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Conservative Republican Joseph M. “Joe” Arpaio was first voted into office in 1992 in Maricopa County, Arizona.  Arpaio styles himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and is well known for his outspoken stance against illegal immigration.  The problem, however, is that Arpaio has been accused of everything from racial profiling to abuse of power.  To avert some of his negative attention, Arpaio has revisited the discredited “birther” conspiracy.  Let’s first discuss a few of his legal problems.

In June 2008, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department began investigating Arpaio along with accusations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. This investigation was conducted under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlaws discrimination related to programs that receive federal funds.  In 2009, Arpaio announced at a press conference that he would not cooperate with the Federal investigation and in September 2010, the Justice Department filed suit against Arpaio to compel his cooperation.  The suit was settled in June, 2011, after Arpaio agreed to allow federal investigators to interview his employees and access thousands of documents.  Following this 3-year investigation, the Justice Department released its report that concluded that the Sheriff’s Office has “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.”  The report accused Arpaio of engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest and retaliating against critics and was the worst pattern of racial profiling in U. S. History.  As a result of the Justice Department report, this past December 2011, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Arpaio’s authority to identify and detain illegal immigrants.  In a separate action on December 23, 2011, a federal judge enjoined Arpaio’s office from “detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States,” substantially putting an end to his anti-illegal immigration enforcement.

In 2008 a federal grand jury began an inquiry of Arpaio for abuse of power.  He is being investigated for politically motivated and “bogus” prosecutions which Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has called “a reign of terror.” The targets of Arpaio’s alleged abuse of power have included Mayor Gordon, a Democrat, and a long list of other state, county and judicial officials.  If you got in Arpaio’s way, whether Democrat or Republican, he was coming after you.

In July 2010, Arpaio established the “Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012,” to fund ads critical of Rick Romley, a candidate in the Republican Primary for Maricopa County Attorney and Arizona Attorney General candidate Republican Tom Horne even though Arpaio was not running for re-election since his term does not expire until the end of 2012.  One of the ads, a direct mailer, promoted the defeat of Romley and was an in-kind contribution to Bill Montgomery, Romley’s opponent, in violation of Arizona election laws.  Although the “Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012” was fined $153,978, the ads apparently worked because Montgomery defeated Romley.

An analysis by the Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget found Arpaio misspent almost $100 million in taxpayer dollars.  The analysis showed that money from a restricted detention fund only to be used to pay for jail items such as food, detention officers’ salaries and equipment, was used by Arpaio to pay employees to patrol Maricopa County.  The analysis also showed that many Sheriff’s Office employees, whose salaries were paid from the restricted detention fund, were working job assignments different from those recorded in their personnel records.  Arpaio’s office apparently kept a separate set of personnel books detailing actual work assignments that were different from information kept on the county’s official human-resources records.  Arpaio also used the detention fund to pay for investigations of political rivals and activities involving his human-smuggling unit.  In addition, the analysis showed a number of inappropriate spending items including a trip to Alaska where deputies stayed at a fishing resort, and trips to Disneyland.

After receiving a copy of an internal memo written by Maricopa Deputy Chief Frank Munnell alleging misconduct and mismanagement by Arpaio’s second in command and his top officers, in October 2010, the US Attorney for Arizona confirmed that the FBI and Department of Justice were conducting criminal investigations into its allegations.

Apparently to move the publicity of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation away from him, Arpaio claimed that after receiving a petition of 300 signatures from the Tea Party, he decided to launch an investigation into President Obama’s birth place, something that has been debunked on numerous occasions.  (You may recall that Donald Trump claimed that his “investigators” uncovered evidence that the President was not born in the United States, but Trump never released anything supporting his claim.)

We all know that Tea Party conspiracy theories allege that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore not eligible to be President.  Some theories even contend that President Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, or that his birth certificate is a forgery.  Still others claim that because his father was from Kenya, that means he held dual citizenship at birth (British and American), and the dual citizenship means Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. These bizarre theories have been characterized by some commentators as racist or a racial reaction to the first African American president of the United States.  I agree with their characterization.

Belief in the conspiracy theories has persisted despite Obama’s pre-election release of his official birth certificate from Hawaii in 2008.  There was also confirmation by the Hawaii Department of Health, concurred in by its Republican Governor based on the original documents, and the April 2011 release of a certified copy of Obama’s original Certificate of Live Birth. Other evidence of Obama’s Hawaiian birth also surfaced such as birth announcements published in August 1961 in two Hawaii newspapers.  Of course, the Tea Party and other right-wing radical folks will not let the facts get in the way of their theories.

Other than the baseless claim that Obama’s birth certificate was a “forgery,” Arapaio didn’t give any hints as to what his birther “Cold Case Posse” had found, but insisted his press conference was not driven by a desire to gain media attention. “I don’t have press conferences just to get my name on television,” he said.

“What should I do, throw it in the waste basket and forget about it, like everyone else is this country has done?” Arpaio said. “But once again, I take my elected sheriff’s status very serious, and when the people ask me to do something I try to do it regardless of the repercussions, the politics and the media.”

