Inspire Political Discourse

SB1070 Palin Again Defending What Was Wrought "We’re all Arizonians"

On Saturday, Palin spoke at a news conference with Gov. Jan Brewer [R-AZ] in an effort to discourage the growing boycott of Arizona due to SB1070, the immigration law enacted in Arizona earlier this month.

Palin defended the law by declaring President Obama responsible for the lack of secure borders, said lack "forcing" Arizona to take action to defend itself and secure it's own borders.

We're all Arizonans now. And in clear unison we say, 'Mr. President: Do your job. Secure our border”.

Okay, so here are a few FACTS for Ms. Palin:

  The crime rate in border towns has not increased for a number of years.

Russell Pearce, Original Sponsor of Draconian Arizona Immigration Law, Has Ties to White Supremacists

Russell Pearce is the chief sponsor of the Arizona bill, and as many have noted, the bill, in effect, legalizes racial profiling. From the Fayetteville Observer [emphasis mine]:

Arizona Immigration Bill Sponsor Russell Pearce Has White Supremacist Ties, Nativist Views

In 2006, Arizona state legislator Russell Pearce got himself into a bit of trouble.

Pearce is the chief sponsor of Arizona's brutal new immigration law.

In '06, he circulated emails from the National Alliance, a white supremacist group. The email defended a racially conscious white person who "looks askance at miscegenation or at the rapidly darkening racial situation in America." (Miscegenation refers to interracial relationships.)

The email went on to blame the media for forcing on the public the notion of equality of the races, the truth of the Holocaust and "the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of non-White aliens pouring across our borders ... ."

Pearce claimed later to not know what the group was or what was in the email, but the chairman of the state Republican Party called the email a "severe mistake."

Then-U.S. representative J.D. Hayworth, who is no softy himself on illegal immigration, said: "Given the regrettable and disturbing nature of the e-mail Russell Pearce circulated earlier this week, I cannot in good conscience lend my endorsement to his candidacy for State Representative."

If the email "slip" had been Pearce's only tie to racism and nativism, maybe it would be no big deal on the scheme of things. But there's more.

• Pearce, who is now a state senator, has been videotaped and photographed palling around with nativists and white supremacists at anti-immigrant rallies, including with neo-Nazi and white power activist J.T. Ready.  
  [......]

Arizona Legalizes Racial Profiling, Ctd

Via Bob Cesca @ Huffpost on the Arizona law and neo-slavery:

And now this is the law of the state of Arizona -- arresting people, citizen or not, simply for appearing Hispanic. The ghosts of Green Cottonham, "anti-vagrancy" laws and Black Codes. America has resurrected its predilection for rounding up brown people based on flimsy excuses and good ol' boy lawmaking.

While there's no evidence that the Arizona law will feed the rise of a new underground forced labor market in the United States, it's clear that the various components of neo-slavery are here now. And the optics and civil liberties violations, say nothing of the long-term consequences, are horrible. We're on the brink of rounding up Hispanic people on ridiculous charges while American corporations are actively engaged in the trafficking of illegal immigrant labor.

How soon, I wonder, until we read about Hispanic people -- citizens or otherwise -- being picked up for not having their birth certificates and other "papers" in their back pockets and consequently shipped off on some sort of prison "work release" program to a cabbage farm or meat packing plant?

Arizona Legalizes Racial Profiling

The Arizona Republican anti-immigration bill. Where to start. A bill that legalizes the worst kind of racial profiling, making it a crime to be an illegal immigrant in Arizona.
In my opinion, it harkens back to the creation of neo-slavery in the South after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Bill Moyers Journal

Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Bill Likely to Pass

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, has until tomorrow to sign, veto, or allow the nation's toughest bill on illegal immigration to pass without her signature. It is expected that she will sign it, making it a crime to be an illegal immigrant in Arizona.

