ARIZONA INSANITY Updated

I have been watching the Arizona immigration situation with a great deal of amusement.  The histrionics on the left have been both amusing and appalling.  Their hypocrisy is showing on federal, state and local levels. 

First there is the blatant misrepresentation of the legislation.  The left are insisting that this is going to bring on gestapo-style police tactics - guilty of "breathing while undocumented".  The author of that little gem is beside herself in righteous indignation, but, as is usually the case with the left, she has her facts wrong and is quoting the wrong bill.  This is really par for the course these days - it doesn't matter if the information is correct, as long as it furthers the narrative.

Long story short, the  bill is quite specific about police needing just cause to ask for identification.  Will there be a few rogue cops who might abuse the new law?  Possibly.  But didn't that happen prior to passage of the bill?  We've all heard stories about inappropriate profiling in the past.  The problem is that, as usual, the accusations are flowing fast and furious and with a very broad brush.  Every law has the potential to be abused.  By the opposition's logic, no new laws should be passed for fear someone will pervert the meaning or step outside the boundaries.  One could also infer that the left sees all police as racists who are just itching to lock up as many people as possible, illegal or not.  Quite frankly, it's appalling that our own president is forwarding that narrative.  But then, it's not like this is the first time he's insinuated that the police are racist and out of control.

The gestapo accusations are quite funny, with their attempted corrolation to having to "show your papers" like in 1930's Germany. Even Obama has played that card with his story about someone being harassed because they forgot their "papers" when they were just taking their kid for an ice cream. I have friends who have emigrated to this country legally, and part of the process is carrying your green card with you at all times.  It's a federal law.   The Arizona law is merely reinforcing the federal law.  You know, the one the feds refuse to enforce, even though Americans are being victimized by illegals in our border towns and sanctuary cities on a nearly daily basis.

The point of the Arizona law was to enable the state enforcement agencies to do what the federal government is supposed to be doing.  If the feds were doing their jobs, this law would never have passed.

The law is overwhelmingly popular in Arizona, because the legal residents of the state are desperate for action on a situation that has been out of control for decades but has recently reached a fever pitch.  The Governor of the state has seen her approvals ratchet up by 16 points since she signed the bill into law.  Sen. John McCain, however, has seen his numbers drop, due to his blatantly political pivot from decades of being an amnesty seeker to suddenly becoming a hard-line immigration enforcer.  The electorate is not buying it, Maverick.

The President of Mexico has come out and ordered a boycott of Arizona by all Mexicans.  Hopefully that will extend to the hundreds of illegals who cross our borders into the state every day.  Michelle Malkin has a great rundown of how the Mexican government treats illegals for a little perspective.

The mayor of many cities in the western US are also boycotting the state.  San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was one of the first to say state employees should cancel all functions planned for Arizona.  Good idea, Gavin - maybe you should be visiting California cities for your little junkets.  God knows the state needs the revenue, and the taxpayers would will also see less of their money spent on travel expenses.  At this point, I find it insane that during an economic crisis, our politicians are perfectly happy to punish fellow Americans for trying to protect themselves and their property.  It is a sad commentary that we are so amenable to inflicting harm on our own countrymen over an epidemic of illegals flooding over our borders.

The boycott idea is really catching on with the lefty bloggers.  Unfotunately, they are showing their ignorance on this subject as they have on soooooo many others.  Many in the blogisphere are demanding the boycott of AriZona Iced Tea, with one brainiac calling it "the drink of fascists".  As usual these doofuses didn't do any research - if they had, they would have realized that AriZona iced tea is brewed on Long Island, New York.  Good gracious, these people seriously need to get a clue.

I'm all for immigration in this country.  Millions of people emigrate to this country every year.  Legally.  That is the only requirement most Americans have - come here legally.  The left's attempts to smear anyone who opposes illegal immigration as being against any and all emigration to this country is, as usual, painting with a broad brush in order to forward their narrative.  It's not too much to ask that people come here legally.  All countries have immigration laws, and support of those laws in this country does not make one a racist hater of poor, innocent immigrants.

Which brings us to the most comical part of the coverage of this issue - the obvious bias of the media reports covering the protests in the state capital.  Protesters are attacking police, painting swasticas (in refried beans, no less) on buildings, and even calling for burning the city down.  And yet these protests are being portrayed as "mostly peaceful" by the press.  The same press who were calling the tea parties riotous mobs ready to explode.  Yeah, right.

No doubt this issue with remain in the news for a while yet, what with Texas considering similar legislation and three cities in Arizona considering fighting the law. 

The Obama administration are beside themselves in fury, initiating an investigation into the legality of the law.  Their fury is understandable, though, because the passage of this law highlights the fact that the feds have seriously dropped the ball on the issue, to the detriment of our own citizens.  It focuses attention on the fact that there are immigration laws on the books that are simply not being enforced due mostly to political considerations - namely trying to ingratiate themselves to a potential voting block.  The realization of how badly they have served the American people might come to be construed as an orchestrated effort to make the situation untenable in order to ensure Americans get behind some sort of amnesty to relieve the pressure.  The fact that the new law is as popular as it is on a national level must surely give them pause, but, considering how tone deaf they have been so far, expect them totry to ram through amnesty anyway.

After all, how much damage can creating 12 million new competitors in the job market do?  And there surely won't be any sort of flood of new illegals hoping to get amnesty as well.  That is just the talk of evil nay-sayers saying nay.

There is a distinct stench of desperation in the air on this one, so it definitely bears watching.  The democrats need to pass amnesty before the election because they desperately need the potential votes. 

As usual, their narrative trumps reality and the needs of their party trump the needs of the country.

