2010 archive
Driving While Brown, Once More (Updated) 1
Rachel Maddow looks at the persons behind Arizona’s “I Know One When I See One” law. Many of them have long histories in the racial and ethnic bigotry and hatred biz.
(Early in the video, the Governor confesses that she does not know what an illegal immigrant looks like. I guess someone is going to sprinkle pixie dust on the Arizona constabulary so they can magically know one when they see one.)
Maddow opens the video by summarizing how Republicans, while caterwauling about immigration for years, have also prevented Congress from taking up the issue, even to the point of turning on George W. Bush when he tried to address it.
Refusing to address a problem festers fosters further demagoguery.
The discussion of the persons behind the bill starts about three minutes in (partial transcript here).
Brendan is boycotting companies based in Arizona. Follow the link for a list of big outfits headquartered there (Warning: He’s upset. Language).
Shaun Mullen (where I found the link to the video) isn’t sure whether a boycott will do any good:
But that is not the point, so I will not be flying into Phoenix to see an old friend this summer and making damned sure that I don’t buy anything made in Arizona at the stupormarket.
It comes as no surprise that the movers and shakers behind the law are as vile as they come. Nor that the state government has the chutzpah to ask Washington to help fund the 15,000 officers tasked with hunting down people simply because they have brown skins.
But he’s in, because symbolism matters.
So am I.
(Ahhhh, they want Washington to supply the pixie dust. Frankly, I think that producing pixie dust would be a horrible overreach of federal power under the terms of good witch/bad witch clause of the United States Constitution.)
Addendum:
Anonymous Liberal, who is a lawyer, analyzes the pixie dust.
Driving While Brown, Reprise 0
Dick Polman considers statements by Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush questioning Arizona’s “See Your Papers, Mach Snell” law:
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Under 450k.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 448,000 in the week ended April 24, the Labor Department said.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 445,000 from the previously reported 456,000, which was modestly revised up to 459,000 in Thursday’s report.
.
Aside: Who are these analysts and why can’t they get it right? If I got it wrong as often as they do, I’d turn in my analysts’ union card.
All seriousness aside, these anonymous unnamed analyists were off by 0.6% That’s hardly worth mentioning, except that it takes up an additional column inch.
The Goldman Rule 0
As Bill Shein points out, Goldman Sachs was neither more ruthless nor less moral than anyone else on Wall Street.
But is Goldman Sachs or Wall Street really responsible for the long-term pickle that regular folks are in? Are they the bad guys, even in the particular transaction that the Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged was fraud?
Or, more likely, was the company just doing what our entire economic system demands they do, which is make money while, as much as possible, disguising the true impact of that money-making on people and planet?
They weren’t the only sharks trying to play with marked cards, but they were better at marking the cards.
The point of regulation is not to end the game, but to ensure that the cards aren’t marked.
All Shut Up, No Put Up 0
When challenged to make good on their obstructionism, Republicans fold.
Formal debate on the bill will begin at 12:15 p.m. (1615 GMT) on Thursday, said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.
It’s about time the filibusterers were called on to actually filibuster.
Aside:
From the Dept. of Etymology Dept.: “Filibusterer” is a corruption of “freebooter,” a synonym for brigand or pirate. From the Gnome Dictionary, the Webster’s 1913 definition:
A lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter; — originally applied to buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.
In quest of plunder.
’nuff said.
Imagine 0
Imagine that the teabaggers were black.
After I wrote this, but before it autoposted, Terrance DC published a long musing on just this topic.
Via JK at Balloon Juice.
Virginia Beach Needs This 0
The Voter Fraud Frauds 0
Republicans pimp voter registrations:
Unlike ACORN, which paid canvassers an hourly rate, the Republican Party was paying for piecework: $8.00 per registration.
Hef May Have Saved the Sign . . . 0
Trying To Get By 0
Steve Almond tells of living in El Paso and watching persons from Juarez “commute” to work every day by wading across the Rio Grande in the morning, then wading back home the next day. He contrasts what he observed with harsh rhetoric of the anti-immigration folks and concludes:
What they’d discover is an ancient and enduring truth: immigration is not about spreading evil. It’s about poor people seeking to become less poor. It is about the very human beings whose honest labors built our nation, and whose dreams honor its most sacred tenets.
Cookie Jill points out that
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But the Book 0
More here.
Driving While Brown 0
Tony Norman, writing at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, discusses Arizona’s xenophobia. A nugget:
By the way, injustice rarely stops at well-defined borders of race or class once it gets rolling. One day, someone is going to ask us all for our respective papers. Consider this a down payment.
Clarence Page draws on his experiences to anticipate life in Arizona:
My American passport came in handy on a Johannesburg street when an Afrikaner police officer said “Wys my jou paspoort.” (Show me your passport.) I was strolling-while-black. He didn’t need any more reasonable suspicion than that.
My views haven’t changed.
This is an evil law that reveals the worst aspects of the American character: bigotry, prejudice, xenophobia, hatred, and racism, just to mention a few.
This is a must watch:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Law & Border | ||||
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John Stewart via TPM.
QOTD 0
Ulysses Grant, from the Quotemaster:
Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.
Voting Is Not a Right. It Is a Duty. 1
John Cole forgets how to mince words.
I’m keeping this at the top of the page, because he said it better than I could.
Goldman Sachs Meets the Black Pearl 0
The Borowitz Report:
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the leader of the pirates announced, “We are doing God’s work. We work for Lloyd Blankfein.”
More at the link.
“To Create a Modern, Independent Republic of White Men” 0
Radio Times looks at the history of the Confederate States of America and its symbolism in contemporary American politics.
Natch, the Regent’s ignoring black folks was the lead in to the discussion. . . .
From the website:
Follow the link to the website to listen or listen here (mp3).