The SoapBoxers

ON WISCONSIN!

In most elections it seems to use South Park as a reference, you have a choice of a giant douche or a shit sandwich. Unfortunately for the people of Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker seems to be both of them all rolled into one. Unless you have been hiding in a cave the past week or so you know that there have been daily mass protesting State Capitol building in Madison. This in reaction to Walker and his partners in crime bringing forth legislation to start the destruction of organized labor. That is what the legislation is plain and simple. Now it is being done under the guise of cutting spending and balancing the budget, but now that is a complete lie.

The legislation calls for most state employees to see cuts in pay and benefits, as well as seeing a large increase in the amount they pay into their pensions and health insurance. The other part of the legislation calls for unions to lose almost all their rights, by only allowing them to “negotiate” for pay increases that are fixed to the rate of inflation. There would be no other collective bargaining as it is referred to for work conditions, benefits, performance or longevity based pay increases and so on. Basically making unions be that in name only as they would no longer have any real function anymore. The legislation also denies members from having their union dues directly taken out of their paychecks as a way to try to prevent unions from receiving funding as well as requiring a closed vote to be taken place to whether the unions are to continue to exist on an annual basis. Now the latter two do not seem highly important to me, but the first causes them to become that way down the line. If the union becomes a union in name only, why would anyone voluntarily pay the membership fees or vote for the union to be in.

I guess Walker and his political advisers from Koch Industries and other of the like did not see this backlash coming. They figured there would be a little fuss and that would be it. Instead they got a mass outrage to deal with that has now spread to other states with Republican led legislative and executive branches wanting to adopt measures of the like.

As I mentioned this is all being done under the guise of budget cuts. For 2011-2013 the state is projecting about a $3.6 billion dollar shortfall. What is not discussed as much is that around $2 billion dollars of that is from the effect of unpaid for tax break for businesses. A new normal? Really!? Sounds like more of the same old same old to me. The same old same old mentality is also evidenced that Walker left police, firefighters, state troopers and inspectors and their unions out of the legislation. It is easy to deduce that this is because these are the unions that to varying degrees of extent supported his candidacy for Governor. However all these unions have come out on the side of the protesters basically stating why should us and our families be any better than the rest of these unions.

Also because of this legislation, the 14 Democrat members of the Wisconsin senate have gone on the lam to undisclosed locations to deny quorum to be able to vote on the legislation. In reaction to this Walker has sent out state troopers to find the “missing” Democrats and drag them back to the statehouse for the Republicans to be allowed to shove this legislation down the throats of Wisconsinites. Also Walker stated he would not be bullied into things based on these actions. But who is the real bully Governor Walker? I would say it is undeniably you. The unions without any ask to sit down to negotiate terms have given into your monetary demands to solve your budget crisis. However that is not enough for Walker. He says there will be no compromise on this unions need to be broken. In this Walker stating that things need to be taken from the haves as the have-nots businesses have been paying the bill for too long. No besides being a completely ludicrous statement in whole, when was the last time anyone considered a teacher a have or well off person.

Also Walker has threatened to starting next week start to fire public employees if his legislation is not passed as he wants it to be by then. Saying it will be the Democrats fault if he does not get his way. Like the legislation, I think Walker is miscalculating where the public will lie the blame if people start to lose their jobs over his dictatorial style of rule.

As for the protestors at the statehouse it is amusing how they are being portrayed by the right. The are almost all in state people fighting for their rights, while those on the opposition side of the demonstration are being bused in from around the county by political “subsidiaries” of Koch Industries and the like. The former are being referred to as bottom feeders and worthless people by the right while the later are the true patriots. It is quite sad, but amusing to see. Also sad is the commentary coming from the right on what should be done. Most notably a former Deputy Attorney General in Indiana, another state facing the same political backlash, now saying that live ammunition should be used to take out the demonstrators (the official was fired after making the comment). After all, he says they are their political enemies and deadly force should be used to take care of them in his opinion, Now he isn’t the only one on the right who has been thinking this way, numerous jokes have been made of the sort on taking them out, it’s just he is an official that actually is on the record stating that this is what should be done.

