Aurora (Matutina): "The Pinkish-Golden Glow that precedes immediately the raising of the Sun"
"Charity is commendable, everyone should be charitable. But Justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don't go hungry, unschooled or sick without care. Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth, justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table; faith-based justice offers a place at the table" ~Bill Moyers
Last week we were shocked and angered at the viciously un-American Ad aimed at Latinos/Hispanics asking us NOT TO VOTE.
The now extreme Republican Party, with it's army of right Wing Extremists, are fully engaged in a-not-much-discussed campaign to suppress, by any means necessary, the Latino/Hispanic Vote in the upcoming election.
Earlier today, I received and email from AmericanVoiceOnline.org, alerting us to an email sent by AZ's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio addressed to all of his followers, creating and disseminating an image of a 'fraud bogeyman' and inciting to organize against Latino/Hispanic Voters, by once again, targeting this much maligned and abused Community, as the villains in this elections, hence creating a climate of mistrust, antagonism and anger for Brown people, thus making it justifiable and acceptable for his "Army", to harass and intimidate them around the voting polls.
This is the text of his message
"STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd."
From American Voice Online.Bogus accusations of "illegal voters" crop up every election, and every election they are proven false. What's truly frightening is that, this year, Arpaio is recruiting an "army" to block people from voting in the name of "fraud prevention."
As would be expected, Fox News is again at the Vanguard on yet another dirty campaign to suppress the vote a minority by having as guests Right Wing Operatives to push this campaign, one of them is Ultra Right Wing Blogger, Michelle Malkin, whose participation in this propaganda channel can be seen in this video, where she declares "'We Are All Voter Fraud Police Now'":
Least be left unsaid, The Latino/Hispanic voters need to be prepared for the MOST LIKELY EVENTUALITY that their eligibility will be challenged, we need to be civil but strong on the conviction that we have the right to vote, if there is harassment or intimidation, it needs to be reported to the Election Officials present.
A photo from the anti-Arpaio protest at Wells Fargo last week. See more from pics of the demo by photographer Bill Carpenter, here.
The clang and ring of the trolley in this video informs you that you're not in Sand Land any more. Indeed, the setting for this demonstration documented by videographer, photographer and activist Bill Carpenter is enlightened and tres lefty San Francisco, specifically, the steps of Wells Fargo's national headquarters in the city. On September 18, protesters rallied there in support of the effort to oust Sheriff Joe Arpaio from the Wells Fargo bank building in downtown Phoenix, where protests have been happening every weekday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. since the beginning of the month.
Bill Carpenter's video of last week's demo at Wells Fargo HQ in San Fran.
This San Francisco demo was organized in sympathy with Arizona activist Sal Reza of PUENTE and members of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, who are carrying out the Phoenix action. It is the second protest in solidarity with PUENTE's protest. The first took place on September 10 at a Wells Fargo in Chicago.
More are coming. Last week, forty young organizers joined Reza at the Wells Fargo bank building at 100 W. Washington Street, the site of Sheriff Joe's "Pentagon," where the sheriff's office keeps two floors of executive offices at a price tag of well over $600K per annum, paid for by county taxpayers. Those 40 organizers were from 40 different cities. This week, they fan out across the country to their hometowns to organize similar actions.
The first to speak at the San Francisco demo was lawyer/organizer Renee Saucedo of La Raza Centro Legal, which provides legal and other services to over 12,000 citizens of the greater Bay Area.
"What is our demand?" asked Saucedo. "It's very simple: We want Wells Fargo to stop leasing space to this racist Sheriff Arpaio and stop benefiting and profiting from his racist law enforcement tactics."
Gerald Lenoir of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration also took to the bullhorn with some tough words for Maricopa County's corrupt top constable, whom Lenoir called "the Bull Connor of our age," referring to the infamous, racist head of the police in Birmingham, Alabama during the '60s.
"Sheriff Arpaio has the nerve to call immigrants who come here undocumented illegal," said Lenoir. "We say his tactics of racial profiling...[are] illegal. And he is the one that is breaking the law."
As these new protests blossom in cities and towns across America, it's certain to bring more unwelcome press for Wells Fargo. Bankers don't like losing one red cent in deposits, and Sal Reza has threatened that the next step will be divestment. That is, asking people to stop banking with Wells Fargo altogether. If Reza can get this thing to go national, it raises the stakes and the pressure for the bank, which undoubtedly does not want to lose any business in these harsh economic times.
