Business, schooled.

Sun Dome The SunDome is getting torn down for that paragon of modern American culture, a shopping center.

When it opened 33 years ago, the Sundome in Sun City West was the largest single-story performing-arts center in the country.

It cost $8.6 million to build and was designed primarily as a concert hall with 7,169 seats.

The venue opened in September 1980 and was designed by architects for the Del E. Webb Development Co. as a marketing tool to sell homes in Sun City West.

It’s being demolished after decades of financial losses and repeated attempts to make it a viable performance space.

What makes this tale different from every other Arizona real estate deal gone bad is ASU’s involvement. You’d think that a university that prides itself for having a top-notch business school would avoid things like this.

The venue could handle individual performers such as Tony Bennett or Henry Mancini, but lacked a backstage area big enough for the sets of a major production, such as “Phantom of the Opera” or “Miss Saigon.”

ASU officials grappled with those same problems in 1984, when the Webb company deeded the Sundome to the university.

The center immediately started draining ASU’s public-events budget. Between the cost of booking acts, property taxes and electricity bills, the university had a Sundome-related deficit of $273,000 within two years. This piled up, despite a $200,000 annual payment that Del E. Webb made through 1988, just to cover losses.

In 1995, ASU asked the Sundome’s affiliated association to try to raise $5 million for renovations, only to discover that anywhere from $14 million to $20 million would be needed to make the venue profitable.

The university tried to put it on the market over the years but could not find any suitable buyers. One bidder in 2004 offered $50,000. A recent appraisal had put the value of the land alone at more than $7 million.

By 2005, the Sundome Center for the Performing Arts was a white elephant and was sold by Arizona State University to Maricopa County for just $10.

The county gave the Sundome back to ASU in 2007 and last year, a developer bought the 16-acre site for $2 million.

The land was worth $7 million, but somehow, the geniuses at Arizona State ended up giving the SunDome back to the county and let them sell it for $2 million. Good thing these guys don’t teach people accounting, finance or public policy, or else we’d really be in trouble!

Number of comments: 1 Add comment
June 18th, 2013 by exurbankevin

The Delusionist

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above
Don’t fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love
Don’t fence me in
Let me be by myself in the evenin’ breeze
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees
Send me off forever but I ask you please
Don’t fence me in

- Cole Porter and Robert Fletcher

Remember how Democratic political strategist Bill Carrick was certain CERTAIN that the Mountain West would turn blue because, and I quote,

“The libertarian thing is no longer about property rights or gun rights,” he said. “It’s now about letting people live their lives as they choose.”

Does the Obamacare debacle, the NSA scandal and the IRS scandal, the AP scandal and the hacking reporter’s computers increase the mistrust of big government, and if so, does that benefit the nanny-state policies of the Democrats, or small-government conservatives?

If Bill Carrick and other Dem strategists think that the continuing revelations of the Obama administration’s intrusion into our private lives is helping them win over the rugged individualists of the Mountain West, they’re smoking something, and it ain’t Marlboro Lights.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
June 17th, 2013 by exurbankevin

Temper, temper, Jan Brewer

jan

Frustrated by her own party in her attempts to bring ObamaCare into Arizona, Jan Brewer has announced her next move.

The Governor released a press release today stating that “If they don’t pass my budget and do what I want, I’m going to sit in this corner and hold my breath until I turn blue.” and threatened GOP leadership in the Arizona House and Senate that she just might “quit playing and take her ball and go home.”

When asked if her initial response to GOP pushback on her agenda was to throw herself on the floor and start crying, ‘Why? Whywhwhywhywhywhywhywhy can’t I have that money from Obama!!!? I wantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantitIwantit!!!!!! Andy Tobin is a big meanie, I don’t like him!!!!”, Governor Brewer responded with “…………………………………………………………“.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
June 12th, 2013 by exurbankevin

Looking for leadership from Obama? Look somewhere else

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to device.”

- Sir Walter Scott

“You know, I actually believe my own bull****.”

- Barack Hussein Obama

Obama is now fully engulfed in the second term jinx. His gun control agenda failed to move out of the Democratically-controlled Senate, his budget proposals are “useless” and his administration is bouncing from one scandal to another like a punch-drunk staggering around the ring.

And the Obama faithful have begun to take notice. Between highly visible celebrity defections from the Obama camp tweeting tirades against Obama and the NSA for spying on Americans under his watch to news reporters (up until now his most loyal constituents) grilling his press secretary over his Attorney General spying on reporters to the public at large’s outrage over the IRS spying (Hmmn, I’m seeing a trend here…) on conservatives, the Obama administration has had a springtime they’d probably like to forget.

And it’s only going to get worse. A crisis like this demands a leader who can lead, and if Obama has shown us one thing over the past few years, he avoids tough decisions like the plague. He outsourced the passage of Obamacare to Congress, resulting in monumental losses for his party in the next election cycle. His style with foreign relations is to “lead from behind”, and during his one crowning achievement outside of the political arena, editorship of the Harvard Law Review, he was known for not putting in a sold day’s work (something he apparently learned as an undergrad at Columbia).

And we wonder why he seems to have made his golf game the #1 priority of his administration, and not job creation.

The fact is, unless he is impeached and removed from office because of his involvement with one of the many, many scandals swirling around his administration, we’re stuck with a leader who’s a lousy CEO. Anyone who thinks he should be his own chief of staff isn’t the type of person who should be running a lemonade stand, much less the greatest nation on Earth. We’re stuck with Obama for 3 1/2 years. Let’s hope we elect a leader next time, and not a failed messiah.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
June 9th, 2013 by exurbankevin

Constitutional Freedom Quiz

“Limiting liberty in the interest of expediency is the definition of tyranny.”

