I see racist people...

By GottaLaff

Look who's running for governor of Florida:

CPR chief Rick Scott was ousted as a hospital exec amid a 1990s fraud probe, and the memo will alarm pro-reform forces, because it shows that the anti-reform camp is beginning to sense that victory is within reach on their top goal: Killing the public option.

Oh, you already knew that? Did you know all this?

R Lynn's Wiki:

Richard Lynn "Rick" Scott (born 1953 in Bloomington, Illinois) announced his candidacy for Florida governor on April 13, 2010.^[1]

Scott is a healthcare industry executive and founder of Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) which advertises against expanding the U.S. government's role in regulating the healthcare system but failed in its efforts to block healthcare reform.

Scott founded the Columbia Hospital Corporation in 1987. With Columbia HCA Chairman Thomas J. Frist, the brother of Senator Bill Frist, the company merged Columbia with Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 to form Columbia/HCA. Ten years later, Scott was ousted by the company's board of directors in the midst of the nation's biggest health care fraud scandal in which the company ultimately plead guilty to the nation's then largest Medicaid and Medicare fraud and paid a record fine of $1.7 billion dollars.^[2][3][4] In 2001, Scott co-founded the Solantic Corporation, which operates walk-in medical care centers. He also owns Continental Structural Plastics, North America's largest industrial composites molder. [...]

CPR opposes the broad outlines of President Obama's health-care plans, and has hired Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm which previously worked with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Isn't he the bee's knees? The cat's pajamas?

The liver worst?

Now he can add "racial profiler" to his resume. Congratulations, Ricky Lynn, you've topped yourself:


H/t: LynCKos for the title and for alerting me to Scott's tweet.

Unabashed Maddow fan girl geekitude time

By GottaLaff

Please indulge me. I'm a geek. I'm a Maddow fan girl. I admit it.

You can't imagine how proud ZenShadow and I are right now:

Our pals at the Political Carnival bring the awesome with this human response to Arizona's "Papers, please" bill.

You can view the video here. Click on above image to enlarge.

I am truly honored.

Okay, moment of fan girl geekitude is over. Regular posting will resume shortly.

VIDEO- Special BLUNT: "Do I Look Illegal?"

By GottaLaff

This webisode of Blunt was a bigger collaborative effort than usual, and for that, ZenShadow and I thank you.

ZenShadow is the one who came up with the concept for this amazing collection of videos, and I edited them together, and then some.

We put the word out on Twitter, and before I knew it, I had 60-plus videos filling my inbox. My video program couldn't handle the load, so sadly, some had to be cut. I apologize deeply for that, because I know the feeling that went into them.

Thank you to every single contributor. You may recognize some faces, and other ones you'll wish you knew better. All are wonderful, caring people.

But the trick question is, which ones are "illegal"?



Blunt is a lot like letters to the editor. YOUR take, short, to the point.

You have a voice, now use it.

(Click on image to enlarge)

For more information about Blunt, follow this link. If you think a video file is too big to email, then go here and use YouSendIt.com.

Please include a name you'd like to use, and a "title", if any, in your e-mail, as you'll see in the video graphics.

Remember: Try to keep the videos at 20 seconds or under.

It's your turn. Go.

Widow of officer slain by illegal immigrant criticizes new Arizona law

By GottaLaff

Julie Erfle

The new Arizona "Papers Please" law has placed new emphasis on footwear, but doesn't do much to prevent real crime. In fact, the law itself is a real crime:

The widow of a Phoenix police officer [Nick Erfle] who was fatally shot three years ago by an undocumented immigrant said Arizona's new law would have done nothing to save her husband's life had it been in place in 2007.

She's right.

Julie Erfle believes that policymakers need to cut through the "rhetoric" and "fear-mongering" and that the police would not be protected from violence... or from accusations of racial profiling, either.

She's right again.

Seems she's more concerned about the safety of police officers than those who claim to be concerned about the safety of police officers.

