J.D. Hayworth has obtained a copy of a handout that was given to children at a Maryvale school, full of propaganda by the neo-communist organization BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) explaining how to stop the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative. Depending on how the flyers were distributed, laws may have been violated. The flyer explains to people (parents of the predominantly hispanic school) how they should use devious tactics to help BAMN stop AZCRI from getting on the ballot. The flyer instructs parents to call a number if they spot someone trying to circulate AZCRI petitions, so BAMN can come to the location and terrorize or block the signature gatherer. One of J.D.'s callers suggested calling the number and giving them fake locations in order to send them on goose chases around the state. A later caller said they tried to call, but the mailbox was full; apparently it's caught on. It's sort of an interesting theory; use BAMN's tactics against itself.

The flyer said that the KKK was supporting the initiative. We scoured the internet but could find no mention or endorsement of the initiative by the KKK, other than assertions by BAMN that they are. This is a classic example of the kinds of tactics this organization uses. Expect to see them soon in a courtroom near you.

Red Arizona (which ripped off our name) is gleeful that National Right to Life has caved in and endorsed McCain - AFTER they endorsed Fred Thompson.

They failed to mention that Arizona Right to Life still hasn't endorsed McCain, they endorsed Huckabee. Although McCain wouldn't be as hostile toward pro-life issues as Obama, he is no pro-life leader. Most recently, even though a discovery has been made allowing adult stem cells to mimic fetal stem cells, McCain has not retracted his position that government should fund fetal stem cell research. According to Project Vote Smart, McCain's voting record agreed with Right to Life 75% in 2005-2006, 82% in 2003-2004, 66% in 1999-2000, 80% in 1997-1998, 86% in 1996.

When asked what he would do if his daughter was pregnant, McCain didn't say he would encourage her to carry the baby to term, prompting Alan Keyes to declare that McCain is not pro-life.

"John McCain is not pro life," said Keyes, who's criticized McCain's abortion position in the past. "Anyone who votes for John McCain betrays the pro-life proponents."

"If he's going to give a pro-abortion, pro-choice answer to his daughter, he has given that answer to the rest of the country."

If McCain is so pro-life, then why has Republicans for Choice just endorsed him?
Click here for an interesting article.

Wow, the legislators want to go a step further than county attorney Thomas and take away the disciplinary power of the State Bar. This would be a good move. As they say in their letter, the State Bar is nothing more than a mandatory trade union for lawyers. And it's an expensive one at that, bar dues are a few hundred dollars a year. The money goes to everything from lobbying for liberal causes to funding the bar's left wing public legal representation projects, to promoting diversity, to running left wing legal subcommittees, to providing free franking privileges to the Bar's pet Continuing Legal Education companies to advertise their overpriced seminars. Now they're opposing the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, clearly a wrongful use of mandatory bar dues for purely political purposes.

There probably needs to be more change than just taking away the Bar's disciplinary arm. But it's a good start. We'd like to see the Bar's stranglehold on Arizona lawyers removed, by taking away the mandatory membership requirement, as is the case in some other states. At a minimum, members' dues should not be used for obviously partisan purposes such as funding so-called "public interest" legal organizations that are nothing more than arms of the left (public interest organizations on the right such as the Institute for Justice or the Goldwater Institute are noticeably excluded from the Bar's generous handouts).

There is an outstanding candidate running in LD 18, East Valley, for one of the two open House seats. (Mark Anderson is running for Congress and Russell Pearce is running for Sen. Johnson's seat). Kanani Henderson has served for several years as executive director of one of the state’s largest scholarship tuition organizations. She is devoted to school choice and lean government, and would be a dynamic legislator and fresh face for the Republican Party. Because she is not accepting taxpayer subsidies, she needs to raise voluntary funds. There will be a reception for Kanani next Thursday, June 5, at the University Club at 5:00 PM, see flyer below.

