John Thrasher is a musician and a career educator. Now he wants to serve his community in Congress.  He and his wife Jackie have two grown children, and John now teaches elementary school bands in his retirement throughout the Deer Valley district. John seeks the Democratic nomination (see his primary opponent, Dr. Chat’s interview) to … Read more

Nathan Sproul, in case you didn’t know, is The Enemy. Formerly the head of the Arizona Christian Coalition and executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, Sproul is often called Arizona’s Karl Rove. Sproul runs the political consulting firm Sproul and Associates, and works closely with Lee Petitions. He is ‘regional president’ of Voyager Learning, … Read more

This Thursday, beginning at 6pm, Liberals can be found Drinking yet again at the Shanty, downtown at 4th Ave. and 9th St. by the underpass. Bring your friends and folk and come on down and join us. If you haven’t yet, please join our low-volume announcement only email listserv to be notified or all our … Read more

We here in Arizona seldom have the thrill and satisfaction of being named tops in anything, except maybe average daily temperature. So, it is a real treat when we are recognized as being the best. In this case, the reason for our being so honored is one of our Congressmen, Dick Renzi of District 1. … Read more

With ethics and corruption charges felling leaders in Congress, it might be informative to take a look at the less-than-respectable sources of campaign financing in Arizona’s crop of Congressional races. The bottom of a dirty money barrel has got to be the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Surely, no one in Arizona took money from Abramoff’s … Read more

Jim Pederson (D), who is running for US Senate against incumbent Jon Kyl (R), recently released his latest ad. It doesn’t even mention Kyl, but it does criticize Congress in vague terms for subsidizing big oil, implying by silence and association that Kyl voted for those subsidies in the latest Energy Bill. He didn’t. As … Read more

John W. Dean has done that hardest of things: speak the truth, even when it hurts. Dean weaves together social science research, including the much derided findings of Bob Altemeyer’s study that Conservative personalities tend to be fear-based, recent studies by political science scholars of changes to the rules and institutional culture of the Executive … Read more