Arizona has been in a state of devolution since Governor Jan Brewer, her right-hand man State Senate President Russell Pearce, and their lobbyist cronies took two years ago.

You know the details– over $1 billion in debit with no plans to fix it; sacrificing K-12 and higher education to fund private prisons; ducking out of Medicaid and defunding transplants to fund lower corporate taxes; pandering to gun nuts (yes, anyone who wants looser gun laws in AZ is nuts) to hold onto her right-wing base while ignoring the facts that our gun laws are out-of-control; and diddling with side issues– anchor babies, two-tiered birth certificates, Obama’s birth certificate, guns on college campuses, and shooting varmints– rather than working on legislation to put Arizonans back to work. Need I go on? (Seriously, we should have would-be lawmakers take an IQ test.)

How did we get here? Or, more importantly, how did Russell Pearce– Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio crony, former Chief Deputy under Sheriff Joe, and  former head of Arizona’s Department of Motor Vehicles (who was fired for tampering with records)– get to be the most powerful man in Arizona?

The old fashioned way– money.

For more background on Pearce and the rich “White Panthers” behind his rise to power, check out this story.
Arizona’s New White Panther Party: Money & (Anchor) Baby Hate

And after you’re thoroughly disgusted, check out the Pearce recall effort launched yesterday. If you want to volunteer to collect signatures or donate to the effort sponsored by Citizens for a Better Arizona, check out their RecallPearce website.

Last week the news carried several stories about the antics of Arizona’s wacky Legislature at work. What I found interesting was that in the bowels of the Arizona Daily Star, there were related stories that could have helped our Legislators in their deliberations over anchor babies,  drug smuggling, birth certificates, and gun controll– if they read the newspaper.

All of these examples are from the January 28 Star.

As Arizona’s anchor baby law takes shape, Indiana’s is struck down.

Bills would bar citizenship to illegal immigrants’ kids (page 1)

Federal ruling in Ind. favors entrants’ kids (pageA15)

Also, from the January 28 Star, Ranchers want more high-tech border surveillance, more troupes, and more guns– while Mexicans lob pot over the fence with a catapult and build tunnels. I think the Mexicans have been watching The Tudors mini-series. Henry VIII won one of his last great great battles– against a walled city– with catapults and tunnels.

Border holes must be plugged, Ariz. ranchers tell lawmakers (page 4)

Smugglers fly pot over border with catapult (page 1)

Arizona Legislators want Obama’s birth certifice once and for all. Hawaiian Legislators are now selling copies for $100 each.

Arizona lawmakers: Candidates, including Obama, must prove US birth

HI bill would give anyone Obama birth info for fee (page A17)

From the January 30 Star…
Businessmen are worried about Arizona’s image– which may be shifting from that of a sunshine state with low corporate taxes to a lawless state where armed crazy people wander the streets (ya think?)– and Girl Scouts are afraid they’ll be shot while selling cookies in front of grocery stores. In the meantime, Tucson State Senator Frank Antenori wants to further loosen gun laws and allow people to wander the streets at night “hunting varmints.”

Shooting aftermath worries business (page 1)

Booth sales frighten some Girl Scouts after shooting (page B1)

Antenori: OK night hunting of ‘varmints’ (page B1)

Russell Pearce– get your cronies to work on the state’s real problems and stop diddling around with these side issues.

Friday afternoon, Americans Against Immigration Amnesty (AAIA– a right-wing group from Utah) and the Pima County Tea Party Patriots held a Dump Dupnik Rally in front of the Sheriff’s Office.

Not to be outdone, supporters of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik held a counter rally at the same location.

Depending upon which Arizona Daily Star article you read, either 200 or 350 people attended the rallies. (My guesstimate is about 200.) The group was pretty much evenly split between supporters and detractors of the sheriff.

