Sheriff Arpaio Call Your Office

Frequent reader(s) of this blog are haunted in the deep and silent night by the filmy specter of commitment, and lie restlessly in their beds, nearing blessed sleep, but watching it flit soundlessly away as they long for the morning and the warming rays of rationalization...erm...we mean will recognize the name Sheriff Joe Arpaio America's Sheriff ^tm. Now, we have to admit when we introduced you to Sheriff Joe we figured, well, Arizona, you know? Something about the dry heat apparently acts on the normal firing of neurons in the brain and produces cascading failures which result in, well, Arizonians.

However, that explanation no longer fits the facts as we have discovered Michigan has its own version of Sheriff Joe.

Eaton County Sheriff Mike Raines is part of a burgeoning nationwide movement that sees the county sheriff as the last line of defense against an overreaching federal government.

And all this time we thought the Sheriff's job was to catch criminals and such.  Eaton county is just a couple of counties over from the World Headquarters of IM Central and we have driven though the Duchy of Raines on several occasions and have been guilty of overreaching the limits on vehicular velocity. Good thing we aren't the federal government.

The sheriff has the power to stand in the way and can help restore the U.S. Constitution as the “supreme law of the land.” Silly us. All that time we spent in Civics class learning that it was the ultimately the Supreme Court that decided how to interpret the Constitution and here it was Sheriff Mike all along. Wonder if Scalia knows that.

Raines said it would be his duty to turn away a federal agent from the county — including an Internal Revenue Service auditor — if the agency was “overstepping (its) bounds.” When asked how the IRS could overstep its bounds, Raines said he wasn't exactly sure, but he basically "just don't like them revenuers."

“A lot of people think they’re losing their rights,” Raines said in a recent interview. “If we can get back those rights, one county at a time, it would be better for all the people in the U.S.”

Uh, Sheriff Mike? A lot of people think Mitt Romney killed Osama bin Laden, so that may not be your strongest argument.

Raines was among nearly 100 sheriffs from across the country who earlier this year attended the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association’s first-ever convention in Las Vegas. A second convention, also in Las Vegas, is scheduled to begin today. Raines said he is not able to go. Organizers expect about 75 sheriffs who weren’t at the first convention to attend. There are more than 3,000 sheriffs in the U.S.

Hmm...a 100 Sheriffs out of 3000, and about 75 make it to the convention. The rest are getting their medications rebalanced we suppose, but we're thinking professional journalist, trained the the journalistic science of journalism Kevin Grasha, author of this article doesn't know the meaning of the word "burgeoning."

One particular right Raines and other “constitutional sheriffs” focus on is the right to bear arms. They believe it’s in jeopardy. “Get on the news, and you’ll find there’s always been a threat to take Second Amendment rights away,” Raines said. “There’s always been a threat out there.” He wasn’t specific, but said he’s heard about legislation that would take away Second Amendment rights.

 In Sheriff Mike's defense, we often see stories on the news that are not specific. Why just the other day we saw one that was about a tiger cub being born at a local zoo. Now, that wasn't specifically about them coming for your guns, but you never know.

The constitutional sheriffs association’s founder, Richard Mack, was sheriff in Graham County, Ariz., more than a decade ago.

Wait, this whole movement was started by a sheriff from Arizona? Back to our original theory.