"My concern with this bill, though, is what it does to law enforcement [...] This bill puts them under a microscope. I feel it's a no-win situation for an officer. I don't think it keeps officers safe. [...] "My opinion on it is that this isn't the solution, that we need something on the federal level"

Erfle said that her husband would be "infuriated" by Arizona's politics.

Many of us are too.

Julie is very wise. But she is also very ticked that supporters are exploiting her husband to get political donations.

She said [state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who sponsored the bill] wrote to her in 2007 to ease her frustration about how her husband's memory was being used in the media, but she didn't feel the response was adequate.

"My response to (Pearce) was that it was inappropriate, under any circumstances, to use someone's murder to promote yourself financially or politically," she said.

But a little thing like that won't stop 'em.

Poll-itics: Majority Support Arizona's Immigration Law

By GottaLaff

Head-scratcher of the day week month year:

A slim majority of Americans support the new Arizona immigration law, 51% to 36%, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll.

An overwhelming majority of respondents also believe the nation's immigration laws should undergo an extensive overhaul.

A Gallup poll last week found similar results.

Do the people who were polled understand what the law says? Have the people who were polled ever been stopped by the police because of the color of their skin... or what their shoes looked like? Do the people who were polled have relatives, living or dead, who came to America from another country?

An law requiring an education may be in order.

Frank Rich: If Only Arizona Were the Real Problem

By GottaLaff

(via Barry Blitt)

Reminder:

Please note that posting could be light today. Paddy is gone for a few hours, I'm on no sleep and have a huge video project ahead of me that got a bigger response than I ever expected, and that's a good thing. Between editing and Paddy's absence, things will be a little slower today.

That said, today's Frank Rich excerpts:

[T]o label this development “Arizona’s folly” trivializes its import and reach. The more you examine the law’s provisions and proponents, the more you realize that it’s the latest and (so far) most vicious battle in a far broader movement that is not just about illegal immigrants — and that is steadily increasing its annexation of one of America’s two major political parties. [...]

To be angry about illegal immigration is hardly tantamount to being a bigot. But the Arizona law expressing that anger is bigoted, and in a very particular way. The law dovetails seamlessly with the national “Take Back America” crusade that has attended the rise of Barack Obama and the accelerating demographic shift our first African-American president represents. [...]

[This] is often the same crowd still demanding that the president produce a document proving his own citizenship. [...]

With the whole country now watching Arizona, that “birther” bill was abruptly yanked Thursday.

The legislators who voted for both it and the immigration law were exclusively Republicans, but what happened in the Arizona G.O.P. is not staying in Arizona. Officials in at least 10 other states are now teeing up their own new immigration legislation. They are doing so even in un-Arizonan places like Ohio, Missouri, Maryland and Nebraska, none of them on the Department of Homeland Security’s 2009 list of the 10 states that contain three-quarters of America’s illegal immigrant population. [...]

What a difference the Tea Party makes. [...] McCain, like other mainstream conservative Republicans facing primaries this year, is now fighting for his political life against a Tea Party-supported radical. [...]

McCain, like Arizona, shouldn’t be singled out for censure: He is far from alone in cowering before his party’s extremists. [...] There are few profiles in courage among the leaders in this G.O.P. — only a lot of guys hiding under their desks.

McKinnon and Rove know well that Latino-bashing will ultimately prove political suicide in a century when Hispanic Americans are well on their way to becoming the largest minority in the country and are already the swing voters in many critical states. [...]

It’s also hard to maintain that the Tea Party’s nuttier elements are merely a fringe of a fringe. [...]

The angry right and its apologists also keep insisting that race has nothing to do with their political passions. [...] So how does that profiling work without race or ethnicity, exactly? [...]

In this Alice in Wonderland inversion of reality, it’s politically incorrect to entertain a reasonable suspicion that race may be at least a factor in what drives an action like the Arizona immigration law. Any racism in America, it turns out, is directed at whites. [...]

The rage of 2010 is far more incendiary than anything that went down in 1988, and it will soon leap from illegal immigration to other issues in other states. Boycott the Diamondbacks and Phoenix’s convention hotels if you want to punish Arizona, but don’t for a second believe that it will stop the fire next time.

Please read the whole thing here.