- David Schulz, a lawyer representing the Associated Press regarding the Department of Justice spying on their reporters

California effectively bans all new firearms from here forwards until pie-in-the-sky “microstamping” technology is built to allow law enforcement to “more effectively track guns”.

Reconcile California’s actions with the statement that precedes it.

Use a #2 pencil. Take as long as you like.

You may begin.

(Spoiler: You can’t do it. But that never seems to stop our lawmakers from trying…)

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
June 1st, 2013 by ExurbanKev

Cognitive Dissonance

Why is is that liberals don’t understand that when it comes to raising revenue, taxing something means they’re going to have less of that something to tax (and therefore less taxes), but they completely understand how to use taxes to destroy their enemies?

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
May 25th, 2013 by ExurbanKev

British soldier killed in front of barracks because of Muslim Extremism and outrage over Denmark winning Eurovision, but mostly Muslim Extremism*.

There are two possible responses to a dispersed threat like home-grown terrorism: A dispersed response, such as what worked on United Flight 93, or an unarmed population and a police state. Britain has chosen a police state, and this happens.

“Video filmed by an onlooker and broadcast by ITV News shows a man with his hands covered in blood and holding a bloodied knife and machete. He says in a London accent: “I apologise that women had to witness that, but in our lands our women have to see the same thing.”

“You people will never be safe. Remove your Government, they don’t care about you.”

He then walks off, still carrying his weapons, back towards the body of the victim who is lying in the middle of the road.”

In other parts of the video, said to be too shocking to show, it is claimed he says: “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

…

“We saw clearly two knives, meat cleavers. They were big kitchen knives like you would use in a butcher’s. They were hacking at this poor guy. We thought they were trying to remove organs from him.

These two guys were crazed, they were not there, they were just animals. They then dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road.

They took 20 minutes to arrive, the police – the armed response.”

For years, the rulers of Britain have been telling their subjects not to get involved, not to defend themselves, not to fight back. Now when a horrific murder happens right in front of their eyes, rather than help, they watch. And take pictures, and don’t jump in and stop the attack

Compare this to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Tucson, where bystanders jumped on the attacker and armed (civilian) response was on-scene in a matter of minutes, far ahead of the police.

One country trusts its citizens to protect themselves, one discourages it. I know which country I prefer to live in.

* Headline style stolen shamelessy from Ace.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
May 22nd, 2013 by exurbankevin

“Please Detail The Content of Your Member’s Prayers”

“The question specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition For Life For Iowa, ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers’.”

Tar. Feathers. A Fence Rail. Some Assembly Required.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
May 17th, 2013 by exurbankevin

Scylla, Charybdis, and the DNC

Will the Democratic Party be an effective political force on the national scale a year from now? Consider this.

Obama’s personal PAC, Organizing for America, is sucking the oxygen out of progressive fundraising.

The Democratic National Committee is undergoing a recalibration as it learns to live with President Barack Obama’s permanent political presence – the independent issues group Organizing for Action that spun-off from the president’s re-election. Once vertically aligned in party flow chart, the two organizations are now co-equals with Obama at the head – independent organizations that some worry will fight for resources and attention from the president and supporters.

Which wasn’t a problem right up until last Friday, when Obama lost the one key demographic he had remaining, the press.

Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will, even among Democrats. And the press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.

This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system. “It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,” a former senior Obama administration official said. “When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.”

Not a problem, right? I mean there’s always Hilary waiting in the wings, waiting for her turn to take over.

Or not.

“We’ve had several statements from Hillary Clinton saying she wasn’t involved. Well, now it turns out that her spokesman was involved. Miss Nuland was writing statements saying, ‘You know what? Politically this isn’t going to look good.’ So it sounds like Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints are all over these (Bengazi) talking points.”

Ok, what about Andrew Cuomo? I mean, he’s a rising star in the Democratic party with a solid pedigree and the governorship of a big state to back it up. He’s fresh off of a major gun-control victory in liberal New York state, he should be popular there, right? RIGHT!!!?!!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s popularity has slipped, a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University shows, likely due to Cuomo’s aggressive advocacy for a gun control bill that he signed into law earlier this month.

The poll found Cuomo’s job approval rating dropped from 74 percent to 59 percent, and his approval standing among Republican voters dropped from 68-18 in January to 44-43.

Ok, what about OTHER Democratic governors? Buelller? Bueller? Bueller?

North Carolina elected its first Republican governor in more than two decades, securing 30 gubernatorial seats for the GOP.

It was a major milestone for the Republican party. Not only was it the first time North Carolina had elected a Republican governor since 1988, it also gave the GOP 30 statehouse seats, the highest number for either party in 12 years. The Democrats now have 19 governor seats. One state, Rhode Island, has an independent governor.

At this rate, I foresee a new Democratic PAC forming in 2016 to take back the White House: Democratic Dog Catchers for Change!

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
May 16th, 2013 by exurbankevin

The Media’s Lament

At first, Obama went after the gun owners, but that did not bother me because I did not own a gun.
Then he turned his back on our troops overseas, but that did not bother me because I never served in the military.
Then he let the people in our embassy in Libya die, but that did not bother me because I wasn’t in the State Department.
Then he allowed the IRS to block the formation of conservative political groups, but that did not bother me because I wasn’t a conservative.
Then Obama and Eric Holder subpoenaed my phone records, and there was no one left to defend me.

Number of comments: 0 Add comment
May 15th, 2013 by exurbankevin