Foxes in the hen house

As I said last week, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is forcing his 3,000 volunteer “posse” members on school grounds at a variety of locations to provide “armed protection” to our children from possible mass murderers. I say forcing because he is on record as saying he will force the schools to accept his help.

It doesn’t matter whether they like it or don’t like it,” Arpaio said, regarding whether schools want armed guards. “I’m still going to do it. I can’t imagine criticism coming when they’re given free protection.

He can’t imagine criticism? Of course he can’t. He’s a narcissistic asshole who thinks even his bowel movements shine with the light of divine inspiration. Since he can’t imagine a criticism, let me point out a few REALLY obvious problems with this little scheme.

1. Posse members wear uniforms that look very much like official deputy uniforms so it is difficult to distinguish them from actual law enforcement officers.
2. Our kids don’t need that kind of protection, thank you very much. The odds of a mass murder happening are still very, very low (1 in 1 Million). They catch our attention, sure, and it hurts us all psychologically, and yes, something needs to be done about gun control. Particularly when you combine these rare but very public mass murders with the much more common gun deaths the U.S. experiences every year, all 30,000 of them. However, scientifically speaking, the odds that your child will be a victim of a mass murder are much lower than the odds of your child getting killed in a car crash (1 in 67) or getting cancer (1 in 330) or drowning (1 in 7,683).
3. By allowing the posse thugs to patrol our schools the odds that something bad could happen just got worse. Apparently posse members are poorly vetted.

Example A: Jake Cutler. This man tried to sexually assault his girlfriend while choking her. She fought back and he threatened to call the police himself. He said he “had a badge” and that the police would believe him and not her. Parents love violent sexual offenders being around their children while armed, don’t they?
Example B: Kevin Ray Campos. This guy got into a fight with bouncers outside a nightclub and verbally assaulted Scottsdale police officers. Parents love men who have little impulse control and a disrespect for authority hanging around their kids with loaded weapons, don’t they?
Example C: Doug Clark. This fellow is a real gem and he’s a constable too. Imagine our luck! He had rolled a county vehicle, driven over 90 mph in a 45 mph zone, used his siren when he was not on duty (this is a big NO-NO in law enforcement folks), and using red/blue emergency lights to slow traffic so he could find something in the road that his wife lost (again, an officer should NEVER do this). Oh, did I mention that he is accused of ramming his car into another driver and holding them at gunpoint while he was off duty? What was the other driver’s crime? The other driver had earlier backed into Clark’s car and left the scene. Now we’ve all experienced this at one time or another. But Clark’s response is way, way over the top. So a fender bender deserves a ramming and being threatened with a gun and being in fear of one’s life? Sounds like Mr. Clark needs a lessen in humility, not to mention proper law enforcement procedure AND impulse control therapy. Parent’s love men who think they are above the law patrolling elementary schools with deadly force, don’t they?

And this is only a tiny sample. The list of offenses is long–Drug possession, violent behavior in public, impersonating an officer, and even sex crimes against children….yes, even pedophiles, apparently can join Arpaio’s posse. That’s EXACTLY who we need watching our kids pretending to be gods with death on their hips. When confronted with the results of this investigation by CBS5, Arpaio’s response is that he trusts his posse and he needs them because of budgetary shortfalls.

What’s that, Joe? You say you’re short on manpower? Why is that? Could it be because you and the entire Republican party in Arizona refuse to tax the population properly and instead give massive tax breaks to businesses who in no way, shape or form need them and you pay yourself far too much money and line the pockets of your cronies with money and spend money on frivolous unnecessary things? I would gladly pay more in taxes to have vetted, trained deputies performing their duties than to allow violent, sexual predators performing a deputy’s job. And I sure as hell don’t want these freaks at my kid’s school with guns.  How about we reduce your salary and every yahoo in State Government, up to and including the Governor, and hire some more deputies?

