Regina Romero means well – she is concerned about the expense of El Rio golf course, which is losing the city millions of dollars, and she also wants to attract jobs and industry to Tucson to bolster the local economy.
So when she puts these two goals together what does she come up with ? Selling off city property to a “for profit” “christian” “University”.

Why not a fertilizer factory ? It would be less polluting, and pay more taxes.

Just what Tucson needs is 5,000 little Pat Robertsons running around and voting but paying no taxes.

Since our Dobson controlled State Legislature is currently busy passing the Christian Bigotry Protection Act, which allows anyone to ignore non-discrimination laws as long as they claim to be “religious”, Grand Canyon University can discriminate against gays and persecute them with impunity.
Is this the kind of “industry” Tucson wishes to attract ?
Give me copper mine pollution or exploding fertilizer plants any day.

It am amazed at the polarization centering around Mr. Huckabee’s Chick Fil A

appreciation day. I expected it to be popular in Alabama but not here in Tucson.

The sight of so many of my neighbors gathering to openly express their bigotry

has made me look at Tucson quite differently than I did just a few days ago.

I saw this excellent article by a new Tucson resident that I want to recommend.

A small excerpt:

That line at Chik-Fil-A touched me like a banner of unwelcome, like a vigilante caravan of people who could hardly wait for the opportunity to openly express their belief that I was an enemy to be conquered — someone they longed to see be put back in her place as an anamoly, a threat to society, a pervert, a half-person.

Being Gay in Tucson Hurts

We all know that the chick fil a appreciation day is all about supporting “the first amendment” and

“free speech”.

As long as the speech is anti-gay, of course. Otherwise it’s free speech for me but not for thee, at least at

the Tucson company Vante.

Adam Smith,  Chief Financial Officer at Vante, on his own personal time and with no connection to

his employer, Vante, took it upon himself to video his protest of chick fil a as “hateful” and post

the video to youtube.

Vante issued the statement:

Vante regrets the unfortunate events that transpired yesterday in Tucson between our former CFO/Treasurer Adam Smith and an employee at Chick-fil-A. Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company.

The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner.

Mr. Smith’s actions were described as “bullying”, but I confess that I can’t find any bullying in his protest.

You can judge for yourself here:

What you think may depend upon the side you are on, but there is no doubt what side Vante is on.

That “free speech” is such a tricky thing, it seems.

Or as Shep Smith suggested, National day of Intolerance.

Where is a more appropriate site for such and event than a chicken joint ?
At the behest of Head Bigot Mike Huckabee, parking lots were jammed, people waited an hour for chicken, and posted their videos on their facebook pages.

You can see your neighbors here, and what they think of you:

http://www.kvoa.com/news/video-chick-fil-a-supporters-plan-appreciation-day/

(Please notice that it is an all white crowd – pity the poor employees).

I suppose it is understandable that if it is “PC” not to be a bigot, bigots feel unable to express themselves – so given the chance to congregate with others of their type and celebrate their bigotry must be a lot of fun for them. They used to do it at Klan barbeques, but now that’s out of favor, so I suppose this will have to do.

They even have self-righteous code speech for their celebration – they are supporting the “free speech” of Chick fil a’s spending millions to support sending gays to jail, not allowing them to teach or marry, and, in Uganda, passing a “Kill the gays” law declaring the death penalty for gays.

Of course they claim it is their religious right to kill the gays, and it is, but that doesn’t make it right, or not an expression of bigotry.

This is the most successful outing of the religious bigots in quite a while, so they are feeling their oats right about now. They have been boycotting Home Depot and JC Penny’s and Target and Disneyland with no success, but this “anti-boycott” is working out well for them.

Maybe the secret is to offer them chicken.

Please see Mayor’s response below

——————-

I’ve lived in a lot of places (like Boston) where the power of the church causes corruption,

but I have never seen a more blatant scam than the recent vote by our City Council to

donate 1.1 Million dollars to the church for the “repair” of  Marist College.

The council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to allocate federal Community Development Block Grant funds to repair the historic building’s damaged support structure and veneer. The city’s hope is that a developer will eventually come forward and transform the one-time parochial school, built in 1915, into an economically viable property.

It is even personally upsetting in that I have been a long time supporter of Regina Romero, who pushed this effort,

and the only voice of sanity I find on the council is a Repub, Steve Kozachik

Councilman Steve Kozachik said he voted against the measure because the block-grant money would be better spent on housing rehabilitation, neighborhood enhancements and other issues where the city has a waiting list of residents who could benefit. “But instead we are going to give a gift to the Catholic Church,” he said.

