Crackdown on Ignorance Should Target Arizona Lawmakers

Governor Jan Brewer said the Arizona police would not use racial profiling, even though the whole point of the immigration bill she signed into law yesterday is to racially profile and harass Hispanics. Brewer was expected to receive the endorsement of racist groups in Arizona and across the country, and the overwhelming support of those who post misspelled, incoherent gibberish on online message boards.

The bill appears to weaken the chance of Republicans ever attracting one Hispanic vote in this country, although they apparently hope it will appeal to Hispanics with low self-esteem who support being stopped by police for no apparent reason.

State Senator Russell Pearce is uniquely qualified to be the sponsor of the new law. When Pearce posed for a photo with a man who was a featured speaker at a neo-Nazi conference, he said he didn't know that the man was a neo-Nazi, although you would think the swastika might have been a tip-off. Arizona police did not say if they will use a German accent when they racially profile Hispanics and demand they "show us your papers!".

Pearce helped burnish his credentials in 2006, when he praised a 1950's federal deportation program called Operation Wetback that could open up the possibility of police deporting anyone who might be sweating on a lovely 110 degree day in Phoenix.

And Pearce once "inadvertently" sent an email to supporters with an attachment by a white supremacist group. The only person who could "inadvertently" attach a white supremacist document is someone who could pose with a neo-Nazi and not know he's a neo-Nazi.

In a related move, Senator John McCain sold his soul to the devil. After a lifetime of fighting immigration measures like this, McCain supported the bill and answered the question of which John McCain he is now. Apparently, he's the John McCain who voted against making Martin Luther King's birthday a federal holiday in 1983.

The Arizona immigration bill signed into law yesterday almost makes the stupidity and vileness of the "Obama is a Socialist, Communist, Nazi Fascist" signs at Tea Party rallies, and the mind-blowingly vapid and mean ramblings of Michele Bachmann ("We have a gangster government in Washington") pale in comparison. Those are just disgusting words. What Arizona has done is a disgusting deed.

So until Arizona repeals this un-American bill, the closest I'm going to get to the Grand Canyon is looking at a photo of it in an old National Geographic.

 

Comments

[Berettasskeeter]

12:22 PM on 05/14/2010

What's wrong, moderator? Shall I try again?!
The author's comments are generally pretty funny, as there are no facts in the article to back up his bigoted remarks. The law in question is simple, and protects the rights of citizens while aiding in the removal of illegal aliens. There is ZERO evidence to support any claim of racism, which the author knows full well. Therefore, he makes use of innuendo to support his claim of racism.
If it weren't so pathetic, it would be humorous!
Semper fi

[Clyde Mcjohnston]

08:57 PM on 05/13/2010

POLITICAL DREAM TEAM = JAN BREWER AND JOE ARPAIO

GETTING AMERICA RIGHT AGAIN !

[JustoLeal]

04:16 PM on 05/11/2010

Re Russell Pearce, legislative lead on AZ SB1070.

Looking at brother Pearce reminds me of a Jim Hightower joke about old Clayton “Claytie” Williams, oil man and candidate for TX governor.

Hightower: “When ignorance goes to $20 a barrel, I want the drilling rights to Claytie’s head”.

Ok, I got dibs on Pearce’s.

[Wake-up]

06:14 PM on 04/28/2010

Interesting... the point of the bill is racial?

I thought it was:
1) There's a war on the southern boarder
2) More Americans are getting killed by illegals in AZ than any other state
3) Phoenix is the #2 kidnapping capital in the world
4) 1/3 of all illegal crossings happen on the boarder
5) The Fed. Gov. refuses to act
6) Police have begged the AZ Gov. for more protection to go after the bad guys

And you blame the Tea Party and call this Racist... HUH??!!?

Wake-up!!

[Clyde Mcjohnston]

09:10 PM on 05/13/2010

Your exactly correct on all 6 of your points cited above. Its just that the leftist liberals are all in denial about it, so they come up with any and everthing they can think of to derail any intelligent solutions brought forward by the more responsible people.

[Wake-up]

11:54 PM on 05/13/2010

Yes, because it's their religion. It's pathetic and time to draw a line in the sand, not going to take it!