Although the Star continues to report that the Dupnik recall effort is based his speech against hatred and vitriol at the press conference following the shooting of  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, I contend that it is all about his anti-SB1070 stance and that his heartfelt words about hatred in America are just an excuse for action. The primary backer of the recall effort is AAIA, the brainchild of a right-wing talk radio host in Utah, is an anti-illegal immigrant/pro-SB1070 group. Locally, the Pima County Tea Party Patriots and right-wing talk radio host Jon Justice– also SB1070 aficionados– are trying to fan the recall flames. If yesterday’s rally was any indication, Dupnik has plenty of supporters in Tucson.

There was no lack of opinions or creative signage at the dueling rallies. For a taste of the events, check out the video below.

After the Tucson massacre and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords early this month, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik called on the nation to do some soul-searching and blamed hateful, vitriolic speech for creating an atmosphere of hate in this country. Dupnik’s honesty in the face of tragedy won him hundreds– if not thousands– of supporters and enemies and catapulted him to the national stage with interviews on several television networks.

Now, a right-wing, anti-immigrant group– Americans Against Immigration Amnesty (AAIA)– from Utah has started a recall effort against Dupnik. Here is their vitriol against Dupnik from AAIA website. Compare AAIA’s totally inaccurate description of Dupnik’s comments below with the actual video footage above.

“Beginning the day of the horrific events in Tucson, Arizona that claimed the lives of 6 and injured so many others, we were deluged with emails and phone calls from members and non-members in Arizona, as well as across the United States concerning the actions of Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik.  Our members and Americans in general were bewildered by the Sheriff’s shameless political grandstanding and irresponsible comments within hours of this tragedy.  As one member of AAIA said, ‘the Sheriff has forever sullied his office, uniform and badge’.

In light of the requests from our members and Americans across the nation, we have completed our research, conferred with the appropriate legal experts and have concluded that the recall of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupinik is the appropriate course on behalf of the citizens of Pima County.  We will therefore proceed with such a recall effort and are preparing the Petitions to be forwarded to Pima County registered voters to begin gathering the required signatures.  Our goal will be to gather 110,000 signatures in the coming weeks and this matter will promptly proceed to a recall election.”– Dan Baltes, Executive Director, Americans Against Immigration Amnesty

Americans Against Immigration Amnesty is a section 527 political organization with members in 47 states.

Dupnik’s speech is sad and soulful– not “shameless political grandstanding,” as AAIA describes it. Who is helping to promote AAIA’s efforts? FOX News (we already know what they think of Tucson), the Pima County Tea Party Patriots, and local right-wing shock jock Jon Justice.

Why are AAIA, FOX, the Tea Party Patriots, and Justice really after Dupnik? It has absolutely nothing to do with his comments after the Tucson massacre. These groups are targeting him because he was one of the few elected officials in Arizona who took a firm stand against SB1070– Arizona’s strict anti-immigrant legislation– last year. In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Dupnik didn’t mince words about SB1070

I have argued from the moment that this bill was signed that it is unnecessary, that it is a travesty, and most significantly, that it is unconstitutional.

Pima County, where I am sheriff, shares 123 miles of border with Mexico. Patrolling this area for illegal immigrants is like trying to keep water from passing through a sieve.

The pro-SB1070 Pima County Tea Party Patriots (not to be confused with the Tucson Tea Party) is planning a Dump Dupnik rally for this coming Friday. There are rumblings of a counter-protest by Dupnik supporters– which locally probably outnumber his detractors. The Pima County Democratic Party is suggesting donating blood to the Red Cross as a peaceful protest to the Tea Party.

The bottomline is: the right-wing is trying to suppress freedom of speech, silence Dupnik, and intimidate politicians from speaking from their hearts. We can’t let them get away with that. I’ll let you decide what to do about it.

UPDATE: Who said it was OK for the Utah group to recall our sheriff? Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall. Doesn’t Barbara like Clarence?

I guess State Senator Russell Pearce had his fingers crossed behind his back when he promised to tackle Arizona’s multi-billion-dollar, red-ink budget, evolving economic collapse, and unemployment problems before mounting his white steed, brandishing his gleaming sword, and valiantly attacking birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

You’ll note in the story below that, as with SB1070, Pearce is letting an out-of-state group write the legislation for him.