Arpaio knows he is in trouble with the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation and is also trying to “rally the birthers” for support.  To say that Arpaio is “America’s Toughest Sheriff” does not mean that he has integrity.  On the contrary, based on his narcissistic, unscrupulous and devious behavior over the years, Arpaio should be in prison.  Depending on the results of the Justice Department’s investigation, that may very well be the outcome, but that’s just my take.

The most extreme radical right-wing Conservative Republican talk show host is Rush Limbaugh who has been at the forefront in spewing racist comments and bigoted remarks especially concerning President Obama.  A couple of weeks ago, I published an article entitled, “Rush Limbaugh Continues His Race-Baiting Attacks on President Obama.”  Although many of Limbaugh’s comments have been “over the top,” none have been as reprehensible as the recent comments he made when he called Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, a “slut” and a “prostitute” for publicly advocating that employers cover contraception in their health plans.  Rather than apologize for his hateful comments, Limbaugh “doubled-down.”  Limbaugh said that he would “happily buy [Sandra Fluke] all the aspirin she wants “to put between her knees in lieu of contraception.  He then expanded his offer to the entire university:

“A Georgetown coed told Nancy Pelosi’s hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they’re going broke, so you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that? I called it what it is,” he said. “So, I’m offering a compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want.”

Fluke’s testimony at the House Democratic hearing was certainly not as Limbaugh claimed that she’s “having so much sex she’s going broke buying contraceptives.” She told the story of her friend who had an ovary removed because the insurance company wouldn’t cover the prescription birth control medication she needed to stop the growth of ovarian cysts.  Limbaugh is accustomed to making up his own “facts” but his disgusting tirade continued to accelerate insisting that if women want their contraception covered, they should post pornographic videos of themselves online. “So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal,” he said. “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”  Limbaugh might have a passion for pornographic materials to go with his repulsive thought process.

Limbaugh has a huge listening audience estimated at about 20 million people, many of them women.  Although he placates to the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, it is a mystery to me why any sane Republican woman would tolerate such condescending remarks from a man.  I imagine that most of Limbaugh’s audience either use or have used contraceptive devices.  Since he is now on his fourth wife and apparently has no children, he has probably been a candidate for contraceptive devices unless, of course, he practices abstinence or simply “can’t man up.”

Seventy-five members of Congress sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner expressing their anger at Limbaugh’s remarks and calling for Republican leaders to speak out.  None have.  I guess the leaders in the Republican Party are just too cowardly to speak out or basically not interested in defending women’s health issues especially regarding contraception.  House Speaker John Boehner within the past few hours has repudiated Limbaugh’s comments.”  Repudiation is good, but attacking the sources of his revenue has greater implication.

Limbaugh’s comments elicited such fierce condemnation that a campaign began on Twitter to ask Sleep Train to pull its commercials from Limbaugh’s show.  Sleep Train, one of the biggest mattress retailers in the country, has been targeted in the past for advertising on Limbaugh’s show.

Several advertisers announced today that they were pulling their commercials from Limbaugh’s radio show because of his inflammatory comments.  Mattress store Sleep Train said that it would no longer advertise during Limbaugh’s top-rated show following days of outrage over Limbaugh’s statements about Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student who was denied a chance to speak at a Congressional hearing about birth control.

“We are pulling our ads with Rush Limbaugh and appreciate the community’s feedback,” the company tweeted.

Also today, another mattress company, Sleep Number, tweeted through a spokeswoman that it had also pulled its ads from Limbaugh’s show.  “Recent comments by Rush Limbaugh do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program.”

Quicken Loans also pulled its advertising by tweeting, “Due to continued inflammatory comments– along w/valuable feedback from clients & team members– QL has suspended ads on Rush Limbaugh program.”

Other advertisers including ProFlowers are also fielding angry messages on Twitter. “Rest assured, your feedback is heard. We heard about the comments and we will reevaluate our marketing plan.” –Cori.  “We would like to assure you that we do not endorse the views expressed by Rush Limbaugh. We understand your concerns and value your feedback.”  According to Think Progress, eHarmony has also been fielding complaints and have said they are considering taking action as well.

Rush Limbaugh is by far one of the most disgusting and vile radio talk show hosts and should be fired.  His racist rants and disgraceful commentary over the years has been extreme and I believe has adversely affected the Republican Party.  One can readily understand why his first three wives dumped him.  Before long, his fourth wife, Kathryn, will probably realize the despicable personality Limbaugh is and will probably do what the previous three did, but that’s just my take.

