Common Core: Making news for all the right reasons

The Arizona House Education Committee voted 5-2 approving a proposal that would scrap the state’s imposition of Common Core “standards” and strip the Board of Education’s ability to adopt new ones. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mark Finchem, (R-LD 11), now moves to the House floor.

Read the amended version of H.B.2190, which was approved after testimony from those on both sides of this contentious issue. A video of the hearing can be viewed here.

Seeing Red AZ has frequently covered the various incarnations of the Common Core back story and deceptive name change —- once it became too toxic. In the end, it comes down to the GOP establishment, with John McCain yet again playing the manipulator behind the curtain vs. the grassroots conservatives who put the underestimated Diane Douglas in office.

When Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas acted within the purview of her office, she was hammered by a Hamer. The establishment view is summed up by this obnoxious comment by obliging tool Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. “It’s bizarre and outrageous and offensive and she should apologize to all she’s offended,” Hamer is quoted in the New York Times. “Her comments and behavior aren’t necessarily following a linear pattern at this point.”

In other words, for having the temerity to disagree with the elites, Diane Douglas can deliberately be deemed nuts by the diminutive, insult-hurling Hamer.

The superintendent’s remarks were “intense even for Diane Douglas,” blasted Lisa Graham Keegan, who had previously called Superintendent Douglas “erratic.” Name calling has become commonplace among Common Core proponents. John Huppenthal, the troubled man replaced by Douglas referred to opponents as “barbarians.”  Like newly elected Gov. Doug Ducey, Keegan is closely tied to the McCain faction.  A RINO-turned-Independent who supported Douglas’ radical leftwing educrat opponent, Keegan served as McCain’s education policy advisor during his failed presidential campaign.

The conservative base of the Republican Party supported Diane Douglas. As the establishment choice, Doug Ducey had the backing and financial network of the GOP hierarchy.  He was also the beneficiary of scattered votes in a 6-way Republican primary field. A Libertarian and Americans Elect candidate further diluted the pool. 

Ducey needs to reassess his victory and realize he is the governor. He owes John McCain and his political kneecapping cronies nothing more than a courteous greeting when they meet at public functions. They don’t belong in his office and when they call, his secretary can honestly tell them he’s busy.  After all, he’s got a cash-strapped state to run. By virtue of her election, Diane Douglas is already in charge of the Arizona Department of Education.

Ducey-Douglas rift stoked by Lisa Graham Keegan

Arizonans need score card to keep track of AZ Republic’s schizophrenic coverage

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts appears to applaud state Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, saying she “Scored Direct hit on Gov. Doug Ducey.’ The claque of Mary Jo Pitzl and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez go off in a pro-Lisa Graham Keegan direction.  E. J. Montini, the dutiful leftist follows the editorial board’s anti-Douglas instructions as he hopes to hang on just another few years until his social security kicks in and before the newspaper kicks off. Robert Robb, the more cerebral of the pack, gives points to Diane Douglas, saying Gov. Doug Ducey lacks the authority to reinstate the two state Board of Education staff members fired by Douglas. Columnist Doug MacEachern?  He weighs in using the take-no-prisoners prerogative, “maniacal” to describe Douglas. These are merely iceberg tips, but readers get the drift.

In nearly every report the name Lisa Graham Keegan appears. This past weekend, she was Brahm Resnik’s haughty guest on “Sunday Square Off.” (linked video follows ad.)

And who is the seemingly ubiquitous Lisa Graham Keegan, suddenly grabbing headlines?

Keegan, a RINO-turned-Independent who supported Douglas’ radical leftwing educrat opponent, oddly seems to be regarded by Ducey as the state school superintendent. And why not? Like Ducey, Keegan is a McCain ally. She served as McCain’s education advisor during his doomed presidential bid.  Keegan formerly held the top school position before ditching it back in 2001 with a year-and-a-half of her term remaining. The heady aura of Washington, D.C. was too compelling to keep her in Arizona to fulfill her commitment to the voters who put her in office. She also left rudderless the controversial Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test which she had championed as a high school graduation requirement. AIMS was a hotly debated precursor of Common Core.