An interesting new note that has come up is that Walker will actually continue to experience shortfall in the budget if he continues his desire to bust unions. The state would be set to lose $46.6 million in federal transportation money this year and other federal money allocated in other areas as well. This is because of a provision in federal labor law that states risk losing federal funding should they eliminate collective bargaining rights that existed at the time the funding was granted. Then again it really isn’t about the budget is it Governor Walker?

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, besides many other things, is proving the need for education reform. At a Iowan for Tax Relief event this past Sunday showed a complete lack of basic knowledge of history by saying that slavery ended with the founding of the country. “The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States….Men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country” Bachman said to the crowd at the Iowa event. For one John Quincy Adams was not one of the founding fathers, and two, slavery ended with the 13th amendment in 1865 and John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so he was not even alive when it was abolished.

Then again it is not really a surprise that Bachmann or any of her Tea Party friends would think such a thing, because as much as they wrap themselves up in the Constitution and worship the founding fathers, they really don’t respect or believe fully in either. So why would they be bothered by knowing basic facts? After all, they have an issue with changing or abolishing almost every amendment to the Constitution to fit their needs. Must have made for some good discussions at the first Constitution Class that Bachmann led on Monday as well.

Bachmann is so far to the right now that she only looks to the right when talking. In one of her other newsmaking events of the past week she gave the official Tea Party response to the State of the Union address she looked off to the right of the camera the entire time. All kidding aside that is merely the most comical thing about her insane rant that night. One of the most hilarious pieces of crap hurled forth from her mouth was about the government telling you what light bulb you can buy. Actually this is the most true statement to come out of her mouth that night, but only because it is in reference to a 2007 legislation signed by President Bush and done further under President Obama in 2009 dealing with bringing efficiency to the manufacturing of lightbulbs. No where in either document does it actually talk about the Government telling you which lightbulbs you can and cannot buy. Then again there is no language of death panels in the healthcare legislation so why bother with actual facts when we can spread falsities until your idiotic masses believe them to be truths. In the words of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, Michele Bachmann has clearly lost contact with the mothership.

The other response to the State of the Union was delivered by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.  Unlike most republicans in either chamber of Congress he actually does offer his own plans for things, only he was not allowed to speak of them during his response, probably because they would scare the living shit out of the electorate. Part of Ryan’s Roadmap to Americas Future calls for eliminating Social Security and Medicare for everyone currently under the age of 55.

As for the response itself it seemed to be just more of the same. As the President talked about the problems we face and possible ways to take care of them, the Republicans continued to basically say the only problem with the country is Obama himself and that they have no real solutions to anything. The whole time I was watching Ryan I thought to myself, “When did Joel Osteen lose the mullet”, as the whole thing sort of had this weird televangelist vibe going on where I didn’t know if I was watching a response to the President’s speech or being asked to call in and donate money.

I like many others of both sides of the political spectrum are saddened by the events Saturday in Tucson, AZ, where thirteen people were wounded and six were killed at a political event for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. While I do truly believe their sentiment at the results of this incident, the deaths of Gabe Zimmerman, John Roll, Dorthy Murray, Dorwin Stoddard, Phyllis Scheck and nine year old Christina Greene are clearly blood on the hands of the the political atmosphere created by the teabaggers, nurtured and encouraged by the Republican Party, publicized on its own “news” network and carried out by nutcases like 22 year old Jared Loughner.

Sarah Palin didn’t pull the trigger but she did put Giffords in her cross hairs as a target that her supporters needed to take out. (WINK)

Jesse Kelly, Giffords opponent in this past election didn’t pull the trigger. However he did have his supporters taking aim and shooting at pictures of her to help them practice taking her out. Kelly said Saturday that you can’t make any possible connection between the two things. Nope can’t find any connection at all between you wanting people to practice shooting at the Congresswoman to take her out and someone shooting her not in practice. Nah, no way at all. Give me a break. 

Is this the kind of Second Amendment remedy you were looking for Sharon Angle? The tea party candidate did lose the election to Giffords after all.

Isn’t a little revolution every now and then a good thing and we need to fight to take our country back. Michelle Bachman, that is what you wanted right?

