Free Republic

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card. Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting...

'Why would any rational human being sign up for this?" The question came up the other day as we discussed one of our public affairs staff sergeants possibly separating for a job in the private sector. There was a certain ease and even a slight euphoric relief about the conversation. He had opted to stay with us. He re- enlists Monday. The question was posed by our senior master sergeant — a man who has re-enlisted multiple times over his distinguished 26-year career. In the last few days, our staff sergeant had been really torn. Like most of us, his...

Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in "town hall" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain's ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain's proposal for a temporary halt in the federal gasoline tax a pander and a gimmick... Obama was asked Saturday if the fall campaign might touch on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, in which the Senate Ethics Committee said McCain used "poor judgment" for allegedly pressing regulators to go easy on the owner of a...

Zack Taylor, who is a former Border Patrol agent, says a bill being proposed by a member of the Congressional Hispanic caucus would make it very difficult for law enforcement agents to operate in areas along the U.S.-Mexico border where illegal immigration and drug smuggling is rampant. H.R. 2593 is called the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act of 2007. Sponsored by Representative Democrat Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), it would create new public lands wilderness areas along the southern border, especially in Arizona -- which is the largest point of entry for illegal immigration and drug-smuggling traffic in the United States. Zack...

There's been much convinced talk that John McCain needs to add diversity to his ticket by choosing someone who's black, or at least brown (and Brown!) for the v.p. slot. But wouldn't that cost McCain his advantage among racists? In the current issue of TNR, John Judis estimates that Obama's race could cost him as much as "15 to 20 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning Independents," and Politico's Roger Simon thinks the race vote is worth upwards of 15 percent among the general electorate. By adding diversity to his ticket, McCain would just jeopardize his hold on these voters, while...

A few weeks ago, the New York Times tried to manufacture a McCain land deal scandal and today it’s the Washington Post’s turn. The front-page headline of Post staff writer Matthew Mosk’s story is titled “McCain Pushed Land Swap that Benefits Backer.� It says McCain negotiated a land swap to allow Arizona rancher Fred Ruskin to exchange his checkerboard of property located in the Prescott National Forest for an equal piece of continuous federal land that was later sold for development. Mainly because the developer, Steven A. Betts, who purchased the land from Ruskin is a donor to McCain’s presidential...

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (the presumptive Republican presidential nominee), is facing questions about his ties to Arizona real estate developers and home builders. DNC Chairman Howard Dean and Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bittner pointed Friday to recent stories by 'The New York Times' and the 'Washington Post' on McCain backing land deals involving SunCor Development Co., Del Webb Corp., and developers Donald Diamond and Fred Ruskin. The deals involved parcels and projects in the Phoenix area, Northern Arizona and Nevada. Republicans dismissed the stories and Democrats' criticism, saying the deals had bipartisan support and were done to benefit...

PHOENIX - DMX was arrested on drug and animal-cruelty charges following an overnight raid on the rapper's house Friday, authorities said. The 37-year-old rapper, whose given name is Earl Simmons, initially tried to barricade himself in his bedroom but emerged when a SWAT team entered his north Phoenix home during the 3 a.m. raid, sheriff's spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla said. The arrest and search warrants stemmed from indictments for felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. He made an initial court appearance Friday where bail was sent at $7,500, said his local attorney, Cameron Morgan. Morgan said he expected...

ST. GEORGE, Utah — Utah’s attorney general, Mark L. Shurtleff, sat before a room of perhaps 400 people, most of them fundamentalist polygamists, at a town hall meeting here on Thursday night. He asked for a show of hands. How many people, he wanted to know, were related to the children who were seized last month in a raid in Texas in an investigation of possible marriage and abuse of child brides? Scores of hands shot up. Then Mr. Shurtleff asked his follow-up: How many of you would be willing to take those children into your homes? Without a moment’s...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A Mexican smuggler responsible for an accident that killed 10 illegal immigrants in the Arizona desert two years ago was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison. Adan Pineda-Doval, 22, received the maximum sentence from Judge Stephen McNamee for the deadly incident in which he flipped over a vehicle packed with illegal immigrants while trying to flee Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Arizona. In October, Pineda-Doval was convicted of 10 counts of transporting illegal immigrants resulting in death, one count of placing lives in jeopardy and one count of re-entry after deportation. "This incident speaks to the...