For more on the politics behind the protests, check out the item "Fortress Arpaio," from my Bird column of September 11. Additional coverage is listed below.
Join the Derechos Humanos campaign to end hate radio here in Tucson, Arizona!
In the few days since beginning this campaign, many have stepped up to join this struggle, and we know that Journal Broadcast Group, which owns 104.1 FM, is paying attention!
We have updated the list of sponsors to 104.1 FMM -specifically those who have ads featured on the Jon Justice show. We invite you to contact these businesses to let them know that you are concerned about their support of hate radio, and encourage them to promote their businesses with media outlets that stand behind the principles of dignity and respect.
So far, the following previously listed sponsors have informed us of their intention to immediately withdraw their support of 104.1 FM:
* Main Gate Square
* Patio Pools & Spa
* The Auto Body Shop
* Advanced Recon
* Aung Foot HealthClinics
* Sol Cars
* The Wildcat House
Many businesses were not aware that their "package" deal with Journal Broadcasting Group meant advertising on 104.1 FM, and most were not aware of what they were supporting, and would not choose to support intolerance.
The following companies have expressed concern about this issue, and have assured us that they will be looking into the matter immediately:
* Allstate Insurance
* State Farm Insurance
* Maloney's Tavern
* Axiom Drafting and Design
Thus far, 104.1 FM has removed the listing of their sponsors from their website, and the YouTube Webisodes of the Jon Justice show were removed, particularly the offensive one that some of the sample letters below refer to.
We invite you to judge the content for yourself, but we find them to be sexist, racist, and offensive to the spirit and diversity that is Tucson.
Join us in this effort to rid the Tucson community of the intolerance and xenophobia that is promoted on 104.1 FM! Please contact businesses listed as supporters of 104.1 FM and encourage them to withdraw their support of hate radio. Samples letters are provided help you draft your letters to sponsors.
Journal Broadcast Group also owns the following media stations. We are considering taking this issue to the sponsors of these outlets next, so feel free to let express your concern to them as well, particularly if you are a current sponsor or patron.
Video of the Tucson protest of Arpaio, from Jon Justice's 1041TheTruth, showing a Sheriff Joe piñata being beaten and Isabel Garcia scooping up its head.
Like you need more proof that times are way-way-slow down in the "Old Pueblo," Tucson radio wing nut "Jon Justice" is hunting the head of local pro-immigrant firebrand Isabel Garcia after Garcia toted the decapitated noggin of a Sheriff Joe Arpaio piñata at an anti-Joe protest.
Seems Nickel Bag Joe was down in Tucson recently for yet another book signing for his prevarication-friendly work of fiction Joe's Law. You know, the one where he claims to have been behind the crippling of the French Connection drug ring, and where he maintains that the Mexican mafia, the Minutemen and immigrant rights activist Elias Bermudez are conspiring against his life. Anyway, Joe was at a Tucson Barnes and Noble to pimp the tome, and there was a lawful protest at the B&N that included scores of demonstrators, and featured, at one point, a Sheriff Joe piñata that two teens beat to a pulp.
Um, like, so what? After all, Phoenicians may recall, if they strain really hard, that the local activist group PUEBLO caught a little heck from the media on Cinco de Mayo, when their inaugural shindig included several Sheriff Joe piñatas that were creamed by party-goers until Joe's candied innards rained from the sky like stripper dollars. PUEBLO was pilloried for the day, unfairly from my point of view, but even Joe didn't make that big of a stink over the matter. He got his mug on the telly that eve, and it wasn't even a media event his highly-paid army of PR flacks had orchestrated. Christ, the old fart was practically giddy
Less than 48 hours later, the PUEBLO piñatas were forgotten, like last month's celebrity meltdown. And why shouldn't they be? We're just talking about some papier-mâché dolls stuffed with Tootsie Rolls and affixed with Joe's dyspeptic mug. Plus, whacking political piñatas ain't nothing new, much less eyebrow-raising, unless you're a complete ass-backwards moron with the cultural I.Q. of a Lincoln Log. Down in Latin America, it’s practically de rigueur for a pol to get bopped in this fashion, but you don’t have to go so far afield. Just check out piñatas.com, where you can find piñatas to abuse of all political stripes – whether it’s Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney or Fidel Castro.
