Arizona's Own Espresso Pundit

Golly, What A Shock.

Pima County built a stadium for economic development and shockingly, it didn't work out.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks walk off the Tucson Electric Park baseball field for the final time this afternoon, Pima County taxpayers will be stuck with a $22.7 million bill to pay off the vacant stadium.

Without revenue from the spring training baseball games, the money to pay off the construction debt - about $1.5 million a year - must come from the county's general fund, which is also used to operate the Sheriff's Department and programs for parks and recreation, health care and public services.

For years, I've been pointing out that these economic development schemes don't work.  Here's a post that is stadium specific.

 

Such Melodrama

Before Bud Lite launched the "Real Men of Genius" campaign, the company produced a handful of "Real American Heroes"  commercials in which some ordinary guy tells a story about, say, going to a bar and it was closed, so he went to another one and it was open, then he went in and bought a beer.  

What makes the commercials fun is that Charlton Heston provides melodramatic narration.  So when the "hero" deadpans that the bar was closed and he decided to go to another bar, Heston says "you went to the other bar" using the same tone as he would say "you jumped on the lion and strangled it with your bare hands..."  Here's a list of the Commercials.  Scroll down about 15 items until you see the three commercials with Heston.

Listen to the commercial and then read this 3,000 word melodrama about a woman who wasn't allowed in the Mormon Temple for her son's wedding, because...she's not Mormon.  Read the article out loud and at the end of each sentence picture Charlton Heston doing the echo.  Seriously, you will bust a gut.

The tone of the article is so choppy and melodramatic that it's almost a parody. 

She raised her son to be sensitive, to be Catholic, to be her friend. When he was 18, he joined the Mormon Church.

She fought it. He fought back. They worked to stay close anyway. There were years of long talks on the phone: sometimes awkward, sometimes just like before.

He went on a church mission. He went to college. She went on working, coordinating weddings.

Last fall, another blow: He was in love, getting married - in the Mormon temple - and she couldn't come.

Please Please Please read this Article....

I obtained a copy of this rather extraordinary letter from the Publisher of the Arizona Republic.  Click here for the original.  There are a couple reasons why I call the letter "extraordinary," the first of which is that it appears to have been written by a high school intern. 

The goal of the letter is also extraordinary.  It seems like every six months or so the Arizona Republic comes up with a new series of ideas for making Arizona better.  Then the readership gets treated to months of pummeling, followed by complaints that the legislature is dominated by cave dwellers.  But there's one thing that policy makers and the Republic brass used to agree on...everyone who mattered had at least read the stories.  They may not have implemented the ideas, but the ideas were in general circulation. 

This letter is part of a direct mail campaign to get reprints of the stories into the hands of opinion leaders.  Twenty years ago when newspapers were the only game in town, and the Republic had a circulation of nearly 500,000 in a metro area with a population of under 2 million, the Brass could be sure that the articles would be well read by opinion makers.  Now that the circulation is around 400,000 and the population is closer to 4 million--combined with the fact that there are so many other sources of information--the Brass has to MAIL OUT reprints of the articles to ensure that they are read.

When I was in the legislature, a colleague of mine from west Phoenix was getting pounded by the Arizona Daily Star.  I asked him if it bothered him and he said simply "my constituents don't' read the Star."   Now someone from a west side district can respond "my constituents don't read the Republic."  Sure, some of them do, with the drop on subscription density, increase in other sources and increasing distrust of journalists, the statement about west Phoenix constituent's reading habits would be accurate.

Finally, the letter is extraordinary because Zidich and Lovely are admitting that the news division and the editorial page are working in concert.  To readers, of course, it's obvious that the news and editorial pages work in concert.  That's why the Republic's Jihad against the tuition tax credit included a dozen or so front page articles augmented by a dozen or so editorials.  For some reason the rank and file reporters or editorial writers seem to believe the quaint fiction that they are acting independently and that they are separate divisions.  While the writers in each division may view the divisions as independent, Lovely and Zidich--as well as the readers--view the divisions as separate tools working on a unified theme.  Now, when the Brass want to send out reprints in an effort to advance their agenda by mail, they naturally include both the news and editorial stories. 

