The case against Ben Quayle
1. He’s unqualified. He doesn’t have a profession. He’s trained as a lawyer, recently started an “investment firm.” He hasn’t held a job in his life for more than a year or two.
2. When the nation, two years ago, was facing challenges on several fronts—mismanaged wars, soaring deficits, an economy falling down a sinkhole, Quayle was nowhere to be seen.
3. Did he offer his opinions or advice? Take a public stand? Maybe even point out that, as a Republican, he was troubled by the holy mess his party had gotten the country in?
4. No. Instead, he was helping a friend get a porny web site off the ground. It was called Dirty Scottsdale, with a plan for establishing itself as Skank Central for the sleazy nightlife crowd.
5. When the economy was collapsing, Ben was writing for the site under the name Brock Landers, and went on a search for “Scottsdale’s foxiest first lady!”
6. Ben moved to the district recently and got a congressional campaign going. His main funding source: Friends of his daddy’s! Former president Bush held a fundraiser for him in Texas! In Texas—for a guy from Phoenix who’s done nothing his entire life.
7. Then it came out that Ben had a skanky past. When questioned… he denied it. Then changed his story. Then said “My response has been consistent.”
8. The Arizona Republic, which used to be owned by his family, helped him out by carefully not going into any detail about his involvement with the porny web site during the Republican primary.
9. In that primary he got about 22 percent of the vote. It was a crowded field; that was enough to win. Even Republicans don’t like him.
10. To get attention, Little Benny ran a commercial saying “Barack Obama is the worst president in history.” Sane people know that Barack Obama isn’t even the worst president of the 21st century.
11. He dodged debates with his opponent, Jon Hulburd, finally agreeing to one half-hour session.
12. His public events have been nil. PHXated’s repeatedly asked his campaign for a single time he’s made a scheduled public appearance. There hasn’t been one we know of.
13. His campaign has also refused to answer basic questions about his positions. There are candidates running for ASU class president who have more substantive issue pages. Does he think woman should be jailed for having an abortion? Should gays be allowed openly to serve in the military? To our knowledge, Quayle has never answered these questions.
8:47 AM
To New Times' James King, Ben Quayle is a hunk-a hunk-a burnin' GOP love!
We here at PHXated celebrate polymorphous perversity as much as the next guy or gal, but we don’t see the sexual attraction of Ben Quayle.
He has his dad’s deer-in-the-headlights look. He’s spindly and nervous and dumb as a box of rocks.
And the single notable achievement in his life is writing for a porny web site.
We like our candidates to be up on the issues. We get turned on by the policy wonks.
A few years back, when the country was facing two mismanaged wars, trillions in debt, and a financial meltdown that threatened our way of life, Ben Quayle didn’t lend his voice to the debate.
Instead, he was on the hunt for foxy chicks for Dirty Scottsdale.
But for James King, one of the contributors to New Times' Valley Fever blog, Quayle is the boy-man of his dreams.
Here he is harping on Quayle’s opponent, Jon Hulburd, again for the crime of doing what any other candidate would do. i.e., pour some money in at the end of what’s turned out to be an unexpectedly close race.
Up to now, King’s been writing long posts trying to explain away Quayle’s lies about having worked for Dirty Scottsdale.
As we’ve said before, King’s a serious journalist and New Times is a serious place, but we think King’s being unacceptably partisan on this issue.
PHXated can see that Quayle is a dink and something of a creep, and finds his opponent, Jon Hulburd, to be a guy who’s very smart, up on the issues, and almost compulsively forthright. (He’s basing that contention on one interview and watching, over the weekend, Hulburd in action at a house party meet-and-greet.)
At the same time, we’ve attacked Hulburd’s crazy support for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts, among other things.
And I don’t want to get into the particulars, but we’ve also done something that had one of Hulburd’s top campaign people calling and screaming at us for days.
In other words, PHXated isn’t spinning for Hulburd.
King is definitely spinning for Quayle.
While getting granular in trying to defend Quayle’s handing of his Dirty Scottsdale scandal, King’s basically trying to make the point that Quayle successfully lied to reporters when they asked about his involvement, so it’s not fair either to a) attack him for the involvement or b) accuse him of lying.
That’s strikes us as a bit … extrajournalistic.
And it evades the point that Quayle was running around chasing chicas in Scottsdale when he could have been doing something a little more … public policy oriented.
And now King’s hammering on some lawsuits that were brought against Hulburd ten years ago. He published his first post on these mid-afternoon on Wednesday, Oct. 13… fortuitously timed for Ben Quayle to bring them up in a debate that started less than an hour later.
Another example: in writing about a recent Public Policy Polling poll of the district, King went out of his way to disparage PPP as a liberal outfit.
But in FiveThirtyEight.com’s rating of pollsters, Nate Silver puts PPP in the middle; in fact, the company gets much better scores than a lot of reputable outfits like CNN/Opinion Research, the LA Times/Bloomberg, and Gallup.
(The closeness of the Hulburd/Quayle race was a surprise, and it’s fair to question the findings in that one poll, as King also does; I’m just pointing out another instance where spin seems to be seeping in to King’s analysis as well. PHXated, by the by, went out of its way to note Silver’s skepticism of that particular poll.)
You can read all of PHXated’s Ben Quayle coverage here.
10:00 AM
FiveThirtyEight.com analyzes that poll that puts Ben Quayle behind
From Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog on NYTimes.com:
Public Policy Polling conducts surveys for Democratic candidates (and Daily Kos, a liberal blog) in addition to issuing surveys under its own name. Until recently, we have not found an especially large “house effect” for Public Policy Polling — that is, they’ve had plenty of surveys showing poor numbers for Democrats. But lately, such an effect has arguably become more noticeable: they are the only pollster, for instance, to show the Democrat Michael Bennet with a lead in Colorado, although several other pollsters have shown that race tightening. And their survey of Arizona’s Third Congressional District, which showed the Republican Ben Quayle trailing in a district that ordinarily leans Republican, has raised a few eyebrows, although Mr. Quayle may be an unappealing enough candidate that the result is not necessarily implausible.
6:46 PM
New Times on Ben Quayle: Does James King heart Ben Quayle a little too much?
The paper’s James King profiles the candidate at length. There’s a very funny graphic, by Jamie Peachey, that portrays Quayle as the 40-year-old virgin:
The story, while not a puff piece, lets Quayle off the hook on a couple of issues, notably the Dirty Scottsdale tale.
Besides being a hypocrite by being a family-values Republican with a history of working for a skanky, woman-hating web site, Quayle lied about it when he was first asked.
New Times is a good paper and King is one of its typically strong reporters.
But this doesn’t wash:
[I]t turns out that Quayle didn’t lie — he just didn’t volunteer information about his association with Dirty Scottsdale.
The Politico reporter who first called Quayle didn’t ask him whether he had written for the Web site. She asked if he was involved in the founding of The Dirty, to which Quayle answered no.
The reporter’s next question was, “You had nothing to do with it?” Quayle contends he thought the reporter still was referring to the establishment of The Dirty and answered no again.
[…]
But the damage was done. The claim that he initially lied about his involvement made the front page of the New York Times.
That’s plainly total bullshit.
Here’s the original Politico passage:
“I did not have a role in founding that site,” Quayle, a lawyer who runs a small Scottsdale investment firm, told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday morning when asked whether he was one of the original contributors to the sex-themed site.
“I was not involved in the site,” he said when pressed about whether he had any role.
