"Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest anti-immigration bill into law. It’s unbelievable. It makes it a crime as a state law to be in the country illegally. It lets police question anyone about their status. You know what this means? Rich people in Arizona may have to start raising their own children now." —Jay Leno
"How many people are here just because you're hiding from the Arizona police?" –David Letterman
"Senator John McCain supported Arizona's new immigration bill. John McCain, also an immigrant. He came over on the Mayflower." –David LettermanIt's pretty amazing how fast people react to issues and how quickly web sites get set up, be they real or satirical. Here is the web site set up to boycott Arizona, with a long list of companies registered in Arizona to contact or not do business with. A short list includes:
--Best Western
--Dial Soap
--Fry's Foods
--Greyhound
--GoDaddy
--Lifelock
--PF Changs
--PetSmart
--Ramada Hotels
--Sky Mall
--U-Haul
--US Airways
And in order to tweak their anti-immigration law, Arizona lawmakers have also banned the teaching of ethnic studies in their schools. Looks like the whole state will soon be home-schooled... Also, the Governor of Arizona is showing the strains from sudden notoriety. She is a simple person, basically a figurehead that signs what's in front of her, and now she is being asked to use her brain to justify her behavior. Watch out Barbie, your head might explode! "Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has come under fire from the left for signing her state's controversial immigration bill into law. But she told Fox News' Megyn Kelly today that people outside the state don't really understand the issue: Arizona has been under "terrorist attacks" from illegal immigration.
Sometimes it does seem that we are being over-run by circumstances beyond our control, and it can become frustrating enough that you just want to kick some ass as the solution. Our natural reaction of fight or flight takes over, especially when it seems that the people we trust to solve the problems have been fleeing from responsibility. Unfortunately, the Arizona approach is not a rational, well thought out one, and only Sheriff Joe Arpaio is having fun rounding up every brown body in Maricopa County until it gets resolved in the courts.
"They're not the only ones boycotting. Today, Mexican gangs are threatening to cut off the state's drug supply." –Jay Leno
"Arizona is the meth lab of democracy." —Jon Stewart
A few weeks ago I remember reading an article about state troopers in Indiana and Kentucky finding abandoned cars that had been used as rolling meth labs. And I slowly realized that there isn't one square inch of america where you can't buy illegal drugs. The war on drugs has failed when kids in elementary school can score whatever they want. In fact, there may not be anywhere on this planet where you cannot buy cocaine or heroin. For thirty years we have been talking about revamping our drug policy, and things like our prison and transportation systems, but so far it's been all talk and no action.
Maybe approaching a problem in a confrontational manner is the real problem. Our "war" on drugs or cancer or terrorism or Iraq or Afghanistan is doomed to failure because we treat them as problems to be forcefully eradicated instead of dealing with the root causes. My Sunday epiphany is that the Buddha was right: all life is suffering. To be honest, that's the only teaching of the Buddha I know. I could never seem to move beyond the first of the four noble truths, all of the others seemed irrelevant...
I saw Jay Leno at Correspondent Dinner his best line was; “That was my favorite story (this year) Republicans and a Lesbian bondage club. It’s ironic, Republicans don’t want lesbian getting married but they do like watching them “tie the knot”. So I thought that was interesting.”
ReplyDeleteYou can say the same about Tea Party, they say they respect the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors who only care about getting reelected on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster, just like Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago, keep passing them Arizona and the rest of us will continue to challenged them and you will fail in a court of law (and yes we will boycott you). Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
I will boycott any company that boycotts AZ. What about that?
ReplyDeleteFine with me... I just provided the link for those who would find it interesting. But, do you have any solutions to the immigration problem? I sure don't, just know we should have done something at least 30 years ago. In a previous post, I cynically suggested that we will soon send troops into Mexico to help with the narco wars, then annex it as our next state. Then, they'd all be American and we couldn't call them aliens anymore...
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