Featured Stories
(Update) Birther Joe Arpaio to release his findings re: Obama birth certificate – Live! on World Net Daily
February 29, 2012
Posted by AzblueMeanie: I posted about this last week. Birther Joe Arpaio to release his findings re: Obama birth certificate. The Phoenix New Times reports that "Crazy Uncle Joe" Arpaio will broadcast the results of his investigation "Live!" on wingnut conspiracy central World Net Daily. Joe Arpaio's "Birther" Investigation Results Show to Be Streamed Live
Craig Barrett, BASIS and K12 Inc.
February 29, 2012
by David Safier I wrote a column appearing in today's Explorer discussing a topic I've posted about often: Craig Barrett's regular bragging about BASIS schools, where he is president and chairman, and his omission of any mention that he sits on the Board of Directors of K12 Inc. Barrett swells with pride when he talks
Gov. Brewer, others react to ABC15 report on child abuse scandal in Sheriff Paul Babeu’s past
February 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
ABC15 news reported on reactions to their investigative report from Arizona's elected officials on Tuesday night. Gov. Jan Brewer, other leaders sound off on ABC15 investigation into Sheriff Paul Babeu's past:
Governor Jan Brewer and other political leaders continue to react to an ABC15 investigation that found Sheriff Paul Babeu was Headmaster at a boarding school with a long history of abuse.
Multiple former students and Babeu’s own sister also told ABC15 that Babeu had a relationship with a 17-year-old male student.
Brewer said that after she read our report Monday night, she "certainly was disappointed.”
“It was a pretty brutal blow if it is true,” Brewer said. "I certainly think that publicly it has done some serious damage to his campaign."
Pinal County Supervisor Pete Rios also responded to our investigation. He renewed his call for Babeu to resign.
“I asked for his resignation even before this story broke,” Rios said in an email to ABC15. “But I had no evidence like your channel got.”
On Monday, State Sen. Ron Gould also called for Babeu to drop out of his congressional race and resign as sheriff.
The Farley Report – a candidate announcement
February 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for The Farley Report, er, well apparently not. The Friends O'Farley web site is now the Farley for Congress web site, as Steve Farley will be making the rounds today to announce his candidacy for Congress. I guess this means the end of The Farley Report from the legislature. Press
Fundraiser to benefit “Save Ethnic Studies” Tuesday, March 13
February 28, 2012
by David Safier As you can see, I'm one of the hosts of the event. I'm in the middle of "Mexican White Boy," written by the evening's featured guest, Matt de la Peña. It's a good read, gripping and enjoyable. At this point, I'm very worried about the fates of the likable but flawed young
When the people we elect despise the voters who elected them
February 28, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Our Tea-Publican legislators appear not to believe that they were elected, but were divinely selected for office, which imbues them with power and priviliges far beyond the "citizen legislator" they are supposed to be.
Under the Arizona Constitution the citizens are a "super legislature," whose acts through citizens initiatives and referendums take supremacy over simple legislative acts. And our Tea-Publican legislators hate this because they believe that they have a divine right to lord over us, even though we elected them — they despise the voters who elected them.
Our Tea-Publican legislature is advancing several bills to severely restrict or limit our rights as citizens of Arizona to enact citizens initiatives and referendums. Citizens initiatives are often the only way anything gets done in this state, given our regressive anti-government Tea-Publican legislature. AZ moves to limit voter-OK'd tax hikes:
State senators voted Monday for legislation that could undermine any effort by voters to increase their own sales taxes for education.
But its sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs, said it's not a "poison pill."
* * *
Biggs said his legislation is a direct response to the initiative. He said he is opposed to anything that would permanently boost state revenues beyond what they would have been without the temporary tax hike. [The temporary one-cent hike in sales taxes in 2010 was part of the plan to balance the budget and avoid even deeper cuts in education and public safety.]
He said, though, that this should not be seen as a pre-emptive bid to thwart the will of voters.
Yes, it is.
Craig Barrett’s company, K12 Inc., “the worst of the worst”?
February 28, 2012
by David Safier Craig Barrett, the man Brewer appointed to head A-Wreck (that's how it sounds. The acronym is AREC: Arizona Ready Education Council), likes to brag about BASIS schools, where he's the President and Chairman. But he doesn't talk much about sitting on the Board of Directors of K12 Inc., a for profit, publicly
Sheriff Babeu attacks his sister Lucy for ABC15 story
February 28, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It's only Tuesday and already this is a disturbing week of men abusing women. No, not that guy. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and the GOP's Rose Law Firm. The Arizona Daily Star reports Babeu camp attacks sister over new allegations:
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's campaign launched a counterattack late Monday on a key source for a story broadcast Sunday by a Phoenix TV station.
The source: Babeu's sister Lucy.
The Rose Law Group, which has supported Babeu as part of the Border Sheriffs group, published a two-page dossier on Lucy's medical history and alleged behavioral problems (Pdf : Dossier on Lucy Babeu). The dossier attempts to undermine Lucy Babeu's credibility by citing her "severe" mental illness and the fact that she lost custody of her children, among other things. (Pdf : Lucy Babeu restraining order).
Lucy Babeu was one of two sources in the KNXV story who alleged her brother Paul, now a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in congressional district 4, had an inappropriate relationship with a student.
It also put out a letter from Joshua Geyer, who was a student at DeSisto School when Babeu directed the school. In the letter (Pdf : Joshua Geyer statement), Geyer denies having had "any inappropriate sexual relationship with Paul Babeu." The letter is not notarized or a sworn statement.
All this came in response to Sunday night's story on KNXV, in which the station reported that Babeu had presided over abuse at the school and had an inappropriate relationship with a student when he was headmaster at the school.
* * *
I've attempted to contact Josh Geyer several times over the last few months to ask him about his relationship with Babeu. Last Monday he called back and declined to discuss the situation.
While Geyer denied any "inappropriate" relationship with Babeu, he acknowledged being a student at DeSisto and he did not deny having a relationship. In Massachusetts, the age of consent for sex is 17, KNXV reported.
[Note: In the teacher-student context, age of consent is irrelevant. It is inappropriate sexual conduct and an abuse of an authority position, and is illegal in many states.]
For her part, Lucy Babeu said today "I could sue the hell out of Paul. This is slanderous."
She cited several portions of the dossier that she said are false, including that she doesn't have contact with her son Zachary and that she takes illegal or prescription drugs. She says she doesn't.
Asked whether Paul couldn't deem her criticisms of him as slanderous too, she said no.
"I don't say nothing but the truth," Lucy Babeu said from her home in North Adams, Mass., the Babeu family's hometown.
