Our senior Senator is yelling at the clouds again, a la Grandpa Simpson, about earmarks. Blowing up Twitter with incessant tweets about “potato pest management!” and “maple syrup research!”. Far as McCain is concerned every earmark ever has been for insignificant frippery. I mean, it’s not like potato blight ever caused any problems or anything. Just ask the Irish.

Recall that in 2008 Presidential candidate McCain’s entire plan for balancing the budget was banning earmarks. Right, the deficit will be wiped out by dealing with less than 1% of federal spending. IOW, he was full of crap on the basic economics. And he’s a hypocrite. McCain may not request earmarks but his seat-mate Kyl gets a truckload of them. Has anyone ever hear John McCain criticize Kyl (or any other member of the AZ GOP delegation) for their earmarks? Anyone?

What really chaps me about McCain’s anti-earmark jihad is how it advances the GOP war on science. Hat tip to blogger Whiskey Fire for compiling (in a hysterically funny post) a selection of the earmarks causing Grandpa to yell at clouds:

$247,000 – Virus free grapes in Washington State $413,000 – Peanut research in Alabama $125,000 – Fishery equipment for the Guam Fisherman’s Cooperative Association $349,000 – Swine waste management in North Carolina $277,000 – Potato pest management in wisconsin $246,000 – Bovine tuberculosis treatment in Michigan and Minnesota $522,000 – Cranberry and blueberry disease and breeding in New Jersey $500,000 – Oyster safety in Florida $400,000 – Solar parking canopies and plug-in electric stations in Kansas $165,000 – Maple syrup research in Vermont

What do most of those things have in common, aside from being good for those local economies? They’re science projects. And research on seemingly trivial subjects sometimes, nay often, leads to important advances that improve the lives of people. McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin famously derided fruit fly research while campaigning in a speech on funding for special needs children. Had she done an iota of research herself she would have learned that fruit flies are some pretty useful critters on a host of issues for scientific purposes, including autism. GOP attacks on earmarks should be understood as attacks on science.

I asked the same question over at my other blog, Democratic Diva.

Where the hell are all the pro-life groups in Arizona, such as AZ Right to Life and Center for Arizona Policy, and why the hell aren’t they making noise about transplant patients being denied lifesaving treatment to save a few bucks in the budget?

Pro-life, my ass.

Am working on some personal projects and not keeping up with the local shiznit as I should for blogging purposes. I promise to be back in a few days to offer some thoughts on the upcoming Phx mayoral race. But here’s a great tune in the meantime: Laura Nyro and Labelle.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Phoenix designer/filmmaker Safwat Saleem was raising awareness and funding for his new exhibit: A Bunch of Crock.

Safwat met his target (for one showing at least), and will be debuting it this Friday, December 3, 2010 at Bragg’s Pie Factory in downtown Phoenix. Doors open at 6pm and the event will probably go on until 9:30pm.

The exhibit consists of a poster show, and several satirical and over-the-top audio/video installations.

From the artist:

A Bunch of Crock is an art exhibit about the absurdities of political campaigns and the unfortunate role of minorities. Filtering through various political messages in this election year, the common thread seems to be this: 1) politicians and pundits think the general population is too stupid to tell fact from fiction and 2) promoting fear of minorities is good politics.

Using satire and good old-fashioned profanity, this exhibit attempts to bypass the spin and tell the audience what the politicians and pundits actually mean, and how they portray minorities to promote fear and manufacture outrage.

What makes this exhibit unique is that was funded through Kickstarter, a microfunding platform for creative projects. Over 40 donors pledged between $12 and $100 dollars to produce the gallery exhibit which consists of printing large format posters, producing stickers, buttons, postcards and signage, renting audio and video equipment (projectors, screens, speakers, etc) and renting tables and chairs.

While the first Friday show has been funded, additional funds are still being sought for rental of a/v equipment for future shows, including a planned third Friday date (Dec 17, 6:30 to 10:00pm)

Here is Safwat’s video submission to Kickstarter explaining the concept and premise for the project:

NOTE: Both the video and website contain profane text.