So tell me again, how these posse members increase my child’s safety. We have rules and standards for the police for very good reason–so we don’t end up with a fascist government! You can’t just let anyone be a cop because it’s a tremendous amount of power. So, why the hell are we allowing crazy, irresponsible and criminal people to become “posse” members and giving them the power of life or death over our children?!

Furthermore, why, for the love of all that’s holy, is Sheriff Joe Arpaio still in office? What the hell is wrong with you Maricopa County voters? Seriously. What could possibly be worth putting up with this corrupt jerk and his dangerous foot soldiers  If something happens to one of the kids because of these volunteers, because apparently people like me can do nothing to stop this asshole and his fascist agenda, then I want to see Arpaio go to prison where some very large ugly man uses him in very bad, painful ways for the rest of his unnatural life.

If you live outside of Maricopa County just be thankful–oh, and maybe call the Department of Justice and ask them why the hell they dropped the ball on prosecuting Arpaio? Too bad they don’t allow booze at work because a shot of whiskey might help me forget that I still live in The Fourth Reich.

Thoughts on the Day

• Ann Coulter is a disgusting human being–she thinks the government should make a list of all women who have had abortions. I honestly don’t think she believes a single thing that comes out of her mouth. She’s a grifter making a ton of money off ignorant, conservative American voters just like Beck, Limbaugh, etc. But the irresponsibility of such talk, all for the sake of making money, takes my breath away. What’s next? Scarlet A’s for the women on the list? I have a suggestion. How about a big “C” brand for Coulter’s forehead?*
  
• It’s official. Sheriff Joe Arpaio now has members of his all volunteer posse patrolling carrying weapons at approximately 50 schools in Maricopa County today. Congratulations Arizona! You’ve joined the ranks of third world countries with authoritarian governments. Woohoo! So proud, I could weep. Fortunately they’re not patrolling in Peoria where my daughter goes to school or I would be there following their ass around with a protest sign and videotaping their dumbasses. I wonder how they would feel if I came with my Ruger Speed 6 loaded with jacketed hollow point 38 Special rounds with two speed loaders full? If they can carry on campus, why can’t I? I have security clearances or at least, I used to. I’m more qualified than many in his damn posse, some of whom have a criminal past.   Ht to Bob Cesca

• Here’s a question for you to ponder. Why are private for profit charter schools not held to the same standards as public schools? They receive our tax dollars. Here’s another. How come no one ever talks about the profit being made by these private corporations and how they’re in bed with the standardized test makers? Why are we allowing corporations who only care about the bottom line take over public functions like schools, prisons, health care, etc? What is most important in those particular types of services? The profit or the people? Whenever a profit motive is introduced corruption and a lack of oversight gets introduced. At least with government we have oversight, legal recourse, etc–we have built in mechanisms for controlling them. Charter schools are a new and growing business and it’s a particular problem in Ari-loony-zona. Unfortunately, there is no proof that they actually educate our kids any better or educate them on the right things. They also play favorites. They take the cream of the crop and leave the rest, the harder to teach to the underfunded public schools. The entire set up is a national recipe for failure. If you care to read more, Kay over at Balloon Juice follows educational issues and she’s got a ton of information on this topic.
• They were fer em before they were agin em! The President has nominated former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to replace Panetta as the Secretary of the Department of Defense. Of course, if you hop into the “way back” machine and go to the mid-2000′s you’ll see that McCain and other GOP leaders thought Hagel was the bees knees. Now that the Brown Muslim Manchurian Socialist Usurper has chosen him, they don’t think he’s qualified.  They must think we’re stupid….oh, that’s right….
• Here’s some background information you need to remember when you start hearing about the “fight over the debt ceiling” in the coming months. Raising the debt ceiling does NOT authorize the President to spend more. It authorizes the President, specifically through the Treasury Department, to pay the bills on debt that CONGRESS PREVIOUSLY AND CONSCIOUSLY decided to incur. Here’s a simple metaphor. You work for a company with a board of directors. The company needs to buy some new property and buildings. The Board itself sets the limits on how much they can spend. The Board then proceeds to spend more than they were authorized. The Board now has to raise the limit on what they can spend to pay for the extra amount. But the Board is trying to blame the office secretary that pays the bills and accusing him/her of asking for unlimited spending power. If the Board refuses to raise the limit, does not pay those bills, the company’s credit will be destroyed. This company is crucial to their industry and if it collapses so will those related companies. Similarly, the President is trying to pay the bills. The US is the largest issuer of currency–money and credit. So the entire world economy depends on us and our good credit status. If we default on paying our debts, our credit goes bad. If our credit goes bad a serious of dominoes will fall and affect the world economy, very, very badly. Do you see how crazy it is to play politics with such a serious issue? Do you see how the Republicans are jeopardizing us and even the entire world by doing so? It’s madness.
• A Republican Lobbying group in Washington, D.C. is taking the term “Republican” out of their name. However, they are saying that they still “represent the governing wing of the Republican Party”. Is you or is you not a Republican? This is like naming a law that allows the federal government to spy on citizens without a warrant the “Patriot Act”. Doublespeak bullshit.
• You know how conservatives and even some moderates have been saying we need to “cut spending” and “tighten our government belt” like they did in Europe in response to the recent Recession? Well they were and are wrong. According to the International Monetary Fund:
  

