Big money could bring the end of life as we know it

• Jesse "no-social-security" Kelly (Arizona)
• Rand "who-needs-civil-rights?" Paul (Kentucky)
• Joe "no-minimum-wage" Miller (Alaska)
• Sharon "pay-your-doctor-with-a-chicken" Angle (Nevada)
• Christine "don't-masturbate" O'Donnell (Delaware)
• John "repeal-healthcare-reform-but-save-welfare-for-the-rich" Boehner (Ohio)
• Sarah "anti-feminist-pro-opportunist" Palin (Alaska)
• John "which-way-should-I-flip-flop-today?" McCain (Arizona)
• Jan "beheadings!" Brewer (Arizona)
• Russel "yikes-brown-people" Pearce (Arizona)
• John "who-needs-public-education" Huppenthal (Arizona)
• Greg "privatize-this" Krino (Arizona)

Are you scared yet? Should I go on?

These right-wing puppets (and-- thanks to the Roberts' court-- the corporatists and secretly-funded big-money groups behind them) want to end life as we know it in the United States of America. They don't want to take us back to the Bush era policies or the Contract for America.

With no Social Security, no healthcare safety net, no minimum wage, and, of course, no unions-- they want to take us back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when people of all ages, including small children, slaved -- literally-- in factories and sweat shops for meager wages. If you were sick, old, or poor, it was your family's responsibility to take care of you. No family? Tough luck, you're on your own.

How could these ideas have gained so much popularity? Is it the sheer power of the moneyed forces behind the Tea Party-- like the John Birch Society Koch brothers or secretly-finded groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which spent $3.5 million last week? All of this money + 24/7 yellow journalism courtesy of FOX News is trying to squash the progressive advances of the Obama Administration.

Here's some background on the origins of these ideas from The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party by Frank Rich or the New York Times.

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed. As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business. While Koch foundations donate to cancer hospitals like Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, Koch Industries has been lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying another product important to its bottom line, formaldehyde, as a “known carcinogen” in humans (which it is).

Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including the putative next speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund”; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous.

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests.

Has the country gone mad? Do the small guv'ment Tea Partiers think their Social Security and Medicare will be funded, while everyone under 65 will be thrown to the wolves? Fat chance. Tea Partiers, after they have used you, they'll go after your Medicare-funded scooters next.

For a look at our future, check out this book from the past-- How the Other Half Lives-- or watch Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices.

UPDATE, October 8: Diane Rehm's Friday News Roundup covers this story. (Diane, honey, mention my blog next time, OK?)

Republicans and 'illegal' immigrants: Since when has breaking the law been a problem for Republicans?

Migrants from Mexico and Central America have become political footballs this election season (1, 2) -- thanks for the most part to Governor Jan Brewer, Russel "Racial Purity" Pearce, Pearce's baby SB1070, John and Jon (Arizona's Senatorial Do-Nothing Duo), and a herd of Democrats who are trying desperately not to look like progressive cream puffs.

Despite all of the right-wing rhetoric about border violence, the statistics show that the border situation is improving (crime down, crossings down). Yes, gang violence in Mexico-- due to the drug trade and poverty-- is up, but migrant workers aren't the cause of that violence. They are victims-- even more than we are.

Arizona's right-wingers pontificate about migrants breaking our laws! by crossing the border illegally! Given the bevy of crooks and liars-- literally-- that the Arizona Republican Party has put forth as candidates this election season, I'm surprised that breaking the law is a problem.

Check out these links for Andrew Thomas, Tom Horne, Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Steve May for current examples of Republican corruption and Ev Mecham and J. Fife Symington III for historical reference.)

Some people shrug this off as the wild west, but personally, I'm shocked by this widespread corruption in Arizona's Republican Party. I'm also shocked that the Arizona electorate is duped into voting for these crooks and liars.

What can we learn from the gay rights struggle of the 1970s? Don't give up the fight!