One of my favorite songs and videos. Trisha Yearwood – Walkaway Joe

Pretty girl getting away from her benign nag of a mother. Into a very cool car driven by pre-fame MATT MCCONAUGHEY. Runs through a field with MATT MCCONAUGHEY. “She can’t love him for the way he is”. Trisha Yearwood is singing about her plaint, mournfully. Yeah, no shit. Sucks for the pretty girl, to be in love with MATT MCCONAUGHEY. But still so frigging awesome to have pre “Dazed and Confused” Matt McConaughey in a video with Trisha Yearwood! Until, WTF? Don Henley?? What the hell is DON HENLEY doing mucking up this beautiful tableau of a girl who was in love with a hot guy who robs stores and stuff? Which, admittedly, would be a kinda fucked up narrative except it’s MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY and the girl is some forgettable starlet whose character hitchhikes back into her benign nag of a mother’s waiting arms.

The point is, why the hell is DON HENLEY, who was a frigging old fossil back in 1991, ruining one of my favorite songs? Get THE HELL OUT of my Trisha Yearwood video, you jackass!

I’m with Mojo Nixon.

Okay, so this is why Bill Wyman does music criticism and I don’t.

Phoenix designer/filmmaker Safwat Saleem made this great video to help raise support/awareness for his new exhibit A Bunch of Crock.

Check out the video and help Safwat get his project off the ground over on his Kickstarter Page.

Mayor Gordon posted this note to his Facebook page and asked people to disseminate it widely. I’m happy to oblige.

Mayor Gordon: The Truth … For A Change

How would you like it if you spent years working to build a city, making it the best place in the world to live, work and do business, only to watch self-serving naysayers tear it down, either to fatten their wallets or to make a grab for higher office?

You would feel frustrated. I know that, because so many of you have shared your frustrations with me. You’re sick of the constant negativity. You’ve spent years making this City a better place, fighting to create jobs, grow the economy and rebuild our downtown. You’ve told me you want the truth to come out.

Welcome to the City of Phoenix, where many of us have worked together for decades, and where city government strives every day not only to create a first-class city, but to conserve every last taxpayer dollar. We’ve heard you. We get it. We work for you. Every dollar we spend comes from you. We must do more with less.

That’s not an empty sentence. That’s how our City does business. Yet to hear the naysayers tell it, we’re a city full of pigs at the trough.

Let me give you an example of how those who seek to tear down the City use an old tactic – games with statistics – to do their dirty work.

Last week, Councilman Sal DiCiccio sent an email to thousands of Phoenix residents. I know Sal well. In fact, as he’d tell you if you asked, I was instrumental in having him appointed to his seat in District 6. That’s why Sal playing fast and loose with the facts disappoints me. How does he do it?

For starters, the email carries a headline that uses carefully chosen wording to distort the truth: “$100,000/yr city employees to get big bonuses.”

For months, we’ve this has been a unceasing refrain: That City of Phoenix employees make $100,000 a year.

There’s a word for that claim: False.

The average salary for every employee in the City of Phoenix, according to our Budget and Research team, is $60,104 a year. But let’s go inside the numbers.

About 3 percent of our employees earn a salary over $100,000. They’re our top management, our civil engineers, our architects, our judges – in short, the folks who make sure you have clean water, that our buildings are safe and that our laws are followed. Are they well-paid? Yes. Are they paid better than they would be in the private sector? Absolutely not.

After that group comes our police officers and fire fighters, first responders, men and women who run toward danger while we seek refuge. The average police officer salary in Phoenix is $70,437 annually. For a firefighter it’s $72,132. For police supervisors – our most experienced cops, our sergeants and lieutenants – it’s $86,257 a year.

Can we get cheaper heroes? I imagine so, but could we rely on those younger, less experienced heroes when we’re threatened by danger? I’d rather not find out.

Finally, there’s everyone else in the City, our librarians, our park rangers, our supervisors and managers. The supervisors earn an average of $68,000 per year. And the rest of the nearly 15,000 employees of our City?

