If supporting real immigration reform, not path to citizenship is “Obamaphobia,” guilty as charged. RT if you’re a fellow “Obamaphobic!”
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 12, 2013
Honest to Dawg, Ted Cruz is a cork in the rectum of progress.
“It is not rocket scientry!”
–Candice Miller (R-MI) who insisted that Napolitano was just making excuses for a failure to secure the border.
Frozen teevee dinner heir and vanity publishing impresario Tucker Carlson says that immigrants are welfare-addicted gang-bangers who harm american workers.
So, after being taken to the metaphorical wood shed for a good spanking in the 2012 Goat Rodeo the GOP turns a lonely eye to… Marco Rubio? The Tea Party It-boy? Really?
Think Progress has a great post up on Rubio: 8 Reasons Why Marco Rubio Is Not ‘The Republican Savior’ all of which are true.
But I’ll add another log into their bonfire: Marco Rubio is Cuban; Cuban immigrants are treated differently from other immigrants, and trust me here in California the immigrant community knows this. During the Feast of St. Ronnie, the Congress in all of its alleged wisdom decreed that the instant a Cuban’s little toe touches the blessed soil of God’s Own Eden the United States, that person is here legally and granted amnesty. Consider that fact for a moment as you ponder the fate of the Guatemalan who’s little toe touches the soil in Arizona.
In Wingnuttia’s world all (insert your own demographic marker here) look alike. So the thinking at the RNC is strangely Gertrude Stein-ian: latino is latino is latino. And so making Marco Rubio the Savior of the GOP (I mean really, isn’t that Christ-like?), that will make “all of them” love the Party of the Confederacy. They are so sure of it that they have tapped Rubio to be the first person to deliver the rebuttal of the State of the Union Address in Spanish.
Here’s the thing: Cuban Spanish is not the same as Latin Spanish. It is like trying to say that Canadian French is the same as Parisian. The intended beneficiaries of this gambit will know that Rubio is not one of them. And in fact, they will know rather instantly that he get to where he is today by having different rules apply to him. Now imagine that you are listening to the guy who got to cut in line tell you that you have to obey all the rules to get in the club.
I predict that there will be an unintended consequence of doing this, not entirely unlike having boy exorcist and noted volcano scholar Bobby Jindal give the rebuttal in 2008.
(Time)
“Anyone who believes that [the GOP is] going to win over the Latino vote is grossly mistaken. The majority that are here illegally are low-skilled or may not even have a high school diploma. The Republican Party is not going to compete over who can give more social programs out. They will become Democrats because of the social programs they’ll depend on.”
–Lou Barletta (R-PA)
Nice way to call the people you need to attract blood-sucking moochers. Don’t know why everyone thinks the GOP is a racist party.
“We need a common sense solution to fix the flawed interpretation of the Constitution’s citizenship clause, and ‘The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013′ does just that. The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ‘anchor babies’ must end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws in this country do not encourage law breaking.”
–Rep. Steve King (R – Whites Only)
Oddly, Michelle Malkkkin remains muted on this issue.
Today there is a lot of reflection in Sarah Palin’s Lamestream Media that the demographics of the country have changed and that is what led to His Willardness’ defeat.
This has also lead, rather hysterically and transparently to sudden announcements of evolution on the idea of immigration reform. And if anyone thinks that Hannity is capable of quiet and thoughtful introspection, I have a water-boarding table to sell you.
The issue that Wingnuttia has attached itself to, leech-like, is that they cannot win future electoral contests without having a strong story to tell about Hispanics.
(WaPo) “This chart… illustrate the Republicans’ political problems heading into the 2014 midterm elections as well as the 2016 and even 2020 presidential campaigns.”
Defensively, Wingnuttia points to some of their rising stars: The Tea party darling Ted Cruz, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, and the ever-present Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whose family hales from Cuba, not south of our border. This is actually an important distinction as Cubans who flee to the United States only have to touch the soil to be let in, legally. It’s a unique status, and trust me: the rest of Latin America knows that they are second-class immigrants, so to speak. Also/Too the Spanish spoken by Cubans is not the same as the Spanish spoken in Latin and South America. When he speaks, they know who he is and where he comes from.
Aside from it sounding like tokenism to point to four people as examples of not being prejudiced against a class of people (and not very convincing if you can point to ONLY four people), the point of that matter is that the GOP also has Jan Brewer and hundreds more like her that have made a career out of gaining power by vilifying others, enacting legislation to ask for papers, and arguing only about whether the fence on the southern border should be electrified or manned with machine guns, or both? It’s not exactly the welcome wagon to greet your new best amigos, but Wingnuts are kind of, what is the word? Shy?