What have we learned in the past 33 years? Apparently not much in the brotherly love category. Far too many of us are easily manipulated by hatred and fear ginned up by right-wingers and Christian zealots.

Last night I watched Milk, the 2008 movie about activist Harvey Milk (above), the first openly gay man to hold a major elected office, a position on the County Board of Supervisors.

Watching an inspiring movie like this one two years after the will-it-get-an-Oscar? hoopla allows the viewer to concentrate on the story and the multiple parallels between 1978 and 2010.

Being a woman ... ahem... of a certain age, I was a happenin' young 20-something in 1978 and remember well the multiple movements of the 1960s and 1970s, but I had forgotten Anita Bryant's anti-homosexual crusade.

A pop-singer-turned-Evangelist, Bryant led a campaign to overturn a Dade County, Florida law that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. After that law was overturned, she made appearances in several states to help them repeal similar anti-discrimination laws nationwide. (Sounds familiar, huh? Using religion and fear of the other to divide the populace.)



Running parallel with Bryant's anti-gay efforts were Milk's gay rights efforts in San Francisco. The movie depicts Milk debating and tirelessly fighting a California legislator who backs Proposition 6, a measure that would have barred gays from teaching in California schools and would allow schools to fire gay teachers.

The parallels between the anti-gay fervor of the 1970s and the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim fervor being promoted today by Republicans and Tea Baggers were striking. Fear, religiosity, and preservation of family and "American values" were used to paint gays as outsiders-- just as these right-wing strategies are used today to paint immigrants and Muslims as dangerous outsiders and justify discrimination.

California's Prop 6 (which eventually failed) even had witch-hunt tactics like SB1070. One of the proponents of Prop 6 says that they have "procedures to identify who's a homosexual". His statement so reminded me of Governor Jan Brewer's reassurances that Arizona's law enforcement officials can spot illegal immigrants but then she couldn't say exactly how.

Milk's speeches toward the end of the movie-- and the end of his life, since he was assassinated in 1978-- were stirring.

"I want to recruit you to further the fight to preserve democracy," he says.

Referring to "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence and "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free" on the Statue of Liberty, Milk says, "No matter how hard they try, they can't erase those words from the Declaration of Independence. No matter how hard they try, they can't chip those words from the Statue of Liberty."

What can we learn from Harvey Milk? The struggle continues. Keep fighting. Vote!

I was going to write this, but Arianna Huffington beat me to it

Remember all of the right-wing blather about the Constitution last winter when President Obama was trying to push health care reform through the Congress?

Blah, blah, blah, we have to stick to the Constitution! The Constitution doesn't say the federal government should provide universal health care, so we shouldn't do it!

"It's not in the Constitution!" was used repeatedly as an excuse to do nothing to solve the country's multiple problems. Republicans proudly wore the badge of "Constitutional Conservative"-- until Arizona's chief wing nut Russel "Father-of-SB1070" Pearce came up with another popular white supremacist idea-- anchor babies.

What's a Constitutional Conservative-- a defender of the Constitution's purity-- to do?

The Constitution clearly says that any baby born in the US is a US citizen. There are no qualifications to that statement-- no stipulations about race, ethnicity, religion, parental citizenship-- or exclusion for mixed race Hawaiians born in the early 1960s. For a humorous look at the Congressional debate that took place when the 14th Amendment was passed originally, check out this Daily Show link..."I know it's hard to be tough on babies, but..."

Now that prominent national whities like US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have picked up Pearce's anti-anchor baby idea, things are getting progressively scarier, and right-wingers are coming out of the woodwork to speak out against the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

To put all of this Constitutional rhetoric into perspective, the Huffington Post published Republicans Hot, Cold on Constitution last week. The article is full of interesting factoids about politicians using the Constitution-- when it suits them-- and offering changes when it doesn't. According to Huff Post, Republicans have offered 42 amendments to the Constitution in this session, and the Democrats have offered 27.

