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Pro-immigrant activist Dennis Gilman's video of the nativists' May Day clambake.

Dennis Gilman, the bad-boy of the local pro-immigrant community, recently posted the video above of Rusty Childress' 2008 May Day demonstration at the state capitol, one I blogged about, here. This gathering of some 50 persons was attended by members of hate groups like Riders Against Illegal Aliens and United for a Sovereign America. It was supposed to be a counterdemonstration to a pro-immigration march, though there was no such march scheduled. (Whoops.) The demo was also meant as a sort of kick-off wing-ding for the recall of Mayor Phil Gordon by the PHX's anti-immigrant moonhowlers.

Gilman crashed the event, lending some tension to the otherwise dull happening. In fact, Gilman got the knuckledraggers so riled that the capitol police had to pull him aside at one point, likely for fear that the nativist knaves were about to jump him.

In his video, Gilman rightly wonders why anyone with two licks of sense would sign a recall petition circulated by these aggro losers, especially considering the way they were carrying around a sign with Gilman's name, address and phone number on it. (What do you think they might do with your address, should you sign their petition?) The video's almost like an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, minus the mansion. What kills me is the way these goons wrap themselves in Old Glory to help rationalize their xenophobia and hatred. The Confederate battle flag would be more appropriate for their cause.

The portly, hirsute guy in the red-white-and-blue do-rag who's pointing to the placard with Gilman's address on it is Buck Young, founder of the anti-immigrant bike group Riders Against Illegal Aliens. According to Childress' immigrationbuzz.com, Young was killed in a motorcycle accident just days after this video was shot, ironically on the evening of Cinco de Mayo. The immigrationbuzz.com item links to news reports about the collision, though these reports do not mention names. Apparently, Young was pinned under the car he crashed into, and died at the scene. Each news item mentions that neither Young nor the other driver were impaired in any way.

The guy was certainly a character, and I had relatively civil conversations with him on a couple of occasions. What he chose to stand for, however, was particularly pernicious. I mean, just look at the cartoon on his site, where a motorcyclist is chasing a brown guy with a bandanna on. Reminds me of that line from The Bard, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

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Check out a playlist of clips from Alex Jones' interview with Mesa conspiracy kook Karen Johnson, here.

Like you needed more proof that state Senator Karen Johnson is nuttier than Paula Abdul, Tom Cruise and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright combined, the Mesa Republitard recently appeared on Texas conspiracy king Alex Jones' radio show, fawning after the crackpot AM a-hole like a gushing schoolgirl and signing on to nearly every conspiracy theory since the assassination of Lincoln.

Johnson, of course, has penned op-eds of late defending some of the sicko lunacies of the 9/11 conspiranuts, who despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, persist in this insane notion that the Twin Towers were rigged with explosives. Many of them also subscribe to a host of other freaky fantasies, such as, the Pentagon was hit by a missile, Flight 93 was shot down or diverted to Cleveland (its passengers executed), a laser beam helped bring down the World Trade Center buildings, calls made from Flight 93 were faked using voice morphing technology, and on and on.

On Jones' show Johnson established she's battier than a vampire convention, stating that, "I've been a conspiratoriast [sic] for a long, long time," and that when 9/11 happened, she "questioned immediately -- is this another false flag [operation] like the Reichstag [fire]?"

See, Johnson, like other tinfoil-hatted "troofers," buys the line that 9/11 was an inside job, an attack staged to draw America into a war abroad and to establish dictatorial rule at home. In 9/11, Johnson perceives the hidden hand of a shrouded, nefarious organization.

"When you've got a cabal at the head of our country," she told Jones, "and has been there for years pulling the strings behind the scenes, I mean, whatever it takes to get what they want is what they do."

