Rick Lowry has no problemo with the new Arizona Harass Latinos Act of 2010 and can’t understand what all the fuss is about. I was going to tell Lowry to talk to Tom Tancredo, who seemed to suggest that the Arizona law goes too far. But, he has since clarified that he is just fine with the Arizona law, so I’ll point Lowry to Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, who do think the Arizona law goes too far.
Look. I understand that Arizona has a big problem with illegal immigration. But everyone knows that the law, as written, is unworkable, will tie down local law enforcement, will lead to constant harassment of Latinos who are U.S. citizens or have documents, and that it will cost tremendous amounts of money that Arizona doesn’t have to spare.
It’s really dumb policy and only a blockhead would argue otherwise. Lowry tries to defend the law on principle, but this is the problem with so much of Republican thinking. It’s especially true with abortion. They decide something is wrong and then want to ban it without the slightest consideration for the greater evil of trying to enforce their stupid law.
I wish the Republicans would learn to consider the implications of things. Most of the policies they advocate would be hated beyond belief if actually implemented. The Arizona Latino Harassment Law is merely the latest example.
Update [2010-4-28 8:27:4 by BooMan]: Maybe I should call it the Make Them Wear Tommy Hilfiger Act of 2010.
They’re not meant to be implemented. They’re meant to be passed, to dominate discussion, and to deliver elections.
I expect this law goes out with a ‘wink-wink, nudge-nudge’ to every law-enforcement entity to refrain from any enforcement. I mean, it’s been a legal requirement in Kennesaw Mountain, GA, for every household to own at least one gun for what, thirty years, and there’s never been anyone charged with an offense against the ordinance. That wasn’t the point.
Arpaio may be too stupid to get the message, however. And the local Teahadi community may exercise its rights to compel enforcement, too. Sometimes you can put too much red meat into a piece of symbolic legislation.
You win teh prize. Still, I think this law will actually be implemented, and we’re going to see a lot of lawsuits against the state police. If it can ever be enacted without being struck down first.
of course it’s meant to be implemented to harass Latinos. for example, I wonder how many police will be out “enforcing the law” on election day? (hint: this is a trick question).
It’s meant to be implemented in just the same way laws in Ceausescu’s Romania were meant to be implemented: selectively, as a means of keeping the Other in fear and under control.
Despite Mary Matlin’s RepDivaishness assurances that this was the right bill for the moment and all this foolishness would blow over in a matter of minutes, the economic impact coming down the pike at AZ is sizeable. As it should be. Apparently no one asked the AZ Tourism bureau just what percentage of their income came from south of the border until Mexico put out their warning to citizens today and add to that the list of conventions cancelling just in the first 24 hours it looks like a rough tap dance to get out of this one.
It’ll be interesting to see how Obama approaches this to pull a rabbit out of the hat to claim the right side of this issue to recapture votes for the Fall.
The true problem is that persons like Kris Kobach are not suffering any repercussions for writing the Law. Kobach continues to be bank-rolled by Univ. Missouri at Kansas City School of Law.
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2010/04/kobach-wins-one-in-arizona/
Makes me not want to ever purchase a Buick or GMC as long as his parents run a car dealership.
http://www.billkobachbuickgmcinc.com/HomePage
A little personal, maybe.
Ain’t that the damn truth.
And this is the group of rascals posed to win the House in November.
Heavy, heavy sigh.
it’s the ‘ IF YOU AIN’T WHITE, YOU BETTER HAVE PAPERS’ Act.
see, I’ve been Black long enough in America to know that today, it’ll be used on Latinos…
tomorrow, it will be anyone who ain’t White.
Lowry is one of those, when Black folk spoke about racial profiling, and ‘Driving While Black’, they always begin the conversation with..
‘Well, what did YOU DO?’
Answer. – ” I was Black.”
” No, what did YOU DO?’
Answer – ” I was Black.”
the conversation continues in this ‘ who’s on first’ tradition until you make clear that it’s over.
I have to disagree: it will be used on anyone who ain’t white immediately. That’s the whole idea. Tomorrow it will be used on gays, lefties, homeless, community organizers, union members, people with the wrong kind of accent, socialists, and atheists. For starters.
The immediate result of this will be, come late summer, early fall, NO ONE is going to show up to harvest their crops. I wonder what these racist fucks are going to be bitching about when they have 2 to 4 billion dollars of produce rotting in the fields. Just like Colorado a couple years ago. The concept of ‘be careful what you wish for because you just might get it’ is completely lost on these morons.
that’s going to be hilarious. also, the racist motherfuckers are going to have to mow their own lawns for once.
Yeah. In a way I kind of wish the feds would force them to enforce this. The piggies in Scottsdale will succumb to cardiac arrests trying to maintain their own puke-ugly landscaping and there will be no one left capable of hauling the corpses away. In time, it will be kind of a neo-Pompeii.
kinda like with colorado springs, the libertarian paradise, but with shades of “day without a mexican”.
It won’t be just the seasonal labor, either. I wonder how the foreign owners of Siemans and Nestle will feel about being hassled for ID when they come to visit, or to manage? And I guess the U of AZ and the other (obviously irrelevant) universities and colleges will have to settle for teabagger morons to give their guest lectures and commencement addresses. Who else would bother going there?
Looks like AZ’s last hope for economic development will be lots more The Hills Have Eyes movie sequels, for which it is clearly the perfect setting.
they are total blockheads, booman, and they have no foresight whatsoever. i am convinced the conservative movement is made up of mentally ill people.
they claim to support small government, while at the same time embracing the greatest intrusion of government into daily life. then, when their embrace of big government bites ’em in the ass, they scratch their heads and say “how’d that happen?”
You see this all the time: they wanted a surveillance state and then were outraged when the [Bush] DOJ put out a report on right-wing extremists. They wanted a president with unlimited power, and none of them would listen when people like me told them “what happens when a democrat’s elected?” Then a democrat got elected and they’re like “oh noes!” One of these teabag idiots was in TPM a few weeks ago (too lazy to find the link) saying “i didn’t mind when bush had these powers, how was i to know that Obama would use them too?” they wanted a fully deregulated economy and now they’re surprised that when there are no rules, that corporations defraud investors.
I mean, DUH. Just fucking DUH. and right now, I’m slapping around this typical idiot conservative who doesn’t get why the Arizona laws are unconstitutional.
they are just dumb as fuck. they have no foresight, just knee-jerk reactions to everything.