At long last, have you no decency left, sir?

December 11, 2009 12:14 PM

Update on this topic about renegade Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Events are exploding.

Arpaio has indicted one judge who ruled against him (for "obstruction of justice"), and got a search warrant to search the office and home of another. Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals freed the sheriff's deputy who grabbed a defense lawyer's privileged papers literally behind her back, pending appeal, and blocked the search warrant on that judge.

And that's all just today....

posted by msalt to MetaFilter-Related at 12:14 PM (39 comments total)

Is there some reason you put this here instead of starting a new thread? No big deal either way, just curious.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:18 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

This seems interesting enough to me to go on the front page. And by interesting, I mean fucking crazy.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:20 PM on December 11, 2009 [4 favorites]

OK, will do. There was one thread started in November (with complaints about the October thread), and I didn't want to be newsfilter-ist, but I'm reassured.
posted by msalt at 12:21 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Man, that guy's a piece of work. Send in the freakin Feds and shut that racist SOB down. Let him have his Alamo, if that's what he wants. Surely one of these offences constitutes a Federal crime, right?
posted by Salvor Hardin at 12:22 PM on December 11, 2009

I'm glad you're making a post--I'd like to hear from the Arizonans, and not everybody reads MetaTalk.
posted by box at 12:23 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Mod note: If you're going to post to the front page I'd change the title but otherwise, yeah seems like a post people would like and really even the title is fine, but I think the less you can do to make the post less of a "look at this asshole!!" thing in tone the better it will be even though wow, look at that asshole.....
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:25 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

It seems to me that "wow, look at that asshole" is the only appropriate title.
posted by Kattullus at 12:28 PM on December 11, 2009 [6 favorites]

I am going to guess that "Christ, what an asshole" is going to be one of the first comments.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:30 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Well, so much for moving to Arizona.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:33 PM on December 11, 2009

jessamyn> Is there some reason you put this here instead of starting a new thread? No big deal either way, just curious.

So what's the guideline on that, by the way? Obviously, if a thread is still active and two days old, you're going to tell the poster to put his or her links in the old thread. If the thread is closed, obviously he/she is going to make a new post. Is there a time limit? Is it the age of the post or how long it's been since the last comment?
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 12:38 PM on December 11, 2009

Man, I wish I could just do whatever the fuck I wanted whenever the fuck I wanted.

I'd do all sorts of great stuff. At least, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't just continue to play video games all the time. and get drunk. I think.
posted by shmegegge at 12:39 PM on December 11, 2009

Whoa. I've seen plenty of assholes in my time. That there's a big 'un. I'm impressed.

When he dies, Hell is going to send a stretch limo.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:41 PM on December 11, 2009

I'm starting to really love this whole "MeTa thread results in MeFi thread which inevitably results in return to MeTa thread" trend we've got going on. It's like that play/movie Noises Off, where you have various actors running in and out of doors and crashing through windows until you're not even sure anymore whether you're onstage or off in the wings.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to fix up a plate of sardines...
posted by hermitosis at 12:44 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

That Grampa from Up sure turned out to be a dick.
posted by boo_radley at 12:57 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Love that play hermitosis.

My parents are in Phoenix. Arpaio was elected when I was in High School, and at first I really liked the guy. I liked when he built the Tent City, I liked the idea that people were actually being punished for crime instead of being coddled. I never paid much attention to it, I was too busy putting on Noises Off! at my High School (Seriously, what are the odds!)

Annnnnd then he went off the deep end. Last time I checked, my parents still like him. I try to avoid talking politics with my parents though. My mom is a fan of Glenn Beck, and thinks global warming is fake. So those kind of discussions tend to go badly.
posted by TooFewShoes at 1:00 PM on December 11, 2009

Arizonan here, but Pima, not Maricopa county. Please don't judge the state by the actions of this one racist, senile asshat. But feel free to judge Maricopa county/Phoenix for reelecting him all the damn time.
posted by nestor_makhno at 1:10 PM on December 11, 2009

Now that this worthwhile topic has taken its rightful spot on the blue, here's another public official in meltdown (like the Irish economy), Green Party TD Paul Grogarty indulging in some decidedly unparliamentary language in Dáil Éireann.
posted by Abiezer at 1:16 PM on December 11, 2009

HOLY SHIT
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:20 PM on December 11, 2009

Abiezer: "Green Party TD Paul Grogarty indulging in some decidedly unparliamentary language in Dáil Éireann"

WTC
posted by boo_radley at 1:22 PM on December 11, 2009

"Wow it's a man doing his job!!!!11!! Lets arrest him"

Can someone please filter out the Lib-Outrage-White-Noise here? From what I see, this is just an honest, hard-working lawman, upholding the law of his land. I bet if that was Algore grabbing back the Climategate emails, you dems wouldn't be having "teh heartattack (TM)"
posted by Damn That Television at 1:22 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've been taking a Berlitz class in Fascist, by the way. Any native speakers here to give me feedback?
posted by Damn That Television at 1:23 PM on December 11, 2009 [3 favorites]

also wha'ts the deal with airline food
posted by Damn That Television at 1:23 PM on December 11, 2009 [3 favorites]

