From Greg Palast:
Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens.
I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the Saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning.
What's new here is not the politicians' fear of a xenophobic "Teabag" uprising.
What moved GOP Governor Jan Brewer to sign the Soviet-style show-me-your-papers law is the exploding number of legal Hispanics, US citizens all, who are daring to vote -- and daring to vote Democratic by more than two-to-one. Unless this demographic locomotive is halted, Arizona Republicans know their party will soon be electoral toast. Or, if you like, tortillas.
The Republicans have demonstrated to the world that they are cowards who will now engage in literally any dirty trick available to regain power.
At this point I cannot imagine what kind of reasonable person would still want to be associated with this broken, corrupt excuse for a political party. And yet supposedly the citizens of this country are poised to elect a whole slew of new uber-conservative Republicans.
I keep hearing these people yelling that they want to take their country back, but they seem not to understand that the people who are really taking it from them are the same people who buy advertising on Fox News, and spend millions upon millions of dollars purchasing Republican political candidates.
While I am appalled at the behavior of radicals and righties and lefties alike, I see only good things from strict immigration reform in border states. It's gotten to the point in this country where becoming legalized is easy as pie or working under the table and reaping benefits (college and healthcare) are easier. It should NOT be easy to legally integrate oneself into a new country and the fact that there are unwalled borders that exist is sickening. I would not be opposed to EVERYONE having to carry legal documentation on them - don't we do that already (whether its a drivers license or reg id, most places require it). The fact that illegals can buy off cops is sick and wrong. There are legal ways to become a US citizen. IF you're not gonna follow the law, get the fuck out.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is coming from a woman who employs 35 legal mexicans - people who have worked their asses off to become citizens.
To all the illegals, a few words: You do not deserve free health care in another country nor should you receive free schooling in otherwise crowded environments.
And yes, I am conservative by heart and principle. I just don't like to associate myself with the current politicians
One more things on a random note. I've never noticed how much Track looks like Chuck Jr. Like, they're identical. I've always seen the resemblance between TRack and the Heath family but he and his uncle's resem. is uncanny
ReplyDeletePlease check out two photographs and compare what Sarah Palin is wearing when she says that we are all Arizonians (Arizonans?) with what an Arizona policewoman's uniform. Yes, those are almost the same shirts. If you need to see what the Arizona law enforcement officer looks like, there is a pretty ugly photo at HuffPo of them arresting some guy. Maybe he has papers and he did something else. Still, Sarah dressed the part when she gave her Arizona speech.
ReplyDeleteYou 'progressives' absolutely do not get it. A solid majority of the country favors:
ReplyDelete1. More drilling
2. Immigration reform and the AZ law
They oppose:
1. Health care reform,
2. cap and trade
3. bigger deficits
laugh all you want at Sarah Palin but she reflects the mainstream views.
"Not mine!" Guess what - there ain't enough of you. The elections of '10 and '12 are going to shake the Democrat Party to its foundation.
Interesting that you posted about this today. My husband and I had a long conversation about it based on this article in the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7007046.html
ReplyDeleteWe talked about the fact that if only the non-whites would vote against their persecutors (the GOP), TX would be the bluest of the blue states. One could only hope. So, how to get these people to vote? Why do people get medicaid/medicare/etc and can't be arsed to vote?
Anyway, it was a long conversation, as this is a deep & important issue. One has to wonder if Arizona has shot itself in the foot with this, if they've wakened the sleeping lions, that non-whites will finally get out and vote against the presiding GOPs.
Crossing fingers.
You've done a good thing by linking Greg Palast to your blog and exposing what the Arizona Rethugs are doing.
ReplyDeleteWhile our Pima County recorder is a woman of integrity (F. Ann Rodriguez), the director is not--and happens to be a Rethug (Brad R. Nelson, elections director).
As a voter with an Hispanic last name who is married to a man with a recognizable European name, I can assure you I get mail more often requesting address and voter info updates from the Pima County Recorder's Office BECAUSE this is a way to eliminate voters like me. My husband does not receive these mailings.