  On Friday, in its first working paper of the year, it revealed the full horror of what did happen. Personally authored by the fund’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, the paper said for every dollar those nations cut their budgets their economies crumpled something more like $1.50.

  [snip]

  His defence [sic] is that in normal times they would have got it right. In normal times a budget cut of $1 would have cut economic growth by 50¢. But the times weren’t normal. European interest rates had been cut to nearly zero, meaning there wasn’t the normal room for authorities to cut further, and households were more heavily indebted than normal, so cuts to their income flowed through more quickly than normal to cuts in their spending. And the starting point was different. The European economies had been in recession, which was far from normal.

  The U.S. was one of the few nations, other than China, to actually do some Stimulus and the U.S. is in much better shape than most of Europe as a result. And the situation in the U.S. remains similar to what the conditions were in Europe at the time they decided to trod down the austerity path–low interest rates and households still heavily indebted. We have a consumer driven society. If consumers don’t have liquidity to spend on stuff the economy cannot and will not grow.  We don’t need austerity–we need investment in our national infrastructure and new, sustainable energy.

• Remember Lt. Bradley Manning, the young man who leaked classified material to WikiLeaks who then plastered it all over the Internet? Well I’ve been saying all along that his treatment during pre-trial detention was excessive and illegal. I KNOW what is acceptable and what is not, even in a military prison, and the way they treated him was unacceptable. Innocent until proven guilty, folks. Anyway, seems a judge actually agrees with me. Regardless of whether you think Manning did the right thing or not (I don’t think he did, actually) you should stand up for his rights in this particular regard. This is America dammit–we shouldn’t allow this kind of thing.
• And finally, have you heard about SHART? They are the Society of Heavily Armed Resistance Troopers….and they want a “Gun Appreciation Day”!**

_________________

Notes:   

*The C stands for a word that rhymes with “bunt”

**Hehe, the “article” purports to be from Smallwood, TX….small wood indeed

Gluttons for Punishment

I’m sure you’ve already heard by now that Maricopa County residents voted back into office Tea Party darling, Sheriff “People die in my jails” Arpaio.  And he’s speaking out of both sides of his mouth, saying he’d like to get closer to the Latino community while at the same time continuing to perform illegal round ups, detentions, and traffic stops targeting anyone who looks Hispanic.  That’s like having a bully that beats you up every day say, “I’d like to be your friend” meanwhile he is STILL beating you up every day.