Both numbers are shockingly large in my opinion, and all of these amendments-- and the anchor baby rhetoric, in particular-- smack of political grandstanding and just plain hogwash.

Our forefathers-- in their infinite wisdom-- made it really difficult to amend the Constitution-- thank God (or our elected officials would have thrown the country into the abyss in the name of ideology long ago.)



Does anyone remember the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)? (I do, and here is a photo of my ERA bracelet-- none of those plastic things for us feminists. We knew we were going to be wearing these ERA bracelets for a long time as we fought for equality for women.) The ERA was an amendment to the Constitution that would have guaranteed equal rights under any federal, state, or local law and would have prohibited discrimination based upon sex. It received the required 2/3 vote of each house of Congress-- a feat that seems miraculous now-- but failed to be ratified by 3/4 of the state legislatures by the 1982 deadline (10 years after it was originally proposed).

The whities who are blabbing about an anchor baby amendment aren't serious. They're using this issue as another wedge to pit races and ethnicities against each other... divide and conquer, and by the way, don't forget to vote for the wise whitie who can save you from the Hottentots and the Mongol hoards. (Sarcasm here, check out the link.)

All I can say is that it is a sad day in America when anyone outside of Mesa listens to Russel Pearce's ideas.

Why SB1070? Because Brewer and Pearce Are Beholdin' to Private Prisons

There are a myriad of reasons why people either support or denounce SB1070, Arizona's harsh anti-illegal immigration bill.

Pro: "America's under attack! The brown people are coming to take our jobs! Stop the border-crossing terrorists and drug dealers."

Con: "This is a racist policy-- and an unfunded mandate-- that could foster racial profiling, discrimination and wrongful imprisonment."

On a recent Rachel Maddow Show, she offers some interesting facts regarding Governor Jan Brewer's and Arizona State Senator Russel Pearce's steadfast support for anti-illegal immigration legislation.

Both Brewer and Pearce have strong ties to the private prison industry-- particularly Corrections Corporation of America, the corporation that holds the contract to hold federal prisoners (including suspected illegal aliens.)

Although Brewer has 2 close aids who have worked with and/or lobbied for the private prison industry, Pearce has even closer ties. Private prison corporations have donated the maximum amount to his campaigns, according to Maddow's research. To repay them, he sponsored legislation to transfer Arizona's entire prison system to private corporations and was the father of SB1070, which would increase prison populations dramatically.

Frankly, they're both opportunistic sleezeballs.

Arpaio on a hit list? So, what else is new?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a media whore.

The big news out of Maricopa County yesterday was that (reportedly) a Mexican drug cartel has put a $1 million reward on Arpaio's head.

So, what else is new?

Arpaio has built his nationwide reputation as the toughest sheriff in the US on the backs of inmates and immigrants. I suspect there has been a price on his head for many years-- thanks to his notoriously poor treatment for inmates and his immigrant sweeps in Phoenix, as well as in the deserts around it.

CNN and other major news channels are carrying the story ab out Arpaio's text message threat today. I found a link to the text message image on theNoisy Room blog.

Right off the bat, I'm suspicious of this text message. Do drug dealers have particularly bad spelling skills? Here is an excerpt:

"Miyon d dolares por la k?besa d arpayo i dies mil dls por kualkier amerikano ..."

I can't even count the numbers of spelling errors in this message fragment. I can understand that Mexican drug dealers may not be able to spell English words very well, but this text looks like really poor Spanglish. I can see spelling a few words wrong to make the message harder to trace, but, personally, I think this looks like a hoax.

Immigration reform: the rest of the story, part 2

Xenophobia will continue to re-surface in our [state] unless and until government finds long-term solutions to this very serious problem which seems to be a result of some of the poor, the desperate and the unemployed taking matters of government into their own hands.

