Incoming Superintendent John Huppenthal had promised MAS' demise on the campaign trail. This blew up in his face when the auditing firm he hired to investigate the program issued a report praising MAS, stating that it was not out of compliance.
Huppenthal made it seem as if the report backed up a decision to force MAS to close up shop. It didn't. That debacle has leant serious support to a teachers' lawsuit in federal court, seeking to have the statute tossed.
Horne still uses the law to bolster his right-wing bona fides. At a recent Tea Party panel on ethnic studies, he told the Tea Party wackadoodles that the only way the TUSD could come into compliance with the state's probably unconstitutional law was to terminate the program.
"Carthage must be destroyed," he reportedly declared, invoking the words of Roman statesman Cato the Elder about Rome's rival, which ultimately was wiped off the face of the Earth and its population sold into slavery.
The wingnuts loved that one. Hell, they'd enjoy dropping an H-bomb on lefty Tucson, flattening the Old Pueblo like a tortilla.
More troubling are Horne's legal broadsides against the federal 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.
The AIRC is redrawing Arizona's political map in line with the 2010 census. Its main job is coming up with districts that will meet the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Because of Arizona's legacy of voter suppression, it must win "pre-clearance" with the feds under the VRA, as do several states.
Horne could have petitioned the feds to release Arizona from this mandate. Instead, he challenged sections of the law itself, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder directly.
More bloody steak for the extreme right, which has never cottoned to minorities having access to the polls — at least not without a few roadblocks thrown in their way.
I'm glad that the feds maintain pre-clearance in this, America's most nativist state. With outright bigots in the Legislature regularly writing laws to discriminate against our Mexican-American population, persistent ethnic strife, and widespread hatred of the undocumented, pre-clearance is one of the few protections that minority voters here have.
Particularly in light of the one-party rule of a state GOP dominated by a contingent for which bashing Mexicans is de rigueur.
The GOP and its Tea Party faction are openly hostile to the AIRC and want nothing to do with the "independent" nature of its mission.
So they have politicized the process in a blatant attempt at intimidation. Wingnut bloggers and politicos openly daydream of throwing redistricting back into the lap of the Legislature, controlled by a Republican supermajority.
To appease the ultra-conservanut ghost of Thomas' public career and Arizona Tea Baggers, Horne jumped on the bandwagon with a grandstanding splash, announcing an investigation to the media, and comparing trumped-up allegations of AIRC Open Meetings Law violations to "Watergate."
Essentially, the allegations come down to the choice by the AIRC of a mapping firm with Democratic ties by the name of Strategic Telemetry, and whether the AIRC's lone Independent, Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, engaged in vote-swapping.
The two Republicans on the AIRC have testified under oath during interviews with the AG's Office that Mathis called them before the mapping-firm vote, seeking a unified 5-0 tally. Commissioner Rick Stertz, who was appointed by state Senate President Russell Pearce, implicated Mathis in alleged vote trading.
Yet the AG's Office is conflicted in any investigation under State Bar ethics rules. The AG's Office served as the AIRC's lawyer for several months. Horne is, essentially, investigating his former client over matters his office previously gave advice on.
If that sounds familiar, it's one of the very ethics charges Thomas is now facing, along with the threat of disbarment.
One of the AIRC's current lawyers, Joe Kanefield, who previously served as Governor Jan Brewer's general counsel, noted the conflict in a letter to the AG's Office along with Mary O'Grady, Arizona's former solicitor general.
Horne's response? A motion in superior court to compel testimony from Mathis and the two Democratic commissioners, a motion he first announced to the New York Times.
Kanefield's signature on that "objection letter" to Horne is significant because he serves as the president of the State Bar. Horne's motion noted that a holdover from ex-AG Terry Goddard's administration had disputed the ethical conflict in writing.
Thing is, that holdover is an "at will" employee. Meaning she has to do what Horne says, or risk getting axed.
Horne was present at Stertz's interview and engaged in some of the questioning himself. Sources have suggested that he and Stertz had ex parte communications before the investigation.
When I asked Horne about this, he denied it at first, then he said he would have to check to be sure.
He eventually explained that Stertz had attempted to contact him via text message, and he responded to Stertz telling him that he could not speak to him, as the AIRC was represented by counsel.
But when I did a public-records request on Stertz's text messages and e-mails, Stertz responded via Kanefield that he "never had any e-mail communications or telephone calls with . . . the Attorney General's Office."
As for Horne's personal texts, Rezzonico told me he does not retain them.
