The cool thing about citizen journalism is you get to talk to really neat people. I talked to Randy Parraz, who led the Pearce recall effort, back in June. His voice was a little raspy after talking to thousands of voters, and the day after turning in the petitions he sounded a little tired, but took time to talk to me bright and early and explain how this turnaround came about.
So this was a big day for Arizona?
Quotes from Shoot an Iraqi by Wafaa Bilal and Kari Lydersen.
Thought-provoking book...raw, kind of a flat humor without hatred even though a US military drone killed his brother, and Saddam killed numerous other family members. Some quotes :
"Solitude was such sweetness to me that it was worth risking my life for some time alone" - when staying at an aunt's empty house in Kufa during bombing, because he wanted to paint
I love this geography professor - "A joke started to circulate about [Ba'ath] Party officials telling a geography professor he must integrate party philosophy into his lessons. "How? I teach geography." They insisted. So he told his students "Iraq used to have a cold, wet climate in the winter and a hot, dry climate in the summer, without a drop of rain." (which is the reality). "But," he'd continue, "thanks to the Ba'ath Party, it's nice all year round now." "
"He (a cousin in Kufa) was arrested (for being a member of the Dawa Party, a militant Shia religious party), and later his body was returned to the family along with a bill for 72 dinars for the bullets used to execute him. He had been an
The larval stage is when living in the host's brain; metamorphosis is the act of writing; and the mature stage capable of reproduction is in written form.
Sometimes larval stage ideas reproduce in casual conversation, but mass reproduction is almost always after metamorphosis. Even ideas transmitted in speeches or on TV have generally gone thru the transformative writing process before being re-emitted as speech.
I didn't even know there is a strong effort out to recall Russell Pearce, the Arizona State Senator who has perhaps done the most harm to Arizona and to Tucson.
** Update - There were actually TWO efforts to recall pearce, and the first one posted, Arizonans for Better Government, is now focused on finding a decent Mormon Republican to replace him.
The second effort, Citizens for a Better Arizona, is about to reach its signature quota, see http://recallpearce.com - Arizonans for Better Govt is asking people to donate to the Citizens group since they need the money to complete their recall effort.
The deadline is May 31, help energize this campaign!
Citizens for a Better Government also has a facebook page
The Arizonans for Better Government http://recallrussellpearce.wordpress.com/ took a smart tactic of having some Mormon leaders run fireside chats to educate Mormon voters about the position of the LDS church, which is actually pretty humane and not at all in line with Pearce's brand of vitriol.
Some background info: http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/karmic-update-recall-campaign-agains
Quite a bit, according to Jonathan Rothschild, the Democratic candidate apparent. Rothschild, currently a $295/hr attorney, intends to drop out of his law practice and dedicate his 12-hour workdays to 'doing whatever it takes' to make Tucson thrive.
We (myself and two of my daughters) interviewed Rothschild from broad strokes to brass tacks. He's articulate, well-researched, and can think on his feet. My kids also thought he was genuinely decent, and they are pretty tough on fakes.
read the full interview here: What can a Mayor do for Tucson?
We have taken care of a lot of different creatures the last few years, and I thought I'd post a quick summary of what we've found as to the difficulty of keeping them happy (the fully detailed methods of care aren't here, will post later what we used if I have time)
Easiest
sowbugs - only feed about 1/week, carrot/potato, few drops water; keep in ziploc container with thick dirt/leaf layer and small holes, our colonies have been breeding for several years now. 5 yr old can care for independently.
walking sticks - feed daily romaine lettuce or rose leaves. If you forget a day or two they generally are fine, they just stay still to conserve energy. Each lives about 1 year, lays eggs and dies. Use sand or mossy-dirt substrate to let them lay eggs
betta fish - feed few betta pellets daily, clean tank weekly, ours have so far all been doing well for about a year. 6 year old capable of caring for with some help. Nice to have a few tanks near each other so they can have company without fighting.
tadpoles - raise and release - we had about 50/50
Ok, why am I letting facebook, twitter and junk mail budget my time? Need my own work home page that guides me to use time for my projects.
Top priorities: bPhx data mashery ; wiki, updates and factual table for Alonovo bteaching articles ; bTucson data sources
bPhoenixAZ.com : bPhoenixAz.com : got import working, wp_connections crashes... bPhxaz wiki
Alonovo.com: Alonovo.com : next step? talk to... Alonovo wiki
bTucson.com : bTucson.com : add outside.in, new data bTucson.com TODOs bTucson approvals
bTeaching.com : bTeaching.com Google analytics - AFTER work on a todo...
Walking through Military Plaza park this afternoon, a small rally was in progress and I had a chance to talk to one of the volunteers for the campaign to Recall Jan Brewer. It seems the campaign was started by a Republican! And when the volunteer was making her calls asking for support, she mentioned this fact. The woman on the other end started laughing - "I'm a republican too, and I can't stand that woman. I'm going to tell all my republican friends!"
Perhaps there is some hope for the Moderate Middle after all. Moderates of Arizona, unite!
Originally published at bTucson.com/190720
Made a good haul at the Book Stop on 4th Ave recently - they have an excellent collection of classic sci-fi, as well as really good kids authors like Avi and Roald Dahl.
Bandersnatch by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. A first novel, which I generally like - fresh if sometimes rough. Here's a book-length fable to go with Hillel's "If I'm not for myself, who will be?" - in Bandersnatch's world, if you don't stick up for yourself you become a target fast.
TUSD board member Judy Burns came out strongly last night in opposition to closing any more schools for a year, and instead spending the time to redraw boundaries and work with parents and communities. Adelita Grijalva supported Burns and Hicks voted to at least vote on it; but Stegeman and Cuevas argued that if closure needs to be considered it should be done sooner rather than later. read more