[continued from previous message]   
      
   Sheriff willfully and intentionally violated the judge’s order.”   
      
   As Investor’s Business Daily editorialized at the time, the decision to   
   prosecute Joe Arpaio smacked of hypocrisy, injustice, and legal   
   gymnastics involving one Thomas Perez, current foul-mouthed head of the   
   Democratic National Committee and former Obama administration DOJ official:   
      
   The administration that refused to enforce voting rights law in the New   
   Black Panther case is going after America's best-known sheriff for what   
   it calls discriminatory policing practices involving Hispanics…   
      
   With a thoroughness not seen in Justice's handling of the "Fast and   
   Furious" federal gun-running debacle that resulted in the murder of   
   Border Patrol agent Brian Terry a year ago, Assistant Attorney General   
   Thomas E. Perez, head of the department's Civil Rights Division, listed   
   Arpaio's alleged excesses and said a three-year civil investigation   
   found that the sheriff and his deputies engaged in unconstitutional   
   conduct and violations of federal law that jeopardized his "commitment   
   to fair and effective" law enforcement…   
      
   No doubt Arpaio has been under scrutiny for some time. But the timing of   
   the announcement is curious, not only because of the announced Supreme   
   Court review of SB1070, but also because it can be seen as another   
   attempt to rally the president's Hispanic base as we enter an election   
   year, and to portray border security advocates as racist and anti-Latino.   
      
   If the name Thomas Perez sounds familiar, it should: Perez was heavily   
   involved in the decision to drop the voter intimidation case against   
   members of the New Black Panther Party. Perez testified before the U.S.   
   Civil Rights Commission that "the facts did not constitute a   
   prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes."   
      
   The fact is that Joe Arpaio was in fact enforcing federal law as   
   originally written, only to have the Obama administration rewrite the   
   law in order to prosecute Arpaio. Under the federal government’s 287(g)   
   program, Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office was authorized   
   and trained to enforce federal immigration law and ask those suspected   
   of a crime their immigration status:   
      
   Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quickly piled on.   
   "Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust,"   
   she said. "DHS will not be a party to such practices.   
      
   "Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating (the   
   Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's) 287(g) jail model agreement and is   
   restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office access to the Secure   
   Communities program."…   
      
   DHS has memoranda of agreement (MOAs) with around 70 state and local law   
   enforcement agencies to participate in 287(g) partnerships to enforce   
   federal law. Under the 287(g) program, Arpaio's deputies could question   
   jail inmates about their immigration status.   
      
   What makes this case interesting, as the Washington Examiner's Byron   
   York has reported, is that in September 2008, nine months before DOJ   
   first informed Arpaio of its investigation, Immigration and Customs   
   Enforcement (ICE) conducted its own investigation of Arpaio's office and   
   procedures and found nothing inappropriate or illegal.   
      
   Perhaps if Arpaio had given away the nation’s secrets, or been an   
   international felon like the Clinton-pardoned Marc Rich, or been a New   
   Black Panther intimidating Philadelphia voters in 2008, McCain, Flake,   
   and Ryan might have a case. But they don’t. Joe Arpaio was and is a   
   patriot fighting to protect our nation’s borders from invasion and was   
   acting in good faith in enforcing federal laws it was originally   
   written, not as reinterpreted by a liberal judge.   
      
   Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in   
   Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago   
   Sun-Times among other publications.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)