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.

Christ’o’poppin’

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I have been reading a lot about Christianity lately. I recently
finished reading “The Five Gospels: What did Jesus really say?” by the Jesus Seminar. As a complement, or in some cases an
anodyne, to this fare I also watched the documentary film The God Who Wasn’t
There and skimmed “Holy Writ as Oral Lit : The Bible as Folklore” by Alan Dundes, both of which postulate the idea that
Jesus was not a historical figure at all, but rather a construct of
folklore. In addition, I am currently halfway through listening to the
audio edition of “The Gospel of Judas” by Simon Mawer
about the discovery of a previously unknown account of Jesus’ life from
the viewpoint of Judas Iscariot. In sum, I have of late been steeped in
blasphemy.

I didn’t have any particular program or goal in mind in digesting this
material, I just felt that I hadn’t taken a good look at biblical
scholarship of late, and there might be something of interest in either
fiction or non-fiction. With the runaway success of essentially
heretical biblical scholarship in “The DaVinci Code” I thought I would
get ahead of the curve and see what might be next to hit the Christian
cultural zeitgeist.

Grijalva Growls at Napolitano Over Border Budget

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H_9_ill_676197_usamexicoborder31There has been some talk about differences between two key Arizona Democrats, Napolitano and Grijalva, over strategy and policy concerning border reform. The dust emanates from the AZ Daily Star’s recent interview with Grijalva and some comments made to Bajo El Sol. I wasn’t very clear on what the hubbub was about, so I went back and read the interview more carefully. Because I overlooked some of the implications, I thought it might be useful if I posted what I found for others.

Grijalva is clearly very annoyed, but it is because he is concerned that the Governor’s proposal could harm efforts at comprehensive border reforms, not so much because he opposes her specific policy. He sees a prominent border-state Democratic Governor stepping up with a purely enforcement policy as a betrayal of the political goals of the Hispanic community.  He clearly thinks she went off the Democratic message of comprehensive border reform. Let me quote at length from the interview.

SOTU, So..?

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FlagbaloonNot surprisingly, I was quite unimpressed by Bush’s State of the Union. He started with the lie that our Union is strong, and didn’t stop with the lies and half-truths and terrible ironies throughout. The high point was when Bush alluded to his defeat on Social Security ‘reform’ and the Democrats gave him a standing ovation. The rest was Bush’s characteristic jive of taking our highest ideals and traditions and shitting all over them for the low and corrupt ends of his ‘base’.

But I don’t really want to talk about the SOTU. It is never politically significant, anyhow. Most years, Bush’s ratings have fallen following his SOTUs. And while he didn’t drop any real clinkers this year, such as addressing the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports, neither did he say anything that will have any resonance or ring true outside his base. What I thought was really interesting was the Democratic Response.

Politicizing Our Courts

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Judge_dreddbobble01There are some countries where the only rational reaction to the police is to run, fight, or bribe, and where the courts are nothing but an extension of a corrupt government. Luckily, America is not such a country… yet.

21 year-old Michael arrived in Phoenix as a refugee from the 30-year genocidal war in Sudan. His story is part of a tragedy that has destroyed 2.5 million humans, and made refugees of 4 million more. Sudan’s legal system has become a system of torture, and the courts simply puppets of a regime bent on annihilation of black Sudanese.

Michael was hit by a car in Phoenix while riding his bike home from work. He was badly injured in the accident, but was given a ticket by the officer who responded to the accident. He was bewildered and frightened; the car had hit him and he had done nothing wrong. What was going to be done to him when he responded to the wrongful citation?

Vichy Democrats Put Alito on the Bench

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VichyThe Democratic Senators who voted for cloture have put Alito on the bench. One can debate how much of an effect it will have for a Catholic majority to control our highest court, but the simple fact is that Bush should not have been able to put as conservative a justice as Alito on the bench when laboring under his scandalous record and a pitiful performance rating.

The Democratic party folded over one little word, "obstructionist". Again, instead of taking such a pissant little label, like "liberal", and making it a badge of honor, they slunk off an did the GOP’s dirty business.

This nomination should have been a line in the sand, er… well, those haven’t worked out very well lately… this nomination should have been a make or break moment for every Democrat. Either you’re with us or your dead electoral meat. In the end 25 Democratic Senators did the right thing, but there are several who need to feel a little wrathiness from their base.

The Vichy Democrats are:

Akaka
Inouye
Cantwell
Rockefeller
Byrd
Bingaman
Lieberman
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Baucus
T. Johnson
Dorgan
B. Lincoln
Salazar
Conrad
Landrieu
Pryor
Carper
Kohl