Watching McCain on Bill O'Reilly this evening it looks to me like his hamster jowls have receded. They haven't completely disappeared, but the look substantially less than before. Of course it could be good make-up work or good lighting by Fox, but I wonder if he is going through some "makeovers" to make him look more youthful?

Mormons react after 2 teens are attacked at Gilbert park 2 teens arrested for attacking Mormon boys in Gilbert Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the story The parents of two teenage boys brutally attacked after revealing their faith spoke exclusively to ABC15 about the incident. They did not want their names published because they fear retribution. The father of one teen says his son has a broken collarbone and several lacerations on his face and back. “He looked like he's been in some kind of a brawl and got the worst end...

WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady. "You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate," Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC's "Today" on Thursday. Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: "No." The Arizona senator released his tax...

PHOENIX — The arrest of a gun shop owner on Tuesday broke up a suspected firearms trafficking operation that supplied violent Mexican drug cartels, authorities said. Agents raided X Calibur Guns and arrested George Iknadosian after undercover agents bought guns at the store indicating they were to be trafficked to Mexico, said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Iknadosian, 46, knowingly sold at least 650 firearms, including high-end semiautomatic pistols and assault-style rifles, to drug cartels, the ATF said. The investigation began 11 months ago after some guns involved in crimes...

Sheriff Arpaio conducted another crime suppression operation in Fountain Hills on Tuesday. A total of seven traffic stops and fourteen contacts were made throughout a seven-hour patrol period. This resulted in ten arrests, nine of them being of undocumented immigrants, and three felony warrants cleared.

With minimal public notice and no formal environmental review, the Forest Service has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside Grand Canyon National Park, less than three miles from a popular lookout over the canyon’s southern rim.Mining Claims Near the Grand Canyon********************************* If the exploration finds rich uranium deposits, it could lead to the first mines near the canyon since the price of uranium ore plummeted nearly two decades ago. A sharp increase in uranium prices over the past three years has led individuals to stake thousands of mining claims in the Southwest,...

A man’s attempted armed robbery of a central Mesa store was foiled Sunday when the clerk fought back with a Taser, his fists and a handgun, police said. The 30-year-old suspect, shot several times by a clerk at Mesa Mart, 1510 S. Country Club Drive, was listed in critical condition at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, police spokeswoman Detective Chris Arvayo said. Although the 55-year-old clerk had been assaulted with a pipe, he did not require extensive medical attention. The clerk most likely will not face any criminal charges. “He’s got the right to defend himself,” Arvayo said. However, the suspect probably...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio still isn't saying when he will take his crime suppression patrols to Mesa. He says there's a reason for the delay -- he's giving illegal immigrants a chance to get out of town. ``I'm giving them a chance to pack up and leave, so when I do go in there, there may not be a big problem," he said. If an illegal immigrant needs a ride, Arpaio says, ``Call 602-876-1000 and we'll make arrangements. Maybe we'll even pick them up." Mesa Police Chief George Gascon has asked the sheriff for two days notice before he...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is calling for a renewed focus on fighting terrorism in Afghanistan after returning from a bipartisan congressional delegation trip to the war-torn region. “Afghanistan represents the front lines of the war on terror,” the Tucson lawmaker said Wednesday. “We are neglecting it, and we are paying the price.” Giffords, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, and four congressional colleagues spent two days in Afghanistan. They met with Arizona troops, top U.S. military commanders and Afghan government officials. They also traveled to Pakistan to meet with President Pervez Musharraf and...

DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE — In the early 1940s, Art Benko of Bisbee was trained at this airfield, which was then out in the desert near Tucson. Benko was a top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II and would become known as the top bomber gunner in the Army Air Force. His exploits included the downing of seven Japanese planes on one mission over then-French Indochina. On May 22, officials at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will dedicate the installation’s fitness and sports center in honor of Tech. Sgt. Art Benko. Honoring Benko sits well with...