I heard a round-table discussion on the radio this morning, and the conservative said, and I kid you not, that he expects that as Latinos assimilate more in American Culture and become richer, that they will “naturally be drawn to the Republican Party,” which does not seem like much of a welcome mat, either. Wingnuttia also has a meme that culturally all Hispanics are naturally conservative people, so you know that they will fit in. You know, just like all blacks are naturally athletic. It’s offensive to look at any demographic as a monolithic block.
As we noted the other day, last Tuesday’s defeat seemed inevitable, a combination of terrible–and offensive–policies combined with bad optics (the audience at the convention was like seeing the Antique White paint chip color swath at Benjamin Moore brought to life), delivered by theocrats, nut jobs, and scolds who claim to want less government (unless you are a slut or a gay person, in which case you will need their permission just to exist) and that everyone who wasn’t already a wingnut was a moocher, just taking stuff away from the beleaguered 1%.
It is not that I think all Republicans are racists, they are not. But I do think that racists are Republicans. Trotting out Rubio is the physical act of saying, “see some of my best friends…” — I don’t think anyone is going to fall for it. So for Hannity and others inside the vast right-wing conspiracy, to suddenly evolve on immigration reform seems like the height of being low.
My friends who work in HR have a very simple rule that they use especially during a hiring exercise: past performance is the best indicator of future performance. If this holds true in politics, the GOP has a real problem on their hands.
It is not a good thing. The immigrants do not share American values, so it is a good bet that they will not be voting Republican when they start voting in large numbers.
[...]
Instead, the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share those values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps.
–The Eagle Forum
And thus we learn that crazy old hell-beast Phyllis Schlafly believes in ripping off the bandaid. Still, bonus points for not sugar-coating their hatred.
Watch Petunia get her angry xenophobia on as she discusses teaching English as a second language for adults in Clevelandistan.
That it is court-ordered doesn’t concern her, nor does she make any mention that children succeed when their parents are involved in their education, and frankly, how can they be involved if they don’t understand English?
You have to give the brain trust in Congress some credit for this incredibly dumb idea:
Here’s how it would work: Foreigners plunk down at least $500,000 on a house in the U.S., and get a visa. The visa wouldn’t allow them to work here — they’d have to have a work permit for that. But they could live here, as long as they own the house.
Let’s see, what foreign nationals would want to buy an expensive house to live here but have no other rights? Perhaps, oh, I dunno, Drug Lords, War Criminals, Mafia Chieftans, overthrown dictators…
That’s — I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals.
–Willard
Herman Cain on his immigration plan:
“It’s going to be 20 feet high. It’s going to have barbed wire on the top. It’s going to be electrified. And there’s going to be a sign on the other side saying, ‘It will kill you — Warning.”
–Herman Cain
“And if that doesn’t work,” Black Walnut did not say, “I’ll give them some of my pizza.”
(TPM)
…thanks Frothy. That was damned white of you.
The law of (un)intended consequences takes an interesting turn:
Governor Robert Bentley signed Alabama’s 72-page measure June 9, calling it “the strongest immigration bill in the country.” Alabama became the fifth state to enact sanctions against undocumented workers, following Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia, where a federal judge yesterday blocked part of the restrictions. Tuscaloosa is getting an early gauge of the law’s effects in its state.
It seems that construction companies trying to rebuild Tuscaloosa following a tornado cannot find any workers, suddenly:
“Hispanics, documented and undocumented, dominate anything to do with masonry, concrete, framing, roofing, and landscaping,” said Bob McNelly, a contractor with Nash-McCraw Properties, during an interview at a coffee shop near a destroyed gas station and bank. “There are very few subcontractors I work with that don’t have a Hispanic workforce.”
The city of 90,000 imposed a moratorium on major reconstruction that ends Aug. 8 to enable it to plan its remaking. The rebuilding, McNelly said, will be harder and more expensive without them:
“It’s not the pay rate. It’s the fact that they work harder than anyone. It’s the work ethic.”
Let’s not understate this: construction work is dangerous and skilled. You cannot have just any yahoo on scaffolding building a high-rise, welding, and doing electrical and plumbing. These are trades. So getting Bubba off the couch or out of the meth factory isn’t going to cut it.