The examples of the incitement and nurturing of the rhetoric by the politicians on the right as well as their supporters, that would lead to this are endless. Outside of her opponent literally having people practice shooting at her, the examples I give here are pretty anecdotal. They do prove a point though, hatred breeds violence and your followers will practice what you preach so you might want to tone it down a notch. This was stated by many over and over again during this past election cycle. To bad it took an event like this happening for the right to finally wake up and realize that maybe they might just be a smart idea.

Guess it seems to be working, Republicans have suspended the vote on their pointless vote on repealing that Job Killing Healthcare (that those evil, socialist, want to kill your grandma, gonna take your guns and religion Democrats brought upon you) Bill, that just the day before was too important to allow for any debate or amendments to. Guess its better late than never to decide to return sanity to the party.

So much for being the lame duck session of Congress. Despite constant Republican obstruction, whining and even some crying, things actually got done and even some Republicans got off their asses and did the job they were elected to do. In the past couple days Congress has passed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a new START treaty, as well as a bill providing benefits to first responders to 9/11. Not too shabby of a finish to this Congress even though we had to give the Republicans their tax cuts for the rich to bankrupt the future just to be able to get to these items in the first place. I guess the Pubes did “give in” to extending unemployment benefits so not everything was horrible with that one.

Unlike John McCain, I am very happy to see the repeal of DADT. I use McCain here because he reacted to the ruling stating “Today is a very sad day.” Really John, ending discrimination is a sad thing? Anyways this law has always has been the dumbest law to me, not just because it is wrong, but it was never the law the title implies. It never was a law of such a neutral stance, it was always a law of no matter what you are not allowed to serve if you are gay. The Don’t Tell part of the law tended to be very well followed to, it was the Don’t Ask part that the military just ignored. So with its repeal I am happy that we no longer have to dismiss highly qualified people just because they are gay.

On the START treaty I am hppy to see it done, but unlike the rest of the bills I felt this one was the one that was assured to pass in the lame duck session. Afterall every living former Secretary of State was for the new treaty. It was just a matter of time before the Pubes would end their faux outrage and end their obstruction on this one.

Then on the front of the 9/11 first responders bill it is nice to see that those who did their most on that day are finally able to be taken care of better for the damages done to them. Luckily a few Republicans disconnected from the collective on this one as well. I do find it funny that the party of 9/11 doesn’t give a shit about those who actually did the work that day, they only like the symbolism of the day itself to use as propaganda. But then again this is the party that prefers to get unpaid for tax cuts for the wealthy, while holding hostage the benefits to many unemployed in a tough economy to get their way, so nothing really should ever be a surprise for the party of fear propaganda and lies.

On other fronts, the Alaska Supreme Court has seemed to wrapped up the litigation on the Senate election of write-in winner and current Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. Joe Miller can now crawl back under the rock he came out from, and because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Sarah Palin has created an oddity in a Republican that openly rejects her as well as her opinions on things. I feel that is the one reason Murkowski suddenly became a vote in favor of the recent bills that passed, including DADT. I don’t for see her being much of a moderate Republican down the line still, but it is nice to see independent thought out of a Republican, even if it clearly is out of spite.

Ending my thoughts for this month it seems that possible presidential candidate and Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour feels that the Civil Rights era “Wasn’t that Bad.” and that the Citizens Council were good organizations. Now I don’t think Barbour is a racist for his comments like many have been stipulating, I merely (like I do about about many Republicans) think he is an idiot. Of course the civil rights era was not that bad, for him, he was white, had a good upbringing, etc. it is more of ignorance over what went on right around him than racism in my opinion here, but ignorance is no excuse for being an apologist to what actually happened in the past.

I hope everyone has a safe holiday season and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

With the holiday travel season upon us the right has found their latest obsession in attacking the TSA and newer regulations before boarding flights. Their new slogan is Don’t touch my junk. What the case is if you’ve been hiding in a cave the last week or so is that if you choose not to go through the full body imaging scan there will be an extensive full body pat down. Some think that the image equipment causes a risk to your health and that is why they elect not to go through that process. However like on most issues they are dead wrong. The health risk to radiation from the process amounts to the amount you would have from a few minutes of flying. So if it really was a health issue for you, you might as well not even get on the plane at all.

