"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s time for me to hit the road back to Vegas and then fly back home, but not before I introduce you briefly to Vernon Parker, candidate for Congress in Arizona’s 3rd District.
I’ll have lots more about Vernon later this week, but I wanted to make the introduction now before I pack up and head home.
That’s the big red Chevy I rented for this week. It’s not a convertible, but it’ll do.
by Smitty
Clifton over at Another Black Conservative posts on what the Romney campaign can only view as a swift kick in the naughty bits: a connection between RomneyCare and ObamaCare by BHO himself. Clifton then poses two genuinely interesting exit questions:
We will no doubt see this clip played over and over again by Romney’s potential GOP rivals. Question 1: Who do you think will produce the most brutal attack ad with this clip, Palin, Huckabee or Pawlenty? Question 2: Is there an effective way for Romney to overcome the RomneyCare issue?
A1: Dude, you just don’t even know what a knock-down-drag-out ad Joe Lieberman is going to come out with for this, when he runs as an independent with VP nominee John McCain.
A2: Romney’s key to survival is to become Federalist Rampant Gules:
The reason the country is in the toilet is that Progressivism has pulled us away and buried us in the sinkhole of debt.
If Romney has a come-to-Beavis moment, breaks the elitist mold of thinking DC knows best, and will fight to restore the states to political relevance, then the Americans could flock to his banner.
States should be the places where policy affecting individual citizens, like healthcare, student loans, taxation, mortgages, &c should rightfully occur, not in DC.
Americans could flock to the Romney banner, so long as he’s not just pushing Old Spice:
Larry is totally clueless and some of the call-in viewers are hilarious:
Politics aside, I know Wayne pretty well from covering the Libertarian Party. We’re both home-schooling dads and I’m kind of surprised to learn from this interview that his daughter — fencing champion Dakota Root — chose Stanford over her dad’s alma mater, Columbia. His book is The Conscience of a Libertarian and his Web site is Root for America.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — This probably has nothing to do with me showing up in Arizona, but still I question the timing:
[John] McCain asked the Obama administration Monday to send National Guard troops to the border after a prominent Arizona rancher was found shot to death on his own property.
“I am asking you and the administration to immediately reconsider your position and send National Guard troops to our southern border region,” McCain wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. . . .
McCain supported comprehensive immigration reform during the Bush years — legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for the more than 10 million immigrants currently living illegally in the U.S. . . .
Hmmm. Wonder why the Maverick suddenly got this Pat Buchanan impulse?
The position angered many on the right, but it’s a position he’s backed away from in the face a stiff primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth, a darling of tea party activists, has repeatedly attacked McCain as wrong on immigration.
Yeah, and we know that John McCain is sincere about his newfound border-security concerns, right? All that stuff a few years ago calling his critics hatemongering xenophobes — just kiddin’ guys, hahaha.
UPDATE: Insta-lanche!
UPDATE II: ‘Scorched Earth’ in Arizona
PREVIOUSLY:
PHOENIX, Arizona — Chris Simcox, who founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and was previously a candidate in the GOP Senate primary, explains why he decided to switch to supporting J.D. Hayworth’s campaign:
Those of you who read Michelle Malkin know that an Arizona rancher was killed Saturday near the border in Cochise County:
Cochise County Sheriff’s Office deputies and detectives responded to an area northeast of Douglas on Saturday after searchers found the body of 58-year-old Robert Krentz inside his all terrain vehicle on his property. Detectives were able to determine that Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was fatally shot and his dog was wounded.
Cochise County investigators said Monday that Krentz likely was killed by an illegal immigrant, but there’s no evidence to suggest there was any confrontation that led to the shooting. . . .
The irony is that the man killed was known for his willingness to help immigrants, as William La Jeunesse of Fox News reports:
Robert Krentz was known among fellow ranchers as a good Samaritan who often helped injured illegal immigrants trying to cross the boiling desert border into Arizona. But the 58-year-old was gunned down while tending to his ranch Saturday morning, and police suspect an illegal immigrant was to blame. . . .
Police say Krentz, whose family has been ranching in southern Arizona since 1907, was gunned down early Saturday morning by an illegal immigrant while out on his ATV tending to fences and water lines on the family’s 34,000-acre cattle ranch.
Reached by phone early Tuesday at his family’s ranch, Andy Krentz, Krentz’s oldest son, said his father was a churchgoing man who routinely went out of his way to help those in need.
“My father was a very good family man,” Krentz told FoxNews.com. “He supported his kids, supported his family. He went out of his way to help anybody we could without regarding to who they were. It didn’t matter who they were.” . . .
The Hayworth campaign issued this e-mail statement:
JD Hayworth offers his prayers and condolences to the wife, family and friends of Cochise County rancher Rob Krentz, who was found shot to death after calling into his brother that he was giving aid to an apparent illegal alien he found at one of his cattle watering holes.
Krentz was a third generation rancher on the border of Southeastern Arizona. Conservative blogs the Sonoran Alliance and DiggersRealm.com report that in the past the Krentz family had received threats from illegal aliens. In 2002, the family was physically threatened when one of them stumbled upon a group of 39 illegals.
Hayworth said, “We need the federal government to act now and step up its efforts to secure our borders. Border security is national security and it is time that we enforce the law. For thousands of Arizonans, border security is also quite literally a matter of personal security.”
Mr. Hayworth also supports Arizona SB1070 which empowers local law enforcement officers to identify, detain, and help deport those within the borders of Arizona illegally.
Hayworth is challenging U.S. Senator John McCain in the Arizona Republican primary August 24 2010. One of the reasons Hayworth is challenging John McCain, is because of McCain’s past sponsorship of legislation that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
Hayworth sponsored the anti-amnesty “Enforcement First Act” during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Arizona residents say their current U.S. Senator has done nothing to address the growing violence on the border, as one local source told the Tucson Weekly that John McCain “worries about getting his patent leather shoes dirty when he’s down here.”
Tonight, having delayed my return flight to D.C., I’ll be hanging out with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who knows a thing or two about immigration and law enforcement.
Zombie has photos of an L.A. anti-war rally a week ago, which she compares to the Tea Party rally Saturday in Searchlight, Nevada.
One rally featured anti-Israel slogans and giant banners proclaiming, “9/11 = Controlled Demolitions.” Can you guess which one?
PHOENIX, Arizona — There are two kinds of Republicans: Starbucks Republicans and . . .
UPDATE: And I’d like to add a thank-you to Peter in Scottsdale, Ariz., for his tip-jar contribution to the Other McCain campaign.
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Not that there was ever any doubt, but I’m now a Certified Righteous Gentile after attending a Passover seder Monday hosted by Barbara Espinosa’s friends Larry and Jobi Rosen.
The haggadah wasn’t strictly traditional — part of the ritual telling of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery was performed to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island” — but the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the wine, Mah Nishtanah, etc., were all observed. So the possibility of my becoming the first Gentile prime minister of Israel is now slightly less hypothetical . . .
Jobi Rosen and the four-time Malkin Award nominee.
UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin on Obama’s Passover message: “[F]rankly, it sounds like Eric Holder and his civil rights lawyers drafted it.”