Jeff's Commentary - 3/19 - "It's Time to Shake Up The Place"

I think the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back hit home last week as Arizona Republican legislatures took time away from solving our financial and housing crisis to address female contraception.

House Bill 2625 proposed by Debbie Lesko is the latest of crazy bills proposed by this think tank of modern day extremists.

While 77% of Arizonians don’t agree with any of this, our fearless Republican leaders move forward with the “clueless card” sticking out of their pockets and on their backs.

As an employer, I really don’t want to have to start asking our female employees why they are or aren’t taking contraceptives. I don’t want to ask male employees if Viagra is really needed for that extra medical lift at home. It’s really none of our business. Don’t we have more important things to figure out anyway in Arizona? Last I looked, the state continues to struggle with a bunch of real economic and funding issues.

President Obama ran on a theme of “Change you can believe in”. Unfortunately that change did not really happen especially in Arizona.

So what we need in Arizona is a legitimate third party.

Call it whatever…..say……the “People who aren’t Crazy Party” or the “Party that promises no infringing bills into your life”...or the “Party that won’t chase business away.” It could be as simple as the “We won’t suck the life out of you reading our bills Party”. Or better yet....the “Butt out Party.”

I think it would work. A group of people willing to run government that simple does that. Create jobs. Manage the budget. Improve education. Bring new business to Arizona. Keep out of our bedrooms. Keep guns out of schools. Don’t shake your finger at Presidents. Provide insurance to kids. You know…..basic stuff.

This third party would embrace financial conservative principles while making sure our gaps to the poor get filled with reasonable policy. And we could count on this party to actually do some work for a change and save millions lost on useless law suits fighting their crazy bills. They could articulate the good things happening in Arizona and get away from the headless immigrants in the desert nonsense that keeps coming back to the spotlight. Or birther hysteria that comes back over and over.

I hope a Super Pack is one day created that starts to legitimize a third party in our state.

I think there are quite a few Arizonians who would back them come election time.

I’m tired of the calls I get from many out of this state who start conversations with, “Wow, your state is really out there!”. It’s time to shake up the place.

Jeff

Jeff's Commentary - 3/13 - March Madness

This Thursday thru Sunday, more people will stop working consistently throughout the day to catch a few minutes of NCAA’s March Madness. Statistics show that there are more non-productive work hours this Thursday and Friday than any other regular working days of the year.

So millions of Americans have more than a slight interest in their office pools and teams than any other issues this week. I’m one of those participants.

But as I was watching some clips last night on who’s stronger and who’s got an edge on various games, the news kept interfering. 16 dead in Afghanistan by a rogue American soldier. Women and kids included in that death count.

I’m saddened by the deaths but more saddened that more American’s take greater interest in a college basketball weekend than what is going on in Afghanistan. If all the millions of people who are involved in office pools would take the same amount of time to research what is going on in the war vs. what is going on with your teams, we might find that we’d all stand up and demand more from our government in ending this mess in Afghanistan before 2014.

There is no good answer for any of it.

They don’t like us there, both sides are corrupt and when we leave, they will go back to killing one another instead of us. We’ve done our job rooting out and killing al Qaeda soldiers there. Now we need to leave. It’s already a longer war than Vietnam but who’s counting the years.

Clint Eastwood said “It’s Halftime in America” during the Super Bowl. While I’m picking my brackets and worrying about whether my teams will do well this weekend, I’m hoping that when the second half starts in America, we will be long gone from fields of Afghanistan. I’m just hoping some of us take more interest in getting that done like we do with our picks this weekend.

Jeff

Jeff's Commentary - 3/5 - We Want Something Else

There is an episode of M*A*S*H where Hawkeye is at his wits end with the quality of food being served in the mess hall. He starts a loud condemnation of the food and with his utensils pounding against the table starts yelling, “We Want Something Else, We Want Something Else!” Soon the entire M*A*S*H unit is taking up the call and in time, the quality of the food is improved.

This past week, blowhard Rush Limbaugh got off talking about a young woman testifying about insurance coverage for contraceptives in Congress. Limbaugh used the opportunity to paint this woman as a “slut,” “prostitute,” and demanded she post sex tapes to him since “he” as a taxpayer is paying for the contraceptives and wants something in return. Sex tapes seemed appropriate. Really...can’t make this stuff up.

As a parent, father of a daughter, regular citizen; I am appalled. I have had enough with the so-called standard voice of the Republican Party. Why those in office are so afraid of this buffoon is beyond me? He is nothing more than a bully and a hypocrite. To think this four times married loser is setting the standard for the moral character of the party is just wrong. To think that this man who has had his own addiction issues and probably should have been in jail for his prescription fraud situation now has the audacity to take on a law student who is simply giving her opinion of the health care coverage or lack thereof with contraception. After a day of hysterics, he doubles down the next day and continues his assault on her character. Only after several advertisers have jumped the Rush ship has he realized what a serious gaffe this has become. So we get, “my choice of words was not the best”. Really!!!! You in the bully pulpit beating on a student with condemnation and words that are inappropriate, hurtful and just downright immoral.

So I speak out as a citizen who has “had it” with the Rush dialogue. It’s time we all stand up for civil discourse, take our knives and forks to the remaining advertisers of Rush Limbaugh and demand “Something Else”. Not only does Sandra Fluke deserve it, but all women everywhere who have put up with this bully.

Sandra Day O’Connor has been working hard at creating an environment in political discourse where you have disagreement but can listen to one another and work on solutions in a civil and constructive manner.

We all need to finally take a stand and demand “something else”. We will never get conversation moving in a positive direction as long as people like Rush Limbaugh remains on air. It’s time the bullying stops and we start to get America back on course. “We Want Something Else. We Want Something Else.”

Jeff