Paul Gosar

CD6 Candidate Garrick McFadden Knows How Democrats Can Beat Schweikert & Gosar

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Paying another visit to the Coffee Bean on Indian School and Miller in Scottsdale, Congressional District Six candidate Garrick McFadden offered his perspective (while I devoured a Volcano Brownie) on how Democrats can win in CD 6 and other state offices and local and congressional districts while improving their party infrastructure. Saying “demographics is destiny,” … Read more

9 out of 10 pundits agree: insane dentist Paul Gosar ‘is a disgrace to Arizona’

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I recently posted about Arizona’s insane dentist, Rep. Paul Gosar:

Now that Arizona’s most embarrassing member of Congress, Rep. Trent Franks, has resigned in disgrace after soliciting his female staff members to be his sex surrogate (Eeew!), we have a new challenger for the title of Arizona’s most embarrassing member of Congress: Arizona’s insane dentist, Rep. Paul Gosar.

I’m glad to see that the GOP-friendly Arizona Republic editorial board agrees –you see, bipartisanship is possible! – in an editorial. Our View: Rep. Paul Gosar is a disgrace to Arizona. Somebody please unseat him:

Republicans in Congressional District 4 need to find somebody to defeat Paul Gosar in the primary.

His smash-mouth style brings serial embarrassment to our state.

Republicans in this rock-solid GOP district can end Gosar’s regrettable congressional career without losing this seat.

There is a precedent. A model. We’ll get to that later.

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Shining City on the Hill?

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Yesterday, I was sitting on an American Airlines flight reflecting on my trip to our Nation’s Capitol. I was there to learn more about changes in federal laws impacting education, to network with other school board members from across the country and to advocate our members of Congress.

I had lived in D.C. twice previously, both times assigned there by the U.S. Air Force. This time though, I looked through a brand new lens. During my 22-year military career, I (appropriately) saw myself as a servant of the people. When I stood outside the White House grounds viewing the world’s most powerful leader’s residence, I felt a different call to duty. At that moment, I was reminded of our responsibility to ensure the right person sits in the Oval Office and is held accountable by each of us. Too much is at stake – from representing us to the rest of the world to controlling the launch of nuclear weapons. Not only do we have the right to vote, but a sacred duty to do so. Not primarily in our own interests, or to further our own ideology, but to ensure a more perfect union, a safer world, and a lasting legacy for all of our children.

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Oak Flat

Oak Flat: Kirkpatrick Stands with McCain, Flake, Gosar, Salmon, Schweikert & Franks (video)

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Oak Flat
A view of Oak Flat from the video below. Educate yourself. Watch the videos below.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man revered in my household when I was a child, made a promise to the San Carolos Apache back in the 1955 that there would be no mining at Oak Flat. He made this promise when he opened up other Northern Arizona acreage to copper mining, and you can see the consequences of these promises decades later.

In 2014, Arizona Senator John McCain (AKA Despicable Me) attached an Oak Flat rider to an unrelated defense bill — thus clearing the way for mining on sacred Apache land by Resolution Copper, a foreign company– the land that Eisenhower promised would be saved from mining. The Tucson Weekly’s headline is 100% accurate, it was a “new low” for McCain.

Until this week, I had blamed McCain and fellow Arizona Senator Jeff Flake for this travesty, but then I stumbled upon a link revealing that Democratic Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick stood with the entire Arizona Republican delegation on Oak Flat— and against the Apache. (You’ll remember that Kirkpatrick has had long-time support from Native Americans.)

This story is from Kirkpatrick’s own website: AZ Republic: Gosar, Kirkpatrick join forces for Ariz. copper mine. This is really disappointing news about Kirkpatrick because I was ready to back her against McCain for the US Senate, but this Oak Flat slight of hand by the Congress is morally wrong.

Copper mining has devastated large swaths of Arizona. Why does this industry also need the ~700 acres at Oak Flat?

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Why are conservatives unwilling to admit that pulling “The Interview” was a business decision?

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Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, along with Rep. Paul Gosar have joined the conservative hand-wringing over Sony’s decision to pull the release of “The Interview”.

That move came after U.S. intelligence linked the North Korean government to hackers who made violent threats about the comedy film. In the movie, a TV crew travels to North Korea to interview dictator Kim Jong Un, and they are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim.

“It’s remarkable that a country like North Korea can have that capability,” McCain said. “If they are able to disrupt a film, you can imagine what they are doing or attempting to do to our national defense capability. This is deeply alarming.”

Flake added the hacking incident was a “huge wake up call.”

“If they can wreak that kind of havoc in the entertainment industry, then you’ve got to worry where else their reach is,” Flake said. “It’s very concerning.”

Gosar quipped: “Just show the movie.”

When Americans can’t see one particular Seth Rogen movie the terrorists have won! Like pretty much most people, I think Sony made a bad decision but it’s fairly obvious why they made it and, contrary to what the right wing perpetual outrage machine is spinning,

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