Thomas Watch: Facts be damned, Andy knows its all the fault of the immigrants

Where is my mustache?

I ran across this article this morning about the validity of the link between immigration and crime (or lack thereof).

Andrew Thomas (the douche), never one to let facts get in the way of his political ambitions, dismisses the idea that mere facts would change his behavior. Here is a fun quote from the article:

On Friday, Thomas informed the Republic that he had discussed the question sufficiently in the past and later issued a statement. "The link between crime and illegal immigration is well known and was recognized by the 78 percent of Arizonans who voted for Proposition 100 in 2006," it read

Of course, the voters are never wrong... (unless they disagree with Andy, like with the Gay Marriage amendment that failed last election that he now chairs).

Thomas Watch: Andy trying to rewrite history

I ran across this great article in the Phoenix New Times about Andy Thomas editing his wikipedia page. At first I thought this was snark, albeit funny nerd snark, but alas no. It does appear that a pretty good case can be made for Andy editing his own wikipedia page (and trying to cleanse all negative information).

Come on Andy, after the Matt Bandy case you should realize that you cannot easily hide your activities on a computer.

Good times...

You know what helps during an economic downturn? Raising tuition...

Here we go again... Now the Maricopa Community College system has decided to raise tuition. An article in today's Arizona Republic goes over the proposed details. A nine % increase in tuition in a time when more people are at an economic disadvantage is just stupid.

I have an idea Joe...

Dear Sherriff Joe Arpaio,

How about instead of cutting visiting hours for attorneys trying to provide Constitutionally mandated services, you quit sending your staff to Honduras for junkets? I know it will not cover the difference, but it is a start. Or you could sell that silly tank?

Simple question

It has occurred to me over the years that the coverage of the both the East Valley Tribune and New Times are generally better than the Arizona Republic.

The East Valley Tribune seems to cover as many stories as the Republic, but seems to cover them better. The New Times covers few topics, but with greater depth. I am basing my assertion on articles that fall within areas that I am knowledgeable.

Here is my question, why? OR why not?

Vote for Matt Santos

I knew there was a reason I like Barack Obama...

Why the mortgage crisis is good in the longterm

I have written about the sub-prime mortgage crisis a few times. It is a fairly complex issue that touches on a large number of economic issues. The press seems to be primarily worried about the losses of big banks and secondarily concerned about the impact on individuals. These are both big concerns that must be part of any policy put forward.

Here is my feeling, banks and investors must feel the pain, but we cannot allow it to kill them. I am not saying that no financial institution should fail over this issue, but we should move to limit the damage to protect the overall economy. I think it is dangerous to do a complete bailout because it incentivizes bad behavior, but too many failures would damage our ability to recover.


On the individual side, we must take much the same approach. People that purchased homes that they could not afford cannot be let off the hook, they must feel some economic pain for their risky behavior. Having said that, we are talking about people and not institutions. People feel real pain and we should try to help where we can. I think a system should be put in place to facilitate the refinancing of homes that still have a value somewhere approximating the loan. This means that we should not extend refinancing to a home where we would loaning more than the actual value of the home. I think the refinancing help should go first (and perhaps only) to people with demonstrable income. Given that there will be large number of people left out, we should take steps to ease the transition of people who will lose their homes to foreclosure. Furthermore, there should be a method for people to refinance based on fraudulent activities by mortgage brokers.

The object in my mind is to avoid catastrophic economic damage and ease the societal instability of this sort of transition. By instability I mean the hopelessness and anger that will be experienced by many caught up in the process. There are few things in life more traumatic than losing one's home and this should never be far from the minds of the policy makers.

After the crisis is over, we need to think through how to change the systems, so that home ownership is achievable, but not without income and effort.

So, what is the silver lining here? Home prices... I think the inflation of home prices was ultimately bad for us as a society. Although my home has lost thousands of dollars in value, I am heartened by the idea that hard working people in Arizona will still have affordable housing available. Affordable housing is good for our economy...

Why do Thomas and Arpaio keep spending RICO funds on crap?

When will the worm turn on these two?

Imagine if Barack Obama had done this...

I am trying to imagine the feigned outrage we would see from Hillary Clinton if Barack Obama had defended this guy. While I can see the value of a lawyer aggressively advocating for their client, I cannot fathom doing this.

I am really glad that Hillary is not the likely nominee. So much for being fully vetted...

But there is a little-known episode Clinton doesn't mention in her standard campaign speech in which those two principles collided. In 1975, a 27-year-old Hillary Rodham, acting as a court-appointed attorney, attacked the credibility of a 12-year-old girl in mounting an aggressive defense for an indigent client accused of rape in Arkansas - using her child development background to help the defendant.

I would like to given HRC the benefit of the doubt of this one, but it makes me a little ill.

Hillary manufactures outrage over this?

Here is the little love tap from Obama's Campaign against Hillary Clinton and this.

Here is her reaction:



This strikes me as the reaction of someone about to lose an election...

Thomas watch: Andy picks up another possible opponent

I ran across this article about another possible challenger to Andrew Thomas (the Douche). I think at this point I am willing to pony up the maximum contribution to anyone with a chance to beat him.

I don't know much about Tim Nelson other than he is a former council for the Governor. Here’s to hoping that Andy has pissed off the Governor enough for her to pull out the stops on fundraising.

Thomas Watch: Andy we cannot afford to keep you

After the big screw up with New Times, the aggrieved have decided to sue. They are suing Sheriff Joe Arpaio (DimeBag) and Andrew Thomas (the douche). They are willing to settle for a measly $15 million. With our current budget shortfalls and the large number of past and likely future court judgments against the dynamic duo, I think it is time we let them go back to whence they came...

