AZ Town Hall conclusion: “State needs an enema”

The Republic’s new heroine, Sandra Day O’Connor, never the conservative Reagan assumed when he appointed her as the first female on the U.S. Supreme Court, is now poised to save the state with her masterful wizardry.

Pairing her O’Connor House Project (referred to as a “civic group”) with the ASU’s left-leaning Morrison Institute (called a “think tank”), they are radically planning a constitutional convention — the first since statehood — to right what’s wrong with Arizona.  These overreaches were the conclusion of the members of the Arizona Town Hall who have determined that the state’s escalating budget deficits are a solid indication that fundamental changes are needed to set Arizona on the left leaning course with the wide-ranging proposals they have decreed will benefit us.

Among the group’s recommendations:

- The Legislature should pass a temporary sales-tax increase, rather than refer it to the voters.

- Continue to search for other short-term revenue sources, such as increases in income or property taxes, or increased revenue from Indian gaming.

- Broaden the sales tax base while lowering the tax rate.

- Reinstate the state property tax.

- Expand the application of user and impact fees.

- Evaluate tax credits and sunset or eliminate tax exemptions.

- Increase efforts to obtain a larger share of federal funds.

- Increase the cap on the rainy day fund to at least 20% of state general fund expenditures of the prior year and add restrictions on withdrawal tied to measurable reductions in economic activity.

- Increase excise taxes on gasoline for transportation uses.

- Critically evaluate expenditures and tie expenditures to revenues.

-  Consider general obligation bonding, severance taxes, exit taxes, visa taxes, and inheritance taxes.

The entire report can be read here.

The daily quotes an unnamed Town Hall participant as saying, “The state needs an enema,” to cleanse its system and start over.  How many of you willing to grab your ankles for these “doctors?”

The unfortunate repercussions of demon rum

Maricopa Community Colleges governing board president Colleen Clark will serve 30 days in Tent City jail after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of extreme driving under the influence.

As reported by ABC 15, Clark, of Gilbert, was arrested July 11 in Scottsdale for driving under the influence. The charges were amended to include extreme and super-extreme driving under the influence charges after a blood test revealed Clark had a 0.204 blood alcohol level. Legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Her sentence, which incorporates work release, will begin December 12. Clark is the Team Coordinator for Women’s Ministry at East Valley Bible Church.

Clark, 26, became president of the five-member community college board in January. Her term as president ends in December.

Arizona’s predatory teachers: Light sentence for kiddie porn zealot

 With a 32-year teaching career coupled with his predilection for child pornography, Armando Gonzalez, 62, must have enjoyed his time in Arizona’s elementary and high schools.

The former Tucson Unified School district employee also worked in the copper mining community of Bagdad, Arizona, before retiring to Prescott.

Gonzalez was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2006 after he was found in possession of more than 100 images of child pornography. After entering a guilty plea in July 2008 he was sentenced this week to a 21-month prison term, the daily reports.

How much of that sentence might he serve? You can be assured it won’t be the full, albeit light, less than two years he received. Betch’a he’ll be out on parole in time for 2010 Thanksgiving festivities.

Seeing Red AZ has begun referring to the ongoing saga of sexually exploitive teachers as “the endless parade” — having written about their appalling abuses on numerous occasions.

Celebrating Columbus Day: He wasn’t gay enough

In today’s politically correct society, Christopher Columbus is often depicted as an exploiter rather than an adventurous explorer. This is what young students are being taught in American classrooms. It turns out that Columbus who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 was “very, very mean, very bossy.”

And that’s the least of it. In one Pennsylvania class, young students dressed up as characters from the era, took on roles for a mock trial and put Columbus on trial. Out of a jury of 12 students, nine found him guilty.

Although we were unable to find a commemorating message from the Obama White House, President John F. Kennedy honored Columbus in a speech from the White House garden, in which he referred to Columbus as having been “a fascinating figure to me for many reasons, but partly because of his extraordinary skill as a navigator.”

Obama, however, did find time over the weekend to address and make promises to, the Human Rights Campaign dinner, a gay rights advocacy group.

Hot Air has more.

Seeing Red AZ celebrates Christopher Columbus, for whom President Benjamin Harrison made a commemorative proclamation to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, in 1892. In 1905 Colorado became the first state to observe Columbus Day. Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually, and in 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12th as Columbus Day — until 1971, when Congress declared it a federal public holiday on the second Monday in October.

No wonder the libs have stopped calling it “global warming”

After the scientific community reconsidered the evidence and began to renounce the concept of “global warming,” it was found that the slipperier term “climate change” worked better with focus groups. This could be why.

Now, even the BBC asks, “What happened to global warming?”  But to placate the supporters of the questionable theory, they conclude, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that “global warming is set to resume.”

The National League Division Series being played in Denver has been “sweating” Game 3 scheduled for tonight. Low temperatures between 18 and 24 degrees along with a 30 percent chance of freezing drizzle have been predicted by the National Weather Service. The coldest temperature at the start of a World Series game over the last 22 years was 38 degrees in 1997.

This report by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office references over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries who have voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. Many of these scientists are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), but have become outspoken critics of the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.