Boycott - LA, Chicago and San Fran.

[harker6868]

02:19 PM on 04/28/2010

oh a few other great laws that have passed since we lost out democratic gov - we can take our guns to bars now, we lost most state parks, and the gov is suing on behalf of the state to stop health care reform... the good news - we can all carry sparklers now !!!!

[harker6868]

02:10 PM on 04/28/2010

I live in AZ and unfortunately we Dems here lost a big barrier to all this BS when Janet Napolitano left to head Homeland Security. She vetoed this bill three times and still got re-elected. I blame the rhetoric in the nation for what is happening here and the weakness and stupidity of our republican legislature who within days, armed the entire state, instituted abortion reporting, passed a law requiring a longer waiting period for divorce, mandated a birth certificate from Obama if he runs here for re-election, asked for a tax increase vote while instituting big tax breaks for businesses AND passed this draconian immigration law. Why? Because anything the right does to counter Obama is okay by republicans... the repugs in this state feel empowered by the anti-go/anti-obama talk and are completely blind to the inconsistency in railing against government power as they turn my home in nazi Germany. I live in Yuma where more than 50 percent of the population is Latino.... good luck to them!!!! BTW - the state legislature also dropped over 300,000 from state medicaid rolls and cut all healthcare for kids.... I love my home but right now I don't want to live here either!!!!

[Randall Breneman]

07:41 PM on 04/27/2010

As an opponent of the welfare state, I favor increased immigration. I hope we get more illegal immigrants. I wish there were some way I could help more of them sneak over here. The only way to end the welfare state is to bankrupt it.

[bissron]

09:13 AM on 04/27/2010

Here's what you do. You get as many "papered" immigrants as you can and voluntarily show your paperwork - every time you see a cop. Imagine a thousand people flooding the police stations to voluntarily comply - being good citizens, don't you know. At every place they see officers (not while investigating or doing traffic stops) papered immigrants should line up to produce their paperwork. Every officer should be followed by lines of polite, respectful documented immigrants. Same with the state capital. Have thousands of immigrants wandering around, waving their papers, quietly disrupting everything until the absurdity of this law breaks through.

[harker6868]

02:03 PM on 04/28/2010

I like this idea as much as the t-shirts that say "I'm an Immigrant, Ask me for my papers!" nice one

[k1dork]

05:49 PM on 04/26/2010

The political left are the ones who are really against immigrants, seeing that they are more concerned with the ILLEGAL ones.

[wassilij]

02:38 AM on 04/27/2010

Russell Pearce.....the one who wrote the immigration Bill in ARIZONA was just reported to have ties with a local Neo Nazi group.

Rachel Maddow did her research and found photos of Pearce and the Nazi group together.

'Congratulations Arizona!!!......This will make you famous for a long long time'

[peter777]

12:57 PM on 04/28/2010

Did you ever consider right wingers just don't care about anybody but themselves? Does not make any difference whether one is legal or illegal- you want lockstep conformity to right wing ideology.

[labrown]

04:48 PM on 04/26/2010

Then let the federal government fulfill their constitutional role and secure the borders. I should never have to pay a penny in taxes for a foreign national nor should they decide our future by voting in our elections.

[PDXM1ke]

05:38 PM on 04/26/2010

That is a bold assertion. When has any foreign national "decided out future by voting in our elections?"

Love to see some proof for that one.

At this point, all that is clear is that you are truly paranoid.

[harker6868]

01:59 PM on 04/28/2010

That is a funny thing to say as your taxes are supporting the populations of Afghanistan and Iraq... and btw - it costs more for two days in Afghanistan than it does for and entire year of illegal immgrants in the U.S. getting state funded medicaid.... you should pick a better target for your nationalistic BS

[NeitherRnorD]

02:08 PM on 04/26/2010

What's disgusting is you taking the side of a foreign invaders and discounting the opinions of U.S. citizens.

[skatoolaki]

08:56 AM on 04/27/2010

If you read the article here on HuffPo about the Twitter world's reaction to all this, the U.S. citizens are overwhelmingly against this bill.

