Michael Bryan

Michael founded BlogForArizona.net as the Howard Dean presidential campaign blog for Arizona in 2003, and has been blogging ever since. The Blog is now coming up on 20 years of continuous publication, a major achievement for any political blog, which usually have the life-spans of mayflies. Michael is an attorney living in Tucson with his wife Lauren. In 2008, Michael remade BlogForArizona into a collaborative project. Michael is now but one of the contributors to the blog and provides editorial and publishing direction in consultation with the Board of Directors and the other authors. If you want to keep up with the latest Arizona and National political news in an entertaining quick hit of news and opinion, check out the BlogForArizona twitter feed, which Mike largely curates and writes. Michael is also an AAPC member who occassionally consults on political campaigns, strategy and communications.

Chris Mooney at Drinking Liberally This Sunday

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By Michael Bryan

Mooney

This Sunday, Drinking Liberally will feature Chris Mooney, who is in town for the Tucson Festival of Books. Chris is the author of several books about the intersection of science and public policy, including 'The Republican War on Science' and his latest "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science–and Reality" (a nice excerpt of the book here), blogger, and a host of Point of Inquiry. UPDATE: David Brin, one of my favorite authors, has a great description of Mooney's work on his blog.

So come on down to The Shanty this Sunday starting a 6pm and have a beer with one of the foremost experts on the anti-science movement in America.

Get a taste of Chris' latest work after the click…

Corporations Can Go To Heaven, Too… Apparently

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By Michael Bryan Corporations have religion? Who knew? The Arizona Legislature, apparently… from the striker bill HB 2625, providing a Blunt Amendment-style 'religious conscience' exception that in Arizona, having failed in the U.S. Senate: "NOTWITHSTANDING SUBSECTION Y OF THIS SECTION, A CONTRACT DOES NOT FAIL TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF SUBSECTION Y OF THIS SECTION … Read more

Drinking Liberally Welcomes Laughing Liberally to Tucson

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By Michael Bryan

Drinking Liberally in Tucson is looking to make some changes. This week one topic of discussion will certainly be moving the meeting night of Drinking Liberally from the current night, Sunday's at the Shanty on 4th Ave, to another evening (we're considering Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings). Currently, we are not considering changing the venue. If you have thoughts or imput, please leave a comment.

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Also, we will be joined this Sunday by Phil Gordon (no, not that one, another one…) who is the founding host of Laughing Liberally's new Tucson chapter. Laughing Liberally Tucson launches this Tuesday evening, March 6th at La Cocina at Old Town Artisans. This puts Tucson in some pretty rarified company in the Living Liberally universe. Only a few other cities have a regular Laughing Liberally event. Come on down and meet Phil.

Watch Phil intorduce the new chapter and tell some pretty wicked-funny jokes along the way, after the click…

So Why Is Sheriff Arpaio Alleging Obama’s Birth Certificate Is A Forgery?

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By Michael Bryan

Sheriff-joe

I'm not going to nitpick at the latest buffoonery from Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Plenty of folks are already doing that… and totally missing the point of Arpaio's actions. I'm going to explain the very rational motivations behind Arpaio's showmanship.

Arpaio clearly has two major motivations in this latest move:

1) to bolster his allegation that the DOJ is investigating his department as an act of political retaliation, i.e. "I exposed Obama's forgery, so he's out to get me before I can unmask his conspiracy." There was no truly compelling motive for the Obama Administration to go after Arpaio, so by making this sensationalistic charge, Arpaio creates a compelling story for anyone who is already inclined to dislike Obama, and isn't really paying attention beyond the latest headlines.

2) to bilk the idiots in the Tea Party and Birther camps (not that those are mutually exclusive…) out of money and gather a national data base of potential donors to his campaign and causes.

I'll explain all after the link…