Gord's Notebook : Sheriff Joe Arpaio The Big Winner With The Passage of Arizona's Apartheid Style Anti-immigrant Law

UPDATE: 2:57PM & 6:58 PM, May 2, 2010

"This ceaseless repetition of identical themes was not merely the expression of his fixations, but also his deliberate technique:

"The chief function [of propaganda] is to convince the masses, whose slowness of understanding needs to be given time in order that they may absorb information; and only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on their mind. Every digression in a propagandist message must always emphasize the same conclusions. The slogan must of course be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula. Then one will be rewarded by the surprising and almost incredible results that such a persistent policy secures. The success of any advertisement, whether of a business or a political nature, depends on the consistency and perseverance with which it is employed." Adolph Hitler"

from "The Drummer Of The Third Reich" from The Face of The Third Reich by Joachim C Fest

Gun Toting anti-immigrant Supporter of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Concerned Citizens Protest Arizona's Newest Apartheid Law

TPM April 25, 2010: Thousands of protesters gather outside the Arizona State Capitol building in Phoenix to oppose a recently passed immigration law. The law, Senate Bill 1070, was signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) on April 23. It requires law enforcement officials to demand immigration papers from those they "reasonably" suspect to be in the country illegally.

Arpaio 's Enemies of America: Children?

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Notable Quotes about Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

"Every time I watch Sheriff Joe unleash his ‘posse’ on another neighborhood with a high Hispanic population, arresting people with brown skin for the most stupid of offenses — honking their horn, having a tail light out, not signaling when they change lanes — I have to wonder how anyone could not see this as an assault on an entire race of people.”
— Columnist Jana Bommersbach (Phoenix New Times, June 2008)

“Over the past few weeks, Sheriff Arpaio’s actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents. They have put our residents’ well-being, and the well-being of law enforcement officers, at risk.”
— A letter from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to the then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey calling for an investigation into whether Arpario had committed civil rights violations. (Phoenix New Times, June 2008)

Desmond Tutu responds to passage of the Arizona Apartheid style Law:

Arizona: The Wrong Answer By Desmond TuTu April 29,2010 Via Huffington Post

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.

Equally disturbing is what will happen in the mind of the policeman. The police talk today about how they do not wish to, and will not, engage in racial profiling. Yet faced with the option of using common sense and compassion, or harassing a person who has done nothing wrong, a particularly sinister aspect of Arizona's new immigration law will be hanging over his head. He can be personally sued, by anyone, for failing to enforce this inhumane new act.

Tea Party speaker wants to repeal the 14th amendment of US Constitution ??? But Glenn Beck Bill Kristol Palin et al say they and the Tea Partiers are out to protect the constitution . Is there a lack of communication within the Tea Party or are there sharp divisions about policies & the sanctity of the US Constitution.

This week in crazy: Duncan D. Hunter :The Tea Party backer wants to deny citizenship to U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants, violating the Constitutionby Joan Walsh via Salon.com, April 30, 2010

Take it from Bill Kristol: The Tea Party is just trying to protect the U.S. Constitution from assault by President Obama and his Democratic "gangster government," to use the words of Tea Party champion Rep. Michele Bachmann. On Fox News Sunday a few weeks ago, Kristol went so far as to hail the sanity-challenged Bachmann for her constitutional passion and expertise.

So this Sunday, I hope someone asks Kristol to explain Rep. Duncan D. Hunter's proposal, at a San Diego County Tea Party rally last weekend, to deport the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants and strip them of their American citizenship. Hunter's crazy notion was reported by former Salon staffer and Capitol Weekly editor Anthony York in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

...Tim James made national headlines this week with a dopey ad in his run for governor, urging Alabama voters to support his effort to make sure driver's tests are given only in English. "This is Alabama," he drawls. "We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it." Alabama has one of the nation's smallest immigrant populations, so James' appeal is pure right-wing xenophobic demagoguery.

In the wake of Arizona's probably unconstitutional immigrant-profiling law, at least seven states are contemplating the passage of anti-immigrant legislation, Think Progress reports.

