Russell Pearce supporter and alleged public urinator Buffalo Rick Galeener.
They say you judge a man by the company he keeps. If so, wannabe state Senator Russell Pearce gets no high marks for the gutter trash he associates with -- neo-Nazi and Pearce pal J.T. Ready being a prime example. Additionally, on Pearce's campaign Web site, he lists 9/11 nutbar Karen Johnson as endorsing him. Republican wild man and anti-gay crusader state Sen. Jack Harper is similarly noted. Delusional Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox is on the site as a "committee chair."
Alleged public urinator Buffalo Rick Galeener is mentioned in a list of supporters on the Pearce site (more on him in a sec), and wing-nutty Hobbit lady Anna Gaines, who was recently arrested for trespassing at the Borders Books on Camelback Road, is also trumpeted as a sponsor of Pearce's candidacy.
Ex-KIA peddler and nativist nitwit Rusty Childress is oddly absent from the roll call, but Childress donated dolo to Pearce's failed exploratory committee for Congress, so a spot on Pearce's Web site might seem gratuitous. Childress recently posted an appeal from Pearce asking people to join in a campaign walk Saturday morning beginning at Country Club and Brown Road in Mesa. The posting was made on the forum for Childress' United for a Sovereign America, the most venomous anti-immigration hate group in the Valley.
Here's what the appeal had to say:
Dear friends and family, I am still looking for help to walk for a couple of hours this coming Saturday. It would be great to have a big turnout. Bring friends and family. I need to know approximately how many, so if you would let me know who or how many might be coming. Thanks. (The attacks are going to continue to try and remove me and undo all that we have accomplished in Arizona, this is big money, Profits over Patriotism crowd coming after me. The spend [sic] and say what ever they have to in order to remove me. We are the National leader and 35 states are writing legislating modeled after ours. [sic] We are having a national impact like no other state. This assault on American to defend illegal hiring that hurts America and Americans must stop.) I do not apologize for demanding our laws be enforced.
Sure he wants all the laws enforced, save for those domestic violence laws, right Russ?
Childress' organization has welcomed neo-Nazis into its ranks, and includes various, unsavory individuals, many of whom spend their free time harassing folks up at the Macehualli Work Center near Bell Road and 25th Street. Normally these know-nothing knuckledraggers are strapped with sidearms, and they parade around with racist signs. This is Pearce's real constituency -- the redneck rabble. No surprise that he's asking for their assistance here.
Regarding Buffalo Rick Galeener, with whom regular readers of this blog are familiar, he had another court date today in the matter of his alleged public urination back in March of this year in front of a Hispanic lady and her two-year-old child. According to spokesperson Vicki Hill at the Phoenix City Prosecutor's office, Galeener's lawyer filed yet another motion to continue, and the court gave him until August 29 to make his formal request to interview the victim Paulita Cortes. The city has to give their response to his motion by September 9, the defense can answer the city's response by September 15. And there will be yet another pretrial hearing on September 26.
All this for a class 1 misdemeanor for which Galeener would likely only garner a fine of a couple of hundred dollars. (Though the maximum penalty could hypothetically be $2,500 and/or 6 months in jail.) Certainly, Galeener and his lawyer would like to impugn the victim's credibility, and that might be behind the request to interview Cortes. Some of Galeener's fellow nativists have referred to her as an illegal alien, perhaps because she does not speak English. However, Cortes is a naturalized U.S. citizen. So the nativists have struck out on that count.
Also, Cortes' right to refuse an interview or deposition is enshrined in the Arizona State Constitution's "Victim's Bill of Rights." Therefore, it is highly unlikely Galeener's lawyer will be successful in his attempt to interview Cortes before Buffalo's trial.
Galeener often laments his own poverty, which makes his expensive retainer of a local lawyer curious. He has complained of pennilessness in recent e-mails to his pals in United for a Sovereign America, where he essentially serves as Childress' aide-de-camp. Buffalo also kvetched of his lack of funds and other troubles in this document, bitching that,
I have used up what little savings I have and will be totally at the mercy of the welfare system. I'm not proud of that fact! The welfare system here in AZ. has basically told me, they could only help me, if I sell my house and vehicles, and become homeless! Hell, illegal aliens get a better deal!
Way to pick a scapegoat, Buffalo. Galeener also provides a little too much info in the doc, as you can see here:
Not only was I left with the leg problem, but also prior to the first radiation treatments, I was asked if I had all the kids I wanted? When I asked, "Why? I don’t have any yet, would this affect it? I was told "You probably won’t, after this! They were right! I have not even been able to perform successfully since.
I have been on pain medication trying to get some relief, for the last five years! It gets no better! It has only gotten worse! In addition, my mental state has been taking a beating. I can no longer perform as a "Wild West" entertainer, as a lover can to my wife, or as a provider for a family. That really takes a toll on an old cowboy!
Ick, and double-ick. I'd feel sorry for the old coot if he didn't spend so much of his time being an a-hole to others because they disagree with him or because their skin isn't the color of Wonder Bread. The fact Pearce is proud to have this bitchy bigot as a supporter says a lot about the Mesa GOPer. After all, what do Pearce and Galeener have in common? Their lack of class, their meatheadedness, and their intense hatred for those with brown skin.