Politics

A Len Munsil-critical website has appeared. It states that it is “paid for by the Arizona Conservative Trust” and has received funding from the Arizona Values Coalition. They’ve gone back to some of Munsil’s State Press editorials to find Munsil railing against student protests against apartheid in South Africa, calling it a “madness … afflicting college students around the nation." So far, they are missing Munsil’s position opposing the decriminalization of cohabitation and oral sex in Arizona. UPDATE: Munsil has complained about the “Arizona Conservative Trust” to the Clean Elections Commission, and his campaign is questioning who the donors are supporting it. An Arizona Republic article quotes Republican sleazebag and Munsil campaign consultant Nathan Sproul saying, “Who are the donors who are funding this thing? … They are engaging in a pretty offensive money-laundering operation." Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican Party and the Arizona Christian Coalition, runs Sproul & Associates, which engaged in voter registration scams in multiple states prior to the 2004 election. Sproul set up groups that would represent themselves as nonpartisan “get out the vote” organizations in order to get Republicans registered to vote and discard or deter Democratic voter registrations. In addition to supporting Munsil, he also has worked on campaigns for U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, a former Arizona legislator who was a single-issue (anti-abortion) candidate. Sproul has received significant funding from the Republican National Committee to engage in dirty tricks. I agree with the Munsil campaign’s statement that the name “Arizona Conservative Trust” is misleading and deceptive, especially if (as seems likely) there are Democratic Party members behind the effort. I also condemn the prerecord telemarketing pseudo-surveys that have been done (“push polls”) regarding Munsil–it’s a sleazy tactic.

Ed Brayton rightly criticizes the Arizona Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit to try to prevent Arizona from giving corporate tax credits for donations to organizations that provide private school tuition for students from low-income families. The AzCLU has previously failed in two lawsuits to eliminate the state income tax credit for individual donations to private school tuition organizations. There is no reason to believe this third lawsuit will be anything but a waste of money. As Ed points out, this is not a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution (or the Arizona Constitution’s prohibition on state funds being used to promote religion) because no state funds are going directly to any religious organization. I support the Institute for Justice on this issue, and this is a reason I’ve never given funds to the AzCLU (though I support the ACLU Foundation). I am a beneficiary of the individual state tax credit–I annually make the maximum qualifying contribution to the Arizona School Choice Trust, which is the single most efficient charity I donate to (100% of donations are distributed as tuition payments for students from low-income families; salaries for employees and administrative overhead are paid by another private organization). UPDATE (June 7, 2007): Judge Janet Barton granted the Institute for Justice’s motion to dismiss this case, back in March. UPDATE (March 12, 2009): The Institute for Justice won this case again today in the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Rep. Rick Renzi (Republican, Arizona District 1) has made the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s list of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. Renzi has engaged in self-dealing, sponsoring legislation that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to his father’s business, ManTech International of Fairfax, VA. His father is an executive vice president at ManTech, which also has offices in Sierra Vista, AZ. A more detailed report on Renzi’s ethical lapses may be found here (PDF). The other Congressmen on the list, with links to more information: Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)Rep. J.D. Hayworth (Republican, Arizona District 5) makes a “dishonorable mention” for his Jack Abramoff connections and payment of $145,212 to his wife through his PAC. Hayworth’s report may be found here (PDF). Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

Former Arizona State University student president Yaser Alamoodi, still a student at ASU, was arrested at 6 a.m. on September 6 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. They took him to Eloy (about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson), where he sits in a detention center. The 29-year-old Tempe resident came to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia in 1996 under a student visa. He describes himself as “extremely secular. I was the president of my university. I have a commitment to everything America stands for, women’s rights to civil rights.” But because he married a U.S. citizen and they agreed to divorce in August, the divorce process invalidated his pending green card application. And because his passport and citizenship are from Yemen, the country where his father was born but which he’s never been in, that’s where he will be deported to. His attorney says he can stay in detention in Eloy and fight the deportation for six months to “years,” he can allow himself to be deported to Yemen and try to get a student visa to return to finish his degree, or if his wife stops the divorce process he would be allowed to stay.