We’re still waiting for the outcome of a civil rights lawsuit (one among many I believe). Still waiting for someone in law enforcement to investigate him for criminal charges regarding his involvement with persecuting political enemies with and for his friend, the debarred ex-County Attorney, Andrew Thomas.  The Feds gave up on that one.  Is there anyone else out there that gives a damn about the abuse of power in that case?  Any law officers who still have enough pride in their profession to say his behavior and his Office’s behavior was unacceptable?  Any professional organizations that provide certification to Arpaio and his officers who would consider revoking those certifications because of such known unprofessional behavior?  Anyone want to try to get back all the money ($50 million last I saw) the public has had to pay out to the family members of the people who died in his jails, the victims of civil rights abuses, the mismanaged investigations, the defense of that idiotic SB1070 law?  Anyone want to charge him for taking money from the City of El Mirage to investigate 432 serious felony cases of rape, murder, sexual assault of children and NEVER actually doing the investigations?  No?  Didn’t think so.

How could you do it Maricopa County voters?  Seriously how?  For the sake of the children who were sexually abused and killed (who were, many of them, brown)…how could you vote him back into office?  I’m thoroughly disgusted by your willful ignorance to his blatant corruption and racism.  I take some small comfort that the demographics of AZ is changing so that someday the Arpaio’s of the world won’t be rewarded time and time again.  On that day, I will be mighty pleased.

 

 

Too little, too late?

Sheriff Arpaio is in legal hot water AGAIN. This time he might actually suffer some consequences.  Too bad it didn’t happen early enough to actually have affected the election.  I’m betting that the completely brain dead people of Maricopa County will vote him back into office. They angry, racist, corrupt white men who has ignore cases of sexual assault against children.  I mean…what better kind of person to be in charge of law enforcement in your county.  Next to Satan, he’s the next best thing!

 

/yes, I am bitter

Real voting violations in the U.S.

As I’ve said and commented on many times before the incidence of voting fraud in the U.S. is so negligible that passing new voter ID laws to solve the non-problem simply isn’t worth disenfranchising millions of legitimate citizens.  However, it appears that conservatives aren’t content with just trying to prevent people from voting via the law (de jure), but that they are also willing to use intimidation to prevent them from voting or make them wish they’d never voted in reality (de facto).    Here’s a quote about some intimidation tactics by a project called True the Vote (a Tea Party project, mind you):

Although voter challenges have been used for decades by partisans seeking electoral advantage,7 a new threat emerged in 2010 when an organized and well-funded Texas-based organization with defined partisan interests, the King Street Patriots, through its project True the Vote, was observed intimidating voters at multiple polling locations serving communities of color during early voting in Harris County.8 Members of this Tea Party-affiliated group reportedly interfered with voters — allegedly watching them vote, “hovering over” voters, blocking lines, and engaging in confrontational conversations with election workers.9 Under Texas law, poll watchers are not allowed even to speak to a voter.

These activities have not been limited to Texas.

In a 2011 special election in Massachusetts, a Tea Party group was reported to have harassed Latino voters and others at the polls in Southbridge, Massachusetts. The Southbridge town clerk protested these actions, reporting that targeted voters left saying, “I’ll never vote again,” while a retired judge witnessed “citizens coming from their voting experience shaken or in tears.”10

In the June 2012 Wisconsin recall election, many students reported being challenged by True the Vote poll watchers, as the organization even mocked the students on Twitter.11 The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board issued a statement saying “in recent elections we have received disturbing reports and complaints about unacceptable, illegal behavior by observers. Voters expect a calm setting in which to exercise their right to vote.”12

I don’t know how much you know about election procedures but a Poll Watcher is technically a partisan. They are a representative of a party, a candidate or a proponent/opponent of a measure. There are very strict rules about what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In Texas, one of the examples above, they are not allowed to even speak to voters. What they are allowed to do is simply that…watch and inspect. That’s it.

There is a True the Vote project here in AZ.  I found their call for volunteer poll watchers online (I won’t post link because I despise the Tea Party, sorry, you will have to google it yourself).  They are actively recruiting people to examine the Registration Lists to find problems—they prefer to comb through precinct lists with lots of minorities (this is not speculation, it is a proven fact).  So heaven forbid you made the slightest error in spelling your street or if a secretary somewhere mistyped your address or misspelled your name.  These folks will pull your info and will try to challenge you at your polling station.  In some cases the states bowed to pressure from this group and “suspended” people’s registration–for the offense of a misspelling.

