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He ain’t a witch, but rather a warlock. But wicked he is. He is poster boy for everything that is wrong in America, and the worst of law enforcement.

I speak of course about of Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff, known for his “camps” for arrested undocumented aliens in Arizona. Arizona of course is home to the draconian immigration law that served to galvanize the Right in its attempt to prove tough on immigration.

Joe, has endorsed Ricky Perry for President by the way, which tells you a lot about how desperate Ricky is these days.

As is true of many small communities,  El Mirage contracts out for police services. The county sheriff may have several communities that it serves in this fashion. Internal investigations show that Joe and his crew failed to investigate some 32 claims of sex abuse, one at least involving a child aged two. Need we add that almost all of the reports were made by undocumented workers? This, while suspects were KNOWN in all but six cases.

All told, some 400 cases were ignored state-wide.

This is what Arpaio thinks justice is about. Of course, given the calls for his resignation, he is apologetic now.

“If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims,” the sheriff said in his office’s most detailed public comments about the cases.

If?

I apologize, but frankly, should I find Mr. Arpaio along the highway in need of assistance, I would be hard-pressed not to just walk on by.

♦

I suppose you have heard.

The Donald has shaken “The Hair” and much like Sarah, decided that people aren’t paying him enough attention–again. So the Donald has manufactured a “debate” and he will be the moderator. All the usual clown candidates have been to visit the Donald in his throne room and kissed his ring, though for the life of me, I don’t know why.

To their credit, both Paul and Huntsman have said, thanks but no thanks and called it what it is, a circus led by the chief clown.

Go and read Joe Klein’s great piece on the meeting of the Grifter and the Hair. But we could not let you miss this great statement by the Paul campaign:

“We agree, of course, with former Speaker Gingrich — this is a country of people of enormous talent. Those who deliver thousands of babies like Dr. Paul and those who spend their time focusing on promoting themselves for profit. We even have those who lobby, but don’t call it such because, as they say, they can make $60,000 per speech. While those of us in the Paul camp might disagree with Newt Gingrich about whether Donald Trump is the right man to host a serious political debate, we do agree New York is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. We are sure two average Americans like Speaker Gingrich and Donald Trump will have a wonderful time picking out gifts for their wives. We suggest a place called Tiffany’s, we hear it is quite nice this time of year and given their celebrity status they can probably get special deals and $500,000 lines of credit.”

Oh, if only I could make money doing this, it is just so much fun. Klein, by the by isn’t all anti Gingrich. He claims that Gingrich’s ideas about child labor came from him, albeit in a rather different mode, one that on its face would be rational. Klein doesn’t point out strongly enough that Newt twisted his idea and turned it into something that reflects his true feelings about African-Americans and the poor in general.

♦

I’m packing my bags.

I’m getting my bus ticket.

I’m heading to Kepler 22-b.

It’s sista-earth to you not in the know. It’s got a sun in the sweet spot. It’s our long-lost kin.

It’s a big sista, and has a median temperature of 22C. I have no idea what that is, since here in America we don’t bother to learn anything about celsius. But it sounds good.

I figure it would be a nice place to spend Christmas. Wonder if they have any ham there?

It’s only 600 light-years away, so I figure a couple of days by bus.

♦

We kinda figure that Scott Walker, temporary Governor of Wisconsin, is feeling the love. I mean with only twelve days in, the “fire the turd” Wisconsonites have managed to garner over half the signatures needed to throw the bum out.

So, Scotty (please beam me up Mr. Koch) Walker, has decided that a suspension of freedom to assemble and petition the government is in order.

A group of 4 or more (a family in other words) must obtain permission to gather in state buildings. And groups of a 100 or more may be charged with police costs and clean-up.

According to Michael Moore, this is only slightly less draconian than policies in place in Brunei, which has come under criticism by Human Rights organizations.