I have strong feelings about gun control, always have and always will.  After Columbine I thought my support for stricter gun regulations would become the national norm - and for several months it seemed like I was right.  I went to the Million Mom's March, participated in a handful of campus rallies, and generally thought the tide had turned.  I was wrong.

I wonder whether or not this tragedy will get that debate out in the open again.  My initial reaction to that thought was that it wouldn't, we lost the debate and people are going to blame this on other factors and leave guns out of it.  I have to admit I was surprised to see a poll on ABCNews.com that brought the issue up.  

Already over 15,000 have voted in the poll, a huge majority saying it is "irresponsible" to link this incident to gun control.  A similar poll on the same sight has barely under 1,000 votes - so I'm pretty sure the first one is being freeped.

This community has been organizing to make sure corporations can't control the internet with our net-neutrality push, but it seems that these greedy bottom-feeding bottom-liners will stop at nothing to make a buck.

For the past several years freeconference.com, and the service they provide, has been a major part of grassroots efforts for activists all over this country.  Today, however, I found a disturbing email in my in-box.  It turns out that corporate carriers, angry with lost revenue this free service is sapping from them, have been preventing conference numbers from working on their lines.

Not only are these actions monopolistic, most likely illegal, and hugely unethical - but the implications to regular grassroots activists will be far and wide.  Read the email I got and take action over the jump.

The Arizona Republican Party has accused Goveror Napolitano's campaign of (I'm not exaggerating here) walking into the GOP State Party HQ, stealing the key of a storage bin outside, walking to the outside storage bin, using the stolen key to open the bin, going into the bin and opening one of many bags of bundles literature, stealing TWO pieces of 181,000 pieces of literature, locking the bin back up, walking back into Party HQ, returning the key to the outside storage bin, then delivering the stolen goods to the Democratic Party - all while avoiding the suveillance cameras setup in the parking lot and leaving NO FINGEPRINTS.  Fancy huh.

So the GOP dusted for prints revealing that only GOP staff prints were on the bin, yet still held an accusatory press conference.  Yup - Hilarity ensued.

The big NBC affiliate covered the story as basically a joke, head over the hump for the HILARIOUS video and my thoughts.

Four years ago today, Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, his daughter Marcia and five others died in a plane crash.

I was in DC, a student at Georgetown, when this happened.  I remember most of my classmates, even those as engaged and liberal as me, weren't as devastated by this as I was. I mean sure - a bunch of them thought it was tragic, a bunch of them got the electoral impact of his passing - but I remember thinking that most of them didn't get that Wellstone's death might have been the end of people politics in Washington.

more, including links and video, over the jump

Soon the DNC is going to vote on whether to slip two contests (one in the West, one in the Midwest or South) between Iowa and New Hampshire.  From what I am hearing - the decision in the West is down to two Southwestern states, Arizona and Nevada.

Chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party, David Waid, wrote this argument (which is published today in Roll Call) describing why Arizona is the best option.

Selecting Arizona is the Democrats' Best Option

Why should Arizona voters help decide the Democratic presidential nominee early in the primary and caucus season? Because its electorate reflects the new face of America, and it's winnable for Democrats in 2008.

More over the jump ...

In what has to be the biggest shock (but not necessarily surprise considering how unpopular J.D. is and how popular Harry is) of the July reporting period, Congressman J.D. Hayworth's opponent - Harry Mitchell - has outraised him AND every other Arizonan running for the U.S. House!
check out my previous post for fundraising totals of all Arizonan's running for U.S. House.

Harry Mitchell - $561,654.15 link to FEC Report
J.D. Hayworth - $525,665 link to FEC Report

Yes folks, no matter what the GOP or J.D. say, this is a real race.

Senator Jon "We ACTUALLY DO have two Senators in AZ" Kyl (R-AZ) got caught red handed by Justice John Paul Stevens for fabricating an elaborate fake debate with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), then sneaking it into the CR, then trying to pan it off as a live debate to the Supreme Court.

Instead of acknowledging he was caught - Kyl ignored the press.  Then when he realized he had to answer the charges, he reacted like my 7 year old niece by saying "Everyone Does It".  Then when John Dean shamed him for his actions - Kyl actually had the nerve to say we shouldn't listed to Dean basically because he didn't keep his mouth shut and ratted out Nixon.  More over the bump.