VIDEO: Arizona deputy shot by alleged undocumented immigrant, officials say

By GottaLaff



Things are bound to get worse now. This is not a good sign:

A sheriff's deputy in central Arizona was shot Friday afternoon by an alleged illegal immigrant, authorities said. [...]

The Pinal County deputy, who was not immediately identified, contacted authorities after being wounded in the desert, saying he had been shot by an illegal immigrant with an AK-47, said Lt. Tammy Villar, a sheriff's spokeswoman. [...]

The shooting is sure to heat up the debate around the new Arizona law.

Watch the supporters of the Papers Please law use this as justification for racial profiling. Nobody is defending the bad guys, but even an event as horrible as this one does not provide an excuse to arrest someone for Breathing While Mexican.

Un-American: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the Arizona "Papers Please" law and comparisons to Nazi Germany. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

Un-American

Chris Matthews in his segment “Let Me Finish” on April 28, spoke about the use of such words as Nazism and Hitlerism by liberals and conservatives when objecting to laws and policies adopted by the federal or state governments they believe to be un-American.

One of the examples Chris used was the recent law enacted by Arizona relating to illegal immigrants. Chris stated that there is a big difference between what Arizona is trying to do-- preventing people from entering America illegally-- and what Hitler did, killing people who were trying to flee Germany.

There is one basic item that is the same in both policies.

The Arizona police may stop anyone for reasonable suspicion who they believe may be in the country illegally. That is the same tactic used by the Gestapo in Germany, by asking people for their papers, with no reasonable cause, only to see if they had proper identification papers to be where they were.

German citizens had to carry their identification papers with them at all times, which is the same requirement under the Arizona law for its citizens.

There are two other examples I believe come under Nazi type tactics.

A GOP congressional candidate proposes installing microchips on illegal immigrants. Doing something like that, would be a modern day version of Hitler requiring patches to be worn on clothing to identify those Germans who were Jewish, Communists, homosexuals or political opponents.

Then we have Duncan Hunter Jr., who stated at a tea party rally in California, that children born in the United States whose parents came to this country illegally should be deported.

In the 1930s, Hitler passed laws that natural born Jewish Germans weren’t considered citizens of Nazi Germany, and among other things, couldn’t hold public office, be a judge, a doctor or teach in the public school system or universities.

The scary part is Duncan Hunter favors deporting natural born citizens of the United States, even though promoting such a policy is in direct violation of the Amendment XIV of the U.S. Constitution.

Conservative Republicans, like Duncan Hunter, love to say the Constitution is the law of the land and it should be obeyed, but they sure like to tear it apart when it gets in the way of their ideology.

While the policies enacted and those being advocated are in no way as evil as those used in Nazi Germany, I just feel the basic foundation of those policies are the same used in Germany.

Many thanks again for another thorough, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective.

Foster mom: "More girls arrive to us because their parents were detained by the ICE... will be hurt by AZ law"

By GottaLaff

How can you tell which one of these kids might or might not be "legal"?

My pal TexBetsy has shared something that is a must-read, and she has graciously allowed me to cross-post most of it here. But please go to her place and read the whole thing:

I am a mother, a foster mother, a host mother, and an emergency shelter mother. I am a mother. You know me as Cassie’s* host mom for the last 17 months but I have been a mother for over twenty years to thirty-one girls. [...] Our girls come in all sizes and all colors. Most were born in the United States but some were not. Some speak only English and some speak Spanish as well. [...]

We met war orphans from El Salvador and Nicaragua. [...]

In the past few years since President Bush started detaining immigrants under homeland security laws we have had more girls arrive to us because their parents were detained by the ICE. Like all children in foster care, these girls want to be reunited with their family-by-blood, and they have a difficulty understanding why they are separated. Often they do not know for months if their parents are in detention or have been sent back to their native country.

Arizona’s new immigration law makes this worse and will cause more strife within families. My husband and I carry our temporary custodianship papers with us at all times but we do not always have citizenship papers for the girls in our family. Some do not have their documents and some do not have citizenship in the United States. Some are of undetermined legal status until their birth parent’s detention hearing is concluded.

