Poll: Majority of Californians oppose banning same-sex marriage

Only 40% of California voters say they are supporting an initiative to define marriage as between a man and a woman, while 54% oppose the initiative. A great graphic from the LA Times shows how Californians' attitudes have changed in a very quick amount of time on this issue. So what about Arizona, where we have a similar initiative on the ballot this November? The big difference is that same-sex marriage is currently illegal in Arizona, while it is already legal in California, with many same-sex couples already having legally married.

I need to run for President, just so I can learn my genealogy

I sometimes think genealogists have too much time on their hands. But when the far right is saying that Obama isn't a true-blue Christian American, it might not hurt him to mention that a genealogist in Kentucky (I'll leave the Kentucky genealogy comments to y'all) has found Obama to be related not only to Dick Cheney, but also George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and even Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obviously, these are relatives on his mom's side. Now, I haven't exactly done the research, but I'm going to guess that somehow I'm related to Barack Hussein Obama as well (did I spell Hussein correctly? Our friends on the right seem better at knowing candidates' middle names than I).

Hospitals giving less charity care during hard economic times

From the Food Research Action Center:

Finances Force Charity Hospitals to Focus on Insured Patients (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 13, 2008)The Center for Studying Health System Change has found that safety-net hospitals, in order to avoid running at a deficit, are are cutting charity-care costs and focusing more on insured patients by offering specialty services as well as upgrading and expanding facilities to attract more paying patients. The Center's report, a survey of twelve areas across the country, found a ten percent drop over the last ten years in the percentage of physicians providing any charity care. Safety-net hospitals seem to have no choice but to attract more paying patients, states the report, as the poor are less and less likely to find services in the current health-care system.

And now, a plug for my school board campaign...

I have been continuing to blog, amazingly, in spite of now serving on the Governing Board of Creighton Elementary School District in east Phoenix.

I am running for re-election and have a website up, www.mattjewett.com. Be sure to visit. I am still updating it.

Plot thickens in north Phoenix House race as Crump calls on Bouie to quit

You have to love the names of this year's candidates for the legislature: Crump, Schmuck, Doody. Anyway, I wrote earlier about a Republican candidate for the Arizona House in north Phoenix who was deemed too "liberal" by the Maricopa County Republican establishment (in spite of his endorsement from Congressman John Shadegg, one of the most conservative Members of Congress). Now it turns out that candidate, Tony Bouie, never re-registered as a Republican while living in Florida, which his opponents say negates Bouie's claim that he has been a Republican half his adult life. Of course, opponent Carl Seel who is making these charges against Bouie recently found his home in foreclosure, in spite of his claim that he is a fiscal conservative. Bouie says although he became a Republican in values, he never took time to re-register. Hey, at least he isn't state Senator Charlene Pesquiera, a Democrat from Tucson who is retiring after one term that she didn't expect to win. Pesquiera, it was revealed after she was elected, had never voted in her life until she voted in her own election to the Senate. Bouie just decided political party preference wasn't really that important to how he actually voted, a stand that an increasing number of Americans have taken, especially in this state where Independents will soon outnumber Republicans and Democrats in registration.

The trials and tribulations of insuring the sick and small businesses

A new report from St. Luke's Health Initiatives, a health care think tank in Phoenix, says that 94 percent of the state's businesses are small businesses - with less than 50 employees - and that among those small businesses, only 30% provide health insurance as a benefit to employees. Meanwhile, an article in the Tucson Weekly chronicles the roller coaster ride of Healthcare Group, a state program administered through AHCCCS, that provides health insurance coverage to small businesses, most of whom are sole proprietors. Healthcare Group has raised its premiums significantly in the past year or two, even while the state has provided subsidies for the program, because, well, when most of the people you insure are too sick to get private health insurance coverage, it costs a lot of money that the sick don't have. The reason so many people stick with Healthcare Group is that they will insure you regardless of your pre-existing conditions.

Of course, one of the best ways to make health insurance affordable - even to the sick - is to spread out the risk among many people. Healthcare Group could take in more people, healthy people, and that would lower the premiums that people in it would have to pay, while reducing the amount of tax money the state would have to use to subsidize it. But private insurance companies don't like that. They have no problem with taxpayers subsidizing, or the government completely taking over, insuring the sick. But it's cheap - and profitable - to insure the healthy, and private insurance companies don't want to let some of them join Healthcare Group just so sick people can better afford insurance and the taxpayers can save a few dollars.

