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It looks like Arizona's wingnut, corrupt Sheriff Joe Arpio is ready to take his all-volunteer, armed posse from hunting down illegal immigrants to the schools in the wake of the Newtown shooting and the NRA head Wayne LaPierre's recommendation that we put armed volunteers into every school . What could possibly go wrong?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Wants ‘Armed Posse’ to Protect Schools:

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is getting ready to deploy an armed posse to protect children in Phoenix, Arizona area schools.

Eric Bolling asked Sheriff Arpaio on ‘Your World’ today how the armed posse would be implemented. Arpaio responded that it would work the same way it’s been working for 20 years and that he’s used the posse to go after illegal immigrants and prostitutes. “I think it’s a good program and we’re going to do it. I don’t just talk about it like politicians after this massacre. We’re going to do it within a week,” he said.

Arpaio further described the initiative saying the posse would patrol the perimeter of the schools and take any action necessary in case there is suspicious activity. “I want everybody to know that we are out there,” he said.

And, as they noted over at Jesus' General, it seems some of these guys aren't exactly spring chickens: Sheriff Joe to Arm Great Grandpa Elmer to Protect Schools .

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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office is walking back comments from the Republican governor, that it was "fine and dandy" to work on comprehensive immigration reform before the border was secured.

In an interview with KPNX that aired on Sunday, host Brahm Resnik told Brewer that both House Speaker John Boehner and Fox News host Sean Hannity had called for comprehensive immigration reform after Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote.

"We all know that we need to resolve this huge issue that's facing the United States," Brewer agreed. "And if I believe that if we could get our border secured -- and I've said this all along -- secure our border and then we can deal with all these other issues."

"But here's the thing," Resnik pointed out. "With John Boehner and Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist and [Maricopa County Attorney] Bill Montgomery -- what he said in particular was, 'You know what? We can do both at once. We can secure the border and do comprehensive immigration reform.' Is that something you're on with? Because it sounds like you are just a secure-the-border-first person."

"What ever works," Brewer replied. "If we can do both at the same time, I'm fine and dandy with that. But we cannot resolve these kinds of issues today and then have the problems still existing."

"So, again, these national Republicans and even here in the county are ready to move on, to move forward with immigration and, I would assume, at the same time pursue a secure border," Resnik pressed. "Are you willing to do that, yes or no?"

"Yes," Brewer insisted. "Of course, I think everybody is on board."

On Sunday, KPNX reported that Brewer's office had contacted him after the interview was recorded on Friday to walk back her support for comprehensive immigration reform in concert with securing the border.

"Spokesman Matt Benson said the governor still believes in securing the border first," Resnik wrote. "He added that she was willing to 'come to the table' to deal with all immigration issues. Later Friday, the governor's office issued a statement reaffirming her 'secure the border first' stance."

During her interview with Resnik, Brewer also said that no blame could be placed on the Republican Party for losing the Hispanic vote.

"No," she said. "President Obama, in the last four years, they've had four years to get our borders secured and they refused to do it, but yet we know they can. We know that they can secure the borders. Why won't they secure the border? Because they wanted that out there because they knew that they could turn it into an issue of all about racism."

"I think the Democrats have been more responsible because they keep want to make this a race issue. The keep using the race card, that we are racists and we are bigots because we want our borders secured because we are the recipient of a lot of the crime that happens and the costs that it takes."

"So SB 1070 and Sheriff Joe Arpaio's divisiveness have nothing to do with the national Republicans' problem with Latinos?" Resnik wondered.

"Senate Bill 1070 simply mirrors federal law," Brewer opined. "We believe in the rule of law and that's why we're the country that we are."

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio is insisting that he "saved" a 6-year-old girl, who he believes was brought to the country illegally, by arresting her.

The Arizona Republic reported last week that the controversial Arizona sheriff's office had arrested the 6-year-old and 15 other people on the very day that President Barack Obama announced a new policy halting the deportations of many young immigrants.

On Sunday, Fox News host Geraldo Rivera asked Arpaio if he arrested the girl because he wanted to "stick it to the president."

"I don't think I did a Fast and Furious in reverse and arranged these 15 smugglers with a girl that is unaccompanied -- nobody knows who she is, where she's from -- into the United States of Amerca," Arpaio quipped. "I enforce the illegal immigration laws every day, Geraldo. So, that made a coincidence."

"I should be thanked by that congresswoman that you just had on for saving this girl," the sheriff added. "That's what they should be doing, these activists that don't like me enforcing the illegal immigration laws, including the president who mentioned me several months ago on the 1070 [anti-immigrant law] and what I'm doing."

Arpaio also promised to continue arresting young immigrants regardless of the president's new immigration policy.

"I will continue to arrest illegal aliens that violate the state laws of this state. So, nothing will change," he explained. "If we come across them again and they are in violation of any state law, they're going to be arrested are put in jail in my jails, and I presume if they're turned by over to the [federal] immigration, nothing will happen. So, that's the system we have right now."