In other words, Quayle tried to weasel around the question by framing his first answer carefully. (Note how the reporter includes her original question.)
But then, of course, she pressed him, and he specifically said he wasn’t involved in the site, when asked if he had any role.
It’s one thing to try to lie when asked a question like that, and it’s another level of deceit to try to pretend that your lie had been successful when it plainly hadn’t. That’s what Quayle’s been doing since.
King has it entirely wrong and should correct the story. Quayle plainly lied.
I think it’s fair to beat up on King about this because he’s given Quayle a pass as well on his cheesy little family mailer in which he posed with two little girls, even though he doesn’t have kids.
And finally, Quayle is never asked about his right-wing views.
Among other things, King could have asked him about his position on abortion, and specifically to what extent he would criminalize it if he had the chance.
He could also have asked him about the astate’s medical marijuana initiative—and whether he’d ever tried it himself.
11:47 AM
1Live-blogging the Ben Quayle/Jon Hulburd debate
It’s over.
Simons says the tape will be up on the KAET web site, but it’s not there yet.
I assume it will be on this page.
PHXated will post when it becomes available.
Incredibly, it’s almost over. Closing statements. Schoen goes on some more about manufacturing jobs.
Quayle says he wants to “bend the cost care curve down” in health care. Yeah, that’s always been a big GOP priority. He says he’ll work to repeal the health care bill.
Hulburd says repealing health care is a fairy tale. He says he’s going to go back and act like legislators.
Will Quayle kick the new kids on the health care rolls off? Hulburd says he likes part of the bill, not other parts.
Elect someone who will deal with this as an adult, he says. Hard to argue with that.
Simons asks about immigration reform. A bad question: “Is it needed, how do you do it?”
Quayle wants “a barrier from the Pacific to the Gulf.” He natters on about drug cartels. He wont' talk about reform until “we secure the border.”
Hulburd tries to attack Quayle from the right on this, saying that Quayle has been arguing for a guest worker program. Quayle says only after the border is secured.
Hulburd hits Quayle hard; he notes Quayle’s getting a lot of his money from Cerebrus capital.
Quayle says Hulburd’s getting money from a union. Hulburd says he’ll give back his $10K in union contributions if Quayle gives back the $80K he got from Cerebrus.
Tarp was not the way to go, Quayle says. He says the banks were that much in trouble.
Jesus these guys are bush league. Tarp was a Bush initiative supported by both parties and economists on both sides.
Hulburd says Tarp was a terrible idea, a disaster. Simons says, so should we have let the fire burn itself out? He says yes, the rich people got bailed out by the Titanic. He’s wrong.
Schoen notes than Greenspan has said you can’t cut taxes with borrowed money. He says the tax cuts are jsut going to blow out the deficit. He should be asking both Quayle and Hulburd to address that issue.
Tom Schoen
Simons asks a hard question of Quayle: Business, he notes, aren’t putting their money to work; they husbanding it, buying back shares and the like.
He babbles in response, not answering the question. None of it makes sense.
Simon turns to Schoen, who says he was once sued for defamation, too. I don’t think he needed to volunteer that. But he seems not to be an idiot on the economy.
Hulburd sounds good on the economy too. Even under Simons questioning he sticks to his support for extending the Bush tax cuts.
Quayle keep[s nattering on about “uncertainty.”
(This is a bullshit Republican talking point. Rich people had certainty. They knew their tax cuts were going to end this year; the only uncertainty was whether they could con Congress isn’t extending them.)
Quayle says Hulburd was using blatant lies in ads. When asked, Quayle says it was a lie that he’d pretended to have kids in a mailer. (Which he did.) Hulburd notes that it wasn’t a lie.
The moderator keeps hitting Hulburd, not Quayle. “He says he’s regrets the association,” he says to Hulburd. “Why isn’t that good enough?”
Jesus.
Quayle says he’s been tested in the primary. He says he’s been candid the whole time. (He hasn’t.) He has a deer in the headlights look.
He attacks Hulburd for having been sued for defamation and fraud. Hulburd says the suits were nuisance suits and dismissed with prejudice.
Quayle says something stupid, too: “It didn’t go through the proper trial.” He tries to make it sound suspicious. Well, if they were dismissed, they wouldn’t have “gone through the proper trial” … because they were dismissed.
The moderator asks a dumb question of Hulburd: Why harp on Quayle and Dirty Scottsdale? Hulburd says because character matters.
To that question, Quayle says it’s because he’s going to go to D.C. and fight for the people. Jesus. He says watching actions in D.C. the last year and a half is the best experience anyone could have.
Moderator Simons asked Hulburd why he’s qualified. Hulburd says it’s a fair question, and notes his social, business and personal experience. He stresses he work as a lawyer and family man and volunteer work for Children’s Hospital.
Schoen, the libertarian, shows a chart, demonstrating the decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Hulburd begins, and goes on the attack. He ridicules Qualye for an ad with a wildly inaccurate ad about the federal deficit and goes after him for his involvement in Dirty Scottsdale.
Quayle says it’s “one of the most important elections in the country’s history.”
Quayle tries to attack Obama and the health care initiative.
It’s starting. An “open exchange of ideas,” moderator Ted Simons says. Interruptions are allowed. there’s a libertarian there, too, Michael Schoen, a former prosecutor.
The Ben Quayle-Jon Hulburd debate is scheduled to last for an absurd 30 minutes.
It will be broadcast on Phoenix’s public TV station, channel 8, KAET.
Stay tunes for live-blogging when it begins at 7 p.m. PDT.
(Out-of-state readers please note Arizona doesn’t recognize daylight savings time, it being a comminist plot of some sort, and is a consequence operating currently in the Pacific time zone.)
PHXated’s complete coverage of the life and times of Little Benny Quayle is here.
The complete Brock Landers story is here.
PHXated’s interview with Jon Hulburd is here.
The weird little story about whatever it is that Ben Quayle’s wife does is here.
Braham Resnik to Ben Quayle: “What have you ever done to ‘knock the hell’ out of anything?”.
6:49 PM
The Hulburd-Quayle debate is tonight
It will air at 7 on channel 8.
Incredibly, the Quayle campaign agreed only to a 30-minute session.
The Hulburd campaign says Quayle turned down an offer for a prime-time debate from channel 12, the NBC affiliate.
The Arizona Republic, either through complete incompetence or as part of a campaign to help Ben Quayle ascend to office with as little public examination as possible, has no mention of it that I can find on its web site.
The session is being taped at 4 this afternoon. Hulburd’s campaign manager, Ruben Alonzo, will be tweeting from the session, which is closed to the public. His handle is @ralonzo.
3:15 PM
Jon Hulburd's first TV commercial
Hulburd is the conservative Democrat running for the 3rd district Congressional seat being vacated by John Shadegg.
His first TV commercial continues to hammer on Dan Quayle for everything you’d expect.
2:53 PM
New Times smacks Jon Hulburd
One of the weekly’s main political writers, John James King*, goes after Hulburd for a new ad that smacks his opponent, Little Benny Quayle, for “lying” about having kids in a campaign ad.
The Quayle campaign ad story is interesting. (It’s chronicled by PHXated here.)
His campaign sent out a mailing with a shot of Quayle cuddling two cute little girls; the legend said “A NEW GENERATION.”
In the copy below, we read: “Tiffany [his wife] and I live in this district and are going to raise our family here.”
Now, King’s not the only smart person I know who thinks Quayle is being unfairly hit on this issue.
But I don’t.
