And seriously, you could easily get the Tea Baggers support on this. North Arizona & South Arizona would each automatically get "smaller government". Tell them how tired we are of Arizona not balancing a budget for 3 years.

Succession doesn't sound good. How about "spin-off" or "branching out?

Finally! I've been waiting for someone to realize that Massachusetts has a better health care reform package than the one being peddled in the Senate. They voted for a guy who voted for, and continues to support "Romney-care". Why would those voters want a Senate health care bill that might jeopardize their own copay caps, their employer mandate, or their state-run "public option" for self employed workers? Why would they want abortion restrictions, even to protect the health of the mother, to their insurance? Massachusetts voters said in their polling that they would support better, stronger health care reform. It's not "reform" for them if they end up with something worse than they already have.

They were against it not just because of KBR. Other huge defense contractors (a.k.a. Republican campaign contributors) would lose billions in government money. Dyncorp for example. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512270176dec27,0,1632557.story http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DynCorp The Carlyle Group & Bechtel require the same language in their contracts.

I don't think the $250 payment is necessarily a good idea either. It's not just that there was no inflation. Overall cost of living has decreased in the past year even when you factor in medical costs. Social Security isn't designed around dealing with medical costs, Medicare and the VA are. Any increases for medical costs should come through those systems, and not SS. Providing an additional $250 coverage inside the "donut hole" would probably be a better solution.

Ah, I didn't realize you wanted REAL quotes. It's unfortunate you completely misunderstood my point. Here is one you probably won't find on Wikipedia. "Happy for us that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the coolness of philosophers and set it to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend or to restore their constitutions." Jefferson was involved in no conspiracy to take up arms whatsoever. I recall the document he drafted was not a Declaration of War, but a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson did his best to avoid war with the country he previously served under as an officer. Most of Jefferson's time during the Revolutionary War was spent running away from Benedict Arnold and his silver handcuffs. The rest of his time was spent trying to get support from the French and praying for peace with Britain. If you want to know how long until it goes from first resort to last resort, it took the colonists 12 years and 3 months from the passing of the sugar act until they publicly declared their independence. It took 11 years from the sugar act until the first shot was fired at Lexington. I would suppose though that you have felt "put upon" by your representative government for much longer than 11 years, and that could easily justify your shooting whomever you like, as YOU must be the true patriot fighting for the rights of all Americans (except the ones you are shooting since your rights would outweigh theirs...) Given your criteria for elitism, you should probably stop quoting Jefferson and stick with quotes from Glenn Beck or some of your libertarian heroes.

How many times did Jefferson take up arms again? I forgot he was such a gun-totin' rampaging maniac, shooting any politicians he disagreed with. It reminds me of Jefferson's famous quote: "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a FIRST resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government, or if they just don't like their current elected leaders, or their elected party is not in power, or if they don't want to be bothered with the political process (that I helped to create), or if they are ignorant, bigoted and angry." Jefferson was a true warrior statesman.

The rumor I'm starting is that the whole health-care "debate" is a screen for the upcoming blanket-pardon/amnesty for illegal immigrants late 2009, early 2010. President Obama wants an accurate census count. It's the reason he has ignored the "excluding illegals" portions of the reform bill. It's the reason he's been meeting with Harper & Calderon. It adds potentially 12 million votes to the Democratic party. It potentially changes several Republican districts into Democratic ones. He would get to call it "Bi-Partisan" as he could claim the support of John McCain & Lindsay Graham. Etc, etc, etc.

Sanford finally did something good for South Carolina. Setting back any potential Republican candidates for governor.

"Foo! I say apply this ONLY on the athletic department." All of the coaches are exempt from the pay cut.

No. You would still have to pay the unsubsidized price. Due to the system they have in place to keep all of the peripheral costs down and reducing outsized profit motives, that unsubsidized price would still be a lot lower than ours is.

New Zealand does have subsidized healthcare. It sounds like an excellent system. A couple of key points as a friend explained it to me: Just like in the US, there are free clinics & you can receive treatment for life-threatening issues without insurance, but most people carry insurance. It's a quasi-public/private system for health insurance. There are private plans you purchase. The plans are basically set up & run by the medical providers themselves. The plans are all required to be non-profit, they have to meet a minimum set of standards, are accountable to government oversight & receive public funding to subsidize keeping costs down. No issues with malpractice costs as you cannot sue for malpractice (or for any injuries). They have a nationwide Workers Compensation type system that covers your financial needs if you get injured for just about any reason. (Kind of helps explain all the crazy adventure sports they come up with since their finances will be covered whenever they get injured)

Matthew, If I promise not to throw some random accusations at you of illegal activity, would you be willing to cite your sources for your European education spending numbers? While trying to find where your data came from, I found that the EU agrees with your statement that there's no direct link between education spending & student performance. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication11902_en.pdf

