SB1070 Update: Encourage tourism with SB1070 “fact sheet,” astroturf

by David Safier

This is pretty amusing.

Brewer put together a tourism task force to try and bring tourists back to Arizona after SB1070 chased them away and Brewer worked her magic by telling people they're going to be kidnapped and beheaded unless they transport drugs for the Mexican mafia, or something like that.

My favorite task force recommendation is the proposed "fact sheet."

Task force members recommended that the fact sheet be created and distributed both in printed and electronic form to “clarify facts and misconceptions.”

So. Constitutional scholars and other legal experts are arguing about the effects of SB1070. Police officers and school officials are trying to sort out what will and won't happen if the law goes into effect. But the task force plans to put together a PR "fact sheet" that will explain it all to potential tourists.

Maybe they should give their "fact sheet" to the courts while they're at it, to speed up the legal proceedings.

Here's my second favorite recommendation: astroturf "grass roots campaigns, such as letter writing and editorials."

Note to task force: if you ideas are this lame, and you're planning a phony grass roots campaign, you probably don't want to talk to the press. Though I must say, I'm glad you did.