Civil rights activists have said the bill would lead to racial profiling and deter Hispanics from reporting crimes. Hundreds of Hispanics protested the legislation at the State Capitol complex on Thursday.

UPDATE: President Obama's comments on the Arizona bill this morning:

Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes for example the recent efforts in Arizona which threaten basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe. In fact, I’ve instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation.

But if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts to open up across the country.

Dodd Excoriates GOP for Obstructionism on Financial Reform Bill

Via Think Progress

Despite months of bipartisan negotiation and promises of cooperation, Republicans recently threatened to filibuster the bill. A visibly angry Dodd took to the Senate floor today to condemn the GOP’s obstructionism, calling out their “very false talking points” and warning them that they will have to explain to Americans, “I’m sorry but we’re not on your side:”

DODD: A letter from the Minority Leader said we’ve got 41 votes here to stop you from even debating this bill. Well, you explain that to the American taxpayer, to the small business, to the American family, and to others out there who are paying an awful price because the the mess that the very institutions who are today leading the charge against us getting a bill. Explain to them why the status quo is in their interest and their benefit. Mr. President, those who vote to block this bill will be sending a clear message to American families, businesses, community bankers and tax payers and that message will be, I’m sorry but we are not on your side. We are choosing another side of this equation.

Last month, my good friend the Minority Leader and the Republican senator responsible for campaign fundraising participated in meeting in New York with Wall Street executives. … Comes back right afterwards and we get all of a sudden, we get this rhetoric about too big to fail and we can’t possibly go to this bill. Don’t tell me that miraculously, these things happen and all of sudden we find ourselves with 41 senators [opposed to this bill].

Too Many Wall Street Shills ...

McConnell (R-Ky) managed to get 41 GOP senators to vote against even DEBATING the financial reform bill. This, after his private meeting with Sen. Cornyn and a group of 25 Wall Street executives, most of them hedge fund managers, a week earlier.

As a financial reform bill starts to take shape in Washington, two key lawmakers came to New York City last week to explain what it means for Wall Street, and how financial executives might help prevent some of its least market-friendly aspects from becoming law by electing more Republicans, FOX Business Network has learned.

About 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, sat down for a private meeting Thursday afternoon with two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Congress: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the primary fundraising arms of the Republican Party.

The undercurrent of the gathering, however, was undeniably political. [......]

It was revealed earlier in the week that McConnell's talking points came directly from a memo created by GOP pollster, Frank Luntz, and are nearly all completely false.

McConnell's hometown paper published a scathing editorial titled "McConnell to big banks' rescue". The Lexington Herald-Leader accuses McConnell of  pandering to Wall Street executives ,as well as his repetition of the false talking points created by Luntz. 

President Obama Calls Out Mitch McConnell

In his weekly remarks, President Obama accused Mitch McConnell of lying. You GO, Mr. President! 

Now, unsurprisingly, these reforms have not exactly been welcomed by the people who profit from the status quo – as well their allies in Washington.  This is probably why the special interests have spent a lot of time and money lobbying to kill or weaken the bill.  Just the other day, in fact, the Leader of the Senate Republicans and the Chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee met with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress on this issue.

Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican Leader came out against the common-sense reforms we’ve proposed.  In doing so, he made the cynical and deceptive assertion that reform would somehow enable future bailouts – when he knows that it would do just the opposite.  Every day we don’t act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place – with the exact same loopholes and the exact same liabilities.  And if we don’t change what led to the crisis, we’ll doom ourselves to repeat it.  That’s the truth.  Opposing reform will leave taxpayers on the hook if a crisis like this ever happens again.

Read the entirety of his remarks, or view the video. For more on this still developing situation , I filed my posts under the categories Mitch McConnell and Financial Reform.

Scott Brown Announces Payback to Wall Street

Scott Brown (R-MA), elected in January to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate, after a campaign largely financed by Wall Street, is now “returning the favor”. But of course.

