Senator Karen Johnson Goes Off the Deep End

Believe it: Senator Karen Johnson is a card-carrying member of the crazy right-wingers of the Republican Party who pass themselves off as libertarians, but act and think more like members of the John Birch Society or the National Alliance. In an article in the East Valley Tribune, Johnson states this county will merge with Mexico and Canada to become a E.U.-like country where our Constitution and sovereignty is pitched out the window and the U.S. as we know it will cease to exist. The culprit in all of this: President George W. Bush.

Now she's informed the Arizona Republican delegation of this "fact," many of who wouldn't return the Trib's calls for comments. I can't say I blame them. What's scarier is she sits in the legislature with other folks like Russell Pearce and there are enough voters in her district way too uninformed to throw her out. Maybe H. L. Mencken was right about getting the politicians we deserve.

Johnson's hysterical fear mongering and boogie-man rhetoric is why Republicans are leaving that party and registering and voting as Independents and Democrats. I would encourage her to keep up the good work. Democrats can use her help.

MacEachern, Goldwater Institute and Bad Research

In endorsing Matt Ladner’s premise that states with lower tax rates means they will have lower poverty rates, Doug MacEachern encourages the public to believe something is fact when it is not. It’s not even close.

I have a copy of Ladner’s paper “How to Win the War on Poverty.” He cites low-tax states like Mississippi (19% poverty) and Arkansas (15.1% poverty) as states with low tax rates we should emulate. If low tax rates have a direct relationship on reducing poverty, then how come they have higher poverty rates than Arizona (14.4% poverty)?

Does Ladner cite any peer-reviewed research to support his claims? Nope. Did he interpret the data to show there is a statistically significant relationship between low tax rates and reductions in poverty? No, again. In fact, he states in the footnotes “A lack of comparable and detailed state budget data precludes an examination of antipoverty spending by state.” So can he legitimately support his conclusions? No, he can’t.

Ladner and the Goldwater Institute are preaching to the choir with false claims and bad research. How that helps Arizona is a mystery, but I’m sure they appreciate MacEachern’s help. The rest of us, however, do not.