There are lots of news to catch up on from over the weekend.

The non-progressive: Rodney Glassman

AZ Republic says no to Glassman

– On Rodney Glassman’s website he touts the endorsement by the Arizona Republic and they issued a statement saying not so Glassman. You can read why they are calling Glassman a liar here.

– Also reported was that Rodney Glassman severely injured and almost killed a person before trying to start a new life in Tucson. Police said Glassman was the cause of the accident and charged him with reckless driving. The victim sued Glassman and they settled.

Glassman continues his reckless behavior including having 7 speeding tickets in Tucson, one in Prescott, one in Scottsdale, as recent as last month. Now the constant lawbreaker wants to be lawmaker?

– What a coincidence it is for Rodney Glassman, who some claim will just be a McCain-lite, to be having his election night party, where he is hoping to be the candidate to take on John McCain, at… The Maverick…

– There are also rumors that some of Glassman’s staff have jumped off his sinking ship just one week before the election. Word in the political circles is that Dawn Teo, Glassman’s media person, quit the campaign last night. Repeated calls directly to her to verify by various members of the Tucson Citizen have gone unanswered. But that would make sense if she really quit now wouldn’t it?

– Also jumping ship from Glassman’s camp is their co-chair Rose Mofford.

Rose Mofford is the former governor of Arizona and the Glassman camp continues to insist she really was their co-chair. Since they are not known for lying, what they say must have been true, but now Mofford is supporting Cathy Eden over the failed ice-rink owner from Fresno.

Many other “endorsers” of Rodney Glassman have also told the Three Sonorans that they will not be voting for the former Republican who made millions of dollars off of exploiting migrant laborers in his Fresno grape farms.

Watch Cathy Eden explain who Rose Mofford is endorsing.

Real Progressive: Randy Parraz

BISBEE MAYOR JACK PORTER ENDORSES RANDY PARRAZ FOR U.S. SENATE

PHOENIX, AZ—Bisbee Mayor Jack Porter today endorsed Randy Parraz, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. His endorsement joins many other endorsements from border city officials.

Randy Parraz gets more endorsements

“I’m thrilled to receive the support from Jack Porter,” said Parraz. “Jack has fought senseless border policy with words and action, and I look forward to working with him to make us all proud of being Arizonans.”

Porter grew up in Bisbee, lived on the border all his life. Porter is a strong advocate for sensible immigration policy and introduced the resolution for the city Council of Bisbee to that publicly repudiated SB 1070.

Parraz has also been endorsed in the Democratic primary by Sheriff Tony Estrada of Santa Cruz County, State Representative Rebecca Rios and former Arizona Governor Raul Castro, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Communication of Workers of America, and UNITE-HERE, among many others.

PHOENIX, AZ – A federal appeals court today stayed Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s order earlier this month that would have barred the state from enforcing Proposition 8, a development that would have enabled same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses across the state immediately.

Randy Parraz made the following statement:

“As a strong supporter of equal rights for all Americans, including equal rights in the institution of marriage, I am disappointed that the federal Court blocked Judge Walker’s order. This is a roadblock in the long march to justice and equality for all, but I am confident that in the long run, equal rights will prevail, in the courts, in the legislatures, and in Washington DC. I support and applaud the amazing work of lawyers and citizens who have come together to continue to fight for equality and dignity for every American.

On Aug. 4, Judge Walker declared Prop. 8 unconstitutional, finding there was no good reason to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Real Progressive: John Dougherty

Goddard hails Dougherty’s courage

AZ Attorney General Goddard lauds “courage” of U.S. Senate candidate John Dougherty in probe of FLDS frauds and abuses

Remarks boost energetic grassroots Dougherty campaign

Green Valley, Ariz.(Aug. 16) —Arizona Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Governor Terry Goddard on Sunday hailed fellow Democrat John Dougherty’s “courage” in exposing “fraud” in the face of extreme danger during Dougherty’s groundbreaking investigation of the fundamentalist polygamists in Colorado City.

John Dougherts gets congrats from Goddard

“There were people in that community, and many of them, that would have cheerfully eliminated his life for simply being there and questioning their style of life,” Goddard told Democrats gathered for a fundraiser at the home of Nan and Richard Walden. “And it’s for courage like that that I think we owe John a great debt of gratitude.”

Goddard’s remarks provide a powerful boost to Dougherty’s surging grassroots campaign to win the Aug. 24 four-way Democratic Senatorial primary.

