The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee Legislative rankings

The latest weekly update to the Republican Legislator ratings has been published and sent to us by Howard Levine, Policy Committee Chairman

Read this week’s report here.

A new FAQs section is located after the strike all bills. It addresses some of the questions regarding the grades assigned.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee Legislative rankings

The latest weekly update to the Republican Legislator ratings has been published and sent to us by Howard Levine, Policy Committee Chairman

Read this week’s report here.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee publishes legislator evaluations based on legislative actions taken as of last Friday. Evaluations are updated weekly throughout the legislative session.

Sen. Ron Gould is pure gold

This man should run for governor

From today’s daily newspaper comes this priceless gem:

Talking Turkish

 House Concurrent Memorial 2009 is one of many “postcards” or messages the Arizona legislature sends each year to governments. The memorial, introduced by Rep. Mark Anderson, (R- Dist.18) urges the Turkish government to recognize and stop its persecution of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1, head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. When the senate took up the memorial last week, a humorous exchange ensued:

Sen. Ron Gould (R-Dist.3): “I think most of you have realized it’s even futile to send postcards to our own Congress, but now we’re taking up time and taxpayer dollars faxing postcards to the Turkish government. And, I’m sure at this very moment, the Turkish government is quaking in fear that the Arizona legislature is sending them postcards. Thank you, I vote no.”

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee Legislative rankings

The latest weekly update to the Republican Legislator ratings has been published and sent to us by Howard Levine, Policy Committee Chairman

Read this week’s report here.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee publishes legislator evaluations based on legislative actions taken as of last Friday. Evaluations are updated weekly throughout the session.

Levine reports there has not been any action on the bills being tracked in the House, but there have been some votes in the Senate. EVERY Republican Senator’s score improved over the past week!

The “Show Me ” state shows the way

The Missouri legislature has passed tough new restrictions in an effort to halt illegal immigration, along with strengthening compliance requirements for employers.

Earlier this week, Republican Gov. Matt Blunt threatened to call a special session if legislators did not pass “significant” legislation curbing illegal immigration.

So reminiscent of our own Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The EV Tribune: Getting it wrong

It’s not fear of immigration, it’s fury at those illegally invading our country

 The East Valley Tribune asks why people are so angry about immigration. In a nation built on immigrants, what is the problem?

The article, Why so angry about illegal immigration? stirs the pot by writing of a “backlash against foreigners who are perceived as a threat,” and further discusses ire vented on Arizona blogs and “a strong racist undercurrent running through the anti-immigration movement.”

Then they quote former president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (The Race), ASU instructor Raul Yzaguirre, who points to the transformation of neighborhoods overwhelmed by immigrant Hispanics. At first, he said, small changes such as businesses moving in and putting up signs in Spanish are not seen as threatening. “But there comes a tipping point when the feelings about those changes turns into fear,” Yzagurre said.

It’s not fear, Mr. Yzaguirre. It is the fact that this nation is being inundated with lawbreakers, many of whom continue to break other laws once they have arrived illegally. The resentments are further exacerbated by the lack of an attempt at assimilation by Latino separatists and Reconquista, who believe the American Southwest is their land to reclaim.

The Tribune neglected to mention that Hillary Clinton has named Raul Yzaguirre, a supporter of amnesty and mass immigration, to lead her Hispanic outreach effort. He is the counterpart to John McCain’s Hispanic Outreach Director, Juan Hernandez–who says we are not separate nations, but merely a “region.”

Yzaguirre states, “That fear is then too often fueled by opportunistic politicians who exploit the situation for votes, rather then working to alleviate fears . That in turn only serves to fan the psychological flames and incite even more anger,” he said.

And in case you might not have guessed the “exploitive…opportunistic politician,” the next paragraph thoughtfully provides the name of Rep. Russell Pearce (R-Dist.18), who authored the state’s stringent employer sanctions law, which penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens.

For good measure, they add Salvador Reza, an illegal alien organizer and protest leader to the mix. He operates the Macehualli Work Center for illegal laborers. Reza, hardly concealing threats, incites Hispanic street demonstrators, then says they were able to keep incidents from escalating, but added he’s unsure whether it will be possible in the future. “It’s getting very hard to tell people not to confront them,” he said. “We can’t control the anger anymore.”

The “them” Reza refers to is us–American citizens who have had their fill.

You can read more about Salvador Reza and his extremist views in the Sonoran News’ coverage here.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee Legislative rankings

The latest weekly update to the Republican Legislator ratings has been published and sent to us by Howard Levine, Policy Committee Chairman.

Read this week’s report here.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee publishes legislator evaluations based on legislative actions taken as of last Friday. Evaluations are updated weekly throughout the legislative session.

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.

The Pachyderm Coalition Policy Committee Legislative rankings

The latest weekly update to the Republican Legislator ratings has been published and sent to us by Howard Levine, Policy Committee Chairman

Read this week’s report here.

Hard evidence that employer sanctions law is working

In two adjacent articles, the daily is engaged in a hand wringing frenzy over declining schools enrollments.

One article lays the blame on “changing neighborhoods and sinking housing prices.”

But the underlying reason for the declines according to the second article was…you guessed it: The state’s employer sanctions law is the culprit.

The upside of his phenomena is providing parents the smaller classes they have long desired for their children minus the intrusion of English language learners who hindered class progress.

As illegals self deport or move out of Arizona, some districts are losing elementary school age students. However, teens are reported to be staying behind when their families move, enabling the high schools to maintain consistent enrollment numbers.

Where those teens live and how they support themselves is anyone’s guess. Thoughts of bands of unskilled adolescents, roaming free without adult supervision conjures up far more disturbing images than declining enrollment.

Also of interest, it took 14 contributing reporters to get this story out. Remember when veteran reporters, working solo, could crank out a fact-laden news article in record time, minus grammatical and spelling errors?