"Tempe Cesspool for the Arts"

For that matter I don't even think he was every charged with a crime.

I think the Tempe City Prosecutor claimed that there was only a small chance that his good buddy Harry Mitchell would be convicted so he didn't bother to charge him with a crime.

You have heard the line that the winners of war get to write the history books. And that certainly is true about the Civil War.

At the time of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln was probably the WORST PRESIDENT in the history of the USA, but sadly the American government has rewritten the history books and glorified Abraham Lincoln as one of the best Presidents in American history.

Abraham Lincoln's Emaciation Proclamation gets credit for freeing the American slaves, but that is another big lie.

If you read the Emaciation Proclamation it didn't free any slaves in the Union States, nor did it free any slaves in the Southern States that were occupied by the Union armies. The Emaciation Proclamation only freed slaves in Southern States which had not yet been conquered by the Union Armies.

The slaves were not legally freed in American until the 13th Amendment was passed, and that was after Lincoln was dead.

Crook Harry Mitchell glorifies fellow crook Ben Arredondo

Ben Arredondo, FBI Sting Target, Compared To Abraham Lincoln By Former Congressman

Posted: 01/17/2013 11:57 am EST | Updated: 01/17/2013 12:05 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- An Arizona politician who accepted bribes from undercover FBI agents is kind of like President Abraham Lincoln, former Rep. Harry. E. Mitchell (D-Ariz.) contended in a letter made public this week.

Former state Rep. Ben Arredondo (D) was indicted last May on bribery, fraud and attempted extortion charges. The feds said that as a Tempe, Ariz., councilman, Arredondo accepted thousands of dollars in sports tickets from undercover agents during an FBI sting operation. In exchange for the tickets, Arredondo set up meetings with city officials in Tempe and gave the undercover agents tips on how to maneuver the city's bureaucracy. He pleaded guilty to honest services fraud and mail fraud in October and resigned from the state legislature. Federal prosecutors want him sent to prison for 30 to 37 months when he is sentenced on Jan. 23.

Arredondo's lawyers filed a sentencing memorandum on Wednesday arguing he should be kept out of prison and attached several letters of support. One of those letters was from Mitchell, who thought the judge might benefit from seeing Daniel Day Lewis' performance as the 16th president in Steven Spielberg's latest blockbuster.

"In the recent movie 'Lincoln' one is struck by the number of actions taken by President Lincoln that were of questionable legality but justified because they resulted in the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution that ended slavery," Mitchell wrote.

"I do believe that many of Ben's actions were more to further his legislative agenda of helping those in need than for helping himself," he continued. "While his actions did result in relatively small illegitimate personal gains they also resulted in larger legitimate gains for those who needed assistance. This does not justify the actions but helps explain why a person of such standing stooped to such means."

Arredondo might not have been working to free generations of African-Americans from enslavement, but he was helping some kids attend school through a scholarship program he ran when he served on the city council. The problem, say prosecutors, is that 48 percent of the scholarship money sent to Arizona University benefited six of Arredondo's relatives.

Most of the case against Arredondo centers on approximately $6,000 worth of sports tickets he received from executives from Longford Solutions, a fake FBI company. Undercover agents presented themselves as New York executives interested in buying up Tempe real estate.

Based on public information requests and interviews with individuals familiar with the case, Talking Points Memo reported in June that well-known Arizona lobbyist Mike Williams was first to introduce Arredondo to representatives of Longford Solutions. Court documents filed in the Arredondo case have recently confirmed Williams' involvement with the case.

Williams lobbied several members of the state legislature on behalf of Longford Solutions in 2009, but other than Arredondo, none of them were ever charged with any wrongdoing. Selected transcripts of Williams' one-on-one conversations with an undercover FBI agent known as "Bill Monahan" published by federal prosecutors and Arredondo's defense team don't shed much light on whether additional lawmakers or lobbyists will be charged in connection with the Arredondo probe.

Mitchell, the former congressman, did not respond to a request for comment about the letter he wrote on Arredondo's behalf. Arredondo was a student of Mitchell's when Mitchell was a high school teacher and currently lives near him. Mitchell's son also shared an office with Arredondo when they were both on the Tempe City Council.

Mitchell was first elected to Congress in 2006 and served until 2010. His full letter is embedded below.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Source

The Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

A Transcription

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; [i.e. the Emaciation Proclamation only applied to the Southern States which had succeeded from the Union and did NOT apply to the Northern states still part of the Union] and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. [Those places were under Union control and the slaves in them were not freed]

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.