Over the weekend, thousands of demonstrators had gathered in Phoenix to protest Maricopa County's "tent city," where inmates are forced to wear pink and live in canvas tents.

For his part, Arpaio defended the un-air conditioned tents by saying that the military also uses tents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It 130 [degrees] here," he told Rivera. "Do they have air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan for our troops?"

"Yes," Rivera pointed out. "In the tents, they do have air conditioning. I haven't been in an un-air conditioned tent in 10 years. Don't you think that's inhumane, sheriff?"

"No, why?" Arpaio replied. "I had a half a million people come through those tents. And they survived the weather and controversy. It's a good program, saved millions and millions of dollars."

The United States Supreme Court on Monday gutted (PDF) most of Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law, but upheld that police could be required to inquire about immigration status when they stop suspects.

(h/t: Mediaite)

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You know the Romney campaign is worried about whether they're going to be able to break out the Etch A Sketch successfully and erase everything Mitt Romney was saying about immigration policy during the Republican primary when they're bringing out the likes of Bay Buchanan to scream to the hills that Romney's not a flip flopper.

Buchanan appeared on Wednesday evening's Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN to tout the current campaign talking point that Mitt Romney really does not believe that Arizona's SB 1070 should be a model for the country. She and the campaign are claiming that what Romney was really talking about during the Republican debate last February, was E-Verify..

Never mind that Russell Pearce said this-- Man Behind Arizona Immigration Law: Romney ‘Absolutely’ Called SB-1070 A National ‘Model’:

Mitt Romney had the most conservative immigration policy of any Republican presidential candidate during most of the primary, but now that’s he trying to appeal to Hispanic voters as he pivots to general election, the presumed GOP nominee has been shifting back towards the center. Yesterday, he opened to door to a Republican alternative to the DREAM Act — a law he vowed to veto during the primary — and earlier, he said that he never called for making Arizona’s harsh immigration law a “model” for the nation.

But that’s not how one of the key people behind that law, former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, sees it. The former Republican lawmaker, who was ousted in a recall election, was the key force behind turning SB-1070, authored by Romney adviser Kris Kobach, into law. He told reporters today that he “absolutely” believed Mitt Romney had endorsed the law as a model for the country. [...]

Previously, Pearce has said that Romney’s “immigration policy is identical to mine.”

Romney has tried to distance himself from Kobach, who also helped author the controversial immigration crackdowns in Alabama, South Carolina, and other states. But Kobach quickly contradicted him, saying he regularly advises senior members of Romney’s staff.

Here's what Mitt Romney actually said during that debate on CNN in February:

KING: Governor Romney, the border security is part of the equation, what to do about whether it's 8 million or 11 million illegal immigrants in the country now is another part of the equation. And Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who's with us tonight from Maricopa County -- he's in the audience -- he told me -- he told me this week here in Mesa -- these are his words -- "it's called political garbage, if you will, to not arrest illegals already in this country."

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It seems we can add yet another Republican to the list of those embarrassing themselves this year with this birther nonsense -- Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler. She decided to join the ranks of Rep. Cliff Stearns and Arizona's wingnut Sheriff Joe Arpaio with pandering to the worst elements within the GOP base with this fearmongering and not so thinly veiled racism with trying to paint Barack Obama as "the other" or "foreign."

From Progress Missouri -- Vicky Hartzler is still a birther. "I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate.":

It's April 2012, but Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler is still worried that Barack Obama is an illegal immigrant with a forged birth certificate. As first reported by the Sedalia Democrat, Rep. Hartlzer expressed "a lot of doubts" about the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate at a town hall in Sedalia, MO on April 5. Jerry Schmidt of Show Me Progress has the whole thing on video.

"You know I have a lot of doubts about all [Obama's birth certificate]....I don’t understand why he didn’t show that right away." When asked to clarify her doubts during press availability after the event, Hartzler said: “I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of Americans do, but they claim it is, so we are just going to go with that.”

Continue reading »

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Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on Thursday that his investigation into President Barack Obama's birth certificate concluded the document was most likely a "forgery."

"President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate released by the White House on April 27, 2011, is suspected to be a computer-generated forgery, not a scan of an original 1961 paper document as represented by the White House when the long-form birth certificate was made public," the sheriff said at a press conference.

A six-month probe by the Sheriff's Cold Case Posse also looked into other parts of the president's past after they began to suspect his long form birth certificate was a fake.

A press release provided by birther website World Net Daily said that investigators concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that Obama's Selective Service card was a forgery and that certain Immigration and Naturalization Service records of people arriving to the United States around the time of the time of his birth were missing.

"A continuing investigation is needed to identify the identity of the person or persons involved in creating the alleged birth certificate forgery, and to determine who, if anyone, in the White House or the state of Hawaii may have authorized the forgery," Arpaio said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." If you are going to accuse the leader of the free world of being a fraud you better have more proof than your feelings of suspicion and a Bill Ayers-related witness from 30 years ago. This brings birtherism to a new low...who knew that was even possible.

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Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday that while he was joking about an electric border fence, he's not ruling it out as a possibility.