The intent of the mailer is plain. Two little girls … “raise our family.” Of course that’s the message the mailer was trying to get across.
And there are other slightly skeevy things the Quayle campaign does to protect his flank on this issue.
One of his other TV ads had Quayle saying, “I love Arizona. I was raised right”—a not-so-subtle attempt to get the idea across that he was “raised” in “Arizona,” when he wasn’t.
This is slightly tangential, but that line I kept reading about Quayle’s wife “managing a Fortune 500 company”—that was skeevy too.
And we never hear what Quayle does, because it’s true—he has had four or five different jobs in his undistinguished career, and that’s not counting his time writing for a porny web site, which he did lie about.
King’s right that Hulburd does take a lot of Republican positions, but this a benightedly dumb district—which sent Shadegg to Congress for years, and might do the same for the unqualified Quayle.
And as PHXated noted before, Hulburd is a smart guy with a solid background on most of the issues. How can you begrudge a guy for not embarking on a suicide mission?
Previously in PHXated:
The complete Dirty Scottsdale tale.
So … what exactly does Ben Quayle’s wife do?.
How the Arizona Republic took a dive on the tawdry Ben Quayle/Dirty Scottsdale story.
- PHXated misspelled King’s name originally. Apologies.
8:02 AM
What are Jan Brewer's chances of losing her election?
According to Nate Silver’s 538.com, the answer is dispiriting:
8:35 AM
Crime in Arizona—down again
The Blog for Arizona has posted about the FBI’s new national crime numbers.
The full national overview is here.
Arizona had an extraordinary drop in crimes per 100,000 people, down to 408.3 from 481.2, a 15 percent drop.
That is as opposed to 6 percent nationally.
The chart does not break out kidnappings; Arizona’s uneasy relationship to that particular crime statistic is detailed here.
8:00 AM
Jon Hulburd on Ben Quayle's "theater of the absurd"
The Hulburd campaign held a conference call with local bloggers this a.m.
Hulburd came across as very knowledgable. He spoke calmly and with authority, and with a fairly high level of granularity about almost every issue.
On a couple of subjects—extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and ending the estate tax—his positions are indistinguishable from the Republican economic policies that nearly destroyed the country. (And that have beggared Arizona.)
When pressed on these points by the largely liberal contingent on the phone, he stood his ground.
But one most other issues he came across as fairly sane: He was pro choice; in favor of ending don’t ask don’t tell; he supported the cap and trade initiative; he advocated green and alternative energy policies, particularly for how they could help improve Arizona’s economy.
On trade he was more moderate, saying he was for “fair trade,” not “free trade.”
The highlights, however, were when he went after his opponent, Ben Quayle.
On Quayle’s “Obama is the worst president in history” ad:
“Part of my response has been muted out there. … I don’t want to be in a position of making this a big issue, because it plays into stupid Ben Quayle and his stupid ad.
“There are twelve different reasons it’s not just factually wrong but that it’s the wrong messenger, even if you’re on the right.
“Everything about it, visually and scripted, is repugnant and silly. It’s a theater of the absurd.”
But he noted that the ad might have motivated voters in the primary and that his campaign was on the lookout for the next similar gambit.
Asked about Quayle’s weaknesses, Hulburd offered a long assessment.
Specifically setting aside Quayle’s involvement with the skanky Dirty Scottsdale web site, Hulburd said Quayle was vulnerable in three areas: Professional, political and social.
“The social stuff. He’s barely been here. As a father of five I’d like to see him spend a couple of years juggling school schedules and changing diapers and doing what regular people have to do.
“He has no life experiences both in the Valley or elsewhere that I can tell you about that make me think the guy gets it.
“From the professional standpoint, I don’t think one year at Snell & Wilmer [a law firm at which Quayle was an associate] qualifies him for anything…. And what has he done for the community? His bio is thin as a reed …
“He’s done very very little if anything as far as community works.
“And then this political piece is fascinating. [The Vernon Parker campaign] was trying to push him as an empty suit. I think that’s what he is. … and it galls me that he could simply come in here and so cavalierly pick up this very very important seat.
“If I scrabble and work hard and get it, we all know if I get it I’ll be under attack instantly. If he gets it he’s there until he’s our next senator.”
Hulburd was asked about Quayle’s carpetbagger status.
“He’s making a big deal about it the wrong way. He should do what I do, which is say that like a lot of you I come from somewhere else and move on. [Hulburd has actually been in the valley for nearly three decades.]
“And what he does is say he’s fourth generation and that he has all these amazing ties in the valley, which is a load of shit.
“He bought a house in the district last December.
“And a month later his new congressman, John Shadegg, announces he’s getting out, and a month after that he gets in, and a month after that he gets married.
“And in that three- or four-month period, if I were 33 years old my head would explode. It would change your world.
“He has no ties to District three, it’s silly.”
Previously in PHXated:
The complete Dirty Scottsdale tale.
So … what exactly does Ben Quayle’s wife do?.
How the Arizona Republic took a dive on the tawdry Ben Quayle/Dirty Scottsdale story.
1:04 PM
EaterAZ is looking for a few good taco judges
The people behind the local food blog EaterAZ did a barbecue fest last year, and then looked around for new challenges.
They noticed that the taco field was wide open; the first Arizona Taco Festival is scheduled for October. Now they need judges:
As you know, we are producing the first taco festival in the history of the world. (No, really, it’s never been done. Isn’t that freakin’ crazy?!) Because we wanted to keep the judging fair and balanced (meaning blind and qualified), we launched an organization called the National Taco Association. Consider it the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) of tacos. After attending a brief class on taco judging and score keeping, you will hold one of the most important positions at the Arizona Taco Festival on October 9. A judges duties are grueling–-you will hang out in a tent from 10AM to 4PM, eating free tacos and marking scores and having fun.
Interested? Send a note to info@aztacofestival.com.
Details here.
8:59 AM
Why did the Republic fire one of its bloggers ... and scrub his work from its website without notice?
Nick Martin, at Heat City, says that Bill Richardson, an ex-cop who blogged for the Republic on police matters, has been dropped by the Republic …and had his entire body of work expunged from the paper’s site, with no notice.
Any paper can publish whom it wants, of course. But with the Republic, there’s always something weird going on:
Richardson said one of the paper’s opinion editors, Joanna Allhands, called him Monday to tell him the blog was being yanked because of recent posts he had written about the Tempe Police Department.
[…]
But reached by phone late Tuesday, Allhands flatly denied the move was made because of Richardson’s criticism of Tempe.
“No, that’s not correct,” she said when asked about the allegation. Still, she refused to explain why Richardson’s blog was closed or why his entire archive was deleted from the website.
Seems like either Richardson or Allhands is lying!
And in any case, scrubbing the archive with no notice or explanation is a no-no.
7:06 AM
UPDATE: TheDirty.com libel suit
The AP reported yesterday that a Cinncinnati cheerleader had won a default libel suit against the proprietor of a site called “the Dirt.com.”
The Arizona Republic reported that as a judgment against the site we all know as TheDirty.com, the place where Young Benny Quayle undertook some of his early nightlife epistolary efforts.
PHXated repeated the news (see orignal post below), even correcting the AP’s error.
Turns out the story was half right in about three different ways.
TheDirty is the site that said the cheerleader had VD. But the suit was filed against a different site, TheDirt.com, which ignored it and got a default judgment of $11 million against it. Hilarity has presumably ensued.
Politico has the story here.
