Who’s the bigger (media) whore: Joe Arpaio or Paris Hilton?

Christ, Joe, put your tongue back in your mouth… If you have to think about your answer to the question above, you haven’t been in Maricopa County for very long. Still even if you’re a newbie, watching dirty ol’ Joe salivating before cameras over the Paris Hilton controversy taking place…

Seymour Hersh at the IRE Conference in Phoenix

Sly Sy, raggin’ on Neocons, editors, and the Iraq War. Nothing’s more boring than a conference room full of “serious” journalists. Unless Seymour Hersh is in it. The legendary investigative reporter, who nabbed a Pulitzer back in 1970 for exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and who’s still breaking…

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, June 7, 2007

THE SHAME GAME “Crybaby” presiding judge: I am an attorney who has practiced in this state for more than 30 years. I was one of the attorneys who spoke to the Phoenix City Council just before it fired Municipal Court Judge Mike Carroll and asked them not to do such…

Bird Boycott

The Bird, a racist? That’s the accusation leveled by a cowardly campaign of avian-haters, featuring form letters denouncing this funky feathered fiend being sent to some New Times advertisers. The malignant missives are addressed “Dear Business Owner” and sound like some nasty little chain-mail scheme from back in the day…

Paso Doble Standard

I was sitting around with my daughter and her Mexican husband the other day talking about her past. Jokingly, I mentioned that when she was a teenager (30 years ago), lots of boys came by the house to see her. Her husband flew into a rage and said that Mexicans…

It’s a Wrap

On Monday, March 19, Arizona Republic subscribers across the Valley picked their newspapers up off the driveway, slid off the protective plastic bag, and then, surely, started shaking the paper — looking for its missing sections. There was no Valley & State. No Business section. As a reader in Peoria…

Useful Idiots

How does Sheriff Joe Arpaio get away — metaphorically speaking — with murder? With the assistance of useful idiots in the Fourth Estate, as this P.O.d parakeet has witnessed time and time again. Whether he’s deputizing Spider-Man, throwing some imbecilic Inmate Idle competition or making the asinine suggestion that Paris…

Injustice System

This month, Phoenix Municipal Court Judge Karyn Klausner did something that no one in her position had done for decades. She quit. Didn’t retire. Didn’t get pushed out by the city council, and didn’t leave for an appointment to another court. Nope, Klausner just decided to walk. And with that…

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, May 31, 2007

PAIN AND PLEASURE Pauls perk: I’m sure your Mistress Seven article gave every male reader a boner (“Belle of the Ball Gag,” Paul Rubin, May 17) but what place does it have in the excellent, hard-hitting New Times newspaper? After the fare Paul Rubin has provided over the years, I’m…

Immi-GREAT!

Has the 1965 Immigration Act proved to be a good thing or bad thing for America, and has the recent unprecedented flood of immigrants (both legal and illegal) been an overall good thing or bad thing for America? Please fully explain your answer and include economical, cultural, and quality-of-life issues…

What Happened in Vegas…

In April 2005, local entrepreneur Robert J. Maynard Jr. was beyond broke. At 43, with an ex-wife and two kids, he told the government in his bankruptcy filing that he had $20 in his pocket and $15 in the bank. He was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Maynard,…

Old Spice Covers Dick Cheese

Smokin’ cheddar: The amazing Dick Cheese with his band, sans Old Spice… Can you smell it, people — the magical aroma of Dick Cheese with Old Spice? Whether loving homage or (more likely) blatant rip-off, the new Old Spice commercial featuring Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell crooning a lounge-y version…

G-man Jackoff: FBI Agent caught with pants down at UofA

J. Edgar Hoover must be rollin’ over in his bloomers: One of his FBI agents, a hardened criminal? That’s the tale told by campus cops at Tucson’s University of Arizona, where Agent Ryan Seese was arrested May 3, shortly after a cleaning lady observed him whackin’ off in the women’s…