BURN: Linda Chavez--Wanna Take You Higher...

Linda Chavez doubles triples down on stupid regarding the Arizona law.  Writing on NRO's The Corner blog, Linda let her freak out--

“Lawful contact” does not apply solely to law enforcement but to any “agency” of “the state, or a county, city, town or other political subdivision,” as enumerated in the law. If the drafters had wanted the law to apply only when a police officer had already come into contact with an individual because of a separate and distinct civil or criminal violation, they could have said so. If that had been their intent, they would have had no reason to include a provision for lawful contact by officials of all agencies of the state, county, local, and other political subdivisions.

The list is all-inclusive because the law envisions officials from all public agencies — schools, hospitals, social services, etc. — having the right to demand proof of legal residence any time the official has “reasonable suspicion” that the person is an illegal immigrant.

 Except, of course, it does not--

"For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state where.."  In other words, a law enforcement official or law enforcement agency.  Not the freaking health inspector, or the forestry tree counter.  Duh.  Hey, Linda, ever read a criminal statute before...???

Not content, Linda beclowns herself further still--

But even in the law enforcement context, “lawful contact” gives wide berth to police officers to approach individuals on the street, the so-called Terry standard. And in this instance, the law specifically permits that contact to occur solely on the basis of “reasonable suspicion” that the person is an illegal immigrant. The drafters could have insisted on a higher standard, such as “probable cause,” but chose the lower threshold to cast a wider net.

 Um, Linda, no.  It.  Does.  Not.  The law says when a LEO makes a LEGAL contact, OTHERWISE PERMISSIBLE under state law, they can move to square two.  They can't initiate a LAWFUL CONTACT on illegal immigrants status.

If conservatives really want to stop illegal immigration, we’re going to have to figure out a way either to shrink our economy on a permanent basis so that we don’t need manual laborers and service workers — something I’m convinced groups like FAIR and Numbers USA would have no trouble accepting in return for a smaller U.S. population — or we’re going to have to come up with a reasonable, market-based immigration system to allow more people to come here legally to work.

This level of dumb seems to betray an underlying hypersensitivity working in Ms. Chavez.  A friend should stop her, before she writes again...

BURN: Desmond Tutu Is "Saddened"

Desmond Tutu is, by some accounts, a good guy.  He's from South Africa, so he really does know some things about Apartheid.  He doesn't know jack about America or our laws, though.  He needn't be "sad". 

I am saddened today at the prospect of a young Hispanic immigrant in Arizona going to the grocery store and forgetting to bring her passport and immigration documents with her. I cannot be dispassionate about the fact that the very act of her being in the grocery store will soon be a crime in the state she lives in. Or that, should a policeman hear her accent and form a "reasonable suspicion" that she is an illegal immigrant, she can -- and will -- be taken into custody until someone sorts it out, while her children are at home waiting for their dinner.

 Tutu assumes a legal immigrant, forgetting her documents as she goes to the store for groceries for the kiddies.  Only now, with the passage of the Arizona law, does she "commit a crime" on those facts.  The kiddies await mama, peering into the black night, hungry, helpless, and cold. Mama claws at the cruel cold steel bars of her cell, primal cries for justice jerked from her core.

Please.  What a load of crap.

First, our LEGAL immigrant (we'll call her 'mama') has been required to keep her documents with her at all times for DECADES.  Even in her home.  It is Federal law.

Tutu's second BIG error; the bad, bad Arizona policeman who arrests mama in his tear-jerking melodrama never gets near mama on his facts.  Unless, of course, mama gets sloppy drunk and wraps her Buick around a passing Arizonan.  See, any peace officer would need "articulable suspicion" that mama is doing something illegal, as we've discussed before under "Terry stop", to even ask mama her immigration status ACCORDING TO THE LAW.  Mama's accent not only isn't illegal, it isn't unusual. 

So, mama has committed no crime at all under Tutu's sad little scenario.  Let's say that mama's car was a rolling safety infraction, and she was stopped appropriately on her way to the grocery.  Mama now apparently HAS violated Arizona laws, and the LEOs MAY check into her immigration status during their totally justified traffic stop.  Unless Rev. Tutu's poor mama in this story ALSO forgot to bring her driver's license, she is good to go.  No problem; though she has violated Federal law, going about without her papers, she is fine with Arizona law.

Now, suppose mama DID forget her driver's license, too.  Mama MIGHT go into the back of the police car for a ride to the station.  Just like me.  Or you.

Change the scene a few miles to the south, into Mexico.  Mama is from Ecuador, a legal immigrant in Mexico.  She bops out for some vittles for the kiddies.  Big problem!  Mexico requires she have her papers, but unlike our federal government, Mexico is serious about immigration.

Strange, I can't recall a single word written by Rev. Tutu on the subject of Mexican immigration law.  Hmmm....  Maybe Rev. Tutu should learn more, and write less until he has.

CRASH: Matt Lewis Thinks We're Hypocrites

Matt Lewis (clever young man, I'm sure) says that Arizona Gov. Brewer should have vetoed a bill he does not begin to understand, and says people who support it (like me, with reservations) are hypocrites.