Who's in this cabal, one wonders? Neocons? The illuminati? Shape-shifting aliens from the planet Zatar? Johnson doesn't say. But she assured listeners that because of these sinister plotters, America will cease to exist by 2010, when it will have merged into a fabled North American Union with Mexico and Canada. And by gum, the Arizona State Legislature is threatening to pass a resolution opposing the NAU, one sponsored in part by the local nutbars at the John Birch Society. Thing is, there's not a shred of evidence this wing-nut nightmare is the impending reality these meshuggah-nauts claim it to be.

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Diablo Joe, pre-baton: The horns suit him.

Well, Monday was a thrilling Cinco de Mayo here in the Valley, with hundreds of anti-immigration nutbars baying at the moon and frothing at the mouth, all over three pinatas filled with candy. The pinatas -- two bearing the visage of our corrupt top constable and one of a Sheriff's truck -- were beaten to a paper mache pulp Monday evening as part of the kickoff celebration for the PUEBLO Center for Legal and Human Rights, a new pro-immigrant organization focused on youth activism.

PUEBLO's Ray Ybarra gives Diablo Joe the A-Rod treatment.

Knuckledraggers Phoenix-wide gnashed what few teeth they have left in common over radio reports that their Hispanic-tormentin' hero was to be bashed in effigy until that effigy's split innards bled candy. The rants of racist blowhards filled the airways and online forums. But the affair was actually a festive one, intent on fundraising for the new organization and its facility on the northeast corner of 13th Street and Van Buren. Folks bought raffle tickets for the chance to take a whack at a midget Devil Joe, or a bigger, black-clad Nickel Bag Joe. The MCSO truck was cool, too, but it didn't seem to inspire quite as much vigor on the part of participants for some reason.

The end result...

Asked about all the nativist hubbub on sites like those for KTAR 92.3 FM, home to bigoted morning lip-flapper Darrell Ankarlo, PUEBLO organizer Ray Ybarra was unapologetic.

"It amazes me that people are outraged if you put a picture on a pinata," said the Stanford Law School-educated 29-year-old. "But when somebody's separated from their family, when someone's going to the store, and they get pulled over, and the next thing you know is their children come home to an empty house, no one is outraged about that."

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I just got off the horn with former New Yorker and Republican activist Bob Haran, who today has severed ties with Anna Gaines' group American Citizens United, which yesterday announced a drive to recall Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Haran, who was the group's President, said he never agreed with Gaines' idea of recalling Phil and characterized the effort as futile, considering Gordon's landslide reelection victory last fall. Indeed, the first the ex-Marine heard that the recall was a reality, was through the media, he explained. In his statement, he labels it a divisive issue, writing,

"I fear that if this recall makes it to the ballot based on the issue of immigration it will be like pouring gasoline on a fire that is already dividing people by their skin color and I want no part of it."

Haran said the original idea behind American Citizens United was to create an organization that would have nothing to do with the racists and neo-Nazis infiltrating the anti-illegal immigration movement. But he charged that the group, under Gaines' watch, was now allowing anyone into its ranks.

"She's not a bad person," he told me, praising her patriotism and courage. "Naive might be the right word."

Haran's statement is below. I think it pretty much speaks for itself. After this, can we all agree this recall effort is dead in the water?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement by Bob Haran, former President, American Citizens United.

As the President and the person that came up with the name, American Citizens United, and the author of it's mission statement, I do hereby sever any connection with the group of people attempting to recall Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, calling themselves "American Citizens United."

The original name of the organization was, "Arizona Patriots Supporting Enforcement of Immigration Laws," and was founded by Anna Gaines and the web site was www.azpseil.cloverpad.org

While the organization was still using the name "Arizona Patriots Supporting Enforcement of Immigration Laws," it was agreed that Anna Gaines would be the Chair and Chief Executive Officer and I would be the President and Chief Operating Officer.

I came up with the name "American Citizens United" on April 19, 2008 and Anna Gaines, as chairperson, approved the name change on April 20, 2008, I wrote the organizations mission statement, which Gaines approved after minor changes on April 21, 2008. The mission statement was published under "about us" by Gaines on the azpseil web site the next day and listed me as President of the American Citizens United.