The 2 separate credits: 43.1183 & 43.1184. 43.1184 is the one without the income limit and defines "qualified students" as any child ever in foster care or children with disabilities. Disabilities for children 3-9 can, at the discretion of the state, be defined as nearly any developmental delay. Basically the only limitation in the AZ revised statutes states you cannot consider any developmental delay arising from living in a household where English is a secondary language. (Yup, it was the kid's own fault for being born to immigrants or Native Americans) The scholarship limit is 90% of what the state is supposed to spend on the student's behalf, regardless if that is what they are spending or not. http://www.azleg.gov/ars/43/01183.htm This is the other, bigger credit for "low-income" children and still has an income limit. Under the current code, a family of 4 can earn up to $75,467 to qualify. Each child could then receive either $4,500 for K-8, or $5,800 for 9-12. The income limit isn't that bad, but the "scholarship" amounts seem too high in this program if it's supposed to save the state any money.

I've hiked the appalachian trail from it's start in Georgia, to about halfway through Smokey Mountains national park. Through most of that section of trail, I'd recommend carrying a gun. On the way to SMNP, you will occasionally run across some sketchy people. It really saddens me that there has been some violent crimes on the trail. The AT travels through 6 national parks. I've had friends do overnight hiking around Glacier national park & Katmai in Alaska, they'd recommend carrying a gun (and they did carry). Don't trust bells & pepper spray to keep you alive. In some parks, it's just downright stupid to bring guns. Mammoth Cave is an easy example, but honestly there's no good reason for them in the Grand Canyon. At nearly all of the parks I've been, I felt perfectly safe.

Mr. Ladner "It's almost as amusing as watching the $9.2 billion public school elephant shriek in terror at the $50m tax credit mouse." CityNorth was only $100 million. "The credits have been around for 12 years. Wake me up when anyone on the progressive side wants to do anything more than bitch about them. My kingdom for an honest liberal..." You guys are supposed to be Arizona's top government watchdog, but you won't do anything about Yarborough skimming a million dollars or more off the STO program because he'll introduce bills for you. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) notes that language in the bill could be interpreted as allowing 185 percent of 185 percent of the limit required to qualify a child for reduced priced lunches. For fiscal year 2008-2009, that limit is $39,220 and 185 percent of that amount is $72,557. Tough means test you've got there.

We should hope that Jesse Ventura doesn't get involved in the GOP. This is a guy who could reshape the party into something viable. I'm betting Thane would vote for him.

I have to give the Republicans props on their timing of this. Any other time of year, the schools could threaten to close their doors. Can't really do that on summer break. I hope the teacher's union is considering some action.

Since this is on the subject of education. Cory Booker did an interesting article today on Hpost about education reform. I've been a fan of Mr. Booker for a few years. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-booker/a-hard-look-at-education_b_201368.html He links to a group called the Alternative High School Initiative. http://www.ahsi.org/2009/01/newark-mayor-superintendent-launch-alternative-high-school-partnership/ So far, what I've read about their program is pretty good. I wonder if this is something that would even be possible here in Arizona with the state amendment the way it is.

I really like his quote: "Americans are pragmatists. A pragmatist thinks that if something works, it's right. An ideologue believes that if something is wrong, it can't possibly work, even when it's working."

This stuff always boggles me. I went to Catholic schools and no one carried around Jesus pictures. These guys will write a bill protecting a kid's religious ornamentation but are against protecting the same kids from getting strip searched for Advil.

If this was really politically motivated they would have impounded his car, given it a few scratches & an impound fee. I agree with you about having investigations, Greg. As a democrat, I hope the last thing he does is apologize and try to put the story to rest. I want to see him bitch & moan & throw fits at the police & threaten to send in "big-shot" lawyers to sue the state & the officers. I'm sure he'll get plenty of sympathy from the public. Everyone around here just loves seeing d*bags in a "trans-am" ripping around the 101 at 110mph! Keep on writing about this..... please!!!

I hate that this is being pushed by Dodd.... -Thane. You say the Democrats let torture continue for the last 2 years. Everything I've seen so far is that it effectively stopped in 2007. Nancy Pelosi blocked impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Hmm...I can only assume that the Republicans would also block impeachment proceedings against her in return....

Said Kavanaugh: "I guess it's great to be a Democrat in a situation like this," he said. "Democrats, unfortunately, are myopic. They don't see beyond the current year. They don't see 2011." I'm thinking Democrats do see 2011 pretty well. I'm hoping what they see is a Democrat sitting in District 8's seat so they can untangle this mess he's helping to make.

One of my favorite statements coming out of the Notre Dame commencement hoopla: “This crowd,” Mr. McBrien said, referring to conservative Catholics, “are simply Republicans who are upset that Obama won the election — and they want to pick a fight.” I was very lucky to get to know well several Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, including Sister Barb Fiand & Sister Kay Brogle, while I lived in Cincinnati. There are many strong liberal voices in the Catholic church. Catholics United is a great example: http://www.catholics-united.org/ I also believe that having a fairly unpopular Pope following JP2 is driving more dissent against the conservative positions of the church.