Tag Archives: John Aravosis

February 13, 2013 · 7:58 AM

Sheriff Arpaio hired former employee, convicted child-sex criminal, for armed school “posse”

Arpaio's posse via CBS 5 video.

Arpaio’s fit and nimble posse via CBS 5 video.

Unbelievable and outrageous on so many levels…

Americablog

Our own Jon Green wrote in December about how, following the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, GOP Sheriff Joe Arpaio was going to have his 3,000-strong gun-toting “posse” of volunteers patrolling Arizona’s schools, just like the NRA wanted. (This article was co-authored by John Aravosis.)

Today we find out that the posse reportedly included at least one man convicted of sex crimes against children.  And even worse, and what no one has apparently yet realized: The convicted child sex criminal posse member worked for Arpaio for years in the Sheriff’s office until he was arrested in 2009.

Are we to believe that Arpaio had no idea who this guy was?

Armed child-sex criminals roaming Arizona’s schools.  What could possibly go wrong?

What’s worse is that Arpaio has been facing heavy criticism for his alleged laxity on prosecuting sex crimes, particularly sex crimes against children.  From the NYT:

Sheriff Arpaio, the top law enforcement official in sprawling Maricopa County, is perhaps best known for his hard-nosed treatment of prisoners and his aggressive raids aimed at illegal immigrants. But it is his department’s approach to more than 400 sex-crimes cases that has Sheriff Arpaio in trouble.

His deputies failed to investigate or conducted only the sketchiest of inquiries into hundreds of sex crimes between 2005 and 2007, investigations by Arizona law enforcement agencies have shown. Many of those cases involved molested children.

And only today we find out that after a lengthy five-year investigation, Arpaio has decided that no particular person is to blame for “hundreds of botched sex-crime investigations by the Maricopa County sheriff’s special-victims unit.”  From the Arizona Republic, today:

A five-year investigation that produced nearly 10,000 pages of documents draws no clear conclusion on who is to blame for hundreds of botched sex-crime investigations by the Maricopa County sheriff’s special-victims unit.

The Sheriff’s Office on Monday released results of its long-running probe into why the unit mishandled sex-crime cases. It concluded that no single person was responsible for systemic failures that resulted in hundreds of cases being reopened.

Last year, an Arizona Republic investigation into the 400-plus reopened cases revealed that the Sheriff’s Office failed to adequately investigate reports of sex abuse and assault — in some cases never interviewing suspects or running background checks on known offenders.

Some sex-crime complaints were completely ignored. In other cases, files were later found gathering dust in a drawer or in a deputy’s garage. Those shortcomings, combined with lengthy delays in resolving cases, left alleged predators free to find other victims — sometimes for years.

So what happens?  The sheriff accused of having lax standards for investigating sex crimes against children didn’t do a sufficient investigation to weed out a school posse member who had a record of sex crimes against children.

The controversial sheriff has teamed up with actor Steven Seagal to teach his “posse” how to handle school shooting incidents, and liquor story robberies.  (Despite being 60 years old, actor Seagal claims to have “hundreds of thousands if not millions of hours into my weapons training.” I did the math.  A million hours would make Segal 114 years old.)  One presumes Seagal will be showing the fat old men how to do Aikido, when they’re not beating their wives, getting high, or committing sex crimes against children.

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January 18, 2013 · 7:11 AM

What kind of nazi, commie tyrant would do a photo op with kids?

I love  ‘…

America Blog

Right-wingers like Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin are terribly upset that President Obama had children at a photo op yesterday about gun violence in America.

In fact, the President was joined by four children who wrote him letters after Sandy Hook, so they were relevant to the event:

Screen Shot 2013-01-17 at 5.09.01 PM

 

Malkin called the photo opp “child abuse.” Whereas Drudge likened it to Hitler and Stalin using children as props in photos and drawings. Drudge even showed images of Hitler and Stalin with kids to get the point across.

drudge stalin

drudge hitler

 

Which got me wondering: What other nazi tyrants used children as props in presidential photo ops?

nancy reagan kids

 

And here are some more:

Comrade Ronald Reagan.

Comrade John Boehner.

Comrade Mitt Romney, and again, and again, and again.

Comrade Paul Ryan.

Comrade George W. Bush, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

Comrade Giuliani.

Comrade Ron Paul.

Comrade McCain.

Comrade Santorum.

Comrade John F. Kennedy.

Comrade Jimmy Carter.

And here’s Comrades Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, Reagan (again), Harding, W. Bush (again), Clinton, Reagan (yet again), Nixon, Ford, Kennedy, Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hoover, Coolidge, Garfield, Taft, HW Bush, and Lincoln.

And Comrade Warren Harding:

harding-baby350

Via Mother Jones

Phew. I’m glad we cleared that up.