Arizona has such a lousy history of providing for minorities with language barrier issues, the Feds Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of DOJ will probably be there to monitor foreign language assistance plus the GAO to see how the state complies with those who need physical assistance or accommodation (such as  people in wheelchairs, the hearing impaired, the elderly, etc).

In AZ, there is a very brief law that says that poll watchers must be signed off on by the Party Chairperson for the party they represent ahead of time and that there can only be one Watcher/Observer per Party at a polling station UNLESS the parties agreed to more but there must be an EQUAL number for each party.  So, if you’re voting in AZ and if you see multiple Watchers for the Republican party (or the Dems or Libertarian, or any other party) and only one or none for the other parties, then they are potentially violating the law.  Bring this to the attention of any law enforcement officer present (or a poll worker if they aren’t) and give them a copy of this statute (follow link above and print).  Demand to see the Watcher/Observer’s credentials and permission to be there.  Remember there can only be one for the Republicans, one for Dems, one for Green Party, etc…..Hell take pictures if you can but be careful, this can cause belligerent people to get worse.  Don’t cause a disturbance unless you think your physical safety is in jeopardy.  Just quietly and calmly inform the people I’ve mentioned.  Then follow that up by calling the Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osbourne (602) 506-7960 to report it as well.  Make sure you make note of the polling location, the time this occurred and the number of watchers you saw.  In addition, each County determines the rules that govern poll watchers.  So, the rules are maintained by each County Recorder’s Office (all I found was a document showing slides used in a presentation).  Maricopa County calls them Poll Observers and 6 training sessions in all were given (no mention of how many people attended or from what parties).  The following is part of the PDF I linked to above but here it is again (http://recorder.maricopa.gov/voteroutreach/pdf/english/10-2008%20General%20Election%20Preview.pdf) .  Here is what these Observers are NOT allowed to do:

Rules for Poll Observers, Maricopa County, AZ

If you see any Poll Observers violating these rules, get a picture or a video of it if you can (again, be very careful with this).  Try to find out who they are supposed to represent and try to view their credentials.  Notify a Police Officer and/or a Poll Volunteer.  If Federal Observers are there, even better, tell them.  Make note of the time and the names and parties who they represent and as soon as you leave the polling station call the Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osbourne (602) 506-7960 to report it as well.  And finally, come here, and tell me!

And finally some info to help you vote.  You can find your polling place here:  http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pollingplace/pollingplace.aspx  Here’s some other tips on what you need to bring and need to know ahead of time (also from the same slides):

• All voters WILL be asked for ID.
• If the voter has ID from the list and the address doesn’t match they vote a provisional but DON’T have to come back.
• The ID does NOT have to be a photo ID—2 non-photo IDs suffice. (Here’s an FAQ regarding what ID is acceptable under what circumstances–clear as mud, right? http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pdf/ID_AT_THE_POLL_FAQS2009.pdf)
• Voter must vote in the precinct where they live in order for their vote to count
• Voters can drop off their early voter ballot at ANY polling place in the county and do NOT have to show ID
• Voters designated as an early voter in the roster (but who did not vote early and decided to go to a polling station instead) must vote a provisional ballot.

Let’s not let them bully us or anyone else.  I am going prepared with both a printed copy of the statute, what they are not supposed to do and an attitude.   The right to vote is sacred and should never be influenced by bullies.  Let’s keep it that way.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/opinion/voter-harassment-circa-2012.html?ref=opinion&_r=1

http://www.demos.org/publication/bullies-ballot-box-protecting-freedom-vote-against-wrongful-challenges-and-intimidation

http://www.texaspollworkertraining.com/resources/TXPollwatcherGuide.pdf

http://recorder.maricopa.gov/voteroutreach/pdf/english/10-2008%20General%20Election%20Preview.pdf

http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pollingplace/pollingplace.aspx

http://www.azsos.gov/election/county.htm