"Diversity and giving characterize leaders" begins the page saluting the Valley Leadership Man & Woman of the Year awards. Of course Jose Cárdenas, due to his Hispanic surname, is the individual who lends the 'diverse' nomenclature to the headline. What is it with this "Diversity" crap? The "Diversity" label only causes more division, more dissension within the American Melting-Pot which has forever consisted of individuals with hundreds of diverse origins and all of the races on this Earth. For God's sake, this is America, the only place on the planet this situation exists. This situation of anyone, regardless of their background, being able to rise to the economic top of the class! The only thing trumpeting the horn of diversity does is divide those today considered 'diverse' from those not considered 'diverse.' How much your Mr. Wonderful as an Arizona native had wiped out any distinction between American-Mexicans and American-Europeans was never more apparent than years ago, when my sweet seventy five year old Wisconsin farmer, uncle Izzie, visited my workplace. And after glancing at those of my fellow workers who possessed Hispanic countenances, turned to me and matter-of-factly remarked, "They're good people." I was struck. What the hell did he mean!, "They're good people?" What he had demonstrated was that he viewed these individuals as being members of the class of 'diverse' Hispanics where I only saw fellow worker's, Arizonan's and compa's. Let's fold up the six, seven, eight or more 'Diversity Tents' and treat all people, black, red, brown, yellow, male, female, handicapped, gay, as simply Americans. Americans trying to do the best that they can.

If reading this report doesn't fry you how does the prospect of setting your thermostat at cool 84 degrees in August strike you? Get this, according to Judd Slivka writing in the March 7th, 2001 Arizona Republic, we find that in order to study an 'endangered' fish that no one gives a shit about, Glen Canyon Dam had to cut back on water flows through its electrical generators. Minus the expected output from the dam, the Colorado River Storage Project was forced to spend $55 million purchasing electricity to replace the lowered Glen Canyon Dam output. $55 million that may be sorely needed this summer in order for electrical customers in our Western States to be able to purchase affordable electricity. Understand that the Colorado River Storage Project is a federal agency that was designed to broker affordable electricity in the West and that it has just spent over one half of its budget buying power on the open market so a group of Environmental Wackos could study a the 'endangered' Humpback Chub. Remember folks, this is the same government that balks at refunding 28% of a decade long income tax overcharge, yet cannot EVER seem to cut back on its own profligate, rapacious, and unbelievably wasteful spending! $55,000,000 tax dollars spent to study a fish the size of your little finger! A fish that also thrives in the jungle rivers of Venuzuela!

Have you heard the radio ad paid for by the Arizona State Dental Hygienists Association ? The one that claims that 400,000 Arizona children need dental care and that 200,000 of these same children are in families that can't afford the doctor visit? (Listen, for years I sold insurance. It's not the money, it's the priorities of the parents.) I think the fact that their web site is in both English and Spanish exposes the depth of their compassion. These hygienists want to wail, "For the children!", then scam the cash from the public treasury and quickly populate their bank accounts. The Association, knowing that the tens of thousands of illegal aliens, along with their U.S. born children, would, without question, be at the head of the line for this handout, hope to drive up public support by providing the option of viewing their Web pages in Spanish. (Gee, maybe they should talk to the people from the recently defunct Quepasa.com eh? Being illiterate in both English and Spanish, these illegal aliens don't find much use for the Internet - other than to check soccer scores.) We all need to realize that this ad campaign is just another fraud to divert taxes ripped from our paychecks into the pocketbooks of the bloated ranks of Arizona dental technicians . . . "for the children."

I heard today that one Eddy Lopez in the Arizona Congress has proposed that the Department of Motor Vehicle's issue driver's licenses without proof of citizenship! What the hell is up with that crowd? Last year they wanted to force auto insurance companies to provide coverage for illegal aliens driving in Arizona. This year they want to open the illegal immigration flood gates and let illegal aliens (every one a criminal) legally obtain an Arizona Driver's License without providing proof of U.S. citizenship. (And yes, I would be an idiot if I didn't realize that illegal aliens are driving without licenses now.) Mr. Lopez claims that his idea has nothing to do with allowing 'undocumented workers' to legally drive in Arizona. Then what is this asinine proposal, which would make the rest our drivers license's useless for any form of financial transaction, about?

This morning the Arizona Tourism and Sports Authority (similar to a 'Transit Authority') will decide whether the Proposition #302 financed $335,000,000+ Arizona Cardinal's stadium will be built in Tempe or on Avondale land donated by millionaire John F. Long. Your Mr. Wonderful is 100% against any stadium being built with taxpayer dollars. I don't understand why professional sports are forever entitled to shovel money from the public till. Financially, traffic and space-wise the Avondale location makes more sense. However, considering most West Valley residents expend the majority of their limited income on impressing their neighbor's with the latest model Chevrolet Monte Carlo parked in the driveway, their re-tiling project, purchasing beer, lottery tickets, hunting licenses and barbecueing, they have few dollars left to afford the unconscionably high ticket prices demanded to watch the most awful team in the NFL. For those of us living in the East Valley, the trek to the far West Valley involves not only a monumental drive, but actual fear of bodily harm, not to mention key scratches along the sides of our BMW's, Mercedes, and Jaguars. While the Tempe location (on land leased from the Salt River Project) does not ring true financially, traffic-wise or space-wise, it makes great sense when considering the already extent amenities and hotels and the far better behaved populace.

Today Lisa Graham Keegan proposed that "master teachers" in our public schools should be paid up to $100,000 annually. These "master teachers' would then mentor and train other teachers. What a crock! She claims that "We know how to tell whether a teacher is a great teacher." Well, if we know that, why not over the years, sort out the great teachers from the not so great teachers and keep the great teachers and let the not so greats contracts expire? We don't do that because the teacher's unions control our schools, not bureaucrats working for the state. And the teacher's unions don't give a damn about the education of children and less than a damn about the mentoring and training of their members by a "master teacher" earning three times as much money as the average teacher. Why should already bloated school budgets be further inflated by teachers whose sole purpose is to teach teachers what they should have learned in the four years of college they endured? Sadly, today, most of our public school teachers are in for the salary, the benefits, the hours and the three month vacation. (And anytime most of us could get away from our day to day employment circumstances for three months, even if it was digging ditches, it's called a vacation.) We don't need great teacher's hauling in a great salary to teach our teacher's. We need great teachers to teach our children!

Today as the radio blared news about Phoenix's Brown Cloud Summit, I thought back to the days of the Phoenix Transit Bus Strike. It just so happened that during those few days your Mr.Wonderful found it necessary to travel to First Avenues and Van Buren. As I crawled along the southbound Highway 51, also known as the Squaw Peak Freeway, I noted how absolutely the clear the air was. Being this was a Tuesday, following a normal two day weekend consisting of mild sunny days, and considering there had been time for Monday's vehicular fumes to accumulate and fill the Arizona skies I pondered the pellucid atmosphere before me. What if, what if, I thought, ". . . if the parked Phoenix Transit buses, whose majority of passengers are grateful illegal aliens, were actually the last obstacle to cleaning the Phoenix air?