Jeff's Commentary - 6/28 - Uncle J.D.

Everyone has an uncle they would like to hide from. The guy who knows everything about everything and makes you feel like you would run for cover every time you see him coming your way. A guy who talks a game of principles and walks a game of whatever it takes to fill his own agenda. We in Arizona have that Uncle and he is running for the Senate against John McCain...our very own J.D. Hayworth.

I won’t even get into the Jack Abramoff lobby scandal other than to say that Uncle J.D. was the largest single recipient of Abramoff-related money and co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, receiving more than $150,000 from Indian tribes once represented by Abramoff. There is a reason the Tea Party has not given their endorsement out to J.D. and it has to do with the fact that he doesn’t walk the walk they walk.

There was rarely an earmark he could not resist to add to bills while he was in Congress and a microphone he rarely passed up to throw in his ten cents worth. Now it comes out that Uncle J.D. was involved in a 2007 infomercial that promoted “free government grant seminars.” Consumer advocate groups called foul. The company that produced the infomercial was sued and eventually went bankrupt. Of course J.D. explained it away as simply a “caveat emptor” - buyer beware in his webcast “Round Table Politics.”

I don’t know about you, but a guy who claims to be an advocate to cut government spending and then turns around and does an infomercial to get as much government largesse as you can, simply cannot have it both ways. In the upcoming election against Senator John McCain, I can only say that we should have a “caveat emptor” approach to our crazy Uncle J.D. Just as J.D. regretted his association with the infomercial firm, we Arizonans may want to look closely under the sheets on what our Uncle says he believes and what his actions show he believes. Caveat Emptor for sure.

Jeff

Jeff's Commentary - 6/21 - Stay in L.A.

So the Lakers beat the Celtics last Thursday night in LA to retain the NBA Championship for another year. It was a great series with lots of tremendous basketball played on both sides. So how do the fine folks of LA celebrate? Television news footage showed several people jumping on a taxi as it tried to maneuver through a crowd near the Staples center, being rocked and simply destroyed. Several cars on that same block had all the windows broken in. Other footage showed men being beaten and other cars being set afire. Several businesses reports scattered windows being destroyed. Broken glass and burnt debris lined the roads. Delmi Ramos was quoted as saying that the young people in her neighborhood “caused damage to people, to community, because they don’t know how to celebrate in a healthy way.” City Firefighters responded to over 37 incidents within a half mile radius of the Staples Center in a three hour period after the game to fight rubbish fires, vehicle fires, public intoxication and vandalism that resulted in injuries to the bystanders. Hundreds of officers in patrol cars, on foot and on horseback moved in to clear streets and break up the crowds.

I bring this up again thinking about the LA city council wanting to boycott coming to the state of Arizona while the continuing discussion on SB1070 goes on. After reading about all the good people of LA celebrating their success in the NBA finals, I’d just assume they stay in their own neighborhoods. So to the people on the LA City Council……keep your garbage in your own backyard. We can do without that kind of support.

Jeff

Jeff's Commentary - 6/15 - Change You Can Believe In?

Have you followed the story in South Carolina where an unemployed veteran ran for the Democratic Party nomination and won? What’s fascinating about this story is that Al Greene, the man who ran, never campaigned; never made a public speech; never made a public appearance and never spent a dime on advertising. And yet he still won!

Now whatever will come out of these political shenanigans...and I believe this will end up being a doozy of a story...it occurred to me that maybe there is something special here that Arizona could benefit from.

I think we can mostly agree on the fact that our political leaders here are a strange lot. They seem to do everything possible to hurt Arizona and our growth as opposed to help it. And every two years we are barraged with the same campaign stump commercials on how they will all save Arizona. John McCain is all over TV fighting for “change” only he can bring even though he has been in the seat for a zillion years and we still have the same issues in Arizona we had a zillion years ago. J.D. Hayworth would like to put up the Great Wall of China along the border to really keep folks out. And we’re stuck with Russell Pearce because...well we’re just stuck with him like a crazy uncle.

What if we had elections where the guy who ran did absolutely nothing and yet still won? Nothing would change really. We’d still have the economic mess that no one can agree on how to fix. We’d still have the border issues. We’d still have states boycotting our hotels and eateries. We’d still have leaderless leaders who can’t compromise and come to terms with building our schools back from the likes of Mississippi and creating tax breaks for small business that would allow for jobs to be created.

Yet we would not have to watch the onslaught of television ads and hear the radio rhetoric that is coming for the next six months. How refreshing. Can you imagine a political period where all you did was vote on the given day and get it done with?
Ok...I really don’t want that because I am an optimist and I believe we can make Arizona the state it truly can become...where growth and ecological balance can co-exist and where schools train our kids to really have something to work for. It’s just nice to dream once in a while that the politicians could actually do something for a change and we could put the political rhetoric to the side and regain the Arizona spirit and momentum we once had. But to dream of an advertising free and speech free election period would be interesting if not nice for a change.

Jeff

Jeff's Commentary - 6/7 - Summer Paradise

It’s hot again in Arizona. Yep...we all came in to work today complaining about the heat around the water coolers. Felt like old home week in a way. There was something reassuring that the weather changed and the spring months were now gone for another year. It’s our winter as the folks back east would say when they were here in January.

And that’s OK with me.

I love living in Arizona. I love the heat. I love to complain about the heat. I lived 30 plus years in the Midwest. I hated shoveling snow only to have the city plow come back around and cream your driveway as you were finishing up. How many nights I couldn’t feel my feet because they were so cold from the outside air at a ballgame. I hated living in Chicago where you would never see the sun for weeks on end in spring. April showers extended into May, June, July and August. And anyone who has spent time in the Midwest during the summer knows that 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity is far more painful to endure than our 110 degree sun-filled days. You should have seen the pits in my shirts...disgusting stuff. And tornado and hurricane season...if you lived through any of those, you know why man built basements in homes. Basements in Arizona are simply for the crazies who think the world is ending next December.

We dress down a bit in Arizona in summer. We figure out how to live and work and play in degrees others in the country would find unbearable. We use those funny shade things in our cars to keep the inside temps under some unbearable heat index while we are out. We don’t leave chocolate or uncooked fish in our cars during the day unless we want to make a trip to a car wash or are playing a prank on a friend. Umbrellas are used to keep the sun away from our faces, not rain in a pour.

We long for a shoreline when not boycotting the goofs in California over SB1070 but settle for pools in our backyard. We know there is no use in SPF30 when it hits 110 and swim with baseball caps on to protect our faces. Dog parks are crowded at 5:30am now. Grocery stores are more filled at 8am than 4pm. No use buying ice cream during the day. Cold coffee is a bigger seller than the warm stuff. And we’ve learned that going shoeless will lead to very big sores on our feet. We hike early and water late in evening. So it’s summer and hot again in Arizona. All is good in paradise.

Jeff