(click to enlarge)

We were surprised to see that even the liberal East Valley Tribune has come out with an editorial agreeing that the AZ State Bar's investigation of county attorney Andrew Thomas needs to be looked into for misconduct. An article in the Arizona Republic's Political Notebook today also criticizes the investigation and says that an investigation is warranted. When the two main left wing newspapers in the region are calling for an investigation of a left wing organization, there must be something to it.

The AZ Supreme Court has been asked by county attorney Andrew Thomas to investigate serious ethical misconduct by the AZ State Bar. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is considering criminally investigating the bar if necessary. The complaint was initiated because the Bar retaliated against Thomas on behalf of some retired judges who were angered at Thomas for forcing the Superior Court to comply with Prop. 100, which prohibits bail for illegal immigrants charged with serious felony offenses. Thomas was able to convince the Supreme Court and the legislature to force compliance, because Prop. 100 was passed by 78% of voters.

Now, the State Bar may have just gotten itself in more ethical trouble. After Thomas presented opinions from legal ethics experts concluding that the bar's investigations of him had no merit, the State Bar retaliated against one of those experts, Ernest Calderon. Calderon is a former AZ State Bar president, with extensive experience analyzing bar complaints. He is a Democrat who did not vote for Thomas and disagrees with him on illegal immigration. However, Calderon refused to go along with the unethical behavior, and had the audacity to take a different position than the bar on targeting Thomas. As this scandal continues to evolve, it's clear that the bar's leadership needs to resign.

Preston Korn, a small business owner, has announced that he has filed his nomination petitions with the Secretary of State to run for Congress in CD-1. Glancing over his website, it's clear he has solid conservative credentials; against abortion, firmly opposed to illegal immigration, and homeschools his sons. However, he is a virtual unknown, and he's running against Sidney Hay, another solid conservative and local radio talkshow host in the area who has been quietly securing the endorsements of every major Republican and conservative organization in Arizona.

This is an interesting development. The State Bar has been investigating six bar complaints against County Attorney Andrew Thomas. According to several ethics experts, including former State Bar President Ernest Calderon and former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Zlaket, both liberals, none of the six complaints have any merit, and in fact the State Bar has engaged in ethical misconduct. The complaints were generated after Thomas complained about the Superior Court blocking the implementation of the anti-illegal immigration Proposition 100. We've been told that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is considering investigating the State Bar criminally, if necessitated.

Under the leadership of Presiding Superior Court judge Barbara Mundell, who has received numerous awards for her pro-illegal immigrant efforts, the Maricopa County Superior Court has repeatedly fought enforcement of Prop. 100. We commend Thomas and Arpaio for standing up for the 78% of voters who passed Prop. 100. Mundell does not represent the majority of Arizonans and if she doesn't like the law, she needs to go about changing it through the legislative branch - not through judicial activism.

It's a little strange when the Libertarian Party candidate for president is more conservative than the Republican candidate. Other than his position on the Iraq War, Bob Barr is far superior to McCain on issues that conservatives care about.




Libertarian Party selects Bob Barr as 2008 presidential nominee
Former Congressman plans to take the White House as Libertarian candidate

Denver - The Libertarian Party has nominated former Congressman Bob Barr as its candidate for president for the 2008 election.

"I'm sure we will emerge here with the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party," Barr stated in his victory speech shortly after being selected as the Party's nominee. "I want everybody to remember that we only have 163 days to win this election. We cannot waste one single day."

More than 650 Libertarian delegates met in Denver from May 22 till the 26 for the 2008 Libertarian National Convention. After six rounds of voting Sunday afternoon, Barr was selected as the Party's presidential nominee.

"We're proud to present to the American voters Bob Barr as our presidential nominee," says Libertarian Party spokesperson Andrew Davis. "While Republicans and Democrats will fight for their own power in November, Libertarians will fight for Americans. Bob Barr is one of the strongest candidates in the Party's 37-year history, and we look for him to have an enormous impact in the 2008 race. Republicans and Democrats have good reason to fear a candidate like Barr, who refuses to accept the 'business-as-usual' attitude of the current political establishment. Americans want and need another choice, and that choice is Bob Barr."

