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I have long had real concerns about how Andy Thomas has conducted himself as County Attorney. The full-on war over the last few years between he and the Board of Supervisors has been nothing short of a spectacle.
And now I’ve reached the final straw. The trumped-up investigation against Supervisor Andy Kunasek amounting to character assassination by Thomas, Sheriff Arpaio and their henchmen is only the latest in the most egregious abuse of investigative and prosecutorial power I have ever witnessed. To make baseless accusations about the likes of Andy Kunasek is completely out of line. Kunasek is not only one of the most humble public servants you’ll ever meet (and a really nice guy), he is above reproach, and has a record to prove it. (A letter from Kunasek about this issue is here, courtesy of espressopundit.com)
For the longest time I had assumed that Thomas was really fighting the righteous cause. Not anymore. He is completely out of control. From the constant state of investigations of people who get crosswise with him in the slightest fashion, to the constant whining about how he is mistreated, it’s completely galling. I truly do not know how someone who abuses the power of government as he has can call himself a conservative. He’s worse than a liberal… he is a dictator.
A few weeks ago Greg Patterson over at espressopundit.com wrote a stellar post about Thomas being unfit to serve. It is worth your time to read it.
For a pretty good snapshot of some of what galls me, check out this story and all the assorted links there.
The bottom line is that Andy Thomas has so destroyed his own credibility, he does not deserve to be in any elective office. It’s time for Andy Thomas to go away.
To know Mitch Menlove was to like him. He was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. He was a wunderkind in everything he did professionally, in his church and as a husband and father.
And at the tender age of 36, he has been called home to his Father.
Those of us who share his faith believe that there is a purpose for his death. But that doesn’t take away the shock and pain. And it doesn’t take away the grief we suffer as we think about his wonderful wife Elizabeth, the three boys, and the baby that is due any day now. As Kevin DeMenna (Mitch’s former boss and tennis partner) said, Mitch must be one incredible human being to be needed “on the other side” more than here.
Our hearts go out to Mitch’s young family, his brothers, his parents and anyone else who was blessed to call him a friend.
Here is a statement from two of his close friends, Kevin DeMenna and Matt Salmon:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is with immense sadness that we share with you the heartbreaking news that our friend, colleague and brother, Mitch Menlove, passed away shortly after 1:00 AM last night in the Flagstaff hospital.
[Service information below]
There is no way to express the heartbreak and the sadness that death at such a young age brings, however, Mitch’s family and friends are gathering to celebrate the life of such an extraordinary and selfless man.
We ask that your prayers and thoughts be with Mitch and his loved ones at this time.
With heartfelt feeling to all,
Kevin DeMenna
The Honorable Matt Salmon
Phoenix, Arizona Services:
• Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
• Biltmore Ward
• 1835 East Missouri Avenue
• Phoenix, Arizona 85016-3021
• Family Viewing from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM
• Public Viewing from 9:00 AM to 10:45 AM
• Funeral Services will begin at 11:00 AM
Salt Lake City, Utah Services:
• Friday, July 23rd, 2010
• (Location yet to be determined)
• Family Viewing from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM
• Public Viewing from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
• Funeral Services will begin at 10:00 AM
Mitch was one of the good guys.
Jim Martin is an American hero. Since 1992, when he founded 60 Plus Association, Jim has led the effort to advance conservatism by mobilizing seniors to action.
I was honored to be asked to pay tribute to Jim at a 60 Plus Association dinner Thursday night honoring him for his unfailing commitment to freedom. It was a bit intimidating to share the stage with the likes of Pat Boone, Charlie Black, Morton Blackwell and Grover Norquist.
Here is what I said:
Earlier this evening I was talking to my 16 year-old daughter. When you are my age, realizing that you have a 16 year-old makes you feel really old… and then I walked into the dinner tonight – a 60 Plus dinner. I represent the -40 crowd.
Jim Martin and I share a few things in common– a deep-seated love of country, a commitment to the conservative cause, we were both journalism majors - I didn’t go as far as Jim, because I was a broadcast journalism major and they told me I had a face for radio. But most of all, we both love to play softball.
Now, Jim is a much more accomplished softball player than I am. He led his 55+ senior softball team to two consecutive appearances in the Senior World Series
Men’s softball, which is really the place where wannabe baseball players go to re-live the glory days, is a microcosm of politics.
In politics, just like in softball, if you stick to fundamentals – your principles – and you treat every election as if the future of the nation depended on it, you can succeed in staving off the onslaught of liberalism and the creeping intrusion of government control.