Again, readers have long understood that the news and editorial divisions are combined to advance the newspaper's agenda.  It's the writers of those divisions who don't get it.  They still send me email claiming that they are separate--and from their point of view they are.  It's the rest of the world that understands how management use the divisions together. 

So will anyone read the direct mail packet?  Not anyone who matters.  In the past, the only reason that policy makers read the Republic was to reinforce their opinions, or see what their constituents were reading.  Now that the constituents are no longer reading the paper, the only policy makers who read it are the center left members of the Morrison institute and Democratic Legislative leadership who want to reinforce their views.  The Republic has gone from an opinion leader to a medium for confirmation bias and group think among the intelligentsia. 

But it's not all bad news, the pages and pages and pages of Wrestlemania coverage have been excellent. 

Apostles' Creed in the Church of Secular Humanism

One of the key statements of faith in the liberal Catechism is that "All day Kindergarten" is good for kids.  The evidence of course is that All Day K is at best useless and probably harmful to kids.  Since the efficacy of all day K is a statement of faith, liberals don't even try to argue the underlying issue.  Here's a great example from Sunday's Star.

Turning all-day kindergarten back into a fee-for-service choice will increase the economic and academic divide between students whose families can afford to pay and those who cannot. It's an imbalance that Arizona began to correct several years ago when every district offered no-cost all-day kindergarten. Now it will only get worse.

Star Editorial writers follow up this statement of faith by calling out the legislative reprobates--the elected non-elect--who reject the teachings of the Church.

Included in that number are Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista; Rep. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson; Rep. David Gowan; R-Tucson, Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson; and Sen. Jonathan Paton (R-Tucson. Antenori is now in the state Senate filling the seat vacated by Paton, who has resigned to run for Congress.

Unfortunately this type of faith-based name calling is what journalism has become.   But not for long, liberal religions and newspapers are dying throughout the world--and a newspaper that spouts liberal dogma will see its influence fade, its readership shrink and its viability diminish.

That's not targeting...THIS is Targeting (Comments Closed)

(Note:  I have a personal rule that I close the comments section after the fourth or fifth mention of Hitler.)

Democrats are all in a huff because Sarah Palin used crosshairs to show targeted districts. 

Democratic officials and liberal Web sites are upset that Palin used an image of crosshairs in a Facebook post this week listing 20 vulnerable Democrats who voted for the legislation. She plans to target them this election year with money from her political action committee.

Three of the 20 districts are in Arizona; all three have were represented by Republicans a few years ago and all three have strong Republican challengers.  In fact, Republicans see so much opportunity in those three districts that the Republicans challengers all face tough primary elections.  I predict that at least two and probably all three districts will go Republican in November. 

But I digress.  Democrats claim that the crosshairs on a map are a call to violence.  Really?  I don't seem to recall the lefty bloggers or the Democratic party calling out Harry Mitchell when he put crosshairs on J.D. Hayworth's head and broadcast the image as part of a TV commercial.

Ironically, the Republic called J.D. a "bully" in that race.  Some how they forgot about Harry Mitchell personally trashing Gary Richardson's political signs. (police found them in the dumpster behind Harry's house.)  Naturally, the Republic was also silent about the image on the right.

Political intimidation and violence has been a key tool of the radical left since the days when Obama's mentor Saul Alinsky wrote the field manual on the topic.  How may times has Ann Coulter had to cancel speeches because police couldn't guarantee her security?

So give me a break with the faux outrage.  While it's nice to see the left finally codemn political violence.  They are a little late to the party. 

Profiles in Courage

Now that the cases against Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox have collapsed, events are starting to unfold the way that I predicted in January.  With regard to the victims, I wrote:

Naturally they will accuse him (Thomas) of ethical violations and go after him at the Bar and then those who have been targeted will sue for abuse of prosecutorial process.