Shortly after agreeing on the name change and mission statement, Ms. Gaines first touched on the subject of recalling Phoenix Mayor Gordon. I explained to her that it was more important for the American Citizens United to get organized and build a strong foundation and write a set of by-laws to govern ourselves before we attempted any project as large as recalling the mayor of Phoenix. I didn't see any point in resorting to a recall that not only would be extremely difficult to get on the ballot and close to impossible to win, given the fact that Gordon had just been re-elected with 77% of the vote and would be sure to be well financed in a recall election. In short I thought the idea of a recall was ill conceived and a waste of time and effort with little chance of success.

I'm no supporter of Phil Gordon, I think he has been trying to pander to some extent to both sides of the immigration issue. He doesn't want to look like a supporter of illegal immigration but he also doesn't want to alienate Hispanic voters and therefore he has really done nothing but attempt to obstruct the enforcement of immigration laws by the Sheriffs Office. Would that be a cause for a recall, maybe. Would a recall at this time be beneficial to the people of Phoenix or to the immigration control movement, absolutely not. The have a recall election centered on the immigration issue in a city that is over one third Hispanic is dangerously divisive to the community at large and irresponsible to say the least.

One of the reasons American Citizens United was formed was to turn the immigration debate around from becoming an issue of race. Both Anna Gains and myself have been disturbed by those opposed to enforcement of our immigration laws attempting to label anyone who is pro-enforcement as racist, and we have also been troubled by white racist trying to hitch-hike on the immigration issue to advance their racist agenda. We wanted to form an organization that not only advocated illegal immigration control but also opposed racism and turning the immigration issue into a brown versus white issue. I fear that if this recall makes it to the ballot based on the issue of immigration it will be like pouring gasoline on a fire that is already dividing people by their skin color and I want no part of it.

The effort to recall Mayor Gordon by Anna Gaines and her fellow travelers has not been well thought out and is just an impulsive action that cannot lead to anything positive and at best would just be a wasted effort and at worst it would further divide the people of Phoenix over the issue of immigration based on a their ancestry.

With all due respect for Anna Gaines' patriotism and courage, recalling the mayor of Phoenix is a bad idea.

The mayor of Phoenix may be showing a lack of leadership on the immigration issue, but those calling for his recall are showing even less.

BOB HARAN

For more on this story, please see: "Wing-nutty Hobbit lady Anna Gaines attempts recall of Mayor Phil Gordon;" and, "Patriots Border Alliance's neo-Nazi love-fest; and why Anna Gaines' recall of Mayor Phil Gordon is doomed."

The photo from the PBA Web site honoring wheelchair-bound neo-Nazi Elton Hall.

What is it with nativist nutbars and neo-Nazis? Anti-immigrant a-holes always pitch a fit when referred to as racists. Yet their knees turn to jelly for swastika-lickers, no matter how ancient or feeble the National Socialist.

Take 74-year-old Elton Hall. (Please, take him.) An Arizona organizer for the American Nazi Party back in the day, he's now so radioactive that even Rusty Childress' hate-group United for a Sovereign America pretends the geriatric goosestepper no longer exists. Nevertheless, the neurosurgeons at Patriots Border Alliance, a group of minutemen who broke free from the leadership of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps honcho Chris Simcox last year, have a pic on their Web site showing the crackpot Hitler-lover in a wheelchair, surrounded by fawning fans.

The header and caption for the image read, "PATRIOTS' BORDER ALLIANCE HONORING ELTON HALL: In appreciation for your deactivated service, devotion, commitment to securing American borders and promoting THE RULE OF LAW." Sniff. Gets you all teary-eyed, don't it? All this affection for a dood who once bowed to ANP founder George Lincoln Rockwell, and who has no remorse for it, nor for his current icon-like status with kid skinheads.

