'White Only," a Revealing Poll and Some Good News

In a creative twist to "I'm not racist," an Ohio landlord defends the above sign she had hanging on the gate to her pool: "I'm not a bad person," said Jamie Hein of Cincinnati. “I don’t have any problem with race at all. It’s a historical sign.”  The sign is dated 1931 and from Alabama.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission, however, found that Hein did indeed violate the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign. Hein has asked the commission to reconsider the decision: "I've never said anything to that child . . . . If I have to stick up for my white rights, I have to stick up for my white rights. It goes both ways."

Despite her lame attempts to hide her racism, Heim just might get her wish. Not every case is black and white. 

Hear ye, hear ye - what's in a poll?

A shout out to Congress, especially to those on the right side of the aisle (but Democrats don't have a hell of a lot to brag about):

Fifty percent of those surveyed by Pew said that they believe the 112th Congress has accomplished less than other Congresses – and of those saying this Congress has been unproductive, 40 percent say Republican leaders bear most of the blame. Thirty-two percent said leaders of both parties are equally at fault, and 23 percent said Democratic leaders are more to blame.

Republicans also do not fare well when it comes to the public’s perceptions of the GOP’s ability to work together with Democrats. Fifty-three percent of respondents in the Pew poll said the Republican Party is “more extreme” than the Democratic Party in its positions; 51 percent said that Democrats are more willing to work together with the other side; 41 percent viewed Democrats as better able to manage the government; and 45 percent called the Democratic Party “more honest and ethical.”

Some good news this week:

Besides the end to the Iraq war - welcome news to everyone except John McCain - we have the SEC finally doing what it should have done a long time ago:

The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages the mortgage giants held during the housing bust.

Those charged include the agencies' two former CEOs, Fannie's Daniel Mudd and Freddie's Richard Syron. They are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

Mudd, 53, and Syron, 68, led the mortgage giants when the housing bubble burst in late 2006 and 2007. The four other top executives also worked for the companies during that time.

The case was filed in federal court in New York City.

Also long overdue, the Department of Justice has issued a report accusing Phoenix sheriff Joe Arpaio, Phoenix's answer to Adolf Hitler, of “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.”

The inquiry’s findings paint a picture of a department staffed by poorly trained deputies who target Latino drivers on the roadways and detain innocent Latinos in the community in their searches for illegal immigrants. The mistreatment, the government said, extends to the jails the department oversees, where Latino inmates who do not speak English are mistreated.

“The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing,” the report said, “along with the deviations from widely accepted policing and correctional practices, and the failure to implement meaningful oversight and accountability structures, have contributed to a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations.”

If  America's toughest sheriff refuses to enter into a court approved settlement agreement, he will get slapped with a lawsuit and his empire could lose millions of dollars in federal money.

I expressed my total loathing of this man back in August 2010:

Arpaio doesn't count sheep at night. He counts Latinos and three Latinos are three Latinos too many. His ego is bigger than his paunch, so even after a restless night's sleep with nightmares of brown men refusing to shine his patrol car, he still has the energy to do a cheap imitation of John Wayne for the media.

But Arpaio is no Grade B actor in a Grade B movie playing the part of the bad guy. He is the real thing - a malicious brute. He uses chain gangs, deliberately humiliates inmates by forcing them to wear pink underwear, houses prisoners in tents with temperatures of over 110 degrees, and, he makes sure medical care is only a dream.

To say that Arpaio is obsessed with immigration is to say that a ballet dancer is obsessed with staying fit and trim.

My idea of a suitable punishment for Arpaio is to dress him in pink undies, put him in a stockade out in the middle of the Sonoran Desert without benefit of food, water or toilet facilities until he's reduced to a pile of  dried up shriveled bones.