You Can’t Spell Crazy Without AZ!

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Dean Martin, Arizona state treasurer and Republican candidate for governor, is pushing a plan that would create “tent cities” to house illegal immigrants convicted of other crimes, modeled after notorious anti-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s set-up in his own Maricopa County.

In an interview with TPM, Martin described how the state could use the tent cities to provide “inexpensive temporary housing” that would save them enough money to deploy more troops down to the border.

According to a statement by Martin, he and Arpaio met earlier this week, and Arpaio endorsed Martin’s “Zero Tolerance” plan because it “offers real solutions.” Martin told TPM that Arpaio also said he would take on any illegal immigrants arrested in his own Maricopa County for other crimes.

In the plan (.pdf), Martin describes how the state of Arizona could save millions by temporarily housing “criminal aliens” in either private prisons or in “tent cities.”

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(Don’t tell her the dog’s real name is Santiago!)

From POLITICS DAILY:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer finds herself under scrutiny after telling a newspaper that her father “died fighting the Nazi regime in Gemany.” In actuality, Brewer’s father, Wilford Drinkwine, passed away from lung disease in California, ten years after World War II had ended.

Brewer’s comments were made to The Arizona Republic [actually, it’s The Arizona Guardian] newspaper, and came as she was discussing her state’s polarizing new anti-illegal immigrant law, which the governor signed into law last month.

“Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that… and then to have them call me Hitler’s daughter. It hurts. It’s ugliness beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” Brewer told the paper.

It’s not the first time Governor Jan told slightly exaggerated stories about her tragic childhood. Did you know she wrote a book about it?

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It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity

From CNN:

Fresh on the heels of a new immigration law that has led to calls to boycott her state, Arizona’s governor has signed a bill banning ethnic studies classes that “promote resentment” of other racial groups.

Gov. Jan Brewer approved the measure without public statement Tuesday, according to state legislative records. The new law forbids elementary or secondary schools to teach classes that are “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” and advocate “the overthrow of the United States government” or “resentment toward a race or class of people.”

Hmmmm, I wonder what she thinks about Confederate History Month.

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Is that Richie and Potsie? No, it’s Russ and a Nazi!

From CROOKS AND LIARS:

There are some things about state Sen. Russell Pearce, the author of Arizona’s new police-state immigration law, that Greta Van Susteren and all the other Fox anchors who’ve had him on this past week aren’t telling you.

…snip…

Well, we mentioned previously that Pearce has a colorful background involving the white-supremacist far right, including dalliances — like his close pal Sheriff Joe Arpaio — with neo-Nazis.

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Brewer’s Yeesh

From USA TODAY:

Arizona‘s controversial immigration enforcement law was the target of fresh attacks Sunday as opponents, from national civil rights activists to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, vowed to take their fight to the courts as soon as this week.

Gordon, a Democrat, joined some federal lawmakers, including Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., and about 3,500 protesters Sunday at the Arizona Capitol, assailing the measure signed Friday by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as a “racist and unjust” attempt at achieving an overhaul of the USA’s immigration policies.

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Law & Disorder

From The Arizona Republic:

Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl are continuing to press Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the decision to limit Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration-enforcement authority.

Amid controversy over Arpaio’s ongoing crime-suppression sweeps, Immigration and Customs Enforcement dropped the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office from the 287(g) “task force model” that allowed deputies to enforce federal immigration laws on the streets. (The Sheriff’s Office still can enforce immigration laws in the jails.) Homeland Security officials have said Arpaio’s wide-reaching operations don’t align with ICE priorities of targeting only “serious criminal aliens.”

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