Convenient, eh? Horne should beware of copycatting his ex-foe Thomas. Doing so already is bearing poison fruit.
Reminds one also of Bush politicizing the justice system with inexperienced underlings, i.e. Monica Goodling. Let them destroy the political enemies. Where is she today? Monica Goodling Reprimanded By Virginia State Bar | TPMMuckraker http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi...
Expert shot: I know who you are, and why you're so burned."There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent their spleen. ~Alexandre Dumas".
I don't know you but I'm willing to guess you're a liar - cause you just lied. You don't know me. If you did, your poor example of ethical behavior would have required that you post my name and address here. But you didn't. LIAR!
http://www.azcentral.com/arizo...
The above article is the most cynical, hypocritical piece I've yet seen. Given Horne's attempt to dismantle ethic studies classes in the Tucson Unified School District, this is an amazing statement: "The future belongs to the highly educated, and particularly the highly educated who are prepared to participate in the world economy," said Tom Horne, the state superintendent of public instruction."
The summit stems from Horne's goal of increasing international education, including creating schools specializing in foreign languages and international business, and expanding foreign-language programs to kindergartners.
"We have to graduate students who are fluent in three languages so that they can participate in the international market," Horne said.
It's a guarantee that other nations educate their students about the United States poor history in dealing with minorities - our own students should be able to know this information too.
GOP strategy. Harvard rises to the top and selects inexperienced, incompetent people as underlings who know nothing. The taxpayers and society loses. Arizona being the poorest state speaks for whose robbed and used the state to line their pockets. Carpetbaggers comes to mind?? And how to get away with it... hire dumb and dumber, those who are beholden to power.
Look, Steven, Bubby - you really have to come up with more "meaty" reporting here. I mean, putting the World's Toughest Sheriff in his place was okay, but took long enough. Even though New Times started off the Get the dirty Sheriff stories with all black pages and white type (we know, New Times buys ink by the ship load), I haven't seen the same kind of hutzpa when it comes to Horne Toad. Horne's more dangerous to our State's citizens than the Shurf is because he's a little bit smarter. You'll need to step it up a notch. We discovered by Carmen's own admission here in the comments section of the last article that she lied about her father's role in the Spanish American War. CLUE: That episode, which she continously likes to brag on and gets her the most creds amongst the wombat wackjobs who wonder at the woman from Wasilla. It also is something she will always fall back on when under pressure. Press her and she will engaging in the following: "But I was a refugee from the COMMIES - that's why I'm so fucked up - please let me get away with shit work because I'm a true-blue dyed in the wool COMMIE hater." She wants to "get by" with lax performance by appealing to conservanuts' "LOVE" for true commie haters.
That's the key to exposing Horne Toads Gumba - Carmen is lying about her family's experience in Cuba. While no amount of apologies can be made to her by the USA for allowing and encouraging the MOB and the criminal KKKorporations to screw up a wonderful country - she's not asking for that - she's asking for being exposed as a fake commie hater. The conservanuts will throw her under the bus - 123 Skidoo - when these facts are exposed. Remember that guy who bragged about his medals, Duke Tully? Yeah, the conservanuts threw him under the bus quick after they found out he'd been lying to them all these years just to "get over."
BTW - "Getting over" in Arizona means getting huge million dollar loans that you never have to pay back (as long as you play along) . Ask Fife Symington or Jerry Colango about that - Find the loan docs!
Well, I can certainly prove it was someone who used her name. Carmen Chenal is her name and someone used it. So that one was a "gimmie." Am I sure it was Carmen Chenal and not someone other than Carmen Chenal using Carmen's name to fool everyone into thinking that she believed her father was a hero of the Rough Riders rather than a facilitator of horrible war crimes against the Cuban people which facilitated the crisis of a latin american country going communist which we still have to deal with today? Hmmmm.
Who else but Carmen would know (or purport to know) or even want to share the information she related to us in the New Times comments section regarding the last article which was posted here about her? Besides, I've heard her relate that story before and believed her that time. After hearing that her relative really did NOT lead the Rough Riders into battle and rather served only as a guide - I got a little hot under the collar. Especially because she tried to use the fact that she was a refugee from a "HORRIBLE" communist dictatorship and Castro killed all of her family in order to get people to feel sorry for her and want to help her by ignoring her incompetence and irrationaly (some might say "nutty" behavior).
