GOP Commiting Political Suicide?

From the Washington Post:

"...it would be absurd to deny that the Republican ideological coalition includes elements that are anti-immigrant -- those who believe that Hispanics, particularly Mexicans, are a threat to American culture and identity. When Arizona Republican Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth calls for a moratorium on legal immigration from Mexico, when then-Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) refers to Miami as a 'Third World country,' when state Rep. Russell Pearce (R), one of the authors of the Arizona immigration law, says Mexicans' and Central Americans' 'way of doing business' is different, Latinos can reasonably assume that they are unwelcome in certain Republican circles.

"The intensity of these Republican attitudes is evident not just from what activists say but also from what Republican leaders are being forced to say. Sen. John McCain, a long-term supporter of humane, comprehensive immigration reform, has run a commercial feeding fears of 'drug and human smuggling, home invasions, murder' by illegal immigrants."

"Never mind that the level of illegal immigration is down in Arizona or that skyrocketing crime rates along the border are a myth. McCain's tag line -- 'Complete the danged fence' -- will rank as one of the most humiliating capitulations in modern political history."

...

"Republicans have now sent three clear signals to Hispanic voters: California's Proposition 187, which was passed in 1994 and attempted to deny illegal immigrants health care and public education before being struck down in court; the immigration debate of 2006, dominated by strident Republican opponents of reform; and now the Arizona immigration law. According to a 2008 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, 49 percent of Hispanics said that Democrats had more concern for people of their background; 7 percent believed this was true of Republicans. Since the Arizona controversy, this gap can only have grown. In a matter of months, Hispanic voters in Arizona have gone from being among the most pro-GOP in the nation to being among the most hostile."

"Immigration issues are emotional and complex. But this must be recognized for what it is: political suicide. Consider that Hispanics make up 40 percent of the K-12 students in Arizona, 44 percent in Texas, 47 percent in California, 54 percent in New Mexico. Whatever temporary gains Republicans might make feeding resentment of this demographic shift, the party identified with that resentment will eventually be voted into singularity. In a matter of decades, the Republican Party could cease to be a national party."

AZ Governor's Over-Heated Rhetoric : No More Than Hyperbole for Political Gain

Via the Wonk Room:
 
"This weekend, Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) lashed out at President Obama for employing dark humor when joking about new Arizona immigration law SB-1070 at last week's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. In his comedic speech, Obama stated, 'We all know what happens in Arizona when you don't have ID — adios amigos!' Brewer, apparently, did not find Obama's comments very funny.
 
"Brewer has repeatedly cited drug related border violence to justify signing off on the likely unconstitutional SB-1070. 'The drug trafficking and border violence is out of control in Arizona and demands serious attention,' said Jan Brewer for Governor campaign spokesman Doug Cole in a statement released this weekend. 'Mr. President, this is not a laughing matter.' In a video released by her campaign, Brewer outlines a variety of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants that she characterizes as plaguing Arizona in the past year.
 
"Brewer has a right to be unamused by Obama poking fun at the absurdity of her state's new immigration law, but her self-righteous attack doesn't add up. FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics show that 'while the nation's illegal-immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2004, according to federal records…the violent-crime rate declined 35 percent.' If anything, 'cartel operatives pass through border communities as quickly as possible, avoiding conflicts and attention.' The Arizona Republic reports that crime rates in Arizona border towns 'have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line.' ' While smugglers have become more aggressive in their encounters with authorities, as evidenced by the shooting of a Pinal County deputy on Friday, allegedly by illegal-immigrant drug runners, they do not routinely target residents of border towns,'
the investigative report concludes.
 
"It's curious that Brewer still chose to release her video even after the Arizona Republic's widely disseminated article was published. However, some Arizonans aren't fooled as to what her motives are. Leo Federico, a retired teacher, told the Arizona Republic, 'That's politics…It's all about votes.' Yet while Brewer courts immigration hardliners, Latinos are overwhelmingly flocking to her opponent, State Attorney General Terry Goddard (D) — who is now leading in the polls.
 
"Brewer also hits Obama on federal inaction on immigration. Yesterday on Al Punto with Jorge Ramos, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responded to similar criticisms, stating, 'it's illogical to hear the state of Arizona complaining about the federal government not doing anything and the two Republican senators from Arizona [Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl] won't join with us to do anything.' On her campaign website, Brewer also doesn't cite a single commitment to working with the federal government to solve the problem comprehensively by enacting immigration reform.
 
"Opponents of Arizona's law meanwhile claim that SB-1070 will make the state less safe by forcing police to prioritize immigration enforcement over violent crimes, draining strained financial and manpower resources, exacerbating civil rights violations, and fueling costly lawsuits."
 
. . .
 
As is usual with all Republicans, the truth or honest representitation of the issues is the first casualty in the quest for political gain. To claim that drug-related, violent crime is "out of control" when it's actually decreased by 35%, simply to inflame the residents of her state into supporting this unconstitutional law is reprehesible at best, utterly vile and disgusting in respect of a civil rights viewpoint.

I Vant To See Your Papers! Schnell! Schnell!! (Updated)

Via Balloon Juice:

"Race and racism has nothing to do with it:

"Just a week after signing the country's toughest immigration bill into law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer now must decide whether to endorse another bill passed by her state legislature — one that outlaws ethnic-studies programs in public schools.

***

"Arizona's superintendent for public instruction, Tom Horne, has said he's backing the measure because ethnic-studies programs encourage 'ethnic chauvinism'; he's also suggested that such programs could breed secessionist sentiment among Hispanic students.

"Since when is secessionist sentiment bad? Also, apparently accents will soon be verboten:

"The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

"State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators.

"Arizona wants to make it clear that the only acceptable accent is a proper German one."

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Update: Added the link to the original post on Balloon Juice and corrected formatting.

Do you have any scars on your body? If so, how'd you get them?

Lots of scars. The biggest ones from heart surgery.

Ask me anything

What if...?

Here is a quote from a blog that has been cited quite a bit in the last few days (I'll put up a link to it later:)

"Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn't like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that's what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation's capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country's political leaders if the need arose.

"Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington."

Tea Party Hypocrisy

Eugene Robinson from the Washington Post nails it on the head:

"Activists for Latino and immigrant rights -- and supporters of sane governance -- held weekend rallies denouncing the new law and vowing to do everything they can to overturn it. But where was the Tea Party crowd? Isn't the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom? It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim -- and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state -- would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish? "

Palin distorts the President's words ... will the media notice?

Via Daily Kos

Palin distorts the President's words ... will the media notice?:

As long as the traditional media is going to report on every utterance from the former half-term governor of Alaska, will they bother to fact-check her?

Via The Plum Line, the latest distortion from the hand of Sarah Palin:

Mr. President, is a strong America a problem?

Asked this week about his faltering efforts to advance the Middle East peace process, President Obama did something remarkable. In front of some 47 foreign leaders and hundreds of reporters from all over the world, President Obama said that “whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.”

Whether we like it or not? Most Americans do like it.

Here’s what the President actually said:

But what we can make sure of is, is that we are constantly present, constantly engaged, and setting out very clearly to both sides our belief that not only is it in the interests of each party to resolve these conflicts but it’s also in the interest of the United States. It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.

Well, that's quite a bit different, isn't it? The President wants to resolve conflicts because of the cost to the United States both in money and American lives, and Sarah Palin distorts his words for personal political gain.

There's only one person with a problem here.