However on one note I will agree with their side that the extensive pat down is not required at all. It has been 15 years since I have flown with them, but El Al Airlines has always had nice security measures for pre flight boarding and maybe should for other airlines. Basically you’d have to show up way early before your flight and then go through an extensive interview process with their security and check out your luggage you are carrying on. If they think something is questionable about your answers, your reaction to the question, your demeanor, something in your luggage, whatever it may be you are not allowed on your flight. Then again this would just bring up the right with saying their time is being wasted by these new invasive efforts into their privacy, but who exactly are they going to be blaming when lack of regulation fails. Who they always blame for everything under the sun, Obama.

So on this busiest of travel days the teabaggers have taken to the airports in protest of this. The image scanners are a “health concern” and also show too much and can get into wrong hands. I have already discussed the former, but on the latter they are wrong as well. The equipment does not have a save feature to keep your body image on file after the next person has gone through the line or the equipment is turned off.

So remember this holiday season when your travel is delayed some, blame the proper people. The nutcases who are protesting this whole issue instead of actually offering any sort of solution. Then again they probably won’t listen so it will probably fall on deaf ears.

Speaking of nutcases, up in Alaska defeated Republican candidate for Senate Joe Miller continues to be a sore loser and is pissing and moaning and continues to bring up lawsuits blocking the landmark write-in win by fellow Republication and current Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski … His new lawsuit is that he thinks handwriting looks similar on some ballots so they must all be cast out. This goes with his other argument he has made in suit that misspelled ballots should not be counted because his supporters lead a campaign to have protest votes. So in his mind Murkowski should have received no votes at all instead of the comfortable victory she had as a write in candidate over his stupid arse. I am guessing his next step will be to have his security detail “arrest” Murkowski. So the long story short if the legal wranglings by the teabaggers in Alaska are allowed to continue Alaska will be without a Senator for the time it takes to get things sorted out. Then again I will shed no tears as it just means there is one less Republican vote in the Senate for a while, even though it will have no ramifications on the amount of votes needed to get anything done.

Other ramblings I have for this month are on the Bush tax cuts and healthcare reform. It is quite funny that the group of people who ran on the issue of the average Americans not creating debt and repealing socialist healthcare want to extend the Bush tax cuts to millionaires, add considerably to the debt and when they show up at orientation in Congress want to know where their government run healthcare is.

Well that is all I’ve got for this month. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving holiday and remember there is no need to have your junk touched this holiday – unless you really want to that is.

Don’t all teenage dates end on top of satanic altars? I guess the new darling of the Tea Party and Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell would like everyone to believe that. The comment comes from a past clip of one of her many appearances on the show Politically Incorrect that was brought to light once again by its host Bill Maher on his new show Real Time (see the clip as part of her Greatest Hits on Youtube). The clip has her stating that she once dabbled in witchcraft and one of her first dates ended up on a satanic alter with blood dripping from it. I guess her new campaign slogan should be YES WICCAN!!!

Now while like most things O’Donnell says or has said, the clip is amusing but this one in particular won’t have much of a factor on her losing the Senate race in Delaware. That’s because her tea party crowd just loves them story of redemption. Of how she could overcome her ways of witchcraft and being at the altars of the evil Obama and come to a better life today of living of others campaign contributions.

This is the real thing about the Tea Party’s new love interest. It is truly amazing to me how a crowd so hell-bent on how government should be not allowed to waste their money, yet they have no qualms about letting their political prostitute O’Donnell use their money any way she desires. Yes I called O’Donnell a political prostitute, that is what she is. She does not have a job and lives off money given to her for running for political office. So I hope the tea party loves their position as the political Johns right now.

This past Sunday O’Donnell was to appear on a couple of the Sunday news shows, but quickly cancelled those appearances after Maher released his clip adn promise that he hd many more to release. Granted she said that she was overworked and needed to relax and get away for the weekend. We have to believe her right? After all, she did once say that she would not have even lied to Hitler to save Anne Frank. Unfortunately teabaggers she isn’t that honest either. She lies as much as Sister Sarah, just she is not as crafty about it. She quickly went into redirections of her motive throughout the weekend ending up with she overbooked events and Delaware events and voters should be the focus. Good for her, if that was the actual motive, but it was not as Delaware voters are her main concern.

