You ever meet someone who pretends to know you but you know they don’t? I have and it brings my pee to a boil. This mostly happens with politicians regardless of political party, truly a bipartisan gesture. I don’t mind it from the bigger guns like McCain

or even Grijalva

they meet loads of people and I realize I am a nobody, but I do expect more from our local politicians, especially ones I run into over and over again. A perfect example of this is Gabby Giffords  although shes a congresswoman in Washington, she always remembers my name when I run into her in town. I may disagree with the lady on many things, but to her credit she always remembers who I am and the one time she didn’t she politely asked me to remind her who I was.

Rodney Glassman, unfortunately, does not share that trait. Instead, like Sammy Jankis from the movie Memento he pretends, smiles, shakes my hand and says “hey there” in a vacuous, yet friendly tone. Mr. Glassman has been gunning for a career in politics for a long time now.   From working with congressman  Grijalva at the age of 23 to his recent venture as Ward 2 council member and second fiddle to “nice guy” Mayor Bob Walkup.  Rodney did a lot of good while in the City Council by pushing for environmentally friendly legislation and encouraging the development of Family Friendly Weekends downtown. Sadly, it seemed from the get-go that Mr. Glassman was not in this to make Tucson a better place by serving his city, but to launch his political career with the Old Pueblo serving as the Old Stepping Stone.  Rodney and his family are also loaded, the only thing that seems to surpass the size of his financial resources is his ego. Herein lies the problem, most of our government is run by career politicians who are filthy rich.  Men and women who have made their money by taking advantage of the poor and desperate. They later take this wealth and use it to get into power and further push their agenda, just look at our presidents, Obama included.  For the last 30 years the guy with the most money wins the election. What, you thought it was the votes?

So when I heard our very own crooning councilman was running for the senate, I cringed. The problem is two-fold, really. Senator McCain, another rich guy who I happened to respect due to his ability to see beyond party lines and actually be a vertebrate is now, sadly, losing touch and not performing as efficiently as he once did. In fact, the only thing that interests me about McCain is his daughter Meghan. She’s hot enough to make me want to move to Phoenix, despite it being you know, Phoenix. Due to the senator’s lackluster performance, Republican J.D. Hayworth, a Rush Limbaugh wanna-be has decided to run against him in the primary. If he wins, Arizona will regress from the hillbilly state that it now finds itself to be, into a knuckle-dragging paradise. The second problem is if Glassman wins. For all of the good he has done he has a longer track record of bumbling things up and using his extensive finances to bully people and get his way, so much so that The Tucson Weekly put him on their Get Out Of Town! list in December 2003. In another occasion Mr. Glassman was called a “liability” to the Grijalva campaign by the congressman himself.  So I was faced with a huge dilemma: pick between a broken Maverick, a hateful talk radio host, or a spoiled rich kid who solves problems by throwing money them.  Then something miraculous happened, a viable candidate that I could actually respect emerged, and no, it wasn’t Rudy Garcia. Say “hello” to Randy Parraz.

Sorry I haven't made a caricature of him yet.

I was told by a friend that I had to go see this guy speak.  Luckily, for me  he was having a gathering at La Fuente here in Tucson. At first, I must admit, I was very skeptical of this guy and figured he’s just another politician. The more he talked, however, the more I realized this guy was someone that was actually out to make a change in his community. Then I started to chuckle, this poor delusional man. Randy I found out comes from an activist and organizer background, he’s worked with labor unions and even got arrested by Sheriff Joe Arpaio for protesting. This guy clearly had a screw loose. Then he spoke about what prompted him to run, SB1070.  He reminded the crowd about Sheriff Pritchard’s indifferent attitude towards African Americans back during the civil rights movement. How this was not just an issue that you could just throw money at and expect a solution. More importantly that this was about choosing the right candidate for the times we live in. That was the clincher for me. I realized that’s what bugged me about the other candidates, regardless of party, they were all out of touch or irrelevant to the times we are living in. This guy, on the other hand seemed to get it and he seemed to be using intellect as his guiding force. Progress is never a bad thing in my book.  Parraz has a long way to go though, he lacks funding and notoriety. He is also starting a little late and by the time the primaries roll around his name may not have reached as far as that of the other candidates.

Arnie Bermudez

“Ever noticed how the most homophobic dudes are the same ones that shower in a group (i.e. convicts, soldiers and jocks)?” -Me on the irony of homophobes

“Fear mongering and misinformation are opponents’ only tool against this common sense legislation” stated Senator Russell Pearce in his current blog in response to Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s blog.  Well I for one agree with the senator, he is absolutely right, fear mongering and misinformation are tools against common sense, and he would know since persecuting a group of people based on their culture and race is exactly that.  Oh, wait, this law isn’t racist and Mr. Pearce isn’t racist he’s just protecting Arizonans best interests. But this guy is:

Necks are for sissies Photo The Arizona Republic

“Who is this amazingly rotund neckless wonder?” you ask, meet J.T Ready.  Big (no pun intended) time supporter of Russell Pearce, former Maricopa County Republican precinct committeeman and all around civil rights activist… for white supremacists. Well Neo-Nazis to be precise. Well, National Socialists to be more precise.

We heard someone needed a "truffle shuffle." Photo The Arizona Republic

The below image shows Ready in his costume…er… riot gear, ready to defend America, swastika and all.  Senator Pearce’s buddy takes it upon himself to enlighten the masses about the “excellent white civil rights leader,” Adolf Hitler, you may have heard of him.  That’s his quote by the way, just go to 4:33 of this video. Mr. Pearce has attended Ready’s speaking engagements and there was even a photo of the two circulating the interwebs just last year.  Might this be the gentleman that was responsible for the white supremacist e-mail Mr. Pearce “accidentally” forwarded a couple of years ago? It’s not a big deal, I too, have accidentally forwarded many emails. I mean, you have to “accidentally” read it, “accidentally” put in the addresses of all the recipients and “accidentally” press “send”, it could happen to anyone. I’m sure that’s how the penis enlargement emails started, good ol’ Russ probably hit “send” on those by accident as well.

