Glassman gets the back of the hand from the Tucson Weekly's Tom Danehy
The alt-weekly columnist writes this week about how Democrats shouldn’t let Republicans get away with their frequently risible talking points.
Example:
Republican: “I’m a Reagan Republican.”
Us: “Is that the Reagan who ran up the highest deficits of any eight-year president in history to that point (only to be outdone later by George W. Bush) or the Reagan who presided over the largest tax increase in American history?”
It concludes with this kiss off:
Republican: “Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman is a know-nothing, self-serving spoiled rich kid who has used the family fortune to buy his way into politics.”
Us: “OK, we’ll give you that one.”
8:39 AM
Is the Tucson music scene better than Phoenix's?
Young Martin Cizmar™ says, “Yes!” in a post we’re just catching up on.
He identifies five numbered issues that make the Tucson scene better, a list even more impressive in that Cizmar himself had apparently originally envisioned a lesser total. (“I’ve identified three factors behind The Tucson Problem….”)
Among them: Better venues (“Anyone who has been blessed with the chance to see a show at Rialto or Club Congress … can vouch for their greatness”) and the town’s college-town culture (“There are tons of indie-rock types — smart, cool and geeky — down there, whereas Mill Avenue can remind me of the Jersey Shore on a bad night”).
He also tips his hat to Electric Mustache blogger Shawn Anderson.
I don’t think he makes his case about the media in the respective towns, but all in all it’s worth reading.
Everything about Young Martin Cizmar here.
8:08 AM
The Rokerij is named one of the best bars in America by Esquire
Says the mag in the new issue, with its slightly unorthodox use of the comma intact:
Step through the large wood door and down the stone steps. It’s calm and cool down here, like being in a cellar. There is a glowing fireplace, bottles of wine stacked up on the walls, a long, polished wood bar that stretches the width of the room. The bartenders are well dressed, they ask just enough questions, not too many.
Esquire’s also odd in that you can’t find the snippet online. On its web site it mentions two places in southern Arizona: The Hotel Congress and, rather fancifully, some place in Arivaca, which is close to the Mexican border in south west part of the state.
Last year, if we remember correctly, the only Arizona bar listed in the magazine proper was the Buffet in Tucson.
5:22 PM
PHXations—Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Brewer seems to be be getting use to the politician thing. She can bend the truth with the best of them:
Gov. Jan Brewer said in a recent interview that her father died fighting Nazis in Germany. In fact, the death of Wilford Drinkwine came 10 years after World War II had ended. During the war, Drinkwine worked as a civilian supervisor for a naval munitions depot in Hawthorne, Nev. He died of lung disease in 1955 in California. Brewer made the comment to The Arizona Republic while talking about the criticism she has taken since signing SB 1070, the new immigration law that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.
“Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that… and then to have them call me Hitler’s daughter. It hurts. It’s ugliness beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” Brewer said in the story, published Tuesday.
Officials with the governor’s administration said her statement should not be taken to mean that she was claiming her father was a soldier in Germany during the Nazi regime.
(/yaa)
Why should speculators have all the real estate fun?
More state buildings go up for sale next week as Arizona officials hope to raise $300 million and help close the budget deficit.
It’s the second time this year that the state has sold off buildings in a sale-leaseback plan. The first one in January raised $735.4 million and that prompted Arizona lawmakers to authorize a second sale.
The sale will be conducted June 8 and investors will be required to make purchases in $5,000 installments. Investors must work through a list of underwriters provided by the state.
The sale-leaseback comes on the heels of last week’s action in which the state borrowed $450 million against the proceeds of future state Lottery revenues.
(/yaa)
The city of Tucson is joining a suit against SB 1070, another sign of the ferocious divisions the law has engendered in the state.
The suit is the one by the Latino Tucson cop who was one of the first to attack the law legally.
