Free Republic

Remote, rugged terrain. That is the phrase used over and over to describe New Mexico’s Bootheel by the people who live there, the agents who guard the border and the politicians who say they are trying to figure out how to fill gaps in resources to get that job done. Making those words understood in Washington, D.C., has been no easy task. “We need more focus in Washington, D.C., on these remote areas,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, told me Monday. Heinrich spent the weekend touring the Bootheel with the Border Patrol and visiting with ranchers. Last month, Sen. Tom Udall,...

President Obama has appointed open border/amnesty advocate Cecilia Munoz...as the head of the Domestic Policy Council. Munoz, a strong supporter of the failed DREAM Act, is the former senior VP for the radical open-border National Council of La Raza. Muñoz is now serving as the White House's director of intergovernmental affairs and is in charge of outreach to state and local governments.... Muñoz is an immigration expert who worked for the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, until she joined the administration in 2009. The group works to improve...

When federal officials talk about a flood of heroin entering the country, they are not exaggerating. In recent years the amount of heroin produced in Mexico has more than doubled – from less than 60 tons to more than 140 tons last year. It’s cheap. It’s plentiful. And all of it is destined for buyers in the United States. [snip]New Mexico, as a border state, is a transit state for all drugs coming north from Mexico, whether the drugs are smuggled into California, Arizona or through the ports of entry in southern New Mexico or El Paso.

States can impose their own stiff penalties on illegal immigrants and others who steal identities to get jobs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, upholding Arizona’s law and dealing a setback to immigrant rights advocates. The decision is yet another victory for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and more broadly for Arizona, which has been a pioneer in trying to find ways to punish illegal immigrants, stepping into a void left by the Bush and Obama administrations. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there are still some questions about how police and prosecutors use the identity theft laws,...

“I got cheated!” After Donald Trump received nearly twice the votes of Ted Cruz at Saturday’s Arizona Republican convention, the Texas senator walked away with a significant majority of the delegates from that state, KTAR reported. Cruz took nearly all the state’s 28 at-large delegates and basically split the 27 selected by congressional district. Former Gov. Jan Brewer, a Trump supporter, was livid as the results were announced, indicating that she’d lost her first election in 35 years. Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/05/01/gov-jan-brewer-furious-after-what-cruz-is-able-to-pull-off-in-arizona-a-state-he-lost-to-trump-335367#ixzz47WOcx8ME

PHOENIX — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pulled out a strategic victory at the Arizona Republican Party convention, nailing down a large majority of delegates to the national convention amid cheating accusations from backers of businessman Donald Trump. The Cruz slate won virtually all of the 28 at-large national delegates and roughly split the 27 delegates selected by congressional district.

Donald Trump won the Arizona Republican primary with 47% of the vote to second place Ted Cruz with 25%. But that didn’t stop the Cruz campaign and GOP elites from coming in and poaching all of the delegates at today’s state convention. The Cruz camp and GOP elites call this a “good ground game.” Even former Governor Jan Brewer, an outspoken Trump supporter, had her name removed from the online ballot and did not make the cut.

I had the privledge today of serving as a Arizona State Convention Delegate. The meeting was long and disorganized but we got the job done. I promised on a previous thread to post names of Delegates and who they support or which slate they appeared on if known. The following lists are taken from the AzGOP website and my notes. If I am not sure who they support, I will leave that spot blank. Please feel free to post corrections. Follow the link to view the lists in an easier to read format. National Committeeman - Bruce Ash National Committeewoman...

Upset that Donald Trump received just a handful of statewide delegates during an electronic vote, his Arizona campaign manager is threatening to sue the Arizona Republican Party. "This stinks to high heaven!" Jeff DeWit shouted at reporters, decrying the results of the at-large delegates. He suggested the website Arizona Republicans used to choose delegates for this summer's national GOP convention, NeverHillary.SimplyVoting.com, was rigged. He offered proof in terms of a screen shot that suggests statewide delegates clicked on a slate supporting Trump. "People clicked the trump button more than any other and we got hosed," he said. Former governor Jan Brewer, a national...

A member of the Republican National Committee rules panel accused his own party leadership of “institutional tyranny” on Monday, another escalation in the growing internal battle over the party’s arcane parliamentary procedures. Solomon Yue, the Oregon committeeman and member of the RNC’s Rules Committee, sent a more than 1,300-word email, obtained by POLITICO, to members of the rules panel on Monday morning, charging that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies had improperly tried to scuttle Yue’s proposal to change the underlying rulebook for what could be the party’s first contested convention in 40 years this summer. Yue is the...

