Michael Bryan By Tom Prezelski
Re-blogged from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion
Iconic state Senator Manuel “Lito” Peña, who served in the legislature from 1967 to 1997 passed away today at 88.
I did not have the opportunity to serve with Peña, though his young
protege, Representative John Loredo, was the Democratic Leader during my
first term. I knew him mostly by reputation.
A press release from the Arizona Democratic Party today sums up his legacy:
Republicans have been demanding negotiations over the government shutdown. A few minutes ago, President Obama gave in to their demand. In a private meeting with House leaders, he said:
Let's negotiate. I understand that you want to repeal Obamacare, or at least delay it for a year. Now let me tell you what I want:
By Tom Prezelski
Re-Posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion
Back in 1995, during the last government shutdown, prompted, as some might recall, by Speaker Newt Gingrich’s fit of bratty pique
after a perceived snub by President Clinton, Arizona Governor J. Fife
“Three Sticks” Symington pledged that he would take action to keep Grand
Canyon National Park open during the crisis. He sent the Arizona
National Guard in for this purpose. The Guard protected access to one
road that ran from the park boundary to a single scenic overlook for a day or so. In other words, they did exactly enough to provide a show for the teevee and nothing else.
Yet,
as late as 2007, I heard a member of the legislature brag about how the
State showed how they could run the park better and cheaper than the
federal government could, but it would be difficult for anyone to
sincerely say that what the Guard was doing was the same as managing a
1900 square mile piece of land that receives over four million visitors a
year.
Speaking of insincerity, in the wake of the phony umbrage
which followed the lockout of veterans from the World War II Memorial,
Republican National Committee Chairman Rence Priebus pledged $150,000 to pay a small staff of 5 security guards to keep the monument open for a month. Like Symington before him, Preibus, seems to be gleefully ignorant of what running a public park actually entails.
By Tom Prezelski Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion I was going to write a snarky piece which said that Senator John McCain's takedown of Ted Cruz, while effective, was nowhere nearly as awesome as what his predecessor, Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst, did to Huey Long in 1935, but my brother beat me to it … Read more
By Tom Prezelski Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion A few days back, we learned that James Spader will be playing the misanthropic robot Ultron in the next Avengers movie. To be honest, I do not know what to make of this. I love Spader, but I am not sure if even he can portray … Read more