Well, here's the story of the bar investigation and here's the story of Stapley suing for malicious prosecution--wow, pretty soon I'm going to make up for my prediction that Avatar would bomb.

When I wrote the post last January, a friend of mine sent me an email asking me to "call after the deputies leave..."  His comment was only half in jest.  The abuse of power and use of intimidation was so pervasive during Arpaio and Thomas' peak that no one would have been surprised if deputies had shown up at my house to "ask me a few questions."

Frankly, I waited until the worst of the abuses were over before choosing to speak out; not exactly my finest hour.  That's why I have so much respect for the people who jumped into the fray early.  I received a letter from the Don Stapley defense fund yesterday and it reminded me that there were people who spoke truth to power long before I did. 

J. Ernest Baird, Eddie Basha, Betsey Bayless, Susan Bitter Smith, Merwin D. Grant, David A. Johnson and Timothy R. Olson signed up as trustees of the Don Stapley Legal Defense fund long before it appeared safe to do so. 

I've known many of them for years.  Sheriff's Deputies showed up at her house within 24 hours of her signing on the Stapley Defense fund.  She wasn't home at the time, so they showed up at her office the next day.  Nice.

Betsey and I currently work together at MIHS.  (The Arpaio/Thomas minions like to claim that I "work for" Betsey and that I'm somehow beholden to the County Supervisors.  They base the claim on the fact that I serve on the MIHS Governing Board.  But the MIHS Board is independently elected so it has no connection to the County Board of Supervisors, and technically Betsey works for the Board, so I have no conflict when I mention Betsey or Don Stapley.  I'm sure that the minions can explain their comments and concerns when they are deposed)

Susan Bitter Smith and I have been friends for over 20 years.  She Represented Scottsdale on the Council while I represented parts of the city when I was in the Legislature.  Her willingness to take a stand in defense of Don Stapley is all the more impressive since Susan is currently an elected official; she serves as the President of the Central Arizona Project Board.  Elected officials have mountains of disclosure statements to file and frankly, it's almost impossible to make sure it's all perfect.  The Stapley and Wilcox prosecutions---together with the outrageous prosecution of Russ Jones before them--were all paperwork violations.  An elected official who stands up to Thomas and Arpaio knows that her paperwork is being inspected to make sure everything is properly punctuated.

The others I know less well.  Ernie Baird and I served in the House together and he's a top-notch guy.  Every one knows Eddie Basha and while I've disagreed with him on numerous occasions, I'll give him credit this time. Grant, Johnson and Olson I don't know at all.  But they are part of a six person team that had the guts to speak up at a time when speaking up had a potentially high price tag. 

"Speaking truth to power" is an overused phrase that usually only serves to show that the author has no understanding of history.  The phrase meant something when the speaker could be broken on the wheel or pulled apart by teams of horses, now "speaking truth to power" usually simply refers to someone being rude to elected officials with whom they disagree.  However, there are times when the phrase has enough of its original meaning to matter.  This is one of those times.  So to those who spoke truth to power--and did so before I was willing to--I salute you.

It's not illegal if it's, you know, for a "Good Cause"

Political Junkies know that the state is holding an election on May 18th to ask voters to approve an 18% increase in the sales tax rate.  Naturally, many Arizonans don't have a clue that there's an election coming, so each side will spend a great deal of effort to ensure that its voters show up at the polls. 

The biggest direct beneficiaries of the tax increase would obviously be the people who receive the services that the tax increase would fund.  Supporters want to get those groups to the polls, but it's expensive to identify and contact them.  Of course there's an easy way to reach this constituency...you can use the government infrastructure that is designed to serve them as a tool to inform them.

Of course it's illegal to use government resources in an effort to influence the election, but that doesn't really slow people down.  That's why my kids came home from school with a flyer telling me about the election and informing me of all the bad things that would happen to the school if the tax were to be rejected. 

They even had special instructions to hand the flyer directly to me so it didn't get lost in the bottom of the backpack with the math homework, permission slips and gummy bears. 

