Right Winger Arizonans Going Down!

Happy Saturday!

Not much time to write today.  But boy oh boy am I ever happy! 

Russell Pearce recall has been successful!  Now we will have to see if he will step aside or run in the recall election. It is going to be hard for him to get money for his campaign committee as the Arizona Solicitor General, David Cole, has notified Pearce that recall committees cannot accept corporate or union contributions.  Woot!  And the times... they are a changin'.

The third wonderful strike against Arizona reactionary right stupidity was meted out when

Maricopa County, in a settlement reached  Thursday, has to fork over $200,000.00 buckeroos to "Julian and Julio Mora, the father and son zip-tied and held for three hours during a 2009 MCSO raid of the Phoenix landscaping firm Handyman Maintenance Inc., where the elder Mora worked.  Joe's boys-in-beige were after illegal immigrants that day, but Julian Mora is a legal permanent resident. His son Julio is an American citizen." according to Stephen Lemons blog, Feathered Bastard, in the Phoenix New Times.  

Wonder what Stephanie Miller, in her Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour, will do with all this juicy info tonight at Centennial Hall on the University of Arizona Campus.  I will let you know. 

Flores Family Murders, The January Murders, The Extreme Right, and How They Relate

Christina Taylor Green

While I am glad that justice seems to be the result of the all the trials of all those charged and now found guilty of the murder of Raul "Junior" Flores and his little 9 year old daughter, Brisenia Flores, in May of 2009, I'm still tremendously saddened by the deaths and the overall situation in Arizona that led to the deaths of two little girls in Arizona.   One little girl died in May of 2009 in a vile multiple murder and another died in January of 2009 when a mentally ill man committed mass murder and attempted murder in his attempt to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords. 


The article in today's Tucson paper, Arivaca man convicted in two slayings: Gaxiola behind home invasion, '09 murder of father, daughter, provides a good overview of the basics of the horrific multiple murders and attempted murder.  I am not sure that people who have not lived near the U.S. - Mexico border can really appreciate the convoluted, bizarre, and totally senseless "issues" that combine to create  life and death realities every day in the county in which I have lived for 22 years.  

I cannot but help draw comparisons between the battle that is being waged on the America people today largely by the Republican Conservative Corporatist consortium and the ideological battle that took place before WWII.  The isolationist political demands of the conservatives, except for support of Israel, while calling for ever lessening restrictions on mega-corporations and that are  global multi-national entities disguised as American Companies that enjoy constitutional person-hood status smacks of the nearly successful Republican call for America to support the spread of Fascism and Nazism by major "respected" Americans such as Prescott Bush, Charles Lindburgh, and Henry Ford.

If you will review your history you will find that the repeal of the Neutrality Act that allowed the U.S. to support the Allies was passed bit by bit, slowly, slowly, slowly over several years, and even when our ships were sunk there was still a significant call for isolationism (see the Senate Vote on Neutrality Act article on this page) that would allow persons such as Prescott Bush to continue trading with Germany, an enemy that was attacking our properties.) The divisions in our government today hearken back to the divisions then, the massive nature of wars that are raging, and the depressed economic climate all chill me to the bone due to the similarity with which the Right (Reich?) is parroting the mass marketing of Fascism, isolation, and hatred of "the other" to the American public that was done in the 20s, 30s, and very early 40s by good ol' boy Republicans. 

I'm digressing majorly here, but I'm so angry I just I cannot concentrate.

Two murders of little children in Pima County involve to varying degrees, to the best of my knowledge both do not each directly involve all of other the following issues, but the drug war, immigration, education, and mental health all factor into the murders.

I'm so heart sick right now with wondering how many other little children are being harmed at this moment due to hate and fear that feed:

•  immigration and border issues, how many little children are having their lives exposed to the danger and destabilization of living in a drug corridor that would be far less dangerous if marijuana was rescheduled away from Schedule I, or prohibition was lifted, 
• economic consideration such as if work was available above minimum wage (if you are lucky) in so-called Right to Work States such as Arizona, 
• erosion of social and medical rights such as if mental health services being unavailable at no or low cost to all those that needed it, 
• and increasing ignorance that would diminish if education was funded, valued, and encouraged rather than being undermined by corporations that don't support education through taxes in the areas where they employ parents as well as by the fundamentalist right that hopes to eradicate public schools.  

Now before anyone gets his or her panties or briefs in a knot my last point about the eradication of public schools is based upon this quote: "One day, I hope in the next ten years, I trust that we will have more Christian day schools than there are public schools. I hope I will live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools.The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" and is from
America Can Be Saved!  1979.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers. Pages: 52-53).

