But, of course

Cites fiscal concerns, caves in to illegal proponents

Gov. Janet Napolitano honed her razor-sharp veto stiletto again today, shredding the bill which would have required local law enforcement to work with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.

According to Napolitano, “House Bill 2807 is simply an unnecessary, unfunded mandate to law enforcement.”

The measure would have directed local police and county sheriffs to implement a program to address immigration violations. That provision would have been satisfied in any of three ways: by having a portion of the police force undergo immigration training through an agreement with the federal government, embedding Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers within the local agency or “establishing operational relationships” with ICE.

Bill sponsor Rep. John Nelson, (R-Dist. 12), said the bill’s intent was simply to standardize and set guidelines for local government interaction with ICE and immigration law.

Read her veto letter 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?

Betsey Bayless: Long in connections, short on job qualifications

Betsey Bayless stares at us this morning from an above-the-fold perch in the Valley & State section of the daily newspaper. The “moderate” Republican, usually the recipient of high praise from that corner, is taking a jab in the chops today.

In an article titled, Health-system director scrutinized after report, Bayless, 64, is exposed as overpaid and under-qualified for her job as chief executive officer of the state’s largest public hospital system. Paid $368,000 a year for a job for which she acknowledges she has no credentials, she has come under scrutiny by a national health care accrediting organization for flaws in the system.

Bayless was widely regarded as the spoiler in the 2002 governor’s race which Napolitano won by a slim margin over Matt Salmon, a former Arizona GOP congressman. Immediately after Democrat Napolitano’s win, she rewarded Bayless by appointing her Director of the state Department of Administration, a job which normally goes to a party loyalist of the governor.

But, “It’s for the children”

Two reasonable bills dealing with abortion reached the governor’s desk on Friday.

One required parental consent for an underage girl to receive an abortion and the other established state penalties for physicians who perform a gruesome practice of late-term pregnancy termination known as partial birth abortion. Both were given a quick slash of Napolitano’s veto pen. 

 According to the daily, Planned Parenthood of Arizona applauded the vetoes.

The governor’s famous mantra has been, “It’s for the children.” She neglected to tell us that “it’ was death.                

A soaring opportunity

Honor or exploitation?

In a blatant attempt to influence the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, soon to be deciding whether to use the name Piestewa Peak on official documents and maps, the daily pounds again on their racial-guilt drum.

Try this: As a nation and as a community, we honor our war dead. We want to ease the pain. There are other pains that we, as a nation and a community, need to acknowledge. The historic treatment of Native Americans is one of those. The injustices that were committed against these First Americans are a painful legacy.

Today we are not only treated to guilt, but another editorial dose of their pro-Napolitanoism. The ham-handed renaming of Phoenix’s Squaw Peak mountain to honor a fallen solider, adverse to the five-year waiting period was simply wrong. But bestowing such an honor on this specific soldier was not serendipitous.

It should be acknowledged that this particular solider, Lori Piestewa, a member of the Hopi tribe, was able, in death, to do for Arizona’s crafty governor what the unfortunate young mother of two could never have done in life. She gifted the politically ambitious Janet Napolitano with a vitally important inroad to Arizona tribal votes.

We grieve for Army Pfc Lori Piestewa and her family–just as we do for every military life lost and disability suffered by our combat personnel. Yet we also recognize that this was a purely political move that requires some rational reflection be brought to this issue.

Today the paper acknowledges the governor’s political maneuvering and outlandish tactics were beyond the pale when her swaggering henchman and former aide, Mario Diaz, threatened commissioners on the Arizona panel to ramrod the name change through by saying: It was the wrong way to do it, but it was the right thing to do.

The editorialist omitted two important words: For Napolitano.

What’s this?

The strangest of bedfellows: Lisa James and Janet Napolitano

Although this article identified only one of the co-chairs of the group hosting the $250 a plate luncheon, 2008 Teaming Up for Kids, honoring Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano, today’s daily social scene section clearly identifies the other as Lisa James.

That’s right, the same Lisa James who ran for Republican state chairman and lost to current GOP chair, Randy Pullen.

The pro-abortion Guv was honored for “her commitment to women and children in Arizona.”

Pinal County’s accelerated growth harbors problems

Population increase will signal an end to judicial accountability as elections are replaced by appointments

New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show Pinal county’s 299,246 residents as of July 1, 2007, represent an 11.5 percent increase from the same time a year earlier. And since the 2000 census, the population is up 65 percent. The Arizona Daily Star covers the explosive growth.

