Loneprotestor chronicles the rise and fall of Russell Pearce in 5 minutes.

This video is a tribute to the organizing skills of Randy Parraz and the grassroots Citizens for a Better Arizona, who spent the entire summer gathering over 18,000 signatures to force the recall election of Arizona state senate president Russell Pearce. Pearce’s claim to fame was as a sponsor of the ALEC-written SB 1070, the infamous “papers, please,” law requiring anyone stopped by police for any reason to produce proof of citizenship. Now that we’ve seen Pearce’s backside, guess who might be next?

Republican Mayoral Candidate Rick Grinnell (Image credit: Grinnell facebook page)

For a city with the highest rate of poverty in the Sunbelt, you’d think there would be a few candidates talking about poverty, homelessness, unemployment/underemployment, and related issues in their campaigns.

As I listened to the KXCI rebroadcast of the recent candidate forum, I was stunned by the issues that occupied most of the candidates– particularly the Republican candidates (Mayoral Candidate Rick Grinnell and City Council Candidates Jennifer Rawson and Tyler Vogt).

Apparently, the biggest issues facing our city are not poverty, home foreclosures or unemployment; they’re burdensome development fees, over-regulation of businesses (particularly developers), and an oppressive anti-business city government.

I guess it is understandable that the Republicans would be running pro-business camgaigns, but Grinnell goes beyond business-friendly. Grinnell is the mayoral candidate for the 1% class. Here are some facts to back up this statement.

• Grinnell is a lobbyist, and the largest client for Grinnell’s lobbying firm is Rosemont Copper– two facts that are not mentioned on his campaign website. The online description of Grinnell’s SUBS (Smart United Business Strategies) doesn’t even mention that it is a lobbying firm. SUBS is described as: “a for-profit venture that fosters political interaction between State and Local government and the entrepreneurial community.”
• Grinnell’s campaign manager is big-time developer John Wesley Miller. (No wonder Grinnell is lobbying…er… campaigning so hard against development fees and for streamlining development processes.)
• In a recent Arizona Daily Star article entitled Mayoral Candidates: Jobs are No. 1 but… , Reporter Rhonda Botfield writes, “Grinnell, a consultant for Rosemont Mine and for restaurant owner Bob McMahon, said his longtime work on business issues will give him an edge in helping support economic development by eliminating barriers to growth and providing the necessary infrastructure. ‘If we don’t get some wealth-generating opportunities, we will collapse,’ he said. He said not only does the city need an attitude adjustment – such as strengthening its customer service approach – but also needs a more coordinated effort in recruiting new businesses.” Again, business, business, business. [Emphasis added.]
• Grinnell’s campaign ads– along with those of  Rawson and Vogt– have been produced by the same agency that produced the now infamous Swift Boat ads against John Kerry.
• Grinnell is on the current Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board. (You know– the board that is suing the City of Tucson for $47 million.) He was appointed to the Rio Nuevo Board by Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce.
• Grinnell also served on the old Rio Nuevo Citizens’ Advisory Committee, beginning in 2007; he was appointed by then Councilman Rodney Glassman. (You’ll remember that those folks helped the City Council bungle taxpayer monies in failed land deals and plans that never were implemented.) His service on the first RN board has been conveniently omitted from his bio on his campaign website.
• In addition to Grinnell’s position on the Rio Nuevo Board, he has been a member of the Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority since 2008. This is another one of those local boondoggle boards that chases fickle national sports teams and spring training contracts. Check out this report from the Brookings Institute and the Brookings’ book Sports, Jobs, and Taxes, if you don’t believe me. National sports teams pit cities against each other by encouraging hapless local politicians to waste taxpayer money on stadiums. (Remember Tucson Electric Park?) In the candidate forum, Grinnell even had a frustrated outburst when he said, Rio Nuevo was supposed to be an arena district! (Personally, I’m glad that arena football idea died.) Building stadiums makes money for developers and sports teams but not necessarily for cities.
• There are alleged improprieties in Grinnell’s campaign finance reports. Looking at his reports dated Oct. 25 online, the largest donations are from business owners, particularly construction companies, developers, and donors with ties to Jim Click. (Checking past campaign finance reports on the Arizona Secretary of State reveals that Jim Click has been a long-term donor to various Grinnell campaigns. He has run for several offices– also not on his resume.)

Seriously, how can you trust someone who has left major facts off of his resume?

On Grinnell’s website, he does list creating jobs and careers as a priority, but his 100 day plan is all about business.

I will host an economic strategy session with the business and social communities in order to identify who’s doing what, strengths and resources, and share a unified approach to regional economic stability.

Identify 100 local employers that want to expand and help them accomplish this. Identify and recruit another 100 new employers that are compatible and will complement existing local businesses. And we can do this keeping in mind the integrity of our neighborhoods and appreciation of our environment.

Help struggling businesses retain their employees, stay in business, with initiatives beginning with reducing utility tax to the pre-2010 budget.

Identify, reduce or remove the overburdening regulations that impede the process of expanding or starting new businesses. Remove duplication of services and shorten timeline involved in launching new enterprises.

Work with Rio Nuevo to restore the TCC to a first class Convention Center that will attract other large-scale events like the Gem Show. [NOTE: Grinnell is on the Rio Nuevo Board which is suing the city $47 million.]

Work with the tourism industry to expand our efforts in securing more group and personal tourism to our region. This could include the Southern Arizona Golf Trail.

Develop further communications with the State Legislature in Phoenix to strengthen positive relationship with our city. [Let's make nice with Republicans to the north.]

Identify local businesses that can utilize resources available to us through the Arizona Commerce Department’s that can help us provide additional support for employer and business expansions.

Strengthen relationships with our neighbors in Sonora, Mexico who bring in $1.3 Billion a year in revenue to Southern Arizona.

Maximize and leverage long-term resources in the region through annexation by first making the City of Tucson a successful and attractive model for neighboring communities. [Emphasis added.]

One last question for Grinnell: If you want to reduce or eliminate fees for developers and other businesses, how would you pay for that? Since the city is strapped for cash and since Republicans like to have “revenue neutral” policies, f you want to cut that revenue stream, you need to tell us how you would make up your proposed tax cut for the rich. Here’s a hint: If your answer is “raise bus fares”, you are truly the candidate for the 1%.

So, if you are lucky enough to be among America’s richest 1%, Grinnell’s your candidate for Tucson Mayor. If you’re among the 99%, I suggest you check out the websites of the other two candidates Democrat Jonathan Rothschild and Green Mary DeCamp. (Stay tuned for more on them.)

This powerful video by Bisbee activist Alison McLeod brought tears to my eyes.

File this under the “so close but so far away” category.

Hundreds of volunteers from all over the state have been passing and signing petitions to recall Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, and it looked as if Citizens for a Better Arizona was going to pull this off.

Now Arizona Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she gave the recall organizers the wrong date– thus causing them to miss the real deadline for petitions– May 10, 2011 and not May 25, 2011.

I don’t know about you, but this smells like dirty tricks. I am outraged. If any politician deserves to be recalled, it’s Pearce. Bjelland should be fired, and this should be investigated by a federal elections fraud commission– not Attorney General Tom Horne, who obviously would have a conflict of interest.

From AZCentral.com…

Arizona’s elections director said she inadvertently gave an incorrect timetable to the organizers of a drive to recall controversial Senate President Russell Pearce, forcing a change in strategy in the historic recall effort.

Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she initially told recall organizer Randy Parraz that if he filed his signatures by May 25, there would be enough time to verify them and schedule a November election.

But Bjelland since has notified Parraz that Gov. Jan Brewer has 15 days to officially call an election if the signatures check out, not five. The difference of 10 days in the recall timetable means Citizens for a Better Arizona already has missed the actual deadline, May 10, to turn in the signatures for a November election and can only hope for a March 13, 2012, election.

People send me links to interesting articles all the time– hoping I will write about the issues– but I have a life beyond the TucsonCitizen.com and can’t write about everything. Here are several interesting stories you also may find worth reading.

On the topic of Republicans…

Republicans Plan To Pay Off The Deficit By Literally Selling America
Are more toll roads in our future? How else can Republicans pay for further tax cuts for the rich?

Freedom From Regulation?
New UA Freedom Center funded by Koch brothers. That doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

Fiesta Bowl Scandal Update: The Navy Sinks ‘King’ Russell Pearce
Can scandal and the recall bring down Russell Pearce? Let’s hope so!

On the topic of ending the wars…

We Got Osama bin Laden – Now Let’s Get Out of Afghanistan
Congressman Raul Grijalva says, “Bring the boys home.” I couldn’t agree more.

On the topic of Latino voting…

Digging into Latino voter trends
The Latino voting rate is 18% below that of the Anglo population.

National Tequila Party Tour Will Kick Off in Arizona
Tequila Party encourages Latinos to vote.

On the topic of healthcare…

Why healthcare costs so much in the U.S.
Myths and facts about the US healthcare non-system– nice graphics!

The myth of undocumented immigrants using American health care
Dr. Keven debunks a popular myth.

Birth Control And Sexual Attraction – The Wall Street Journal’s Breathtakingly Bad Reporting
Better Health blog slams the Wall Street Journal for sexist reporting. (WSJ sexist? Imagine that.)

And on the topic of TUSD…

Comprehensive Annual Audit Report for the year ending June 2010
Very long budget report for last fiscal year– good reading if you’re in insomniac.

TUSD’s Desegregation Funding Summary FY10-11
This is hard to read but still interesting. You can see salaries, program funding, and school funding. It’s difficult to parse out specifics because some categories are so vague.

TUSD’s Ethnic Studies Audit: Institute for Transformative Education
Tucson Independent Daily examines the TUSD Board report from May 3, 2011. This gives the budget for the Mexican American Studies’ summer institute and a bit about the speakers. It seems to me that the budget is incomplete, since it primarily focus on speaker fees and stipends for attendees and doesn’t include other standard conference costs (room fees, audio-visual, travel expenses, etc.) but who knows. I’m surprised the Star didn’t cover this. Yes, some consider this a right-wing blog, but I have not seen this material covered anywhere else.

Loretta Hunnicutt on Glenn Beck
OK– a little spooky– but you have to see what the right is saying in order to organize against them. If you bury your head in the sand and try to ignore them, they’ll kick you in the ass.

Rep. Paul Ryan’s Road to Ruin budget plan (which was passed without one Democratic vote by the US House of Representatives recently) would change both Medicare and Medicaid so much that the programs would be unrecognizable.

He proposes to change Medicare to a voucher program– which could lead to increased costs for patients and more medical bankruptcies– and he proposes to change Medicaid into a block grant program and give the states authority to spend the funds as they see fit. Yikes!

Can you imagine what the Arizona Legislature would do with a Medicaid block grant? I can think of a few things…

• Give more corporate tax breaks.
• Privatize Medicaid and allow costs to run rampant (since taxpayers will be footing the bills. This will teach us discipline.)
• Legislate morality by denying women’s reproductive health services.
• Let the free market decide where community health centers and hospitals would be located. (Good-bye, El Rio.)
• Provide services everywhere in Arizona except Pima County. (It could happen. Look at all of the anti-Tucson and anti-Pima County legislation they passed this year.)

Our state Legislature is unscrupulous, and our governor is working beyond her pay grade– way beyond.

If you don’t think giving these wing-nuts more healthcare money to waste is a bad idea, check out this story from today’s Arizona Daily Star…

AHCCCS ready to start cutting services Sunday

They really don’t care what happens to the sick, the poor or the young. After all, that would be socialist.

View from Pima Canyon (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)

Late April in Baja Arizona… ahhh… the weather is gorgeous, the skies are blue, plants are springing back to life, and community events pack the weekends. If Baja Arizona has such an luscious environment and close-knit, eclectic community, why is it that the natives are often weary and depressed this time of year?

Why? Because by late April we have been pummeled by the Arizona Legislature for nearly four months.

With Russell Pearce as president of the Arizona Senate, 2011 has been a particularly rough year: corporate tax cuts, birther bills, guns-for-everyone-everywhere bills, anchor baby bills, everyone-should-be-a-border-patrol-agent bills, and a who-needs-education-or-healthcare-or-parks-when-you-got-prisons budget. Heavy sigh… (Wait a minute… did I miss something? Was there a jobs bill proposed this session?)

Down here in Baja Arizona, we have been repeatedly and unfairly targeted by the Arizona Legislature. I’ve lost track of all of the specifically anti-Tucson or anti-Pima County legislation that is winding its way through the rented halls of the Arizona Legislature. Some of the most egregious bills were sponsored by or promoted by one of our one Baja Arizona Senators– Frank “let’s-shoot-varmints-in-the-night” Antenori.

Now that Governor Jan Brewer has stood up to the Arizona Legislature and actually VETOED two of the crazier bills– guns near campuses and the birther bill– I’m hoping she’ll keep going. Governor, there are many more bills worthy of your veto pen!

Let’s make this easy and not confuse the situation with lots of numbers … Jan, honey, pretty please veto anything in these categories…trust me… you can do it!

1. Anything proposed by Antenori. This includes his bills to give Pima County infrastructure to the town of Marana and his plans to become king of Tucson by regulating how many employees the city can hire and which contracts go out for bid. (Last time I checked, Antenori didn’t hold any elected offices in our city or county government.)
2. Anything that is discriminatory against a group or individual. In addition to all of the anti-children, anti-sick people, and anti-immigrant legislation, this category would include all of the anti-Tucson and anti-Pima County legislation not proposed by our so-called Senator (see #1). It also would include Pearce’s obvious political ploy to give millions of dollars to Maricopa and Pinal Counties for border security but leaves out Pima County (which actually borders Mexico) because he doesn’t like our sheriff.
3. Anything that is none of the Legislature’s business.
   3a. The Legislature has no business sticking its nose into the management of University Medical Center, the University of Arizona College of Medicine, or the newly formed UA Healthcare (HB2067). Would you want Pearce or Antenori deciding who should get medical care and what care should be given? Oops… that’s right. Arizona’s Death Panels have been hard at work destroying healthcare in our state. Don’t let them take over one of out best hospitals! Doctors and professional healthcare administrators should run healthcare institutions– not wacky ideologues.
   3b. The Legislature has no business dictating the types of housing that can be built in Tucson. HB 2005 (AKA the Mini-Dorm Proliferation Act of 2011) states that when a municipality has issued a building permit for construction of a residential structure located within two miles of either a military base or a state-owned educational facility (such as the University of Arizona), then any use of the structure for residential purposes under one lease agreement by members of the U.S. Military or by faculty, employees or students of the educational facility is deemed to be in accordance with zoning regulations (regardless of how the area is really zoned). To make matters worse, the amendment is retroactive to Jan 1, 2010 OR the issuance of the permit, whichever came first. In other words, it would allow MINI-DORMS to be legal in R-1 and R-2 zoned areas! This bill is to be voted on soon by the Senate.
4. Anything that would cut jobs instead of creating jobs. OK… sorry, Jan, I tried to trick you on this one because NONE of the Legislation suggested by the majority party this session creates a single job but several pieces of legislation will actually increase unemployment– particularly the cuts to healthcare and education– or hurt workers.
5. Anything that is the responsibility of another branch of government. The Arizona Legislature has a particularly “all knowing” aura about it this year. Not only are they taking on tasks that belong to the federal government (like immigration and border security), they are taking on tasks that belong to the cities and counties (as mentioned above).

You’re the decider, Jan. Please?

Dear Readers, there are several things you can do to maybe influence the final votes of this legislative session. Here are links to contact information for Senate members and House members. Bug them!

You also can sign Councilman Steve Kozachik’s keep-your-stinkin’-hands-off Tucson petition. Go, Koz, thanks for standing up to your own party to protect the rights of Baja Arizona!

Randy Parraz, primary cheerleader for the Recall Russell Pearce campaign, updated the Progressive Caucus of the Arizona Democratic Party at their recent meeting in Tucson. The recall effort has exceeded the minimum number of signatures needed, but since some signatures are always rejected as invalid, they will use the next 40 or so days to collect as many signatures as possible.

If you would like to donate to the recall effort or volunteer to collect signatures in Mesa, check their website.

UPDATE on the Disappearing Video

Well, if you didn’t watch the attached video during the few short hours it was available on You Tube and the Citizen, you’re not going to watch it now.

Parraz contacted the amateur videographer who shot it and asked her to pull the video of his public speech at a public meeting. (The Arizona Democratic Party’s Statewide Committee Meeting and related caucus meetings are open to the press and any self-proclaimed Democrat. Several political bloggers and a reporter from the Arizona Republic were there.)

Frankly, I don’t understand this suppression of free speech. Wearing my TucsonCitizen.com press pass, I was sitting next to Alison while she openly filmed Parraz and other speakers. Parraz could see that she was taping his presentation. (I also would have been filming– if I hadn’t forgotten to charge my camera batteries. Doh.)

Parraz claimed the speech included sensitive campaign information and should be pulled for that reason, but I don’t remember hearing anything really new in the speech. Yes, we can bring this guy down. We’re working hard, but we need more signatures! You can help! I thought it was a great speech– fiery, not too long– which is why I asked Alison for the link.

What is highly ironic about the disappearance of this video-taped campaign speech shot openly at a public meeting is that the anti-Pearce bloggers practice guerilla journalism against Pearce, Tom Horne, and other people they don’t like. They shove video cameras in the faces of politicians and aggressivley shout questions to provoke a reaction.  Would these bloggers ever pull a video because the subject didn’t like it? I don’t think so.