[Berettasskeeter]

11:02 AM on 05/14/2010

So, Twitter is now a reliable weathervane of public opinion?? Nonsense.
Semper fi

[CHICAGOSTYLE]

10:14 AM on 04/26/2010

Besides the benefit of the laws being enforced now... the unexpected benefit is the growing realization around mainstream America that the Democrats and liberals really do play the race card 24/7

[PDXM1ke]

11:24 AM on 04/26/2010

You realize that Arizona has no jurisdiction over federal law, don't you?

And you realize that this bill violates the first and fourth amendments of the Constitution, right?

Arizona cannot abridge or ignore the Constitution. This law is incendiary, and the GOP will get burned.

[obitrey]

11:56 AM on 04/26/2010

I have not had a chance to read this law yet, but it is my understanding that it does not claim any jurisdiction over the federal law, only puts in place a law that the state has the authority to enforce.

Also wondering what in this law violates the 1st amendment??

[labrown]

04:51 PM on 04/26/2010

IF the federal government was HONORING the Constitution the state would not violate it. They asked for it and they aint seen nothin yet. The law is clear on this that the federal mandate is for secure borders.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is currently being used by advocates of immigrants who are illegally in this country to validate their claim to those rights afforded, constitutionally, only to legal citizens. Consider the restrictions and limitations on citizenship by this amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

NOT ILLEGALS WHO SWIM THE RIVER

[Nick Santiago]

04:54 AM on 04/27/2010

Just brilliant. I think what is really going to happen is that the general populace is going to see how the RRR (Radical Religious Right) is very much racist but in denial. They do racist things, claim it is not racist and accuse anyone who points it out that they are playing the 'race card'.

You can only do that so many times before you get caught for the racists you are.

[blizb]

09:34 AM on 04/26/2010

The best way to protest is to boycott tourism in their state.

Why would anyone want to visit a state where if they wear the wrong clothes or shoes or fit the profile "look" knowing they may be arrested without cause.

Police make mistakes all the time but that would be a bad way to end a vacation if you go to Arizona.

Their state relies on tourism as part of it's income and I think a successful boycott of tourism would let them know their state is part of America and the rest of America provides part of their income.

Anyone who is a legal citizen from any state in the union who may have dark hair, dark eyes and/or a tan complexion and that may wear the suggested "clothes & shoes" could be targeted according to what they described as their "law".

This is discriminatory no matter how you look at it.

Even if they are not happy with the federal response they certainly were never pro-active enough over the last 20 or 30 years if their own failures to deal with the situation have resulted in this act of desperation by passing this unfair law.

[Berettasskeeter]

11:06 AM on 05/14/2010

As the law specifically prohibits profiling (a mistake in my judgement!), and may only be enforced in the presence of other potentially criminal behavior, how does your second sentence make any sense at all?
Semper fi

[Nick Santiago]

07:19 AM on 04/26/2010

I voted for Barack Obama in 2008. In 2012 I think it may finally be time to elect Ron Paul. I would invite Mr. Obama to return in 2020, perhaps replace Hillary as the SOS and move Clinton into Pelosi's position.

As for Pelosi, she should retire and know she has done this Nation proud...about half the time. LOL!

[PDXM1ke]

11:20 AM on 04/26/2010

That is a relatively nutty swing. From a left-leaning centrist to an off-the-reservation right-wing racist.

Good luck with that.

[Nick Santiago]

05:03 AM on 04/27/2010

Ron Paul is not racist. I know he has been associated with the Tea Party who is very much racist. Ron is a libertarian. He is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. He's just mad like the rest of us. Thing is most of us know who to blame for the mess we are in and it is not Barack.

I have wanted to vote for Ron for a long time but I do not agree with vote-split-the- other -guy-wins elections and voted for the Dem or Rep that best suited the job. I think Barack may have jumped the gun a bit and would do better as SOS right now.

I don't know. I swear though if I do find out Ron is racist or bigoted he will never have my vote.

[sparkandy]

06:19 AM on 04/26/2010

Before the author accuses anyone of ignorance shouldn't he get rid of his own? Maybe the author should go to some place that has been devastated by the current crop of illegals and see what sort of damage they do. Or maybe we should just forward them to his hometown.

[JimR]

02:09 PM on 04/26/2010

That's doesn't make the new law OK.