$42 Billion Transit Proposal Moves in Wrong Direction Byron Schlomach, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 30, 2008 After months of rumblings around the state capitol, a private coalition called TIME – Transportation and Infrastructure Moving AZ’s Economy – has unveiled a $42 billion solution for Arizona’s transportation problems. It can be summed up as “tax and spend.” Under the proposal, the state’s sales tax would increase by one cent. By itself, a cent seems small, but this would make Arizona’s state sales tax rate the fifth highest in the nation according to the Tax Foundation. Arizona already has the nation’s...

Blaming Feds for Budget Deficit Passes the Buck Darcy Olsen, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, May 01, 2008 In the opinion column "'Stimulus' and the States" (Wall Street Journal, April 24), Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano blames Congress for state budget deficits: "Even if the federal government paid up on only a few of its debts mentioned here, Arizona would not be in deficit this year." Without question, unfunded federal mandates have plagued the states for years, but overall they constitute less than two percent of state budgets. Most state spending rests squarely in the hands of our state capitols. Like most...

A new poll concludes that Arizonans believe Sen. Barack Obama poses the biggest challenge to John McCain in the presidential race, but that the Arizona senator will ultimately win the White House. The poll of 577 registered voters found that voters favored McCain over Obama 47 percent to 38 percent. They favored McCain over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 53 percent to 37 percent. The voters polled said they believe McCain likely will beat Obama in November. A similar February poll showed Arizonans thought Obama would beat McCain. The poll was conducted April 24-27 by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism...

On Tuesday, 100 soldiers of Bravo Company, 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion got into a civilian airliner and headed for Kuwait for additional training before they cross into Iraq. In a short ceremony in one of the hangars at Libby Army Airfield, the soldiers heard Brig. Gen. Susan Lawrence tell them to take care of each other in the combat zone. “Take care of yourself, take care of your battle buddy,” said Lawrence, who commands the Network Enterprise Technology Command, the higher headquarters of the Signal Corps unit. The general said many of them will be traveling on the dangerous roads...

LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz., April 30, 2008 – One program on Phoenix’s KFNX 1100 AM News-Talk Radio has a simple mission: give troops the world over a voice through a weekly show. Voice of the Troops debuted on News Talk KFYI last year as a monthly feature created by Dave Whitten, one of the original and current hosts. The show later moved to KFNX and evolved into a weekly Sunday feature. “The philosophy is simple: We want to give a voice to those boots on the ground and hopefully be an outlet our servicemen and women can use...

An Arizona judge has struck down the Recording Industry Association of America's claim that making music files available constitutes distribution of those files. U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake denied the RIAA's request for a summary judgment against a couple who had copied music files from their CDs onto their computer and downloaded file-sharing programs. The defendants said they never placed the music in a shared folder. The judge concluded that even if defendant Jeffrey Howell had placed the items in a shared folder, a third party would have to dip into his hard drive to retrieve a copy....

SIERRA VISTA — Tanya Conde has never had her kindergarten class send care packages off with hopes of getting something back. The Bella Vista Elementary School teacher said she’s been military all her life, going from dependent, to active duty, to a spouse; so sending the care packages was just an important thing to do for her. During February’s National Patriotism Week, Conde decided to have her class put together care packages for the dads of two students in her class, both who are fighting in Iraq. Just recently the class received packages of its own from each soldier, including...

Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation Monday to require police departments and sheriff's deputies to do more to crack down on illegal immigration despite its bipartisan support. On one hand, Napolitano said HB 2807 is unnecessary because nothing in state law precludes local police agencies from entering into agreements with the federal government to have their officers certified to stop, question and detain people not in this country legally. She said the only thing they need is the proper federal training. "Many of these have already entered into these agreements on a voluntary basis,'' the governor wrote. "A legislative mandate to...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday said that he is too conservative to be John McCain's running mate but that the Arizona senator's maverick reputation will help him in an election in which moderates and independents will be more important than in recent years. Mr. Barbour also urged Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, not to name his pick for vice president until after the Democrats' convention, when he can draw the sharpest distinction between the parties. Mr. McCain will depend on "persuasion" to snare independents and disgruntled Democrats on Nov. 4, unlike George W. Bush in the 2000 and...

Tempe, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- Arizona State University is coming under fire for inviting controversial infanticide advocate Peter Singer to speak on campus. The Princeton professor will reportedly receive $20,000 for the speech, where the audience will not be allowed to question him on his anti-newborn views. Singer promoted the notion as early as 1984 that parents of disabled newborns be allowed to kill the baby shortly after birth. In some cases, he says newborns with disabilities should absolutely be killed.He expanded on the idea with the publication of his book Should the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants...