From KGUN-TV in Tucson:
In the cross-claim, the city agrees with Escobar that SB 1070 will violate the United States Constitution. Specifically, the cross-claim states that the new Arizona law conflicts with the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution and also with the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act. The city’s filing asks the federal court to intervene to stop implementation. The cross-claim names the State of Arizona and Governor Jan Brewer as defendants.
(N.B.: PHXations are posted by various PHXated contributors throughout the day).
4:35 PM
Which AZ sheriff thinks SB 1070 is "racist" and "disgusting"?
Pima County’s Clarence Dupnik, that’s who. The source is Tucson TV station KGUN, channel 9:
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – Pima County’s top lawman says he has no intention of enforcing Arizona’s controversial crackdown on illegal immigration. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik calls SB 1070 “racist,” “disgusting,” and “unnecessary.”
Speaking Tuesday morning with KGUN9’s Steve Nunez, Dupnik made it clear that while he will not comply with the provisions of the new law, nor will he let illegal immigrants go free. “We’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing all along,” Dupnik said. “We’re going to stop and detain these people for the Border Patrol.”
The sheriff acknowledged that this course of action could get him hauled into court. SB 1070 allows citizens to sue any law enforcement official who doesn’t comply with the law. But Dupnik told Nunez that SB 1070 would force his deputies to adopt racial profiling as an enforcement tactic, which Dupnik says could also get him sued. “So we’re kind of in a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation. It’s just a stupid law.”
1:20 PM
An interesting photography-about-Warhol show in Tucson
Scott Andrews at Hearsight has a preview of a large upcoming photography show in Tucson featuring a wide variety of shots of Warhol and his world by a lot of different people. The potential for a voyeuristic hall of mirrors is lost on neither Andrews nor the organizer.
The curator, Eric Kroll, tells a story of one photo shoot at which his daughter was playing nearby. Warhol began taking pitures of her, and then …:
As was the norm for Warhol, a crowd had gathered around rows deep, and people in the crowd pulled out their own cameras, too. Soon one row of paparazzi was taking pictures of Andy taking pictures, and behind them the next row was taking pictures of people taking pictures of Andy taking pictures, and the next row took pictures of people taking pictures of people taking pictures of Andy taking pictures…
The show, titled “Warhol: From Dylan to Duchamp,” is up from Feb. 27 to April 11. Details here.
11:13 PM
The Daily Wildcat: Boffing Editors Gone Wild!
The Tucson Weekly has a story about an internal range war at the Daily Wildcat, the U of A student newspaper. From the story and the comments, I learned that:
- Editor-in-Chief Alex Dalenberg was doing it with design director Maris Fisher—and at a journalism convention in Austin, “skipped their sessions and instead decided to spend that time having sex in a hotel room each day.”
- Managing Editor Shain Bergan and photo editor Rita Lichamer were boffing, too—Bergan even covering his desk with blankets so the two could have private time in the newsroom.
- And someone else, an alum of the paper, “nailed several girls from the newsroom. Including the EIC [editor-in-chief].”
Now all of this is the product of a heated back and forth to the TW reporter, or posted in comments, some of them anonymous. So whether the editorial staff is as randy a bunch of folks as they are portrayed is open to debate. (Bergan says the two were merely “reading books,” for example.)
It all started after Dalenberg did or did not fire Bergan after Bergan did or did not try to make the paper change an account of his arrest at a demonstration. All in all, fun reading.
7:00 AM
A new black newspaper in Tucson
The Vanguard is being put out by the local Black Chamber of Commerce with a 1000 print run, the AZ Daily Star says. The chamber’s president, Clarence Boykins, is the publisher.
Boykins, who said he put up the initial investment to start up the Vanguard, is publisher. He tapped Tucson freelance writer and editor Theda K. Rogers to be executive editor.
Boykins picked up the first 16-page edition, printed at Territorial Publishers, Friday and called it “a great beginning.”
He said the paper aims to improve communication for blacks who are dispersed around Southern Arizona, while increasing the understanding of black culture in the larger community.
6:00 AM