Arizona can do better than the contemptible Kavanagh – vote for Paula Pennypacker

Arizona can do better than the contemptible John Kavanagh, an acolyte of “King” Russell Pearce and Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio.

Rep. Kavanagh championed Arizona’s “show me your papers” law, SB 1070.

Rep. Kavanagh championed Cathi Herrod’s “show me your papers to pee” bill last year that thankfully failed.

Rep. Kavanagh championed Arizona’s Religious Bigotry bill, SB 1062, vetoed this week by Governor Brewer.

For those of us who follow committee hearings and floor debates, Rep. Kavanagh frequently seeks to offend and to insult, and regularly displays a lack of respect and contempt for Arizona citizens, and even his fellow legislators.

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Low information voters and cognitive dissonance

PogoOne of the biggest problems confronting America today is that its citizens do not take their civic duty to be informed citizens seriously.

This has been demonstrated ad nauseam by late night comedians like Jay Leno and his “Jay Walking” segment, where passersby are asked questions about familiar politicians and the issues of the day, and these citizens invariably demonstrate their profound ignorance.

Of course, part of the problem is the massive GOPropaganda noise machine of the conservative media entertainment complex, whose job it is to mislead and to misinform. The iron triangle of the conservative media entertainment complex is Ignorance – Fear – Hate. It is not to inform.

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Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild’s 2014 State of the City speech

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Mayor  Jonathan Rothschild delivered his annual State of the City speech on
Wednesday February 26, 2014 at the Tucson Metro Chamber’s luncheon at the Tucson Convention Center. Here’s the entire speech, in case you missed the lunch. Mayor Rothschild was elected in Nov. 2011, so this was his 3rd address.

Tucson in Transition
February 26, 2014 State of the City Address Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2014 State of the City Address. I’d like to thank the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Tucson Convention Center for hosting this year’s event. Thanks especially to the Chamber for sharing proceeds with three local nonprofits that are helping with several of my initiatives: 51 Homes Vets, Make Way for Books and Tucson Clean & Beautiful.

Each of these charities works in a different area – ending veteran homelessness, increasing childhood literacy and restoring Tucson’s tree canopy – yet all share the same model for success: bringing together individuals, businesses, government and nonprofits to address community needs.

In June, I accepted the President’s challenge to end veteran homelessness in Tucson by December 31, 2015 – which means placing 1,650 homeless veterans in permanent housing. That’s a goal we’re on track to meet. Working with 18 partner agencies, including the City’s Housing Department, we’ve already housed close to 500 formerly homeless veterans.

In August, in partnership with the Arizona Daily Star, we launched a volunteer recruitment drive to double the number of reading coaches in Reading Seed, a program that pairs struggling readers in grades K through 3 with trained volunteers. Too many of our children don’t read at grade level by 3rd
grade, a critical milestone that predicts future success in school. We met our goal, adding more than 600 volunteers, who will help more than 1,200 students, all, or almost all, in Title 1 schools. 1,200 lives changed – 1,800 if you count the volunteers, who often find their lives changed, too.
In October, in partnership with Tucson Clean & Beautiful, TEP, Long Realty and others, we rolled out our 10,000 Trees Campaign, encouraging individuals, business and community groups to plant desert-adapted trees, especially in neighborhoods that lack shade. That’s another goal we’re on track to meet. To date, we’ve planted more than 4,000 trees.

These are basic needs our community is tackling together, through public-private partnerships: housing, literacy and the environment.

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About Cathi Herrod’s side of the SB1062 story

So, a few days ago the Center for Arizona Policy got a group of law professors together to get them to sign a letter saying the people opposing SB1062 were “misleading” everyone.

On letterhead for Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and of religious studies at the University of Virginia, 10 professors in addition to Laycock signed on. The thrust of the letter is that SB1062 is not discriminatory because it’s not the bill that was proposed in Kansas.

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