Dust Storm Sweeps Across Arizona
It’s monsoon season in Arizona and that means it’s also the season for dust storms. The city of Phoenix was engulfed in a large dust cloud yesterday, significantly reducing visibility and causing thousands to experience power outages. Dust storms can reach up to a mile high and on Tuesday all flights were delayed until well after 9pm. This video shows how the large wall of dust swept across the Phoenix and other surrounding regions in Arizona.
LulzSec Hack Revealed Cops’ Least Favorite iPhone Apps
[Site editor's note: Even though, they seemingly have called it quits, an intriguing swan song ... ] Andy Greenberg writes in Forbes:
… I noted a new suite of police-policing apps including OpenWatch and Cop Recorder, which turn your phone into a “reverse surveillance camera” for secretly recording run-ins with authority figures. Now it appears that police are well aware of those programs and others that complicate law enforcement, and at least some cops are none too happy about them.
That’s one of the revelations … by the hacker group LulzSec, which dumped a cache of files that it stole from the Arizona Police Department, calling Arizona a “racial profiling anti-immigrant police state.” A pair of documents among the hundreds leaked show concerns about how smartphones are being used for everything from recording interactions with police to evading speed traps.
One document labelled “Law Enforcement Sensitive” lists the following apps, and warns officers…
LulzSec Leaks Arizona Law Enforcement Papers
Rob Beschizza writes on BoingBoing:
LulzSec announced Thursday evening the publication at Pirate Bay of a trove of leaked material from Arizona law enforcement agencies. Arizona’s Department of Public Safety confirmed shortly thereafter that it was hacked.
In the press release included with the dump, a LulzSec affiliate outlines a more activist agenda than is usually associated with the group:
We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.
The documents classified as “law enforcement sensitive”, “not for public distribution”, and “for official use only” are primarily related to border patrol and counter-terrorism operations and describe the use of informants to infiltrate various gangs, cartels, motorcycle clubs, Nazi groups, and protest movements.
Horror Filmmaker Keeps Dead Mother’s Body
The house from Alfred Hitchock's "Psycho". Photo: Poco a poco (CC)
This story seems like it came directly from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. It’s an interesting portrayal of life imitating art. Arizona Daily Star reports:
A Tombstone man was arrested Wednesday after authorities found the decomposed body of a woman believed to be his mother inside her home.
The Tombstone Marshal’s Office received a call Wednesday to do a welfare check on Jill Fattig, 68, at her home in Tombstone, said Marshal Billy Cloud.
A deputy went to the home but, when no one answered the door, he went to question the woman’s son, Timothy Fattig.
Fattig, 34, told the deputy that his mother was at a hospital in Tucson. When the deputy found this was not the case, he went back to Fattig, who eventually told him his mother had died about a year go.
After obtaining a search warrant, deputies found the skeletal remains of a woman…
‘Baja Arizona’ To Become 51st State?
The Week reports:
Liberal leaders in southern Arizona, tired of enduring conservative victories in their state legislature on everything from immigration to gun laws, have a plan: Break away and form a separate state known as Baja Arizona…
Iranian Book Celebrating Suicide Bombers Found in Arizona Desert
U.S. Border Patrol dune buggy in Arizona. Look who's riding shotgun!
This loaded article is sure to stir some controversy. Fox News reports:
A book celebrating suicide bombers has been found in the Arizona desert just north of the U.S.-Mexican border, authorities tell Fox News.
The book, “In Memory of Our Martyrs,” was spotted Tuesday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent out of the Casa Grande substation who was patrolling a route known for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs.
Published in Iran, it consists of short biographies of Islamic suicide bombers and other Islamic militants who died carrying out attacks.
According to internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents, “The book also includes letters from suicide attackers to their families, as well as some of their last wills and testaments.” Each biographical page contains “the terrorist’s name, date of death, and how they died.”
Agents also say that the book appears to have been exposed to weather in…
Arizona Shooting Victim Arrested After Threatening Tea Partier
The disease continues to spread. The “liberal” New York Times reports:
TUCSON — A victim of the shooting spree here that severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was taken into custody on Saturday after the police and witnesses said the man spoke threateningly at a televised forum intended to help this stricken city heal.