Bur, there is much more at stake in the stark realities underlying this news. Seeing Red AZ carried a revealing look at merit selection last year. As of the 2010 census, Pinal county voters will have their ability to elect judges wrenched from them and awarded to a panel of their hypothetical stand-ins.

The process of merit selection of judges incorporates a population threshold of 250,000. Arizona’s two most populous counties, Maricopa and Pima, have their superior court judges selected by panels of lawyers and citizens presided over by a voting Arizona Supreme Court Justice, ostensibly representing the voters. A similar panel interviews judicial applicants for the Arizona Supreme Court and the state courts of appeals. A list of not more than 2/3 of one political party is then sent to the governor, who makes the final selection to fill vacancies or new judicial divisions. Check out the link above for an indication of how the system functions.

Voters are told they still have a voice on the judicial ‘retention’ ballot. What they are not told is that no judge has been ousted through that process in over thirty years. Merit selection simply conceals its very political nature with a series of overlays that protect the coveted system.

The vast majority of Arizona counties—thirteen out of fifteen, continue to elect their judges. This practice has produced a quality bench, where judges actually are accountable to, and interact with, the people, rather than assuming the role of an untouchable elite.

Inexplicably, all of the biographical information and photos of Maricopa County’s Superior Court Judges have recently been removed. Yet all other officials have their information available. The Governor, Attorney General, Maricopa County Attorney and Sheriff are easily located. Such information is even accessible for Arizona’s Supreme Court Justices.

Voters will be told that accepting campaign money from lawyers who appear before judges is unethical. There are numerous ways to circumvent that. However, such an argument does cast a dark cloud over the fine judges currently elected in the vast majority of Arizona counties.

Political stunts or inability to rein in spending?

He said, she said…..So who do you believe?

State Treasurer Dean Martin cautioned authorities to take action before the state runs out of money to cover its spending obligations, which he said will happen by late April or early May. Gov. Janet Napolitano quickly responded that his press conference was a political stunt, according to the daily.

Martin said the state is spending at the rate of $29 million a day, even as tax collections have slowed, reducing the amount of money in the state’s bank account

“The treasurer really has added nothing to this discussion,” Napolitano said. “He’s making a lot of assumptions and presumptions that are simply inaccurate. He doesn’t know, for example, what state agencies are holding in reserve.”

Her Arrogance: How dare you impose a hiring freeze!

Legislature unable to rein in Napolitano’s spending spree

For the second time this week, Gov. Napolitano has vetoed legislation aimed at controlling Arizona’s out-of-control budget deficit.

The bipartisan supported, H B 2043, required state agencies to impose a freeze all hiring and promotions. But the Democratic governor said the bill was “wholly unnecessary” because she has already imposed a freeze, the daily reports.

“The bill constitutes an unwarranted intrusion into the distribution of powers and responsibilities among the three branches of government,” Napolitano wrote. “One branch of government cannot exercise the powers and authority properly belonging to another branch of government. This reason alone demands a veto of this bill.”

Rep. Bob Robson, (R-Dist. 20), the bill’s prime sponsor, said the governor missed her chance to underscore the severity of the state’s $1.2 billion budget gap for fiscal 2008.

“I guess to a degree some people are not grasping the seriousness of this situation,” Robson said. “This could have been a very good statement from the executive as well as the Legislature to all concerned that we are in financial peril.”

Napolitano’s woes: Budget deficits need more than a bandage

 AZ Governor makes national news

The daily reports that Arizona’s legislature has approved an emergency bill to freeze state hiring and promotions, implementing measures that exceed those Gov. Napolitano previously put into effect.

The bill, which drew bipartisan support, will help the state handle its enormous revenue deficit. The House voted 46-14 to send the bill to Napolitano for her signature. Thirteen Democrats joined all 33 Republicans in voting for the bill, while 14 Democrats voted against it

Arizona faces a projected $1.2 billion revenue shortfall in the current $10.6 billion budget.

Napolitano made national news as the Washington DC Examiner reported yesterday that she vetoed a bill passed by the legislature to freeze some spending in the state budget and in special-purpose funds to help deal with the state’s fiscal woes.

The vetoed bill would have frozen $584 million, an amount equal to nearly half of the $1.2 billion revenue shortfall for the state’s current $10.6 billion budget.