Phoenix politicians are pushing a $37 million property tax increase. This is right after they pushed a transit tax of $31.5 billion, a water tax increase of $15.3 million that went for pay raises and bonuses, and an airport ride sharing fee of over $8 million annually. This new $37 million property tax increase is a clear example of Phoenix spending more than they need and taking more money from you and your family. First, Phoenix does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. This property tax increase is coming when Phoenix is seeing record budget revenue...

Law enforcement authorities arrested a member of the Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) campaign team and her live-in boyfriend on Tuesday as a search of their home revealed drugs and drug paraphernalia in the same living in the same living space as small children.

Woman found guilty of faking cancer to get late-term abortion PHOENIX — An Arizona woman accused of faking a cancer diagnosis to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion was convicted of fraud and other charges Monday. Maricopa County Superior Court officials said jurors found Chalice Renee Zeitner guilty of all 11 counts against her. The aggravation phase of her trial was scheduled to begin Monday afternoon. Zeitner, 30, was tried on charges including fraudulent schemes, theft, forgery and identity theft. She was accused of presenting falsified medical records to support her claim that she had cancer and...

Those who live close to the Mexican border in Arizona and New Mexico consistently express two sentiments. First, the number of illegals crossing the line has plunged from a flood to a trickle in most places. The feds and the political spinners love that because it allows them to say, with some truth, that the border is as secure as it's ever been. But they leave out the second part. The worst of the worst, the drug smugglers, vagabond bad guys, and mulitiple deports who use the border as a turnstyle are still out there, as dangerous as ever, as...

(ARIZONA Op-Ed) If you are in Arizona, mark April 30th on your calendar and plan to attend because Arizona GOP elite says Trump voters don’t matter. This is why the Arizona Cruz supporters and the GOP establishment elite have entered into an unholy alliance to “stack the deck to steal the national delegates” from Mr. Trump at the Arizona GOP State Convention scheduled for April 30 in Mesa. A delegation of 1,251 state delegates elected from 40 Arizona Legislative and County Caucuses will descend on Mesa on April 30. Unfortunately, many of these state delegates are Cruz supporters led by...

Senator John McCain will not attend the GOP’s convention this summer. Instead he plans to use the time to campaign for reelection. Politico reports: “I have to campaign for reelection, and I have always done that when I’m up,” McCain said. “We have a late primary in Arizona.”Though the GOP convention is scheduled for July 18-21, the Arizona lawmaker also faces an Aug. 30 primary against state Sen. Kelli Ward and business owner Alex Meluskey. McCain’s real problem is his likely Democratic opponent Ann Kirkpatrick. Though polling is sparse, the RCP average suggests the head-to-head match-up is currently a...

Barry Goldwater was a conservative hero and pioneer. But his presidential run was an historic flop. So when Joe Scarborough described Ted Cruz on today's Morning Joe as "Barry Goldwater's ugly stepson," it was a scalding simile. Scarborough in turn scolded the Republican establishment for backing Cruz over John Kasich as the alternative to Donald Trump. Scarborough's argument on today's Morning Joe was about electabiity. Scarborough predicted that in a general election against Hillary, Cruz would lose 40-41 states [actually a bit better than the 44 Goldwater lost]. The screencap shows Scarborough holding up a Boston Red Sox coffee cup...

DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. — The patrolmen, dressed in navy cargo shorts and blue polo shirts with “Police” printed on the back, slow their bikes down as they arrive in front of the crowded entrance of the Exchange. They secure their bikes and remove their helmets as they prepare to patrol the area when they’re stopped twice by pedestrians before they make it inside of the building. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgts. Damien Lyn and Johnny Nunnes, 355th Security Forces Squadron base defense operations center controllers, are responsible for the 355th SFS bicycle patrol fleet. “So far it’s been...

Motorists traveling on Interstate 10 will encounter restrictions next week — including a full closure of westbound I-10 between Benson and Tucson overnight Wednesday, April 20 — while the Arizona Department of Transportation continues making improvements in the area. The following restrictions are scheduled for next week: • The westbound I-10 on-ramp and eastbound I-10 off-ramp at Kolb Road in Tucson (Exit 270) will be closed from 7 p.m. Monday, April 18, until 5 a.m. Tuesday, April 19, for paving work on Kolb Road at the interchange. Traffic from Kolb Road can take eastbound I-10 to Rita Road and return...

Phoenix, Arizona, April 15, 2016. Incumbent U.S. Senator John McCain is locked in a dead heat with Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick as both receive 42 percent of a test vote taken statewide in April. This leaves only 16 percent undecided as of the time of this survey, compared to 25 percent in January. It also appears that at least one traditional voting pattern is changing in Arizona. For many years, rural voters have tended to lean Republican in most races, but in 2016 Kirkpatrick is outpolling McCain by 43 to 39 percent in the state’s rural counties in a modest but...