To cop a line from that Don McLean song, somewhere Satan is laughing in delight. And Zona Republicans are laughing right along with him. This, at the news that Arizona state Democratic Party Chair Paul Eckerstrom has resigned his post after scoring an upset victory against former state party chair…
Literally, it’s the most inane piece of twaddle I’ve read since the days when erstwhile pop star Jewel penned poetry. I’m talkin’ about O.J. Simpson-expert and CNN talking head Jeffrey Toobin’s suggestion in a post for The New Yorker online that ex-Arizona guv and DHS honch-ess Janet Napolitano would be…
The Gray Lady of Journalism boldly ventures where Arizona’s paper of record shudders to tread. Today the New York Times, in a scathing editorial, slammed Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s medieval 200 Mexican March on Wednesday, and demanded that Homeland Security czar Janet Napolitano, and her boss President Barack Obama, do something…
KTAR’s reporting that Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas called Arpaio’s jail segregation of undocumented Hispanics “unconstitutional” in a press conference today. Apparently, Thomas cleared the statement with the “male” in the Arpaio-Thomas relationship, and there are no hard feelings between the two.”I have taken the consistent position that racial and…
Ever since Janet Napolitano’s nomination to be director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, some liberals and immigrant rights activists have held out hope that Napolitano would rein in the excesses of the department’s 287(g) program and its worksite enforcement raids. The New York Times trumpeted her as “the…
DEAD DIAPER BLUES This funky finch could hardly believe his feathered ears. On the other end of the horn was New Times reader Rose Hartman, a neighbor of none other than William Windsor, Phoenix’s own beloved “Baby Man,” whom New Times profiled in a 2005 cover story of the same…
We live in two Americas: Joe Arpaio’s medieval Maricopa County, where barbarism reigns, and our corrupt top cop parades hundreds of Hispanics through the streets in chains, like captives taken in some feudal conflict from faded memory. And then there’s Barack Obama’s America, one of enlightenment, and the rule of…
You might say he’s gone to that Big Crib in the Sky. William Windsor, better known to Phoenicians as “Baby Man,” has sucked his last pacifier. According to Phoenix police, Windsor — a former country-western singer, Broadway actor, heir to the Popular Mechanics fortune, and full-time adult baby/diaper lover –…
It was a beautiful celebration of the 6th Anniversary of the Macehualli Work Center in North Phoenix, with music, carne asada, Native American dancing and rituals, and children playing in the confines of the open-air facility, a facility dedicated to giving day-laborers a place to congregate and wait for job…
Governor Jan Brewer’s office has announced an interim replacement for Arizona Department of Correction’s chief Dora Schriro, naming corrections veteran Charles Ryan to the post of Interim Director and appointing Charles Flanagan as Ryan’s Interim Deputy. You can read the full press release below this blog post. As you may…
Has anyone informed the graying fuddy-duddies at the Arizona Republic that its shoulder-padded goddess Janet Napolitano is no longer Guv? The Republic’s fawning, faceless editorial writers continue to kiss her broad tuchis in absentia by slavishly adhering to the party line on such Nappy fiats as her Orwellian photo enforcement…
Has Sheriff Joe’s well-oiled media machine finally blown up in his aged face? Will Lisa Allen have to revert to grooming dogs full instead of part time, and leave Arpaio’s upkeep to another PR handler? Below is the latest press release from the MCSO, backing off the Sheriff’s ludicrous “Con…
So I had a load of photos left over from last week’s two state party reorganization meetings, and I figured you might want view these as added illustrations for this week’s Bird column. Think of it as porn for political junkies, though thankfully everyone has their clothes on. Reminds me…
ALIEN OBSESSION One of the weirdest moments of the recent Arizona Republican Party reorganization meeting came when a little old lady rose to address her fellow GOPers from a mic on the floor of the Camelback High School auditorium. On the agenda was a resolution on school vouchers, an issue…
Sadly, I wasn’t able to make Anna Gaines’ arraignment today down at the Arcadia Biltmore Justice Court before Judge Steve Sarkis. But a clerk for the judge told me that the little Hobbit lady known far and wide as the “anti-Hispanic Hispanic” for her activities with the Valley’s nativist population,…
As you may have read elsewhere, Arizona Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro has announced her resignation, and by the end of the week will have vacated her offices to follow ex-Governor Janet Napolitano to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yet, what exactly she’ll be doing there remains a…
Do you need another reminder that you live in a police state controlled by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his brown-shirted goons? If so, just take a trip on the Valley Metro Light Rail, which our clownish top constable says he’ll be using to transport inmates downtown, assuming this is not…
There are very few film critics I can read without getting at least mildly peeved at their gasbaggery. But the critics’ pool on the geek-fan site RottenTomatoes.com really ticks me off, particularly in regards to the Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious, which I caught over the weekend.If you’re a fan of…
A dental student’s worst nightmare. That’s what you can expect come August in Glendale as a snaggle-toothed horde of trailer park refugees descends on the Jobing.com Arena for Freedom Concert ’09, a benefit show sponsored by Fox News wing-nut poster boy Sean Hannity and Phoenix’s official Republiloon radio station KFYI…
Today saw a stunning political upset of an incumbent state party chair. And no it wasn’t AZ GOP Chairman Randy Pullen, who handily defeated rival Lisa James, 521 to 474 at the Republican reorganization meeting that took place at Camelback High School. Rather, the revolution occurred in the tony ballroom…
You may recall the Bird item I did a few weeks back that involved a process server who dressed up like a UPS delivery guy to serve a Redflex ticket. The situation brought to mind Seth Rogen’s stoner/process-server character in the film Pineapple Express who dons all kinds of disguises…
Wonder if Ankarlo’s new “speed camera mask” matches his ‘tarded helmet?Look, life is short. Too short to pay any more attention than necessary to wing-nut saliva jockey Darrell Ankkkarlo on KTAR 92.3 FM, winner of this year’s Best of Phoenix “Best Bigot” award. This wannabe Archie Bunker gets off on…