When Keegan boogied in 2001, then-Gov. Jane Hull appointed lobbyist Jaime Molera to replace her. When the term expired, Molera ran for the position losing to conservative Tom Horne, who was then elected to two consecutive terms.

This past November, grassroots candidate Diane Douglas ran and was elected on an unambiguous anti-Common Core platform. Keegan not only supports the federal overreach into local education, but derides Douglas as “erratic,” even as she tap dances around the issue of fewer dollars for public schools while Ducey slices $13 million from the state education budget.

Conservatives who have ample reasons to distrust the GOP establishment are banking on Diane Douglas holding firm to her campaign pledges. As Robert Robb noted, “she is intensively disliked by all the right people.”

AZ GOP election: Slime campaign reaches new depths

Robert Graham is hard at work as he runs for a second term as Arizona Republican Party Chairman. While he amasses conscripted endorsements and accolades, daily emails arrive in the in-boxes of state committeemen heralding Graham as a “defender of conservative principles” who has “delivered tremendous success.”

Confidence building is a requisite campaign tactic. What is troubling is the growing unsavory aspect of having surrogates send 11^th hour messages disparaging the Conservative Team running in opposition to the current chair and his slate.

It was not our desire to enter this fray, but the unrelenting attacks against party chair candidate Lori Urban and first vice chair candidate A. J. LaFaro have reached a point where conservatives can no longer turn a blind eye. Not only are they coming at breakneck speed in the final days before the biennial meeting of the State Committee, but the level of animus has exceeded the bounds of decency. LaFaro is the immediate past Maricopa County Chairman.

When viewed by most reasonable people, mudslinging has a far worse effect on the originators of the attacks than the recipients. In a tactic reminiscent of John McCain, Graham’s hands appear to be clean. The dirty work is done by often nameless sycophants who somehow have access to statewide email addresses.  Reports of manipulative push polls, conducted on behalf of the “Republican Party” attempting to influence recipients, reward the undesired answers with gossip contrived to make uninformed newcomers fall into line. Dare we say the honey-voiced woman reading the alternative script, reminds us of John McCain in drag?

In addition to the attacks there are shenanigans relating to petition collections. Traditionally, gathering petition signatures to get a resolution to the floor of the statutory meeting is done in the parking lot as state committeemen arrive.  However, just days ago an AZ GOP restrictive directive was sent out that reads: “As the state committeemen are checked in with their credentials, they will be referred to the room for the purpose of signing your resolutions if they choose to do so.  NO RESOLUTIONS PETITIONS CAN BE CIRCULATED TO STATE COMMITTEEMEN IN ATTENDANCE BEFORE THEY ARE CHECKED IN WITH THEIR CREDENTIALS.”  Further, there will be no mixing of counties on a single page.

This is obviously a preemptive maneuver designed to prevent state committeemen from ever again forwarding another nationally reported, embarrassing censure as previously happened to John McCain at both the Maricopa County meeting and the state GOP meeting.

This meeting of the AZ GOP State Committee will be held tomorrow, Saturday Jan. 24, at the Grace Community Church in Tempe. Registration opens at 7:30 am. If you are a voting state committeeman, arrive armed with truth and eyes clear of the smoke and mirrors intended to deceive.

We support the actual CONSERVATIVE SLATE:

 Chairman:  Lori Urban  

1st Vice Chairman:   A. J. LaFaro 

2nd Vice Chairman:  Gabby Saucedo-Mercer

Secretary:  Lynne Breyer

Treasurer:  Ardith Hildebrant

AZ Republic’s schoolyard bully tactics disgraceful

AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction election has been decided by statewide voters

It’s difficult to imagine that the accomplished winner of a statewide race could elicit such negatively, but the far-left Arizona Republic is flinging all the venom it can muster in the direction of Diane Douglas. Newly elected as state schools chief, the Rutgers University business/marketing grad and former President of the Peoria Unified School District Governing Board brings a wealth of knowledge and fresh vision to the job. 

The petulant daily newspaper attempts to marginalize her by repeatedly declaring her a “one issue” candidate. Unlike her liberal opponent who supports the federal overreach into America’s education system, Diane Douglas ran on opposing the scheme, echoing the views of citizens far and wide. Because of these views she warrants the multi-pronged and incessant whammies of columnist battering and editorial potshots. To the lefties at the newspaper, she is fair game.