School officials feel justified using government resources to influence an election because it's such a "good cause."  They also claim that they are not actually telling people how to vote and that the flyers are balanced. 

I would respond that the flyers are not balanced--after all, the flyer talks about all the additional cuts that would have to occur if the tax is rejected.

But even if the flyers were balanced it wouldn't matter.  That's because they are Get-Out-The-Vote pieces.  The goal is not to convince parents that they should support the tax.  The goal is to take a group that stands to benefit from the passage of the tax and make sure that they know about the election. 

Of course, no one's going to do anything about the illegal use of state funds...after all, it's for a good cause.  Of course, if some clerk at DMV uses a state computer to send his cousin a note disparaging the tax, he will be lucky to keep his job...after all, that would be illegal. 

Laboratories of Bankruptcy

The Arizona legislature's response to its budget crisis is getting some national attention.  It turns out that much of the government takeover of health care is paid for by the states.  Some of the costs are simply shifted to the states and some of the programs provide such a generous federal match that the states would be crazy to turn them down.

But what if the States can't afford the program no matter how generous it is?  Welcome to Arizona.  Welcome to the future.  The national media is starting to notice that Arizona has eliminated Kids Care even though it has a lucrative federal matching provision.  Here's the link to the underlying NYT article.

You May Believe it, but That Doesn't Mean it's True

Friday's Republic had a front page story  on All Day Kindergarten that's a great example of a Conventional Wisdom piece.  The fundamental underlying premise is wrong, but the story fits so well into what everyone "knows" is right that no one questions it.

The narrative with All Day Kindergarten is that it's a good program that Governor Napolitano forced Republicans to accept and now that she's gone and the state is broke, the legislature is getting rid of it.  Some will argue that it's a matter of priorities, some will argue that Republicans are just hard hearted and don't like the program because it's an expansion of government.  However, everyone knows that it's a good program. 

Here's an interesting sentence that fits so well into the narrative that the reporter doesn't even bother citing a source.

Research shows children participating in full-day kindergarten are better prepared to learn to read and write, in particular students from low-income families and those who are still learning English.

Really?  Actually, all day kindergarten has been studied extensively and has been shown to have no positive effects and shows signs of having negative effects.  That's right.  All day Kindergarten is at best useless and is probably actually bad for kids.  But at least it's expensive.

Here's a RAND Report that analyzes the most comprehensive study to date.  Here's the key sentence from the findings.

Our analyses reinforce the findings of earlier studies that suggest that full-day kindergarten programs may not enhance achievement in the long term. Furthermore, our study raises the possibility that full-day kindergarten programs may actually be detrimental to mathematics performance and nonacademic readiness skills.

I know it's hard to read something that conflicts with your world view.  So take a deep breath and remember a couple more important facts...

The air and water are clean
Arizona Schools are excellent
The rich pay nearly all the taxes and nearly half the population pays no income taxes.
Health care is excellent and pretty much universal
Poverty in the united states has been largely eliminated.
DDT Saves lives and is otherwise harmless
Exercise doesn’t help you lose weight
The Earth isn't getting warmer

And while we are at it, don't forget that Arizona's employer sanctions law was the brainchld of the Democratic Caucus and Napolitano and the Democrats forced Republicans to adopt it.

Don't it make My Blue Dog Pink.

Jonathan Paton has unearthed this picture of Gabby Giffords posing with the folks at a Code Pink Demonstration.  Golly, it's becoming harder and harder for her to defend that "Conservative Democrat" label. 

It's also clear that the team of Paton and Scarpinato is crushing Team Giffords on the media front.  Frankly, that's pretty surprising--after all, Giffords is the incumbent, so she has more access to conventional media; she has a full staff paid for by taxpayer funds and has a host of formers reporters working on her behalf.  It would be easy to assume that this is just a tough year for Democratic incumbents, but it's not like Mitchell and Kirkpatrick are reeling like this.  Gabby looks like she's walked into a tail rotor.