Culture of Corruption: Boss Tweed and our Shadow Governor engage in political cronyism
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Last month we learned that Tom 'banned for life by the SEC' Horne under investigation by the FBI:
The chief law enforcement officer of the state of Arizona, our Attorney General Tom "banned for life by the SEC" Horne, is under investigation by the FBI for campaign finance law violations. Attorney General Tom Horne under investigation:
The FBI is investigating whether Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne illegally worked with an independent expenditure committee that raised and spent more than $500,000 in 2010 to run negative ads against his Democratic challenger.
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The complaint alleges that Horne coordinated with Business Leaders for Arizona, which raised thousands of dollars from Horne's brother-in-law Richard Newman.
The complaint also alleges that Horne and his campaign were actively engaged with the independent expenditure committee and once elected, that he rewarded its director, Kathleen Winn, by naming her director of community outreach for the Tucson office. Winn earns $98,134 a year.
A remarkably similar scandal has been bubbling up in reporting over the past few weeks involving Pinal County Supervisor Bryan Martyn, a Sheriff Paul Babeu acolyte. I encountered him at hearings of the AIRC last year arguing in favor of a prison-gerrymandered district in Pinal County from which he could run for Congress, according to those with whom I spoke at these hearings. That didn't work out for him.
So Bryan Martyn turned to the GOP political patronage machine run by our Shadow Governor, Chuck Coughlin of HighGround, Inc. and his friend Governor Jan Brewer Boss Tweed. Martyn applied for the job of Arizona Parks Director, a job for which he lacked the necessary experience and qualifications. New Arizona parks chief is short on credentials:
Former Pinal County Supervisor Bryan Martyn, an ally of Gov. Jan Brewer's in the battle for a planned Florence copper mine, was named state parks director last month despite being one of the least qualified candidates for the job, records obtained by The Arizona Republic show.
Martyn beat out 201 other applicants even though he had neither experience in state-parks management nor the preferred college degree for the $129,500-a-year position. A state Department of Administration official screening the applicants questioned whether Martyn met three other major requirements. Records indicate he definitively met only two of the seven qualifications for parks director.
Wait, it gets worse:
Culture of Corruption: ‘America’s most corrupt sheriff’ sued by the DOJ
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Maricopa County Sheriff "Crazy Uncle Joe" Arpaio has been under several federal investigations and an ongoing grand jury investigation for years, and he has cost Maricopa County millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements over the years as a result of his unlawful actions.
"Crazy Uncle Joe" Arpaio was most recently implicated as the ringleader of a reign of terror in Maricopa County for an abuse of power resulting in the disbarment of former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his deputy Lisa Aubuchon. Andrew Thomas and Lisa Aubuchon Disbarred — Read Panel's Opinion Here – Phoenix New Times:
The disciplinary panel dismissed a few charges, but it found "clear and convincing evidence" that Thomas and Aubuchon abused their prosecutorial powers while trying to prosecute county Supervisors Mary Rose Wilcox and Don Stapley, Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe, and others. The panel found that Thomas and Aubuchon launched unethical attacks on their political enemies.
Thomas and Aubuchon's attempted prosecutions were not in the interests of justice; often they were only aimed at embarrassing or burdening their enemies, the panel found.
Click here to read the disbarment document for Andrew Thomas and Lisa Aubuchon.
The federal investigation of "Crazy Uncle Joe" Arpaio that has received the most media attention is the Department of Justice investigation into racial profiling by the MCSO in conducting immigration sweeps and the treatment of prisoners. For months the DOJ has been trying to obtain the MCSO cooperation with a remedial program and Arpaio and his lawyers have stonewalled and resisted cooperation every step of the way.
We have been treated to months of speculation about a lawsuit and insipid editorial taunts from the Arizona Republic that if the DOJ has anything on Arpaio they should just sue him already. On Thursday, the DOJ sued "Crazy Uncle Joe" Arpaio. To the editors of the Arizona Republic: Happy now? Now STFU.
After a few rounds of threats, the Justice Department announced finally its lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio this morning.
The lawsuit addresses that "culture of bias" the Justice Department's been alleging since it released its findings in December, claiming that Arpaio's office conducts the worst racial-profiling practices it's seen.
