Patrick’s Rants

At least he is if you believe Ben Quayle, pasty faced son of forgetable Dan Quayle. But Ben is hard to believe. He’s running as a family values candidate who used to write some pretty seedy things on a web site about the dirty side of Scottdale Night life.

He then says,

“Drug cartels in Mexico, tax cartels in Washington”

Drug cartels are Obama’s fault? Easier to say coke snorting former President, George W. Bush is to blame for that.

How about Nixon? Reagan who eliminated the entire S&L industry with the swipe of a pen? Nope. It has to be Obama.

No matter, he said he didn’t write for thedirty.com. While technically true he’s a bona fide right winger. And what does that mean about Obama being the worst President ever? Well, first you have to believe that he never wrote sleazy material for dirtyscottsdale.com. Do you?

The Republican primary ballot for my district breaks down so bizarrely that I wouldn’t know who to vote for if I were to request that ballot* on August 24.

So let’s see what we have:
For Senator, we there is John “I sent 3000 troops to the border” McCain. Never mind that Federal law prohibits troops from acting in a policing capacity on US soil. McCain has flip flopped on the border fence and is running on security, not jobs.

JD Hayworth is running against him. JD is a tea bagging blow hard who was voted out of Congress and then ran infomercials selling “free government grants” that were investigated for fraud and the company had to settle with several attorneys general for misleading advertising. (more…)

The supposed “Ground Zero Mosque” is adding to the list of lies perpetuated by the Tea Baggers and right wing wackadoos. “Death Panels” is a notable tick mark on that same list.

Here’s where I weigh in. Do not allow any, any “house of worship” anywhere. They impinge on my right to be atheist. They offend me in their beliefs that there is some mysterious “man in the sky” who controls life or watches us like tropical fish in a bowl.

Or maybe the right wing whackadoos should step back and realize that our first amendment protects the Islamic religion as much as it protects the Mormons who killed innocent cross country travelers in the US, the Catholics, who baptized babies so they would go to heaven when their heads were bashed in moments later with axes by those same Catholics and the Jews, who killed Jesus himself.

The mosque is blocks away from ground zero. And the right wingers, as Sara Palin has said, cling to their guns and their religion. The First and Second Amendments allow them to do that. It also does not allow them to take that away from the Muslims. If they want to build a mosque and cling to their guns I say so be it. The First Amendment does not read, “unless you happen to be muslim, or your church is too close to something I want to call ‘sacred’.”

Right wing whackadoos are allowed to spew their lies and hatred under the First Amendment and back up their words with their Second Amendment rights. Muslims are too.

Jon Kyle. He voted to go to war without worrying about how it was going to be paid for. He voted for the Bush tax cuts without worrying about how they were going to be paid for. He’s been arguing that the Bush tax cuts should be extended, without worrying about how they will be paid for. But for people who have been out of work for over two years Jon Kyle wants the Democrats to come up with other spending cuts to “pay for” the unemployment extension. It’s time to throw out these greedy Republican bastards.

This is the worst economic environment since the Great Depression. Cutting off the few hundred dollars per week that people who are unemployed through no fault of their own is like kicking a wounded dog. History shows that you don’t try to balance the budget during a depression/recession. Give them back their measly unemployment checks, they spend that money right away on food, gas and rent. And as I’m reminded by some of the talking heads, unemployment insurance is paid while you work to help out when you get laid off. They are getting back some of the money they have paid in over the years.

Jon Kyle, let’s cut off spending on the war to pay for unemployment. Let’s remove the depletion credit that oil companies receive for every gallon of oil pumped out of the ground. That’s how you pay for it. Stop being an obstructionist. Lead, follow, or get out of the mufuggin way. And don’t forget the wounded dog is very likely to bite you when you try to kick it.

Buz Mills has dropped from the Republican primary. Apparently he doesn’t know how to talk about anything other than spending.

“Mills, in a prepared statement, said he entered the race hoping to offer voters an alternative to “career politicians” who believe in more spending and higher taxes.

“Under normal circumstances, strong fiscal conservatives do well in Republican primary contests,” Mills wrote.

Mills also was counting on his personal wealth to overcome his lack of name ID in campaigning against a sitting governor. At last report he had spent close to $3.2 million of his own cash, more than anyone else in a primary bid.

But he said the debate over illegal immigration has made this anything other than normal circumstances.

“SB1070 has regrettably taken the focus off of job creation and fixing the state budget,” Mills said in his statement.”

Well guess what Buz? There’s more to government than spending. You have to be able to deal with all kinds of things, from illegal immigration to traffic cameras. It’s more than a narrow-minded focus on the budget. Too bad he had to spend so much of his own money before he realized he was wrong. Or maybe not. Maybe this means we won’t have to hear from him for a while.

I can only scratch my head. The GOP is calling the President’s response to the worst environmental disaster since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, since the asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs (Jesus horses to you creationists) as too much. In fact, they are calling for less regulation! Really Rand Paul? You want the government out of everything… then get the hell out of government, grab your guns and hunker down at Ruby Ridge with your Cool Aid and your bible. We’ll be right in to get you… or not. Maybe your crazy self with starve to death up there where you can become bear food and fertilizer for a tree you would rather cut down for your back deck.