Another thing about Carmen you should know. She uses her feminity to control men and is very successful doing it. She holds herself out in personal relationships with men as "available." However, she knows how to put men off without breaking the illusion that she is still "available" in the future. Looking back on it, I am as shocked as mush about that "sexual manipulationt" as I am at the at the blatent use of lies about her family's history and her fake "anti-commie" credentials. Check out the use of make-up on this woman. Amazing.
He (Chenal's great grandfather) couldn't have done either (lead the Rough Riders or serve as a guide). He was dead by then. Her father couldn't have served as Cuba's Attorney general because Cuba didn't have attorney generals. It had justice ministers, and none of them were "La Carmen's" daddy.
Horny Toad Tom will soon go the way of Candy Ass Thomas,I just hope it happens before he causes the amount of damage Candy Ass did.
This is a bunch of non-stories hoping to become a story. There is no new information in this story. The re-districting is clearly off the tracks. Horne is the AG..who in the state should address this? Your title should have been two wrongs don't make a right. Much more clever but then who would have read this....
Well, well, well...seems folks at least still know how to use the Internets at the AG's office ;). Just not as many as with the last Horn-article
"As for Horne's personal texts, Rezzonico told me he does not retain them."
To the extent that Horne's "personal" texts involve his official capacity as state AG, as he claims the text in question did, he is guilty of destroying public records. By his own admission.
Carmen is attracted to the Horney Tom because it has such a sticky tongue. She enjoys kissing the Tom hoping it will turn into a prince, but alas, whatcha see is whatcha get..............................LOL
They can say they don't retain records all they want.. but there's always stuff on the server.. Subpoenaing the IT guy or the Cell Phone carrier is another option.. (that's if it gets to lawsuit level) Ask Arpaio about his "Accidentally Deleted" emails that were later recovered from the server... Oops.
You never thought about jack shit, you just come here to spam. Do us a favor and die screaming.
So....Horny Toad is at it again...
Where does Arizona come up with these people let alone elect them in positions of trust.
Amazing....
We clueless and dimwitted voters elect them in positions of trust because they promise us they will go after the illegals.
Then, once they are in office, actual crime doesn't get solved. The elected goombahs go after the illegals, even though prosecuting the illegals is a federal issue.
Most important part of this article. Read between the lines:
Horne was present at Stertz's interview and engaged in some of the questioning himself. Sources have suggested that he and Stertz had ex parte communications before the investigation.
When I asked Horne about this, he denied it at first, then he said he would have to check to be sure.
He eventually explained that Stertz had attempted to contact him via text message, and he responded to Stertz telling him that he could not speak to him, as the AIRC was represented by counsel.
But when I did a public-records request on Stertz's text messages and e-mails, Stertz responded via Kanefield that he "never had any e-mail communications or telephone calls with . . . the Attorney General's Office."
As for Horne's personal texts, Rezzonico told me he does not retain them.
So as a legal student I should learn from this situation that my best career prospect is to buddy up and become a friend to some politco like Horne and I can therefore secure a nice six figure income and govt. position with all the attendent perks? (tongue firmly in cheek.)
If you were a "legal student," as oppesed to a law student or an illegal student, you would be a complete loser if you aspired to only make $108,000 per year.
I don't like Horne, but its wrong to go after someone as a proxy for a political target. The woman is more than qualified for her job, nothing indicates she is overwhelmed and her pay is pretty low, even by public sector lawyer standards.
The only story here is Lemons hates Horne more than he loves profesisonal journalism.
I doubt she could score a job in the public sector w/her record. She's still on probation. Normally the AG's office wldnt hire someone like that. Horne overrrode them.
Wrong about Mr. Lemons. Lemons goes after the truth and answers to no one. A great public service. The entrenched political culture of a decades long single-party system = tyranny. Wake up Arizona! You voted these incompetents into power.
You're right, and so am I. Lemons answers to no one, certainly not the usual and customary practices of professional journalism.
You will prosper fabulously, until you are caught. Unless you are so successful in your corruption that you become too big to prosecute. Once those who break the law rise high enough that they make the law, they are home free.
Stephen, You can't make up this stuff. The truth will eventually prevail. Thank you for your courage.
Clarification: If this wasn't the truth, one couldn't make this up. Unfortunately, the truth rings out loud and clear.
I was just thinking of Carmen the yesterday and wondering when she would pop up again - and here she is. Last time she lied about her father's role in helping the mob and the U.S. Rough Riders turn Cuba into an enemy of this Country. What will it be this time? You know what, she's an excellent candidate to be a manchurian.
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