That group – more than 7,000 positions, or about half our total head count – earns an average salary of $43,345 a year.

Is that a healthy salary? In these times, yes. But it isn’t $100,000 a year. In fact, it isn’t even close.

So how did we arrive at that fantastic headline? You know the old saying – there’s lies, damn lies, and statistics. Councilman DiCiccio simply takes every single dollar that could possibly be associated with the cost of employing someone and he treats it as compensation. That’s every workman’s comp payment, every Social Security dollar, every unemployment insurance payment, every dime for Medicare, every dollar for insurance premium, every uniform allowance, every dollar spent on police safety gear, everything.

Frankly, if I used math like that, I could start referring to Councilman DiCiccio as the “$100,000-a-year Councilman,” by counting not just his $61,600 annual salary from Council and his $7,477 “double dip” pension from his last Council term, but every other benefit and expense that accrues to his employment.

I wouldn’t do that, of course. Because, while it might be semantically accurate – and kind of funny – it’s not what I consider to be the truth, in context.

It’s like saying that the City paid more than $200 million last year for employee pensions. Is that a lot of money? Yes, but it’s also about 5 percent of the City’s $3.5 billion in total spending for the year. That ratio compares more than favorably with private sector businesses that employ 15,000 employees, many of whom receive defined benefit pensions.

As for the City’s health benefits package and holiday schedule, which the Councilman calls “Cadillac” and “generous,” again they compare favorably with private sector companies of a similar size. More important, though, is the trend in the size of Phoenix government and the measures we’ve put in place to steward taxpayer dollars.

I’d file those under “Things The Naysayers Never Bother To Mention.”

Here’s the truth, not the spin of a politician seeking elected office. As you likely know, I’m termed out in January 2012, so I’m not hamstrung by the need to spin.

The City of Phoenix General Fund budget for 2010-11 is $79.2 million – or 7.2 percent – lower than our budget five years ago. This despite a 6 percent population increase and the opening of dozens of new city facilities.

Our General Fund budget is $185.5 million less, or 15.5 percent lower, than our peak budget in 2007-08.

You can follow the logic, I’m sure. When times were flush and our population and economy were growing, City government worked to further that growth. As the economy turned sour and we looked for ways to cut back, we slashed spending and ramped up efforts to do more with less.

That’s why the City has cut its budget six out of the past 7 years. We’re likely the only big city in America who can make that claim, by the way.

That’s why City workers agreed to a 3.2 percent pay cut last year – an agreement set to save us $100 million over the two years. That’s why property taxes in Phoenix have dropped 40 percent. That’s why we’ve instituted an Innovation and Efficiency Task Force that, thus far, has saved our City more than $20 million. And that’s why our head count of employees has steadily dropped from a high of 16,171 in July 2008 to 14,531 employees today.

Today we have the smallest city government, per capita, that Phoenix has enjoyed in 40 years (despite having a larger population by more than a million residents). We have 1,600 fewer employees than we did at our peak, jobs we’ve cut through attrition, not gimmicks. We’ve preserved our AAA-bond rating and we’ve received numerous national awards for management excellence and budget transparency.

We’ve accomplished all that while keeping our neighborhoods safe – our crime rate is at a 20-year low – and keeping valuable services, like libraries and senior centers, operating at reasonable levels.

Is our City perfect? No. We’ve made mistakes and we still have problems that need solving. But we’re working hard to be the best City in America, even in the midst of an unprecedented economic downturn. We’re doing it by taking care of taxpayer dollars and telling you the truth, accusations aside.

Speaking of which, here’s my favorite: That the City has offered workers “a $16,000 bonus for doing a good job.”

Uh, guilty as charged. Kinda, sorta.

The truth is, yes, we’ve ramped up a bonus program for employees who make suggestions – a program that’s been in place since the 1970s. The idea probably sounds familiar, since you may very well have a similar program where you work.

Employees make suggestions meant to save the City money. If a suggestion is adopted, that employee gets a one-time bonus. Last fiscal year, we got about 175 ideas from employees. We adopted 20. That saved the City about $435,000.