Principled conservatives should be skeptical of Arizona’s recent decision to grant police the power to question illegal aliens (and U.S. citizens) about their immigration status—and to arrest those who cannot show documentation.

Well, principled conservatives who know what they're talking about recognize that the powers Lewis is carping over are not new, novel powers.  Police have had the power, during a valid Terry stop, to ask ALL kinds of questions, and to arrest someone who cannot identify themselves if "probable cause" exists to suspect commission of a crime.

But let's consider that principled conservative stuff. There has always been a tension between good public safety policy and good civil liberties policy.  Most anyone with a brain sees that, and there is certainly valid argument about where precisely on that continuum the ball should be spotted.  But principled conservatives are not anarchists.  They are not people who watch absorb too much of Hollywood's pap, either.  Neither are they people who refuse to read, or people who refuse to suspend the urge to condemn a law that has NOT YET SEEN THE LIGHT OF DAY.

Much of the problem stems from the words, “reasonable suspicion,” which appear in the bill. After all, illegals don’t advertise their immigration status publicly, and while the law specifically prohibits the police from solely considering race, one can imagine the Arizona police won’t be pulling aside many Canadians, Brits or Swedes for this sort of interrogation.

Actually, if Arizona was following my advice (and even my clients often don't), EVERYBODY would be asked about their immigration status during any valid stop by a police officer.  That would be entirely neutral.  It would also offer illegal aliens a chance to fess up or lie...another offense.  Additionally, if Shamus O'Flynn is arrested in a bar fight, I'm betting the cops run his immigration status, too.

More likely, the criteria for questioning will include both class and race, meaning that if a Mexican-American lawyer walks down the street in a nice business suit, he’s probably okay, but the law-abiding Mexican-American landscaper may get hassled on a daily basis.

Now, here Matt just gets silly.  Or paranoid.  Or liberal.  Much of the population of Arizona is Hispanic.  Many of the cops on the beat in Arizona are Hispanic.  Arizona is considered to have a model program, in place for years, against racial profiling.  What in the world makes people...like young Matt...think that all of a sudden, small businessmen are going to "get hassled on a daily basis"?  How long do you think that would last before a Federal court intervened, which NOBODY wants?  Or public opinion was soured, which NOBODY wants?

There are many worthwhile steps that must be taken in order to stem illegal immigration, including increasing border security and cutting off the ability of illegals to gain employment once in the United States.

Which is actually what the BULK of this law does, Matt.  MOST of the law, if you read it, involves stuff besides criminalizing illegal alien status.  But you wanted it VETOED?

Supporting tough “law-and-order” immigration laws and individual liberty are not mutually exclusive. What is hypocritical, however, is picking choosing when it’s okay for the government to violate citizens’ individual liberty.

This is simply nuts.  Especially in light of the fact that NOBODY has put this law on the streets yet.  So, whose "individual liberty" has been violated?  And EVERY time we enact a criminal statute, there is the POSSIBILITY that it will be abused.  That is why we have a VERY well-developed due process jurisprudence.  IF...IF...cops abuse their authority, the arrest is invalid, the evidence derived from the contact is tossed, and the citizen...or illegal alien...WALKS.

So, Matt, you need to redirect your "Fight da Man" indignation, and let this law be implemented before you go calling people who support it...with reservations..."hypocrites". 

BURN: Linda Chavez Embarrasses Herself

National Review Online conducted a generally thoughtful symposium on the new Arizona law (and immigration generally), collecting thoughts from some of its pundits.  Linda Chavez was simply out of her class.  Witness this--

If a group of Mexican-American men who happen to be speaking Spanish are looking at drywall at the local Home Depot and a cop walks down the aisle, this law entitles him to approach the men and ask for their legal documents. How many of you normally carry your birth certificate or passport with you when you go shopping? If you look Mexican and are in Arizona, you should be prepared to do so from now on.

Finally, the law makes it legal for the police to pull over “any person who is operating a motor vehicle if the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe the person is in violation of any civil traffic law and this section.” Notice, the law doesn’t require the person to have violated a traffic law, it merely requires the police to have “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in violation of any civil traffic law or is illegally present in the U.S. So if you look like you might not have an Arizona driver’s license, or even if you simply look to this particular police officer like you might be in the country illegally, you can be pulled over and required to produce proof of citizenship or legal resident status.

Virtually none of that is true.  To begin, and from a purely pragmatic point of view, if the law is implemented in the fashion Chavez envisions, it will be a goner in no time.  It will be successfully challenged on due process and/or civil rights grounds in the Federal courts. 

Secondly, the scenario in her first paragraph assumes that a cop, with no more to go on than the sight and sound of people in a store speaking Spanish, would even dream of calling that "articulable suspicion" to make a police contact (or Terry stop).  Such a contact is ALREADY off-limits under any criminal statute of which I know.  Despite a lot of ignorance to the contrary, police may not UNDER LAW accost someone minding their own business...so long as that business is legal.  Now, anybody...police officer or not...can ask you for your ID.  You have a right to politely say NO, and continue on your way.  Nothing about the Arizona law alters that, nor could it.

In her second paragraph, Chavez seems to have conflated the section regarding identification of individuals with the section on illegal alien smuggling.  That is just sloppy.