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According to recent polls, Conservative Republican Rick Santorum is the new leader among Republican presidential candidates.  Over the years, Santorum has alienated people from just about every political constituency.  For example, here is what Santorum says about Gay Americans:  “Gay relationships destabilize society” and that he (Santorum) “wouldn’t offer any legal protections to gay relationships.”  If elected President, Santorum has pledged to annul all same-sex marriages.  (Not sure how he will accomplish this since marriages are legislated by the states.)  Santorum also said that, “the ultimate homeland security issue” is making sure sodomites and homosexuals cannot marry each other.  In a 2003 interview, Santorum likened sodomy to adultery, polygamy, and incest as “antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family”.  Santorum has compared the idea of homosexual marriage to “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be,” and said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”

During his recent campaign tour in Iowa, Santorum frequently compared same-sex relationships to inanimate objects like trees, basketballs, beer and paper towels and even tried to blame the economic crisis on Gay Americans.  Santorum said last August that religious people have a constitutional right to discriminate against gays:  “We have a right, the Constitution of religious liberty but now the courts have created a super-right that’s above a right that’s actually in the Constitution, and that’s of sexual liberty. And I think that’s a wrong, that’s a destructive element.”

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday last October, Santorum defended his support for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by saying that gay soldiers would disrupt the military because, “they’re in close quarters, they live with people, they obviously shower with people.” He also suggested that “there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore.”  Santorum is apparently saying that being gay is a “choice” that can be overcome.

Santorum has also alienated African Americans with his racist rhetoric and his obvious hatred for President Obama.  During an appearance on Christian television in January 2012, Santorum said he was surprised that President Obama didn’t know when life began — given his skin color. “I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.”

Also in January 2012, Santorum told an Iowa audience that, “Diversity creates conflict. If we celebrate diversity, we create conflict.”  He went on to say that, “Having that strong foundation of the faith and family allows America to be in a position where we can be more free. We can be free because we are good decent moral people.”  Although it’s difficult to understand the basis of Santorum’s comment, it appears that his concept of a “more free” America includes making Americans less dependent on government assistance such as food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of aid, especially African Americans.  After all, Santorum singled out African-Americans by saying, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families,” a comment he denies.  The number of Medicaid recipients has surged in recent years because of high unemployment and a weak economy, but the majority of recipients are white. Nationally, 43 percent of those who received Medicaid in 2009-2010 were non-elderly white Americans.  African-Americans make up only about 12 percent of that total population.  It is not surprising that Santorum routinely associates programs like food stamps and Medicaid with “black people” and as President, he will improve “American lives” presumably by making it harder for low-income families to eat and get necessary medical care.  A rather subtle form of racism.

Santorum has also alienated women, one of the largest electorate constituencies.  He says that he would repeal all federal funding for contraception, and he supports states laws to outlaw birth control, insisting that, “it’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”  Santorum also said that, “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”  Santorum would repeal federal funding for women’s contraception devices yet would not repeal federal funding for male vasectomies.  Since Santorum is so adamantly opposed to female contraceptive devices, I wonder what his stance is on condoms!

Santorum’s blatant attack on women with life-threatening pregnancies is disgusting.  During his time as a Senator in the 90s, the debate was not on banning abortion procedures but on what exceptions would be allowed under the law.  Santorum and some of his cronies “refused to allow an exception even to protect the woman from serious harm to her health,” but President Clinton refused to sign the bill without one.  Last June while discussing his record as a defender of partial birth abortion, Santorum dismissed exceptions other senators wanted to include to protect the life and health of mothers, calling such exceptions “phony.” “They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective,” he said.

Although there are a number of serious medical emergencies that might require a woman to terminate a pregnancy to protect her own health, Santorum and his allies said that “health is nothing but a loophole for women who would abort a pregnancy to fit into a prom dress.”  An outraged Santorum screamed that this procedure “is killing a little baby that hasn’t hurt anybody!”  But the whole point of a vote about a health exception is that this fetus — however unintentionally well or deformed — is hurting someone – the pregnant woman.

Given Santorum’s deep-seated opposition to women’s reproductive rights, he probably supports the proposed bill in Virginia that requires every woman seeking an abortion to undergo an invasive trans-vaginal ultrasound medical procedure whether she wants to or not.

Santorum claims that he is a Christian and espouses Christian principles, but given his extreme right-wing radical lies, hypocrisy and negative comments, his spirituality must be entwined with a different theology.  For example, Proverbs 6:16 talks about the things the Lord hates and include a lying tongue, a heart that devises wicked schemes, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.  While many of these characteristics can be applied to others in the Republican Party, Santorum continuously brings his religious beliefs into the campaign.  In recent remarks on the Glenn Beck show, Santorum’s wife, Karen, apparently received a revelation from God that husband Rick has been ordained by God to “save our nation from President Obama.”  And I thought Michelle Bachmann was the fanatical one.

Rick Santorum has such extreme radical views that less than 38% of the electorate views him favorably.  His overall “hatred” for and vilification of President Obama, his drastic position on Nation security including launching an attack on Iran, his position on education that kids shouldn’t go to college because they are being indoctrinated by liberal teachers that he blames on President Obama, his irrefutable desire to force his religious beliefs on all Americans, and his disgraceful comments on Gays, African Americans, and Women make him an undesirable choice.  Santorum’s rhetoric borders “craziness” and it’s frightening.  Consequently, there is no way that sensible Americans will ever elect Santorum President of the United States, but that’s just my take.

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