I think the last stat I saw on the issue was that over 80% of O’Donnell’s contributions this cycle were from outside of Delaware. So if Delaware needs to be the focus maybe she should return some of that money she was so adamantly trying to get at just last week. On Hannity last night O’Donnell professed she will do no more national interviews because Delaware needed to be the focus. However while it would be the good reason, it is not her real reason, she just doesn’t want to have any more missteps on her way to losing the Senate race than she will have anyways from her own past comments.

I say on her way to losing the race because that IS going to be the endgame of this race in my opinion. A seat that was once thought to go to the dark side is now a pretty safe seat to hold. Even polls so right biased seem to think so. The Fox News battleground poll had the Democrat Chris Coons up 54% to 39% over O’Donnell. On an amusing note though in the same polling if Mike Castle would be the nominee he would be trouncing Coons 48% to 33%. Now since I usually don’t believe anything that comes from Faux News alone, another usually right biased poll Rasmussen has Coons up 53% to 42%. So way to stick it to the establishment teabaggers, by making an obvious pickup into a safe seat for the opposition instead.

Now the only poll that matters is the one on election day, but the result will be no different than the pst two times she has run before, especially now that everyone is vividly aware o how much of a nut she is. So I sit here waiting with bated breath at the next piece news to come out from O’Donnell whether a current misstep or a past one. The are all amusing to me. Until that time though I will protect myself from the invasion of mice-human hybrids and continue to be master of my own domain.

[Editor’s note: The Angry Squirrel’s column was originally scheduled for this weekend.  However, he has already been forced the rewrite once because of the fluid nature of this situation, so his article is running today to ensure the timeliness of his writing.  Fiction Friday will occur on Sunday this week.  A new recurring character will be introduced.]

It’s times like these that I always have to remind myself of the five percent doctrine – that no matter what five percent of the population will always be crazy and it is an untreatable disease. Saturday is the ninth anniversary of the attacks on September 11th and dubbed by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center as International Burn The Koran Day. After much time publicizing the event and recent media attention and backlash from many, the wacko Jones decided to back off and cancel his event. Obviously he was looking for a graceful exit and thanks to figures like the former half term Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin earlier in the day helping him link in his mind a correlation between the community center to be built not even within view of ground zero and his little stunt, he found that out in stating he would was cancelling the event because they had promised to move the center if he cancelled his burning of the Qur’an. Granted, now once the truth be told he had no such agreement, he now is back to praying about the event and it is suspended until he can sort things out.

The gist of it to me seems that the Iman in Florida got him a meeting with the people in NYC about the center and possibly moving it, and he took that to mean they were going to move it, or more likely the case he went ahead and used that as the reason for him to have a further backtrack towards doing the event again since the truth would come out immediately after his announcement. Obviously in my opinion he was like a deer caught in headlights now with all the pressure against him and wanted his way out.

Then again if there was really a ploy from the Iman in Florida and the parties in NYC to get him to cancel it by promising him what he wanted –  which I don’t believe to be the case – I really could not blame them one bit. After all you’ll tell the guy with the gun pointed at you what you think he wants to hear so maybe he’ll lay down his gun and spare you. So even if it was all a ploy on their part, who cares.

But have no fear Pastor Jones, your movement has truly gone national at least – as many supporters of his cause on Facebook and many others across the country have vowed to burn the holy book of the Islamic faith on Saturday. And best of all for Jones an even nuttier Pastor who has a small congregation of hate preaching individuals is taking up the cause, and luckily for Jones and unluckily or the country as a whole these guys don’t know how to back down off of anything.