Here’s a reminder of what less regulation is all about. The Savings and Loan meltdown under Reagan. Enron’s raping and plundering and rolling blackouts, triggered by the greed of potential electricity trading profits, of California under George W Bush. The “off the books” pillaging of the American military and, consequently, every single hard working American by Halliburton overcharging for meals and “support” of the troops in Iraq. And now, the faulty parts and equipment of Dick Cheney’s “former” company (Halliburton again) have blown their collective gaskets spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This is the worst unnatural disaster ever. It will affect the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, even the entire oceanic coverage of the earth for perhaps hundreds of years. Drill baby drill. Let’s go. Let’s drill the pristine Alaskan tundra. Let’s drill the outer continental shelf. Let’s deregulate everything and stop picking on poor BP. Oil companies are just trying to supply what we want. So what if they make a few bucks, kill a few roughnecks and rape the entire planet of other, more precious resources?

Drill baby drill. Let’s fire up the drills. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

It occurred to me this evening – watching the second after school production in as many Fridays – that we really do need extracurricular activities. Of course the reasons may surprise you. I’m not a big fan of football. I’ll watch the annual final match up between teams (I understand I’m not supposed to use the term SuperBowl. Ooops) and the occasional high school game if it’s convenient – or closely related in time or space to something else I’m doing. But I’m not really a sports fan per se. Football is a brutish sport that serves to maim and cripple its most ardent players, many former players suffer from lifelong aches and pains, obesity, heart problems and even early onset dementia from head trauma. They also suffer from fast burnout, cash depletion, inadequate retirement and nearly no marketable skills (unless they become a coach or sports announcer of some kind – but those jobs are limited).

But even football is important. Football, like other activities, inspires parents to be involved. Drama productions and concert band performances and student art shows and chess competitions all inspire parents to be involved. And this, I believe, is the secret. Parents don’t show up to watch their kids conjugate verbs, write their proof to the Pythagorean theory or write essays on the meaning of the Bill of Rights. They show up to watch their kid think through the bishop/knight fork or queen a handful of pawns. They show up to watch the Sheriff of Nottingham yell without blinking, “Oswald! What’s my line?” They show up to hear their child riff some zydeco, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy or even the “cantina band”.

I believe kids whose parents show up strive to do better. Parents who show up certainly seem more interested than those that don’t. Anecdotely I have been told that students most likely to be in trouble are not involved in any extracurricular activities. Students not involved in extracurricular activities are likely to have uninvolved and disinterested parents, and the cycle continues.

Schools – and districts – willing to cut away all “extra” classes like physical education, art, drama and music will end up losing students interested in those classes to private and charter schools. The remaining students will be academically flat, physically flabby and decidedly “unrounded”. And the cycle repeats itself.

More reading: www.expectmorearizona.org

Ladies and gentlemen step right up! John McCain is running a series of new ads called, Avid Earmarker. Yes folks, before your eyes you will see tea party backed ex-sportscaster, the Joker himself, JD Hayworth called an avid earmarker. Don’t miss McCain’s other commercial touting how he earmarks over $9billion per year for Arizona. McCain is a true politician, speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

It’s time to get rid of both of these jokers, Hayworth and McCain. You can’t be for smaller government while at the same time trying to eliminate that reign on governmental powers, Posse Comitatus to put yet more (by law) ineffective National Guard Troops on the border.

Buz Mills is using his own money to pay for his campaign. Governor Brewer is using public funds – clean election funds to be exact. The law that covers the clean election funds allows for candidates to receive as much as their privately funded opponents. Buz’s commercial starts with the recently voter approved 1% state sales tax. The temporary 1% tax was overwhelmingly approved by Arizona voters as will go to fund schools, public safety and public health. Buz calls it the “Brewer tax” and then proceeds to say that Brewer is raiding public funds to run her campaign. Now, I’m no fan of Brewer, but let’s get this straight. Governor Brewer is using funds for her campaign that by law may only be used for elections. No the money didn’t come out the K-12 budget. It didn’t come from public safety. It comes from the clean elections budget. The money can only be spent on clean elections and no other money can go towards the clean elections fund.

“I’m no politician”, says Mills in his commercials but he sure lies like one.
Some more buzzed links
Arizona Star Net Clean Elections fund story
Buz likes the money the government pays him
Buz Mills makes a stupendous claim on statewide TV. Arizona schools have a 1:1 ratio of administrators to teachers. Total bunk as the interview shows. Buz seems to think that there is no need for bus drivers, janitors, cafeteria workers, etc. There should only be teachers in education. No support staff, no school resource officers, no coaches. Go (away) Buz go!

Conservative Buz Mills is running for Governor of Arizona. He’s running a commercial that shows the front of a political paper with a headline blasting the state of the State. Buz tells us,

“this is shameful. If I ran my business like this I’d be out of business. I’ll make the hard choices and cut spending.”

Here’s a news flash, this is not a business. I repeat, this is not a business. It’s a state. You cannot run a state like you run your business. In business the idea is to make a profit. Every time the state has any “profit” “conservatives” give it away. Does no one remember the alternative fuels tax credit? When times are good, conservatives want to cut taxes and spending. When times are bad, conservatives want to cut taxes and spending.

Cut spending? Today Arizona is voting on a 1% sales tax increase to fund firefighters, police and schools. We are already 49th in per student funding. Why? We have a legal, moral and even a religious obligation to care for our young, our old, and our infirmed. How can you do that when you keep sending any surplus into the pockets of your cronies? Run your business that way. Every time you have a profit in your business let your friends walk up the cash register and pull out some cash. Every time you have some profit built up into the bank, lower your prices so your profit is 0%. See how long you stay in business with that kind of attitude. As governor, try increasing your pay when the state runs in surplus (profit) like you can do in business.

If you run the state the way you are talking about you will irreparably damage this state for at least a generation maybe more. Why is that “old white dudes” (and ladies, Brewer does not get a pass here) want to cut spending on the next generation? That is truly shameful.