Tea Party madness continues as Rep. Duncan D. Hunter says he wants to repeal 14th amendment

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First a word from President Obama on this new Arizona Law which it is obvious he doesn't like but all he is going to do is monitor the situation. He could have mentioned it as being too broad and UnAmerican. he could have compared it to South Africa or the homegrown "Jim Crow" of the South. Or on legal grounds Obama could have reminded the governor and legislature of Arizona that they were going beyond their jurisdiction so the law is unconstitutional or because of its potential for wide spread abuse etc. He could have mad a stronger statement about the importance of and the Civil Rights movement and not just use a talking point in the words "monitoring"

President Obama slams proposed Arizona immigration law
racewiremultimedia — April 23, 2010 — President Barack Obama slammed SB 1070, the proposed crackdown on undocumented immigration that now sits on Arizona Governor Brewer's desk

Meanwhile back in the not so nice real world

REPORT: Following Passage Of Arizona Law, At Least Seven States Contemplate Anti-Immigrant Legislation by Andrea Nill via Think Progress, April 30, 2010

When President Obama condemned Arizona’s draconian and potentially unconstitutional immigration law last Friday, he predicted that “if we continue to fail to act [on immigration] at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts to open up across the country.” Indeed, it’s already happening.

Last week, Wonk Room reported on the involvement of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) — the legal arm of a designated nativist-extremist hate group — in drafting Arizona’s controversial immigration law. IRLI lawyer Michael Hethmon boasted about being “approached by lawmakers from four other states who have asked for advice on how they can do the same thing.” In the aftermath of the passage of Arizona’s law, many states and localities across the country are in fact in the middle of or about to embark on copy cat pieces of legislation...

President Obama should worry when Sarah Palin approves of it. After all she is the brains behind the current Conservative Movement.

From MediaMatters For America:Palin claims AZ immigration law "essentially replicates, duplicates the federal law"
April 27, 2010

But Obama should note is that the right Wing Uberconservatives & the Anti-Immigrant Nativist are quite pleased with this law and will be pressuring others states to adopt a similar law - the more states do this the more it becomes a legal, constitutional issue. Secession?

Bolling on AZ law: "This is a great bill, every state should have it." May 01, 2010 via Media Matters

Anderson Cooper of CNN
Apr. 25, 2010 - Arizona SB 1070: "Will Arizona's new law hold up?"

Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law Un-American?
LiberalViewer — April 26, 2010 — Arizona's recently enacted anti-immigrant law is so draconian that it led to criticisms from President Barack Obama, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, and Seth Meyers on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update, as I show in this video.

One big winner in Arizona's draconian new immigration law? Sheriff Joe Arpaio. at TPMMuckraker Zachary Roth | April 26, 2010

Since the law was signed last week, the hard-line Maricopa County lawman has been making the media rounds to praise it, as well as to thumb his nose at the federal investigation into his own controversial immigration enforcement tactics. And lately he's even been talking up a possible run for governor.

In a press conference over the weekend, Arpaio said the law -- which requires police to question people about their immigrant status if they suspect they are here illegally -- offers his office "another tool to fight the illegal immigration problem." He added that it "will give us a little more authority" to detain illegal immigrants who aren't accused of other crimes.

Arpaio hasn't to date appeared overly concerned about his department's formal authority to make arrests. Indeed, his no-holds-bared tactics have made him the poster boy for the kind of aggressive approach that the law seems designed to codify.

The sheriff announced in February that he'd train all 881 of his deputies in how to enforce federal immigration law -- and brought in a top former Bush Justice Department foe of illegal immigration, Kris Kobach, to conduct the training. (Indeed, Kobach helped write the new state law.)

All that came after the federal government had already stripped one hundred Maricopa County deputies of their ability to make immigration arrests, amid a slew of complaints that Arpaio was using racial profiling techniques to round up suspected illegal immigrants.

Those allegations are also the subject of a federal grand jury investigation, which also is reportedly looking at whether Arpaio used his office to target political opponents.

Perhaps emboldened by the new law -- which could be said to give the state's imprimatur to his aggressive immigration enforcement techniques -- Arpaio blithely brought up that federal investigation in an interview this morning with NBC's The Today Show. Asked by Matt Lauer whether the new law could lead to racial profiling, the sheriff responded: "Sixty days into the Obama administration, he sent his Justice Department down to the Phoenix area to investigate me for alleged racial profiling. It's been a year-and-a-half and nothing has happened. So, we know how to enforce the illegal immigration laws without racial profiling."

"Lou Dobbs is almost single-handedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country," Geraldo Rivera .

"The truth is, Dobbs has done as much as anyone to poison the immigration debate by repeatedly reporting false information about immigrants.

The most outrageous statement was his claim that immigrants were responsible for bringing thousands of new cases of leprosy to the United States during a recent three-year period. He also lent legitimacy to conspiracy theories, such as the claim that undocumented immigrants are part of a plot to reconquer the American Southwest. Most recently, he gave credence to the utterly baseless idea that President Obama is not a native-born American citizen."
by SPLC President Richard Cohen