Russell Pearce is in full-on denial mode in the face of the latest Nathan Sproul flier linking him to Mesa neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. In Saturday's Republic, Pearce was paraphrased as saying the photo of he and Ready arm-in-arm "was one of dozens he posed for" during a June 2007 anti-immigration bash on the lawn of the state Capitol. (This ignores several other photos of them working the crowd together at the same event.) The following video is from the rally, a longer, different version from the one I've put up before. It shows Pearce applauding Ready as he outlines a plan to start "jerking people out by their collars," and using Marine divisions to close off America and mop up "gang-bangers" in the interior.
Hang in there, and very shortly you will see Pearce applauding Ready's reactionary speech, and hear J.T. calling Russ "a statesman."
Introducing Ready is Todd Hartley of the nativist Web site PHXnews.com. I challenged Hartley at the time about introducing J.T. He didn't seem to have any qualms about it back then. Wonder if he's changed his mind?
Pro-immigrant activist Dennis Gilman has done a chilling video based on the J.T. Ready-Russell Pearce connection, with some evil-sounding music from Dwar.f. Strap yourself into your seat before you watch it. It will creep you out, big time. I particularly like the snippet where someone is running beside Pearce asking him if J.T. is his friend. He says he was set up by New Times, and calls us "the great fiction." Sorry, Russ. No one stood beside you, held a Luger to your noggin and made you hang out with a neo-Nazi in June of '07. Nobody made you applaud him either.
Activist Dennis Gilman's new video on the Ready-Pearce connection.
As for Pearce's denials that he didn't know Ready was a white supremacist, he apparently doesn't pay very close attention to what goes on in the state House. In early March of '07, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema hosted a conference at the state Capitol titled, "House Democrats Seminar on the Tone of the Immigration Debate." In it, a representative of the Anti-Defamation League very publicly denounced Ready as a white supremacist and a member of NewSaxon.com (now NewSaxon.org), "an online community for whites by whites."
Rep. Sinema told me she sent invites to all the House members. Maybe Pearce didn't get his. Or maybe none of Pearce's nativist buds, many of whom were in the audience, told him about what transpired. Or maybe he didn't hear Rep. Sinema discuss the seminar on the floor of the House after the fact. Perhaps Pearce never read the articles in the East Valley Tribune about how Ready had been court-martialed twice and booted from the Marines. And when Ready has had his periodic run-ins with the law and made the paper, maybe Pearce wasn't paying attention that day.
If so, so much the shame on him...