Jim Martin has been a part of each of the major victories of conservatism in the last 50 years – call them the “transformational elections” - most significantly 1980 and 1994.
And now, he stands in the middle of what could be another conservative transformational election as he leads America’s seniors in the pushback against the greatest threat to freedom they have faced since WWII – a leftist President enabled by liberal majorities in the House and Senate. Jim takes William F. Buckley’s lead in “standing athwart history, yelling Stop!”
And I’m confident that he will succeed, along with many others in this room, in stopping the threat come November.
There is something that will drive the left crazy as Jim takes them on – his unwavering optimism, and his constant smile. They hate it when he smiles – well and that he looks like one of their heroes, Ted Turner.
And that is Jim Martin’s secret – it’s what makes him a “happy warrior” – he’s optimistic and smiles…. Because he knows he is right.
Jim, you are a hero, not just as a decorated Marine, but because you have toiled in the vineyard for five decades. Your fight is not quite over – so let’s play ball!
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
“Isn’t our choice really not one of left or right, but of up or down? Down through the welfare state to statism, to more and more government largesse accompanied always by more government authority, less individual liberty, and ultimately, totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own good. The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society. We don’t celebrate dependence day on the Fourth of July. We celebrate Independence Day.” –Ronald Reagan
This is one of the most outrageous examples of abuse of power I have ever witnessed. And people wonder why I doubt whether Democrats have any regard for the First Amendment?
This guy (Rep. Bob Etheridge - D-NC) needs to be thrown out of office, like yesterday…
This week I learned that there is a website called PostSecret.com which publishes anonymous postcards sent in from people. (As you might imagine, some are not family-friendly rated). I find the concept a little bit random, but I’m sure sociologist and psychologist have a field day with this kind of thing.
Last Sunday this postcard was posted on the website. Within hours of that postcard showing up on the website someone created a facebook group to try to persuade the writer not to commit suicide.
Here is the story as it continues to unfold…
This postcard was sent into PostSecret. It reads:
I have lived in San Francisco since I was young. I am illegal. I am not wanted here. I don’t belong anywhere. This summer I plan to jump off the Golden Gate.
A group has been created to support the person who wrote this card and help him/her realize that his/her life is still worth living. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119460778095373
A loving member of the PostSecret community wrote an email saying “On Sunday the 13th at noon I plan on printing up all the caring comments from facebook, taking them to the Golden Gate Bridge and taping them up all along the walkway.” I feel that this is a wonderful idea and decided to try and get others to join in bringing in both comments printed out from the Facebook group and their own original comments to tape up on the Golden Gate Bridge. Also, it would be great if any photographers out there could bring cameras to take photos and upload them to the site. I am hoping that this will help the writer of the postcard understand that it doesn’t matter who you are or what others say, but where you feel at home that determines where you belong.
Please feel free to invite as many people as you want/can. The more support the better. Remember: there is always hope!
**UPDATE** Hey everybody! So, Shuai Chen (who has been MORE than helpful in organizing this event) has created a “Please Don’t Jump” page on CafePress.com. All of the proceeds will go to Hopeline. If you would like to order anything for Sunday, please visit http://shops.cafepress.com/Pleasedontjump
*** Press Release ***
San Francisco, CA (June 12, 2010)
48,000 Members of the PostSecret and Facebook communities will join together on at noon on Sunday, June 13 at the Golden Gate Bridge in reaction to an anonymous postcard secret regarding suicide.
Last Sunday, a postcard was published on the PostSecret website from an illegal immigrant in San Francisco contemplating suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Within four days, more than 48,000 people joined a Facebook group created in hopes of reaching out to the sender of the card, as well as others contemplating suicide.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119460778095373&v=wall
One member of the group wrote, On Sunday the 13th at noon I plan on printing up all the caring comments from Facebook, taking them to the Golden Gate Bridge and taping them up all along the walkway. In response, California resident Lindsey Salazar (schnazzleberry@yahoo.com) invited the public to assemble this Sunday in support of the postcard sender.
The event has already received responses from over 900 people who plan to attend. Guests are requested to help post comments, bring chalk, signs, cameras and their stories.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=134344396576414#wall_posts
“Last week the postcard grabbed my heart”, said Frank Warren, (frank@postsecret.com) creator of PostSecret, while reflecting on the public reactions to the postcard. “I have been very inspired by how it’s resonated with tens of thousands of other people rallying to keep one person from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. In two days, this secret generated the most e-mails in my inbox. In addition, over 48,000 people on Facebook have expressed their hopes and concerns. What an amazing combination of technology and compassion! It gives me great hope for the future of the web and the world.”
