Immigration

The forgotten aspects of slavery in the Southern States

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By Karl Reiner

Slavery had always been a legal institution in the United States despite its degradation of a race and high cost in human misery. On the eve of the CivilSlave1 War, it was a robust enterprise in no danger of dying out.  It was the major cause of the war, the promoters of secession considered the defense of slavery the prime reason for establishing the Confederacy.

Slave ownership was protected by the Confederate Constitution.  Fifty percent of families in South Carolina and Mississippi owned slaves.  About a quarter of the families in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas were slave owners.

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‘Crazy’ Carl Seel wants to return to the dark days of Russell Pearce

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in the dark days when disgraced and recalled former Senate President Russell Pearce was at the zenith of his anti-immigrant reign of terror, he and his good buddy Kris Kobach from the Immigration Law Reform Institute and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) were proposing bills to deny undocumented immigrants access to health care, public education, rental properties, public services. etc. Many of these anti-immigrant measures were first beta-tested by Kris Kobach in the City of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

SealRussell Pearce, who is now the First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, still has his loyal acolytes willing to carry out his anti-immigrant hysteria in the Arizona legislature.

"Crazy" Carl Seel — you remember him, one of the sponsors of the "Birther" bills in 2011 and 2012 Arizona's Penis-Free "Birther" Bill Is Back in Action — has filed HB 2192 (.pdf), a bill that would declare it "an unlawful use of public resources if the person uses any public resource while present in this state in violation of any [law] that has determined that the person is not lawfully present in this state…"

Rep. Seel is the only sponsor of this bill, and his bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. Arizona's business community has made it abundently clear in recent years that it does not want to revisit the dark days of Russell Pearce's reign of terror. So will the business community punish Seel for his sin?

The quest for the “perfect message” and why it can stifle progressives

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

There was a lot of hand-wringing among progressives/secular types before, during, and after “Science Guy” Bill Nye’s debate with Creation Museum founder Ken Ham on Tuesday night, which was held at the aforementioned “museum” in Kentucky. There is certainly a good argument for avoiding such debates entirely, as Richard Dawkins does. Eschewing them is probably a wise general rule for proponents of evolution since the debate format gives undeserved credibility to evidence-free assertions like Creationism. Also, debates are too often focused on performance over substance and “winners” and “losers”. For example, Mitt Romney “won” his first Presidential debate by boldly lying about his positions and catching President Obama off-guard. But, having watched it, I’m glad that Nye took the risk with this particular debate.

Let’s be Clear: House Tea-Publicans killed immigration reform

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The AP headline in the The Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Star this morning makes it clear: House conservatives rule out immigration this year:

Conservative Republicans on Wednesday ruled out any immigration legislation in the House this year, insisting that the GOP should wait until next year when the party might also control the Senate.

House GOP leaders unveiled their broad immigration principles last week that gave hope to advocates and the Obama administration that the first changes in the nation’s laws in three decades might happen in the coming months.

Immigration legislation is one of the top priorities for Obama’s second term.

But several of the conservatives were adamant that the House should do nothing on the issue this year, a midterm election year when the GOP is angling to gain six seats in the Senate and seize majority control. Democrats currently have a 55-45 advantage but are defending more seats, including ones in Republican-leaning states.

“I think it’s a mistake for us to have an internal battle in the Republican Party this year about immigration reform,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told reporters at a gathering of conservatives. “I think when we take back the Senate in 2014 one of the first things we should do next year after we do certain economic issues, I think we should address the immigration issue.”

Labrador’s comments were noteworthy as he was one of eight House members working on bipartisan immigration legislation last year. He later abandoned the negotiations.

Stop pissing away taxpayer money on lawsuits: Repeal the remnants of SB 1070

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Arizona's lawless legislature does not hesitate to piss away taxpayer money on lawsuits defending their unconstitutional and unlawful extremist agenda in court. It does this all the time, and frequently loses in court. The real losers in the end are Arizona's taxpayers who have to pay the attorneys fees and court costs for these ideological extremists.

Our lawless legislature — the Tea-Publican leadership — currently has three lawsuits in court challenging the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), the citizens initiative that created it, and the 2012 redistricting maps. This is a purely partisan endeavor that the Arizona GOP should be paying for out of its own deep pockets, not the taxpayers of Arizona.

Presente_LicensePlateAZ_300pxThe most recent example of our lawless legislature pissing away taxpayer money on lawsuits defending their unconstitutional and unlawful extremist agenda in court is the continuing litigation over the remnants of SB 1070, most of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which came with a warning from the Court that it would strike down the remainder of the law when a proper case and controversy under the remaining provisions of SB 1070 reached the Court. The writing is on the wall.

This week, the legislature approved using taxpayer money to pay the court costs of Republican politicians — some of whom are no longer in the legislature — in response to discovery requests in the litigation over SB 1070. Lawmakers approve funds for SB 1070 defense:

Saying they were protecting the legislative process, the House and Senate voted along party lines Thursday to hire a lawyer to help them fight subpoenas over the state’s controversial 2010 immigration law.

The legislation sets aside up to $100,000 to contest a request by the American Civil Liberties Union for the personal emails and other correspondence between some current and former lawmakers and those who might have helped them craft or line up votes for SB 1070.