Oh, and he sentencing for the murders has not yet been decided.  That is all I can say so far about Albert Robert Gaxiola who has been found guilty of two murders and one attempted murder,  who was related to the mother who was shot, who recruited Forde her Nazi comrade.  The whole thing is so disgusting, senseless, and evil that I probably won't write much more about it here or on BlogHer.com where in my occasional postings I have tried to increase awareness about what goes on in Tucson when it comes to the right wing and violence in our wonderful Old Pueblo.

Behaviors Are Illegal, NOT People!

Fercryingoutloud folks,  please, please, please stop using the word illegal to describe people.  People engage in illegal activities.   Behaviors are what  are declared legal or illegal, not individual people.  What a person does can be ruled to be illegal.   But to characterize a person in his or her entirety as "illegal" is not only demeaning and disrespectful to all humanity; it shows an inability to speak coherently.   A person is never declared illegal.  One's personhood is not illegal.  A person cannot be banned from the human species because he or she doesn't pass some sort of personhood test.


People may be working without the proper paperwork but they are not illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, and so on.


Maybe this distinction will be lost upon most Arizonans, we do have the worst educational system in the country.    Maybe only the second worst.   In any case, I wish we would stop thinking we have to be 48th in everything we do just because we were the 48th State. 

I love Arizona, but...

 I love Arizona, but we are in the throes of violent oppression.   My CODEPINK friends - who engaged in actions all over the U.S. and in war torn countries couldn't believe the overt and thuggish collusion between recruiters and police here.   Basically they couldn't believe what routinely takes place here in Arizona, and in Tucson, a supposed liberal enclave in the Wild West.  

But this isn't the old west.   This is the new Germany.   Goldwater, McCain, Brewer....  

Clarence Manion was the conductor behind the orchestration of the slow, methodical "conservative movement"  that began in the 50s and which we have seen coming to the forefront of the Republican Party in the last decade. The Manion Forum was the weekly sermon that fed the faithful for over two decades.  Manion encouraged Goldwater to write The Conscience of a Conservative.  Manion and Goldwater would both be horrified at the religious zealotry and the appeal to ignorance that has swept through the Republican Party in the last few years.  

Arizona is an example of what happens to a state when States Rights and Corporate Greed meets the Mafia.  You may think I'm joking, using hyperbole, but I'm not.   I've touched on this trend a few times in past entries here, but I think lots of readers thought I was a bit of a conspiracy theorist.  I'm not.  I'm a well trained researcher and a well trained observer of human behavior.   I understand how systems work.  We must all take one step to the left and shift our gaze to the dawn.   With those simple changes, will will shift society's  trajectory, that is the best hope we have for altering the fascistic trends and neutering the thugs and bullies who are donning brown shirts for their leaders, the "conservative" trend setters. 

Arizona is a testing ground for Right Wing tactics.   Gerrymandering has given us districts that consolidate Phoenix voting power and divide and weaken Tucson's vote.  Voter fraud, particularly under Jan Brewer ( was everywhere in Arizona:

• Sproul
• Voter Suppression
• Election Fraud
• Judge rules against following the Law

The examples could go on for pages.    What I'm saying here is that under the banner of States Rights Arizona has allowed itself to be taken over by a small group of thugs.  Federal Laws are disdained and ignored; ;criminality has come to characterize elections.  Selective law enforcement and abuse of power are routine and exemplified by Joe Arpaio. 

The powers that be are dismantling what little is left of the education system in Arizona. In passing conversation in the last week with a reliable source passed on a quote from a current ABOR (Arizona Board of Regents) member, "What do we need all these educated people for?" 

You should also remember that Las Vegas was planned here in Tucson by the Chicago Mafia at the old El Conquistador Hotel -- not so very far from where DeConcini offices are located, you remember him, don't you... one of the Keating 5 kerfuffle, along with John McCain that had something to do with Lincoln Savings and Loan, bribes, federal investigations and near seizures, bribes and campaign contributions.  (Cindy McCain was a Keating business partner.)

Basically there is a ruling elite made up of Ranchers, Land Developers, and a few powerful corporations that want Arizona to become a feudal state where the serfs are kept in their place and hereditary rule by the wealthy reigns.     

It is about time some Federal investigations take place at the heart of our state's corrupt political and governmental system.  States Rights be damned, in a country where people have to move all over the place for employment, education and careers, we need a strong federal government to protect us from yehoos and carpet-baggers.  

Oh, one more thing... be careful in Arizona when you speak out about any of this;  have your papers in order and wear a Kevlar vest.  Oh, and don't mention MLK Day and Super Bowl XXVII either.... or you might be deported.