Arizona turns into America’s punch line

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today's headline in the Arizona Daily Star says it best: "Arizona turns into America's punch line."

Actually, this has been true for many years. Remember AZ-SCAM, the Keating Five, the MLK Day economic boycott, the impeachment of Evan Mecham, the conviction of J. Fife Symington III, J.D. Hayworth and Jack Abramoff, Rick Renzi, and on and on.

The current GOP insane clown posse has provided regular material for the folks at Comedy Central from guns in bars, to selling the state capitol, to the current anti-immigrant bill and the "birther" bill. The comedy writes itself.

Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report addresses the anti-immigrant hysteria in this segment of "The Word: No Problemo."

"We've tried everything to keep illegals out, from volunteer Minutemen to lining the border with our crappiest states."

"It's like they're saying that harassing Latinos with racial profiling is an inevitable side effect of this law — it's not. It's the entire point of this law."

"Just ask its sponsor, State Senator Russell Pearce who said 'When you make life difficult, most will leave on their own.'" "It's the same strategy I use to keep deer out of my garden. By the way, if this law fails, we should try sprinkling Arizona with wolf urine (Blitzer could use the cash)."

In all seriousness, Colbert correctly says "The point is that no immigrants of any kind will want to live in Arizona, which is great, because already their illegal immigrant population has dropped 18% since 2008, mostly because of the poor economy. And this bill is going to make the economy even better, by which I mean even worse. Because immigrants account for $29 billion dollars of Arizona's economy, and when they leave, that hit to the economic cojones will make sure that no one will want to live there (like a very dry Detroit). And once there's no people, "No Problemo."