This week there was a significant firestorm when a Spanish  news service called EFE reported that Goldwater wanted to utilize "concentration camps" placed on the border for captured illegals to build a wall, clean up the desert, and otherwise do our bidding.

Everyone flipped out, even AZ Republicans.  Sen. John McCain, Rep. Jeff Flake, and Rep. Jim Kolbe all condemned the reported plan.  It is clear now that Goldwater never used the term, "concentration camp" and the news service apologizedbut McCain, Flake, and Kolbe refuse to.  You see the difference is, instead of concentration camps, Goldwater just wants tent cities put up along the border that captured migrants will have to live in while they are doing forced labor.  Big difference right?  Well Donny can't squirm out of this one because he was caught on tape ... (transcripts and links over the hump)

Kyl: 40% (55%)
Pederson: 33% (26%)
Uncommitted: 27% (19%)

As requested, here is a link to donate to the campaign!

While you might not know listening to Republicans today, the deadline for signing up for Medicare Part-D without incurring lifetime penalties expires at midnight.

Knowing that the GOP was about to take another hit on what people have creatively called Medicare Part-D(isaster) or Medicare Part-D(eclined) – Rove has taken a page from his usual playbook and decided to steal the news cycle and distract the country with a divisive issue. Nope – not gays this time … but immigration.

In a review of contested races readers learned that while "the political winds [are] blowing in" the favor of Democrats, it would "take a gale to unseat ... entrenched incumbents" like J.D.

Well, it seems like that gale is picking up - and the wind isn't just coming out of the never closed mouth of blowhard J.D. either.

Survey USA has a new poll out that shows Harry Mitchell within 5 points of J.D. Hayworth, and this is without a single T.V. commerical, a single piece of mail, or any other type of paid advertising coming from the challenger.

Survey USA, 5/9/2006, 600 Registered Voters, +/- 4.1%
JD Hayworth (R) - 50%
Harry Mitchell (D) - 45%
Undecided - 5%

This, my friends, is good news ... and not just for those of us living in CD-5.

One of those articles came out today in the Arizona Republic ... and there is an online poll attached.

Before reading on - please visit the online poll (scroll down it is on the left side) - and vote that the Govenor "exercises her veto power correctly in most cases".  I know, if you are like me you were looking for the option that said "HELL YEAH, THE GOP IS NUTS IN THIS STATE", but the answer above is the best we can get.

More over the jump.

Like I said, I think there is one SURE FIRE way for Gore to win - and that is with the following campaign motto that I have been pushing now for nearly a year ... here it is:

I TOLD YOU SO BITCHES!

Think about it ...

On Friday the Arizona Democratic Party sent out an email asking for donations to their new "Fight Back Fund" so they can buy air time to respond to the GOP radio ads.  We should step up and help them out.

The text of the email is over the jump.

The Pederson campaign went live today with their first two ads, and clearly both are meant to introduce the people of Arizona to a self-made man who cares more about results than partisan bickering.  Obviously something Jon Kyl could never claim to be.

Jim Pederson's story is an extremely compelling one that I think will resonate with the people of our state.  The more they push his story in the early going - the more people are going to like and support him.

To watch the ad, click on the graphic below to go to Pederson's webpage:

I have pasted the transcripts of the ads (I got them in a press release) in the extended entry.

The recently released Wall Street Journal / Zogby Interactive poll shows that Jon Kyl's numbers have taken a dive as Pederson's remain steady, making this a 5 point race.

I can't do a direct link since WSJ doesn't allow it - so instead here is a screen shot of the results and the trendline.

The media is now saying "upwards of 20,000" people participated, but I can tell you it seems like more.  After seeing some coverage on the local news, I headed over with my camera hoping to get some great pictures, get motivated, show my support, and see everything myself.

I definitely was not dissapointed.

Please go vote in the online poll in the AZ Republic about the Governor's veto of a ridiculous English Language Learners bill that puts more money in PRIVATE schools for ELL than in public schools.

Vote that you support the gov's veto and the presented bill didn't go far enough. The poll is on the left hand side, it is grey, and it is about halfway down the page.