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 ...