Non-Alignment of Standards Not Culprit for Low Scores By Matthew Ladner, Ph.D Recently I appeared on the Horizon public affairs program together with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, to discuss the No Child Left Behind law and our state AIMS test. During the discussion, Superintendent Horne said the main reason Arizona students perform poorly on the national NAEP test, also known as the Nation's Report Card, is due to a non-alignment of standards. If, for example, Arizona does not teach the math concepts in fourth grade that appear on the fourth grade math NAEP, one could expect lower...

A pilot's laptop, filled with top secret security information was reported missing at Dulles Airport and the ripple effects were felt across the country. The Mesa Airlines employee couldn't find the personal laptop he brought with him while co-piloting a United Express flight from Birmingham, Alabama to Dulles International Airport. 17 airports were forced to make emergency changes to access codes at Dulles, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago's O'Hare and San Antonio. Various officials within the airline industry admit that with these access codes, someone who went though security could, with the touch of a few buttons, get onto a plane or...

GUADALUPE, Ariz. (AP) - The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has been making forays into Phoenix and nearby Guadalupe and sweeping up illegal immigrants, drawing howls of protest from the cities' mayors and other community leaders. While Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has legal authority to enforce the law in cities within his county, politicians and activists are accusing him of grandstanding and, worse, racial profiling. A total of 150 people—73 of them illegal immigrants—were arrested by Arpaio's deputies in the raids on heavily Hispanic sections in late March and early April. "I was upset. We did not request them...

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle near the U.S. border on Saturday, one of the bloodiest shootouts in Mexico's three-year-long narco-war. Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said. The bodies lay in pools of blood, strewn along a road on the city's eastern limits, surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings. Many of the victims' faces were destroyed. "By the way this...

Arizona has been hit hard hit by the real-estate bust, with the average home value down 17% in a year and a record number of foreclosures. So Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano has devised a clever way to revive the housing market: Raise property taxes. Last week Ms. Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have made a two-year suspension of the state property tax permanent. "It's untimely. It's untenable. It's unwise," she said of her untimely and unwise veto. So as housing values slide, Arizonans next year will get walloped with an extra $250 million property tax bill. Arizona is one...

BROWNSVILLE -- Thirteen federal prosecutors are headed to South Texas to take on a growing number of immigration, drug trafficking and arms smuggling cases. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the new positions Wednesday as part of a plan to hire 64 new prosecutors and 35 support staff across the nation's entire Southwest border. The new staff members are expected to assist the five affected judicial districts in carrying out government initiatives aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and hindering cross-border crime, said Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip during a trip to Nogales, Ariz. "There is no one-size-fits-all...

Presidential Personality Cult Deconstructed by: Malcolm A. Kline, April 25, 2008 So many generations have been taught that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ended the Depression that it has become an article of faith for historians in and out of academia and, naturally, their media acolytes. “The life of Franklin Roosevelt has been well-analyzed through the lens of politics and policy,” the editors of U. S. News & World Report write in the April 28/May 5 issue of the magazine. “As the president who lifted the country out of economic despair and stood up to foreign military aggression, FDR offers historians...

The Empire Strikes Back With Massive Attorneys’ Fee Request in CityNorth Case Clint Bolick, Goldwater Institute, April 24, 2008 While the Goldwater Institute’s legal challenge to the CityNorth subsidy moves to the Court of Appeals, one issue remains before the trial court that upheld the subsidy. Not content merely to demand $97.4 million of taxpayer money, the developers now are seeking hundreds of thousands more for their attorneys’ fees—from the Goldwater Institute. The City is, too. Rather than using the same huge in-house legal department that negotiated the deal, the City hired a high-priced private firm to defend it. The...

Compromise on Arizona state budget makes 2009 a year of reckoning Byron Schlomach, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 23, 2008 Well, blow me down, they did it--and with two and a half months to spare. The legislature and the governor have agreed on a fix for the fiscal 2008 budget. Both sides can claim victory and defeat, so the deal appears an artful compromise. Going into the negotiations, the state faced a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, with budgeted spending projected to exceed revenues by almost 13 percent. Let’s look at the math of the new deal: • A quarter of...