It isn’t as if the Church doesn’t have the money to repair its own property – they’ve already spent almost that amount in out-of-state donations to campaigns to fight gay rights and contraception.

I’m calling the ACLU – the city will have another lawsuit on its hands if I can do anything about it.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/work-begins-on-marist-building-downtown/article_ce68581e-d733-11e1-bb68-0019bb2963f4.html

———— UPDATE – Mayor’s Response —————————-

Patrick, thanks for your e-mail.  I appreciate your feelings due to a lack of detailed reporting regarding this matter.  The proposal which has been made to the Diocese to save this building which is on the National Historic Registry includes stipulations that the Church is to have no financial interest or gain from the building, that the City may take title to the Building if it desires, that the building will be put to partial public purpose and that the Church may have no interest in future use of which the City has full control.  In fact the Proposal from the City takes the property out of Church control and puts it to an entirely new use. The alternative is to lose a Historic Building of National concern for a Diocese parking lot.  Hope that helps you understand the proposal which has not yet been accepted by the Diocese.  Thanks.

My reaction to this is that I don’t understand why the City would take title “if desired”, and not simply take title. Or why it would be put to PARTIAL public purpose, and not entierly ?

It is still not satisfactory – the city should not be donating money to the Church – even “partially”.

Well ok – she hasn’t actually SAID that. What she HAS said is that if Kelly manages to win Tuesday’s election she won’t challenge him in the upcoming primaries for the new seat.

On the other hand if Barber wins, she will run for the Repub nod.

So Repub voters have a chance to undo the mistake they made in choosing an obviously unqualified and apparently somewhat challenged individual to represent their party, and run a decent candidate in November. And if they are too squeamish to actually vote for a Dem, all they need to do is stay home.

You’ll feel better about yourself, and your party, if you do.

Romney meeting with a patient whose weight is down to 80 pounds discussing the

legality of medical marijuana.

Well I see that blogger Don Lacey has discovered that writing critically of Ron Paul in Arizona is akin to writing critically of Muhammed in Afghanistan

So it looks as if it’s time for me to mention how we arrived at this point in history – which in this case is the story of two melding ideologies.
Ideology 1 – Libertarianism – begun by Ayn Rand with her popular novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and her collection of essays (with her boy toy Nathaniel Branden) The Virtue of Selfishness.

As has been famously noted:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. – John Rogers

Rand was a refugee from Communism and her ideology was basically a celebration of free market individualism and a hatred of socialism.

She also was a dedicated atheist who hated religion, supported abortion rights and what she saw as human rights being oppressed by government.

ANY government.

She was not a “patriot”, did not justify her ideology with rigamarole from the US Constitution or founding fathers and was a believer in individual rights – not “State’s rights”.

Ideology #2 – the Confederates. Even after losing the Civil War the South Shall Always Rise Again in the hearts of the Confederates. These southern gentlemen remain commited to maintaining the privileged place of the white christian male and are fiercely dedicated to the Constitution – or at least those antebellum parts of it that extol “States Rights” – and hate the Federal government ( previously known as the “damn yankees”).

They will extol the virtues of “State’s rights” at every opportunity, human rights not so much, and they love Jesus.

Now it would seem that these ideologies have little in common, which is true, but they have just enough in common – at least in rhetoric – to have become the jumble that Jim sees in his comments thread.

They share a paranoid fear of the “federal government” and they both fetishize firearms.

So when a Confederate like Ron Paul attacks the “Federal” government, they hear it as an attack on “government” – and they are willing to let that little “State’s rights” plug he always inserts slip past. And soon they believe it themselves.

That is why, in 2012, “Libertarianism” looks suspiciously like those idiots arguing with Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind:

You simply do not understand the Libertarian philosophy that is embedded in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution (as per Thomas Jefferson).

The point of this bill was to return more rights to the states

You mean the constitution would have to be obeyed under this act. As it stands, the state governments are forced to bow before the “anti-religion” religion you are a devoted follower of.
The idea of promoting States rights is because you can represent the values of your constituents better that way,
That’s why we believe in state’s rights and limited government,

The federal government shouldn’t have anything to do with the laws of the state. Furthermore, If a state wants to endorse or promote religion then they have that right. It’s up to the state to make just and moral decisions form themselves; even if those decisions turn out to be mistakes.

States rights is a very big deal but the author just does not understand this. If a state has bad laws or ones that I disagree with, I can move away from the state.