The photo features an obviously injured Hall, presumably recovering from his hospital stay after being hit during a two-car collision at Bell Road and 25th Street, where he was protesting, along with other U.S.A. types, the nearby Macehualli Work Center. Encircling the old kook are all the usual suspects, folks you regularly see at nearly every anti-immigrant meet-up in the Valley. Among them, natch, is alleged public urinator Buffalo Rick Galeener, who commonly refers to nonwhites as "monkeys."

And if you think this neo-Nazi love-fest is wacky, check out the pics on the PBA site of the group's 2008 conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Looks like someone saw Mel Gibson's The Patriot one too many times. I'd have thought Civil War reenactment would've been more their bag, with PBA-ers done up like Confederates.

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Anna wowed 'em in Lord of the Rings...

Expect it to look like The Best of Jerry Springer down at City Hall Thursday morn, as anti-Hispanic Hispanic Anna Gaines and a pack of her nativist 'tard buds will be holding a press-conference at 9 AM to announce their intent to gather sigs for a recall of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. Gaines is a Hobbit-like lady who never waivers in her belief that the borders should have closed after she crossed over into El Norte. She's been closely affiliated in the past with the F.A.I.R.-sponsored offshoot You Don't Speak for Me, headed up by Al "StepinFetchit" Rodriguez, and until recently she was a fellow-traveler of bigot-boy Rusty "Crusty" Childress' anti-immigrant posse United for a Sovereign America, which has accepted such neo-Nazis as Mesa's Zeppelin-esque J.T. Ready and goosestepping geezer Elton Hall into its ranks.

Indeed, it was over the presence of Hall, as reported in last week's Bird column, that Gaines supposedly broke with U.S.A. to found her own group, which is either called American Citizens United, or AZPSEIL, Arizona Patriots Supporting Enforcement of Immigration Laws, depending upon which part of the Web site you're perusing. The curious thing is that Gaines' press conference is heavily publicized on Rusty Childress' hate-site immigrationbuzz.com, which certainly makes you wonder if Childress might be behind Gaines' new effort, or at least helping out. One of the worries U.S.A. members have had is that they've been tarnished by the neo-Nazi leanings of some of their colleagues, and the recent, alleged incident of public urination by U.S.A. member Buffalo Rick Galeener. Their great fear's been that they would be asked about such embarrassments by members of the Fourth Estate when they set about recalling Mayor Gordon, which this kooky crowd's been planning to do for some time.

Gaines' new group, whatever it calls itself, is not yet sullied by such dubious affiliations, though Gaines certainly mingled for some time with various far-right ne'er-do-wells at U.S.A. meetings before up and deciding that the 74-year-old Elton Hall, once an organizer for the American Nazi Party, offended her not-so-delicate sensibilities. Of interest also is the fact that the post on Childress' site pertaining to the press conference lists none other than anti-Mexican hot-head Keith "Loose Screw" Lefebvre as the contact person for American Citizens United. Regular FB readers may remember Lefebvre as the guy who outed himself as the poster "Smooth" on this site, then levied what reads like a threat at another poster.

"And I promise, you will be worth the assault charge, punk," Lefebvre told a foe in one entry. In another, he wrongly contended that, "Operation Wetback worked and it should be implemented IMMEDIATELY at a national level." There's a "Keith LeFevre" [sic] listed as state media coordinator on the ACU site. Can we assume it's the same class act?

To conclude, it's difficult to understand the motives of a self-loathing Latino such as Gaines, but think of her as the Clarence Thomas of the local nativist movement, minus the education, the status, or the Johnson. In any case, she's not to be regarded seriously. Even with the assistance of her fellow fruitcakes, her recall drive is doomed to failure. They have to score 23,751 valid sigs, 120 days from jump, and that ain't gonna happen. Back to Middle Earth for you, Anna. Give our regards to Gandalf, will ya?