The Reverend Fred Phelps and his merry band of misfits are taking up the cause now. Here are some excerpts from interviews this evening from the Church’s usual spokesperson, Phelps’ daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper. In talking about Jones cancelling his event she said, “The false prophet Terry Jones caved – like all false prophets do, and like we told you he would.” She the continues to talk about how everything as usual for them will everyone else’s fault and will not be their own, “While you sissy brats browbeat and jockey with the false prophet Terry Jones–pretending like the lives of those soldiers are your political and personal pawns–we will tell you the truth. The blood of the dead soldiers is dripping off the hands of General Petraeus. The blaspheming talking heads (politicians, talk show hosts, false prophets, arrogant Pentagon-perverts) of this nation of proud sinners have put the bulls-eye of God on the backs of these soldiers. Burning the Quran could not possibly imperil your soldiers any more than you have.” Then she goes on about Muslims as well in the interview stating, “It’s time to talk to the false religious systems of the world–we’ll start with the perverted Muslims and their pedophile prophet Muhammad! We will burn your Quran on 9/11/10. To tell the world that the Muslims are the servants of God — and they will bring the final affliction to Israel and the Jews according to the promises of God.”

Now I grew up in Topeka and am quite familiar with Phelps and his clan well before they became an international sensation. They really don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of them and hate everyone under the sun that doesn’t belong to their church. They won’t back down like Jones has seemed to have done so we as a nation and mainly our soldiers abroad will have to pay the consequence for the actions. The blood will be on the radical Christians hands this time around for inciting a worldwide riot of response from their actions.

Man I wonder why whenever I heard Phelps and Jones on the news today I kept having the voice of Bobby Boucher’s mother from the movie The Waterboy going over and over in my head saying “Islam is the Devil.”

Like I said though it will not just be the Phelps’ taking up Jones’ cause now and he may choose to continue to do so himself as well with his original event. Although major media outlets have vowed not to cover images of the actual events that are to take place, it is the modern age of “journalism” and the videos will be up and they’ll spread like wildfire and cause the radicals on the other side to have many International Burn and American days.

That last point is what my main focus of this column this month was going to be (until the recent changes in the event changed how I was going to write this), which is why should outsiders not view Americans or Christians by their worst elements, when Americans and Christians want to judge Muslims by their worst elements.

The summer is getting into full force of triple digit temps and the political landscape is soon to start to boil over once again as elections start to near. However, this month I really couldn’t find a topic that has not been rehashed over and over by now to draw my interest to encompass a whole article so instead this month is kind of a hodge podge of different things.

Over the past few weeks on Facebook I had noticed one of the little ads that op up for something called the Coffee Party. At first I thought it was just some parody, but in fact it is an actual movement trying to get underway to counter the Tea Party movement. They can be found at http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/.

Heck they even have their own pseudo-political party thing already going on with their own convention to be held in September. I wish them all the luck as I fully support their mission, but I think it will never pick up the steam of the Tea party as hate is always an easier message to draw the masses to than cooperation. Be a “real” American, choose coffee over tea.

Speaking of the Tea Party, the congresswoman from my district and Tea Party caucus member Lynn Jenkins (R-KS 2nd) faces a “challenge” from her right in State Senator Dennis Pyle. Pyle’s main assertion is that Jenkins is a moderate and that element of the Republican Party is at fault for their demise.

The assertion that Jenkins is a moderate would have been true prior to her election in 2008, but there is nothing moderate about the tea party movement and those who have to follow their political game. Jenkins is one of only three women in the newly minted House Tea Party Caucus. So I don’t see much of a threat to her in the primary, but it is funny how the Tea Party always feels the need to prove they are more nuts than the other. Sadly the primary challenge will be the only real challenge for Jenkins in what usually is a competitive district, allowing Jenkins to continue her search for “a great white hope” to beat Obama in 2012 from inside the beltway and not send her packing home.

More amusing is that her reelection will make her the senior house member from Kansas as the two other Republicans are in the state’s most heated political show in another “I am more Tea Party than you!” battle between Congressmen Todd Tihart and Jim Moran. The lone Democrat from Kansas, Dennis Moore, a house member since 1990, is not seeking reelection and his wife is running instead.

An amusing side note is that tea partier Tihart’s 4th disrict seat has a decent chance of going to the Democrat this year and probably to the chagrin of the tea partiers it is the minority candidate Raj Goyle that has the best shot.