Bottom line? Her ideas resonated with Arizona voters  She won.

The real problem for the newspaper is that Douglas is a conservative. Republicans took all of the state offices in the Nov. 4 election, but they are mostly tolerable to the left.

Conservative Diane Douglas has principles and determination mingled with a fair share of grit. But she doesn’t pass the leftwing Republic’s muster, so she is deemed worthy of a daily negative barrage of schoolyard-style bullying.

These embarrassing sore-losers passing themselves off as journalists deserve a corner seat with a pointed hat —- at the very least.

Blatantly false claims against AG Horne disproved

Falsehoods misrepresented as fact in widely distributed emails

Many of us are recipients of a quasi-blog publication to which none of us have subscribed and there is no comment section.  Still we mysteriously receive it and its often skewed version of facts, constructed to promote a specific political agenda and sent out under the improbable name of “azstatesmen.”  The messages are reposted on a another well-read Arizona blog.

Just days ago the emailed message was titled “Tom Horne refuses to enter gay marriage debate.” The writers accuse Arizona’s conservative Attorney General of  “refusing to file a brief in court defending traditional marriage.” The dishonest contrivance continues with the assertion that “Horne is a RINO on everything except illegal immigration, and even there he’s a Johnny-come-lately who has been barely active.”

These dishonest smears cannot stand.

Fortunately, Frosty Taylor, a retired but still working journalist, with standards galore is in charge of the Maricopa County Republican Committee MCRC Briefs —- sent out on a daily basis. Frosty is relied upon as a steadfast beacon of integrity.

Take a few minutes to read the truth as posted on (MCRC) Briefs and available here, where the links indisputably clarify the issue:

Setting the Record Straight: Tom Horne Refutes Allegations that he “refuses to enter gay marriage debate,” as circulated by American Post-Gazette this week: “This is total fabrication,” Horne said. “There are two challenges in Federal District Court as to Arizona’s constitutional provision that marriage is between a man and a woman and I am defending both of them. In one, I have filed a pleading in which you can read our arguments in favor of the constitutionality of Arizona’s prohibition of same-sex marriages.

See http://www.electtomhorne.com/traditionalmarriage/  There is a case to which the state was not a party dealing with a divorce.  We recently received notice of that because the constitutionality of the provision is an issue, and we decided to intervene to defend the constitutionality of Arizona’s prohibition of gay marriage.  We never refused to intervene, and in fact, decided that we would intervene.

In the Hawaii case they refer to, the Court said, at paragraph 15: “The question before this Court is not whether the State of Arizona allows same-sex marriage or divorce, but whether the laws of the State of Arizona allow a marriage, lawfully entered into in another state, between two persons the foreign state formally recognized at the time of the marriage as male and female, to be dissolved.”   “Where ever the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriage has been at issue, I have actively defended Arizona’s ban. The Post-Gazette story is a malicious lie, as you can verify by reading the pleading at http://www.electtomhorne.com/traditionalmarriage/. Then click on http://www.electtomhorne.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Connolly-59-DF-Response-to-MSJ-1.pdf 

Seeing Red AZ addresses the allegation that Attorney General Horne is a “Johnny-come-lately” to immigration issues. Read Chaos erupts over TUSD’s review of ethnic studies program. Horne was out in front and taking heat for his strong pro-American views during his two terms as AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2003 to 2011. He was even burned in effigy by his illegal supporting detractors. As Attorney General so-called DREAMers protested outside his office after he sued a Phoenix-area community college to stop it from charging in-state tuition to illegals. 

Facts are pesky things.  They can be substantiated. Deliberate deception does more harm to the messenger than the one being maligned.

 

Below-the-belt politics? Nathan Sproul lurks nearby

The side-by-side signs are head turners. Appearing on street corners around the Valley, they could be the source of whiplash for many driving by. They are also the source of disgust, since they exemplify politics at its worst.

So who would be behind the reprehensible signs slamming two Republican candidates for the office of state treasurer? The reasonable assumption would be a political rival of the opposing party. Then we remember, the upcoming election is the primary. The only challengers at this point are within the same political party.