The "reasonable suspicion" mentioned is not, again, novel to this law.  It is part of very well worn and proven search and seizure and arrest jurisprudence.  Note also that it is almost impossible for a police officer to KNOW you committed a traffic violation; that is a matter for due process.  Generally, all they have is an "articulable" SUSPICION that a traffic violation has occurred (like when they see someone driving very slowly down the road, indicating they are impaired and know it).  That's why you are not fined by police officers.

"So if you look like you might not have an Arizona driver’s license, or even if you simply look to this particular police officer like you might be in the country illegally, you can be pulled over and required to produce proof of citizenship or legal resident status."  What???  Why would they do that, when they don't do it now?  Cops don't pull people over because they "might not have an Arizona driver's license", though driving without a license is illegal.  That would never pass muster. 

Police DO pull all motorists over at a sobriety check, and that is perfectly legal if done correctly.  Anyone who's been near the border knows that ICE WILL stop you...regardless...and check your identity and immigration status.

No trained peace officer who wants to keep their job and their insurance would do what Chavez seems to think will be commonplace.  And, if they do, the opponents of this law will have the showing they need to take it to the Federal courts.  Duh.

CRASH: Why Not The USS Duke Cunningham...?

While we're naming Navy ships...breaking with tradition...for disgraced and disgraceful old politicians, why not at least name it after a real onetime hero?

The SecNav seems hell-bent on naming a new amphibious assault ship after Rep. Jack Murtha.  Murtha was a Marine.  Once.  Long ago.  We honor his service to his country.  But what had he been since?

Well, he had been a corrupt, pork-grubbing power whore who deplored his own constituents in western Pennsylvania.  He had been an active slanderer of Marines, calling them cold-blooded murderers on the thinnest of accusations.  He never recanted or apologized.  He did work with CODEPINK, though.

One other thing he had been was a big fan of Nannie Pelosi...one of her staunchest supporters in the House, and visa versa.  They were thick as thieves.

Duke Cunningham was a Republican, and another corrupt, pork-grubbing power whore who disgraced his office and the people who elected him.  "He was one of the most highly decorated United States Navy pilots in the Vietnam War, receiving the Navy Cross once, the Silver Star twice, the Air Medal 15 times, and the Purple Heart for wounds he received under enemy fire."

Cunningham was, as far as I know, a staunch supporter of the uniformed services and peace officers.

Cunningham could blush...meaning he had a sense of shame, which led him to resign from office.  Murtha never did, though he certainly should have, and for the same general reasons.

So, Mr. Secretary,  if you just feel compelled to name a ship after a corrupt, disgraced pol, at least name it after Duke Cunningham, a real hero...long ago.

If that vessel is named after Murtha, I hope the Marines who have to serve aboard call themselves "Murtha's Murderers".  It has a nice double entendre quality I like.

CRASH: Arizona Gov. Gets Bounce Obama Would Kill For

"A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state shows that 56% now approve of the way Brewer is performing her role as governor. Two weeks ago, just 40% offered their approval."

This is the strange, inexplicable effect of governing as a servant of the people, not the elitist who thinks he knows best.

Obama got NOTHING for cramming Obamacare down our throats, and it will not...I predict...get any better as the wrapper comes off that stinking, steaming pile of tyranny.  Americans really don't like getting lied to...even the clueless ones who bought Obama's campaign vacuum.

It is also the effect of looking at a serious problem, and dealing with it in a rational, direct, lawful, honest manner, instead of what we get with the Madness of King Barack and his minions.

BURN: Oh, and Nappy Jan Lies...BADLY...

Nappy Jan, in a little back-and-forth with Sen. John Cornyn, told a WHOPPER...  And a really easy to prove whopper, to boot.

Napolitano said Texas was the last Southwest border state to receive a drone because “Texas airspace is more crowded.”

She said the timeline for placing a drone in Texas, which tentatively would be stored in Corpus Christi, remains a decision for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The FAA now has to go in and carve out, as I understand it, space for the Predator,” she said.

Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held an oversight hearing into programs under the Department of Homeland Security.

The secretary said that over the past 15 months, federal law enforcement initiatives have made the border more secure than in any other time in history.

Couple of things...one, the Texas airspace along the border IS a little more crowded.  With Mexican military helicopters:

The Associated Press

Posted: 04/02/2010 06:38:43 AM PDT

BROWNSVILLE, Texas—The defense department says it is investigating reports of a Mexican military helicopter seen flying in Texas.    Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says several people reported seeing the aircraft on Sunday flying over an RV park near Zapata, some 100 miles northwest of McAllen on the border with Mexico.
   Border Patrol spokesman Jason Darling says the Mexican military is conducting operations near Zapata along the Rio Grande.
U.S. Department of Defense spokeswoman Maj. Tanya Bradsher says the flyover is under review.
     The press relations department duty officer at Mexico's Defense Department told The Associated Press Friday that she has no information on the reports.
   A Mexican military helicopter was also spotted March 10 over Zapata County.

Second, the airspace along the Texas border is W  I  D  E open.  Here's a link to a really cool time-lapse view of all the flights in the U.S.  See that funny black area that sort of defines the Rio Grande?  Notice the whole area goes dark during...oh, say...the hours that people MIGHT choose to do something clandestine?  Makes you wanna say, "Hmmmm....."