So what are we to do? Well, the uninsured drive up health care costs for the rest of us when they don't see primary care physicians, and wait until they end up in the ER, can't pay, and the hospital passes on the loss it incurs to the rest of us. So for those who truly need help paying for their health insurance, let's expand outreach for KidsCare, our state children's health insurance program (SCHIP), which provides low-cost health insurance for qualifying low-income children (citizens or five year legal residents). Let's allow families that are just above the income limit for KidsCare to buy into it. It won't be cheap, but it will cover their children regardless of pre-existing conditions, and private insurers just won't insure some kids for pre-existing conditions as common as asthma. Young adults, age 18 to 29 or so, are among the least likely to have health insurance, because they are off their parents' insurance and are working in entry level jobs that don't provide health insurance. This is a healthy, cheap group to insure, but occasionally they do get sick, let things slide until they end up in an ER, and can't pay. So Arizona should do as other states and require insurance companies to cover young adults up through at least age 25. Again, it's a profitable group, so it doesn't hurt insurance companies' bottom lines. The catch, if you voluntarily decide to drop health insurance and go uninsured, your parents' insurance company doesn't have to take you back, because you're probably coming back due to an illness you just found out about. Even when you're young, you're not invincible, and it's your responsibility to get health insurance if anything reasonable comes your way.

In 2,943 years, we can deport all folks in the country illegally

According to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, even at the new record rate at which ICE is detaining immigrants in the country illegally, it would take another 2,943 years to deport them all. Meanwhile holding facilities are overcrowded, and U.S. citizens are being detained for hours without food or water in the process, according to the Washington Post.

Foreign corporations doing business in US getting off easy on their tax bills?

From the Family Economic Self Sufficiency Project of Wider Opportunities for Women.

According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Tuesday, most corporations, including a majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes. During the eight-year period covered by the report, 72 percent of foreign-owned corporations went at least one year without owing taxes; the same was true for 55 percent of domestic corporations. The report covered the period from 1998 through 2005. During that time, corporate income taxes as a share of gross domestic product dipped, from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 1.2 percent in 2003, the lowest share since 1983. But receipts jumped after that, hitting 2.7 percent in 2006 and 2007, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That was the highest share since the late 1970s. Senators Byron Dorgan (D, ND) and Carl Levin (D, MI) requested the report, which may be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08957.pdf. In commenting on the report’s finding, Senator Dorgan said “It’s shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country. The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hardworking Americans who pay their fair share of taxes. We need to plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls.”

Maricopa County GOP: against their own moderate Black candidates?

The Maricopa County Republican Party has taken the unusual step of involving itself in a primary race for the state House of Representatives. Usually they let their voters decide and they back whoever is their party's nominee, although they generally back incumbents in the primary. In this case, in north Phoenix's battle to represent district 6 in the Arizona House, there is one incumbent (with one Representative retiring) and two others battling for two seats. So assuming incumbent Rep. Sam Crump wins in the primary, will the other Republican on the slate be Carl Seel or Tony Bouie? Bouie has been endorsed by Congressman John Shadegg and uber-conservative state Senator Pamela Gorman. Yet those are not conservative enough credentials for Bouie, a former professional football player. He opposes a Ward Connerly-backed initiative on the ballot this year to ban consideration of race or sex in various programs, and although he supports the employer sanctions law, some of his donors do not. Oh yes, and Bouie is also African-American. Is opposing their own moderate African-American candidates the way for Republicans to maintain a majority?

Check out the diary of a political convention virgin

My friend Katie Hobbs is attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer as a delegate. This is her first national political party convention. I went in 2004 in Boston and loved it. She will have a blast. Read about her experiences on her blog.

Fun website tool lets you choose how the presidential election comes out

270 to win is a fun website that lets you click on a state on a US map and decide whether it goes for Obama or McCain. Your picks are automatically calculated to see what the results of the electoral voting are. The site already has states red or blue based on current polling, with several states being undecided. You can change any of the states. It's fun if you are a political junkie like me.

Napolitano's big staff shakeup a sign that her bags are packed for DC?

Several of the highest level officials in Governor Janet Napolitano's inner circle are leaving their jobs, it was announced today. Let the speculation begin now that they are finding other jobs before Napolitano goes to work in the Obama Administration, and Republican Jan Brewer becomes Arizona's new Governor.