We can only hope that we liberals will rise to the call to vote and never become intimidated or complacent.
Thank you for this post!
Gryphen, I have concluded that the issues Palin takes a stand on are not issues she is really interested in. She takes a position 180 degrees opposite to Obama in hopes of getting the Obama Admin to engage with her. I think that's what she was up to with the girls basketball team, the soldier pay issue, using his line "fired up ready to go" in her tweet yesterday. She just wants to see if she can get Obama or one of his spokespeople to mix it up with her a little, 7th grade style. If she can do that, she is his equal. I hope Obama and his staff will be smart enough to ignore her and say "no comment" the next time some reporter quotes Sarah Palin looking for a reaction. She wants desperately to be seen as Obama's equal going into the primaries so that people begin to imagine her as a worthy adversary. If it were about ideology, for example some right wing plot to disenfranchise hispanics, she wouldn't have endorsed a hispanic woman for governor one state over.
ReplyDeleteAnon@3PM You must be a good friend of the Heaths and the Palins. Many of us see a resemblance between Track and a picture of Curtis Menard II, photographed at about the same age. Maybe everyone in Alaska ends up looking alike.
ReplyDeleteAlso, all babies look like Winston Churchill when they are born.
Makes perfect sense: Hispanics are smart enough not to drink the Republican kool-aid so the GOP is going to show them who's boss by running them out of town. Hateful bastards, every one of them.
ReplyDeleteWell, they can panic all they want, but if legal Mexican-Americans or fill-in-the-blank-Americans want to vote against them, so be it.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans need to understand they have to earn the right to hold office. People of color will vote for whites if the whites treat all people equally. Whites will vote for people of color if they, too, treat all people equally.
It's when the privileged feel as if they cannot share their privileges, their power, their own sense of entitlement, that they deserve to lose office.
Holding office is a privilege. It is position of trust. You cannot expect to hold that kind of power if you do not deserve it. All the current office holders have to do is put aside their fear, and do their job, but they don't want to do that. They want the status quo - but life is about standing still. Life means change.
You can accept change in a positive or negative way. The way you take it tells us about who you are and what you are.
Guess the Republicans and Tea Party people are all about fighting change, of staying put, and even, on some issues, trying to move backward in time. Won't work, never has. Hell of a battle if you try and you still lose.
Accept and embrace change and treat people fairly. Things will work out fine for everyone.
Track looks like a Heath-Menard.
ReplyDeleteArizona is pointing out that there is more than one problem here. There is definitely a problem down at the Arizona border area. The Coyotes, smugglers of drugs and people, are operating with impunity. These are nasty people who have no regard for human life or property. They need to be stopped. A fence is not practical. Southern Arizona is mountainous. Remember Cochise managed to evade the US Army for years in those mountains until one of his own showed the army the way. You can't fence that. Besides fences can be gone over, around,or under.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem is our guest worker laws. They are unfair to workers and difficult for the smaller business to negotiate. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote an excellent paper on the problems. In some industries such as timber, treatment of legal guest workers amounts to slavery. As far as farm workers are concerned, at least in my area of Washington, NAFTA is part of the problem. The US subsidizes our big factory farms. Peasant Mexican farmers can't compete with subsidized American crops such as corn. So we lose the diversity of their corn and they are in Washington State working as legal and illegal farm workers. Except for our farm policy, they could have the dignity of farming their own land.
Lastly, in Arizona, some of the police officials are racists. Hispanic people have always had a problem, but now with the new law, being brown is grounds for suspicion of being illegal. Arizona, south of Phoenix, used to be part of Mexico. Many of these families have been in the area since way before the area became a state. Some are natives who were there before the army and Mormons came. These people are being harassed. The reports are that, for some police, a driver's license is not proof of legal residence, only a visa or birth certificate. How many of us carry our birth certificate around? In Arizona, if you are brown, you had better.
"she reflects the mainstream views. "
ReplyDeleteRight. That's why 70% think she's unqualified to be President. What she reflects are views that are far far far to the right of the mainstream in this country. My guess is you get your view of what is seen as mainstream by watching only FoxNews.