My friend Mary suggested maybe she was talking about the birds that migrate across the Texas/Mexican border.  Or maybe....bats....????

That would have been a more artful lie, at least.  But, hey, Nappy Jan is part of the most transparent administration in history.

CRASH: NappyJan--"The System...er...BORDER Worked..."

One of the most astoundingly inept (which is really frightening) of the Obami is Nappy Jan Napolitano, who declared "The system worked" after nothing about the system worked respecting the Christmas "Fruit-Of-Kaboom Bomber".

Well, she's at it again, this time assuring Americans and Arizonans that we are doing just peachy on our southern border.

“I say this again, as someone who has walked that border, ridden it, flown it and driven it,” she said. “I believe it is as secure as it ever has been.”

Really, Jan...?!?!?  How about leaving your security detail behind one evening, and hanging out around the border.  Oh, sure, bring your shotgun, if you want.

“If immigration comes up this year, it will be absolutely devastating to this issue” and future passage of a comprehensive bill, [Lindsey] Graham insisted. “Most Americans think we will have lost our minds if we move forward without securing our border first.”

Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, stood her ground at the hearing, continuing to press Congress to take up a reform bill.

The level of delusion...and political hackery...working in Homeland Security's highest echelons is just stupefying...and DANGEROUS!

BURN: Chris Dodd's Cloward-Piven Time Bomb--Killing All Angels UPDATED

UPDATE: Obama's Bold-faced Lie On Finance Reform

Infamous kleptocrat Chris (Mr. Sandwich) Dodd (Deemocrat, Wall St.) is "retiring" to keep from having his ass booted out by voters.  On his way out, he's setting a time bomb.

Dodd, largely by virtue of having his corrupt butt in a chair in the Senate long enough, presides over 
The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Dodd and his staff are working on a rather comprehensive (read "revolutionary") reform of the regulations governing banking and finance in America.  I will wait just a second for your "irony over-load" circuit-breakers to reset as you contemplate the idea of Dodd (too corrupt for even Connecticut voters to abide) being in charge of writing regulations for ANYBODY.

Indeed, if you have a thinking brain cell, you understand that Dodd is the poster-boy for "why regulations don't, won't, and can't prevent X".  Whatever "X" is...and however you regulate to prevent it...when you have people like Dodd and those who bribe him, "X" will be a predictable certainty.  In fact, I can make a very good case that says that the more you try to regulate something, the more likely it is that when you get "X", it will be MORE damaging (see Home Financing Crisis).

But just at this time in American history, our central government under the collectivists seems to be working in a very determined fashioned to assure that we will never recover as a thriving economy.  I mean every word of that statement.  Every Obama economic move since BEFORE he was inaugurated seems calculated to damage economic vitality.  See Cloward-Pevin.

Thus it is with Mr. Dodd's little parting gift for America (he owns a very nice little cottage in Ireland).  From sources as diverse as the HuffingPros to Reason, you can see ONE major thing wrong (and, boy, there are a lot of major things wrong) with the Dodd regulatory poison pill.  In a time when we need innovation and entrepreneurial activity as badly as at any time in our history, Dodd's proposing to make sure it is very effectively suppressed.  How?  Buy raising the barriers entrepreneurs have to jump to get to funding.  "Killing all angels" is a completely irrational and unnecessary move.  It isn't like this is an area of regulatory dearth under the current scheme.

It also isn't like regulation works to do what it seems designed to do, either.  We have ample empirical evidence showing that it does NOT work.  Again, Dodd (with his fat-cat buddies) is an excellent case-study in WHY regulation is ineffective at its purported design.  Here is an excellent little thought experiment for you to try at home; answer these questions, if you can.
 

American banking and finance are NOT under-regulated.  Regulation can be no more effective than the people on the ground.  Dodd and the sub-prime crisis show that NO regulatory scheme can overcome corruption and terrible political policy.  Regulation can provide the illusion of protection; that delusion is dangerous.

BURN: The Sticker On The Rear Window Says It ALL...

h/t The Corner

BURN: Linda Greenhouse Is A DOPE...!!! UPDATED!!!

"Breathing While Undocumented" is Linda Greenhouse's considered, thoughtful bag of BS about the new Arizona law.  She isn't always stupid, so what did it for her this time?

UPDATE: Too Good to Check   [Mark Krikorian]

Let's consider this 'graph...

What would Arizona’s revered libertarian icon, Barry Goldwater, say about a law that requires the police to demand proof of legal residency from any person with whom they have made “any lawful contact” and about whom they have “reasonable suspicion” that “the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States?” Wasn’t the system of internal passports one of the most distasteful features of life in the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa?

But, Linda...why be THAT selective in your effort to smear?  You left out Nazi Germany.  But, more telling, you left out Mexico, which has immigration laws WAY more draconian than ANYTHING in Arizona.  You also left out MOST EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, including those in modern, socialist Europe.

I’m not going back to Arizona as long as it remains a police state, which is what the appalling anti-immigrant bill that Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law last week has turned it into.