About PostSecret:
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project, created by Frank Warren of Germantown, MD, where people mail in secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. The blog updates weekly with new submissions from all over the world.
Contact: Lindsey Salazar (schnazzleberry@yahoo.com)
It’s inspiring to see total strangers rally to show one person that his or her life has value and they can find a place to belong.
It is all very… human.
OK, because I’m a political hack, you probably thought this post was about the rash of primary elections happening throughout the country.
Wrong.
This Tuesday was super because it featured the season finale of Glee.
As a friend of mine tweeted, “Quote of the night, “Who cares about politics?! Primaries??! We’re talking GLEE here!” Totally agree.
All I can say is that with the twists and turns, the surprises and showmanship, this ranks up there as one of the best season finales EVER. In fact, I felt like it was a series finale.
It had everything – the heartless protagonist does the right thing; the good guys don’t really win, but then they do; the baby is born and ends up with the person who values her the most; Olivia Newton John is not nearly as nice as I had thought; and Josh Grobin is a bit of a whiney wimp. And we are coming back for more! Wow.
I worry that the writers have outdone themselves. I really don’t know how they can replicate the first season, but I am anxious to find out.
Yep, I was a show choir geek in high school… and darn proud of it! Jjust call me a Gleek.
The Supreme Court ruled, at least temporarily, that so-called “Clean Elections” candidates will not receive matching funds if their opponent spends more than the Clean Election candidate receives in taxpayer-funded campaign cash.
This could be a huge blow to a number of candidates this year. For example, Buz Mills, a Republican candidate for Governor, has spent $2.3 million so far on his campaign. Under the matching scheme, his primary opponents, primarily Governor Jan Brewer and State Treasurer Dean Martin would have received $2.1 million each in taxpayer money – which is three times the base amount of $707,000.
The Supreme Court halted matching funds until it decides whether it will hear an underlying case in which the 9th Circuit upheld matching funds. My guess is that the Supreme Court is going to hear this case, and matching funds is going to be a thing of the past. And, that will likely mean the end of the whole craziness called Clean Elections. To which I will happily say, good riddance!
It still mystifies me how defenders of Clean Elections so blatantly ignore First Amendment rights. Political speech (which means money) is second only to religion in the enumeration of First Amendment rights. Thankfully, the Supreme Court has been restoring the original intent of the Founders in recent years.
Major kudos go to Clint Bolick at the Goldwater Institute for being a pit bull in this case. This is a guy who loves freedom and has the tenacity and guts to take on major opposition to do the right thing. Keep fighting… in the defense of liberty.
UPDATE
I just read a press release from the Goldwater Institute that named Nick Dranias as the lead attorney on the case. Well done, Nick. For more on the case go here.
I don’t remember the first time I ever heard Taps bugled, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard without having tears in my eyes. Usually, I think of my granddad and the very few times he spoke of his service in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during WWII. On a couple of occasions, I recall him being asleep on the couch in his living room and waking up from a violent nightmare, near-screaming. He wouldn’t talk about those episodes, but I learned from my grandma that his nightmares came from an occasion that his PT boat had sunk a Japanese boat and he refused to make the gunner kill the survivors floating in the water, instead taking that unimaginable responsibility upon himself. That was my first inkling that war is hell.
We owe so much to the brave men and women who have traveled through hell for us, whether it be the forest and fields of Pennsylvania in the Revolutionary War, the battlefields of Virginia during the Civil War, the Black Forest of Germany during WWI, the south Pacific or the European Theatre during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. The march through hell, to protect our freedom deserves much more than just the last Monday of May as a memorial.
My aunt’s husband, a true patriot, emailed me the video below. As you listen to this beautiful variation of Taps, (it is known as Il Silenzio) played by a 13 year-old girl, think about the words (there are actually a couple versions – both below).
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.
Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.
Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.
Thanks and praise, For our days,
‘Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
‘Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.
***
Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh — Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Then good night, peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright;
God is near, do not fear — Friend, good night.
For more about the history of Taps, go here and here. This Wikipedia link has additional lyrics and an mp3 of the simple, but beautiful version the U.S. Army plays.
God Bless the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much, in too many cases, the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may live free.