Among these experts are those who have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contributions to their fields, in such diverse areas as climatology; geology; biology; glaciology; biogeography; meteorology; oceanography; economics; chemistry; mathematics; environmental sciences; engineering; physics and paleoclimatology. They just might know a thing or two more about the subject than a former tobacco farmer who has become unimaginably wealthy by spreading global warming hysteria.

Seeing Red AZ has previously covered the Hot Air of Global Warming.

Another Valley teacher sentenced in student sex case

Arizona’s predatory teachers: The endless parade

A former Shadow Mountain High School science teacher and baseball coach has been sentenced to four years in prison and lifetime parole for a sexual encounter with a teenage  female student.

Before the sentencing, Tom Krepelka, 47, apologized and asked the victim’s family as well as his own, for forgiveness. “I’m a good man, and I made a horrible mistake,” he said.

The “horrible mistake” was getting caught.

In asking Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Ditsworth to send a message that sexual misconduct like this will not be tolerated, the victim’s father told the court, “The one place I trusted (my daughters) to be safe was at school.” 

Sexual conduct with a minor who is 15 to 17 years old was a Class 6 felony until late 2008.  The law was changed to increase penalties in cases involving  a teacher sexually exploiting a student.

“Thanks to new legislation supported by our office that toughens the punishment for these offenders, we’re now able to get a prison sentence instead of just probation for this defendant,” Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said in a statement. The complete report in the daily can be read here.

Just last week Seeing Red AZ posted this report, which we titled: Arizona’s predatory teachers: The endless parade.

In-doctor-ination

More Obama worship in the schools. Students from the Ron Clark Academy sing for health care reform.

 ”Obama says everyone needs health coverage in America now.” 

“But Joe Wilson yelled, ‘You lie!’ ” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

BHO’s Safe and Drug Free Schools chief is anything but safe for youngsters

Another day, another problematic Obama appointee.  This one is Kevin Jennings, director of the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The school post is another that skirts the Senate confirmation process.

When Jennings was named the 2004 National Education Association’s Virginia Uribe Human Rights Award winner, the head of the NEA’s Republican Educators Caucus, protested, suggesting that Jennings “did not report sexual victimization of a student to the proper authorities” and asked “Is it a good idea for NEA to honor as exemplary a teacher who engages in unethical practice?” The question referred to the advice Jennings had previously given a 15-year-old who came to him for guidance on his relationship with an older man he had met in a bus station restroom and followed home. Jennings advised the boy to use a condom.

In his 2007 autobiography, “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir,” Jennings wrote that in his high school years he “got stoned more often and went out to the beach at Bellows, overlooking Honolulu Harbor and the lights of the city, to drink with my buddies on Friday and Saturday nights, spending hours watching the planes take off and land at the airport, which is actually quite fascinating when you are drunk and stoned.”

Is there a Democrat repository where such highly credentialed folks for America’s top posts await selection?

Tony Perkins writes about Jennings in vivid prose here in Human Events.

Arizona’s predatory teachers: The endless parade

Seeing Red AZ has begun referring to the ongoing saga of sexually exploitive teachers as “the endless parade” — having written about their appalling abuses on numerous occasions.

Today we introduce you to Alfonso Padilla, 36, a cool guy with frosted streaks in his dark hair, who has a propensity for downloading child pornography.

Padilla was arrested last week at Coolidge High School, but had been allowed to teach in at least three other districts while under a state misconduct investigation for downloading dozens of explicit images of young children.  He had earlier resigned from the Higley Unified School District in Gilbert, where officials allege he merely downloaded adult pornography. 

The case reveals a loophole in state law that allows teachers under a misconduct investigation to work at other schools, even when the allegation could imply an imminent threat or danger to student safety, according to a report in the daily.

Cecilia Johnson, the Coolidge district’s top administrator, said Padilla didn’t say why he left Higley. “In fact, when we called the state board, they told us to ask Padilla why he resigned,” Johnson said.

The state Board of Education President Jacob Moore didn’t respond to calls to his Scottsdale office or e-mail inquiries. The board oversees misconduct inquiries and has four investigators to regulate the state’s 200,000 certified teachers and keeps investigations secret.

Amazingly, a teacher’s certificate is valid until the case is closed — which means schools depend on the applicant to volunteer that he or she is under investigation.

Seeing Red AZ is seeing red. Read these previous posts on the topic here, here and here.

This one concerns a teacher who was engaged in multiple sexual relationships, which resulted in a murder charge when one of her students stabbed another one to death in a “love triangle.”  In that case, officials said they would have divulged the information to the new school, if they would have asked.

The story behind the story

Most of us have seen it — the utterly incredible worshipful brainwashing of young children at the B. Bernice Young School in Burlington, New Jersey.

But there’s more.

FOX News provides an exposé of the political agenda of Dr. Denise King, principal of the elementary school and her arrogant refusal to apologize to parents for the indoctrination of their young children, saying she “would allow the performance again if she could.”

The lyrics to the songs of praise for the great accomplishments of President Barack Hussein Obama are provided here. The network also includes a fascinating slide show of other child propaganda used in various countries throughout the years.