But it seems some rubes in Arizona's Second City think Joe Arpaio should belong to a protected class. Meat-headed lip-flapper Jon Justice, who spews loony venom for Tucson news talk station 104.1 FM "The Truth" (yeah, right), has organized a campaign to get Isabel Garcia fired from her post as the Pima County Legal Defender, because she was present when the piñata-smacking went down, and afterward lifted up the severed toy head and carried it forth through the crowd of protesters. He also wants her disbarred, and because Garcia has long been a lightning rod for nativist hate groups, he’s motivated other drooling imbeciles to call Garcia’s boss at the county and complain.
Interestingly, Jon Just-An-Ass recently added a full-size Garcia piñata to his shtick, and fondled it for a YouTube video, thereby removing all doubt as to his status as a blithering idiot. I guess if we were to take seriously his claim that Garcia threatened Joe with violence by picking up the piñata head, we'd have to assume, by the same wack logic, that he was threatening Garcia with sexual assault by molesting her effigy?
Considering the political slant of this Jon Justice clown, his anti-Garcia campaign would pretty much be par for the reactionary course were it not for a Tucson Citizen opinion piece published yesterday, penned by Anne Denogean, titled "Protesters as offensive as Sheriff Joe,” wherein she took Garcia to task for her actions.
“While the beating of Arpaio in effigy proceeded, Isabel Garcia, head of Humanos Derechos, a group that purports to stand for the dignity of all human beings, stood by and laughed.
“The spectacle reminded me of the antics of an extremist on the other side of the issue, a Tucson man who does his best to incite riots by burning Mexican flags in public places. I wondered how Garcia would react if the virulent anti-illegal immigrant hard-liners were to burn her in effigy or hang a papier-mâché figure meant to represent an Mexican illegal immigrant."
Remember, Arpaio is the Sheriff of Maricopa County, not Pima County. And our corrupt top constable has recently made it the priority of his office to racially profile and arrest undocumented residents on the flimsiest of pretexts, his deputies holding them in custody and leaning on them to sign voluntary removals back to their countries of origin, usually Mexico. In doing so, he tears mothers and fathers from their children and sometimes vice versa, all for minor offenses like a cracked windshield or a non-working tail light.
Of course, there are more reasons to loathe Nickel Bag Joe than just his sweeps of immigrant communities and the intimidation and fear-mongering that comes with them. There are the wrongful deaths in his jails and the horrendous conditions therein, which have cost Maricopa County taxpayers over $43 million in lawsuit payouts to date. There’s also Joe’s political corruption, his retaliation against critics and opponents, and his endless show-boating for the cameras.
All reasons enough to thump a piñata to me, and for Tucson’s residents to tell Arpaio to get lost. But Denogean takes offense.
“The protesters did their best to run Arpaio out of town, with signs urging him to go home.Frankly, as an American, Arpaio has the right to go wherever he pleases.
“But more important, the demand that Arpaio get out of our town is as bad as the suggestion by those on the other side of the immigration debate that anyone who dares utter the words "comprehensive immigration reform" should hitch a ride on the next donkey to Mexico.”
Uh, no. It’s not as bad, Anne. When a tyrant sashays into town, people have every right, and dare I say, moral obligation to tell that tyrant where to go in no uncertain terms. If Robert Mugabe, Fidel Castro or the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were doing a book signing in your burg, wouldn’t you expect folks to vociferously protest such human rights abusers? Perhaps even by bashing a piñata, burning an effigy or telling these authoritarian a-holes to head home?
Arpaio’s jails have been condemned by Amnesty International, and his anti-Hispanic dragnets are being investigated by the Feds. He deserves every symbolic lick he gets. Plus, I’ll let you in on a little secret Denogean, Joe feeds off the hate. He loves this sort of stuff, and it allows him to play to his base. A Joe-critic like you coming to his defense would only seem comical to him.
As for this radio chucklehead’s suggestion that Garcia should be fired, censured or disbarred, Justice is basically filling his own smelly little news hole and garnering attention for himself. It would be a real mistake for anyone in a position of responsibility either at the Arizona State Bar or Pima County government to take this goofball Sean Hannity wannabe (and never-gonnabe) seriously. For her part, Garcia is unapologetic, writing in a statement on the Web site of the advocacy group she co-chairs, Derechos Humanos, that,
“I am proud to have been part of the community's response to [Arpaio’s] arrival in Tucson…As an attorney I find it is not only my right, but my responsibility to stand up when the power of the state is used to crush people. I will continue to do so.”
Now, that’s a lady with stones. If Pima County doesn’t want her, she should head north. We could use a ballsy babe like her here in the PHX.
Note to Roy Wackjob below: Go ahead, take your best shot, Oswald.
"STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd."