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

For more information, or to arrange a media interview, please call Andrew Davis at (202) 333-0008 during normal business hours, or at (202) 731-0002 during any other time. For an interview with the Barr campaign, please contact Audrey Mullen at (703) 548-1160.

Richard Viguerie Tells Libertarian Party Convention: McCain “trying to get conservative support on the cheap;” Conservatives May be Open to Libertarians in 2008 Vote

(Denver, Colorado) In his keynote speech on May 23 to the Libertarian Party National Convention, Richard A. Viguerie, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, declared today that John McCain is “trying to get conservative support on the cheap.”

“Senator McCain has had the Republican presidential nomination sewn up for over three months and has done nothing to convince conservatives to come off the sidelines and enthusiastically support him,” Viguerie said.

In his speech, “Conservatives are off the GOP Reservation: Will they find a home in the Libertarian Party?,” Viguerie said that Democrats and Republicans have both failed America.

“Republican leaders have treated conservatives with utter disrespect and, in turn, conservatives have lost all respect for Republican leaders. Millions of grassroots conservative activists and donors have left the Republican Party and taken with them their volunteer time, their checkbooks, and their votes,” he said.

Viguerie said, “Today, the Libertarian Party has a historic opportunity to provide leadership for America.”

A complete text of the speech is posted on ConservativeHQ.com at http://conservativehq.com/news-from-the-front/libertarian-convention

Viguerie will also be interviewed on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal at 7:30 AM Eastern time on Sunday, May 25.

Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called “one of the creators of the modern conservative movement” (The Nation magazine) and one of the “conservatives of the century” (The Washington Times). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books), which, Jerome Corsi wrote in WorldNetDaily, is "destined to become a classic of conservative thinking" and "may be the most important conservative book written in the last quarter century."

There is speculation that McCain's short list for VP now consists of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, and Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Crist isn't much of a conservative, and Romney is a conservative now only if you believe him. So conservatives are looking to Jindal as the best VP choice for McCain.

Jindal is solidly pro-life and against government funding of embryonic stem cell research, and has a consistent record of opposing environmental initiatives (all unlike McCain).

However, a closer look reveals that he's not one of the more conservative Republicans in Congress. His lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is a 92, and last year it went down to 88. Two other Representatives from Louisiana received 100% scores last year. And contrast that with Senator Jon Kyl's outstanding lifetime rating of 97 and 100% rating last year.

Jindal failed to vote on many of the most controversial bills in Congress last year, not bothering to vote no on bills like SCHIP or voting yes on recognizing the significance of Christmas and Christianity, for example.

Jindal voted against the Human Cloning Prohibition Act. He voted for an increase in the minimum wage. He voted for the REAL ID Act. It would be interesting to see where Jindal's record falls among the totality of Republicans in Congress. Is Jindal even in the top conservative half? Considering McCain is one of the more liberal members of Congress and has a lifetime rating of 82.16, I suspect Jindal falls right in the middle - not conservative or liberal.

The question remains, is he conservative enough to convince evangelical Christians and other conservatives to vote for McCain? A VP choice of Huckabee probably would have, because he's a pastor. But Jindal is a tougher sell. This race is McCain's to lose, and if he continues declaring himself an "environmentalist," advocating for measures against global warming, and taking other non-conservative positions, he will lose to Obama. As a "McBama," he loses, because he doesn't have the "fresh young newness" of Obama that appeals to so many voters.

We received this email regarding the County Attorney's race -

It's been amusing watching the two Democrat candidates for County Attorney duke it out. Or should we say, watching one of them duke it out, Gerald Richard (nicknamed "Amnesty Gerald" by Sonoran Alliance"). The other candidate, Tim Nelson (nicknamed "ACLU Tim" because of his pro bono work as an ACLU lawyer), has been ducking public appearances with Richard, apparently because his credentials don't stand up to Richard's. Even the Democrats have criticized his lack of experience.