[...] The children in my care have suffered abandonment and loss they spend their whole lives trying to understand. Some will never recover even though their chances through life are better in a loving home than in an abusive one connected only by blood.

Children in foster care will be hurt by the Arizona law. Children of documented and undocumented immigrants will be hurt by this law. [...] Good people of conscience can not support laws that will lead to fractured childhoods and distrust of government when the family relationships can and should be kept in tact.

*I've also posted Cassie's writings, which are fantastic. Links here.

Very few people are talking about this problem from the families' perspective. It's even more rare to hear from someone who speaks for children.

Children often cannot or will not can speak for themselves. I know that from first hand experience, having worked with elementary, middle, and high school level kids for years. And sadly, once a child has been hurt deeply, they are often damaged for life. It takes immense patience and diligence to help them restore trust and a sense of security once they've experienced pain and fear.

Thank you, TexBetsy, for sharing these invaluable insights.

Why we can be glad about Arizona's terrible law

By GottaLaff


In the old Hayley Mills movie Pollyanna, the title character was the eternal optimist and loved to play what she called "The Glad Game". There was only one rule: No matter how hopeless or frustrated you felt, there had to be at least one thing you could find to be glad about.

Time to play.

Arizona passed their new, terrible, jaw-dropping racial profiling legislation, aka the Show Your Papers law. That pretty much sucks as badly as anything could suck. Silver lining anyone?

I know! I'm glad that it's uniting opposition and attracting attention to the need for sweeping immigration reform as well as exposing racists who try to hide behind patriotism:

The Los Angeles Police are preparing for as many as 100,000 marchers to rally for immigration rights in downtown Los Angeles during the annual May Day event Saturday.

LAPD officials are preparing for a surge in the number of participants in the wake of an outcry over a controversial new Arizona law that requires police to check the legal status of people they suspect of being illegal immigrants.

I'm glad there will be a surge. I'm glad people are getting angry. I'm glad the law is being contested in court. I'm glad this has become a major topic of discussion. I'm glad we have a president who feels the outrage.

I'll be glad when racism becomes a thing of the past.

I'm glad I'm a dreamer.

Hawaii lawmakers pass bill to ignore 'birthers'

By GottaLaff

Can Congress pass the same bill, please? Maybe just an "Ignore Orly Taitz" bill:

Hawaii legislators have passed a measure allowing a state agency to ignore repeated requests from a person or organization for President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

The measure approved Tuesday by the state Legislature would carve an exemption in the state's public records law and allow officials to ignore all kinds of duplicative requests, including those for Obama's birth certificate.

They get between ten and twenty e-mails a week demanding verification of this:

Yes, that would be his birth certificate that has been displayed for all to see for some time now, but apparently it wasn't enough.

Neither was this:

This photo provided by the Honolulu Advertiser shows Obama's birth announcement, center, in the Aug. 13, 1961 edition of the paper. (AP Photo/The Honolulu Advertiser)

But all that was wasted on the birthers. They go on believing what they want to believe, because Barack Obama has a funny name and a darker skin color. And that's what this is all about.

H/t: I forgot, sorry!

Chart: Which GOP lawmakers are for/against AZ racial profiling law

By GottaLaff

Think Progress has put together a chart showing which GOP lawmakers have publicly come out for or against the Arizona racial profiling law :

FOR THE LAW	NON-COMMITTAL	AGAINST THE LAW
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA): “They will look at the kind of dress you wear. There’s different type of attire. … There’s behavior things that professionals are trained in across the board. And this group shouldn’t be exempt from those observations as much as anybody else.”	Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ): “And my own view is until the federal government does our part back here by providing the resources that are necessary, and that could include, by the way, the financial resources to support National Guard troops on the border, then you are going to see more of this. It won’t just be the state of Arizona that passes laws like this.”	Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL): “I strongly disagree with the Arizona immigration law.”
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA): “[I]f that’s what the people of Arizona want to do, then certainly they have that right.”	Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “I haven’t had a chance to look at all the aspects, but I do understand why the Legislature would act.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK): “I don’t see anything wrong with that [the Arizona law].”	Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “I haven’t studied it.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA): “I think that Arizona has a point, which is the federal government has not done a good enough job. … And if it’s a message to the administration they need to do a better job, then a state has to right to send that message.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA): “I commend Arizona for standing up for the Rule of Law and protecting American workers.”