As the Senate prepares to take up Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial regulatory reform bill, Brown said “in his strongest statement yet” that he “can’t support it.” While Brown said he is still “open” to working on a bipartisan bill, he seemed befuddled when asked how the bill could win his support: [……]

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VIDEO: Barney Frank on Hardball Calls Out the GOP on Their Blatant Lies Re the Financial Reform Bill

Earlier in the week, I talked about Mitch McConnell, and the GOP’s efforts to kill the financial reform bill now in the Senate.

As of yesterday, the lies from the GOP were coming ever faster and more furious. And all based on a memo by GOP pollster Frank Luntz, concerning tactics to be used by the Republicans to kill health care reform, which talking points have now been converted and used to attempt the murder of financial reform. Imagine that. Republicans lying. Republicans protecting Wall St. and the very financial services companies that drove us to the brink of economic collapse.

Barney Frank obliterated the nonsense last night on Hardball.

Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party Stands in Defense of Wall Street and Against Financial Reform

Last week McConnell attended a private meeting with 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers.

What McConnell did not mention was that, last week, he traveled alongside National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn (TX) to New York City for a private meeting with elite hedge fund managers and other Wall Street executives. The purpose of the meeting between the top Republicans and the financial executives was to enlist “Wall Street’s help” in funding Republican campaigns in the fall and killing any tough financial reform:[......]

This week McConnell has thrown down the gauntlet, refusing to deal on Dodd's financial  
reform bill. His excuse making harkens back to the much publicized GOP strategy memo written by pollster Frank Luntz. In point of fact, his arguments against reform are close to exactly as Luntz urged the GOP to make.

In order to prevent future taxpayer bailouts of the big banks, to prevent our economy from spinning out of control again, to protect our country from financial insolvency, we must legislate financial reform. Period. The removal of controls on the financial services industry is what got us in to this mess to begin with. If we listen to the Republicans we are asking for more of the same.

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Health Care Reform Progress

The Senate bill which is the base for health care reform passed the house on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

Today, the reconciliation bill passed the Senate, The Senate Parliamentarian claims that the Byrd rule was violated, and the bill now returns to the House for another vote.

UPDATE:
Last night, March 25, the House passed the reconciliation bill, and the long effort to enact health care reform is over. That is, excepting the improvements we intend to make over the next few years before the mandates kick in.

Sweet.

A hug between the two former rivals after President Obama signs the health care reform bill. I love it.

Obama tells Republicans to "go for it" on running on repeal

In Iowa today.

Frickin' hypocrites........

Frivolous lawsuits from the criers of "torte reform now"?  Of course. They can't resist the display of utterly useless hypocrisy.

Health care reform is a bfd....

via...

Will Republican oppostion to health care reform hurt them in November?

The Republicans have threatened to repeal the health care reform bill one piece at a time. 13 attorneys general, all Republicans, have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to exempt their states from health care reform.

Health care now becomes a policy story rather than a legislative sausage-grinding story. Tales of death panels and warnings about losing your doctor can now be falsified. (That's what happened to the early scare stories about Social Security and Medicare.) And Republicans who denounce the program and promise to repeal it will no longer be bashing an abstraction. They will be proposing to take away existing, tangible benefits. [.....]

Turning back the Reagan legacy

As Obama tackles health care reform, he simultaneously strikes at wealth inequality.

In the U.S., we have been dogged by wealth inequality via redistribution, since the Reagan years. Hence the near demise of the middle class. Along comes Obama.

The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.

Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.[.....]

Health Care Reform Signed in to Law

Today, President Obama signed the historic health care reform bill in to law.

“Today, after almost a century of trying, today, after over a year of debate, today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America. In a few moments when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric of reform will finally confront the reality of reform.

Former Bush Speechwriter, David Frum, on the Republican HCR Waterloo

George W. Bush's former speechwriter, David Frum, on the passage of the health care reform bill:

“Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

 

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections.

 

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

 

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

 

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours. [.....]