BY BECKY FENGER | APRIL 25, 2012
Gathering storm (and smaller squalls)
When Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne returns from watching the U.S. Supreme Court in action on SB1070 at the end of the week, his world will explode. And the pieces will scatter far and wide in scope. It's a pity, since Horne did some good work.
But when the Inspector General's Office subpoenas all of the phone records for all BlackBerry and land lines being used by key people in Horne's AG office to find out who's been talking to the FBI, these guys are serious.
Do you have a favorite for the replacement Attorney General? Too late, the choices have already been made.
If Human Resources tells a person not to hire someone due to legal issues, it would have been wise to listen to them. Likewise, when one is told to get rid of all the Terry Goddard holdovers, it would behoove one to do so.
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It's worth getting up early on Sunday mornings just to find out who ABC's "This Week" is going to invite for their roundtable of experts to discuss the week's hot topics. I thought they couldn't top Al Sharpton and avowed Communist Van Jones, but last Sunday they brought forth the much-fired Keith Olbermann. (You know things are bad when even Al Gore can't stand you.)
The topic was the Secret Service prostitute scandal in Colombia. Olbermann opined: "There seems to be this dynamic, this conflict between these two things. Are they (Secret Service agents) priests or are they supposed to represent this macho side and take advantage of what opportunities are presented to them?" Pearls of wisdom.
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It's a funny world. One week the Arizona Republic praises retiring Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs for putting Glendale, Arizona on the map with her two decades of service. The next week readers learn just how deeply in debt she put her constituents in her lust to be a sports Mecca. Reading the time line on the Coyotes' hockey team looks like a case study in throwing good money after bad. If more than $50 is spent on her retirement party, it's too much.
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There are some ads that make my fingernails curl. One is the one from The Scooter Store that informs me I can get a Scooter power wheelchair "at little or no cost to me." What's wrong with this picture? Why should the schoolteacher down the block pay for my Scooter so I can "go to the park with my grandkids?" If mobility is so great, isn't it worth some sort of payment on my part?
Equally indicative of our entitlement crisis are the calls to "Go Solar," that urge me to "take advantage of government incentives and qualify for a $0 down lease and reduce or eliminate my power bill." Really, now? And who do you think is paying to subsidize all this solar power? When I told the telephone solicitor that my neighbors shouldn't have to pay for my energy use, she called me a dummy for not leaping on the bandwagon. Can this country be saved?
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Paul Lee, president of the ABC Entertainment Group, was quoted earlier this year saying, "On broadcast televisions, as it turns out, that isn't a word you want to use in the title." He was referring to the word "bitches," as in "Good Christian Bitches" and "Don't Trust the Bitch in Apt. 23." In order to calm the censors, the first show's title has been changed to "GCB" and the second title uses B---- with the dashes now. But we all know what is being foisted on the viewing public. I double dare ABC to try that with Muslim in the title.
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Nothing has ever been cleaner fun than comedian Bill Cosby's recorded solo concert appearance entitled, "Bill Cosby, Himself." Conversely, nothing has ever been stupider than his pronouncement that more guns cause more crime. The loss of his son was tragic, but Bill's just not thinking straight. He needs to read John Lott's book entitled, More Guns, Less Crime. It's a compelling argument for even more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens.