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December 10, 2012 · 8:32 AM

It’s immoral to cut Medicare to pay for George Bush’s lies

I couldn’t agree more with John Aravosis of America Blog.

The following article is spot on in it’s condemnation of the Obama administration considering possible Medicare cuts to help pay for the deficit which in fact, was brought on by two unpaid wars and an unpaid prescription program during the George W. Bush administration.

Aravosis correctly attributes George W. Bush’s lies in the lead up to the Iraq war and the subsequent neglect of the Afghanistan initiative, to the approximate 3 trillion dollar cost of both wars which ultimately led to a soaring deficit.  Not to mention the ten year, unpaid for Bush Tax Cuts, all of which got us into this deficit mess in the first place…

America Blog

I cannot believe that Democrats are even considering raising the eligibility age for Medicare as part of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

First off, $15bn a year is hardly significant savings, and that’s what you save (at a maximum – some argue it’s significantly less) when you raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67: a whopping $15bn a year.

Bush tax cuts and Iraq, Afghanistan are causing the deficitBush tax cuts and Iraq, Afghanistan are causing the deficit.

You know how much George Bush’s little venture in Iraq has been costing us per year? In FY 2011, $46 billion.  That’s three times the savings from cutting Medicare.

And overall, the damn war is going to cost us $3 trillion,  according to Joe Stiglitz. $3 trillion for George Bush’s lie. But let’s cut all of our Medicare coverage for two years in order to pay for the Republican party’s lie of the decade, along with their other lie of the decade, Bush’s tax cuts, that supposedly were going to pay for themselves.

The tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined eat up the lion’s share of the deficit over the coming years.  (See the chart to the right.) So let’s cuts Medicare instead!

Just to be clear, those tax cuts and Bush’s little wars are going to be paid for by cutting your and my Medicare coverage.

Nice.

You don’t see John McCain and Lindsey Graham calling for any hearings on why were lied to about any of those subjects, do you?

Continue reading here…

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May 17, 2012 · 7:49 AM

Jay-Z’s gay marriage endorsement: More influential than Obama’s?

Discriminating against gays is "no different than discriminating against blacks," Jay-Z said this week. "It's discrimination, plain and simple."

Discriminating against gays is “no different than discriminating against blacks,” Jay-Z said this week. “It’s discrimination, plain and simple.” Photo: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

It’s no secret that the male-dominated Hip Hop community is notoriously homophobic.  I’m curious to see and hear the comments that will emerge  following Jay-Z’s endorsement of gay marriage…

The Week

The rap mogul with a history of anti-gay lyrics does a 180 — a turnaround that may prove more meaningful to black voters than the president’s years-long evolution

The president isn’t the only world-famous person whose stance on gay marriage has evolved. Hip-hop king Jay-Z also just publicly announced his support of same-sex marriage: “I’ve always thought [of] it as something that’s still holding the country back,” the rapper told CNN. “It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.” The remarks come as pundits weigh whether President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality will hurt him with black voters. Obama won 95 percent of the black vote in 2008, but only 39 percent of black voters support gay marriage,according to an April poll. Could a supremely influential rapper whose past lyrics have been tinged with homophobia have more of an impact on black voters than Obama?

Yes. This is a huge deal: Jay-Z’s endorsement is “as big a cultural step forward as the leader of the free world making the same claim,” says Clinton Yates at The Washington Post. Jay-Z isn’t a politician, and he’s not supporting gay-marriage to get re-elected — it’s because he feels it’s right. Jay-Z is a leader in the massively influential hip-hop community, and this could “lead generations of music fans out of the fog,” changing their attitudes toward homosexuals and same-sex marriage.

“Jay-Z supports President Obama on gay marriage”

And it’s much more drastic than Obama’s evolution: Jay-Z’s remarks represent a 180-turn from the homophobic and even gay-hating lyrics of his past songs, says Marc Hogan at Spin. On 2001′s “Takeover,” for example, he called rival rapper Nas a “fag model” after Nas insinuated that Jay was homosexual. If the president’s gradual evolution failed to change minds in the African-American community, then perhaps Jay’s dramatic turnaround (the rapper is called “the hood’s Barack”) will lead to some true soul-searching.

“Jay-Z backs Barack Obama’s gay marriage endorsement”

But Obama’s stance isn’t hurting him with black voters:The conventional wisdom was that “black voters will freak” when Obama backed same-sex marriage, says John Aravosis at The Daily Beast. But that’s simply not the case. Instead, they “gave a collective shrug.” A new Pew Research Poll reveals that 68 percent of African-Americans say Obama’s embrace of gay marriage didn’t change their opinion of him, even if they disagreed with the stance, while 16 percent said it actually made them view Obamamore favorably. And for other voters disillusioned with Obama, the move showed courage that will bring the president “closer to winning in November.”

“Why gays did President Obama a favor by pushing him on gay marriage”

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