Given the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping Arizona and the US this quote could have been uttered by a local politician or activist. In actuality, this is a statement by African Christian Democratic Party Gauteng leader Lydia Meshoe as quoted in today's Times Live from Johannesburg, South Africa. The online newspaper goes on to say, "Sixteen people, mostly foreign nationals, were attacked at Kya Sands informal settlement north of Johannesburg in the past few days."

Hmmm... this is not unlike actions of the neo-Nazis vigilantes patrolling Pinal County, is it? (OK, they haven't shot anyone that we know of, but they're armed and ready.) Why are we as a country sliding backward from racial equality and tolerance for "the other"?

I blame extremist politicians and media personalities who twist the facts.. and sometimes just plain lie (1, 2). I'm not going into how irresponsible and destructive Faux News celebrities like Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly are but instead will focus on Arizona politicians' lies and the related facts.

Arizona's Republican politicians-- particularly those running for office-- have been fanning the flames of xenophobia to further their political careers. Unelected Republican Governor Jan Brewer, septuagenarian Senator John McCain and his senatorial sidekick Joh Kyl, and Arizona Legislator Russel "Father of SB1070" Pearce are four politicians who obviously do not employ fact-checkers.

A few weeks ago, Brewer made headlines when she accused most border crossers of being drug dealers and talked about beheadings in the desert. (For a video, try this link.) Presented with the facts, she tried to mumble her way out of it. Although McCain flip-flops on multiple issues with impunity, recently he and Kyl have been beating the border enforcement and fear drums, along with Right-Wing Anchor Baby Pearce, who has no need for facts in his rhetoric.

So where is the truth? In yesterday's part 1 on The Rest of the Story, I quoted several polls that show most Americans favor comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship. Today, I'll offer some statistics to debunk the lies being told by politicians who hope to capitalize on your fear.

40 people have died in the desert since July 1, 2010. Pima County's Medical Examiner is quoted as saying, this could be "the deadliest month of all time." These people are not ranchers or drug dealers; they are undocumented border crossers-- los desconocidos-- the unknown dead who come to the US everyday for work and a new life. According to the No More Deaths website, 153 have died in the desert since October 1, 2009.

Ironically, although more people are dying in the desert this year, fewer people are crossing the border illegally. According to the Arizona Daily Star, "Apprehensions in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector have decreased each of the past five years; remittances to Mexico have declined and anecdotal reports show the economic recession has slowed illegal immigration. Yet more people are dying than ever."

Brewer, McCain, and others have blamed undocumented border crossers for beheadings, home invasions, murders, and kidnappings. In actuality, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the violent crime rate in Arizona has been decreasing since it peaked in 1993. (It will be interesting to see if Arizona's violent crime rate increases after the new "Constitutional" Carry law goes into effect next week.)

Again, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics, Tucson ranks 38th in crime-- far behind heartland cities like Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Many US citizens are heavily armed, and people get shot everyday. As this blogger points out, when someone is shot in DC, no one calls for thousands of troupes to be deployed.

Unfortunately, in US politics, facts don't matter much, and according to a research study reported by National Public Radio (NPR), people don't generally change their minds-- even when presented with facts. Sigh.

Immigration reform: the rest of the story

Repeatedly, news outlets have reported that a majority of US and Arizona citizens support SB1070. More often than not, those reports do not provide the question(s) asked to determine that finding. For example, an early Rasmussen poll asked if people thought it was acceptable for police to ask for identification during a traffic stop. Most people said, "Sure. That's OK," since it is already standard procedure to ask for a drivers' license, registration, and proof of insurance. The problem with SB1070 is that it goes far beyond that (1,2).

An article from yesterday's Daily Kos quotes several other surveys that are not getting the same media attention as the pro-SB1070 polls. For example:

Did you know that most US citizens favor comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship -- particularly for undocumented workers who have been here for years? The Daily Kos quotes not one but four independent polls that revealed those results. Check the link for full details from these surveys conducted by the Associated Press, CNN, CBS/New York Times, and other reputable sources.

