Common Sense 12: The Importance of Being Aware of How Leaders Aquire and Wield Power

Posted on October 2, 2011 by beverly coleman

With the exception of union bosses, politicians and leaders of political movements, most Democrats seem less aware of how socio-economic power is acquired and manipulated than Republicans seem to be.  Perhaps this is because the latter incline toward being the caretakers of the nation’s business/banking/manufacturing interests.  In the  September 27, 2011 C Span video below, NYU professors, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith provide a glimpse of how international and national leaders have acquired and wield  political and economic power.  This video may be helpful in planning 2012 Democratic political strategies and tactics

After Words with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith

Posted in Campaigns, Current Politics, Democratic Party, Economics, Education | Leave a comment

Common Sense 11: Arizona Redistricting: There Is Always Recourse for Injustice

Posted on September 18, 2011 by beverly coleman

Throughout the U.S.A.,  Arizona is increasingly being repudiated for its renegade  political maneuvers.

Case in point, “we the people,” of Supervisory District 3 were asked which of the  state redistricting maps we (Sedona/Verde Valley) preferred as the state’s official redistricting map. We selected Map C where our District remained intact. However, when the final supervisory vote was taken, we were told that an entirely new “Alternative Map A” had been secretly created by Supervisors Thurman, Springer and others (without public knowledge).  Further, these supervisors falsely claimed that some of the jurisdictions of the Verde Valley had chosen to be part of this newly developed “Alternative Map A.” Upon inquiry, we discovered that none of the jurisdictions in the Sedona/Verde Valley had heard of or voted for this new redistricting option – the “Alternative Map A.”  The Supervisors had lied to “we the people” and taken it upon themselves to redistrict Northern Arizona to suit their own political interests.

The objective of this political treachery appears to be “divide and conquer”  the voting majority of  our Supervisorial District 3.  Supervisors Thurman, Springer of District 2 designed the “Alternative Map A”  in a way that left Jerome, Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek and the Verde Villages in Supervisory District 3 but siphoned off  Page Springs, Cornville, Camp Verde annexing them to Supervisory District 2 —  Prescott Valley, Black Canyon, Crown King and Mayer where these annexed communities have neither geographical nor political affinity.  The purpose of this lawless sabotage is to give greater political representation to Thurman’s Supervisory District 2 while illegally attempting to compromise the socio-political capacity of District 3.

Lies and acts of public disregard are being perpetrated on “we the people” because political bullies (e.g., Supervisor Thurman of Prescott, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Senator (aka”King”) Pearce of Phoenix, Congressman Gosar of Sedona and ex-Representative Tom Delay of Texas who was ultimately indicted for illegal redistricting shenanigans ) disrespect us in the same way greedy land barons tried to snatch the farmlands from the humble, unsuspecting townspeople back in the days of the “wild west.”  Then, the people had little or no recourse. Now we can organize and request the backing of…THE U.S. GOVERNMENT.

If you are indignant about what Supervisor Thurman has done to snatch the voting strength from the Sedona/Verde Valley people, please comment below and write your objections to Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Room 7254-NWB, Dept of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20530.  We are NOT helpless.  Together we can reverse and prevent these kinds of travesties by political bullies.

Posted in Arizona, Civil Liberties, Current Politics, Law, Political History, Sedona | Leave a comment

Common Sense 10: The Obama Presidency Achievements – Do Facts Change Beliefs?

Posted on September 18, 2011 by beverly coleman

Advertisers and political campaign managers count on the fact  that most people are NOT influenced by facts.  These professionals make their money and get their candidates elected because they know most people tend to believe whatever they have been taught during childhood  — unless something or someone happens along to help change the way we think — like our children, a loving religious experience, exposure to different cultures, etc.

Here is a test to see if YOU are one of the RARE people who are able to change your beliefs when simple facts prove  that your present beliefs may be incorrect:  We are being told day after day by most news sources that the Obama Administration is failing to respond to the needs of “we the people” and that President Obama’s leadership is a dismal failure.  To test the validity of this belief, here is a fact for you to investigate:

 In spite of the opposition’s determined effort to obstruct and destroy President Obama, the Obama Administration has accomplished more in its first 3 years for “we the people” than any administration in the history of the USA!  Here are the simple facts:

Voters’ anxiety clouds Obama’s historic successes

Obama Administration’s Achievements (Thus Far)

NOW,   have these facts changed your beliefs in any way?