UPDATE:  Does this count as a success?

UPDATE II:  Kris Kobach, author of the Arizona law in question, has written an op-ed in the New York Times in defense of the law.  It's a good read - very informative and debunks the left's talking points with facts.  It's hard to believe the NY Times actually printed it - I'm sure they'll be getting a few nasty phone calls and emails today from the Lord and Master.  Don't they know this goes against the carefully crafted and nurtured narrative that has been encouraged by the White House?

BIPARTISAN BIG BROTHER

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have come up with a dilly of a plan to deal with illegal workers.  This new plan will require all US workers to have federal ID cards.  These cards will be biometric, which means you will have to be fingerprinted in order to get one.  In order to get a job, you will be mandated by the federal government to have a card. 

Perhaps I'm just becoming more and more paranoid, but I have visions of being asked for my "papers", much like Europe in the 1930's and 40's (via The Wall St. Journal):

"It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people's privacy," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We're not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We're also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification."

On top of that, it seems that the "immigration reform" they are hammering out is more like amnesty.  According to Chuck Schumer,

The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. "If you say they can't get a job when they come here, you'll stop it."

That statement, to me, spells amnesty for the upwards of 12 million illegals currently in the country.  Why would there be another wave of illegals after the legislation is signed if not because the previous wave was given amnesty?  (What do you think the odds are that someone will try a discrimination challenge to the law for allowing a previous group to come in but not the next?  Follow-up question - What do you think the chances are they will win?)

This bill seems to be all about amnesty and tracking US workers.  What I haven't heard about it is how it will address border security and illegals who work under the table.  When are we going to stem the flood of illegals flowing over our borders?  That isn't just about jobs, guys, it's about national security. 

No amnesty, no federal ID cards.  Back to the drawing board.  Secure our borders, and if they came here illegally, they should be unceremoniously sent back.  The only amnesty I'd support would be for those who came here legally but overstayed their visas, and even then, they need to be put through the process, not just automatically given citizenship.  If someone sneaks into this country illegally, in my opinion they are automatically 'undesirables' and should not be given any breaks. 

Tens of millions of people have legally emigrated to this country, my own ancestors included.  They went through the rather degrading process at Ellis Island and then went on to become taxpaying, voting, contributing members of society, no worse for the wear.  My paternal grandmother refused to speak polish because that was not the language of her country.  They left Poland because they wanted to be Americans - and not Polish-Americans, either.  Just Americans. 

I hear all this talk from the left about fairness - how is it fair that those millions upon millions of people had to jump through hoops and meet the requirements for citizenship, become contributing members of society and integrate into the fabric of this country, and yet others are just given a pass on our laws and procedures, can't be bothered to learn the language (and don't really need to anymore), are catered to by our government and allowed to create their own ethnic enclaves to keep themselves separate and apart?

Am I anti-immigration?  Hell no.  This country was created by immigrants, my own family included.  I'm proud of our Melting Pot society - it made us vibrant and innovative and unique in all the world.  But I am very much anti-illegal-immigration.  We allow in millions of legal immigrants every year from all over the world and we have numerous programs to help those emigres become productive members of one of the greatest countries the world has ever known.  There is no excuse for breaking our laws upon entering our country.

Perhaps there should be some talk about making it easier to emigrate from places like Mexico to the US.  But, then again, considering fully one-third of the country would emigrate if they could, perhaps relaxing the requirements might not be such a good idea - that's an awful lot of people to integrate, no matter how you slice it or where they come from.

The point is, this proposed legislation is a mess.  Granting amnesty (again) won't solve the problem, and neither will punishing law abiding legal citizens by forcing them to carry around federal documentation of their legal status.

Our government's bipartisan PC efforts to make sure they don't alienate the illegal aliens at the expense of legal citizens is no surprise.  That Lindsey Grahamnesty is the power behind it is no surprise, either.

Want to know another not surprising thing?  The public outcry against this idiotic plan.

LET LOOSE THE FLOODGATES

A few weeks ago, our esteemed president promised that no illegals would be covered under ObamaCare, and was called out by Rep. Wilson as a liar. It now turns out that, in the strictest sense, Obama wasn't lying, because it seems that his next step in 'transforming' our country involves amnesty (although I'm sure it won't be called that), so that all those poor illegals will no longer be illegal and thus will be eligible for health care and a major crisis will be averted.

Apparently, coming here legally and getting a real (legal, taxpaying) job is too much to ask.

Those who come to this country legally and overstay their welcome should be assisted in obtaining citizenship, but those who came here illegally, be it via desert, raft or tunnel, should be returned to where they came from and apply for legal status through the proper channels. Those who overstayed their welcome are at least documented as being in the country, and, in these terror-filled times, that is important.

The problem is, amnesty and free health care for 12 million isn't the end of it.

Now our esteemed leader is starting a campaign of decreasing our presence at the borders. Via CNS News:

"(CNSNews.com) - Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol Director of Media Relations Lloyd Easterling confirmed this week--as I first reported in my column yesterday--that his agency is planning for a net decrease of 384 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1. "

Apparently, the democrats have been paying attention to the polls.

It seems they have decided that their best course of action is to open up the borders and offer amnesty and free health care in order to buy votes, since it seems they have managed to alienate just about every other voting block in the country.

This proposal, just like the mess they are calling health care 'reform' and Cap and Tax, must not be allowed to pass. Luckily, they only need to be held off for a few more months. Once the election season starts in January, they will be too busy campaigning to actually get any work done.

Thank God.

You know, I remember a time when Americans would complain that nothing was getting done in Washington.

Be careful what you wish for, huh?