As I’ve pointed out in my cover story this week on Phoenix Law Enforcement Association president Mark Spencer and his sleazy ways, PLEA swallowed the Phoenix Police Department’s controversial kidnapping stats whole hog at one time. Long before they used them to bash ex-Police Chief Jack Harris as corrupt.Now like…
Nobody would accuse Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, of having a commanding presence. Pudgy and bespectacled, with spiked hair and a voice described by one of his allies as akin to Porky Pig’s, sans stutter, he hardly looks or sounds like a cop. His frumpy garb…
BULLY BEAT-DOWN I hate bullies, and I hate dumb rednecks, and I particularly despise redneck bullies who go on to become cops. So I think you can guess what I think about Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Joe Sousa, a vein-popping hick from Rhode Island, infamous for telling elected politicians…
Courtesy of the Three Sonorans, the revolution is YouTube-izedHow often have you seen students protest and commit acts of civil disobedience because they want to study something?While their peers in the rest of the country may be looking to cut class, Tucson’s students are battling to maintain ethnic studies in…
A couple of weeks back, I blogged about how Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s spokesman Tim Gaffney had apparently borrowed some stills of desert barricades taken by National Socialist Movement member Harry Hughes, otherwise known as the world’s “nicest neo-Nazi.” Or so I’ve dubbed him.Well, hell hath no fury like…
The Obama administration on blast and the 1070 boycott rolls on, one year laterBehold this first ever video collaboration between Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman and New Times, documenting Saturday’s anti-Senate Bill 1070 march to the Arizona state Capitol.In the above video, Gilman captures some great footage of angry nativists, pro-immigrant…
Around a year ago, just days after Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law and made Arizona synonymous with nativism and bigotry, Arizona Congressmen Ed Pastor and Raul Grijalva, both Democrats, spoke before an anti-1070 rally of thousands, exhorting the crowd to fight against the hate 1070 represents.Pro-immigrant…
Well, it wasn’t too difficult to find out where pro-Hitler propagandist and Holocaust-denier David Irving was having his coffee klatch of kooks, the one I informed you about in a blog post yesterday. By Thursday afternoon, several folks were calling me with the information that he’d be holding court with…
It’s been a couple of years since disgraced historian and Holocaust-denier David Irving hit town. You may recall the ruckus raised by anti-fascist protesters at Jerry’s Restaurant in Phoenix in 2009, where Irving spoke before a small crowd of neo-Nazis and assorted kooks.The manager at Jerry’s recently informed me that…
This Saturday, April 23 marks the one-year anniversary of Governor Jan Brewer signing Senate Bill 1070 into law. And though there have been a few encouraging cracks in the racist facade of late, the oppression, the raids, and separation of families continues.That’s why it’s important to support the Puente Movement-organized march…
GANG OF THIEVES Just how dumb does Sheriff Joe Arpaio think the voters of Maricopa County are? Granted, he’s counted on the majority of them being so enraptured with his cult of personality, Tent City, the pink underwear, the tank, and more recently, his Hispanic-hunting escapades, that they’ve re-elected him…
>p>Who let this gum-smacking, white trash witch out of her cage?Oh, do I have a treat for you. Here’s a new video from Phoenix activist and radio show host Carlos Galindo of him taking on racist Republican state Senator Lori Klein. In the video, Klein basically admits to telling an…
When I first heard that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service were raiding 15 Chuy’s restaurants in Arizona and California, my first thought was that this operation sounded suspiciously like a Sheriff Joe Arpaio-style raid against Pei Wei, Sizzler, McDonalds, et al. In fact, I’m stone-cold certain…
When I read the recent Salon.com article “How a boycott meant to save Arizona is hurting it,” I wondered to myself how its author, a woman by the name of Drew Grant, ended up writing such an insipid, one-sided piece about the Sound Strike, a piece that’s essentially a Q…
Chalk up another embarrassing defeat for state Senate President Russell Pearce and his fellow Republinuts on three bills they desperately wanted: the birther bill, the guns on campus wackiness, and a bill allowing for an anti-health care reform compact among the states.Governor Jan Brewer has just vetoed all three measures…
Saint Joseph is traditionally the patron saint of workers and immigrants. The latter is because the father of Jesus was forced to flee to Egypt to save the Christ child from Herod the Great’s wrath. Once King Herod was dead, Joseph moved his family back to Israel, settling in Nazareth.There…
VotoLatino is sponsoring a talk with Javier Gonzalez of Sound Strike on Twitter today at 4 p.m. Pacific TimeThere continues to be a lot of kvetching from the local music “scene” here in Sand Land about Sound Strike, the ongoing boycott of Arizona by numerous acts over Senate Bill 1070.But…
Gilman’s latest: Beyond 1070: The Tea Party’s War on ChildrenI’m sure glad I’m on local, lefty videographer Dennis Gilman’s good side. Otherwise, he might skewer me in a video like the one above, where Attorney General Tom Horne, state Senator Lori Klein, state Senate President Russell Pearce, Governor Jan Brewer and…
ARROGANCE UNDER SIEGE State Senate President Russell Pearce dwells in a bubble the size of the Biosphere, one insulated by his own arrogance, pride, and self-delusion. What was Pearce’s response to the recent decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a lower court’s injunction of the most…
Renowned commercial trial attorney Daryl M. Williams has no problem telling you exactly where he stands on the subject of illegal immigration and how it intersects with his faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the summation of his recent hour-long lecture on the topic before a…
Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne have issued a joint press release denouncing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2-1 decision today upholding District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton’s injunction of four key parts of Arizona’s “breathing-while-brown-law,” Senate Bill 1070.You can read the entire release, here. However,…
State Senate President Russell Pearce, Governor Jan Brewer, and the forces of nativism here in Arizona and nationwide have suffered a crushing blow. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has today upheld District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton’s injunction of the most egregious parts of Senate Bill 1070.You’ll recall that…