Gryphen -
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering about illegal immigrants in Alaska? What did your former governor do about the problems in your state while she was in office?
Also, it does appear she has really abandoned your state, (and perhaps, even her kids).
Anonymous should really read polls that are not highlighted by Fox news and Sea of Pee.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead,put Mrs Paylin on the ticket,watch us real "mama Grizzlies " rise up and support President Obama and kick her lying,dense,know nothing ass back to the trailer park she belongs in.
I get to say that,I live in a double wide,and she would fit right in with my clueless,know nothing,take my country back but dont touch my Social Security,Medicare,Medicaid ,Food Stamps,Earned Income Credit,and all of the other Government programs I take advantage of.
Gryphen, have you actually read the current law and then compared it with the new one? I think you haven't, because you keep agreeing with people who call it "a sick little law."
ReplyDeleteFor the past 70 years, the FEDERAL law has required that legal immigrants must always carry proof of their status. That's simple: my Canadian uncle had his green card in his wallet.
Here in my state, I had to show a birth certificate in order to get my driver's license and my passport. So, my driver's license and passport are both ways to prove my citizenship. What's so horrible about a police officer asking to see them (only AFTER I've been stopped for something else)?
The state law is only repeating the federal law. It's nothing new or unreasonable. Why call do you call it that?
Nope : strongly disagree. There might be some similar resemblance between Track and Chuckie Jr., (shape of face or coloring) but the uncanny resemblance is between Track and Curtis Menard, Jr. Very uncanny. Look at the mouth, at the smile, the cheek bones.
ReplyDeleteOn thread: this is a very interesting post. And what gives this theory credence for me is that we know the Republican Party will go to any lengths, do anything legal or illegal, buy or steal elections. And they are in big trouble now. They are imploding; eating their own; grasping at straws, gasping for air, and clinging to a crazy woman to rile up their base. How pathetic.
ReplyDeletelaprofesora, you said, "Makes perfect sense: Hispanics are smart enough not to drink the Republican kool-aid." In my state, that's not the issue. Here, many who have come legally work hard and make a good living. However, many others (both legal and illegal) enjoy using our welfare, education, and medical system without putting anything into it.
ReplyDeleteHere, the Hispanics are smart enough to know that the Republicans will strengthen laws that make it harder for them to receive benefits. So, they vote Democratic.
Anon@2:59 said
ReplyDelete"To all the illegals, a few words: You do not deserve free health care in another country nor should you receive free schooling in otherwise crowded environments. "
Do you know if you go to Europe and you get sick you will get free healthcare, and Cuba, France.
And if you don't let the illegals in who will take care of your kids and clean your house? And pick your strawberries?(for less than minimum wage, b/c they are illegal you won't pay the legal wage)
You "conservatives" make me sick.
Oh Gryphen your name came up on a article on the Alantic....one of the peezoo Section9 says
ReplyDelete"Democratic rainmakers out of Los Angeles who were subsidizing his attacks on Palin."
Democratic rainmakers??? WTF is that?
You can see all the comments at
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/a-conservatives-case-for-sarah-palins-genius/56790/
the root of the problem here is that there are too many americans want something for nothing.
ReplyDeleteif americans were willing to pay a wage that would support their neighbors, then illegal immigration wouldn't be the problem that it is today.
yeah let's see just how hard they crack down on this law when people start shitting their pants at the cost of having a fellow american mow their lawn, clean their toilet or make their food.
and somehow I doubt that anyone who employs 35 "legal" mexicans has time to read and comment on blogs. salary for 35 mexicans = salary for 12 americans. that's the problem - cheap fucks. and they think that creating laws is going to solve the problem, while they create a demand for slave labor. as long as the demand exists, the problem will remain.
Dream on, anon 3:15.
ReplyDelete@ 3:45 Mocha
ReplyDeleteYou have some very valid points - the former half term gov does not like to be diss'd and an overwhelming number of voters in Nov. 08 diss'd her (in her mind). And by shouting out "her" position vs PRESIDENT Obama, isn't political, it is a quest for personal recognition. (Like several million ppl are sitting about saying, "Gee, McCain would have done this.... or that" SHE believes she was the top of the ticket, not McCain.)