Of course, Arizona is far less a police state than is Washington, DC...or New York..., but how do we get to this law being an "appalling anti-immigrant bill"?  The bill has absolutely no impact on legal immigrants, or on documented temporary workers.

So, Linda, we're left with the conviction that your problem isn't really documenting the legal status of aliens (since virtually all nations do that), but that somebody in the United States is doing something effective to cut back on illegal immigration.

CRASH: Sadly, John Lewis Has Been Lying For Years

People of integrity, for various reasons, sometimes sell out.  Rep. John Lewis was a man of high moral courage.  He's been trading on that reputation for years to sell the racial lie.

How do we know this goes back long before the recent lies about the Kill-The-Bill protests?   Consider the whoppers Lewis was willing to tell in a campaign commercial for a Fulton Co., Georgia, county official. 

Lewis was, naturally, the guy the Deemocrats made the point-man when they wanted to shut down the McCain campaign against Obama.  All he had to do was say McCain was "Sowing the seeds of hate"...or something...throwing the racial bean-ball, and McCain was brushed back successfully.

"As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign," Lewis said in a statement. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

The veteran Democrat even invoked one of the most divisive figures in recent U.S. history. "During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama," said Lewis.

He warned, "As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."

 Sounds really familiar, does it not?  Very like the smears against the TEA Party.  And now John Lewis, once a brave man, is reduced to being just another lying, race-baiting, collectivist tool.



I'm not surprised to have it proven that Rep. Andre Carson is a liar.  I am surprised to learn the truth about John Lewis; that he moved from lie, to smear, to greater lie.

Kudos to Breitbart and his people for their work in exposing the lies of these despicable people of the collective.  Make it known.

BURN: The Long Night Of The Undead Death Panel

"Little Peter" Orszag (inne cute) explains how the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will run your health care decisions.  Powerfully.  Aggressively.  Unaccountably.



Harry Reid put in the law that it would take a 67 vote supermajority to reel this leviathan back in, after life was breathed into its unnatural body by the Deemocrats.

And that damn brainless/ignorant/hillbilly, Sarah Palin, pointed out that she had warned us about all this.

And every Deemocrat in office lied...either vigorously, or by complicity...about what they KNEW was in this insult to democracy.  Particularly Barack Hussain Obama.

If America is ever to be the nation it should be, this blight on everything constitutional has to be COMPLETELY FREAKING REPEALED.  Then we have to pour salt in its mouth, and drive a stake through its heart.  And mount a watch over the ashes where we burned it.

BURN: Arizona Law Already Flushing Out The Dirt

And by "dirt" I mean Charles Johnson (OK, a tautology), Mau-mau Millionaire Reverend and Close Obama Advisor Al Sharpton, and various other outlaws.

 From WaPo...

Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva asked the federal government not to cooperate when illegal immigrants are picked up by local police.

State Sen. Russell Pearce, the Republican who sponsored the legislation, said it's "pretty disappointing" that opponents would call on the federal government to refuse to cooperate with Arizona authorities.

"It's outrageous that these people continue to support law breakers over law keepers," Pearce said Sunday.

Grijalva and civil rights activists promised to march in the streets and invite arrest by refusing to comply with the law. Police said the protests Sunday were peaceful and there were no clashes. 

 Hmmm.....

"We're going to overturn this unjust and racist law, and then we're going to overturn the power structure that created this unjust, racist law," Grijalva said.

Good luck with that, Raul.  This law has enormous popular support, including Hispanics.

Just a note on Raul:

He was also active in MEChA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, the student group that called the Southwest “Aztlan,” the spiritual home of the Chicano people. The acronym, the Spanish word for “fuse,” was evocative of the group’s confrontational, nationalist ideology, which took its sharpest formulation in the group’s motto: “Por la raza todo, fuera de la raza nada’’ — “For the race, everything, outside the race, nothing.”  That sounds a lot MORE RACIST than Mr. Mussolini's formulation for "totalitarian", doesn't it?

How, precisely, is the law "unjust"?  We have no EXPERIENCE with the law, do we, Raul? 

And on just what planet is illegal immigration a RACIAL issue...?  I don't give a rip if the illegal is from Russia, Ireland, Nigeria or Mexico.  Nobody I know does.  Well, maybe President Obama...

CRASH: Mr. Post-Partisan, Post-Racial Incites Racial, Gender, Age Partisanship

Gosh, color me (can we say that...?) surprised!  THE ONE, Uniter Deluxe, who was bringing us a "new politics" of post-partisanship in a post-racial America, is appealing for partisan people on the basis of their age, ethnicity, and gender.  Just damn...!



Lesse, young people (i.e., ignorant, indoctrinated ones), racial identity groups, and angry women.  Yep, the same old collectivist coalition.  The more things (don't change), the more THE ONE is revealed as the fraud he is...

BURN: Johnson Beclowns Himself On Arizona Law

Charles Johnson is NOT a credible source of information.  Learn it.  Live it.  Love it.

AZ Truck Driver Handcuffed, Forced to Show Birth Certificate

US News | Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 11:38:31 am PDT

OH.  MY.  GOD.  It has BEGUN...

