Bet he’d run as a Democrat

Father of the Year award winner discusses his future political plans with Morley Safer.

A mere $400,000 in taxpayer dollars will pacify ACLU lawyer

Daniel Pochoda, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of AZ (ACLU) has named Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas,  Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other employees of the agencies in his notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit.

Last November, Pochoda was arrested for trespassing in the parking lot of M.D. Pruitt’s Furniture store as supporters of illegal immigration were demonstrating in front of the store, in an ongoing effort to block customer access to the business. Sheriff’s deputies were working security at the scene.

A sheriff’s report indicates that prior to his arrest, Pochoda engaged in a verbal confrontation with deputies about his right to be in the parking lot. He refused repeated opportunities to leave the premises on his own, according to a report in the daily.

Thomas released a statement tying Pochoda’s legal claim to the ACLU’s opposition to a state law denying bail to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes. The ACLU and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) brought a class-action lawsuit in federal court challenging Proposition 100 last month.

“We will not be deterred from enforcing Proposition 100, nor will we be intimidated into giving preferential treatment to ACLU defendants,” Thomas’s statement read.

Pochoda has offered to settle the case for $400,000.

McCinco de Mayo

Señor John McCain’s presidential campaign has launched a Spanish language Web site to mark the Cinco de Mayo holiday.

“Keep that faith, Keep your courage, stick together, stay strong, do not yield, stand up! ” he urged the cheering Hispanic audience. The video is available on his new Spanish language site.

McCain’s support for a sweeping immigration overhaul that would have greased the amnesty skids for millions of illegal aliens in the United States, infuriated many in his party. As a candidate, he now says congress should focus on border security first. The unanswered questions are, “First? Before what?”

McCain then went into pastoral mode, saying that we “are all God’s children.”

Reuters reports on McCain pitching mucho woo.

And, McCain’s campaign announced that he will attend the La Raza Annual Convention in San Diego on July 14, 2008.

Michelle Malkin reports the campaign justifies his appearance by framing it as a gesture of inclusiveness and outreach that is “part of his commitment to talking with all Americans.” Yes, they see it as an act of tolerance to legitimize the militantly open-borders, anti-immigration enforcement, ethnic nationalists who call themselves “The Race.”

A testament to educational excellence with a liberal dose of hubris

Charles Ray Fuller, 21, a man long on nerve and short on smarts, has been arrested for attempting to pass a $360 BILLION check, which he claims was given to him by his girlfriend’s mother to start a record business, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Turnout light in May Day demonstrations

Illegals demand “rights”

“We come here to fight for legalization. We’re people. We have rights,” said Eric Molina, an undocumented factory worker who immigrated to Zion, Ill., from Mexico.

Margot Veranes, a volunteer organizer in Tucson, where an estimated 12,000 took to the streets last year but early guesses Thursday put the crowd at closer to 500, blamed the turnout on aggressive enforcement by Border Patrol and police, according to a MyWay report.

“People have been stopped and deported in the last week. This is a community living in fear,” said Veranes, a researcher for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. “You never know when you’re going to be stopped by Border Patrol and now the police.”

“We’re marching to end the raids and the deportations, but we’re also marching for health care and education and good jobs,” she said.

A swing around the dance floor to Institute for Justice

Score one for reasonableness

And a wild “Yahoo!” to Pinal County Superior Court Judge William O’Neil. In a ruling yesterday the judge ended a nearly two-year legal battle over dancing at San Tan Flat, the family owned restaurant located south of Queen Creek.

Amazingly, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors and a county hearings officer found father and son, Dale and Spencer Bell, in violation of a 1960s dance hall ordinance subjecting them to a $700 fine for every day someone dances there. The ruling overturned their decision, the East Valley Tribune reports.

Hispanic advocates declare law “divisive,” urge veto

 Gov. Janet Napolitano is being urged by Hispanic activists to veto legislation authorizing local police and sheriff’s agencies supervision of federal immigration law violations.

Members of Somos America have written Gov. Napolitano, saying the requirement increases racial profiling.

Somos America, which translates to We Are America, also called it “a divisive bill” that polarizes the state between “the pro-immigrant reformers and the anti-immigrant groups infiltrated by hate groups such as the neo-Nazis and KKK.” Napolitano has until the end of the day to decide whether to sign or veto it.

Somos America members object to provisions that law enforcement officers receive special federal training to allow them to enforce federal immigration laws

The Rev. Luz Santiago, pastor of Iglesia Puebla de Dios in Mesa, threatened Hispanic lawmakers who supported the bill, saying, “we’re the ones that can vote you out.”

The Arizona Daily Star covers the story here.

ASU’s overpaid King Crow issues threats

Budget cut would be equivalent of wiping out funding for 6,000 students

Arizona State University President Michael Crow is resorting to intimidation, stating that the state’s largest university may have to limit enrollment if Arizona’s legislature imposes a10 percent cut this fall.

Crow said a 10 percent cut to the university’s budget, or $50 million, would be the equivalent of wiping out funding for 6,000 students. University officials are considering enrollment limits as one option for dealing with the loss of revenue.

“That’s not an option we want,” Crow warned.

Implicit in the threat he suggested that officials have not yet determined how much they would have to limit enrollment if the cuts occurred.

The move would be a sharp departure from ASU’s policy, which is to admit every student who meets the university’s academic qualifications, according to the daily.

Seeing Red AZ is indeed Seeing Red on this menacing tactic of Crow’s. But, we also have a suggestion or two to rein in the budget cuts:

1. Crow and his wife, Sybil Francis, should take a pay cuts.

2. Defund the programs, (so beloved by the open border advocates at the Arizona Republic) Crow has put in place to provide scholarships for illegal aliens at the state university.

Those two efforts alone might loosen up enough cash for King Crow to manage. Since all other government agencies are belt-tightening in the wake of Gov. Napolitano’s budget crisis, why does Crow caw that he should be exempt by threatening Arizona’s students?

The company we keep

Obama: Liberal elitist first and foremost

Hugh Hewitt has written a fine piece titled, Some of my best friends are liberals. None of them are terrorists.

Hewitt discusses the lack of attention given by the MSM to Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama’s long-standing friendship with William Ayers. Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn were members of the 1960’s radical terrorist group, the Weather Underground.

Ayers bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, and New York City police headquarters. In a New York Times article implausibly published on September 11, 2001, he was quoted as saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs … I feel we didn’t do enough.”

And Obama? He defended Ayres with this memorable line that only liberal elitists could fully appreciate: “Ayers,” said Obama, is “a professor of English in Chicago.”

Earth Day’s real agenda comes to us courtesy of Bolivia’s Prez: Obliterate capitalism

Bolivian President Evo Morales has told a UN forum that capitalism should be abandoned if the planet is to be saved from the effects of climate change.

“If we want to save our planet earth, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system,” he said. “Capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity.”

And global warming? Canadian Earth Day festivities were hampered by a blizzard.

The Edmonton Sun reports that vendors and presenters from various eco-friendly groups, crammed into a lone tent after a blizzard forced them to abandon their original locations and planned activities.

Al Gore, busy expending enough energy to crank up his $30,0000 home electric bill, was unavailable for comment. What an Inconvenient Truth.