However, the voters crushed her at the polls, (Thank God) a cutesy-winking pit-bull hockey mom is NOT good enough to run or represent this country.
If Newt/Pawlenty/Boehner or other GOP'ers think the Queen of Quit is qualified for ANY position, let them hire her. If she was "the foremost oil & gas person" next to Cheney, why hasn't Halliburton, Exxon, or BP hired her? Because she isn't truthful or trustworthy as an employee.
If she wants Praise, Adoration, and Idolatry - she should get out of politics & start a church. Create her own rules and leave the rest of the country alone!
Enjay in E MT:
ReplyDeleteWord.
Dallas, Tx may join in the boycott. They will be voting I
ReplyDeleteThe Dallas Immigration Freedom bus (2 busloads) went to Az to protest this weekend. I am proud!!
Thank you anonymous 5:30, that was very entertaining. I am stunned that they are still convinced that the Alaska bloggers are financed by the Democratic party. God that would be great!
ReplyDeleteAnd now they refer to us as the Alaska Mafia, which never ceases to tickle my funny bone.
Emily Bokar - Pete Rouse
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:15: You're hilarious.
ReplyDeletePolls say the majority of Americans want Wall Street reform, the majority of Americans want to be able to keep their health insurance and not have companies take their insurance away for bs reasons (in other words...healthcare reform)...The majority of Americans are for Lilly Ledbetter. The majority of Americans like government programs, they want unemployment benefits extended, and they don't want corporations to get tax breaks for sending jobs overseas. Seems like someone's going to have lots of 'splaining to do this election cycle, if you ask me, and I think it might rhyme with schmepublicans.
Also, the majority of NRA owners want to end the terrorist gap in gun laws...as opposed to Sarah Palin, and the leadership of the GOP who want terrorists to have guns...
For the record, the majority of Americans were grossly disgusted by the Clinton impeachment...
and...
Now...I'll spell this in all caps so you can be sure to read it, but you may need someone to help you read the big words...
THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DIDN'T VOTE FOR BUSH IN 2000...AND DID VOTE FOR OBAMA IN 2008...
So...basically, you can take your "ideers" and shove them...
re: info from anon. @5:30 - Yaay!
ReplyDeleteI am a Democrat in Los Angeles who supports Gryphen by throwing a twenty dollar donation into the cause when I can.
I am a rainmaker! I LIKE!
Off to do a raindance NOW - may more $ arrive soon, dear Gryphen, from the Los Angeles RAINMAKERS!
Hey, Mr. I Know Everything Because I Read A Poll Once..What do you have to say about this, doofus...
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — People want Democrats to control Congress after this fall's elections, a shift from April, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released Saturday. But the margin is thin and there's a flashing yellow light for incumbents of both parties: Only about one-third want their own lawmakers re-elected.
The tenuous 45 percent to 40 percent preference for a Democratic Congress reverses the finding a month ago on the same question: 44 percent for Republicans and 41 percent for Democrats. The new readout came as the economy continued showing signs of improvement and the tumultuous battle over the health care law that President Barack Obama finally signed in March faded into the background.
"To the extent that Democrats can focu
Democrats will lose over 50 House seats this fall and will lose even more in '12 after the '10 census takes seats away from predominantly Dem states in the North and Midwest and move them to Rep states in the South and West.