Given the circumstances, it doesn’t take long for the name Nathan Sproul to emerge.

Sproul, the former executive director of both the Arizona Christian Coalition and the Arizona Republican Party, eventually opened Sproul & Associates, a political consulting firm. After the his name became toxic he switched to the more reputable sounding Lincoln Strategy Group, but the sliminess remained. Sproul is a pro-amnesty McCain ally who, among his other notorious schemes, has previously defended a tawdry independent expenditure campaign as a “battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party.”

In this latest despicable venture into the intra-party primary, Open Secrets reveals Sproul has teamed with Tucson auto dealer and high-dollar McCain donor and bundler, Jim Click, to form the high-minded sounding “Preserve America’s Future.” The two are listed as top contributors, with political operative Sproul running the show, and registered with the AZ Secretary of State’s Office on Aug. 7.

Nathan Sproul is listed on competing GOP treasurer candidate Hugh Hallman’s campaign website as one of his supporters, on a list that looks like a Who‘s Who in McCainville, with a few surprises thrown in. Connect the dots. As this post points out the link is always McCain.

Sproul is far more than merely a supporter. He actually recruited Hallman.

The daily covers the sleazy tactics Sproul has employed to aid Republicrat Hugh Hallman’s desperate campaign, using distortions and outright lies about both the exceptionally well-qualified Randy Pullen, whom we have endorsed, and Jeff DeWit. Neither man should be subjected to these squalid tactics.

Sproul is quoted as saying his committee will disclose its donors during the next reporting period. The next campaign finance reports are due Aug 22, just 4 days before the Aug. 26, Primary election.

AZ AG Horne: Setting the record straight

The following message, sent out in an email to supporters by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is titled, “Stand With Us.” What makes it particularly compelling is that it cogently lays out the stark differences between incumbent Horne and his establishment recruited opponent. It’s definitely worth your time:

As your Attorney General, I’m proud of our accomplishments over the past four years. We’ve fought federal overreach, and won. We’ve dismantled drug cartels, protected women and children from the horrors of human trafficking, and helped homeowners during the mortgage crisis.

Quite frankly I’m fed up. I’m fed up at my primary opponent and his establishment allies at the distortions and outright lies they have leveled against me and the great people that work at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. I think it’s very telling that my opponent has shown that he is willing to say and do anything to win an election. He’s sold out to the establishment more than once. While I continue to be an independent and impartial Attorney General, he’ll be the lapdog of the open borders, special interest crowd that is funding his campaign.

Let’s look at the facts, while I have fought to secure the border and have beaten the Obama Administration in court on SB 1070, Mark Brnovich has been a senior fellow at a think tank that has advocated amnesty and open borders. He’s also donated to the campaign of Pete Rios who is one of the premier open border advocates in the state. While I have spent the last fourteen years serving the public, Mark has found a way to double dip. While he was supposedly serving the public as a prosecutor, he was also a lobbyist for private prisons. I’m still unclear on why this wasn’t a conflict of interest. While it may not have been illegal, it surely is very unethical.

This primary election couldn’t be more important. I’m the clear conservative in the race. That’s why Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Senator Gail Griffin, Senator Judy Burges, Representative David Gowan, and former Senate President Russell Pearce have all endorsed my campaign. I’m endorsed by two major law enforcement organizations (Highway Patrol Association and Correctional Peace Officers Association), where my opponent is endorsed by none. I’m also the only Arizona statewide candidate endorsed by the National Rifle Association. By contrast, my opponent is endorsed by the liberal Arizona Republic.

It’s time to make a choice and spread the word. You can choose an independent Attorney General who has a proven track record of fighting to protect all Arizonans or you can choose the candidate that has sold out to liberal, special interest. With only two weeks left before the August 26th Primary, you can stand with me by clicking the link and making a generous contribution to my re-election. No amount is too small and every dollar goes a long way to ensuring that we have a tough and thoughtful Attorney General.

Sincerely,
Tom Horne
Attorney General

If you approve of the job Attorney General Tom Horne is doing, help him get reelected.  It matters.