TUCSON, Ariz. - The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said. The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson. Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar...

On Monday evening, April 21, mysterious lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona. At just after eight, hundreds of residents called police and local news media to report four bright red lights hovering silently over the city. They changed shape after a while, moving from a triangular to rectangular configuration, then disappeared one by one.

I've decided to pay a visit to this MoveOn.Org function. I understand many Arizona democrat lawmakers and even a disturbed, delusional left-wing mental patient talk show host named Jeff Farias will be speaking. I will be correcting some of the factual errors I have a feeling could possibly arise. I welcome any company. This Thursday at Noon, Phoenix State Capitol. 1700 W. Jefferson.

Emphasizing class size over teacher quality is a poor choice Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 21, 2008 Indiana Jones returns to the big screen this summer. In Indy's last movie, he was in pursuit of the Holy Grail. The ancient crusader guarding the Grail revealed that one could gain it only by drinking from the correct cup. The villain drank from the most ornate cup and suffered a horrible death. Quoth the crusader, "He chose, poorly." Indiana Jones chose the simplest cup. The knight noted approvingly, "He chose, wisely!" When it comes to education, we have chosen poorly....

It’s time to end the Government Property Lease Excise Tax Michelle Bolton, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 22, 2008 Fair and equitable taxation is key to economic freedom and prosperity. Rules that favor a few special interests create an un-level playing field and put other businesses at a disadvantage. The Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) is a case in point. It allows cities to take title to land and buildings and then lease them back to a private company for a nominal fee. These businesses then pay a fraction--often one tenth--of what their property taxes would otherwise be. GPLETs...

Speaking at an April 4 awards banquet, Village Voice editor Mike Lacey let slip the N-word. The fact that his remark was uttered exactly 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King didn't help matters. Lacey didn't mean any harm, of course, and he issued the required apology. This wasn't the first time Mr. Lacey has crossed the boundaries of good taste - a few years ago he publicly defended Jesse Jackson when he referred to New York City as "Hymietown."But Lacey stands in good company.The discovery of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's expletive-laced sermons and anti-Semitic rants plunged the Obama...

Battle That Gained Texas Independence Observed Today Today is San Jacinto Day, a state holiday observing the April 21, 1836, battle near Houston in which a Texas army led by Gen. Sam Houston defeated Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Historians cite it as the decisive battle in Texas gaining independence from Mexico. Sam Houston's approximately 900 men, infuriated by the deaths of about 550 comrades at the Alamo and the Goliad massacre, took just 18 minutes to win a battle that left 630 Mexican soldiers dead and another 730 in captivity, according to historical accounts. Santa Anna agreed...

I'm new here. How can I find some patriots to participate in a counter rally of a moveon.org gathering in Phoenix next week?

In the four years that Master Sgt. Tony Roy's electronic combat unit has been deployed, he's spent nearly two years away from home. Roy is one of roughly 140 airmen based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base who have been constantly at war since March 2004, deploying several times to provide electronic cover to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of the 55th Electronic Combat Group hop back and forth from combat zones to Tucson for months at a time, coming home only long enough to retrain, regroup and head back.

What was supposed to be a fun family vacation for John "Jay" Rosenberry turned into a nightmare when his son and daughter and two others struggled to get out of a riptide that was pulling them out to sea. Rosenberry, a Tucson resident, was honored last week by the U.S. Coast Guard for saving the lives of his children, as well as that of another young boy. He received the Silver Lifesaving Medal at a ceremony in Virginia on Friday — nearly two years after the incident occurred July 24, 2006, at Portsmouth Island, just off the coast of North...

GUADALUPE, Ariz. -- An illegal immigrant has been arrested on suspicion of raping and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl at her Guadalupe home, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies said.The MCSO Special Victims Unit arrested Jose Dolores Montoya Sanchez, 24.Sanchez was booked into the Maricopa County jail late Wednesday on one count of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and two counts sexual abuse.Sheriff's deputies said they began investigating the case when the victim disclosed that Sanchez sexually assaulted her at a Guadalupe home. The 15-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, MCSO said. A forensic evaluation confirmed an...