Posted in Current Politics, Education | Leave a comment

Corporate Tax Break Mantra Again

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Sandra

Letter to editor in Prescott Daily Courier, from Sandra Cosentino, 2/28/20: Corporate tax breaks won’t grow Arizona businesses

Wow, the magic mantra: cut corporate taxes, grow business. Keep saying the mantra again and again, louder and louder, maybe we can pretend it is true. Though it did not work for eight years of the Bush Administration when he took a surplus and led us into near depression.

I want to see our Legislature do real incentives for business. What corporations want to move to a state that focuses on under-funding community colleges and universities, increasing gun freedom even to ludicrous extremes now in the Legislature to allow them in public buildings and schools (only the armed will dare go to public meetings in this new Arizona), passing useless laws to disapprove of federal laws engaging us in endless lawsuits, and projecting an image of this as a dangerous place filled with drug thugs from south of the border.

All of this has hurt my tourism-related business and the image of Arizona as a desirable place for retirees, vacationers and business. What kind of other give-aways will our Legislature and governor do to “incentivize” businesses? How much will this corporate welfare increase our deficit with no actual benefit to us the people? Saying it doesn’t make it true.

I want to see our Legislature get down to practical, sensible governing. Symbolic ideology is not real economic planning or is going to dig us out of this hole.

Anti-Government Rebuttal: Posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Article comment by: Clem K. Hopper

Gov. Brewer and most of the Republicans running the Arizona legislature have all signed Grover Norquist’s tax pledge. Grover is on record saying we need to reduce government to a size where we can drown it in a bathtub. The way they do it, here and in Wisconsin and in Washington DC, is to cut taxes (i.e. revenue to the government), then scream that we don’t have enough money to pay for education or state parks or roads or safety regulations, so we must cut all programs NOW!!!1!

Satire In the Face of Absurdity:
Comment by arizona 4 freedom: Can you imagine the freedom here in Arizona with Clem K. Hopper vision of no government? We can be just like Somalia: pirates can attack tour buses for hostage as we would have no police. Everyone can carry arms anywhere and we can have vigilante patrols in all of our neighborhoods.

Only those with money will go to private schools. The rest can scrabble any way they can to eek out a living since they won’t have access to education. The kids will be free to run around the streets like they do in Rio de Janiero. Ye-hah, return to the outlaw days of the Old West.

Open up the mines again since we won’t have child labor laws or safety laws and certainly no taxes to be paid by the corporations mining a public resource. It will be more affordable to mine this way. This will boost jobs.

Yes, siree, let’s get rid of government, it is the root of all evil and serves no purpose!

Posted in Current Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why Unions Matter

Posted on March 2, 2011 by William Timberman

Anyone watching Fox News, or TV’s Sabbath gasbags, or reading the Washington Post’s pundits, is well aware of the Republican Party’s campaign of defamation against the public employees of Wisconsin, and its smug defense of Governor Walker’s criminal assault on Wisconsin’s public-sector unions.

Does the Democratic Party have anything to say about this shameful power grab? You bet it does. The Democratic Party of Evanston, Illinois doesn’t mince words:

Through the electoral process, we express our collective voice and shape our political destiny. Unions allow workers a collective voice with which they can affect their economic destiny. Collective bargaining allows workers some say over their wages, benefits, and working conditions — in other words, those things central to the quality of life. Unions provide workers with an avenue for redress when they’ve been sexually harassed; when they’ve been passed over because of their race, gender, or ethnicity; when they’ve been disciplined for complaints about unsafe conditions. Unions empower people to speak out against unfair treatment and to speak up for their rights. Unions make America work. Spread the word.

Read the whole manifesto here. Tell all your friends.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Current Politics, Democratic Party, Industrial Policy, Labor | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Common Sense 9: The Civil War – Slavery – The T-Party – Today’s Politics

Posted on February 25, 2011 by beverly coleman

There is a tendency in today’s U.S. discussion to attempt to “white” wash (pun intended) history by denying the truth of our past. For example, the true stories of the Native Americans (as now revealed in Manning’s “1491″), the African slaves (as revealed in Huxley’s “Roots” and Blackmon’s “Slavery By Another Name” about post Civil War Slavery), the Asians (as revealed in Takata’s “Strangers From A Different Shore”) and European types many of whom (especially the wealthy) were undeniably the oppressors of the poor and disenfranchised. It is this oppressor group and its mislead populace that, today, seeks to rewrite history leaving out the atrocities and the evil deeds done in the process of its search for wealth, power and dominance over the world. E.J. Dionne Jr, of the Washington Post, shines a light on this lie as it pertains to how the issues leading to the Civil War have historically been depicted and how this depiction blurs our understanding of today’s politics.