"I haven't studied it." Neither have I, but I sure get the gist and I have no problem opining about what a terrible law it is. Not exactly a tough call. Study that, senators.

It’s noteworthy to point out that in addition to Diaz-Balart and Graham, one of the only other high-profile Republican to criticize the law is GOP Republican candidate Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American like Diaz-Balart.

Hawaii bill would shun Obama birth certificate requests

All manner of birther teeth gnashing to commence- 3... 2... 1!! Let the wailing begin!

HONOLULU -- Hawaii lawmakers are moving closer to passing a measure allowing the state to ignore repeated requests for President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

A conference committee unanimously voted Tuesday to advance the bill to final votes in the House and Senate.

The proposal allows state government agencies not to respond to follow-up requests for information if they determine that the subsequent request is duplicative or substantially similar to a previous request.

The bill is aimed at so-called "birthers," who claim Obama is ineligible to be president. They say he was actually born outside the United States, and therefore doesn't meet a constitutional requirement for being president.

It must be pretty damn bad if they have to pass a law.

Congress Finishes Health Care Reform--For Good This Time

Via TPM. Whew.

Tonight, the House took Congress' final health care vote, when it passed a reconciliation bill fixing problems with the reforms that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday. The final tally was 220-207. The changes will take effect as soon as Obama signs this sidecar package into law, which could come as early as tomorrow.

Tonight's vote is a capstone to the Democrats' difficult fight over health care--one which took its toll on Obama's young administration, and at times threatened to tear the entire party apart.

By passing this secondary bill, Democrats have promised to remove some of the more controversial provisions in the comprehensive health care law, while making others more popular. The reconciliation bill nullifies the controversial Nebraska Medicaid deal, which was added to health care legislation by the Senate back in December. It also will close the Medicare prescription drug donut hole, and bolster subsidies to uninsured working and middle-class Americans, who will be required to purchase coverage when reform takes full effect in 2014.

John Ensign Accused of Violating Campaign Finance Laws

By GottaLaff

Via Taegan via ABC News via via via:

The bombshell: "Hampton told McFadden that the money Ensign's parents paid him in the aftermath of the affair was severance -- not a gift -- as Ensign had claimed, which could constitute a violation of campaign finance laws."

Gee, ya think?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama on DOMA: He IS Keeping A Promise, per fed attorney

By GottaLaff

Earlier I posted this. Now we have an opposing viewpoint. Short version-- Policy v. the law:

I am an attorney, and I am a federal government attorney. I am here to say that Obama is keeping a promise with regard to DOMA, just not one you are thinking about in your haste to call him out as having abandoned the GLBT community by filing a brief arguing in support of DOMA.

Here's the promise you claim he is breaking: By defending DOMA in court, he is breaking his promise to fight for gay and lesbian rights. He is breaking a policy promise.

I think that is incorrect.

Rather, here's the promise he is keeping: He is keeping his promise that he will serve and act as President as if America is a nation of laws, which it is. He is keeping his promise to uphold the law. [...]

The point is: The man I voted for told me he would return us to a nation of laws, not of men. That means we follow (and apply, and defend--or else it means nothing) the law. Regardless of the whims or policy desires of the man in the chair. Because he is bound by the law, too.

Have you all forgotten this so soon?

So rail about breaks of promises where policy is concerned; you should and you must petition your government for a redress of those grievances. We all must. We must use our voices to make Obama change the policy, make him change the law, make Congress change the law. Everywhere we think it needs changing. Hold his feet to the fire on those campaign policy promises, and beat him up when he doesn't.

But for God's sake, don't beat him up when he (and his DOJ) does his Constitutional duty--a duty ignored for 8 years--and defends and upholds the law.

Much more here. Your turn.