Even though the bill has not become law yet, SB1070 is already creating consequence beyond lawsuits, convention cancellations, protests, pizza boycotts, and the meteoric rise in Governor Jan Brewer's popularity.

We are seeing an increase in aggressive law enforcement by law officers and armed vigilantes. Last week, on the same day that the SB1070 hearing started in the courts, Sheriff Joe Arpaio conducted a desert raid with 100 of his men in the outskirts of Maricopa County. (How much did that cost to round up 11 people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time with brown skin?) In addition, we have civilian neo-Nazis patrolling the desert in Pinal County.

Seriously, folks, do we really want to live in a police state where big white boys with dangerous toys fan out across the desert looking for exhausted border-crossers to shoot? Enough is enough. I don't want to live in a heavily armed, extremist police state. This is what the Republican Legislature has given us with SB1070 and the new gun law SB1108. Both laws go into effect next week.

Sky Bar out of touch with clientele on SB1070

What started as another xenophobic law proposed by wingnut Republican Russel Pearce, SB1070 could be labeled the Ultimate Law of Unintended Consequences.

In addition to helping our GED-toting, unelected governor vanquish her Republican primary opponents, the ill-conceived bill has become a national sensation, fodder for comedians, rationale for boycotts, and the deciding factor on where to buy pizza in Tucson.

In early July, the humanitarian group No More Deaths started We Mean Business, the business-friendly answer song to Congressman Raul Grijalva's call for boycotts of Arizona after passage of SB1070. Approximately 90 local businesses agreed to post anti-SB1070 We Mean Business or We Reject Racism signs in their establishments. The rationale was that flaming liberals like me who oppose SB1070 would know which businesses to frequent and which to... well... boycott. (For a list of these businesses and a map, click here.)

Given the huge economic impact of Mexican shoppers in Arizona-- $7.3 million per day-- it makes good business sense to oppose SB1070.

According to the No More Deaths website, businesses interested in participating in the We Reject Racism movement are asked to take the following three actions:

- Post the “We Reject Racism” sign to publicly oppose SB1070

- Not allow law enforcement into their business for the sole purpose of checking immigration status of people inside*

- Not financially supporting lawmakers who voted for SB1070

*Legally businesses have the right to prevent anyone from entering or ask them to leave. The exception for law enforcement is if they have a warrant for someone inside or believe an individual is an immediate danger to the public.

Tony Vaccaro, owner of Brooklyn's Pizza and the adjoining Sky Bar on 4th Avenue, was one of the Tucson businessmen who initially supported We Mean Business 2 weeks ago. In a turn of events, Vaccaro took the We Mean Business signs down this week and contacted the Arizona Daily Star stating his flip-flop support of SB1070.

Vaccaro is quoted in the Star as saying that after having read SB1070, he now agrees with it. The Star also quotes Vaccaro as saying, "...I do not believe that businesses should get involved in politics. That is for individuals, politicians and lobby groups. I feel that I have let some of my customers down by getting involved in the SB 1070 debate."

Businesses shouldn't get involved in politics? Has this guy been living in a cave? The corporatists control our elected officials, run our country-- and are trying to run our city!

I find it hard to believe that he really thinks he let his customers down by opposing SB1070 and racism. Vaccaro's 2 businesses-- Brooklyn's Pizza and Sky Bar-- are in the heart of the 4th Ave shopping district-- nestled between the University of Arizona, the downtown arts district, and Tucson High School (whose student population is less than 50% Anglo).

Personally, I liked (note the past tense) Sky Bar. The open, airy venue features affordable pizza and adult beverages, theme nights, eclectic live music, and dancing. The downtown crowd is far from white bread-- being diverse in race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation. Vaccaro's new position on SB1070 is out of step with them.

Artists for Action, another anti-SB1070 movement that popped up in July, may give Vaccaro-- who hires dozens of musicians to play at his club and whose clientele includes local artists-- some heart burn.