It contains these entertaining passages from Eric Deters, the plaintiff’s attorney, about TheDirty.com founder and Quayle literary amanuensis Nik Richie:
“We’re still going to serve that S.O.B. personally,” Deters said of Richie. “I’m going to make that dirty, rotten, mean, vermin bastard pay. He’s a piece of dirt.”
When asked what he thought about Quayle blogging for Dirty Scottsdale, Deters – who has been following national media coverage of the political novice – called it “absolutely disgraceful.”
“He ought to be ashamed of himself,” Deters said “He’s another lying little weasel politician. That’s not slander; that is my opinion.”
Updates as they happen.
The original post:
One of the grimier things about TheDirty.com, the web site Ben Quayle wrote for and helped found, is now hateful many of its postings are.
As we’ve mentioned before, they basically come down to “she has VD.”
The practice seems to have cost the site and its founder, Hooman Karamian, who goes by the name Nik Ritchie, $11 million.
From the AP:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A gossip website has been hit with an $11 million judgment for libel and slander after posting false accusations about a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.
The judgment against Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, which runs the site Thedirt.com [sic], came Thursday after the site did not respond to a lawsuit brought by Sarah Jones. The high school teacher’s picture was posted on the site along with an accusation she had been exposed to two venereal diseases.
Richie is the guy who told Politico that Quayle had helped him get the site going and had written for it under the name Brock Landers.
10:40 AM
Newsflash: Arizona Republic readers learn about Ben Quayle's porny alter ego
In its campaign wrap-up story today, the Arizona Republic tells its readers that Ben Quayle might not be the ideal GOP candidate to replace John Shadegg.
Why?
Well, turns out the sanctimonious family-values candidate used to write for, and palled around with the founder of, a sleazy web site in Scottsdale.
His nom de skank was Brock Landers, the name of a porn actor in Boogie Nights.
As PHXated has noted here and here, while the story has been a national news staple for the past two week, the Arizona Republic has apparently never mentioned it in its news pages.
(We have yet to find an actual printed story in which this was mentioned; the paper has run a couple of wire stories on the web site. It certainly has not done what you’d expect, which is routinely make reference to an ongoing scandal in a major local political campaign.)
Until today, that is… two days after the election he was running in.
11:14 PM
Ben Quayle cancelled his own victory party
From Politico:
After a cascade of accusations and ever-shifting denials that he wrote for a raunchy website under the name of a fictional porn star, it seemed even Ben Quayle thought he was going to lose a 10-way Republican primary in Arizona.
Quayle, the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, went so far as to cancel a victory party he had planned to hold Tuesday night to watch the returns in the race for the GOP nod to replace retiring Rep. John Shadegg in the 3rd District.
6:34 AM
It's primary day
Remember, what can help Arizona most is moderates who can improve the state’s standing nationally … and help bring in the federal dollars that pork disdainers like McCain and Shadegg have not.
Accordingly, the people to root for today are the weakest, dumbest and most politically wounded candidates in the various Republican primaries; they will be most vulnerable in the fall, right?
In other words, go Ben Quayle!
McCain — a bad senator, a bad person, and a bad man — seems safe from challenger J.D. Hayworth, who would have been fun to have on the ballot in November.
But there are some interesting Congressional races as well, notably the one for the retiring Shadegg’s seat, which came to national attention after Quayle’s cheesy past as a writer for a skanky web site came to light.
Again, PHXated hopes Quayle wins today, but has generously extended a blogging invitation to Quayle should he be unemployed tomorrow. The search for Scottsdale’s Foxiest Chick has just begun!
Here’s Politico’s analysis of the Gabrielle Giffords race:
The 8th District — a vast expanse that stretches south and east from Tucson, through Sierra Vista and Tombstone, all the way to a corner border with Mexico and New Mexico — provides an ideal test case to understand the degree to which national political forces might sweep aside even a polished incumbent who has steeled herself for the onslaught by paying close attention to state and local matters.
“She’s done everything she needs to do. If she loses, it would be one of those cases where it doesn’t matter how much you spent, it doesn’t matter what you do,” said Rodolfo Espino, a political science professor at Arizona State University.
Here particularly, Giffords' position will be more secure if a nut named Jesse Kelly wins the GOP primary for the seat. Politico:
Conventional political wisdom holds that candidates like him can’t attract enough support in a general election-when the electorate is considerably broader and more diverse-but Kelly seems determined to test the proposition anyway.
In a district in which nearly 17 percent of the population was 65 years old or older at the time of the last census, Kelly wants to phase out Social Security — going a step further than the plan in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) “Roadmap” that he also endorses.
Here’s 538.com’s analyses of the races:
AZ’s crowded Republican House primaries feature three contests in districts where GOPers think they have a chance of beating incumbent Democrats, and one for an open Republican seat.
The race that’s attracted the most national attention is probably in AZ-08, a Tucson-based district represented by two-term Democrat Gabby Giffords. A classic Establishment-Tea Party matchup involving former state senator Jonathan Paton, the early frontrunner, and Tea Party activist Jesse Kelley, is considered very close. Giffords is a veteran of two close races, and is building up her campaign treasury as Republicans squabble, but her opposition to the new AZ immigration law and votes for key Obama legislation have made her appear vulnerable.
In Phoenix-suburban AZ-03, where Republican John Shadegg is retiring, the early frontrunner was Ben Quayle, son of the former Veep from Indiana, but he is fighting to hold off self-funder Steve Moak. It’s been a battle of self-inflicted wounds, with Quayle hurt by association with an off-color internet site (to which he occasionally made posts under a pseudonym inspired by a porn-star character in Boogie Nights), and Moak battling claims of conflicts of interest between non-profit and for-profit businesses.
In AZ-05, another Phoenix-area district, former Maricopa County Treasurer David Schweikert is so confident of victory that he’s saving money for a general election against Democratic incumbent Harry Mitchell, but businessman Jim Ward remains financially competitive down the stretch.
And in the huge, largely rural AZ-01, dentist Paul Gosar is in a close race with 2008 nominee Sydney Hay for the right to take on freshman Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick. The incumbent beat Hay by a 56-40 margin two years ago.
… and, for variety’s sake, a sample from Greg Patterson’s:
CD 3
Conventional wisdom is that Quayle was the favorite, but self destructed with his handling of the Dirty Scottsdale revelations. That means that Moak is likely to take the race—assuming that Quayle self destructed early enough.
I think the candidate to watch is Waring. He’s represented the district for many years and he walks door to door every weekend. Remember that the race has 10 candidates and at least 7 of them are credible. So you can win with a really low vote count. CD 3 is actually looking like a large scale legislative race. That means that Waring’s shoe leather is likely to offset Moak’s money.
6:30 AM
"Sunday Square Off," with Donna Gratehouse and Greg Patterson
Brahm Resnik’s Sunday Square Off this morning featured our own Donna Gratehouse, the Democratic Diva, along with intermittently nutty right-winger Greg Patterson, who blogs under the name Espresso Pundit; and political consultant Stan Barnes, looking at Tuesday’s state primary.
7:34 AM
Jon Talton: How did they screw up our economy?
The former Republic columnist, now a Seattle-based author, continues his must-read meditations on the Valley and its discontents, “Phoenix 101.”
In his most recent post, he describes the diverse economy the area once had, ranging from vast swaths of agriculture to tech firms:
[B]y the late 1940s, Phoenix’s leaders knew the city must attract new industries or it couldn’t sustain its growing population. Stewards such as Frank Snell made aggressive efforts to attract “clear industry.” It paid off with AiResearch, Hughes Aircraft, Sperry Rand, General Electric and especially Motorola. Makers of automobiles and tractors were lured to establish proving grounds to test under desert conditions. (Between the mines, railroads and construction, membership was very high statewide in trade unions).