Goddard said Dougherty’s investigation “showed there was fraud and abuse in the school system and basically showed it was being run as a wholly owned subsidiary of the FLDS, which he showed, in a number of articles.”

Dougherty began his investigation of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) in 2002 while working as a journalist for the Phoenix New Times. It was the first in-depth inquiry in more than 50 years into the isolated community on the Arizona Strip. FLDS religious leaders have a long history of routinely ordering underage girls to enter into “spiritual marriages” with already married men.

Dougherty’s investigation of the Colorado City school system uncovered a litany of financial abuses. Goddard used the information uncovered by Dougherty to lobby the Arizona Legislature to pass a law that allowed the Attorney General’s Office to place the Colorado City school district into receivership. The school district is now operating outside control of the FLDS.

The school investigation was just one of more than a dozen stories Dougherty wrote on the sect that culminated with the arrest of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Dougherty covered Jeffs’ 2007 criminal trial for the New York Times.

Dougherty’s grassroots Senate campaign is focused on bringing accountability to Washington and ending systemic corruption fueled by huge campaign contributions and excessive influence of lobbyists on legislation.

“I have worked in the public interest for more than a quarter century with proven results,” Dougherty said. “I am battle-tested and ready to lead Arizonans and America to a better future, where the public interest always comes first. I am the only Democratic candidate who can defeat John McCain.”

Note:

Dougherty’s investigations have a played a central role in Arizona politics for the last 25 years. His coverage for theDayton Daily News triggered the Keating Five Senate Ethics Committee hearings that forever branded John McCain as one of the “Keating Five”.

Dougherty’s series in early 1990s in the Phoenix New Times exposed the financial wrongdoings of former Arizona Gov. J. Fife Symington, years before Symington was convicted on bank and wire fraud charges in U.S. District Court and forced to resign in September 1997.

Dougherty, while also working for Phoenix New Times, exposed the financial and human rights abuses of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the early 2000s, at a time when no one else dared to confront the powerful sheriff. Arpaio retaliated and subjected Dougherty to a frivolous five-year criminal assault investigation and a grand jury probe.

The Federal Communication Commission should act swiftly to protect free access to the Internet and prevent media giants from co-opting the future of the most powerful new medium since the printing press.

Incredibly, the FCC asked the corporations who stand to profit most to write rules on how bandwidth will be divvied up. Google and Verizon floated a plan that most observers view as a roadmap to a multi-tiered system. AT&T has endorsed the Google/Verizon plan.

What’s at stake is control over whose data gets transmitted, and how quickly. A wide-open field let’s everyone compete. A tiered system like the one proposed by the big shots would inevitably favor them and their preferred media; some web purveyors would be relegated to second- and third-class status.

What’s also at stake is freedom of speech and freedom of the press, because so many people get their news and information from the net today. Not to mention free and open access to intellectual and commercial media that power education, development and entrepreneurship.

Basically, the corporatists want to install a meter on your Internet. They whine that if they aren’t allowed to nickel-and-dime us, innovation will wither.

Unfortunately, their clever ideas are likely to be the kind of vampire MBA innovations that allow banks to bleed Americans with scams like ubiquitous credit card fees, exotic mortgages and impenetrable derivative casinos.

We don’t need that kind of innovation. Web and broadband development are doing just fine, thank you, in the creatively yeasty bog that our free and open net fosters. We don’t need telecom and media companies — which already enjoy near monopoly web status — erecting bottlenecks that would further inflate their bottom lines while giving them frightening power over the timely flow of data and ideas.

It would be like forsaking the farmer’s market, with all its tasty and fresh organic produce, in favor of one giant digital Wal-Mart.

In fact, web users in the United States already pay far more for Internet access, and have far balkier web access, than patrons overseas.

It’s pathetic but hardly surprising that Congress is punting on this issue. The big media companies are second only to Big Pharma in campaign largess. So their elected minions sit idly on the sidelines.

That leaves it to the FCC to act on the most pressing First Amendment issue of our time. The FCC has the authority to protect the net and maintain a level playing field. All it requires is the wisdom and the will to do so.

But Congress must eventually act as well. As your U.S. senator, I will introduce legislation that guarantees us all a place at the great table of ideas and opportunities afforded by the vast digital universe.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Election 2010, Headline news, political news. Tags for this post: arizona news, cathy eden, clean elections, Headline news, john dougherty, john mccain, national news, phoenix news, political news, polls, progressive news, randy parraz, rodney glassman, tucson news, US senate news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.