Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Sunday, the Arizona Republic for some reason felt compelled to publish a guest opinion (and video) by the disgraced and recalled former Senate President, Russell Pearce, writing on behalf of his anti-immigrant nativist hate group, BanAmnestyNow.com.
Pearce discloses a continuing working relationship with the anti-immigrant nativist hate group, Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose lawyer Kris Kobach wrote SB 1070 for Pearce.
Pearce also cites the widely discredited Heritage Foundation report (.pdf) released last week, which was drafted, in part, by Jason Richwine, who subscribes to the controversial "science" of hereditarianism and eugenics. Richwine was forced to resign from the Heritage Foundation on Friday, presumably after Russell Pearce submitted his guest opinion to the Republic.
Ol' Russel writes, Immigration tug-of-war: Reform effort is a sham:
The 3-year-old Senate Bill 1070, America’s toughest anti-illegal
immigration law, has had a dramatic impact on Arizona. We are a better
place.
* * *
According to information from the Federation of American Immigration
Reform, Arizonans pay $2.6 billion per year to educate, medicate and
incarcerate illegal aliens. According to the Heritage Foundation, the
billions we pay today are but one-third of our eventual tab a decade
from now if the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill becomes law.
* * *
However, despite the many advances we have made, the burdens of illegal
immigration still are too high. This is why I call upon my fellow
citizens to join me in opposing the latest amnesty/citizenship bill. The
group of eight U.S. senators’ legislation (including Arizona Sens. John
McCain and Jeff Flake) risks America’s financial and national security.
This bill is the epitome of everything that is wrong, backward and
corrupt in Washington.
Pearce toots his own horn about the "success" of his SB 1070, which is funny, because most of SB 1070 was struck down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. The one remaining provision that was allowed to go into effect is now being challenged in court. The U.S. Supreme Court intimated in its decision that when this remaining provision makes its way back to the court, it will be struck down as well. That's a pyrrhic victory at best, hardly the "success" Pearce imagines in his fevered mind.
Pearce goes on to detail a list of grievances about the "Gang of Eight" immigration bill, which he labels a "sham." You can read the details of his nativist rant at the link above. He concludes:
The Gang of Eight bill isn’t a serious bill. Congress has a 10 percent
approval rating because this is how it conducts business. I urge my
fellow Americans to oppose this bill while there is still time.
I have to agree with Stephen Lemons on this one, Russell Pearce Gets Mad Love from the Arizona Republic:
Gee, what will the Rep do to top this dumb stunt? Maybe they
could get David Duke to comment on race relations, Eliot Spitzer to pen
a piece about the scourge of prostitution, or Bernie Madoff to write a
column on how to invest your excess cash.
And why not open up the commentaries on immigration reform even further? I'm sure nativist anti-Semite Glenn Spencer would love to horn in on the action.
Not to mention Spencer's ex-bud, minutewoman Shawna Forde,
now sitting on Arizona's death row after being sentenced to die for the
murders of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul.
Forde could do an op-ed for the Rep. Then a Rep flunky could interview her via phone, and let her explain why it's okay to off brown people.
My point is, not everyone's opinion is equal or even valid. And if
the "paper of record" is going to grant a 1,000-word-plus column and
several online video snippets to a hatemonger like Pearce, then it
should at least challenge his bogus facts, misinformation, and
prevarications.
Then of course there is Russell Pearce's evil twin, crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. Crazy Uncle Joe likes to hang out with has-been celebrities like Chuck Norris, and the "Motor City Madman" Ted Nugent, who literally shit his pants at a draft board hearing to avoid service in Vietnam. Patriotic American Ted Nugent Shit His Pants to Avoid the Draft.
Ted Nugent, a "special deputy" to Arpaio, is calling for all undocumented
immigrants (actually, only those from Mexico, it seems) to be treated
like "indentured servants," which is a nice way of saying "slaves." The Phoenix New Times explains, Joe Arpaio's "Special Deputy" Ted Nugent: Immigrants Should Be "Indentured Servants":
Nugent — who, by the way, is supposed to be "dead or in jail" right now — wrote a column for Arpaio's favorite conspiracy-theory website, World Net Daily, explaining his "immigration plan."
"All
illegal men in America should be required to work on building the
fence, to be completed in one year," Nugent says. "We would pay them
minimum wage, provide food and shelter, and provide them English and
American history classes at night. Everyone wins."
He explains that these immigrants will be treated "like indentured servants, meaning that they have to earn their citizenship."
* * *
Nugent, apparently operating under the belief that every undocumented
immigrant in this country is from Mexico, cites several instances in his
immigration "plan" in which a person's entire family will be sent "back
to Mexico."
There's a quote somewhere about being known by the company you keep, and it's perhaps not surprising in this case.
Nugent adds that Arpaio's also part of his immigration plan.
"Any
man or woman who is a known member of a street rat gang will be tossed
out of the country and is not eligible to return," he says. "If he or
she is caught re-entering America, we will apply Sheriff Joe Arpaio
justice."
So how's that GOP rebranding working out? What happened to all of that talk about how Tea-Publicans learned their lesson in 2012, now understand demographic trends, and are ready to reach out to Latino Americans?
Somebody sure as hell forgot to tell Pat "Pitchfork Brigades" Buchanan, a proud member of the Sons of the Confederacy, who is urging a new Southern strategy that he and Kevin Phillips helped to pioneer for Richard Nixon, a strategy of racial resentment and hatred to appeal to white voters.
Like Ted Nugent, Pitchfork Pat wites at Joe Arpaio's favorite conspiracy-theory website, World Net Daily, "Requiem for a Grand Old Party: Pat Buchanan lays out demographic realities of Republicans' chief base: White voters." To combat the growing Latino vote, Pitchfork Pat implies that the Republican Party should adopt a new version of the “Southern Strategy” revolving around immigration. Buchanan Calls for Renewed Southern Strategy, This Time Against Immigrants – Right-Wing Watch:
His solution, of course, is not for the GOP to try to appeal to
non-white voters. Instead, he suggests that Republicans focus
exclusively on turning out white voters by re-implementing what he
sarcastically calls the “evil Southern Strategy” that helped catapult Richard Nixon to office.
Buchanan implies that this time around, instead of stirring up racial
resentment against black Americans, Republicans should work to pit white
voters against “illegal foreign aliens."
This is the same old nativist and racist white privilege racial resentment and hatred of the "Southern Strategy." These old white segregationists just can't die off fast enough. If this is what the GOP has become, it will soon die off as well. Demographics is destiny.