Ed Felten points out that Diebold voting machines use a standard, commonly used key that is used for things like hotel minibars, office furniture, jukeboxes, and electronic equipment. UPDATE (January 23, 2007): Diebold helpfully displays a photograph of the key on their website–which is sufficient to make a duplicate that works.

British comic Robert Newman presents a very entertaining and interesting 45-minute performance about oil in the Middle East (at Google Video), including an interpretation of World War I as an invasion of Iraq and a discussion of peak oil. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): Thought-provoking.

According to Army Brigadier General Mark Scheid, Donald Rumsfeld refused to listen to anyone who suggested that a plan was needed for what to do in Iraq after invasion, and even threatened to fire the next person who brought up the subject: Months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists from developing plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday. In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said “he would fire the next person” who talked about the need for a post-war plan.Rumsfeld should be held accountable for the thousands of deaths this choice has caused.

John McCain continues his pandering to the religious right by endorsing Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, Len Munsil. Munsil, who attended Arizona State University at the same time I did, was editor of the ASU newspaper, the State Press. Now he runs an extremist religious right policy organization, the Center for Arizona Policy, which opposed the removal of Arizona’s laws banning cohabitation and oral sex. (They were removed anyway, by a moderate female Republican Governor, Jane Dee Hull.) Munsil drafted Arizona’s law on marriage (which defines marriage to preclude gay marriage) and is behind Proposition 107, the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment, which amends the Arizona Constitution to prohibit the creation of civil unions or the granting of any legal status for unmarried persons that is similar to marriage. I’ve previously written about Munsil here, where I describe how he refused to print a letter to the editor I wrote criticizing factual errors in an editorial he wrote in the State Press. You can find out more about Munsil and his supporters and detractors at this Arizona Republic blog entry, “Munsil: I’m a Reagan, Kyl-style Republican." I’ve left a number of comments there. ...

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R, AZ District 8) is not running for re-election, so there are five Republicans seeking the nomination. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, in a meeting with four of those five and a representative of the fifth in Tucson on March 30, told them that the RNC would not intervene in the primaries, but rather would devote its funds to assisting the campaigns of whoever the local Republicans of District 8 selected to represent them. The RNC changed its mind, however, and spent $122,000 on advertising for candidate Steve Huffman, its preferred candidate. Randy Graf, who is the current front-runner for the nomination, issued a joint press release with the other Republican candidates (minus Huffman) condemning Mehlman and the RNC for their dishonesty and broken promise. Huffman has criticized Graf for being slow to fire a campaign manager who had a conviction for “corrupting young girls” but has in turn been embarrassed by allegations that his own campaign treasurer, Bill Arnold, took photos through the windows of the home of Huffman’s ex-wife, state senator Toni Hellon. The photos were used to create a website apparently designed to discredit her if Huffman were to have run against her for her state legislative position. Hellon has sued Arnold for invasion of privacy, but apparently supports her ex-husband’s nomination. Graf is also a member of the Minuteman Project. District 8 is fairly evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, with the former having about a 5% advantage. Looks like it will be a dirty race.

In 2000, an article about “The Secret FISA Court: Rubber Stamping Our Rights” created outrage and prompted comments like this: This is beyond frightening. Thank you for this find. This does not bode well for continued freedom. Franz Kafka would have judged this too wild to fictionalize. But for us - it’s real. and this: Any chance of Bush rolling some of this back? It sounds amazing on its face.But today, when there’s warrantless NSA surveillance that makes the FISA Court look like significant judicial oversight, the comments are like this: Privacy is a false argument and has been for some time. Your insurance company and the credit bureaus have more on you than the feds do and you can do nothing about it. I would rather be secure knowing that the feds were looking over my shoulder and keeping me safe. I have nothing to hide, and in times of war, these steps are necessary.So when Clinton engages in eavesdropping (rubber stamped by the FISA Court), it’s a threat to the republic, but when Bush does it (without any judicial oversight), it’s no problem. Hat tip to Gene Healy at Cato, by way of The Agitator. ...