Crazy & dangerous in Arizona

Arizona's best known neo-Nazi, J.T. Ready of Phoenix, is as dangerous as he is crazy. Yesterday, according to the Arizona Daily Star, he asked people to bring "plenty of firearms and ammo" to a 24-hour operation that he was setting up in Pinal County,north of Tucson. He said he wanted a "show of force and solidarity of concerned patriots ... to stand the line near Interstate 8 to show the world that the line in the sand has been drawn." He talked about placing snipers in position.

One would think that Pinal Country Sheriff Paul Babeu (yes, the guy that did that deceptive commercial at the Nogales fence with immigration flip-flopper John McCain) would have had a fit over the Ready event. But he was wishy-washy about it. He said he discouraged this operation that would "not be helpful, " but he said he was appreciative of the offer to take up arms and patrol. He added that he did not have enough deputies to send a monitor team.

Ready also said, "Armed narco-terrorists are bringing in loads of chemical warfare into our nation. These incursions should be treated no less serious than Al-Qaeda terrorists smuggling Sarin nerve agent into our population centers."

The Star article reports that Ready is "an ex-Marine who was twice court-martialed and received a bad-conduct discharge, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was arrested in Florida in 1992 for aggravated assault with a weapon and damage to property, according to a 2006 Arizona Republic story. In 2008, three Arizona Republican legislators called for Ready's removal from a party precinct committee in Mesa's legislative District 18 because of his ties to the National Socialist Movement. Ready has regularly pitched the idea of putting minefields along the U.S.-Mexico border as a security solution."

Sigh. Just another one of those days in Arizona in 2010 that remind me of Mississippi or Alabama in the 1960s.