Over the weekend, Cain told NBC's David Gregory that America needed to get a sense a humor about his suggestion that immigrants trying to cross the border should be electrocuted while scaling the border fence.

But at a news confernce with anti-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio Monday, Cain said the fence "might be electrified."

"Let me first say, it was a joke and some people don't think it was a good joke," the candidate explained. "And it's probably not a joke you're supposed to make if you're a presidential candidate. I apologize if it offended anyone. Mea Culpa, mia culpa, mia culpa."

"It didn't sound like a joke," one reporter noted.

"You know, I think we're splitting hairs here," Cain replied. "I don't apologize for using a combination of a fence and it might be electrified. I'm not walking away from that. I just don't want to offend anybody."

Arpaio later told reporters that he didn't see what all the fuss was about.

"I have a electric fence around the tent jail," he boasted. "I have illegal immigrants there. I have illegals on the chain gang. Nobody goes after me... I got an electric fence. It doesn't kill people. It shocks you."

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When Herman Cain meets with Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio Monday, it will make him the fourth Republican presidential candidate to personally seek the endorsement of "America's toughest sheriff."

"I'll meet with Mr. Cain," Arpaio told CNN's Christine Roman's Monday. "I'll see how he stands on the illegal immigration problem."

Over the weekend, Cain claimed that his call to electrify the border fence had just been a joke.

"That's a joke," the candidate told NBC's David Gregory Sunday. "I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor. That was a joke, OK."

But for Arpaio, that joke was a good sign.

"Oh, I'm sure he was joking, but it probably means that he's taking it serious to do something at the border and stop the illegal immigrations," the Maricopa Country sheriff declared.

"I'm not against the fence, but if you buy a ladder and hop over it -- I would like to see people go to jail, not give them a free ride back to Mexico. So, if you want to put a fence and they go over it, make them pay."

Arpaio is facing investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and FBI over civil rights violations and abuse of power, but that hasn't decreased his popularity among GOP candidates. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) have all sought his approval.

"They probably understand this is all garbage -- going after me for the past three years," Arpaio said. "I'm doing my job. I'll continue to do it and serve the people of Maricopa County."

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A conservative website claimed Thursday that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has promised to investigate President Barack Obama's eligibility to run for re-election.

According to WorldNetDaily, about 325 so-called birthers gathered Wednesday night to sign a petition alleging that Obama planned to use a fake birth certificate to run for office in 2012.

Jerome Corsi, author of, Where's the Birth Certificate? reportedly presented Arpaio with the petition during a one-hour meeting Thursday.

"Arpaio told the tea party leaders the complaint is within his jurisdiction, and he will be forced to investigate," WND wrote. "He said he expects political pressure, but he pointed out that as the chief law enforcement officer of Maricopa County, he's taken an oath to respond to citizens who approach him about enforcing the law."

But in a statement Friday, Arpaio had a slightly different version of events.

"What I have agreed to do, contrary to some published media reports, is simply look at the evidence these people have assembled and examine whether it is within my jurisdiction to investigate the document's authenticity," Arpaio said.

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Another election, another round of Republican dirty tricks and voter intimidation. And Fox's Jon Scott, supposedly part of their "straight news" coverage as opposed to what they admit is "opinion" does his best here to carry some water for them and try to convince everyone up is down and black is white. It's not these teabagger "poll watchers" intimidating voters that are the problem. No, they're the victims now according to the King Street Patriots' leader Catherine Engelbrecht and her attorney Jonathan Saenz.

Heaven forbid those evil minority voters they're targeting got sick of these bullies breathing down their necks while they're trying to vote. How dare they! Apparently Engelbrecht isn't too happy with the local ABC affiliate down in Houston's reporting on her group's activities either. She wrote this little screed a couple of days ago (warning, goes to Breitbart's Big Government site) -- Houston ABC Affiliate: Mouthpiece of the Left; Sends Dem Scare Message to Tea Party Poll Watchers

Here's a reminder about this lovely little group's activities -- Voter Registration Group Receives Threatening Emails After Being Targeted by Tea Party Patriots. The good news out of this is that the Department of Justice is going to get involved, but whether their presence will be enough to counter this sort of activity remains to be been.

Here's more from TPM on that -- Justice Department To Monitor Polls In Harris County, Sheriff Joe's Turf:

Harris County, Texas and Maricopa County, Arizona are among the 30 jurisdictions in which federal observers will monitor polling place activities or Justice Department personnel will monitor the election, DOJ announced late Friday.

The Tea Party-backed group True the Vote, the Texas Democratic Party, Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee and even the New Black Panther Party have traded accusations of voter intimidation in Harris County and called for federal elections monitors to be deployed to the area.

Maricopa County is the territory of controversial anti-illegal immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He sent out an e-mail asking supporters to "help [him] STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THIS ELECTION!" and has also been under investigation for allegations of discrimination in his enforcement of immigration law and treatment of prisoners.

The Civil Rights Division of DOJ will deploy over 400 federal observers and department personnel to those 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for Tuesday's election.