Don’t spin the Civil War
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Sunday, December 26, 2010; 8:00 PM

The Civil War is about to loom very large in the popular memory. We would do well to be candid about its causes and not allow the distortions of contemporary politics or long-standing myths to cloud our understanding of why the nation fell apart.

The coming year will mark the 150th anniversary of the onset of the conflict, which is usually dated to April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries opened fire at 4:30 a.m. on federal troops occupying Fort Sumter. Union forces surrendered the next day, after 34 hours of shelling.

The Civil War has forever captured the American imagination (witness the popularity of reenactments) for the gallantry and heroism of those who fought and died, but also for the sheer carnage and destruction it left in its wake. Anniversaries heighten that engagement, and I still recall the centennial of the war in 1961 as a time when kids with no previous interest in American history were exchanging Civil War trading cards along with baseball cards.

My neighborhood friend Jon Udis got a subscription to Civil War Times Illustrated, and our regular discussions of sports heroes Bill Russell, Johnny Unitas and Carl Yastrzemski were briefly interrupted by talk about Grant and Lee, Sherman and “Stonewall” Jackson.

But our conversations, like so many about the war, focused on people and battles, not on why the confrontation happened in the first place. There remains enormous denial over the fact that the central cause of the war was our national disagreement about race and slavery, not states’ rights or anything else.

Read the rest

Posted in Current Politics | Leave a comment

Hwy 89A: local control enhances community

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Sandra

For 20 years now, living and operating a business here in Sedona, I have envisioned a beautiful West Sedona. If ADOT goes ahead with their Phoenix-look lighting plan, we will endure disruptive, messy construction before we have a plan for pedestrian safety or the needed redesign.

I want to see contemporary Southwest beauty elements such as those seen at Sedona Rouge, Barking Frog extended into a distinctive unifying look for West Sedona. Safety islands, lighted crosswalks, appropriate scale and location lighting, can invite people to shop on both sides of the road. Benches, attractive stucco very-selectively-placed medians with tile and/or art glass, along with sculptures and landscaping can create a walkable, inviting, uniquely Sedona look. The beauty of Sedona does not have to end at the double-0. This is where most of us live!

Further, as “Sedona Avenue”, instead of Highway 89A, we can allow event signage such for the Farmer’s Market and other community events held on top of Airport Mesa. We can have a sign directing people to the Humane Society. We can install a safety crossing for the kids at Posse Grounds Road.

I commend the work that has been done by city staff, mayor and council on this and feel they have a solid plan for financing once the 15-year period that ADOT will cover ends. Well researched data was presented at the Feb. 9 City Council work session that supports this.  Further, locals will have strong input in the community plan for West Sedona.  The City will not dictate to us as ADOT does–in a redesign that benefits and enhances the businesses so many locals and visitors use. We can create our own future.

ADOT is likely to give it back to us anyway. Their 2003 Route Transfer Level Study said the pace of turning back state highway segments that are really city streets is going too slow. They might make an example of Sedona if we do not accept their financing package now: turn around and give it back to us anyway in 4 years after they do the lights and Andante stoplight.

If the City Council votes YES to taking back Highway 89A as we did with Uptown, Sedona residents will have a chance to work with city planners and engineers to extend the beauty of the gallery and uptown districts into West Sedona ending at our distinctive high school and what I still hope will be a community cultural park–Forest Service vista and access point.

This is a turning point: it is vital for us to take control of our own future.

Posted in Sedona | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Common Sense 8: 89A West Sedona Route Transfer

Posted on February 10, 2011 by beverly coleman

When I went to the Listening Workshop at the City Hall this evening, it was to get additional information about the proposal to turn Highway 89A  in West Sedona over to The City of Sedona for development and management.  I had not made up my mind when I arrived at the meeting but I was resolved by the time I left.

First, let me say that, in theory, I actually like the idea of The City taking over this highway because The City proposes to make it more safe, beautiful and futuristic in the way it proposes to deal with lighting, pedestrian crossing and medians.  The present owner  of this highway (ADOT) is concerned exclusively with installing continuous 35 ft highway lights along the West Sedona corridor.  The presently allocated $15,435,500 will be retained by the ADOT or turned over to The City of Sedona.  My conclusion is that the promissory funds and responsibility of providing lighting and highway maintenance should remain with ADOT at this time.