Spearheaded by Calexico's John Convertino and Joey Burns, Artists for Action urges artists and musicians to take a stand against SB1070 and help educate the public. The group is not advocating boycotts; in fact, it is encouraging out-of-state musicians to come to Arizona and voice their opposition to SB1070 -- rather than boycotting in protest.

Who will win this tug of war? Hopefully, not the xenophobes or those who exploit immigrants (documented or not).

Brewer, beheadings, and those pesky facts

You're entitled to your own opinions but not your own set of facts.
-- Senator Harry Reid, during the televised bipartisan healthcare negotiations.

Those pesky facts. We don't like facts in Arizona-- or science for that matter.

Arizona Legislator Russel Pearce's penchant for making up facts about undocumented workers has catapulted him and his baby (SB1070) to national notoriety.

Not to be outdone, unelected Republican Governor Jan Brewer has started ginning up fear-mongering sound bites about beheadings and drug-smuggling illegal immigrants to keep ahead of her fellow reactionary ideologue Republican challengers in the governor's race.

Although right-wingers would like to blame convention cancellations and a tourism slump on Congressman Raul Grijalva's call for an Arizona boycott, Brewer is doing her part to further destroy the state's economy by signing SB 1070 and continuing to tell blatant lies about undocumented border crossers, the drug trade, and violence in Arizona.

Rather than rehash the facts -- or lack of them. Here are a few well-written blog posts on the subject:

Follow the Yellow Brick Road… “Gun-Fighting, Drug-Smuggling, Be-Headings, Oh My!”

Beheadings & Tourism. That's the Ticket.

Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain lying with impunity
This one includes a video link to Brewer lying about illegals beheading innocent Arizonans.

Quick Thought of the Day

And here are 2 stories about the $250,000 public relations campaign-- started by Governor Brewer to combat the boycott Arizona fervor. Now it looks as if the PR folks also will be battling Brewer's own negative campaign tactics. (And this woman is somehow ahead in the polls???)

AZ battles negative image

JAN BREWER GETS $250K TO COUNTERACT HER OWN RHETORIC.

I hope Brewer enjoys the protest rallies at the governors' conference this coming weekend.

May Day March gains new momentum after passage of SB1070

Worldwide, May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day. Originally, the workers' holiday commemorated the struggle for an eight-hour work day in 1856 and later, marked the anniversary of the Haymarket affair in 1886. The Haymarket affair, also know as the Haymarket massacre, began as a rally in support of striking workers and ended in violence with the deaths of workers and police.

In Tucson, the May Day March not only promotes workers' rights, a living wage, and fair workplace practices but also the rights for other oppressed people, including immigrants.

Immigrant workers--legal and illegal--often work under substandard conditions in the fields, factories, and kitchens of America. It's understandable that their struggle would become part of this demonstration of worker solidarity. After the passage of the anti-illegal immigrant bill SB1070, this year's May Day March will most likely be large and boisterous.

The May Day March will begin Saturday morning at 9 a.m. at El Casino Ballroom and end with a rally at 11 a.m. in Armory Park. For details, check the Derechos Humanos website.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column.

Show us the money: can bribes... er, incentives... combat calls for Arizona boycott?

Arizona continued to be in the media spotlight today with multiple stories about the recent passage of the anti-illegal immigration bill (SB1070) and related boycotts.

This morning, the Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio (NPR) devoted a full hour to Arizona and immigration. You can listen to the show here. In a nutshell (no pun intended), even the most conservative commentators said that with the passage of SB1070 Arizona's Republican governor and legislature have gone to far.

Reuters, NPR, and USA Today-- all say that the Arizona boycotts have begun.