But, if you go to the link for the story, you find it was posted BEFORE the Arizona law was enacted.

by Alicia E. Barrón

azfamily.com

Posted on April 21, 2010 at 5:04 PM

Updated Thursday, Apr 22 at 3:21 PM

PHOENIX – A Valley man says he was pulled over Wednesday morning and questioned when he arrived at a weigh station for his commercial vehicle along Val Vista and the 202 freeway.

If you bother to read the story, you will find that it was standard operating procedure.

BURN: OK, Then...I'm TOTALLY Cool With Bill Ayers...!

Bill Ayers, unrepentant terrorist completely peaceful activist, Obama surrogate daddy, and well-known Marxist, exonerated himself for all past conduct.  I, like, TOTALLY believe him...



Now, if only Timothy McVeigh could give a talk at a church in California, maybe we could put that poor, confused fella in the "good guy" column, too.

BURN: When Is Genocide NOT Genocide?

When Barack Obama promises to call it "genocide".  Naturally.

THE ONE, in campaign mode, promised Armenian Americans that he would commemorate and honor their ancestors and family members slaughtered by Turks ninety-five years ago last week.  He would do this by using the word "genocide", which is uncontroversially appropriate and historically accurate.

I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

The exit question is: Will any Americans of Armenian descent be chumped again by BHO?

BURN: Obama To His Own Administration..."Shut UUUUUP...!!!"

Along with American businesses and think-tanks, THE ONE's own bureaucrats are exposing the LIES of Obamacare...



And the ball is just STARTING to roll...

CRASH: "Irresponsible" AZ Commits Democratic Self-Preservation...Obama Wept

Stepping back from the abyss, and taking a small step toward sanity and self-preservation, Arizona...using that democracy thingy...passed a very durable, measured law respecting unlawful invasion.  Obama wept.

There has been a GREAT deal of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth over the passage of this new law.  A LOT of hyperventilation, much of it committed by our nominal president, who called it "irresponsible", "misguided", and prone to "undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans".  Just how the poster boy child for irresponsible, misguided government sets himself up to pass judgment on a state law enacted by a democratically elected legislature using "notions of fairness we all cherish as Americans" was unclear.  The bitter irony of a sitting president slamming state legislation in those terms was VERY clear.

You will have read or heard various legal-sounding nonsense from the collective.  Obama immediately set the DOJ dogs loose, using the Chicago response to rational legislation; "Say, nice little state treasury you have there...".  I don't think Arizona has too much to worry about, based on the stupid legal "arguments" suggested so far.

I have read the law.  I am an attorney.  It is a very carefully drafted law.  It is apparent that it is intended to be very carefully unforced.  If it is, it will survive.

Let's look at some of the nonsense out there first--

"It's going to change our lives," said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen from Phoenix. "We can't walk to school any more. We can't be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we're illegal immigrants."

 This is not atypical.  This poor, stupid punk has been fed a line of crap by people he makes the mistake of listening to; they lied, of course.  Young Emilio's life will not change; he will not be unsafe walking to school.  Nobody is going to keep him off the streets, although they certainly SHOULD (it should be his parents, but we'll leave that for another day).

Mexico has warned the proposal could affect cross-border relations. On Thursday, Mexico's Senate unanimously passed a resolution urging [Arizona Governor] Brewer to veto the law.

Gov. Brewer declined to obey the Mexican Senate, preferring to do what the vast majority of Arizona citizens told her they wanted done.  Presumably, Arizonans WANT cross-border relations affected...and for the better.  Mexican pols really, really do not.  What Mexican legislators do want...and they have done this VERY effectively...is for their own borders to be secure.

"Police in Arizona already treat migrants worse than animals," said Francisco Loureiro, an activist who runs a migrant shelter in the border town of Nogales, Mexico. "There is already a hunt for migrants, and now it will be open season under the cover of a law."

This is a personal favorite, I must admit.  If illegal imMIGRANTS are treated worse than animals, they sure would not be risking life and limb...and lots of money...to come to Arizona.  So we know that part is a lie.  Yes, Senor Loureiro, there is a hunt for people coming into this country against its laws...sort of...  Now, the state of Arizona is adding another law to the mix, but NOTHING NEARLY AS HARSH AS THAT OF YOUR NATION.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund said it plans a legal challenge to the law, arguing it "launches Arizona into a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions."

Oopsie, MALDEF...too late!  All THAT stuff is why the legislation was passed.  If anything, it should "LESSEN a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions" respecting Arizona.  At the same time it damages your corrupt organization!  Bonuses all around!  Of course, La Raza (The Race) was pissed, too.

I heard an ACLU bimbette intone something about "immigration being a uniquely Federal issue".  Balls to that.  Admiralty law is EXPRESSLY a Federal question; but just about every state with navigable waters has their own admiralty law, too.  Supremacy doctrine does not prohibit COLLATERAL or SUPPLEMENTAL state law; just CONFLICTING law.  Arizona's drafting INCORPORATES Federal statutes.

Nor does Arizona intend to do what ICE does...deportation.  It will refer illegals for deportation by ICE.  Under its statute, it will fine and incarcerate illegal aliens, people who employ them, etc.  That isn't in conflict with the feds.

