Daily Archives: 22. September 2011

America’s Most Corrupt Sheriff?

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Unless you’re an intelligent, non-Teapublican living in Arizona, you probably know Joe Arpaio as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.”

You’ve likely heard of the way he treats prisoners at his “Tent City” in the desert by forcing them to wear pink underwear and eat baloney sandwiches for every meal. You may have heard of his regular “sweeps” for illegal immigrants. You may have heard of his celebrity “posses.” And you may have heard of his political connections to the Teapublican elite, such as Senator John McCain, half-governor Sarah Palin, Governor Jan Brewer, AZ State Senator-under-recall Russell Pearce, and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

But you probably haven’t heard that he’s under federal investigation for civil rights violations. You probably don’t know that he misspent $100 million of Maricopa County funds. You probably haven’t heard of the county’s investigation resulting in the firing of his top henchmen.

Unless you live in Arizona, you probably haven’t heard allegations that he and his buddy, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, trumped up investigations and charges against Arpaio’s political enemies. And you probably haven’t heard that he and his “deputy” Steven Seagal are being sued for shooting an innocent family’s dog during a botched raid looking for suspected illegal immigrants.

For any other elected official, even one of these issues would result in dismissal from office, if not a trip to “Tent City.” But given the massive numbers of wingnut voters in Arizona, Arpaio seems untouchable. Indeed, he’s actually considering a run for the US Senate.

Now he’s even opened an investigation with his “Cold Case” Posse to check the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate! And the Teapublican presidential wannabes are trekking to Phoenix to kiss Arpaio’s…er..ring.

With thugs like Sheriff Joe in their camp, how can anyone take the Teapublicans seriously?

Teapublican Lie #11.

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“Obama is anti-business.”

Since Obama was elected president, the stock markets are up more than 31 percent and profits for large corporations are at all time highs.

That’s anti-business?

When CNBC’s Jim Cramer was interviewed on Hardball with Chris Matthews, he said he couldn’t understand why big corporations hate Obama. He said he asked corporations what they dislike. They mentioned taxes and regulations, but taxes under Obama are the same as they were when Bush was in office. And they couldn’t name a single regulation they want changed.

“There’s never been a better guy in Treasury than Tim Geithner,” Cramer said. “I really don’t understand why they don’t like Obama. They just don’t.”

Cramer may not know. But I think I can tell you why big corporations don’t like Obama. He hasn’t sold out to them like Teapublicans have. And like most Democrats, he still represents working people and the middle class.