You might recall in Georgia, they passed a similar bill and now the crops are rotting in the fields. No one wants to work for low pay in pesticide-ridden fields, bent over all day.
Hey guys, remember when Arizonastan started racial profiling and asking everyone on the street for their papers? Me neither!
But it seems that their tough-guy deputy dawg media whore Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a bit of a problem on his hands, according to The Arizona Republic:
Three Maricopa County sheriff’s employees, including a deputy in the human-smuggling unit, were arrested Tuesday by authorities who say they were involved in a drug- and human-trafficking ring and used Sheriff’s Office intelligence to guide smugglers through the Valley.
Oh, but it gets better:
Investigators from a multijurisdiction drug task force also arrested two sheriff’s detention officers, Sylvia Najera, 25, and Marcella Hernandez, 28. They are accused of laundering money and moving drugs for a Valley-based drug-trafficking organization with ties to Mexico.
Arpaio said Hernandez is eight months’ pregnant with the child of another suspect arrested Tuesday, Francisco “Lorenzo” Arce-Torres, who is described in court records as a member of the Sinaloa drug cartel and the leader of the Phoenix-based drug-trafficking organization at the heart of the probe.
So it has come to this? Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) thinks we ought to have a moat on the border with Mexico and fill it with (stuffed) aligators?
Good Gravy!
Jan Brewer (AP)
Arizonastan is going to build a border fence! The Sand Gryphon, Jan Brewer has signed a bill into law to build a fence. But this is the best part: it is unfunded.
(AP) PHOENIX – A bill signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer authorizes erection of a security fence along Arizona’s portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, either in a compact with other states or by itself.
Spokesman Matt Benson declined immediate comment Friday on why Brewer signed the bill Thursday and on whether she plans to invoke the authority.
The bill does not specify a cost or make an appropriation but says the state would use donations, inmate labor and private contractors.
So, like Chimpy’s wars, this project will depend on what to fund it? Bake sales? Prison labor in the Arizona desert, to build a fence. Yeah, this will turn out well.
(CBS)
* Jeremy Scahill on Twitter said this
Sweet Jeebus! Can’t the wingnuts get birth certificates outta their heads? Another 30+year conspiracy theory?
Weepy was on Meet the Press:
GREGORY: Do you support efforts to have the 14th amendment amended at this point?…
BOEHNER: Listen, I think it’s worth considering. It’s a serious problem that affects our country, and in certain parts of our country, clearly our schools, our hospitals are being overrun by illegal immigrants…
…because the Orange-one is sympathetic to the White-ones who are afraid of the Brown-ones, even though the White-ones will probably never set foot in a school or a public hospital.
Seems like a good enough reason to change the Constitution to me.
The U.S. Justice Department is filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and the state over the nation’s toughest immigration crackdown.
Oops! Didn’t the DoJ remember to check with the real President, Grandpa Walnuts as he fights for his entitlement to be the senator from the White People’s Republic of Arizonastan?
No amnesty. Many of them need to be sent back
– Grandpa Walnuts
Ho! Ho! Ho! Take THAT, Grandpa Walnuts! There he just finished declaring that he was all gung-ho for Arizona’s new law and wants to send brown people back where they came from, and a definitely non-white head of the Justice Department is filing a lawsuit against the cavefish-white people of Arizona.
The New Mexico IndependentMeet Tom Mullins, he’s a GOPer running for Congress from New Mexico. He is a Christian, a conservative, a family man, and the kind of person who has earned the respect of his party.
Tom thinks outside of the box. He put in passive solar energy when he was building his house – now that’s refreshing for a GOPer.
Tom has other ideas, too, outsider ideas, about how to solve Americas problems.
Tom has suggested putting land mines along the border.
In the May 18 interview with KNMX radio in Las Vegas, N.M., Mullins says the U.S. could mine the border, install barbed wire and post signs directing would-be border jumpers to cross legally at designated checkpoints.
Tom is now stating that he never suggested that.
Tom is evil as well as stupid.
(Hat tip: The Big Empty — go visit, it’s a terrific blog.)
…like they treat the 10 Commandments.
Arizona Republicans will likely introduce legislation this fall that would deny birth certificates to children born in Arizona – and thus American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution – to parents who are not legal U.S. citizens.
Jeebus, nothing like writing a law that is knowlingly unconstitutional.
WASHINGTON – Under pressure to take action, President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border, pre-empting Republican efforts to force a congressional vote to send the troops.