Why do I object to The City of Sedona taking over the ownership of 89A?  Because of the risks in this turbulent economic and political climate. For example, today President Obama suggested dropping funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in order to save 3 billion dollars.  Another indicator is that many of the T-Party newbies in congress are bolting against the GOP’s unwillingness to support even more drastic program and budget cuts than they are presently demanding.   Arizona is a heavily T-Party influenced state cutting Medicaid, college funds, forestry services,  privatizing prisons, etc.   I don’t think for a minute that either the GOP or T-Party (including our own Congressman Gosar) conservatives will honor an agreement to use  promissory federal and state funds to beautify and modernize a highway in Sedona.   There are those who argue that the signed agreement plus $1,375,000 of the total cost for Sedona to take over  Highway 89A in West Sedona would be binding .  To this argument  I point out that there have already been precedents to the contrary.  Approximately two years ago, The State of Arizona appropriated acupuncture license fees that are paid annually by all Arizona acupuncturists.  These cumulative fees are held in a special account by the Arizona Medical Board.  They are used as needed to enhance and promote the profession of Oriental Medicine. These funds were used without permission  to help meet some kind of State shortfall or emergency.  How do we know this would not happen with the funds that are being held for The City of Sedona?

Where would that leave The City Council and the tax payers?

Posted in Arizona, Current Politics, Economics | 2 Comments

They Don’t Want to Be Part of America: AZ Pending Legislation

Posted on February 6, 2011 by stephensedona

The most comprehensive collection of the new legislation being introduced in the Legislature that I’ve seen.

Beyond appalling.

From the AZ Daily Sun: New panel to nullify fed laws?

PHOENIX — A new proposal at the Arizona Legislature will take the state’s fight with the feds to a whole new level: It would let the state actually nullify federal laws that legislators believe are invalid…”

Also:

Other pending legislation seeking to challenge or limit federal authority:

– SB1308 and HB 2562 setting up interstate compacts to honor each other’s birth certificates segregating children who are considered U.S. citizens from those who are not;
– SB1309 and HB 2561 defining Arizona citizenship, part of the move to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants;
– SB1328 saying Arizonans do not have to comply with a federal law or rule if they allow a federal employee or member of Congress not to comply;
– SB1391 creating an interstate firearms freedoms act guaranteeing the right of citizens to bear arms free of federal regulation;
– SB1393 declaring the state has exclusive right to regulate carbon dioxide emissions;
– SB1394 protecting the right to emit carbon dioxide from human-caused activity;
– SB1545 allowing the production of nuclear fuel in Arizona free from federal regulation;
– SCR1016 requiring approval from the legislatures of half the states to increase the federal debt;
– HB2077 requiring any federal agency coming into a county to conduct official business to first register with the sheriff;
– HB2471 barring the appropriation of any state funds to comply with a federal mandate unless the federal government provides a report to show the mandate is constitutional;
– HB2472 allowing the state to acquire federal property by eminent domain unless the federal government first got legislative permission to obtain the land in the first place;
– HB2537 permitting the House speaker and Senate president to sue over or defend last year’s SB1070 imposing new state laws on illegal immigration;
– HB2544 requiring presidential candidates to provide certain proof of citizenship before they can appear on the ballot in Arizona;
– HCR2015 calling for a constitutional convention to adopt an amendment to require consent of three-fourths of the states to increase federal debt;
– HCR2022 proposing a constitutional convention to require a balanced federal budget.

Posted in Arizona, Constitutional Issues, Current Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Crazy New Gun Law

Posted on February 5, 2011 by CPaster

For many years I volunteered as a CASA, a court appointed advocate for children who came into the foster care system, here in the Verde Valley. I spent a good deal of time going to legal hearings on behalf of foster children and many times they were emotional experiences for everyone concerned. Now I read in today’s Arizona Republic (Jan. 31) that a bill is being introduced to the AZ senate that would allow for guns to be legally carried, without a permit, into government buildings. Senate bill 1201 would also allow guns onto college campuses and would allow residents to sieze government property if their gun rights are not observed.

Thinking back to my own experiences as a CASA, it is not difficult to imagine a scenario wherein an aggrieved mom or dad whose parental rights have been challenged, might come into a custody hearing bearing arms and willing to shoot.

This is just one small example of where a law like this could go horribly wrong. What about the young person unhappy about a test grade? What about a long line at the DMV What if that overdue fine at the library seems just too unfair?

Yes, there is the old adage that guns don’t kill people, people do. But the easier it becomes to obtain and carry a gun, combined with the vast number of stressors in the average, modern life, the easier it becomes to reach for that quick and absolute solution. Arizona needs to take a deep breath and back away from this bill. We have more gun rights here than almost anywhere else in the country. And given the recent, painful events in Tucson, I say we stand pat.

Posted in Arizona, Current Politics, Law | 1 Comment