Seriously, Dude? The Goldwater Institute and registered foreign lobbyist? That’s what you’re bragging about?
June 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Huffington Post has been following the Arizona senate race and reports Jeff Flake, Arizona Senate Candidate, Touts Lobbying Background On Facebook:
A Republican candidate for Arizona's open U.S. Senate seat is touting his background as a lobbyist for Namibian companies with ties to Iran in a Facebook post as a way to ward off attacks about his lack of private sector experience.
Rep. Jeff Flake, who is locked in a competitive GOP Senate primary, posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning a defense of his private sector expertise. This background is something that he has alternatively promoted and taken off his official biographies. The Facebook post comes as Flake's primary opponent, businessman Wil Cardon, has said Flake is a career politician.
"After returning to the United States, I formed Interface Public Affairs, which provided public affairs representation to Namibian companies and translation services to U.S. entities," Flake wrote in the Facebook entry, citing what he did after spending a year in Namibia in the early 1990s.
Ken Bennett’s lameness meter is at 11
June 20, 2012
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by David Safier There was a time Ken Bennett seemed like a kinder, gentler Arizona conservative, at least compared to the competition. But now . . . First it was the birther thing. He needed confirmation from Hawaii Obama was born there. So he heard from Hawaii. All good. Now it's Bennett saying Obama was … Read more
Ken Bennett still pushing birther conspiracy theories
June 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Does this fool get all his information from conspiracy theory central, World Net Daily? If so, he is unqualified to serve in any elective office.
Talking Points Memo reports Ken Bennett, Arizona Secretary Of State, Finds New Obama Conspiracy Theory | TPMMuckraker:
The top election official in Arizona, fresh off his flirtation with birtherism, has moved on to a strange new conspiracy theory involving President Barack Obama.
Secretary of State Ken Bennett says he’s convinced Obama was born in Hawaii, but he now believes the president fraudulently claimed to be born in Kenya so he could get into college. He also believes the president has spent millions of dollars since then to cover it up.
The co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona, Bennett made the comments recently at an event where he pleaded for local Republicans to unite behind their party’s presumptive nominee for president. He told them a world under Obama is “just very, very scary.”
“Now, I know there’s a lot of people that are very skeptical as to whether he was born in Hawaii,” Bennett told the crowd. “Personally I believe that he was. I actually believe he was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book and on and on and on.”
A video of Bennett’s entire speech, including his lengthy take on Obama’s birth certificate, was posted Monday on YouTube by someone who appears to have been at the event. (Watch it below the fold.) The description said it was a meeting of state legislative district 12 Republicans held on Thursday.
Bennett, the No. 2 elected official in Arizona just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), was forced last month to apologize for embarrassing his home state after enduring nearly a week of nationwide ridicule for threatening to keep Obama off the ballot unless he saw more proof that the president was born in Hawaii.
ICYMI: Ron Barber swearing-in ceremony
June 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
For those of you who are not C-Span junkies and may have missed Ron Barber being sworn in as the next member of Congress from Arizona’s CD 8, I have posted the video below the fold.
In his first speech as a congressman, Barber paid tribute to Gabrielle Giffords. Former Giffords aide sworn in as House member:
“I stand here on the floor of the House in the very spot where, five months ago, my friend and my predecessor, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, bravely delivered her resignation from Congress,” Barber said. “I want to thank the congresswoman for her vision, leadership and the inspiration she gives to the country.”
* * *
In his brief speech on the House floor, Barber invoked the spirits of two legendary Arizonans — the late Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater and the late Democratic Rep. Mo Udall — and said he would try to emulate their good-natured styles.
“(They were) two leaders in their respective parties who disagreed on much, but did so without being disagreeable,” Barber said.
J. Scott Applewhite/The Arizona Republic
The seven other members of Arizona’s House delegation stood with Barber as he took the oath of office. They said they were glad that the delegation is again at full strength. Giffords’ severe injuries made her largely unable to work, so the state has had only seven votes for most of the last year and a half.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said the delegation has long admired Barber for his strong constituent work on Giffords’ behalf and for continuing to serve the public after he recovered from his wounds.
“We have been impressed by your commitment to Arizona,” Flake told Barber as he welcomed him to Congress in a speech on the House floor.
Inside his office, Barber’s staff greeted him with a sign that read, “Welcome Congressman Barber.” House officials had already put up a temporary nameplate outside his door.
h/t Amanda Sapir photo
Imagine Schools: Growth is our most important product
June 20, 2012
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by David Safier
NOTE: Since Imagine School at Superstition made news by firing 11 of its 14 teachers, I've been writing about it, reading up on Imagine Schools and talking to people who know more than I do. This is the third in a series of posts trying to make sense of the nation's largest charter school corporation which has drawn more controversy for its practices and low student achievement scores than any other (Here are the first and second posts). What I write may be incomplete or incorrect in places. If you have information to add, please leave comments or email me at safier@schooltales.net. I keep all email correspondence confidential.
Dennis Bakke, Imagine Schools' founder and CEO, began his career in the energy business. After helping guide energy deregulation through the Carter Administration, he began AES (Applied Energy Services). AES expanded at breakneck speed, using deregulation and huge long term loans to buy power plants around the world. When ENRON, another company that made its fortune by taking advantage of energy deregulation, imploded, AES buckled under the weight of its loan obligations, and its stock price tumbled from $70 to $1. Bakke fled the corporation a very rich man with his faith in the expansionist model and his business acumen still intact.
Bakke decided to use some of his wealth to invest in charter schools, a deregulated corner of government funded public schooling where he could put his expansionist model to work. He had absolutely no background in education, though his wife had been a teacher. He relied on the belief that a master of free enterprise like himself could make any business venture work. Business is business, he must have figured, whether it's power plants or schools. [Note from an educator: The business of education is not business. It's education.]
In 2004, Bakke bought a failing charter school company and renamed it Imagine Schools. Instead of taking a few years to learn how schools work educationally and financially, he rushed headlong into what he knew best — business expansion. Bakke began with the 25 schools he purchased. The next year, he opened 9 new schools. Four years later, his educational empire had grown by 48 schools. At 73 schools, nearly triple the original number, Imagine is the largest charter school corporation in the country. It appears from reading Imagine's annual reports, Bakke actually opened more than 48 schools during those years, but some Imagine schools closed while others defected, deciding to sever ties with Imagine and go it alone.
Vernon Parker pushes a poll in CD 9
June 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: So Vernon Parker commissions a poll and — surprise! — Vernon Parker is the leading GOP candidate in the new CD 9. You get what you pay for, I guess. To paraphrase Ernest (the late Jim Varney), it sounds like a push poll, "you know what I mean Vernon?" Even so, the leading … Read more
Sayonara Sam Stone
June 20, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: After Sam Stone was exposed by POLITICO as the source of the Martha McSally gambit to undercut Jesse Kelly so that he would lose the Special Election and McSally could run in the GOP primary in August, McSally had no choice but to staunch the bleeding. Too late. McSally allowed Stone to save … Read more
“Clerical error” gives one cent sales tax foes a chance to kill the initiative
June 20, 2012
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by David Safier SOS Ken Bennett is delighted. He's hoping he can use "the rule of law" to kill the one cent sales tax renewal initiative before it gets to the voters. His office claims it has no choice. The problem is, the paper version of the initiative submitted to the SOS is different from … Read more