According to Reuters, the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association reported six organizations had canceled conventions in the state. This includes the 11,000-member Immigration Lawyers Association, which had planned a fall annual meeting in Scottsdale. In addition, Reuters eported that the California Senate voted to "cut ties with companies based in neighboring Arizona". Reuters also said that immigration rights advocates have called for boycotts Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games.

NPR's All Things Considered reported that the city of San Francisco passed a resolution to boycott Arizona and all Arizona-based businesses because of SB1070, which they called "un-American." NPR also reported that a Tucson icon-- the Arizona Inn-- is losing long-time customers who "love the Inn but won't come back to Arizona."

According to USA Today, Mexico has issued a "travel alert" warning citizens not to go to Arizona. On the surface, you may think that this is what Arizona legislators wanted, but in reality, Mexicans often shop across the border in Arizona. A travel alert and unhospitable attitude could hurt commerce in Arizona border towns like Nogales.

Lastly, to counter all of this-- at least a little-- Arizona Public Media reported today that the Arizona government is offering incentives for motion picture companies that want to do business in Arizona.

Will economic incentives help Arizona buy its way out of boycott threats? I don't think so.

In the meantime, according to NPR, Governor Jan Brewer is "not worried about the boycotts" and believes that they will not hurt businesses in the state.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column.

Brewer steps into the eye of the hurricane and comes to Tucson

Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the highly controversial anti-illegal immigration bill (SB1070) last week, will be in Tucson today, and citizens are lining up to "welcome" her.

Brewer will be attending the 96th Arizona Town Hall, "Building Arizona's Future: Jobs, Innovation, and Competitiveness.

Derechos Humanos, a local civil rights organization, is calling for legal immigration supporters to protest Arizona's "un-elected governor". The rally will be noon - 3 p.m. outside of the Doubletree Hotel in midtown Tucson. Check the Derechos Humanos link for more information or join on facebook here.

According to National Public Radio, an estimated 3000 people rallied against SB1070 outside the capitol in Phoenix on Sunday, and 4500 rallied outside of Congressman Raul Grijalva's office in Tucson on Saturday.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column. Click on the link to see a video of Brewer signing the controversial bill.

SB1070 becomes law in 3 months-- maybe

As thousands of protesters chanted outside the state capitol in Phoenix yesterday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB1070. The controversial legislation would require law enforcement officers to stop people whom they believe are in the US illegally and ask for identification such as a birth certificate or passport. Moreover, it gives citizens the right to sue local law enforcement if they believe they are not implementing this law.

With stories in the New York Times and on CNN, MSNBC, the Colbert Report, and local television and radio, Arizona has been under the media microscope since this bill passed both houses of the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Now that it has passed, Arizona is under the legal microscope, according to National Public Radio (NPR). President Obama has asked his legal advisors to review the civil rights implications of the legislation. Multiple civil rights groups are planning legal challenges.

If SB1070 survives these legal challenges, it will go into effect in 3 months, according to NPR.

Economic implications aside, I personally don't see how this legislation can be fairly implemented. Thirty percent of Arizona residents are Hispanic, and many more are mixed race. By far, most are legal, but under this law they will be treated differently because of the color of their skin. Not all illegal aliens are Hispanic. There are undocumented Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indians-- you name it-- in the US. Will the police be stopping them also? Where will it end?

It is my hope that passage of wrong-headed legislation like SB1070 will push the US Congress into finally passing comprehensive immigration reform.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column. Click on the link to see the Colbert video.

Governor expected to sign SB1070, as statewide rallies and walkouts continue

Arizona residents are literally up in arms over the Arizona Legislature's passage of SB1070. Protest rallies have continued throughout the week, and more are planned for today and this weekend in Tucson and Phoenix.

The New York Times, The Arizona Republic (not exactly the bastion of liberal thinking), Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, Stephen Colbert, and now President Obama have all come out against this legislation which would require Arizona law enforcement officers to ask people for proof of citizenship during legal contacts. If they don't have proof of citizenship on their person, they are presumed to be illegal.

