Immigration

John McCain tries to fool the voters – we don’t get fooled again

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“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” – Abraham Lincoln

Senator John McCain’s newly-published Spanish-language campaign website selectively highlights just part of his legislative record — while his English-language site emphasizes other parts. McCain portrays immigration record differently in English and Spanish:

McCainWantedThe Spanish language site, for instance, lauds him as a member of the Gang of Eight that sought comprehensive immigration reform, and a supporter of a pathway to citizenship for the children of immigrants who came to the country illegally — a group known as the “Dreamers.” The English-language site makes no mention of either and portrays the senator as a champion of tougher border security.

McCain’s campaign launched his new Spanish-language website on Tuesday, a week after he won a heated Republican primary in hopes of scoring a sixth term. “Unidos con McCain,” or “United with McCain” is a condensed version of his English-language site, which features far more information on McCain’s biography as well as news clippings and special emphasis on military, veterans issues and health-care.

On the issue of immigration, there are stark differences between the two sites. McCain’s English-language site highlights his stance on “Homeland Security and Immigration Reform,” while the Spanish-language site features McCain’s position on “Inmigracion.”

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Election Day is now officially Taco Tuesday

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So this actually happened. Marco Gutierrez, founder of the group Latinos for Trump, issued a dire warning to the United States in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC on Thursday night, ‘Taco Trucks on Every Corner’: Trump Supporter’s Anti-Immigration Warning:

“My culture is a very dominant culture, and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”

America’s response? Mmmm, tacos!

Mr. Gutierrez’s comments elicited a largely sarcastic backlash on social media. #TacosOnEveryCorner surged to the top of Twitter’s list of trending topics, where it remained on Friday morning.

The Arizona Democratic Party wasted little time taking advantage of his remarks.

Screen Shot 2016-09-04 at 12.41.08 PMScreen Shot 2016-09-04 at 12.41.49 PM

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WaPo takes a look at the scandal-ridden Paul Babeu

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Babeu-ArpaioThe Washington Post just can’t quite bring itself to believe that Tea-Publican voters in Arizona’s CD 1 picked a scandal-ridden anti-immigrant demagogue, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu aka “Joe Jr.,” in Arizona’s GOP primary.

They must not be familiar with Arizona. You can be the devil himself as long as your hatin’ on brown people; that’s usually all it takes in a GOP primary. His own sisters told people not to vote for him. Now he’s a GOP congressional nominee.

[I]n a five-way primary Tuesday for the Phoenix-and Tucson-area congressional district, Republicans nominated a scandal-ridden conservative sheriff — a man so controversial, even two of his sisters had warned voters not to support him.

House Republican operatives say much of this is old news, and they congratulated Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu on his win Tuesday night. He’ll face former police officer Tom O’Halleran in a fight to replace Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who’s challenging Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate race. Nonpartisan handicappers at Cook Political Report say Arizona’s first district is a toss up.

Babeu’s campaign says that Babeu, who’s been a local sheriff in 2008, understands issues like immigration and environmental issues facing the district. And Republicans in the district have a history of winning over conservative Democratic Mormons in the area, so Babeu’s hard-line immigration position may actually help him here.

What’s more, in 2012, Babeu won his reelection to sheriff by more than 20 points after much of these bad headlines came out.

But it’s undeniable that Babeu brings a lot of baggage with him to this competitive congressional race. Like, a lot.

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Donald Trump returns to the birthplace of his anti-immigrant demagoguery

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The genesis of Donald Trump’s xenophobic anti-immigrant nativist and racist demagoguery began right here in Arizona more than a decade ago with Prop. 200 in 2004, the “Arizona Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act,” which required that voters be able to produce both identification and proof of citizenship prior to being allowed to vote in any election. The same requirements were also enacted for any person prior to receiving any state or locally funded benefits.

The Yes on 200 committee was led by Rusty Childress, a Phoenix-area car dealer, and supported at the national level by the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose legal arm is the Immigration Reform Law Institute, lead by the GOP’s voter suppression expert, Kris Kobach, who is now unbelievably Secretary of State of Kansas.

There is, of course, the virulently anti-immigrant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio who built his reputation on immigrant sweeps, when he was not abusing the power of his office by conducting witch hunts against his political opponents.

Then Rep. Russell Pearce “introduced what is now SB 1070 … every year between 2005 and 2009, before it finally passed and was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer” in 2010 (Pearce only introduced the bill, it was drafted by Kris Kobach as model legislation for ALEC). Pearce bragged in 2011, 1 battle in Arizona immigration war:

Arpaio1Prior to SB 1070, I introduced many other measures that addressed illegal immigration — and eventually became law. In 2004, 56 percent of Arizona voters approved Prop 200, which denies certain government benefits to illegal immigrants and prevents voter fraud.

Additional laws that punish human smugglers; deny illegal immigrants bail, and set up a statewide task force to deal with illegal immigrant gangs passed prior to SB 1070.

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WaPo: It’s not a ‘dog whistle’ if everyone can hear the bigotry

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pearl clutchThe patrician prevaricator for the Plutocracy, George Will’s mini-me Robert Robb at the Arizona Republic,  clutches his pearls and sniffs “how dare you point out that many Trump supporters are racists and bigots” — while in the same breath arguing that this will result in a Nixonian “cultural white backlash against political correctness.” Robb: Hillary Clinton overplays the race card.

This GOP apologist is pathetic. The Nixonian “cultural white backlash against political correctness” is the Trump campaign’s strategy, and is inherently racist. Donald Trump revives Richard Nixon’s 1968 playbook.

Maybe after Robb retires to his fainting couch for some smelling salts, he will take the time to read this Washington Post editorial which demonstrates just how pathetic his opinion is. Republicans can’t pretend not to know what fuels the Trump campaign:

It’s not a “dog whistle” if everyone can hear the bigotry.

Republicans supporting Mr. Trump, explicitly or tacitly, cannot reasonably claim that they do not know who he is and what he has been doing. [Lookin’ at you, Robert Robb.]

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