Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

Admission Against Interest

The liberal site FDL supports the Public Option on health care reform but the authors are unhappy  with the way the vote has been managed.  The site lists 20 Democrats who are in danger of losing their seats over the vote.  Two of those 20 members--Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick--are from Arizona. 

I would add a third Democrat to that endangered list, but we won't really know until later this week.

You are the Media

Here's a great example of new media.  This video was free to produce and distribute and it probably took less than an evening to make.  Powerline linked to it and now it's been viewed a few hundred thousand times.  Think about how much this empowers individual voters.

Notice how militant the message is.  The video is painfully slow in the beginning, but it builds toward revolution.  Frankly, I don't think America has been this close to revolution since 1968.  The video does a great job capturing the militant spirit. 

Janet's no good very bad week.

It's only been a week since I predicted that Janet Napolitano wouldn't last 6 months longer at DHS, and it's already time for an update. 

Since her now infamous "The System Worked" gaffe, Janet's agency has shot itself in the foot twice.  First TSA issued subpoenas against bloggers who posted one of its memos...and then had to immediatly back down.  

Then we saw the TSA's performance at Newark International Airport that made Katrina look efficient.

It is a massive security breach that New Jersey's two senators are calling a "major negligence" and a "management failure."

But, don't take if just from me.  The Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz has an excellent summary.

Ms. Napolitano would go on in other ways to prove the potency of man-made disasters—of which she was clearly proving one. In April, she issued a report seeming to target military veterans as potentially dangerous right-wing extremists. She soon apologized. In the same month she managed to suggest that the 9/11 terrorists had entered the U.S. through Canada, which appalled Canadian leaders. Apologies and clarifications followed.

Mr. Obama can't be happy with his Homeland Security chief. It's fair to say no president deserves an appointee so extravagantly unequipped for her job.

Visualize Whirled Peas

Whenever I shop at Sprouts, I see a bunch of the lame "COEXIST" bumper stickers.   Here's an interesting column  that points out why it's so lame.

Under the Radar

One of the most bizarre gimmicks that Governor Napolitano used to balance the state budget was to put 100 photo radar cameras on state freeways and then claim that they would bring in $90 million a year.  This claim was suspect from the beginning and is now proving to have been wildly exaggerated.

In addition to being a revenue bust, the program makes me uncomfortable on civil libertarian grounds because the cameras not only take pictures, but they also constantly roll video.  I also find it outrageous that state DPS arrests some of the suspected violators without a warrant.  Since the violation is a misdemeanor and doesn't take place in the presence of an officer, DPS is Constitutionally required to get a warrant before arresting a suspect--a requirement that DPS routinely ignores. 

Of course, Janet Napolitano wasn't a civil libertarian while she was in AZ and she has shown a disdain for individual rights while at DHS as well.

Now the national media is reporting that the program is in trouble. 

PHOENIX (AP) — More than a year after Arizona became the first state in the country to deploy dozens of speed cameras on highways statewide, threats to the groundbreaking program abound.

Profits are far below expectations, a citizen effort to ban the cameras is gaining steam, the governor has said she does not like the program, and more and more drivers are ignoring the tickets they get in the mail after hearing from fellow speeders that there are often no consequences to doing so.

 

The "citizen effort" hasn't drawn much media attention, but the Camera Fraud guys are well on their way to betting the signatures they need to a proposal to ban the cameras on the ballot.  It's extraordinary when a group can get the required signatures with an all-volunteer effort.

 

This year's electorate is likely to have Republican bent, but much of the passion seems to actually be anti establishment sentiment.  The anti Camera initiative will certainly capitalize on that sentiment and will probably add to it.  When I do my turnout estimates for 2010, I'm already factoring in a bump of so called NASCAR voters who will show up to the polls just to vote against the cameras.  They are also likely to vote for Republicans...of course, they are just as likely to vote against all the incumbents.

 

Frankly, legislators of both parties would do well to repeal the cameras now instead of waiting for the people to rise up and do it for them.