The one...and ONLY...land-mine in Arizona's road to sane immigration policy is CIVIL RIGHTS litigation.  That one is really very easy.  If EVERY stop by Arizona peace officers involves a simple question...regardless of who is stopped...about immigration status, there will never be a successful challenge to this new law.

BURN: Lisa Jackson Is A Danger To America

On Earth Day, I wrote that I'd heard a kid talking about how black Americans had to drink from special, polluted water fountains during Jim Crow.  It was WAY worse than I thought...

I had heard a snippet from a recording, and from the timbre of the voice I thought it sounded like a college-aged kid.  It was, in fact, Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator and seriously dangerous Obami.

When Jackson was selected for her post by THE ONE, the MSM wet itself with delight.  She was going to "put science back" into the federal milieu...or something.  THE ONE said stuff like that, too, as he moved to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research that totally ignores both good science and good economics.

But Jackson was supposed to know at least some science...as opposed to her boss...and she vowed to make the EPA a bastion of "law and science".  As we've come to expect from the Obami, the opposite is true.

What the EPA has become under Jackson is an agendized, out-of-control juggernaut for Obamic "social justice".

Take a look at one of her favorite lies/myths.  She returns to it over and over again in her speeches.  It is the "racial environmentalism" meme.  This is where her "drinking fountain" canard comes in...over and over--

If you think about it: there was a time when I would have been forced to drink unsafe water from an inferior water fountain because of my race. Now, in 2009, I have the responsibility of ensuring that everyone drinks clean water, regardless of race.

Think about it: there was a time when I would have been forced to drink unsafe water from an inferior water fountain – because of my race. Now, in 2009, I have the responsibility of ensuring that *everyone* drinks clean water – regardless of race. That is powerful and speaks to the amazing progress and change our country has seen.

When we think about environmental protection, there was a time my father, living in the south, would have been forced to drink unsafe water out of different pipes and different fountains because of his race.
     And we also need to make clear that environmentalism goes hand in hand with traditional civil rights and social justice issues.

Or when we think about environmental protection – there was a time when my family would have been forced to drink unsafe water from an inferior water fountain – because of my race.

According to what Jackson is stating as fact, special "unsafe water" was supplied to "inferior water fountains" via "different pipes" than that supplying the water fountains just next to a "colored only" water fountain.  This is lunacy.  This is absolutely NUTS...it is a racial lie right up there with the one about the CIA inventing AIDS to kill off black people.

These are not cherry-picked photos...they are typical of what you will find.  Test that assertion.  What you will see in these pictures is that plumbing is plumbing.  Everyone drank from the same water source, and the excess drained into the same system.  If a water fountain was inferior, it was because it may not have been cooled (as in the last picture).  It wasn't polluted.  It wasn't "unsafe".

But, again, this is supposed to be a scientist.  We should expect to see some evidence of that in what she says, should we not?

Without economic opportunity, there is poverty. And with poverty comes a whole host of other problems like crime, gangs, drugs and violence.

And – frankly – it doesn’t take a scientist to see that when economic possibilities are limited, other problems are compounded. Crime is higher, violence is higher – often times drugs use is rampant – and the vicious cycle continues.

And when businesses won’t invest, economic possibilities are limited. As a result crime is higher, violence is higher – often times drugs use is rampant – and the vicious cycle continues.

Therefore, economic possibilities are limited. As a result crime is higher, violence is higher, often times drugs use is rampant – and the vicious cycle continues.

I could post more of those statements.  Jackson makes them a lot.  The point is that they are objectively, scientifically FALSE.  While our economy has tanked recently, crime in America has not ballooned; just the opposite, in fact.  But it didn't rise during the Great Depression, either.  What Jackson is saying...ad nauseum...is a collectivist lie from way back.  It has been proven...with metrics (you know, sciencey stuff)...to be false.  So, when you hear someone like Jackson keep spouting it, you can know they have a mind to lie.

In her crusade for "social justice" and "environmental justice", Lisa Jackson has shown that she...like her boss...will not be impeded by such niceties as law...REAL science...or even rational thought.

THE HUMANITY: The Parable Of My Neighbor's Howitzer

I have a neighbor who owns a howitzer.  Not a model, toy, or an ancient replica.  A modern, working howitzer.  My neighbor has very potent, effective ammunition for the howitzer, too.  My neighbor could level entire city blocks with a few well-placed shells, fired from miles away.

Funny thing, though.  Outside of a few Nervous Nellies with their own agenda, none of us in the neighborhood are concerned about my neighbor and the howitzer.  See, my neighbor is known to be a very rational, level-headed person.  My neighbor is regarded by all of us as a model of responsibility, and someone who not only abides by the law, but by a very high moral standard that informs every act they perform.

What is remarkable, my howitzer-equipped neighbor is regularly mocked and called all kinds of vile names.  Stupid kids violate his property and commit minor vandalism.  My neighbor never responds with any kind of violence...especially not a salvo of high-explosive shells.

In our same neighborhood, there is a neighbor who has a paring knife...a little, short knife like everyone has in their kitchen for cutting fruit.  But this neighbor has a really evil reputation for violence, for being a hair-trigger hot-head.  This neighbor has attacked several people, severely wounding some, even killing others.  This neighbor constantly wields that paring knife.

