As I mentioned in this week’s Bird column, a group of Phoenix advocates and activists have banded together to hold a memorial service for Marcia Powell, the 48-year-old woman who died last week at Perryville Prison after being left in a human cage for at least four hours in the blazing Arizona sun…
As Elvis Costello was wont to sing (and perhaps still does), “I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.” Actually, living in this big Tent City we call Maricopa County, it’s way too difficult to be amused. So I’m resigned to being disgusted. Or I was until…
Sheriff Joe has just declared the jail lockdowns caused by massive hunger strikes ongoing in his vast incarceration complex to be over. The MCSO issued a press release on the matter, stating that, “Effective today, May 22, 2009, the Maricopa County jails that have been on indefinite lockdown [sic] will…
I was up too late the other night watching a documentary on the National Geographic Channel about Hoover and his many, many sins. And aside from Hoover’s reported penchant for getting himself up in drag, the similarities between the iconic FBI chief and our own Sheriff Arpaio are unavoidable. One in particular struck me as a…
Today the Arizona ACLU blasted Sheriff Joe Arpaio for locking down his jail facilities in response to a massive hunger strike inspired by the liquefied slop the MCSO feeds inmates on a daily basis. The civil rights organization denounced Arpaio’s confining inmates to their cells, denying them Television, telephone usage and visitations,…
It all played out like political kabuki today at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. At issue was the $1.6 million the legislature, at the behest of neo-Nazi-hugger extraordinaire and state Senator Russell Pearce, granted Sheriff Joe Arpaio to hunt Hispanics as a part of the MCSO’s spendthrift racial profiling…
Just how far can you go with a record of political mediocrity, an absence of conscience and a boatload of ambition? As ex-Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano continues to prove, very far indeed. The Homeland Security czar is reportedly one of those being considered as a replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court…
True to form, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is milking a hunger strike ongoing in his jails, locking down three of his uncertified, Amnesty International-condemned gulags today over the so-called threat of “inmate-on-inmate-violence.” Alas, the danger of “inmate-on-inmate violence” wasn’t a concern for Arpaio following the murder of inmate Robert Cotton on May 1, 2008 by a…
I’ve been so busy chasing Sand Land neo-Nazis that I haven’t had a chance to blog about this April 30 piece on the border fence by Channel 3 reporter Carey Pena. The segment would’ve been a rather pedestrian report on the 700 miles of border fencing being built because of the…
The Arizona Republic’s JJ Hensley has just reported that the hunger strike in the MCSO’s oppressive gulags, which I blogged about on May 5, and later on May 6, is continuing and involves upwards of 1,500 inmates in four of Joe’s jails. Hensley’s piece states that, “The sporadic hunger strikes began…
Employees of Phoenix New Times were greeted about 9:20 this morning by one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous female chain gangs working on the paper’s property. Specifically, the nine-inmate crew was hoeing a vacant lot on the southeast corner of 1201 E. Jefferson Street, where New Times’ offices are located. The visit comes a day after…
Gilman’s most recent effort documents the arrests and ultimate triumph of ACORN activists… Here’s a cool new video by activist Dennis Gilman regarding news I recently blogged concerning a legal victory obtained by two ACORN members last Friday in Phoenix. That’s when bogus charges of trespassing against ACORN organizers Monica Sandschafer…
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c Arizona State Snubs Obama thedailyshow.com Daily ShowFull Episodes Economic Crisis Political HumorIn case you haven’t seen this, it’s a must… Why did Arizona State University snub President Barack Obama on a worthless, honorary sheepskin that they’ve given in…
To cop a line from Scarface’s Tony Montana, every canine has its day. Every kitty cat, too. I’ve been busier than blue tick hound with a briar patch full of brer rabbits, so I didn’t get to blog about this last week when it happened, but ACORN’s doggies and kitties…
I’ve really got to wonder about these so-called “Christians” who spend all of their time hating on Mexican immigrants, legal and otherwise. I mean, did they ever go to Sunday school? Hear the parable of the good Samaritan? Read the Sermon on the Mount? Or any of the New Testament,…
I’ve discovered the true identity of the neo-Nazi who posed for a pic with Sheriff Joe Arpaio on May 2, which he then posted on Stormfront.org. His name is Thomas Vito Coletto, birth date 8/23/1989. And he has a record. Specifically, He was arrested back in 2007 and later indicted…
Following up on yesterday’s blog item about the hunger strike in Joe’s jails, I spoke with Maricopa County Board of Supervisors spokesman Richard DeUriarte this afternoon, and he confirmed that a massive hunger strike did take place yesterday in MCSO’s Durango Jail. DeUriarte said that on Cinco de Mayo, 500…
Joe brags about the $1.6 million, and threatens BOS Chairman Max Wilson Here are two YouTube videos that’ve made their way to me, covering Joe Arpaio’s recent appearance before the College Republicans at ASU West. The first was shot by someone using their cell phone camera, so the quality is…
Phoenix civil rights activist Salvador Reza and Univision Channel 33 are reporting that there is a hunger strike on in Joe’s jails, with about 500 prisoners joining in the action to protest the atrocious food served in Arpaio’s incarceration complex. Reza, who led a march of thousands on Joe’s jails…
As mentioned in a previous blog post, at Saturday’s Walk for Respect to Joe Arpaio’s Tent City, I spoke with neo-Nazis J.T. Ready and “Vito Lombardi,” both of whom were throwing up the sieg heil sign as they verbally attacked the marchers passing by on Durango Street. They told me…
Here we go again. With the announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, the buzz is that the White House wants to pick a non-judge female to become one of the nine. So of course this means some analysts with nothing but time on their mitts are suggesting that…
Zack de la Rocha at the anti-Arpaio rally Saturday in front of Tent City — footage by Dennis Gilman If you only read the coverage of Saturday’s anti-Arpaio march in Phoenix’s paper of record, and/or watched it on our local news channels, you wouldn’t know that neo-Nazis were present in…