Chief of Staff Dennis Burke will work on various political campaigns, Deputy Chief of Staff for Finance and Budget George Cunningham will retire after a long career in state government, and Legislative Liaison and Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Haener will also move on, though the reason is not given. Jan Lesher, Director of the Department of Commerce, will become Napolitano's new Chief of Staff, and she will be replaced at Commerce by Marco Lopez, who 8 years ago, at age 22, was elected Mayor of Nogales.

Another report shows Arizonans pay less taxes

A new report shows, yet again, that we are a low tax state.

The Klan supporting a Jewish Congressman?

Congressman Steve Cohen won his racially charged Democratic primary for re-election from Memphis, TN, with 79% of the vote. Cohen, who is Jewish, was linked in ads by his opponent, who is African-American, to the Ku Klux Klan. This begs the question, how many KKK members are named Cohen? I guess Memphis voters were smarter than that.

Cooter writes a book

The left is finally finding humor. Ronald Reagan was good at it. Mo Udall was good at it. Now former Democratic Congressman and actor Ben Jones, better known as "Cooter" from the Dukes of Hazard, has written a funny book (disclaimer: I haven't read it myself yet). So think the southern, Protestant Christian version of John Stewart (is that possible)?

97 year old still upset she can't vote; predates voter ID

Shirley Freeda Preiss was profiled months ago by a Phoenix TV station, and now is featured in a column by Anne Denogean in the Tucson Citizen. Read about how the 97 year old woman is barred from voting due to the state's voter ID laws, because she predates birth certificates being issued in the state in which she was born, and nobody who witnessed her birth is still alive. Her old Texas driver's licenses do not count for identification in Arizona. Thanks to the Arizona Advocacy Network for bringing her case forward.

Bashas' takes my advice, raises money for hungry

Okay, Bashas' probably didn't get the idea from me, but several months ago I suggested that grocery stores should stop asking for an extra dollar at checkout to fund the disease of the month, and instead should put aside medical research briefly and ask people to give to help the hungry and those facing foreclosure on their homes. Bashas' is doing just that, with money going to St. Vincent de Paul and local food banks, and those donating getting a chance at prizes. And to my union friends upset about Bashas' anti-union views and tactics, this isn't a plug for them specifically or a statement on that battle. I simply am glad someone is doing something to help those truly in need right now. I hope other retailers who ask for donations at the checkout line will do likewise.

Good news from Congress: reauthorization of Higher Ed Act

Congress is making small steps of progress. They have passed and will send to President Bush a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which had been operating under temporary extensions for the past 4 years. Reauthorization gives Congress a chance to make some major policy changes, and they did just that, and in the right direction. Among other things, there is now loan forgiveness for those who go into highly needed but low paid professions such as early childhood teachers and CPS caseworkers. Together with a reauthorization by Congress of Head Start several months ago that increases access and improves teacher training, this is good news for children. Ninety percent of a child's brain develops in the first three years of life, yet most of our investment in our children happens later.

Sheriff Joe and the illegal Mexican...corn

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has begun a crackdown on unlicensed food cart vendors. If you live in my neighborhood, or one similar, you know the guys. They sell elote (which, for those of you who don't live in neighborhoods like mine, is corn). Channel 15 caught Arpaio's deputies on tape checking people for their papers and detaining them if they could not prove their legal status in the United States - even if they are in the U.S. legally or are citizens. The man profiled (in the story, and I suppose, by the Sheriff's deputies) insisted he didn't have to say whether he was legally in the United States when he was stopped for having an unlicensed food cart. After hours in detention, he proved he was in the U.S. legally, and was let go. What is more funny is that Sheriff Joe says in the story that this is an issue because the corn is not just corn, but rather it comes from drop houses. Huh? It's illegal corn from drop houses? Perhaps Channel 15 cut the Sheriff off in that clip before he said something that actually made sense, or perhaps he is just really off his rocker. I suppose if the new rule is to ask to prove the legal status of anyone stopped by the Sheriff, then it has to be equally enforced. So if you are more fair skinned than me, and have been stopped by Sheriff's deputies lately and had to prove your legal status/citizenship, please post your story as a response on here. I want to know if the Sheriff's office is enforcing this policy equally. Most law enforcement agencies do check citizenship/legal status when arresting people (some only when arresting for felonies), but when confiscating an unlicensed food cart? Is that a bit extreme?