Shifting just to the west of Kansas, Colorado is getting ready once again to have a “personhood” amendment on the ballot this year. That is not the interesting thing though, it’s been something they have been doing on the ballot for a while now. However this time they have brought in Alan Keyes to do ads portraying a slave and correlating the relationship of fetuses and abortion in this country to slavery and seeking to be free.

It’s another laughable thing from the right, although it is better to take note these days as the nutjob right is more the mainstream right than the fringe. However the question I pose to them is if you are going to start declaring personhood begins at conception then that is where citizenship would also begin, right? So I guess we’ll have to start determining exactly where conception took place and if you don’t have proper documentation you are not a citizen?

And to conclude this month’s post it appears that U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton will be the next in line of “activist judges” to be slammed by the right for going against the right’s political choice in her blocking of the provisions of Arizona SB1070 from going into effect for now. Too bad activism from the bench only counts when it is going against the grain of “conservative” thought and not to everything in general – for example the Citizens United ruling in the Supreme Court. Anyways that is all I have for this month. That’s all I have for this month on the 100th day of the gulf oil spill and until next time keep looking for those bad nuts out there. [Editor’s note: today is the 101st day of the oil spill, but The Angry Squirrel submitted the article yesterday.]

I hate to spend a second month in a row talking about “immigration reform” in Arizona, but it is still a hot topic.  The currently passed bill is not what I am going to talk about today. On the near horizon Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the man behind SB 1070 sometimes referreed to as “Mr. Ethnic Cleansing” is ready to unleash a fury of new proposals, many of which he has tried before that thankfully failed, but in the current climate that is the patients running the asylum of Arizona state politics they frighteningly will be likely to pass. One proposal will be to only allow Americans to marry Americans. Seeing as Pearce hates legal immigration just as much as he hates illegal immigrants I am supposing he means that only naturally born citizens will be allowed to marry natural born citizens. But even if it is just a restriction on allowing people not to marry someone who is a citizen of another country it is insane and unconstitutional. What is next Mr. Pearce? No race mixing? I guess Rand Paul may not be the only one wanting to revisit the Civil Rights Act after all.

Another proposal Pearce has already being debated titled Arizona SB 1097 that in general would require all schools in Arizona to count students who are in the country illegally or whose parents are in the country illegally. After doing so the school district would have to compile a report of the cost to taxpayers for their enrollment, expel the student and turn them and their families over to the proper officials. School districts that refuse to comply under this statue if it gets passed, then the state would be forced to withhold ALL funding the school district receives. I guess Pearce is willing to make sure every student suffers on his quest to rid Arizona of those pesky foreigners.

Education, or lack thereof in Pearce’s case, leads me to the next item that he could be bringing back on the agenda. In the past Pearce had proposed a law that would require all Arizona schools, K-12 and universities to disallow groups that as any part deal with ones ethnicity or race to be a member. Such as Black Business Leaders of Tomorrow or Native Americans United. The proposal Pearce says is to make sure that students are not indoctrinated by any anti- American teachings. What a crock of shit. From the company he keeps, American values for Pearce are expressed only by those with white skin. So I am guessing those types or groups would be excluded from any law made on this.

The mother of them all legislation Pearce is ready to bring to onslaught again is one that will be in direct conflict with the 14th amendment. This proposal would be to bar hospitals from issuing birth certificates to the children of illegal immigrants or as Pearce and his crowd refer to them as “Anchor Babies”. Pierce also takes things a step further stripping the citizenship granted in the past through being born to an illegal immigrant “If we are going to have an effect on the anchor baby racket, we need to target the mother” Pierce said. “Call it sexist, but that’s the way nature made it. Men don’t drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do.” However this type of law would be immediately stomped because it is clear as day unconstitutional.

The 14th amendment states, “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 that, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”

You can say what you want about illegal immigrants having children and them being citizens, but until there actually is a change to it, there it is in plain black and white text unconstitutional. As far as making it retroactive is downright wrong as well as you create a whole secondary class of citizens that would be in the US illegally now and have no country they belong to. However I fully expect Sith Lord, I mean Senator John McCain, to fully back this legislation as the next cure all pill for immigration reform as he did with SB 1070 just to save his political life. But needless to say, thanks to the birthers, the tea party and Mr. Pearce and his long time supporters, SB 1070 is not the last thing you are going to be hearing out of Arizona for the foreseeable future. Mr. Pearce you are truly an American Idiot, if I can call you that of course as I have not seen your papers. May I have your papers please Mr. Pearce?