We shouldn’t judge the Senator by his friends, though, because that would be, well, judgmental.  Besides , friends are just a reflection of who we are. As for misinformation, well that’s just a dirty tactic, it’s like pots calling kettles black without acknowledging that they are black also. It’s like condemning a scumbag guy who beats women, when you yourself are a scumbag guy who beats women (LuAnne Pearce, according to the Phoenix New Times). Senator Pearce is right we should definitely make a law that punishes this type of behavior severely, oh wait he was the lone “no” vote on such a bill in in 2002.   It’s like using current events (Robert Krentz) to pull at the heartstrings of your constituency. Good looking out, what would we do without you. The good senator forgot to mention another tactic we should definitely be weary of, hypocrisy. He was probably too busy saving the state from the crafty illegal invaders that hide in our crappy jobs.

Arnie Bermudez

Me talking about a friend to a friend- “How is he doing? He got institutionalized.”

My buddy-”Crap! Did he go crazy?”

Me- “No, worse. He got married, marriage is an institution.”

After a week of hearing, seeing and talking about how my state of birth has become an embarrassment to the nation and most of humanity I was looking forward to some good news. Fortunately, that came in the red and yellow pages of Invincible Ironman #25. Ironman has always been a pleasure to read and I was hooked ever since the Extremis story line, which not only debuted Adi Granov’s amazing art, but revamped the character in a significant way. Moreover, the armor from Extremis was used as the basis for the costume design in the Robert Downey Jr. movie. So when it was announced that in issue #25 that Tony Stark was getting another upgrade I was stoked and I had to check it out. Aside form all the new twists in the story and the sick new way his armor comes on, the suit just looks awesome!!!  It took some time to get used to the look due to the fact that I was a big fan of the more mechanical look of Adi Granov’s design. This went away real quick after reading issue 25. So for the uninitiated here is what that looks like:

In other news:

Not only did SB1070 tic  lots of people off, it has also prompted one local cop to file a lawsuit against the state on the basis that this law can not be enforced with police neutrality.  The police officer involved is one Martin H. Escobar, who aside from being one bad mutha on the streets of Tucson is also one bad mutha on the mat or ring or whatever place jiu-jitsu guys fight.

Now its obvious he’s Hispanic, but before any Minutemen or Jon Justice fans start accusing him of protecting illegals lets consider the fact that not only can this guy beat you senseless, but in every picture he’s in there’s an American flag behind him, I can’t think of anyone more patriotic than him. Well, except for maybe this guy:

Arnie Bermudez

“I don’t go to church too often because I was told he is a jealous god and I don’t want to cause any problems if he’s that insecure when I’m around.” –me

Recently Arizona has been making some pretty bonehead moves when it comes to law-making.  First, was the the ban on gay marriage. Why was it stupid? Well, aside from the fact that it was a total wedge issue, a violation of equal rights and heavily reliant on Judeo-Christian views of marriage; we also lost a lot of revenue and Mexico was smart enough to jump on that. So now, all those gay and lesbian couples from around the U.S. are not travelling here and spending

Just say "no," right?

their money here to get married, but instead they are going to Mexico and spending their money in that country. Awesome move Az. Ignorance has never been a big money maker, but fortunately being 49th in the country in education we don’t really care, in fact “ignorance” is very much our middle name. So making money is not a real concern, as is reflected by our budget.

Next, we allow people to have guns in bars. That’s right, guns in a place where people get intoxicated. What the heck?!?!?! Who thought this was a good idea? I know, I know, the gun toting patrons are allowed to do this so long as they

Yipee kay yay! The next round's on me.

don’t drink. Okay fine, but how many people (aside from myself and the DDs) go to bars and night clubs to not drink? More importantly we already have laws about drinking and driving and we see how many people follow those. If this type of law were effective we would have no DUI’s and no drunk driving deaths. Do we honestly think there will be no shooting under the influence? Remember, 49th in education.

The most recent offense, though, was Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 on immigration reform. Why is it a bone head move? Because it’s flipping racist. Seriously, how many Canadians do you think are going to get deported over this? Nothing against the polite Canucks, but they are the ones coming down in droves in the winter and taking not only the good jobs, but the good land. God knows Arizonans can’t afford to buy real estate in our own state, so, Canadians are.  However, police officers will be asking Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and yes, Middle Eastern folk. You know

She's definitely an "illegal". Get the Minute Men!

why? Because they all have one thing in common: They are not White. This law isn’t meant to protect Americans from foreigners it’s made to protect White people from non-Whites.  Now, this may sound paranoid and conspiratorial and I’m fine with that, but if you really want to test yourself and this law and claim its not racist do the following exercise: Close your eyes and picture an “illegal immigrant”.  Did you see a blonde haired and blue -eyed, polite Canadian? Exactly.  Also, we need illegal immigrants, yes, need. “Hogwash” you say? Okay then, you pick our lettuce and clean your house for substandard wages and no benefits. You can’t even get teenagers to do those jobs. Like it or not, illegal immigrants contribute to our way of life.

Can’t wait for the next round of bills. Yay.

On a positive note Kick Ass was an awesome film go see it if you haven’t and if you have, see it again. Furthermore, go buy the comic its just as great as the movie.

Arnie Bermudez

“I like you for who you are and if I don’t like you its probably for the same reason.” – me