Tucson, AZ. Photo: Motorrad-67
Eric Fuller, 63, a military veteran who was passionate about liberal causes and who had supported Ms. Giffords, was “involuntarily committed for mental health evaluation,” according to Jason Ogan, a spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff’s office.
Mr. Fuller, who was shot in the left knee and the back on Jan. 8, was among several victims, medical personnel and others who attended a special forum televised by ABC and hosted by Christiane Amanpour.
State Representative Terri Proud, a Republican, was sitting two rows behind Mr. Fuller. The topic of gun control had come up in the forum, she said,…
Jon Stewart Reacts To The Arizona Shootings
Jon Stewart takes a moment to have a heart-to-heart with his viewers on the cycle of craziness and patriotism after the Arizona tragedy. As he stumbles through trying to make sense of the incident he reminds us that whether politics or visual violence was a factor behind the motivation of the killings, “you cannot out smart crazy.”
Arizona Passes Prop 203, Legalizing Medical Marijuana, In Surprise Outcome
A major elderly population means major glaucoma issues, which spells Arizona unexpectedly becoming the 15th state to legalize pot for medical use. Via CNN:
Almost two weeks after polls closed, Arizona voters have approved a medical marijuana law, state officials said Monday.
The close vote — by a margin of 4,341 votes — will be certified by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on November 29, said spokesman Matthew Benson. A ballot count from Maricopa County over the weekend allowed state officials to provide the results, he said.
Arizona becomes the 15th state, along with the District of Columbia, to have passed a medical marijuana law since 1996, said a spokesman with the advocacy group Medical Marijuana Project. The Arizona law will allow patients with “debilitating medical conditions” to use cannabis if they have a recommendation from their physician.
Arizona’s Proposition 203, approved 841,346 to 837,005, will allow about 120 clinics to dispense marijuana…
Private Prison Industry Helped Draft Arizona Immigration Law
Arizona state Sen. Russell Pierce. Photo: Phoenician Patriot (CC)
Maybe this is what Tea Baggers mean by “leaner, more efficient government”? Privatising the process altogether? Alex Pareene at Salon explores Arizona’s sell out of its citizens to the highest corporate bidder:
When it comes to creating demand for a previously unnecessary service and making a profit by any means necessary, you can’t beat the private sector. So no one should be surprised that the private prison industry is in part responsible for the Arizona immigration law that requires state law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law (read: lock up anyone suspected of being Hispanic until and unless they can prove their citizenship). NPR investigated the prison industry’s role in drafting and passing SB 1070. It’s pretty depressing.
Corporations and interest groups like R.J. Reynolds, ExxonMobil, the NRA, and the Corrections Corporation of America host a regular conference for state legislators in DC. At last…
Arizona Turns Off Speed Cameras Due to Privacy Complaints; Admits Design to Generate Revenue
Finally, Sammy Hagar can drive in the State of Arizona worry-free (unless he’s wearing that yellow outfit again, he deserves to be pulled over for that).
In all seriousness, I’ve always suspected these cameras were more about making money than any “public safety” concern, and it really looks like the reason for abandonment in Arizona was civil disobedience over ticket payment by a large majority of Arizona’s speedsters. (Although apparently there is an incident of murder reported below.) Alex Spillius writes in the Telegraph:
Arizona has turned off every speed camera on its highways after complaints that they violated privacy and were designed to generate revenue rather than promote road safety.
A spokesman for Jan Brewer, the state’s Republican governor, said she “was uncomfortable with the intrusive nature of the system”, which was inherited from her Democratic predecessor. Opening in October 2008, the scheme was first in the United States to use speed cameras across a whole state. Amid objections of Big Brother-ism, numerous cameras were vandalised, while the operator of a van carrying a mobile camera was shot dead in a lay-by in April 2009.
The 76 cameras took 2.7 million photographs, but only 16 percent of drivers who received a speeding ticket paid up.
Obama vs Arizona
President Barack Obama, along with the Justice Department, filed a lawsuit against the state of 
Arizona for the passing of an immigration law that would allow the failure of carrying proper documentation subject to arrest. This lawsuit may be taken to court as early as today. Making this the sixth lawsuit against Arizona, many people have argued that the law allows local law enforcement to hassle citizens based on racial profiling.