In other words, as Phoenix emerged as a populous city in the 1960s, it had an strikingly dynamic and diverse economy, with well-paying jobs — especially for a place so isolated and relatively new. Of course real estate and construction were big (along with tourism). Maryvale and Sun City were new. The groves of Arcadia were being turned into subdivisions. Land fraud was rampant — I remember vividly one man who defrauded my grandmother, a real estate agent, being sent to prison; the Arizona Republic’s martyred reporter Don Bolles earned his chops on exposing such schemes. But real estate was a consequence of the real economy. Real estate wasn’t the economy.
You know what’s coming:
Much changed from when I left in 1978 and returned in 2000. By that point, the Phoenix economy, while still containing the remnants of the old chip makers plus Intel, had degenerated into a massive real-estate Ponzi scheme plus some call centers. Everything depended on adding 100,000 more people a year. Aside from this, the metro economy couldn’t match up to the diversity, quality, dynamism or incomes of its peers. Arizona, after tracking the national average in per-capita income as late as the 1980s, consistently lost ground, a trend that continued during the 2000s “boom.”
The balance of his very long and persuasive post details meticulously how that change happened.
You can read it here.
The complete Phoenix 101 archive is here.
8:25 AM
Confidential to Ben Quayle: On Wednesday, give us a call!
Your big primary is Tuesday. You might be the GOP nominee in the race to replace John Shadegg in Arizona’s 3rd congressional district.
We have to be honest. We hope you win.
The primary, that is.
Last week it was revealed you used to hell around Scottsdale with the guy who founded Dirty Scottsdale.com, a skanky nightlife web site now morphed into The Dirty.com.
You used to write for the site under the name Brock Landers, a man embarked on an epic quest for Scottsdale’s hottest foxiest chick or somesuch, while all around you the site posted porny photos of club denizens with a lot of speculation about venereal diseases.
A classy operation!
This was two or three years ago.
Now all of a sudden you’re a family values Republican who borrows other peoples' kids so you look like a family man.
Anyway, like we said we hope you win, because you’d be vulnerable in the general.
But, here’s the deal.
The Dirty.com has really taken off. You seem to be a web guy with a magic touch.
And be honest: Is the search for Scottsdale’s hottest chick really over?
We think you’re the guy who can help find her—and help PHXated find its groove.
So, like we said, we hope you win on Tuesday.
But if not .. on Wednesday, drop us a line!
The complete Ben Quayle story is here.
5:01 PM
PHXations—Friday, August 20, 2010
The Hoover Dam bypass is almost done. The most noted part of the new route, which means that the trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas will not include the crawl over the two-lane Hoover Dam, is a gynormous, 900-foot-high bridge.
Reports the Republic:
The Federal Highway Administration has not picked an exact opening date for the $114 million span, officially named the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. At a sneak preview Thursday to showcase the completion of the bridge deck, officials announced an opening gala on Oct. 16. A federal spokeswoman said the bridge will open in early November.
Workers are finishing the last details on the bridge as well as the highway connections and access paths for walkers, gawkers and bicyclists. The work includes installing a pedestrian railing, building a parking lot for visitors, and adding lighting, striping and crash barriers to the approach roads.
The story says that the Arizona approach to Hoover Dam will be closed, so you’ll have to get to Nevada if you want to see the dam proper.
The dam’s official name is the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
Tillman, of course, is the Arizona football star was was killed in friendly fire in Afghanistan. O'Callaghan is a former governor of Nevada.
Nick Martin is the Valley’s best blogger, Phoenix magazine says.
The mag’s Best of the Valley issue salutes Martin’s blog, Heat City, calling it “a true marvel of D-I-Y journalism”:
Competing against entire newsrooms at The Arizona Republic and other newspapers, Martin took first place in breaking news at the most recent Arizona Press Club Awards for getting the scoop on a series of arrests related to the 2004 bombing of the Scottsdale diversity office
IN other media awards, the Republic’s E.J. Montini is given best columnist and Buildproof.com, which helps folks remodel their kitchens, is deemed best local web site.
The Arizona Department of Commerce says that unemployment in the state held steady at its already high rate of 9.6 percent.
From the PBJ:
The Phoenix metro area’s unemployment rate moved from 8.7 percent in June to 8.8 percent in July
From July 2009 to July 2010 Arizona lost 6,800 jobs, or 0.3 percent of its total workforce.
6:40 AM
The complete Ben Quayle/Brock Landers links list!
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a wee little web site, Dirty Scottsdale.
On the site, folks sent in pics of marginal nightlife people, to which was paired commentary distinguished as much by its grammatical uncertainty as its utterly skanky content—generally asseverations about venereal disease and the like.
One of its early noted contributors was a guy named Brock Landers.
Landers was a man on a mission, namely to find Scottsdale’s First Foxy Chick.
This was in 2007.
Flash forward three years. Dirty Scottsdale is now a network of sites, all published under the name of The Dirty.
And meanwhile, a young man named Little Benny Quayle decides to run for Congress. This is a venue open to him if not too many other folks of his fairly undistinguished life work because he happens to be the son of a former vice president of the United States.
All is going well (well, fairly well), until a bombshell drops in a story on a national political web site.
The story says young Quayle had been a writer for Dirty Scotsdale, under the name “Brock.”
In the story, Quayle denied that it was he!
Politico: Quayle denies link to Scottsdale site
“I was not involved in the site,” Quayle said.
But the story quoted the site’s founder, Nik Richie, who would seem to have been in a position to know, saying that Quayle had posted eight to ten times on the blog.
Soon, he weighed in with his version of events on The Dirty.
The Dirty: I Think It is Time ….
He wrote:
Since the beginning (DirtyScottsdale.com) three years ago, I have gotten the same question from the DIRTY ARMY from all over the world: “Who is Brock from the Dirty Celeb Brock’s Chick?”
I have kept it a secret until right now… the mystery man is Ben Quayle aka Brock Landers, the son of Vice President Dan Quayle. If you are a DIRTY ARMY Republican, vote for Ben Quayle because he was one of the original creators of DirtyScottsdale.com which evolved into TheDirty.com.
Phoenix’s 12 News then ran this report, which features Quayle changing his story, saying:
“I just posted comments to try to drive some traffic."
KPNX 12 News: Quayle linked to thedirty.com: Congressional candidate was trying to help out
That got Politico back into the action.
Politico: Ben Quayle changes story on web site
The site took an uncharacteristically harsh tone with the political neophyte:
Ben Quayle had a hard time getting his story straight Tuesday….
And not just about writing for the site:
Richie also told POLITICO that Quayle introduced him to attorneys at the Phoenix law firm where he worked, Snell & Wilmer, so his Internet site could incorporate. But Quayle told POLITICO Tuesday morning that he couldn’t recall whether he had made the introduction.
Later in the day, however, Quayle confirmed to several Phoenix TV stations that he introduced Richie to an intellectual property attorney at Snell & Wilmer.
“He wanted an IP attorney, and I referred him to one,” Quayle told 12News. “I don’t know if they met or not.”
The story also said that “Brock”’s full name was “Brock Landers.”
At this point, the guy who founded Dirty Scottsdale and the Dirty.com is getting mad that Quayle is denying his association.