Nelson has no criminal justice experience, no prosecution experience. His background is as a career politician; he worked for Governor Napolitano as an advisor from 1998-2002 in the Attorney General's Office, and then again for her in the governor's office from 2002 to the present. He recently left the governor's office in order to run for County Attorney, and now works for an ACLU type of firm. He has only practiced civil law.

Richard, on the other hand, has almost 20 years of criminal justice experience working for the Phoenix Police Department as general counsel to the Police Chief and Director of Administration. Prior to that, he worked for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office as a prosecutor for 3 years.

Nelson hopes that by avoiding comparison with Richard, he can fool the Democrats into giving him the nomination. Seems like cheating. If you have to hide your lack of qualifications for the job, maybe you shouldn't be running for the job.

Newsweek has released the top 1300 public high schools in the U.S. based on 2007 figures, and only 6 Arizona high schools made the list. That's less than 1%. Proportionately, Arizona's schools should make up about 26 of the top 1300 schools, or 2%. Notably, the #1 school in Arizona (as well as in the country) is a charter school, Basis Charter in Tucson. Napolitano opposes school choice, and vetoed a bill that would have authorized school vouchers. So it's not surprising that Arizona has few schools in the top 1300; its public schools have less incentive to improve since private schools can't compete with "free." (Milton Friedman) This is from our governor who ran on being the "education" governor.

Notice how that word "sustainability" is popping up everywhere? You can't watch an episode of Horizon without hearing Ted Simons mention it 15 times. One of the top liberal blogs in Arizona is called Sustainability, Equity, Development. The left has renamed "environmentalism" in order to fool people into thinking it's something different. Once people figured out what "environmentalism" was all about, they were less inclined to support it. So the left is trying to sneak it past them.

If it's a bad idea, you shouldn't have to disguise it in order to get people to support it. Typical deception from the left in order to shove through their unpopular agendas.

Richard Viguerie, a long time conservative movement leader, is calling for Republican leadership in the RNC, White House, and Congress to resign before the party does any worse. Party leadership in Congress made a serious mistake when it elected Boehner as Minority Whip instead of Shadegg and we're paying for it now.

Here are some excerpts from Viguerie's post -

With Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi, the Republican Party has lost three special congressional elections in a row, all in supposedly safe districts. Disaster looms for the GOP.

n recent special elections, the party lost longheld congressional seats in Illinois, in Louisiana, and, yesterday, in Mississippi – all in districts carried overwhelmingly by President Bush. A single election can be a fluke, but when Republicans lose three seemingly safe seats in a row, disaster is looming.

The hard work of the last 50 years by millions of conservative campaign workers, donors, candidates, writers, intellectuals, and activists has been trashed. The conservative movement has been set back 10-20 years – possibly even permanently – by politicians consumed by power, including but certainly not limited to Denny Hastert, Tom DeLay, John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Mitch McConnell, Trent Lott, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, party chairman Mike Duncan, and their friends.

We must replace the Big Government/Big Business/Establishment Republicans with principled conservatives, most of them young.

The number of new Republican voters is flat while Democratic voter registration is skyrocketing.

Contributions to GOP candidates and Republican parties are way off, while donations to Democrats are setting records.

Republicans are doomed to wander in the political wilderness until this generation of weak-kneed, no-vision, inarticulate, afraid-of-the-liberal-media politicians are replaced mostly with principled conservatives in the mold of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

Voters almost always reject a pale imitation in favor of the real thing.

EXTREME POLITICAL MAKEOVER

Susan Bitter Smith the lobbyist

















Susan Bitter Smith for Congress ("conservative Republican")



































Susan Bitter Smith expects us to believe she's gone from one of the biggest RINOs in the state to the "Conservative Republican for Congress." She's even changed her appearance. We're not going to waste time going over her record as one of the biggest RINOs in the state, because Sonoran Alliance has already done a good job exposing this.