Bimbo eruption: McCain style

The New York Times is reporting about a possible relationship between John McCain and a lobbyist. Apparently his staff was concerned enough to try to keep her away from him in 2000. The lobbyist who is a female 29 years younger than him was showing up frequently during his first run for the White House. An "inappropriate" relationship between the two was independently confirmed by two former staff members.

I for one don't care if he was cheating on his wife, that after all is the Republican's cross to bear, but if he was doing special favors for a lobbyist that he was sleeping with that will hurt him pretty badly.

Stay tuned...

Why I haven't posted anything recently.

I was supposed to have started writing for this blog regularly six weeks ago or so, but haven't done much else except comment on the presidential primary. So naturally, here is a list of reasons I haven't been writing anything:

1. Working, volunteering, or meaning to do either for for the Arizona League of Conservation Voters and the Fair Districts campaign.

2. Watching with fascination the Tempe City Council races, and trying to decide how to cast three votes for four people-- Mark Mitchell, Corey Woods, Joel Navarro, and Rhett Wilson.

3. Studying. Sorry, nothing to link to.

4. Anticipating the next round of discussion on Wactivist about the Shadegg/McCain/etc saga.

5. Wondering how the creator of A Democrat's Lament gets the time to write posts that are worth reading. Also, who he is.

I'm looking at hitting the blog alot harder soon though, the development plans for Jackson and the immigration debate in Phoenix haven't been talked about enough.

Teamsters to endorse Obama!

Obama's union endorsements are piling up, SEIU, UFCW and now the Teamsters. This is significant because these are three of the largest, most effective and fastest growning Unions in the United States.

Here are the largest as of 2003:

NEA - National Education Association 2,679,396
SEIU - Service Employees International Union 1,464,007
UFCW - United Food & Commercial Workers International Union 1,380,507
IBT - International Brotherhood of Teamsters 1,350,000
AFSCME - American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees 1,350,000

Arizona's budget woes (and bone-headed Republicanism)

The Republicans in the Arizona Legislature never cease to amaze me. There is this article in today's Arizona Republic about their plan for balancing the budget. Once again, the Republicans in the leg are united in their opposition to borrowing money through bonds to pay for school construction.

I thought our Republican friends believed that government should operate like a business? In case you Republicans don't know (apparently very few of you have worked outside of government or a think-tank), businesses borrow money for capital expenditures. The only reason that I can think of for their position is that they are seeking to make cuts that they don't have to restore because they hate government. How about thinking about how to best to serve our state and put your simplistic and idiotic ideology down for a minute? BTW -- Cutting money from the Department of Economic Security during a recession is pretty dumb, even for our Republican legislature.

This is my favorite part of the article:

Still, the plans drew some comment from people concerned about its priorities.Jack Confer showed up to tell lawmakers that they're reaching too far with their proposal to take $1 million from the budget of the state Osteopathic Board. "We have less than what (you're) asking to take from us," Confer said, noting the agency as of Tuesday had $964,000 in its account.

Classic... You cannot cut more than the agency is allocated...

Why Texas will be interesting

Texas will be a particularly interesting race between Clinton and Obama. As someone who has worked in Texas, I can say that Texas is probably wide open for either candidate. The latest polling shows Obama closing the gap, but I think it is not important except to show momentum. However, all of the polls are of likely voters. Any pollster who thinks he has figured out likely voters in Texas is probably wrong.

Here is why: Texas has abysmally low voter participation. The last time I looked at state-wide numbers for TX their participation level was less than 30%. Given the low participation, polling likely voters (voters with a history of voting in primaries) probably gives very little indication of the final result. The potential pool of voters is huge.

I don't think this necessarily favors either candidate. I would not be surprised if the either candidate has a blowout victory. The winner will be the candidate with the best turnout operation.

Obama has another big win!

Obama won Wisconsin and won big! Hawaii was even bigger, making it 10 in a row. With every win the math gets harder for Hillary Clinton. For HRC to pull it out, she has have blowout wins in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas. Texas is getting close... I think she will have to lose 2 out 3 for her to drop out. If she wins 2 out of 3, I think she continues on and starts all sorts of shenanigans to win at the convention.

The most unexpected part of this race for me is how HRC's campaign is so poorly run. I have to say that I did not expect that one bit. When this all started, I was not predisposed to HRC, but my one consolation if she got the nomination was that I thought she would have a very well campaign. I no longer believe that and I am starting to question her management skills. I am not trying to gloat, I am just surprised.

More on traffic cameras

There is this opinion piece in the Arizona Republic today imploring us "Quit the whining" about traffic cameras. It is funny that the argument that has been so effective at curtailing our freedoms as of late is the "if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about".

I must admit that this justification is neat and logical. It is also the slippery slope that police states are based. After all, if the government can justify using traffic cameras based on this argument, why not cameras on every street corner? Why not allow the government to monitor your communications? After all, if you are not doing anything wrong, why would you worry? I am sure it would be effective crime prevention (until someone like Sherriff Joe or Andrew Thomas uses the power to go after political opponents).

Freedom from scrutiny has value. I am a law abiding citizen, but I still do not want to be under surveillance. I would like to live my life free from government's prying eyes. This really comes down to the type of society that we want. I am not so fearful of crime or a car accident that I am willing to give up privacy or anonymity to get it.

Clinton goes negative (Don't get mad get even...)

No, I am not talking about the little love tap about the debates that she started running. This is full on attack ad. It is sad that it has come to this, but I would not expect anything less from HRC.

Having said all of that, Obama supporters suck it up... Politics ain't beanbag. If the Obama Campaign is as good as I think they are they will quickly turn this to their advantage. Don't get angry get even. You should channel you energy in making calls, donating money or becoming a volunteer.

Here is the Obama response to the first ad:

Obama's response to the latest Clinton attack ad: