Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

Say it Ain't So, Joe!

Unless you are just returning from hiking Kilimanjaro, you will be well acquainted with the truly stunning story of the subpoena and subsequent arrest of New Times owners Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin. 

I can't add anything to the coverage, and frankly, I think the jury is still out on the ultimate fallout.  The question is whether Thomas and Arpaio shot themselves in the foot or the head. My initial thought is that it's a self inflicted head wound for Arpaio, but that Thomas might recover. 

Arpaio's poll numbers are high and the media has fed the beast by fawning over his green baloney, pink underwear antics.  But arresting newspaper editors is so, you know, 1980s Pinochet, and it's all fun and games until someone you know has a son die in Arpaio's restraining chair.  So I'm not much of a fan. 

Questions about Arpaio's mental stability have simmered in Republican circles for years, so the escalation of his feud with the New Times ending in the arrest of the owner isn't much of a surprise.  New Times is the only media outlet that has examined Arpaio's troubling recored.  The TV stations fall for his antics and the Republic has its own reasons for a hands off policy. Eventually, the local media will take a comprehensive retrospective look at Arpaio's human rights record and be ashamed at their collective passivity. 

But Arpaio is like a 40 year old pitcher who tears a rotator cuff.  Sure it might be career ending, but how much career did he realistically have left?

The real question is Thomas.

He's obviously very bright and well educated and compares favorably to Romley.  I thought Thomas was unfairly vilified in the Attorney General's race.  As County Attorney, Thomas has a unique opportunity to prove his critics wrong. 

However, Thomas' indictment of Russ Jones showed poor judgment; his current battle with the judiciary is being badly handled and now we have the New Times fiasco.

Two his credit, Thomas has credibly claimed that he didn't know the details of the New Times subpoena, fired the prosecutor and distanced himself from the investigation. 

The prosecutor, Dennis Wilenchick, features prominently in the judicial dust up as well.  So if Thomas is smart enough to avoid future entanglements with Wilenchick and back away from the judiciary confrontation, the legal and political community may start to regain confidence in his work as County Attorney. 

If not, well Republicans are likely to find a more stable candidate, and if they are unable to do so, then the Democrats may finally be able to pick up a key position in Maricopa County Government.

Post Script:

Mike Lacey and I don't really run in the same circles, but I was at one of my son's little league games several years ago and someone mentioned that one of the other dads worked for New Times. 

After four years in the House and two years as Senate staff, word that a New Times staffer might be in the bleachers near me put me into full-blown fight or flight mode.  I glanced at the other dads and didn't recognize any reporters, so I nervously scanned the last names on the jerseys in the dug out and finally saw "Lacey" and realized to my shock that I was sitting somewhere near Mike Lacey. 

Unfortunately, however, I didn't know what he looked like.  That's when the coach came up to the back stop yelled to the guy next to me. "Hey Mike, you need to get me in the New Times."  I looked over at Lacey, thought of the coach's request and mumbled to myself.  "Dude, you don't know who you are dealing with.  I've spent an entire career trying to stay out of New Times."

I eventually got up the courage to introduce myself and struck up a conversation.  It turns out that we have read a lot of the same books, have the same skeptical view of government and share a disdain for the Mainstream Media.  It made for an interesting season. 

The next year, our kids were on different teams.  Here's a picture of Lacey hitting one out of the park while Patterson catches.  That's all that really matters anyway. 

One Story: Many Lessons

Last August, Gregory Clark argued that Europeans evolved "middle class values" and that led to the industrial revolution.  His article "Farewell to Alms" generated quite a bit of controversy.

Indeed, if you believe that we are all products of evolution and that evolution can occur rapidly, then it's hard to argue that distinct human populations happened to evolve the same advantageous characteristics at the same rate.   

I disagreed with a fundamental premise of Clark's argument.  On August 11th I stated that.

I happen to believe that humans were created in the image of God.  Some folks believe that a few billion years ago proteins formed in the mud and through a process of natural selection, these chemicals became the the ancestor of every living thing on the planet.  Whatever.

While I'm pretty skeptical of that theory, I don't want to ridicule another person's faith.  However, we must acknowledge that the theory of evolution has implications.  After all, if evolution is such a powerful creative force, then who is to say that all the isolated pockets of humanity evolved at the same rate?  Could natural selection account for the disparities in industrial development?

Now Nobel Prize Winning Geneticist James Watson has advanced a similar theory. 

London's Science Museum canceled a Friday talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence.

Since I believe we were all created in God's image, I find Watson's assertion to be ridiculous.  But I'm enjoying the lessons that we can learn from the public reaction.

First, we have a classic example of an ad hominem response.  After all, Watson is credible, raises a point that other academics have raised, backs it up with test results and argues that it is a natural product of the Theory of Evolution.  But the universal response is that...Watson's a racist and his speech should be canceled. 

I thought we were talking science here.  Instead of just telling Watson to shut up, it would be really swell if someone explained why he was wrong. 

Watson is also being criticized for this statement.

The Independent catalogued a series of controversial statements from Watson, including one in which he reportedly suggested women should have the right to have abortions if tests could determine their children would be homosexual.

Maybe that's controversial in London, but it's an article of faith in the United States.  The organized left, backed by the media and eventually by our Supreme Court has determined that women can get an abortion for any reason.   

If a woman doesn't want a daughter, Down Syndrome child, or homosexual son, she has the right to abort it and start over...just like the Constitution says.

Watson is only controversial because he is talking about implications of two of the Left's major tenets of faith:  We are all products of evolution and abortion should be available on demand.

Rather than address those implications by admitting that there may be problems with the theory of evolution and with abortion on demand, the left has simply told Watson to shut up.

Not that they are intolerant or anything. 

I Guess I get to retire after all.

Dear Friend,

I have been waiting for you since to come down here and pick your Bank Draft of $800,000.00 but did not heard from you since that time ,then I went and deposited the Draft with Global Couriers Service Company here in Republic of Benin,because I travelled to Iraq for health reasons and i will not come back till next month end.

You have to contact the Global Courier Service Company to know when they will deliver your package.I have paid for the delivering charges and insurance fee. 

The only money you have to send to them is there security keeping fee which is $100.00 Us Dollars to received your package.Don't be deceived by any body This is there Contact Address Contact Dr. Uhebagui Osemudia James Director Global Couriers Service Republic of Benin E-mail;{globalworldexpress_co.se_company@yahoo.com) Try to contact them as soon aspossible to avoid increasing the security keeping fee.I gave them your delivering address but you have to reconfirm it to them again to avoid any mistake in the delivering.

Let me know as soon as you receive your Draft .

Thanks

Barrister Mark Davidson.

Spot the Bias

How's this for a biased paragraph.  Arpaio's law enforcement effort is an "attack."

Arpaio keeps heat on migrants
Sheriff lauds success of crackdown; critics fear profiling, intimidation
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 17, 2007 12:00 AM

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has ratcheted up his attack on illegal immigrants in recent weeks, using federally trained deputies to arrest dozens of undocumented day laborers and corn vendors.

It looks like the flying Imams have found representation.

Schweikert Resigns to Run

Maricopa County Treasurer David Schweikert has announced that he is resigning in order to run for Congress in CD 5.  I'll have a full story later.

Here's the full letter.

No Brainer Indeed

Here's what passes for logic among the spending lobby and their MSM enablers. 

Society has a problem.  Therefore a government program must be established to address that problem.

The problem worsens.  Therefore the government program must be expanded. 

This is a classic logical fallacy of the Non Sequitur.

Check out this "quick hit" from the Republic's Linda Valdez.  She manages to work three logical fallacies into a mere 74 words.  See if you can spot them.

Congress is considering what to do about the president's veto of a health program for poor children. The New England Journal of Medicine is carrying news that our children receive appropriate medical care only 46 percent of the time. C'mon, Congress, this is a no-brainer. The SCHIP program is necessary. Kids need more, not less access, to health care. Override a president who earned his unpopularity the old-fashioned way: one point at a time.

I gave you the answer to the first one.  Kids don't get adequate health care, therefore the current government program must be expanded.  That's the non sequitur.

The second fallacy an ad hominem attack.  C'mon, Congress, this is a no-brainer. The speaker implies that those who don't believe her original fallacy are either ignorant or don't care for children. 

The final fallacy is the Appeal to Authority "The New England Journal of Medicine..."  Valdez implies that the NEJM either calls for, or at least bolsters her conclusion.  However, her fallacious appeal to authority is compounded because it's a false appeal.  This trick is especially common in the Mainstream Media.  Since they can't include links to their sources, they can claim that the source supports their position and assume that you are not going to do further research. 

The NEJM did indeed say that kids only get the appropriate medical care 46% of the time.  But the solution isn't the expansion of SCHIP. 

Here's what the Journal suggested.

These approaches include a systematic focus on patients with chronic conditions, the effective application of health information technology, an emphasis on patient-centered and family-centered care, organizational transparency and improved capability, and the more appropriate alignment of incentives coupled with the use of valid quality measures. Publicly financed insurers and health plans for children have given much less attention to quality than has Medicare — in large part because Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are joint federal–state programs. Indeed, states have been highly reluctant to consider using common health care standards in the Medicaid and SCHIP programs. SCHIP is currently up for renewal; fortunately, some of the recent bills call for enhanced efforts toward quality of care in SCHIP and companion Medicaid programs.These proposals include the development of common measures; support for children's health care information technology; and execution of demonstration projects addressing obesity and the medical home. 

This concerted effort is necessary but not sufficient to address the broader context and role of children's health care and to address the most pressing challenges of diagnosis and treatment — such as for obesity, mental health, and disparities in access to care. Even more innovation is needed in new models of care and in the substantive redesign of the organization, human resources, finance, and delivery of health services underlying the children's health care system. Although these strategies extend far beyond the data in the article by Mangione-Smith et al., the data themselves may provide a clarion call for action

There you have it.  Faulty reasoning and outright manipulation from a paid professional in a newspaper that claims to be credible.  And all of it in a mere 74 words...no wonder J school takes four years. 

Free Health Care: Michael Moore Would Be Proud.

LONDON (AFP) - Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.

Read the whole thing.

Let's Play "Mock the Conservative."

Make no mistake, a "caption contest" is an invitation to mock the person in a photograph.  The Republic, in a stunning display of bad taste and not-so-subtle racism, has provided readers with an opportunity to mock Clarence Thomas.  Thomas haters, quick to spot an opportunity, drafted captions that joke about pornography, groping, affirmative action and Thomas' intellect. 

The media views black conservatives as fair game for the classic stereotypes that used to be applied to blacks generally.  It would be inconceivable for the Republic to run a caption contest inviting readers to lampoon Justice Stephen Breyer or Thurgood Marshall.  Frankly, the Republic wouldn't treat Britney Spears with this much disrespect. 

The Republic needs to issue a formal apology.  This overt bias--indeed racism--is beneath the basic standards of professionalism.

   

It's All Spin.

The State Department of Education just released a report on the status of Arizona schools.  Check out the headlines. 

Here's the Republic story. 

More Ariz. schools failing
Anne Ryman and Matt Dempsey
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 15, 2007 12:00 AM

How does your school rate?
More Arizona schools are failing or underperforming as they try to get their students to make academic progress, a state assessment shows.

Here's the Tribune's version.

More Arizona public schools are 'excelling'
Andrea Falkenhagen, Amanda Keim, Tribune
More of Arizona’s public schools are excelling, according to the state Department of Education.