He responds:
The Dirty: Ben Quayle is Brock Landers
Richie links to what he says is some of Quayle/Landers' best work:
The Dirty: Brock’s Chick
Wondering where Quayle got the name Brock Landers?
Meanwhile, Politico gleefully stays on the story:
Politico: Quayle’s bump on road to Congress
Politico: Quayle Lashes out at political foes
Says Quayle:
“It is amazing that the media will take a casual acquaintance and turn it into something tawdry, taking the word of a smut peddler at face value."
New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins takes a few swipes at Quayle, too.
NYT: More American Idols:
Consider Ben Quayle, the son of the former vice president. He’s running for Congress in Arizona. He’s been accused of both using a phony family in his campaign pictures and helping to found a local porn site. In response, he’s come up with a new ad in which he announces that Barack Obama is the “worst president in history,” swiftly bemoans “drug cartels in Mexico, tax cartels in D.C.” and concludes that “somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place.”
Talk about a clear agenda for change. Although Quayle does show a terrible disrespect for the records of Warren Harding and James Buchanan.
And more locally, the right-wing blogger Greg Patterson says the game might be over for Young Benny Quayle.
Espresso Pundit: If this is true then Ben Quayle has no chance of going to Congress…:
The site is awful and if it’s true that Quayle is one of the founders and authors then his political career is over.
His prediction:
If it’s too late and Quayle’s name and money let him squeak through the primary then he will get crushed by CD 3 Democratic nominee Jon Hulburd (who will go on to be crushed in 2012 by Jim Waring or Dean Martin).
To distract attention, Quayle reveals himself as a noted presidential historian, contending, in a new TV commercial, that “Barack Obama is the worst president in history”:
Everyone chuckles for a day, and then goes back to asking about Dirty Scottsdale.
Meanwhile, on the national level, Quayle keeps lying. He tells ABCnews.com, too, that he only knew Richie through referring him to a lawyer.
ABC News: Ben Quayle Denies Blogging for Racy Website.
“I am not Brock Landers,” Quayle says.
Then, on Friday, Quayle lied a few more times on CNN’s John King show.
Amusingly, King is less interested in Dirty Scottsdale than he is in Quayle’s recent contentions about Obama. (“He’s only been in office eighteen months!”)
CNN: John King USA.
“I’ve been consistent with my story from the beginning”
“I had no affiliation with that website.”
Displaying, perhaps, his father’s way with handling a gaffe, Quayle, incredibly, keeps denying he was Brock Landers to the Associated Press:
AP: Like father, like son? Quayle stumbles in Arizona
Asked about the site this week, Quayle told The Associated Press that he “wrote a couple of satirical and fictional pieces for a satirical website” but that he quit doing so once the website shifted its editorial direction away from satire. Richie says the site’s content and tone have not changed from the days when Quayle was connected to it.
When asked if he wrote as Brock Landers, Quayle said: “There’s all sorts of posts under that alias and that’s not me. That’s really all I’ve got to say about that.”
Back in Arizona, the Arizona Capitol Times advances the story, discovering that Quayle’s involvement went back deeper than previously known:
Arizona Capitol Times: Quayle’s ties to ‘The Dirty’ founder began in 2005
Recalled Richie, referred to here by his real name, Hooman Karamian:
“There were chicks all over the place, trying to hook up with celebrities,” Karamian said. “We moseyed around the bar and casino tables, just making fun of chicks.”
Karamian, who made a comment on his website about a “crazy hooker” in Tahoe said he was referring to that night, but said he was only talking about a woman that he and Quayle had assumed was a prostitute and on drugs.
“I said (on TheDirty.com), ‘Hey, do you remember that crazy hooker?’ because we saw some hooker who was acting crazy,” Karamian told the Arizona Capitol Times. “I wasn’t implying that he had sex with a hooker at all.”
Thanks for clearing that up, Nik!
On Saturday, the Dirty bites back some more:
The Dirty: Ben Quayle is the Pinocchio of politics
… And on Sunday, a little more:
The Dirty: Brock Landers’ aka Ben Quayle’s Family Values Campaign
10:22 PM
Ben Quayle lies on John King
“I’ve been consistent with my story from the beginning,” he says.
“I had no affiliation with that website.”
11:47 AM
Politico continues to dog Young Benny Quayle
Politico’s latest encapsulation of Quayle’s situation is hard to argue with:
Republican congressional candidate Ben Quayle’s glossy campaign photos and polished talking points paint for voters a portrait of a longtime Arizonan, accomplished attorney and family man who will bring a “new generation” to Washington.
The claims reflect the small biographical exaggerations that often accompany a political newcomer’s first campaign. The reality is that Quayle has held three jobs in four years, posed for pictures in campaign literature with children that were not his, and grew up in Washington with a famous father, former Vice President Dan Quayle, whose influential friends have given generously to the younger Quayle’s campaign.
But Quayle, 33, has had to confront a much bigger credibility issue this week after a blogger revealed that he had once been a contributing writer for Dirty Scottsdale, a raunchy, sex-themed website that covered the club scene in his adopted home town before morphing into the national gossip site TheDirty.com.
[…]
Quayle’s connection to the site has undercut the carefully honed image of a conservative with strong family values, and his inept handling of its disclosure brings up a different association with the Quayle name – his father’s gaffe-prone history.
Meanwhile, Quayle released a new campaign commercial today, in which, he calls Barack Obama “the worst president in history.”
… which is pretty funny.
Quayle’s father, of course, is frequently cited—here and here for example—as among the worst vice presidents in U.S. history.
And Young Benny Quayle himself isn’t exactly going to go down as one of the best congressional candidates in history.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/22/uselections2008.usa
10:05 PM
By the way ... where did the name "Brock Landers" come from?
… Apparently from the film Boogie Nights.
Young Benny Quayle took the name from an interesting character.
I haven’t seen the film recently, but it comes from a film-within-a-film, “Brock Landers: Angels Live In My Town,” in which our hero, the massively endowed Dirk Diggler, casts himself as an omnisexual crime-detecting stud:
Brock Landers: You still hungry?
Jessie St. Vincent: Starving.
Brock: [Unzipping pants] Then feast on that.
The video above is just the fake film credits.
You can see the full raunchy scene with the dialogue here:
8:55 AM
A second (and more important) big unanswered Ben Quayle question
… did wife Tiffany know about his moonlighting gig looking for Scottsdale’s Firstest Foxy Lady?
I read that the man the Sonoran Alliance calls “Benny” Quayle was married “recently.”
Quayle’s double life as the skanky Dirty Scottsdale’s Brock Landers was about three years ago.
8:49 AM
"Arizona is sui generis"
Jon Talton reflects on Ken Silverstein’s Harpers story examining Arizona’s curious polity:
Silverstein writes, “Arizonans are generally moderate…And yet Arizona politics are disproportionately controlled by ultraconservatives.” This is one of many ways where Arizona is close to being sui generis. “Arizonans” now comprise a large number of retirees and other outsiders with little interest in the state except as a sunny place to use up for their personal convenience. Apathy is widespread, as are those working multiple low-wage jobs just to survive. In most cases, those who don’t vote “no,” simply don’t vote — and that extends to Hispanic citizens. Those who vote now are mostly not moderate. […] I can think of few states with such a self-destructive electorate — Kansas doesn’t even come close.
Talton concludes:
Similarly, the influence of the Mormon church, which Silverstein mentions, is very different in Arizona than in even Utah. The anti-immigrant Jim Crow SB 1070 runs counter to LDS teaching and I have had several Mormon acquaintances privately denounce it. But privately. The East Valley LDS operates by its own cruel rules, very different from Utah and not appetizing to America upon even passing examination.