Nobody will even make eye contact with the paring knife neighbor.  They know what can happen...how little it takes to set this person off.

South Park could air a devastating series of episodes lampooning my neighbor with the howitzer, reviling his most sacred beliefs, and people would laugh.  Some would agree with the darkest depiction of my neighbor, in spite of the truth.  The people whose network aired those episodes would thump their chests, and their peers would give them shiny awards for their courage and artistic integrity.  My neighbor would just smile and shake his head sadly.

But nobody would dare to air an episode of South Park that even mentioned my neighbor with the paring knife.  And nobody at the network or their artistic peers would even wonder why.  They all know.

If...IF...people were really afraid of TEA Party-goers, would they call them the vile things they call them?  If they were pious Muslims, how different would their treatment be?  How many mosques and madrassas are on the list the Southern Poverty Law Center publishes?  Do you even find a Crescent symbol on their "hate map"? 

CRASH: Josh Marshall, Let Me Introduce Atticus Finch

Josh Marshall at Talking Blunts Mau-mau thinks it's a big yuk to suggest that people may barter for health services under Obamacare.  Marshall needs to meet my friend, Atticus Finch.

Everyone who has seen the movie To Kill A Mockingbird knows the deeply humane scene where Atticus not only accepts payment for his services in barter, but teaches his children an important lesson about the dignity of working men who pay their way.  In the Depression South, people needed legal services.  Even a fairly well-off family very often had no cash.  So they paid Lawyer Finch in hickory nuts, produce, or...yes...chickens for his services.

Effete little urban punks never learn stuff like that, I suppose.  So, Josh, let me introduce you to Atticus, my friend and fellow attorney, and the wonderful economic Law Of Substitution.

The Law Of Substitution tells us (among other things) that when you make something too expensive for people who continue to demand it...say like health care under Obamacare...they will OFTEN find a way to wire around the problem.  They will substitute the thing they were demanding with something else.  Like, for instance, when they find going to their doctor under Obamacare too costly in terms of privacy, their freedoms, or their money.  Doctors and patients will find a way...kind of like "Life will find a way..." in Jurassic Park.

See, Josh, Obamacare...I predict and VERY much hope...is set to be one of the most disobeyed laws in American history.  Think of it as millions of little acts of civil disobedience.  "We aren't going to take it...never did, and never will..."

So, we'll barter, like lots of people and businesses out there that you are just stupid culpably ignorant about, Josh.

Atticus and his clients were just practicing good economics.  Cash was in short supply, so they just substituted cash for other things, the value of  which they agreed; legal service for hickory nuts.  Free people will do that kind of thing in defiance of Obamacare.

BURN: The People Of Earth Day, 2010

The EnviroMarxists are in full howl all over the world.  Earth Day is NOT about sound environmentalism.  It's about killing capitalism and taking, and fostering outright lies.

The rally opened with music, and an opening ceremony by Indigenous leaders from throughout the Americas. “We are here from the far north to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the South” said Faith Gemmill, Executive Director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL). “We have a choice as human kind – a path of life, or a path of destruction. The people who can change the world are here!”

President Morales [of Bolivia] arrived with a welcome from a military honor guard, and gave a long presentation that was both politically sharp, radical, and at times humorous. In the end, he underscored that this crisis is a result of capitalism. And, capitalism and capitalist growth are incompatible with saving humanity (humanity because nature will endure regardless). Towards the end of his speech he concluded, “Either capitalism lives and the earth dies, or capitalism dies and the earth lives.”

President Morales is supporting calls for the continuation of negotiations to:
1. Include not only human rights but also “Mother Earth Rights” in the form of a UN resolution that would be binding and offer a legal basis for the defense of nature;
2. An International Climate Justice Tribunal to prosecute those who commit violations against nature and communities; and
3. A 2 billion person global referendum on solutions to climate to give all affected people throughout the world a direct voice in the path we choose.

As Kathy Shaidle reminds us, it is no great coincidence that Earth Day was set by its founders on the birthday of Lenin.  Yep, that benefactor of humanity.

Ms. Shaidle also reminds us of the quasi-religion of environmentalism, which is in direct conflict with Judeo-Christian beliefs on idolatry and the concept of God-given stewardship (see "dominion").  Speaking of quasi-religion, can you imagine a parody of inbred snake-handlers that beats this...???

Today, I heard a sound-bite of a speech by a kid who was bloviating about the link between racism and pollution.  She mentioned how her fore-bearers had to drink from separate, polluted drinking fountains during Jim Crow.  This is just sad.  It is, of course, a bald-faced lie...or at least a total myth.

I am old enough to recall seeing some of those segregated drinking fountains.  I am also a plumber (among LOTS of other things).  One thing you'll note in those pictures (and I haven't cherry-picked them) is that water comes and goes the same for all God's children.  Nobody was piping in special, polluted water for black people.  Jim Crow was bad enough; nobody has to make stuff up to make it worse.  But this is what you will get when you indoctrinate children with racial and environmental myth.

Then there's this example of the effects of child abuse, which I won't even attempt to comment on:



It is essential to remember who started Earth Day, what it is they are really after, and what it means to your and my freedom.