The Gay Advantage
May 10, 2012
By Michael Bryan In America, we mostly talk about the civil rights of LGBT persons in moral or ethical terms – and it certainly is that. Equity and justice war with the moral precepts and prejudice of religionists. But there is more to it. It's also an economic issue. And we need to talk about … Read more
Jesse Kelly in his own words
May 10, 2012
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by David Safier Democrats think it's important for Jesse Kelly to have a chance to speak for himself. Since he hasn't been doing much of that lately — he stopped taking questions from reporters at a recent press conference and prefers sound bites to more detailed answers — Dems have put together an ad, "Too … Read more
Romney’s bullying brings his character into focus
May 10, 2012
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by David Safier I couldn't put my finger on why it was vaguely disturbing that Romney, by his own and his wife's description, is a practical joker who likes to play pranks. Or how that related to his comment to people at a NASCAR rally who threw on clear plastic raincoats in a storm, prompting … Read more
Extreme Makeover: Jesse Kelly 2.0
May 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Democrat Ron Barber turned his Congressional District 8 campaign's focus onto Social Security and Medicare on Monday. Arizona Public Media | Arizona | Social Security, Medicare Top CD8 Agenda:
Barber said he will not vote for any massive cuts of benefits to Medicare or privatization of Social Security that would leave beneficiaries to face the ups and downs of the stock market.
“I will go to Congress, if you’ll help me, to be a strong voice in Congress, and I pledge to you today, as I have every day since this campaign started, to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare," Barber said.
That’s what Jesse Kelly now says, too.
[But] iIn 2010, when he ran against then Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for the CD8 seat, Kelly said he wanted to phase out and eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
Barber didn’t let that go unnoticed Monday. . . “I’ll just say this: My opponent is experiencing an extreme makeover," Barber said.
Funny, I said the same thing about Jesse Kelly back in 2010. So Blog for Arizona is going to go back through our posts from 2010 and repost some of them to demonstrate the "extreme makeover" the RNCC is doing to make Jesse Kelly 2.0 appear more palatable to voters in 2012.
Kelly's gauzy ads full of platitudes, bumper sticker slogans, and ad hominem attacks on President Obama tell voters nothing about the candidate. The whole point of this "extreme makeover" is to make Jesse Kelly 2.0 appear as a nice young man who loves his dear old grandpa, and Jesse Kelly 2.0 isn't that wild-eyed radical extremist from 2010. The RNCC and Jesse Kelly want you to forget that Jesse Kelly ever existed. They want you to believe he is no longer an extremist who is a risk we cannot afford.
This is why Kelly is now avoiding the media like the plague and everything comes through his campaign spokespersons, one of whom is the Arizona Daily Star's former talentless hack political reporter, Daniel Scarpinato, who somehow fell upwards to land a job with the RNCC after blowing a tailor-made election for Jonathan "Payday" Paton in 2010 by losing to the political neophyte Jesse Kelly in the GOP primary (I mean really, how else does one explain this other than utter incompetence?)
Unfortunately for them, I have a long memory and there is something called the "Google."
So let's take a ride in Mr. Peabody's WAYBAC machine all the way to 2010 and meet the Jesse Kelly they want you to forget ever existed.
Media Bias in CD 8 Special Election
May 10, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Did you hear about this? 200+ seniors at Barber press conference on Monday.
Well, not if you read to so-called "paper of record," the Arizona Daily Star, or even the supposedly lib weekly, the Tucson Weekly. David Safier posted about it here.
I am told that the local televison stations all declined to cover the event as well. With one exception, a brief mention on KUAT Arizona Public Media | Arizona | Social Security, Medicare Top CD8 Agenda.
Quick! Someone wake up Jesse Kelly's Grandpa Hank from his stupor and tell him that Ron Barber was endorsed at this event on Monday by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Ron Barber, Arizona Candidate Running For Giffords' Seat, Endorsed By National Social Security Advocacy Group.
Yeah, no other media villagers in Tucson reported this endorsement either.
The Daily Star did report last week — twice — about a group of Cap'n Al Melvin groupies in Saddlebrooke at a "seniors for Jesse Kelly" event. What the Star didn't tell you is that these groupies were part of a stage-managed event likely put on by the 60 Plus Association, the far right pharmaceutical company front group, 60 Plus Association – SourceWatch, which announced that it is supporting Kelly for his position on social security and Medicare.
You remember 60 Plus Association from the 2010 campaign, don't you? Here is what Michael Bryan posted here during the 2010 campaign. Lies, Damned Lies, and Anything Jesse Kelly Says:
Nationally and state-wide, 60 Plus Association, which touts itself as the conservative alternative to AARP (as if AARP isn't already pretty dang conservative) has rolled out a $5 million smear campaign against 16 Democratic incumbents, including Giffords, Kirkpatrick and Mitchell here in Arizona. Here's the Giffords Campaign's take on the attack and 60 Plus. Their ads claim that the healthcare reform bill will cut $500 billion from Medicare, cause seniors to lose their current doctors, and compromise quality of care.
Here's the hit on Giffords (the Kirkpatrick and Mitchell ads are essentially the same): [NOTE: 60 Plus Association has since pulled the video].
The GOP is ‘beyond redemption’
May 9, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana is rightly considered one of the "statesman" of the U.S. Senate, an expert on issues of foreign policy, nuclear proliferation and disarmament. His record is one of being a "solid conservative." However, Senator Lugar also understood that the best interests of America are not synonymous with the … Read more