PHXated’s take on the Harpers story is here.
8:08 AM
Espresso Pundit: Andrew Thomas is unfit to serve
Greg Patterson, a hard-right Republican, starts with a cheap-shot campaign sign the Thomas forces put up against Tom Horne and then runs through a litany of Thomas' greatest hits as an abuser of his office’s power as Maricopa County’s AG.
Thomas hand picked a fellow Republican prosecutor—Yavapai County prosecutor Sheila Polk—to look into his [contentious cases against other political figures in town]. Here’s what she concluded.
I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes.
Totalitarian? Wow that’s a little harsh. It’s not like he’s been indicting his political enemies, publicly humiliating them and forcing them to go through show trials that cost them millions of dollars and ruin their careers…oh, well, never mind.
Naturally, none of the trials came to anything. All the charges against Jones, Stapley and Wilcox have been dismissed and the ridiculous “case” against the judges has fallen apart. Most of the victims have filed suits for malicious prosecution…and Thomas has said that as Attorney General he would consider using his authority to prosecute his previous victims if they receive compensation for his previous acts. So the madness continues.
6:38 AM
Nick Martin joining the Arizona Guardian
This sucks for fans of Martin, because the Guardian is a pay site. Here’s what the local political blogger said on his site, Heat City:
That model has worked for the Guardian so far. Now, the founders are hoping to build on that accomplishment. They are open to new ideas and experiments, and that’s where I’ll be playing a role. What does that mean specifically? I’ll let you know once we figure it out.
Heat City will still be here. This site will remain a place for me to write stories that don’t have a home anywhere else. The only difference now is that my political (and sometimes legal) stories will be appearing in the Arizona Guardian.
More about Martin here.
The Guardian is here.
10:26 AM
The Espresso Pundit catches the Republic in a big error
We don’t really get Greg Patterson, who blogs as the Espresso Pundit.
He’s one of those guys who is always mad.
But why?
Let’s see… he was born white and male in a country fabulously accommodating to his type.
There were eight years of national Republican rule, complete with tax cuts, which surely benefitted him more than most…and his buddies have been in control of the AZ legislature since who knows when, delivering him lots more tax cuts.
The courts are turning the country over to the gun nets and corporations, his party got us into two wars that keep the Halliburtons of the world in the chips, and the country’s most popular news channel is an arm of the GOP.
But he’s always upset!
It’s weird.
Anyway, Patterson got the Republic dead to rights on a mistake in a recent editorial, which claimed that the state’s gun laws made restaurants and bars provide storage for gun owners if they don’t allow weapons.
He’s right about the correction, too… what should a paper do when an incorrect fact makes an entire article or editorial invalid?
8:40 AM
EaterAZ gives Verde a thumbs-up
Verde is a new casual Mexican restaurant on 1st Street just south of Roosevelt. PHXated loves it.
So does EaterAZ:
The Verde menu is simple: most meals are served in a three-compartment plate with a protein, sides of rice and beans, and a couple fresh-made tortillas. Verde Joe’s dad made all the tables and chairs with leftover wood from a warehouse, the table bases come from a farm Verde Joe once worked on, and the ladies making the tortillas are family members using grandma’s age-old recipe. The tortillas are cooked in a pecan wood-fired oven and made with a generous portion of lard, meaning they’re not all that healthy and friggin’ delicious.
Some other things you need to know: our favorite item is the green chile pork; you order at the counter and they’ll bring your food; almost everything in the place is recycled or recyclable; and it’s affordable—truly.
8:09 AM
EaterAZ spanks Noca
The local food blog likes the Arcadia restaurant helmed by Eliot Wexler:
On a regular visit, diners leave Noca with a check average of $40+ and that is by no means a lavish meal, but definitely worth the money spent. Noca generally has good service, top notch comfort food in a fine dining environment, and of course the affable Wexler keenly and shrewdly working the floor. Wexler has made an art out of giving just the right amount of attention to the right people, ensuring their loyalty.
But it doesn’t like a new gambit the place has embarked on. “Sunday Simple Suppers” is supposed to get you three courses for $35:
It was just two small/medium-sized pieces of fried chicken on a bed of potato salad—ZZZ… And therein lies the rub (or not enough in their case). No biscuit and honey (as advertised). No special somethin’-somethin’ goin’ on with the chicken. No item on the plate that seemed to justify a (we’re figuring) $18 or $19 entree price.
[A chef like Daniel] Boulud, worth it or not, creates an experience in your mouth in a dish that is not likely easily found elsewhere. Noca’s could easily have been found at KFC for about 80% less cost. […] In fact, it seemed odd that after actually spending double than the advertised $35 menu price (we had two drinks, plus tip and tax) that we should still be hungry–a common complaint we later heard from other diners that night.
EaterAZ is here.
NOca’s Sunday Simple Supper menu is here.
8:55 PM
More on the "Do illegal immigrants cause crime?" debate
The occasionally off-balance Espresso Pundit links to Tom Maguire’s conservative but rigorous Just One Minute blog, debating the premise of the NYT’s Sunday piece looking at Arizona crime figures.
(While the anti-immigrant forces harp on the supposed crimes committed by immigrants, the facts show that crime in the state has been trending broadly down for a decade.)
Maguire makes an interesting point:
That while crime is down greatly in cities like Phoenix, a careful parsing of FBI figures shows that crime is up in non-city and rural areas:
Now, note that the number of crimes is down even in smaller cities, though declining population forces the crime rate higher.
The steep rise in crime in rural areas, though, is interesting. The rate rise is nearly 50 percent. Is that due to alleged crimes committed by illegal immigrants?
Neither Greg Patterson nor Maguire make that case.
As the debate continues, these, it seem to me, are the central questions:
1) First, obviously, are the crimes committed by illegal immigrants … or just good old-fashioned god-fearing, gun-toting, wife-beating thoroughly Caucasian and all-American Arizona stock?
2) Similarly, what kind of crimes are they—car thefts, armed robbery, the sort of things that might be associated with the lurid idea of a predatory immigrant moving north?
3) Rural Arizona is a big place. Are the crimes happening in border towns or up north?
4) What number of crimes are we talking about, anyway? Again, the rate of increase is high.
In sheer numbers, though, the increase totals a bit more than 100 new crimes committed in an area the size of … well, the size of Arizona.
Ninety-nine percent of the state is rural—and the rural population totals about 4 percent of the state’s.
And 100 crimes equals … one third of one percent of the number committed in Phoenix and Tucson.
7:25 AM
The Sonoran Alliance goes on the attack—against McCain
The right-wing blog supports J.D. Hayworth in the GOP senate primary.
Yesterday it posted this left-wing attack piece on McCain’s friendliness with lobbyists, the ones he talks about being so stridently opposed to:
… all to the tune of the “Friends” theme. The maker of the video is Robert Greenwald, who has done a series of contentious documentaries on Fox News, Wal-Mart, and Iraq war profiteers.
7:34 AM
Jon Talton on SB 1070
Talton articulates something that’s been bubbling under the discussion biut hasn’t been laid out so clearly:
The measure was always a crafty weapon to maintain power, keep the base hysterical and intensely involved, sow fear and defeatism among Mexican-Americans and put Dems on the spot. As I’ve written, the bill was never intended to shut down illegal immigration — the state economy and not a few of the businesses that support the white-right would collapse. It is a brilliant tactic, like guns, God, gays and abortion — a faux existential threat that must never be really solved because it is so politically profitable.