Saturday, April 24, is Governor Jan Brewer's deadline. If she doesn't sign by then, it will become law without her signature. The Derechos Humanos website announced that she will sign the bill Friday morning-- while they protest outside.

Will this legislation have the dire economic and social consequences predicted by The Arizona Republic and others? Only time will tell.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column. Click on the link and see the video of students chained to the state capitol building.

Anti-immigrant legislation sparks protests and rallies in Phoenix and Tucson

Passage of anti-immigrant legislation SB1070 by Arizona's Republican-controlled Legislature has sparked rallies and protests in Tucson and Phoenix.

On Monday in Phoenix, marchers-- both pro and con-- protested at the capitol. On Tuesday, nine activists were arrested in Phoenix after they changed themselves to the doors of the state capitol and called for Governor Jan Brewer to veto the anti-immigrant legislation. Brewer, who is running for re-election, has not said what she will do with SB1070.

In addition to the protests, multiple news stories, blogs, editorials, and Examiner articles have railed against Arizona for going too far. A facebook page for people against SB1070 also has been launched. You can join here.

Most notably, NY Times editorial writers said, "The Arizona Legislature has just stepped off the deep end of the immigration debate, passing a harsh and mean-spirited bill that would do little to stop illegal immigration."

"This legislation exposes ALL Arizonan's to unnecessary prejudice," says Grijalva, who even called on a boycott of Arizona if Brewer signs the legislation into law. (You'll remember that when Arizona was the only state in the US not to honor Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday economic pressure was put on the state through boycotts.)

This coming Saturday, April 24, Congressman Raul Grijalva is sponsoring a rally at his Tucson headquarters, 452 S. Stone.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column. Click the link to see the video of protesters chaining themselves to the capitol building.

Arizona: the edge of civilization

Arizona is becoming less and less civilized everyday.

When this state had plenty tourist income for repeated tax cuts for the rich (courtesy of the Arizona Legislature's Republican majority) and modest services for the rest of us, it was a tolerable place to live. Now, I'm not so sure.

Once the housing bubble burst, construction jobs disappeared, and tourist revenues declined, Arizona's house-of-cards economy plunged. The result has been two-years of fiscal mismanagement by the Legislature and Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Heaven forbid that they would fix the inherent problems with the state's revenue streams. Instead, they went to work cutting the budget for education,healthcare for children and the poor, and other services, while offering more tax breaks for business and the richest residents and relinquishing federal matching funds.

In addition, the Republicans voted to waste tax payer funds on hiring an independent lawyer to sue the federal government over healthcare reform and wasted time on a birther bill that would require everyone to show a birth certificate to run for office in Arizona.

The latest jewel in the crown of the 2010 session of the Arizona Legislature is Senator Russell Pearce's ant-immigrant bill (SB1070). Bouyed by anti-immigrant propaganda and false statements (dare I say "lies"?) by Pearce, the bill has passed both houses on a party line vote-- with Republicans pandering to the extreme fringe of their party.

SB1070 is a scary expansion of police powers in Arizona. Basically, during any "lawful contact" (ie, running a red light) any law enforcement officer can ask anyone for an ID to see if you are in the US legally. If you don't have an ID, you are "presumed to be an alien."

Will the governor sign the bill? Brewer has vowed to "do the right thing" without saying what that is.

Arizona is fast becoming an impoverished police state with minimal government and no services-- including basic public education. If these fascist policies and budget cuts continue, Arizona will see a brain drain, with the best and the brightest moving to more progressive states. Our universities and businesses will have a difficult time attracting professors, researchers, and skilled workers-- further hurting Arizona's economy. Those left in Arizona will be "clinging to their guns and religion" -- and trickle down economics.

If you don't like the direction of Arizona government, vote in the fall.

This article was originally published in my Progressive Examiner column. Check out the link to see the video of State Senator Kyrsten Sinema scold the Republican-controlled Legislature for passing poor policies, such as the birther bill.