CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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The Federal Govt Forced-- Forced!!-- Arizona's Hand into the "Papers Please" Law

Monday, June 28, 2010

this entry brought to you by pearl jam, "blood"


I came across this picture while browsing the Internet, and it got me so angry I absolutely couldn't not comment on its absurdity.




1) First of all, I've lived in Arizona for about 9 years, now. When the previous Governor, Janet Napalitano, was asked to join the Obama administration as Secretary of Homeland Security, the previous Lieutenant Governor, Jan Brewer, was promoted to Governor-- she's not even an elected official. But the point is, she's been Governor for about as long as Obama has been in office, and never once have I heard any press conferences, any interviews, basically any mention that she's been begging the Federal Government to do something about this awful immigration issue. I'm not saying that illegal immigration isn't a problem, but to imply that the Federal government forced her hand is a lie. There was no discourse about this issue over the last year. The immigration issue remained unchanged from when Bush was in office, and yet no one was proposing these bills to arrest people if they look illegal. All of the sudden and with no real provocation or any difference from the last 10 years, this law was being written and signed (in a weird press conference on live television, might I add), when it had never really been brought up to the table for discussion.

Let me give you an example. In California years back, when George Bush was still the President in his first term and Governor Grey Davis was still in office but in decline, before the whole "recall" bullshit, George Bush was invited to the governor's mansion. When he arrived, the two discussed the federal government bailing out the state's failing electric companies. Bush said no. The state started having scheduled brown outs because they could not afford to keep the state running the whole time. Grey Davis's position as a Governor was recalled, and that's when Shwarzenneger was elected. I mention this as a direct example of actual discourse, of a Governor being forced to do something because the Federal Government would not help.

There has been no discourse with the Obama administration and Governor Brewer. There has been no failed discourse, no attempts at talks, Obama hasn't turned her down for anything. When they say that this was somehow a reaction to the Federal Government not doing enough, they are lying to you.

2) Yes, illegal immigration is a problem, and no, Obama isn't doing anything about it. But I also do not recall this being a national platform during the 2008 elections. I remember the economy being an issue during the election. I recall health care reform being an issue. And I also believe Obama has tackled both those issues. You could argue whether or not he handled them well, or to your satisfaction, but you couldn't argue that he didn't do anything. I don't remember electing Barack Obama so he could do anything about illegal immigration. For you to imply that somehow he's not doing what we elected him to do is a lie, especially when the Republicans keep pressing "It's the economy, stupid", as if anyone thought it was something different. And of course there are, you know, more pressing matters at hand, like the fucking world falling apart because Wall Street bankers were too stupid to see that their greed was killing everything, not to mention oil pouring out onto the planet at an unstoppable rate, doing irreparable damage.

3) Barack Obama's stance on immigration, or rather, his lack of a stance, is exactly the same as George W. Bush's, as mentioned before. Illegal immigrants have been coming here during the previous 8 years at around the same rate as they have been for the last year and a half. Yet these people never had a fucking problem with it then, they weren't printing up t-shirts with Bush wearing a sombrero saying "Don't need any papers in my country!" Yet they have a problem with it now.

4) Didn't these people insist that we build a fucking wall around the border of this country? And didn't our side argue that it would be an ecological disaster, that it would cost too much money, and that it would ultimately do nothing? And didn't our side give them their fucking wall anyway because our side is a bunch of pussies who gives in to every demand your side asks for?

..What? You mean that wall isn't even finished and yet it's not good enough? You mean their shitty ideas weren't effective, so they were forced to get even more extreme, and that's somehow Obama's fault? Fuck you a million times.

5) But, most importantly...

You're saying that because the Federal government won't do anything about illegal immigration, Jan Brewer was forced-- forced!-- into ignoring the Constitution and suppressing the rights of American citizens?

All the protests across America, all the organizations and companies saying they will boycott Arizona aren't just lie-berals and tree hugging hippies getting their panties in a bunch over nothing. The Sheriff of Pima County here In Arizona said that the law is nonsensical, illegal, a law nobody asked for, and unenforceable, and he swore that he wouldn't have any of his men use it. His argument was that yes, he would get sued for not enforcing the law, but that he would also be sued by the Federal Government for enforcing such an obviously illegal law, and Federal Law overrides state law. An Arizona Congressman was on Hardball with Chris Tucker and said that the law could be enforced not by racial profiling, but by looking at the way a person is dressed. For example, he said a police officer could look at a person's shoes. Jan Brewer herself , during that weird press conference she held when she signed the new immigration law into effect, said that she didn't know how law enforcement would enforce the law without racial profiling, only that she believed that they wouldn't. Then, a few weeks later, she amended the law she'd already signed by specifying that law enforcement couldn't racial profile to enact the law, without specifying how the law could be enacted without racial profiling in the first place. Still, this is a clue to how poorly the law was written in the first place, that it needed amending to not, you know, break the Constitution.

But these still aren't even hypothetical at this point. There have already been people sent to jail-- in one example because a man had a thick Mexican accent and said that his mother was in Mexico-- despite being American citizens, and the law doesn't even officially take effect until July. And let me remind you that 1) It's not illegal in any state to not have ID on you unless you're driving a vehicle, and 2) A driver's license does not, in any state, prove your citizenship. So unless you make a habit of walking around with your birth certificate and social security card-- something you're specifically told not to do by authorities, because if you get robbed you could lose your entire identity-- you cannot prove you're a citizen. I myself don't drive, so I don't even walk around with my ID in my back pocket.

My point is that the supporters of the Arizona Immigration Law are 1) wrong, and 2) dishonest. They say that they're doing this because the Federal government forced their hand, as if that's ever an excuse for shredding the Constitution, or for breaking the law. If you called the cops and told them your neighbor stole your TV and they never arrested him, would it be excusable if you went into his house and kicked his ass?
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with love from CRS @ 10:22 AM 

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