ReplyDeletePalin tries to engage the President so that she will be recognized as his equal. She challenged him to a footrace, wanted to play basketball with him, he ignored her. She mentions him at every opportunity. She made that nasty, jealous remark about Rachel Maddow "turning red and the veins popping out"...for what purpose? Palin is a stupid woman who is batsh*t crazy, she's eaten up with jealousy. Can't let go of her nasty, jealous remarks about "dainty little starlets", or calling Katie Couric "the little perky one". She should stick to people who are her equal, say Carrie Prejean who actually ranks a little higher than Palin in my book because Prejean did shut up once she humiliated herself. Palin isn't even smart enough to recognize humiliation and ridicule.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth's comments @ 3:59 are right on target. Our government has done an enormous disservice to Mexico's farmers with the corporate farms in Mexico. Just as NAFTA created the 100-mile stretch below the border with the miquiladorias that are now moving out in quest of even cheaper labor and leaving thousands upon thousands unemployed. We wreck the Mexicans' way of life up along their border and then when they come here for work, we whine and cry "we want our country back". When NAFTA went into Mexico, did the repubs / conservatives cry about the dividends they were getting from the corporations who put American workers out of a job by closing their plants and moving down there? NO! Do they whine about the price of fruits and vegetables when they go to the grocery store? Or hire someone to clean their house or do their yard? NO. "We're all entitled" to make as much as possible off of other people but hey, don't come to our country. Like somebody else up above said, just wait until the prices go up on everything. Stupid people.
I'm against welfare fraud too. Who would be for fraud? Welllll, ask Rick Scott, one of the Republicans running for governor down here in Florida. He was CEO of Hospital Corp. of America. They owned about 300 hospitals. The Government ran an audit on only 20 of their hospitals and found so much medicare fraud that HCA was fined $175,000,000 and Scott had to step down. Another Bushie friend. But Rick's baaaaack, promising that he's going to stop fraud. Yeah, I'm sure he is. The teabaggers crying about illegals committing fraud but corporate fraud / corporate welfare is always okay. Typical.
How come when it's corporations, it's called subsidies? But when it's poor people, even children, it's called welfare? Personally, I'd rather help a child get an education or make sure poor people had health insurance.
Video of Palin reading VERY FAST from a TELEPROMPTER! Guess she finally got tired of using her hand!
ReplyDeletehttp://thelotuslaptopoftheunitedstates.blogspot.com/2010/05/sarah-and-border-ladies.html
The voting system has been manipulated to serve their interests for a long time. This is one of the reason so many in certain districts are imprisoned. If they have a large population of blacks they know most of them will vote Democrat. It especially works well for them in states where felons never get their voting rights back. They end up with huge numbers with records who can't vote.
ReplyDeleteThat so makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's a 21st century poll tax.
Just station some police around the polls on election day and put out the word that they'll be checking for ID from anyone that looks like they might be illegal.
That will be enough to deter citizens from going to vote. Especially if they're hispanic Democrats.
Yeah everyone should carry around their birth cerf. if they want to eat at mic-a-dees. GTFOOH.
ReplyDeleteIt's a racist law and I agree with G, it's to disenfranchise people of color.
And to the nut who says the US doesn't want reform and whatever else bs you said, over 70% of the voting population says WE DO.
Too bad your type will benefit from the reform. Then again, put your money where your loud mouth is and start a give back site. You and your ilk can give your share back to the government.
Come November, you shouldn't be surprised that repugs aka teatards will be whooped ONCE AGAIN.
Nobody likes stupid but teabaggers. Ayn Rand idiots.
--Game of Life
I am an immigration attorney. Although there is a law on the books that state you must carry proof of status or be fined, no one really enforces it. There is also a law that says green card holders must update their address. The vast majority do not. In the past 10 years I have been an immigration attorney, the past two years have shown that there are more arrests, deportations and monitoring of illegal aliens. Also, the one big difference is that more businesses are raided and companies are now being held accountable for hiring illegals. The I-9 is a free form administered by USCIS that allow employers to find out if their employees are legally qualified to work. Most employers know their employees are illegal, but they benefit from the low wage earners.
ReplyDeleteI think if you really want security, you need to create a process where more people can apply to work here (it is currently capped each year at a number lower than the number of available and needed workers in the U.S.) but where they can be documented, cleared by the FBI and allowed to work and pay into the system. Until that happens, greedy employers and desperate workers while always exist in the shadows. For the record, I don't support illegal immigration, but I don't think the system we have is not realistic. There are 12 million illegals in this country (officially. There are more I am sure unofficially). Trust me, we do not have 12 million agricultural workers and domestic workers alone. Many illegals are also white and skilled workers. They help run this country. They need to come out of the shadows and contribute fully to this country.
