Short Attention Span Musing

...Has the entire MCSO gone rogue? Just a couple of weeks ago, they arrested two journalists from the New Times for publishing less-than-flattering stories about Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas. Now they're arresting civil rights/liberties lawyers.

From AZCentral.com -

The legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona on Sunday said his arrest by Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies at a weekend protest was unwarranted and occurred only after he identified himself as a high-ranking officer with the organization.

Daniel Pochoda showed up at a Saturday demonstration in front of Pruitt's furniture store in east Phoenix to observe interaction between protesters and law enforcement officers, he said. He was there at the request of organizer and activist Salvador Reza, who said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio uses the deputies to intimidate demonstrators.

Wonder if there is any overlap between the list of deputies involved in the New Times arrests and those involved in the arrest of Mr. Pochuda?


...Continuing on the same issue (the arrest at the immigrant protest),Arpaio had a couple of lines in the last week that very effectively sum up the real priorities of our not-so-esteemed sheriff (emphasis mine) -

From the AZRep -

...but Pochoda refused, said Arpaio, who wasn't at the furniture store during the arrest, but appeared there later to respond to media questions.

From the the Rep's Plugged In piece about some Arpaio protesters at a meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors -

Arpaio sat in the front row, fidgeting and screwing up his face.

"They're calling me a racist, they're calling me a Nazi," he later said, holding court for the media. "I don't understand what's happening with the activists out there, they're getting nasty. I'm not going to be intimidated."

Cameras and microphones - apparently, those are more important to him than the Constitution and our civil rights.

BTW - The guy who arrests journalists and civil rights attorneys and who regularly demonizes immigrants, is calling someone else "nasty"???

Pot, meet kettle...


...This weekend, the AZRep ran an article on AZ's political blogosphere. It wasn't a great article, but it wasn't too bad, either.

The biggest weakness of the article was its focus on the 'insider' nature of some blogs while minimizing the 'outsider' heart of most real blogs (lefty or righty).

From the article -

They're snarky, biased, bulldoggish, funny, harsh and sometimes, hard to ignore.

Arizona's political blogs are growing in number and significance, helping to transform the way insiders relate to the news and to each other.

One thing that I can't argue with is its selection of Espresso Pundit, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, and Sonoran Alliance as the three of the preeminent political blogs in the state. (OK, I think Sonoran Alliance is a little *too* insider, frequently simply parroting AZGOP talking points. Still, it is pretty well written.)

I would have included Eli Blake's Deep Thought in the list of notable liberal blogs; he's the best pure writer in the AZ blogosphere. Michael Bryan of Blog for Arizona is really good, too. However, he's a lawyer, and a lawyer never says in a sentence that which can he can say in a page. :)))


...Jon Kyl's latest column/press release/diatribe against Democrats includes a great line -

The 2008 fiscal year began October 1, and yet, Congress has not sent a single appropriations bill to the President. Congress hasn’t been this late in two decades.

I guess that he thinks that "late" counts as worse than "not doing the job at all," since he says nothing at all about how the Republican-controlled Congress failed to even pass a budget, leaving it to the incoming Democratic majority to cobble together some continuing resolutions to fund the federal government this year.


...Tomorrow, the House is expected to vote on the most important piece of legislation of the entire session, HRes782.

Call your Congressman or woman and urge them, in the strongest possible terms, to support it.

Oh, what does HRes782 do?

It expresses "the sense of the House with respect to the Boston Red Sox victory in the 2007 Major League Baseball World Series."

:)))


...Anyway, tonight I picked up a copy of Molly Ivins' last book, "Bill of Wrongs - The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights" and have some reading to do.

Later!