Another in a long list ...

With Bush and Cheney, one's shock-meter got so overloaded with each subsequent travesty. So is it in Arizona with Joe Arpaio.

Stephen Lemons at the Feathered Bastard writes:

We live in two Americas: Joe Arpaio's medieval Maricopa County, where barbarism reigns, and our corrupt top cop parades hundreds of Hispanics through the streets in chains, like captives taken in some feudal conflict from faded memory. And then there's Barack Obama's America, one of enlightenment, and the rule of law, and education and justice. But for the time being at least, Obama's America ends at the borders of Maricopa County.

Arpaio put on quite a spectacle, one that should humiliate Arizona, not that it will. But it is not his worst action. Arpaio has denied medical care to those in need. Arpaio houses both the sick and the healthy in tents which are too cold in winter and too hot in summer. People die because of Arpaio's action or inaction, as the case may be. There is probably nothing that Arpaio is incapable of doing, but he is still sheriff -- and that is probably the most humiliating thing of all -- that neither Maricopa County voters nor Maricopa County Supervisors nor Arizona laws nor US laws have ousted Arpaio. This has been going on for years ...

Freedom, not just of the press, temporarily 'safe' in Phoenix ...

The Arizona Republic, hardly the harbinger of freedom and civil rights, is rightly critical of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik's witch hunt at the Phoenix New Times.

From the Arizona Republic opinion editorial:

Whether Thomas knew about them or not, his office issued grand-jury subpoenas against New Times. We would like to see those subpoenas. Since Thomas wishes us to believe they are news to him, we invite him to spread those subpoenas out on our conference table. We'll read up on them together.

The Phoenix New Times announced the investigation on October 18:

Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution --Joe Arpaio, Andy Thomas and Dennis Wilenchik hit New Times with grand jury subpoenas by Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin at the Phoenix New Times

... More alarming still, Arpaio, Thomas, and Wilenchik subpoenaed detailed information on anyone who has looked at the New Times Web site since 2004. ...

The Feathered Bastard (link and link) at the Phx New Times is, I think, having some well deserved payback at the expense of the Maricopa County Attorney who apparently follows orders from Joe Arpaio who was 'frustrated' according to Thomas' own words (Arpaio is the sheriff who treats a quarantined TB patient as he would his most dangerous criminal; link and link).

Asked if Thomas would go after the many Web sites that have published Arpaio's address online, he made a major legal flub.

"There's a big difference between that and putting his name and address on the front cover," as the New Times did late in 2006. This reporter had to point out to Thomas that the law in question did not apply to print publication of such addresses, only Internet publication of same.

[...]

The extent of Thomas' retreat became apparent when MCAO flack Barnett Lotstein later admitted that attorney Wilenchik will no longer serve the MCAO in criminal matters, though he will continue to represent the County in civil matters when someone like Arpaio requests him.

Obviously, Wilenchik this week crossed the line into political liability territory, and Thomas threw him under the bus. Interestingly, New Times reporter Ray Stern's disorderly conduct citation for looking at public documents has not been dismissed. Stern was viewing MCSO press releases at the PHX law offices of Michelle Iafrate, press releases the MCSO refuses to e-mail to New Times. Stern took some digital snaps of these public docs. They asked him to leave. There were words between he and Iafrate, and he left. Then they hit him with a citation later in the evening as part of this mess.

Being 'conservative' means calling a 'jail cell' a 'sanitarium' ...

So says Maggie:

ACLU Fights to Expose Public to Deadly Disease: Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts to keep a tuberculosis-infected patient in a county sanitarium and out of the public arena. The ACLU has filed suit on behalf of the patient, Robert Daniels, who is believed to have an "extreme multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

I haven't figured out why Maggie thinks a Sheriff would be running a sanitarium. And of course the ACLU is not trying to get Robert Daniels released from quarantine. Their objective is to get him treated as quarantined patient and not like the prisoner in perpetual solitary confinement.

To Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio a quarantined person is to be treated as the worst criminal ...

Like jailed inmates accused of crimes, Daniels is subjected to intrusive strip searches and he is unable to receive any visits from family and friends. He isn’t permitted to exercise or walk outside, and has no access to social or recreational activities like the Internet. He has been outside only once in the past nine months, and was shackled hand and foot. The lights in his cell are required to be kept on at night, and video cameras record his every move. He can’t see through the frosted windows in his room and wasn’t able to shower or call anyone until a few weeks ago.

Robert Daniels has incurable tuberculosis. Quarantine is necessary but treating him as a criminal is not.

Sheriff Arpaio is a throw back to Dickens' time as is much of the Republican Party.