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…
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…
Jabba the Hendershott, shortly after devouring Honduras.Will we ever find out for certain what Joe Arpaio’s Chief Deputy David Hendershott and his MCSO flunkies were doing down in Honduras in 2007 and 2008 training that country’s police force? And will there be any consequences for that boondoggle? If you’ll recall,…
Does he always look like he needs a Pepcid?Talk about your coinkydinks.I just get finished writing a lil’ ditty about Barack Obama, FOIAs, and how MCSO flacks have a history of dragging their jackboots complying with Arizona Public Records Law, and suddenly, like magic in my in-box, I get a…
B-Rock, friend to FOIA and the First Amendment, able to leap tall buildings, and hopefully one day soon will be kickin’ Arpaio’s ass.I was in a special kind of hell this morning, in a waiting room at a garage, biding my time as my car got worked on. But at…
Fresh and forward looking Lisa James (top), or whithered old nativist prune-face Randy Pullen? AZ GOPers will soon get to decide… I’ll say one thing for Arizona Republicans, when they want someone gone, they get their long knives sharpened and start digging holes in the desert, Mafia style. Sheesh,…
The nativists can howl at the moon in victory. As of today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of Ciria Lopez-Pacheco, the mother torn from her children January 9 by a ski-masked MCSO deputy as part of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s latest anti-immigrant sweep. ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard confirmed this for me…
So far, this is still our fave way to fight Redflex’s robotic photo enforcement sentinels. Aussie photo enforcement firm Redflex is crowing like a stud rooster today, issuing a press release from Redflex flack Shoba Vaitheeswaran, announcing that its Scottsdale-based rival, American Traffic Solutions, has voluntary withdrawn its administrative challenge…
Already, Lopez-Pacheco looks a few pounds lighter than in this January 9, MCSO mugshot.Ciria Lopez-Pacheco looks longingly at children in the Estrella Jail visitation room who have been brought in to see their mothers. The activist I’m with, Lydia Guzman of the human rights organization Respect/Respeto, speaks Spanish to Lopez-Pacheco,…
