Yesterday in Florence, AZ Brenda Oldham was sworn in as the Division 8 Judge of Superior Court, capping off her election victory. Brenda, mother of two grown children and widow of a Air Force Captain, has been a prosecutor and defense attorney here in Pinal County for almost twenty years.

Her career, so far, has included a stint with the Pinal County Attorney’s office as a criminal prosecutor specializing in violent and sexual crimes involving women. After her husband’s extended illness and death, she concentrated on her children and later opened her own law firm specializing in criminal defense and family court matters. Brenda has contributed many, many pro-bono hours to child custody advocacy before the Pinal County family court system.

As the newest elected Judge, she will commence her term as a civil court judge here in Pinal County. She hopes to transfer to Juvenile or Family Court in a year or so. Her most recent activites in child custody cases, preclude her commencing work in this area for now since she involved in hundreds of active cases still before our courts.

The Apache Junction Democrat mounted a very vigerous campaign to win, first the Democratic Party nomination, and then to defeat a relatively inexperienced Republican. As Pinal County continues to grow, it is expected that, in the forseeable future, a Merit Selction Board process will be adopted in this county. In the meantime, we SaddleBrooke Democrats are most pleased to welcome another Democrat to our Pinal County Superior Court bench!

W (worst ever) has been loudly urging the Iraq government to isolate the radical cleric Muktar al-Sadr who is violently anti-American and who has been calling for the immediate withdrawal of all American forces from Iraq.  Well, yesterday he got his answer.

“The Sadr movement is part of Iraqi affairs,” said Haider Abadi, a leader of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party. “We won’t allow others to interfere to weaken any Iraqi political movement.”

The U.S. recently labeled Sadr’s militia the top terrorist threat in Iraq. It was involved in clashes with police Friday and Saturday in the southern city of Samawah in which police said five people were killed. Shiite moderates have been trying to build a new coalition with Kurds and Sunni Arabs that would sideline Sadr.  Click here to read more about W (worst ever)’s problems.

Today, Grand Ayatollia al-Sistani rejected proposals that Shiites join in a coalition with Kurds and Sunnis against the Shiite radical cleric Muktar al-Sadr. This rejection comes in the face of pleas from the Whitehouse as well as calls for coallition from the Iraqi government. Al-Sistani made it clear that Shiites first loyalty was to, well Shiites. Click here to read more from the Associated Press on Yahoo News.

About two weeks ago, Dick Cheney made a trip to the Middle East and stopped to see King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The bad news that he learned there was that Saudi Arabia is becoming concerned about the plight of Iraq’s Sunni population. Within days of the visit, officials in Saudi Arabia began to talk about financial and other support that could be offered Sunnis if the United States leaves Iraq. Clearly, Saudi Arabia is posturing itself as supporters of the Sunni population. Some observers believe that if necessary, Saudi Arabai would offer military support.

Lastly, many observers believe that the Turkish Army is poised to enter Iraq’s Kurdish territories in a Spring 2007 offensive. Ostensibly, Turkey is worried about terrorists crossing the border into Turkey. The real reason is that Turkey would like to see the Kurdish section of Iraq added to the Kurdish part of Turkey. Click here to read an article from Radio Free Europe. Although the dateline on this article is a few months old, there is plenty of fire behind the smoke.  The retired Chief of Staff of the Turkish Army repeated this warning to Margaret Warner in a PBS news interview only a few days ago.

Presidential aspirant and right-wing supporter of the Iraq war, John McCain, feels that the solution is to send more 20,000 or more additional troops and use them to win the war. Today he also urged the Iraqi Prime Minister to break his ties with Muktada al-Sadr during his trip there.

The lawmakers’ trip came as the bloodshed showed no signs of abating. At least 74 more people were killed or found dead, including 65 bullet-riddled bodies bearing signs of torture. And gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped as many as 70 shopkeepers and bystanders from a commercial area in central Baghdad in what was apparently an attack against Sunnis; at least 25 were later released, police said. Click here to read more from the Associate Press.

His stance concerning al-Sadr differs from the approach of that other expert, Dick Cheney, who is floating a plan for the United States to side with and support only the Shiite majority in their struggle against Kurds and Sunnis.

The Pinal County Democrats hold their meetings at 7pm on the third Wednesday of each month in Florence. We generally gather for a dutch treat supper at about 5:30 pm at the A&M Pizza on Highway 287 west of Florence. This is great opportunity to meet and greet fellow Democrats in an informal setting. The meeting is held at the offices of the Pinal County Attorney at 31 N Pinal St. Carpooling is generally available from SaddleBrooke. This month we will be electing officers and state party delegates.  Hope to see you there!

Arianna Huffington is one of the Internet’s sharpest critics of George W. Bush (aka Worst Ever). Her column today recounts the administations reaction to the Iraq Study Group recommendations:

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is already backing away from most of the proposals put forth by the Iraq Study Group. The New York Times, with unintended comic irony, noted it this way: “Administration officials say their preliminary review of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group’s recommendations has concluded that many of its key proposals are impractical or unrealistic.” Thank God we have George Bush to protect us from doing anything impractical or unrealistic in the Middle East.

Click here to read about the new slogan (New Way Forward) that that W (worst ever)’s administration is expected to adopt.

Kofi Annan, the departing Secretary General of the United Nations challenged W (worst ever)’s administation to avoid “go-it-alone” diplomacy and to be committed to human rights.

In a speech delivered at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo., billed as his last address to an American audience as secretary general, Mr. Annan said, “You Americans did so much, in the last century, to build an effective multilateral system, with the United Nations at its heart. Do you need it less today, and does it need you less than 60 years ago? Click here to read more in the New York Times.

If you prefer to read the original speech, try this link at Rawstory.com 

The latest polls show that the public’s support for the Iraq war is continuing to fall in the post election environment.  Less than 25% of the American public supports the Republican President’s handling of the war.  Fewer than one-fourth of those polled Friday through Sunday approved of his Iraq war policies, the lowest number ever recorded by CBS. Seventy-one percent — the largest percentage ever — said the war is going badly; just a year ago, about 52 percent felt that way.  Click here to read more.

Republican David Petersen was sentanced in connection with a plea-bargain which included his resignation at the Arizona State Treasurer. Petersen was required under the terms of the plea bargain to resign from his post prior to the November elections and in today’s developments paid a fine and accepted three years of probation. As a result, other charges including allegations that he mis-used state monies were dropped. Petersen is guilty of accepting commissions in connection with the sale of equipment to Arizona’s schools and in holding an undisclosed equity position in the company that sold the equipment. Click here to read more in the Tucson Citizen.

We have decided to cancle our December meeting.  Holidays and holiday travel schedules have collided to mean that all our officers as well as many of our members will be “out of town.”  So we’ll do it next month.  Our January meeting is scheduled for Saturday, January 13th.  We hope to have expert speaker(s) talk to us about the mess in Iraq.  We also be holding officer elections.  Have Happy Holidays and make a new year’s resolution to help support our Democratic Party.