Abortion is the most unilateral use of force I can think of. A zygote is not the same as a fetus, but life is life and it should be protected.

It is very clear in the constitution where the federal government should be in relations to the individual States,out of their hair.

Take the California Supreme Court, they created policy from thin air that Gay marriage is to be allowed

Honestly the biggest thing about states rights that appeals to me is the whole mantra of “Don’t like it? Move to a state that runs the way you like.”

The Constitution is explicit as to what the rights of the American people are and the Bill Of Rights gives the protection enforced by the “Federal” government. The Constitution also is clear on the restraint of the federal government with interfering with the sovereignty of states.

Using the argument that without the Federal government mandating every aspect of our daily lives this country would be a state dictatorship with slavery is an outrageous statement.

In the race to the bottom, Arizona scores again.

The “fiscally responsible, libertarian” Repubs who are in total denial of the fact that their party is now totally controlled by stone age christian religious zealots have passed the country’s most restrictive anti-abortion law.

In theory it bans abortion after 20 weeks of conception – but in reality it introduces a new medical theory. Evidently now life begins at menstruation.

“Gestational age” means the age of the unborn child as calculated
from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman.

So effectively it bans abortions at an average of 18 weeks.

Repub gynecologists know best, I suppose.

I continue my fascination with the comments section of the AZ Daily Star.

Today is a good one, since they ran an article on DA Morales’ effort to recall

Superintendent Hicks.

Steve W. (standman)
Rumor has it that David A. Morales is a closet queen. I wonder if that story will ever break? There are those living down south that can attest to Morales’ perversions. Where’s the investigative reporting? Or does that stop when there is a negative report on one of the medias own darlings…literally and figuratively speaking.

veronica m. (vsmork)
Hey ADS do a story on David A Morales. Does he have kids in TUSD. How has he employed himself all these years, dig up all his radical statements and associations.

Lets run Morales out of town and let real leaders like Hicks keep doing his job.
john j. (nikkijones)

Mr. Morales, You sir need help. Your one sidedness and biggotry are starting to show. Just because you did not get your way, which is apparently the only way according to you. You want to recall people who don’t agree with you? You can seek proffesional help for that affliction or you can move to another city. Maybe LA. Get a life and don’t align yourself with loosers and crybabies. It makes you look like a fool.
Dave W. (Dave W) wrote:
Hicks deserves a vote of confidence… Grijalva not so much!
WENDELL H. (RANDY64)
Mr.Hick’s has my families vote also. And when this farce is over and Mr. Hick’s keeps his seat on the TUSD board. Who next will these FOOLS go after. CRYBABIES!!!!!!!!!!
A S. (awsjr)
Abie Morales is nothing more then a racist who happens to spew it with his blog…. he preys on innocent and impressionable children in TUSD…. he is such a perpetual liar that believes if you repeat the same lies over and over that it somehow becomes fact….
I suspect Mr. Morales has begun this effort because all the courts have, to date, rejected the claims of supporters of MAS, and he is acting out his frustrations. One of the fascinating psychological aspects of this issue is the way Mr. Morales and his handful of supporters are engaging in a neat little bit of projection. Mr. Hicks has never been the one to refuse to work with the complete spectrum of constituency groups concerned with issues related to TUSD. That has been the role played by Mr. Morales and the rabid ethnic nationalists he aligns with who continue to clamor for the reinstatement of the MAS classes as they were.

jon f. (jfast)
Rich, excellent post. This isn’t about Mr Hicks, its about LA RAZA regaining a foothold in TUSD pure and simple. You are right about Morales being a bully. He is worse than a bully using his position to pander to one specific group of people that want to continue to play the race card and are taught how to be modern bigots.

Rich K. (Rich907) wrote:

Mr. Morales is nothing more than a bully who uses intimidation and name calling to keep reasonable people from speaking out against the fringe radical ideology he supports. Those of us who have been around for a while have seen this behavior before from extremists on both edges of the political spectrum. The best thing to do with him is ignore his rantings and go about our business. I believe Mr. Hicks will not be bullied, and he will continue to work in the best interests of all of TUSD’s students.
I think I will start reading the Arizona Daily Independent the first thing every day.

All of which lead me to read this much ballyhooed Arizona Independent ( which was new to me) and this comment:

Anonymous Mar 12, 2012 08:17 PM

When they want to KILL us,why should we not return in kind?
Because racial mongrelization of the white race is the death
of the white race!

Ad augusta per angusta

Stay classy, Tucson. And don’t pollute our pristine media with Doonesbury.