Here is the scoop from Strike Everything, the Arizona Capitol Times reporters’ blog.

State Senator Russell Pearce

Pearce, allies will ring in the New Year with birthright citizenship bill
The national spotlight that lit up Arizona when lawmakers passed SB 1070 will be back sooner than some anticipated.

Sen. Russell Pearce and numerous out-of-state allies plan to unveil his birthright citizenship bill during the first week of January in Washington, D.C. The model legislation will serve as a template for lawmakers in 14 states, including Arizona, who hope to force a U.S. Supreme Court case that would challenge the longstanding interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens.

Daryl Metcalfe, a state representative in Pennsylvania who is pushing the birthright citizenship issue in his legislature, said the model legislation will give anti-illegal immigration lawmakers a starting point for the coming war against birthright citizenship and show unity among the members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, as the group is known.

“First we have to have the language formulated,” said Metcalfe, a Republican from Cranberry Township, Penn. “Then you have the process of rolling that out to various legislators across the country that are interested in working on the rollout project and then bringing a number of us together … to actually announce the final working product, the final language that’s come out of our efforts.”

The high-profile rollout is likely to rile lawmakers and members of the business community who wanted birthright citizenship to take a back seat during the 2011 session, at least until the Legislature passes a budget and a jobs bill. Some lawmakers claimed Pearce pledged to put birthright citizenship on hiatus until those priorities were out of the way, though Pearce disputes the claims.

Pearce did not return phone calls seeking comment. But his stalwart ally in the House, Rep. John Kavanagh, said the unveiling won’t distract from the more immediate tasks of balancing the budget and putting the economy back on track.

“We’ll file the bill early. My understanding is we want to put the budget and the jobs bill to bed before we move on to this. But it will be this session,” Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, said the rollout will get some attention, but he doesn’t expect it to last long.

“I guess you can get a day (of coverage), but that’s hardly the 1070 tsunami,” he said.

Russell Pearce is a grandstanding xenophobe who is basking in the limelight of SB1070 and seeking to extend his 15 minutes of fame. His latest anti-immigrant legislation on his one-man crusade to white-wash the country is to “clarify” the 14th Amendment and hopefully make anchor babies illegal once and for all. Here is the text that Pearce and other right-wing extremists want clarification on:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

Ah, Mr. Pearce, what nationality are you? I don’t think “Pearce” is a Native American name. I believe that someone in your family tree was an anchor baby (a child born in American of immigrant parents).

My Grandpa William Sprenger (at left with Grandma) was born in Germany. He came to the US as an infant in 1881 with Great Grandma Katrina and his older brother Conrad. (Great Grandpa Conrad was already working in Northern Ohio.) Grandpa married Grandma, who was born in the US,  in 1920. Between them, they had 5 anchor babies, including my Mom. When he started public school, my Uncle Raymond couldn’t speak English. He benefited from the FIRST English as a Second Language class in the US, which was created for children of German immigrants in Ohio. (Of course, thanks to people like you, Mr. Pearce, who want to keep immigrants down, that course was eventually eliminated. Also, thanks to people like you, German– my family’s native language– was not allowed to be taught in my school when I was growing up.)

All of the Sprengers were hard-working people; Grandpa was a blacksmith in the sandstone quarries of Northern Ohio for 60 years. Millions of Americans can recite this same story. America is populated by immigrants and their anchor babies.

Pearce now wants to stop this from happening in the future. Here is a excerpt from today’s Arizona Daily Star:

[Pearce] said one place Arizona can make its views heard would be to deny state-issued birth certificates – the necessary precursor of proof of citizenship – to children of those not in the country legally.

Lydia Guzman, president of Somos America, an immigrants rights group, said any such measure will wind up in court. “Expect plenty of lawsuits. Expect plenty of legal fees in this,” she said. “This is nothing but a political ploy for political posturing.”