President Carebear – the Teabaggers, mouthbreathers, and knuckle-draggers still will hate you, even when you let the GOP set the agenda for you, as you always do.
How’s that drill-y, oil-y thing working for ya?
Arizonastan must be a magical place, full of wingnuts, old air conditioners, and singing frogs. Anyway, their crazy crackpot and racist governor Jan Bradey Brewer produced a commercial with a puppet that resembles the other famous Arizona puppet, Grandpa Walnuts, if he were not a cave fish. HENNNNNNGGGH?!
(Via Wonkette)
Raw StoryWoot! Woot! It was only a matter of time for the home team to show the rest of the country how the Crazeeeeeeee is done!
Meet dim-bulb Duncan Hunter (R -CA — like I needed to tell you that?).
Duncan, you see, is an example of the good birth of an American Citizen, having the good sense to be born from the womb of a fellow American. He also had the good sense to be born of former Congressman, Duncan Hunter, so he could inherit the old man’s congressional seat. Just like in the House of Lords. He also inherited the old man’s wingnut philosophy. So you see, Duncan understands accidents of birth, quixotic and random, and Duncan pulled himself up by Saint Ronnie’s bootstraps, just like the old man.
Anyway, Duncan — did I mention that he inherited his father’s former congressional seat — wants to deport American Citizens who are born of illegal aliens:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Would you support deportation of natural-born American citizens that are the children of illegal aliens?
HUNTER: I would have to, yes. It’s a complex issue and … you could look and say, ‘You’re a mean guy. That’s a mean thing to do. That’s not a humanitarian thing to do.’ ” Hunter added, “We simply cannot afford what we’re doing right now. We just can’t afford it. California’s going under.
Hunter confirmed his comments to the North County Times, adding that he also supports House Resolution 1868, introduced last year but stalled in a House committee. The measure calls for the elimination of automatic citizenship of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.
Say goodbye to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales!
“My column voted for David Duke.”
Arizonans should not be judged disdainfully and from a distance by people whose closest contacts with Hispanics are with fine men and women who trim their lawns and put plates in front of them at restaurants, not with illegal immigrants passing through their back yards at 3 a.m.
TMZ applauds Congressman Tim Johnson (R-IL) for voting to freeze congressional pay raises — but we speak for the nation when we say … sir, take the money, buy a comb.Press releases from TMZ are a lot of fun!
Butler County officials are agitating for Governor Strickland of Ohiostan to propose an Arizona-style anti-immigration law, probably because of the porous borders Ohio shares with Indiana. Or maybe Kentucky. Personally, I’d be worried about West Virginia. Anyway, Butler is where Weepy the Orange comes from, so it all makes sense.
(Hat tip: Paul Bunyon)
Cassie, our teen reporter, tells us about her take on the recent immigration law in Arizona, from her personal, pigmented perspective. Reposted from Relaxed Politics, Tex’ other home.
I look Mexican. In reality, I am half-Texican and my mother’s family was in Texas for many years before white Americans started settling the area and fighting for Texas Independence, Texas joining the United States, and Texas then joining the Confederacy. As others have said, we didn’t cross the border — the border crossed us.
Not in my lifetime of course.
I was born in Texas long, long after it became part of the United States. I am a United States citizen. I speak English and I’ve never left the country. I graduate high school in six weeks and will be attending Princeton University just like some of our nation’s founding fathers.
But I am brown. And I have wild black hair. And I sometimes wear too much make-up and sparkly t-shirts just like the illegal immigrant girls do. I also sometimes do lawn chores or clean the house and I work in a restaurant on weekends.
Unless I am at an airport or at the border entering or exiting the country, I do not think anyone has the right to ask me for my papers. The scholarship programs and the universities asked for copies of my birth certificate and my social security card, but a regular cop on the street who hears me practicing my (really really bad) high school Spanish before a test shouldn’t be able to ask me for my papers just because I say, “¿Dónde está la parada del autobús?” to one of my friends. Or because I drive an old car or a new car while being brown. Or because I wear skinny jeans and Mexican sandals.
Americans don’t want to get angry about the way that legal and illegal immigrants are treated. But maybe someone will get it that brown citizens are also at risk of being thrown in jail for not being able to prove their citizenship. Or maybe not.
Two things to read:
Will Citizens Carry Passports? by Mary Curtis
Behind the Arizona Immigration Law: GOP Game to Swipe the November Election by Greg Palast
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