The trolls should actually read the laws they think they know all about because someone on tv or on the radio told them so. Here's an interesting part that would worry me if I were a dark skinned Arizonan.Heck,being Jewish,I am dark skinned and haired,and I would be concerned,but if I were a teenager I would be terrified.
ReplyDelete""A PERSON IS PRESUMED TO NOT BE AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES IF THE PERSON PROVIDES TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER OR AGENCY ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. A VALID ARIZONA DRIVER LICENSE.
2. A VALID ARIZONA NONOPERATING IDENTIFICATION LICENSE.
3. A VALID TRIBAL ENROLLMENT CARD OR OTHER FORM OF TRIBAL IDENTIFICATION.
4. IF THE ENTITY REQUIRES PROOF OF LEGAL PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE ISSUANCE, ANY VALID UNITED STATES FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ISSUED IDENTIFICATION."""
See that presumed part? What happened to presumed innocent?Now you must prove you are innocent without a trial. No evidence of a crime is needed,none.A teen could be walking home late from his friends home,get stopped,get put in jail.A dad could walk to the corner store,cross the street at the wrong spot,and get arrested.Mom could walk to the market,be carrying home a bag of groceries and get arrested.Their crime?Dark skin or hair,maybe an Hispanic lilt to their voice ? Being out late? Missing the crosswalk? Carrying a bag that might be concealing something? Pretty sure its the color of their skin.
Anyone who does not see the problems,has not looked at the laws.First,the States do not control immigration,the Federal Government does.It is not one of those things reserved to the States by the Constitution. Period.Even if you do not like what the Federal Gov ,under all Presidents,have done for immigration,you do not get to make up your own laws about Federal dollars. Then look at what it says.Citizens have their rights removed.I dont carry id with me in my back pocket when I walk down the street,most women and teens dont.Many men carry a wallet,but think about it.You are dark,you are pulling weeds near the sidewalk in your yard,a crime has been committed nearby and the dark skinned person was seen fleeing on foot in jeans and a tshirt.The police spot you and you have no id in your back pocket-off to jail,so they can use this new law to detain you and and others who look like you while they investigate the crime and find the real criminal.However long that takes.You just lost your rights as a citizen because you had dark skin.
What is wrong with the Beckerheads and the Paylinites that they cannot see past the swelled heads of their false God Idols ?
When your icons make statements about what a law says or the Constitution,Google the actual documents,not the comments by deranged wannabe messiahs .read,Google terms you dont understand,learn something for your self.
Kennedy might have spoken for us when he was in Berlin objecting to the erection of a wall.
ReplyDeletePalin doesn't speak for me when she wants to construct a wall.
The good news is that she isn't running in 2012. She lost any chance of getting any Hispanic American votes.
And this woman was going to help unite the country with McCain?
Thats interesting that the law accepts a drivers license as proof of legal status. What I've been hearing from Arizona indicates some police have declared a drivers license too easily faked and thus won't accept it.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband and I moved to Arizona in the late 1990s, we lived in a upper middle class neighborhood in the greater Phoenix area. Our neighbors quickly made it clear to us, as we were out working on our yard, that white folk don't do their own yardwork. We, Northwesterners, were shocked and kept doing our own yardwork.
This explanation about legal Hispanic residents makes sense, as the GOP has a history of trying to suppress votes in certain communities around the country. Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 are prime examples. They even tried to disenfranchise voters who had lost their homes due to foreclosures in Michigan, Ohio, or both in 2008. The revelation that it's aimed at LEGAL Hispanics makes Palin and others who publicly support this law look even more stupid, although that's not surprising as she is consistently on the wrong side of just about all issues. As for "Mocha's" comments about Palin as representing most of America, over 70% of Americans (including Republicans) do not see her as presidential material. And hopefully, her stance on this law will be one of the nails in her political coffin.
ReplyDelete