Emphasis added.
12:26 PM
Coming to Phoenix: "Vintage Bunnies"!
We are uncharacteristically indebted to the Espresso Pundit for catching an Arizona Republic story promoting an club event in town this weekend marking the 50th anniversary of the Playboy Club.
The story says it’s one of fifty around the world. Greg Patterson, who writes the blog, pointed out rightly that the photos of bygone revelry in the clubs have all the appeal of a “whites only” sign above a drinking fountain.
And then there’s the Republic’s promotion of the event…
The iconic symbol of the Playboy bunny represents a history that now spans 50 years.
On Friday night, pretty young things from across the Valley will have a chance to become a part of that legacy …
“Pretty young things”? How about “Women with artificial boobs, attenuated ambitions, and low self-esteem”?
7:43 AM
For Jan Brewer fans only! A Saturday morning humor reading
“Shame on you Dennis Welch and shame on you Jennifer Johnson.”
Those are the lugubrious, choked-up words of soi-disant Espresso Pundit Greg Patterson, driven nearly to tears defending the honor of Jan Brewer after she was caught lying about her father’s military record.
Welch is the Arizona Guardian reporter who quoted Brewer saying her father had died “fighting the Nazi regime in Germany.” Johnson is a state Democratic Party functionary who, like the rest of us, thinks it’s pretty cheap to try to invoke sympathy for yourself by inventing an Inglourious Basterds-style military career for your dad.
Patterson really gets going relating the noble history behind Brewer’s gaffe.
And history it is!
He begins not in medias res but, more dramatically, at the beginning:
Hitler attempts to take over the world and uses the war as cover to launch the Holocaust….
Fortunately, the Allies mobilize! But wait—back in America…
Meanwhile a guy name Wilford Drinkwine leaves a farm in the midwest and takes his family to Nevada to work in a munitions plant….
… and with an O. Henry-like twist, Drinkwine turns out to be Jan Brewer’s father!
No one would mock his death, however he died or whatever caused it. But it’s also a bit skeevy for Patterson to try to get us all worked up about Drinkwine’s death (not to mention the Holocaust) in an attempt to distract attention from what Brewer said, which was …
… that her father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany.
Previously in PHXated:
Jan Brewer is Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World”
Jan Brewer and her father: 205 stories and counting….
Brewer doubles down on her misstatements about her father’s war record
8:57 AM
The Arizona Republic: All the fluff that's fit to recycle
Over at EaterAZ, an item that catches the Arizona Republic writing the same article twice, and even recycling the same phrases and sentences.
Here’s a sample EaterAZ found, from two pieces the paper did on the local food blog Foodies Like Us, with similar phrases in bold:
“Foodies Like Us is a 6,000-strong social-networking group founded in July by friends and former bankers Jay Pizarro and Susie Timm. It celebrates cooking, eating, dining and drinks, uniting Valley residents from all walks of life who love to socialize around the table. The website features restaurant reviews, recipe swaps, food chatter, cooking blogs, market finds and tips. The group also sponsors cooking classes, progressive dinners by trolley, wine tastings and happy hours.“
[EaterAZ commented:] After scratching our head as to why they’re a “dining newcomer,” we began to think that all this sounded too familiar. The picture looked familiar, too. Hey, wait a second. That IS the same picture… And many of the same press-release copied words (in bold) are there as well. Check it out, here’s something AZCentral.com published two months ago on Foodies:
“Leave it up to food lovers to create a virtual table for like-minded fans. Former banking colleagues and friends Susie Timm and Jay Pizarro (above) parlayed their mutual interest in food to create a 6,000-member-and-growing social-networking group that celebrates cooking, eating, dining and drinks. Their mantra: We are a 365-days-a-year food festival. Their Web site is filled with all things food, including restaurant reviews, recipe swaps, food chatter, cooking blogs, market finds and advice for the home mixologist. The Scottsdale-based company also sponsors cooking classes, progressive dinners by trolley, wine tastings and happy hours at top Valley eateries.”
5:26 PM
New Times' "Jackalope Ranch" arts blog is live
Managing Editor Amy Silverman says of the new blog:
New Times already blogs all about news, music and food in this town. It’s time for some culture. Whether it’s funky Grand Avenue or swank Scottsdale — intellectual pursuits or after-dark diversions — bargains on vintage or the place to see cutting-edge contemporary art — creative pursuits in the suburbs or great architecture downtown, we’ll have it for you here.
11:53 AM
PHXations—Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Only two-thirds of Arizonans have sent in their census forms, the Republic reports. The state ranks 38th nationally in response levels, the story says:
[F]or states such as Arizona, participation that is lower than the nation’s also raises the chances of an undercount when the tally is finished later this year. A lackluster showing in the decennial census would mean Arizona could be shortchanged hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds over the next decade. It could also ensure the state gains no more than one seat when Congress and the Electoral College are apportioned by 2012.
Blogger Adam Lopez Falk is taking seriously Rep. Raul Grijalva’s suggestion that Arizona companies be boycotted if the governor signs that hateful immigration bill into law. His list:
- Circle K
- Fender Guitars
- CSK Auto-Checker, Schucks, Kragen Auto Parts, Murray’s Discount Auto Parts
- Allied Waste Industries-sanitation
- Avnet Technology-electronic components
- Kiewit Corporation-construction
- Best Western International
- Clear Channel Outdoor-billboards
- Knight Transportation-trucking
- P.F. Changs China Bistro
- PetSmart
- Shamrock Farms and Foods company
- SkyMall magazine
- Sprouts Grocery Stores
- U-Haul
- VIAD Corporation-exhibit services
- DIAL Corporation-soaps, hygiene products, and detergents
- Fry’s Food and Drug
- Bashas Grocery Stores
- Poore Brothers-chips
- Discount Tire Company
- Kahala-Cold Stone-Cold Stone Creamery, Great Steak Co.
- Giant Industries-Giant Gas Stations
- Go Daddy.com
- US Airways
In the comments he makes the obvious point, that if the company has come out against the legislation, there’s no reason to boycott them. (h/t Jose Gonzalez.)
7:26 AM
PHXations--Tuesday, April 20
New Times is starting a new culture blog. It will be called Jackalope Ranch and will focus on all of the arts except music, our source says.
Music will remain the purview of the current Up on the Sun blog, with your host Young Martin Cizmar, Portending Rhetorical Journalist™.
The new blog goes live tomorrow. I assume it will be at this url, though it’s not live yet. The New Times blog home page is here.
Want to help the Fair Trade Cafe at Civic Space Park decide its hours? The owners are asking for suggestion on this Facebook page.
The next PechaKucha is moving to a bigger venue--the Irish Cultural Center. The previous venue was Fractal. The address is 1106 N. Central, on the west wide of the street just south of the I-10 overpass and just north of Portland. Details here. It's April 29 at 7 p.m.; the doors open at 6 p.m.
9:35 AM
PHXations—Monday, March 15
The Rail Life blog has a good list of Irish pubs along the light rail to patronize Wednesday night, St. Patrick’s Day — the idea being you don’t have to drive home. PHXated’s favorite is the Turf, where he recently learned what white pudding and black pudding is. Pudding, it turns out, isn’t involved. The blog takes a special interest today in drinking and driving, after, Tempe Police said, a gentleman named Brayden Linville managed to drive his PT Cruiser onto the light rail bridge near Tempe Town Lake and shut down one track for at least several hours.
9:02 PM