However, we find it amusing that she thinks that by putting conservative on her website she can fool the voters - just like one of her opponents did a few days ago.
The problem is the leading candidate in the race, David Schweikert, is a longtime conservative Republican and has the support of the conservative base. Ogsbury and Bitter Smith are realizing this and desperately trying to make inroads into this base, but Bitter Smith's record proves otherwise, and Ogsbury doesn't even understand how to talk conservatively.

Rep. Russell Pearce, who is usually on the right side of most issues, recently proposed a bill that would prohibit race-based or partially race-based organizations from meeting on public school campuses. While parts of the bill are good -- prohibiting taxpayer funding for race-based groups -- we think he has gone too far by prohibiting student race-based groups from simply meeting on public school campuses. It's a fact that race-based hate groups like MEChA brainwash students into extremist views on race that promote conflict and resentment toward the concept of being one American nation - it would be great if they didn't even exist. But doesn't prohibiting these groups from meeting infringe upon one of our constitutional rights, the First Amendment's freedom of assembly clause?

The law would also prohibit groups like the AZ Latino Republicans and the AZ Black Republicans from meeting on campuses, and nonpolitical groups like the Black Business Students Association. While Pearce means well, we think this bill probably goes a little too far. Amend it to remove this clause -

D. A PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THIS STATE, A UNIVERSITY UNDER THE JURISDICTION

8 OF THE ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS AND A COMMUNITY COLLEGE UNDER THE

9 JURISDICTION OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT IN THIS STATE SHALL NOT ALLOW

10 ORGANIZATIONS TO OPERATE ON THE CAMPUS OF THE SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OR COMMUNITY

11 COLLEGE IF THE ORGANIZATION IS BASED IN WHOLE OR IN PART ON RACE-BASED

12 CRITERIA.

Multiple sources have confirmed that McCain operators warned them to keep their mouths shut prior to Arizona's GOP convention regarding their opposition to McCain for the GOP presidential nominee. Some have said they were threatened in various ways, but are terrified to come forward against the McCain machine in Arizona, which could destroy their career and involvement in Arizona politics. The McCain team was concerned there would be another Ron Paul rebellion as happened in Reno last month, where the entire convention was shut down and no delegates elected. An uproar was a realistic possibility in Arizona considering McCain is probably disliked more here than anywhere else by conservatives who know him too well.

The McCain team was also able to squelch the opposition at Arizona's state convention due to the state Republican Party being under the of control Randy Pullen, who is a solid conservative and friend to the base. Pullen won election as chair of the state party last year by only 4 votes. If his competitor Lisa James, who is associated with McCain and the moderate wing of the party, had won instead, McCain would have never been able to pull off a peaceful state convention in Arizona. But since the conservative base respects Pullen, he was able to convince enough of them to refrain from creating a raucous. Ironically, McCain, who can't stand Pullen, owes him big for this.

Although one revolt was squelched in Arizona, they are continuing to take place around the country as the Republican base fights back against the reality of McCain as their nominee.

McCain has hinted that he is going to water down the pro-life plank of the Republican Party platform by adding exceptions for incest or rape. Let's hope this is not the case. Senator Sam Brownback, a McCain advisor, says McCain will not, but so far McCain has yet to back off of his support for government-funded embryonic stem cell research - even though methods were successfully developed last fall to manipulate adult stem cells to mimic embryonic stem cells.

Former conservative Congressman Bob Barr, who joined the Libertarian Party a couple of years ago after leaving Congress, has announced that he may be running for President on the Libertarian Party ticket. While Barr is a solid conservative who we greatly respect, his views on the Iraq War are a dealbreaker -

“What we’ve fallen into in recent years — not just since 9/11, but particularly since 9/11 — is this notion that, in order to protect ourselves, we have to preemptively go into and — in the case of Iraq — occupy another sovereign nation,” Barr said. “Simply saying, ‘Gee, it’s better to fight over in this other nation and destroy another nation, so we’re not potentially attacked here, is the height of arrogance.”

As for the Bush administration’s refusal to define waterboarding as torture, Barr referred to the practice as “sophistry of the worst and rankest order.”

It's unfortunate, because the rest of Barr's conservative credentials are far superior to McCain.