Earlier this week the Arizona Senate took a huge step back when it decided to pass a new tough immigration bill 17-11 along mainly party lines (Republican for, Democrat against). The bill make it illegal for illegal immigrants to not have paperwork on them proving they are in the country legally as well as requiring law enforcement to question the legal status of an individuals.

Now the first part of the law is kind of redundant and idiotic. An illegal immigrant is not going to have any proof they are in the county legally so making it a crime for them not to have the papers is kind of moronic – similar to the laws that make failure to pay taxes on illegal drugs a crime when there is no mechanism in place to pay the taxes.

The second part of the legislation is the more controversial and the part I will spend my time discussing here. Basically under the legislation, if and more than likely when the Governor of the state signs the bill into law, if you can’t prove you are a citizen on the spot, then you are just gonna have to go to jail while they sort it out. The Governor faces a primary challenge, so the logical thought is that if she does veto this she will kiss her political career in Arizona goodbye. Heck even John McCain who is trying to out teabag the teabaggers in Arizona to save his political career has come out in support of the legislation calling it a needed and useful tool for law enforcement in the state. A complete 180 from his recent as of the 2008 Presidential race on immigration reform.

Anyway, outside of a Social Security card and a Drivers License, I don’t know what I myself would have on me while driving at any given time. So I am guessing I should make sure to carry plenty of extra documentation on me next time I go to Arizona. Then again I am not the main objective of the law (which will focus on non-white people, primarily Hispanic individuals, legal or illegal) so I wouldn’t probably face much of a hassle, but then again that is what is wrong with the law in general. It requires law enforcement to question the legal status of everyone, but in reality the mood of the law as well as the probable enforcement is for one particular group of individuals.

Then again, what exactly will prove the legal status of someone on the spot, I said I wouldn’t probably expect someone to have more than their License and Social Security card on them, so that isn’t gonna be enough more than likely as I have said. Birth Certificate? I don’t carry mine around or really know anyone who does on a regular basis. Then again this is Arizona – where the legislature doesn’t believe in the accuracy of the President’s birth certificate. Why would I expect them to believe in the authenticity of mine? Immigration papers? A person whose family has been here for generations is not gonna have anything of the sort. Green Card? Once again that’s only gonna be useful if I were not a citizen but here legally. Student visa? same story as above.

You get the point? It is gonna be near impossible for someone to actually prove to the officer who already probably has prejudice against you that you are a legal citizen, so your time and civil rights are going to be trampled upon and racism rules the day.

I get that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be solved, not only in Arizona but around the country as a whole. However blatant racism is not the way to “reform” the issue. I am guessing the next legislation they are going to propose is shoot first and prove innocence or guilt later, or maybe to post armed militia at the borders ready to shoot to kill those crossing the border.  Oh wait, it is Arizona they already do that, don’t they?

And now for the Bad Nuts of the Month (other than the Arizona Senate)

As always in no particular order, because a bad nut is a bad nut….

Bad Nut No. 1: Jacksonville, FL City Councilman Clay Yarborough

Yarborough’s questioning of prospective Human Rights Board members suggested that he was seeking members who would discriminate against gays and Muslims.  In later interviews, he also said that gays and Muslims should not be able to elected office – only Christians should be allowed to hold office. Just another dumb small-minded bigot, but on the deeper note of his bias and ignorance, I am guessing he means only people with a similar view of Christianity as him should hold office.

Bad Nut No. 2: Dr. Gregory Thompson, former Humansville, Missouri School Superintendent

In a recent opinion piece the former Public School official says amongst many other moronic notions and “facts” that you will go to hell if you don’t take your kids out of public schools.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/1127513671.html

Bad Nut No. 3: Thomas Mitchell, Editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Had an editorial piece on it being time to repeal the 19th amendment, because “men are consistent and women are fickle and biased.” Full opinion piece from him is here.

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell/Time_to_repeal_the_19th_Amendment.html