The bonuses? They totaled $20,600. All of them, together. A savings of $415,000 isn’t bad in return for a $20,000 investment.

This month, we changed the rules to give employees more incentive to get involved. We held numerous public meetings to discuss how an employee should be rewarded for saving the city a significant amount of money. The $16,000 figure Councilman DiCiccio quotes is the absolute top bonus available, the cap. To earn it, an employee would need to save the City nearly $2 million.

Compare that to the headline: “$100,000/yr city employees to get big bonuses”

You’ve come to me by the hundreds over the past year-plus, expressing your frustrations over the deceit, the distortions and the accompanying silence. You’ve told me you want the truth to come out, to hear about the progress we’ve made and the reforms we’ve passed.

I can’t simply stand by and allow baseless attacks to go unanswered. That’s why you’ve received this piece. I’m sure the naysayers will respond with more skewed stats and more distortions … but now you have the truth.

Please forward this message to all concerned taxpayers.

Thank you.

Phil Gordon Mayor of Phoenix

The subject of course is Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the issue over which the characterless and hateful senator’s political contortions have been most marked, which is saying something.

Jon Stewart spanks McCain up one side of the issue and then back down the other, and ends the segment with a fake PSA whose hilarity can’t cover up the bleakness of its message.

A friendly reminder that the screening of “Gerrymandering” is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 16, at the Arizona Historical Society Museum at 6:30 p.m.

Come see the movie, meet Director Jeff Reichert and learn about how you can have a positive impact on the future of Arizona.

“As a map maker, I can have more of an impact on an election than a campaign. More of an impact than a candidate. When I as a mapmaker have more of an impact on an election than voters, the system is out of whack.”

-Consultant David Winston who drew House districts for the GOP after the 1990 U.S. Census.

In advance of the redistricting of all of our legislative and congressional districts next year, the Arizona Competitive Districts Coalition is presenting the Arizona Premier of “Gerrymandering”, a new documentary from Jeff Reichert, on Tuesday, November 16th at the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe.

Mr. Reichert is making a special trip to Arizona for a critical Q&A about the movie and gerrymandering.

GERRYMANDERING: THE MOVIE

• Where: Arizona State Historical Society Muesum, 1300 North College Avenue Tempe, AZ 85281 (map)

• When: Tuesday, November 16th

• Time: 6:30

• Cost: $10 suggested donation

• Website

• Facebook Page

Arizona is about to redistrict all of our legislative and congressional districts. If you care about the future of politics in Arizona, this is the most important movie you could see all year.

It may just change the way you view the political system and help explain why so many people feel their votes ‘don’t count.’

Written off as another victim of the Republican resurgence on election night, Proposition 203—the only citizen initiative on this year’s ballot— proved that elections aren’t over until the last ballot is accounted for. After ten days of counting ballots the medical marijuana initiative came from behind and eked out a narrow victory.

Arizona Capitol Times reporter Evan Wyloge talks to ABC15 about how the initiative eventually got the votes it needed to pass:

Big splashy story on the front page of the Valley & State section the other day.

Autism therapy group says it cured 6 kids

Results from a Phoenix study of a behavior therapy designed to cure autism give hope to thousands of Arizona families and could revamp special education in the state’s public schools.

But the costly price tag could keep the treatment out of reach for many families. And the state’s budget crisis could mean implementation is years away at the school level.

The Center for Autism and Related Disorders says it has cured six of 14 autistic children who participated in a $5.4 million, state-funded study in the Phoenix area.

Emphasis added. We know nothing about autism, but this story doesn’t have anything close to the amount of information in it to allow someone to figure out what’s going on.

The story says that the treatment included “intensive behavior therapy” but never explains what that is. A few graphs later it’s defined again—as “a type of therapy called applied behavior analysis, known as ABA”—but it’s never explained what that entails, either.

Even further on we hear it can be “web-based.” Then we hear again that it’s “highly intense”—and can cost $200,000.

There’s very little in the story that would help a disinterested reader figure out the value of this program.

There’s mention of one child who was helped by the program, but the reporter didn’t talk to the girl involved. Instead, her parents merely say that she’s “recovered.”