UrineSoakedRube: "So what's the guideline on that, by the way? Obviously, if a thread is still active and two days old, you're going to tell the poster to put his or her links in the old thread. If the thread is closed, obviously he/she is going to make a new post. Is there a time limit? Is it the age of the post or how long it's been since the last comment"

Of course I don't know what the official guideline is, but I'd like to think it's something like this:

1. Is there already a thread open about it? Then post updates on the open thread.
2. Would it be a good front page post even if it wasn't a follow-up to a previous post? If not, then post the followup in MetaTalk (or nowhere).
3. Is it still a good front page post even though it's a follow up or along similar lines to previous post(s)? If not, then don't posted it. (e.g. OK, enough with LOLPALIN already.)

posted by FishBike at 1:24 PM on December 11, 2009

It would be awesome if Arpaio had slept with Tiger Woods.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:37 PM on December 11, 2009 [4 favorites]

Yeah, there's no firm line in the sand as far as what's a good vs. bad new post, but the questions FishBike lays out there are pretty good ones.

Generally speaking, if there's an open post on a given topic, followups should go in that thread. If there's no open post but there was a post that caught the community's attention and there's some followup/closure news about it, a Metatalk post is usually okay (with the caveat that they're not too common and that's what makes it okay when it does happen).

If there's big, big news—like substantial developments or explosion of the original topic—then a new post to the blue is often okay. But defining what qualifies as "big news" is hard, since it depends a lot on context (big political news during an off-election year vs. big political news in the middle of the general national election campaign) and what any given poster thinks qualifies as big news may vary from the general community take on same or our view as mods watching the overall trend in posting.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:41 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Also, a lot of the rest of the world doesn't care about stupid inside baseball American politicking, nor should they. Just another thing to check "is there anything here that might warrant useful discussion from an international audience?"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:46 PM on December 11, 2009

We can't ever go back to Arizona!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:49 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Makes sense. Thanks, FishBike, cortex, jessamyn.
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 2:00 PM on December 11, 2009

I bet if that was Algore grabbing back the Climategate emails

What's an algore, Dude?
posted by electroboy at 2:16 PM on December 11, 2009

What's an algore, Dude?

I heard he's got some rhythm.
posted by qvantamon at 2:22 PM on December 11, 2009 [3 favorites]

electroboy: Twenty dollars, same as in town.
posted by bzbb at 2:24 PM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: "wow, look at that asshole"
posted by Mitheral at 3:49 PM on December 11, 2009

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Arizona is the most racist, hateful, vile state in the union, a land of malls and corporate privateering and blacktop asphalt and gall. It's like the evil alternate-universe New Mexico with a little goatee and more cacti. I've never been to the South, but at least southerners seem to be aware of the controversy surrounding problems of racism, even if they're actually racist themselves; but when I was a kid and we traveled through Arizona, I remember more than once noticing restaurants obviously seating the brown people at the back-room tables away from the windows where the white people sat to make the joint look "classier" from the outside, and yet many Arizonans are so bent on forcibly removing brown people that 'little racism' like this isn't noticed. As a Coloradoan, I know this is a generally western problem, but it seems to me that Arizona is at the center of that problem. And even aside from the racism issues, Arizona is just so suburban America with its mile upon mile of fast-food chains and malls and utter shite. Tucson is a small oasis, but it's under siege, and I'm worried it'll get swallowed up soon enough.
posted by koeselitz at 3:57 PM on December 11, 2009

Meta

Un-meta?
posted by msalt at 4:31 PM on December 11, 2009

Just another thing to check "is there anything here that might warrant useful discussion from an international audience?"

I must be reading this wrong. Posts must be potentially interesting to *everyone*?

Arpaio- I think the person who said he was senile was right. The dude seems he went off the deep end. Whats worse is that he is doing that weird thing where the law-and-order patriotic types breed mistrust of the justice system when things don't go their way. Very insidious. Bad news. If there is anything more important to a functioning, free society than a justice system that most people more or less trust, I can't think of it.
posted by gjc at 5:39 PM on December 11, 2009

I must be reading this wrong. Posts must be potentially interesting to *everyone*?

Definitely not, but when you're posting about a local politics issue it's always good to do a reality check to think about whether the topic even could be interesting to someone else.

It's like when you see the occasional "Local restaurant closes!" post on MeFi. Sometimes there's a real story there that's interesting outside of the local regional appeal. Sometimes it's something that only locals would really appreciate or care about and everyone else is left sort of scratching their head wondering why it's on MeFi. People from non-US countries have to deal with this a lot on MeFi generally so it's never a bad idea to just remember they exist.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:43 PM on December 11, 2009 [2 favorites]

We can't ever go back to Arizona!
I would like to favorite this 1000 times

He's taken the knives!
posted by transporter accident amy at 7:27 AM on December 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

Just another thing to check "is there anything here that might warrant useful discussion from an international audience?"

I've travelled the world and the seven seas; everybody's looking for batshit.
posted by Anything at 9:04 AM on December 12, 2009

There is unquestionably a White Lightening vibe to this. Hopefully it will soon become more of a Smokey and The Bandit thing.
posted by davejay at 11:16 PM on December 13, 2009