in denial and they've got to step up and face reality," she said. "We've got a huge historical crisis in the state of Arizona."

...According to this article in the 1/17/09 AZ Daily Star.

Our outgoing governor Janet Napolitano has a budget remedy sized up thusly in the same article, which article's title was so wisely chosen by the Star to be "Napolitano releases budget plan, but it's likely to be ignored
By Daniel Scarpinato"

Outgoing Gov. Janet Napolitano released a state budget proposal Friday that seeks to get Arizona through shortfalls this year and next by relying on borrowing to salvage government.
But incoming Gov. Jan Brewer, the secretary of state who is set to replace Napolitano within days, warns there will be cuts. The state, Brewer said, can't continue to rely on what she called "gimmicks and rollovers."
With her resignation likely to come next week, Napolitano wants lawmakers to borrow at record levels, delay paying bills, withdraw nearly all the money out of the state's savings account and make targeted cuts to state agencies.
And Napolitano wants to do it all without laying off any state employees or eliminating governmental agencies

Gee Whiz, ya mean she doesn't want to take people's jobs away or eliminate services our tax dollars pay for? Well, we can't have that now, can we?

Arizona Rebpublicans immediately begin to gut higher education

In the budget crisis situation Arizona Republicans in the state legislature finally have their chance to strike back at the evil liberals trying to spread dangerous knowledge.

University of Arizona President Robert Shelton states the facts pretty plainly in a report from UAnews today.

Arizona's state budget is already in deep doo doo, but now that Gov. Janet Napolitano is getting ready to go to Washington D.C. the Republican dominated Arizona state legislature is pissing all over themselves because they have their long-awaited chance to gut higher education.

Knowledge is a dangerous thing to these folks, people. And the excuse they've been waiting for has arrived. They can now gleefully cut the State University system's budget by what amounts to about 30%.

This will mean thousands of jobs; staffers and faculty both. Many, many folks are employed here in Tucson by the UA. This will also mean a drastic reduction in service to other people who are trying to get a college education.

Shelton mentions something not covered in the snitty piece published in today's AZ Daily Star. Republican micro-management of the State University system. How do ya like them apples? So I guess now it's gonna be mandatory classes in fundamentalist Christianity and financial aid preference based on how you vote? I'm not kidding, that is how most of Arizona Republicans are.

Richard Grant interview on KUAZ FM Tucson

Richard Grant, author of God's Middle Finger talks about his awesome book. Interview is at 7:40 in this recent edition of KUAZ FM Tucson's Arizona Spotlight.

God's Middle Finger is a great book about a very interesting range of mountains in Mexico. You can actually see the northern reaches from Douglas, Arizona. The range goes 800 miles down into Mexico and has never been tamed. God's Middle Finger is Grant's book about his journey down there. Great reading.

I am also reading another great book by Grant called American Nomads. In this book Richard Grant writes about the road, and really takes you back into history about the subject of wanderlust in the U.S. Western states. Awesome reading.