Arizona has argued, and fine-tuned the law, to emphasize the fact that officers will not perform random spot checks, but will enforce the law once someone has brought attention to themselves because of another law-breaking action. This questions if “reasonable doubt” could easily be jaywalking, broken tail light, etc. Although this law has been widely contested throughout the country, according to Los Angeles Times, Arizona has already received $120,000 in private donations throughout the nation,to defend the law. In President…
Vote For Pamela Gorman Or Get Shot
The message of this television spot for Pamela Gorman, running for a seat in Arizona’s state congress, seems to be, “Vote for me, or I’ll shoot you.” It actually seems like an imitation of militia/Al-Qaeda training videos, but with more puns thrown in — she has my vote.
Arizona School Demands Black & Latino Faces On Mural Be Changed To White
Artists Pamela J. Smith and R.E. Wall, also the project's director, sit in front of their “Go on Green” mural on Wednesday outside Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott. Source: AZcentral.com
Thanks to long-time disinfo-friend Richard Luckett for sending this gem our way, from AZCentral.com via Wonkette.com:
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity. But the school’s principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.
The “Go on Green” mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.
R.E. Wall, director of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Project, said he…
Arizona Uses Puppet Video To Sell Immigration Law
What is wrong with Arizona?!? By Jordan Fabian for The Hill:
Who knew that Kermit the Frog was this into politics. The campaign of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has put out a video that features a frog puppet — that looks much like the famous Sesame Street character — to help sell the state’s controversial immigration law.
The frog encourages opponents to read the immigration law before criticizing it.
Some may scoff, but the law has boosted Brewer in the polls over her Democratic opponent, Terry Goddard.
Watch it here:
70 Percent of Americans Favor Letting Local Police Stop People In Order To Verify Citizenship
WTF America? This poll was taken at the end of April. It’s interesting how many of these poll-takers believe immigration (in itself — legal or illegal — according to this poll) hurts the United States. Would have liked to see the question asked how many of these people are still concerned about terrorism, but I guess since Wall Street managed to destroy our economy (including millions of jobs and people’s life savings) economic concerns are overriding security ones. Reports UPI:
Seven in 10 U.S. adults support arresting people who can’t prove they’re in the United States legally, a poll about Arizona’s new immigration law indicated.
The Angus Reid Public Opinion poll of 1,002 American adults asked respondents if they’d want four guidelines in Arizona’s immigration law enacted in their own state.
Feel free to add the entire state of Arizona to this map. Source: ACLU
The law, the nation’s toughest, seeks to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants and gives police broad powers to stop people on suspicion of being in the United States illegally.
Seventy-one percent of poll respondents said they’d support requiring their own police to determine people’s U.S. status if there was “reasonable suspicion” the people were illegal immigrants, the poll found.
Hey Arizona, Don’t Mess With This Mexican: Robert Rodriquez’s Political ‘Machete’ Trailer (Video)
Here’s writer/director Robert Rodriquez’s “special Cinco de Mayo message to Arizona” cut from his upcoming film Machete. Yeah I wouldn’t mess with Danny Trejo, don’t know about you or the folks in Arizona…
Gringo Masks for Mexican Arizonans
A little humor goes a long way to make a good point. Via animalnewyork:
Fight the pale-skin power. In response to Arizona’s new draconian SB 1070 immigration law, Zubi, an independent Hispanic advertising firm with offices in L.A., Dallas, Miami, and Detroit, has launched a microsite, Gringo Mask, to offer “support and dignity to the Hispanic community in the United States.”
Is Voter Suppression Behind Arizona’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Law?
Greg Palast in a guard tower looking out on Joe Arpaio's jail in Maricopa County, Arizona. Photo: Greg Palast/Truthout (CC)
BBC journalist Greg Palast has written a new article for TruthOut suggesting that perhaps the real reason for the insane-o “Papieren, bitte” (that’s “Papers, please” to you non-Nazis) law in Arizona is not actually about illegal immigration, so much as it is about voter suppression of LEGAL Hispanic residents.
If past trends in that state are any indicator, he may not be far off the mark. He writes:
What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote — and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.
In 2008, working for Rolling Stone with civil rights…