So, there are lessons learned all around. Alison now knows her rights as a citizen journalist; she had every right to shoot that video of a public speech in a public forum and publish it online.  Randy now knows that every time he makes a public speech in a public meeting he could be quoted or filmed or both. And I know to keep my camera batteries charged!

One in six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, but– except for a few politicians like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca)– Congress doesn’t care. In fact, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives wants to increase unemployment and underemployment by laying off more federal employees and forcing others into furlough days. In fact, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) flippantly said if the budget cuts result in job losses “so be it!”

Back here in Arizona– the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature is following in their federal cronies’ footsteps and proposing draconian budget cuts– particularly in education and healthcare– which will result on more layoffs.

In a recent New York Times editorial, Paul Krugman writes that the US is “well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. According to Krugman, Americans want jobs… period… but the Republican-controlled state and federal governments are obsessed with cutting budgets and jobs– not creating them.

In addition, US businesses– who had record profits in 2010– are sitting on their cash and trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of scared employees who don’t want to be laid off. According to Ed Schultz, 50,000 factories closed or moved abroad since George Bush took office; 75 percent of these factories employed more than 500 people– a loss of more than 18 million jobs. Adding insult to injury, many US corporations added jobs in their overseas factories than in the US, and they are starting new factories abroad.

From The Forgotten Millions…

So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?

Part of the answer may be that while those who are unemployed tend to stay unemployed, those who still have jobs are feeling more secure than they did a couple of years ago. Layoffs and discharges spiked during the crisis of 2008-2009 but have fallen sharply since then, perhaps reducing the sense of urgency. Put it this way: At this point, the U.S. economy is suffering from low hiring, not high firing, so things don’t look so bad — as long as you’re willing to write off the unemployed.

Yet polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit. So it’s quite remarkable that inside the Beltway, it’s just the opposite.

What makes this even more remarkable is the fact that the economic arguments used to justify the D.C. deficit obsession have been repeatedly refuted by experience. [For the rest of this article, click here.]

When will this assault on American workers end?

New design for Arizona Tea Party license plate. (Image Credit: Pamela Powers)

Just when you thought that the Arizona Senate couldn’t find anything else to diddle around with and waste time on, they found three more pressing issues to address– before tackling the budget or passing legislation to create jobs and build the economy.

What’s so important that they had to further delay the business of Arizona?

1- Passing a resolution in support of union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

2- Paving the way for an new Arizona license plate honoring and financially supporting the Tea Party.

3- Making the Colt single-action Army revolver the official state firearm.

Of the items on this list, the one that bothers me the most is the Tea Party license plate– not because of what the Tea Party stands for but because the funds from the sale of this official state license plate won’t go to the state of Arizona, they go to bankroll the Tea Party in Arizona.

Why is the Arizona Senate using a state agency– the Arizona Department of Transportation– and the Arizona law requiring vehicle license plates to raise funds for a political party? If you want to have license plates that show one’s political affiliation and channel funds to all parties– or better yet to Clean Elections– that’s one thing, but to pass a law that financially benefits one political party is blatant cronyism.

Is it even legal to pass a law to benefit one political party? OK, that’s right, whether or not something is legal hasn’t stopped the Arizona Legislature in the past. One benefit to the new Tea Party plate is that the rest of us will know who’s packin’ heat when we pass them in traffic.

Here are more details from the Arizona Daily Star…

The budget is not balanced. The governor wants to eliminate health care for 250,000 people. Nearly one out of 10 Arizonans who want jobs can’t find one. And there are plans to slash funding for higher education.

But that didn’t keep the state Senate from taking the time Thursday to debate and approve a resolution supporting the Republican governor of Wisconsin in his fight with labor unions.
Senators also voted to create yet another special license plate. But unlike some others aimed at raising money for causes like spaying pets, service to veterans and organ donation, the proceeds from this license plate would benefit tea party groups around the state.

And lawmakers gave preliminary approval to declaring the Colt single-action Army revolver the official state firearm.

That last one proved too much for Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.

“Out of all the problems facing the state of Arizona, the citizens of Arizona should rest comfortably in bed tonight knowing we now have a state firearm,” he chided his colleagues.
He recited a list of issues facing the state, including record foreclosures, large numbers of Arizonans without health insurance and people looking for jobs.

“I’m sorry,” Gallardo said. “I would bet if we did a poll in the state of Arizona, the people of Arizona would come out and say this is not one of their priorities.” [Emphasis added.]