Sarah Palin just doesn't get it

Sarah Palin’s video message denying any connection between the hateful rhetoric she’s helped to popularize and Saturday’s horrific attack in Tucson, AZ is disingenuous and disturbing. But not surprising.

Palin follows a simple formula that she and others have used over and over again to deny the existence of serious problems while at the same time capitalizing on them.

In her video (after the jump), she denies what many Americans know to be true: that there is something deeply wrong with our current political dialogue. She labels those who question the tenor of the debate “intolerant” and accuses them of “mindless finger-pointing”—all the while directing blame everywhere except her own doorstep. She also insists that violent rhetoric is not dangerous... unless that rhetoric is directed towards her.

In Arizona, "Pro-Life" means "Let's kick poor people off organ transplant waiting lists"

Well Arizona is at it again. The state is continually attempting to be the first in the nation to proactively fight the browning of America. First, it was a racist and xenophobic bill aimed at keeping people of color out of the state. Now they are trying a new method: letting people of color (and poor whites too) die. Okay, so that claim may be extreme, but it’s not far off. The state is cutting funding by taking 98 organ transplant-eligible patients off the waiting list.

Arizona decided to slash its 1.5 billion dollar deficit with a gigantic, err well measly 4.5 million annually, a whopping three-hundredths of one percent. Indeed a penny saved is a penny earned. Instead of responsive governing that protects the dignity and life of its people, Arizona Republicans who run on “pro-life” principles are willing to let people die for the sale-price of a bag of Hershey kisses-$1.97 per household.

What does this have to do with Arizona attacking communities of color?

This Week in Arizona Racism II

This is Part II of a potentially never-ending series, apparently. So this week in Arizona, a politician wants to cut off the power to undocumented workers' homes.

"I'm sure there will be criticism about human-rights violations," said Wong, who held a temporary spot on the five-person Commission in 2006. "Is power or natural gas or any type of utility we regulate, is that a right that people have? It is not a right. It is a service."

I guess at this point, being racist and viciously anti-immigrant is just standard political pandering. But you have to admire their creativity.

This Week in Arizona Racism...

It's "Anchor Babies"!!! That's right, those evil brown immigrants are having CHILDREN so that they have an excuse to stay here! This just gives them political cover so that people can cry "think of the children!" when they're deported to their rightful home!

Reminds me of a song:

Anchor Babies, we make our dreams come true
Anchor Babies, we'll do the same for you

They're making their dreams come true at our expense! So what can we do about it?! Pass a law stripping kids of citizenship so they can be deported too, of course! Loving this:

Russell Pearce, meet the first line of the 14th Amendment:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

And apparently it's being tried nationally too.

The Birthright Citizenship Act, a bill currently pending in Congress with 91 co-sponsors (including Long Island’s very own Representative Peter King) would attempt to accomplish the same thing on a national level.

This is getting somewhat tiring.

Erasing Arizona? Can We, Please?

Ok, seriously, can we just vote Arizona off the island already? I mean, I know it's illegal to secede and all, but how about straight up kicking them out? The latest:

An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student’s face, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students to be changed to Caucasian skin.

From the Arizona Republic:

A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school. The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity ….
R.E. Wall, director of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town’s most prominent intersections.

"We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall said. "We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics)."

The racism in Arizona just keeps getting more blatant. A friend's reaction: "Now it feels like they're just being campy." Sounds about right, I guess...

Why militarizing our border is a bad idea

The following is a guest post from Christina Baal, LMSW, Director of Cabrini Immigrant Services (CIS), a faith based organization in New York City that helps unite immigrants and their families by providing free immigration legal services.

This past Tuesday, the Obama administration announced they will be sending 1200 troops to the southwest border in an attempt to keep out the drug cartels that have been wreaking havoc in border communities. Additional border security funds were also requested. This move is bad news for anyone on either side of the literal and figurative fence.

Jan Brewer doubles down on state-sponsored racism in Arizona

Arizona Governor Jan "Papers Please" Brewer has enacted HB2281, which prohibits classes that teach about ethnic heritage.  So, for instance, a class about black inventors or Mexican authors would be prohibited.

Jan Brewer, making a name for herself.

More coverage at RaceWire.

Updated Constitution-Free Zone

Absurd immigration and national security laws are not new, but Arizona's is just more blatant than most. The ACLU already had a map of the "Constitution-Free Zone" within 100 miles of any border. A redditor just updated it to reflect SB1070. Much more accurate.

(Original here.)

Arizona's Racist, But Minnesota's Like Your Loopy Crazy Uncle

I'm amused. This week, we thought Arizona had the unconstitutionally crazy achievement award. But we might have to limit that state to the unconstitutionally racist award, because Minnesota just threw in its bid for the crazy award.

Senate Republicans introduced a constitutional amendment Wednesday that would make Minnesota the first state to require a two-thirds majority vote in the legislature to approve federal laws affecting the state. “Minnesotans enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights,” the bill states, and “Citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government’s enumerated constitutional powers.”

Good luck with that.

(via The Debate Link)