The story also doesn’t explain CARD’s position in the sometimes contentious world of autism treatment, and doesn’t put this program into the context of other CARD programs or the spectrum of autism treatment generally.

And finally, the story ends on an amazing note. First, a director of the center gets to make an unchallenged paean to, unsurprisingly, the center’s work…:

Daniel Openden, the center’s vice president and clinical services director, said the CARD results are the latest to prove ABA-based therapy is the gold standard for autism treatment.

… and then, in the last lines of the story, undercuts the story’s entire premise and headline:

He sees autistic children make amazing progress, but he doesn’t say they are cured or recovered.

“Recovery can mean different things to different people, so the key is to understand how recovery is defined,” he said. “We see a range of outcomes in response to effective treatment, up to and including children who appear indistinguishable from their peers. But we’re not comfortable saying that these children no longer have autism.”

Once again, the New York Times goes where much of our local media fear to tread:

Waiting for Senator McCain

Senator John McCain has long defended the rights of military servicemen and women. It is a particular disappointment that he is vowing to filibuster the Pentagon’s spending bill unless a measure repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is stripped out — or he is satisfied about its effects on morale and readiness. Related

A Pentagon study is due on Dec. 1, and the House-approved bill delays implementation until after that report satisfactorily deals with such issues. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for repeal in the Senate’s lame-duck session, and many top military leaders have endorsed repeal as a matter of justice and military readiness. The policy, which bars gay men and lesbians from serving openly, has already driven out far too many talented and expensively trained service members.

Mr. McCain, who previously expressed support for repeal providing that it had the military leadership’s approval, should listen. His clout could be decisive. Failure to enact repeal would be a personal rebuff to troops now serving in two wars. It would also fly in the face of the public’s overwhelming support of repeal.

Republicans narrowly prevailed in filibustering “don’t ask” in September. A filibuster in the lame-duck session would run out the clock and send the issue to likely oblivion in the incoming Republican-controlled House. Justice demands a vote.

Senator McCain has a chance to do right by the military and country he championed as a war hero. He should find a reasonable way to forgo a filibuster and end this grave injustice.

During Karl Rove’s much ballyhooed speech at the downtown Phoenix Sheraton Tuesday night, he listed these ten people as potential nominees to face President Obama in the 2012 election.

• former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
• Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
• former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
• former New York Gov. George Pataki
• Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
• Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels,
• former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
• South Dakota Sen. John Thune

Next year’s Phoenix municipal election is getting more interesting by the week. Several high-profile residents are testing the waters for a bid at becoming the next Mayor of the county’s fifth biggest city.

The latest to express an interest? Republican operative Wes Gullett.

From PHXBeat on azcentral.com:

Add Wes Gullett to the list of Phoenix residents contemplating a run for mayor.

Gullett has not filed paperwork with the Phoenix City Clerk Department yet, but said Wednesday morning he intends to do soon.

“This is a critical time in Phoenix for leadership that will be dedicated to getting us out of this economic downturn,” said Gullett, who is chairman of the Phoenix Planning Commission. “We’ve got to have an almost laser-like focus to do everything we can to grow this economy.”

Gullett is one of the Valley’s prominent Republicans. He had a big hand in Gov. Fife Symington’s administration and was the deputy campaign manager for Sen. John McCain’s presidential run in 2000.

Gullett is the founding partner of FirstStrategic, Communications & Public Affairs and says his strategic planning experience could benefit Phoenix during a critical time when many say the city needs to craft a focused vision for the future.

“I’ve built a career on looking to the future and succeeding for the people I work for, and I want to take that into the public realm,” Gullett said.

Several Phoenix leaders have expressed interest in replacing Phil Gordon, who is finishing his last four-year term as mayor. Current council members Claude Mattox and Peggy Neely have filed exploratory committees for mayor. Other who have said they’re considering a run for mayor include local business owner and community activist Kimber Lanning, retail developer Jim Pederson and former Councilman Greg Stanton. Councilman Michael Johnson also has said he’s not ruling out the possibility of running for mayor.