Pearce said he’s not concerned. “We’ll be sued on no matter what you do by the left, who continue to refuse to accept the laws of this land or the rights of lawful, legal citizens of this country,” he said. In fact, Pearce said a legal challenge is exactly what he wants.

He said courts that have ruled in the past that citizenship can be a matter of the geography of birth have gotten it wrong. He said he believes a new lawsuit challenging an Arizona law on citizenship will have a different result.

“With this Supreme Court, we’ll win that battle,” he said, saying that’s why those who want citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants want to kill the legislation before it ever gets on the books. “They know I have a 5-4 states’ rights court.”

Pearce said he also is weighing whether to require proof of legal presence in this country before a child can be enrolled in public schools at state expense. That, too, is a direct challenge to a different Supreme Court ruling that makes such a requirement illegal.

He said lawmakers in 13 states unveiled their own plans on Tuesday to pursue legislation.

Ironically, Pearce’s campaign website quotes the Declaration of Independence right at the top, “All Men Are Created Equal. (Oh, yes, surprise, surprise, he’s running for re-election in the most lily white part of our state– Mesa.) If you want to be quintessentially disgusted by his xenophobia, check out the Birthright and 14th Amendment tabs. Pearce is like the other “strict Constitutionalists” who love to quote it when they agree with it (2nd Amendment) but want to change it when they disagree.

Mr. Pearce, what country would you be living in if this law had been created in the early 20th century? Maybe my Pilgrim ancestors (the Powers), who came here in 1637,  shouldn’t have let you in. Or maybe the Native Americans shouldn’t have let any of us in.

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There are a myriad of reasons why people either support or denounce SB1070, Arizona’s harsh anti-illegal immigration bill.

Pro: “America’s under attack! The brown people are coming to take our jobs! Stop the border-crossing terrorists and drug dealers.”

Con: “This is a racist policy– and an unfunded mandate– that could foster racial profiling, discrimination and wrongful imprisonment.”

On a recent Rachel Maddow Show, she offers some interesting facts regarding Governor Jan Brewer’s and Arizona State Senator Russel Pearce’s steadfast support for anti-illegal immigration legislation.

Both Brewer and Pearce have strong ties to the private prison industry– particularly Corrections Corporation of America, the corporation that holds the contract to hold federal prisoners (including suspected illegal aliens.)

Although Brewer has 2 close aids who have worked with and/or lobbied for the private prison industry, Pearce has even closer ties. Private prison corporations have donated the maximum amount to his campaigns, according to Maddow’s research. To repay them, he sponsored legislation to transfer Arizona’s entire prison system to private corporations and was the father of SB1070, which would increase prison populations dramatically.

Frankly, they’re both opportunistic sleezeballs.

>Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a media whore.

The big news out of Maricopa County yesterday was that (reportedly) a Mexican drug cartel has put a $1 million reward on Arpaio’s head.

So, what else is new?

Arpaio has built his nationwide reputation as the toughest sheriff in the US on the backs of inmates and immigrants. I suspect there has been a price on his head for many years– thanks to his notoriously poor treatment for inmates and his immigrant sweeps in Phoenix, as well as in the deserts around it.

CNN and other major news channels are carrying the story ab out Arpaio’s text message threat today. I found a link to the text message image on theNoisy Room blog.

Right off the bat, I’m suspicious of this text message. Do drug dealers have particularly bad spelling skills? Here is an excerpt:

“Miyon d dolares por la k?besa d arpayo i dies mil dls por kualkier amerikano …”

I can’t even count the numbers of spelling errors in this message fragment. I can understand that Mexican drug dealers may not be able to spell English words very well, but this text looks like really poor Spanglish. I can see spelling a few words wrong to make the message harder to trace, but, personally, I think this looks like a hoax.

Xenophobia will continue to re-surface in our [state] unless and until government finds long-term solutions to this very serious problem which seems to be a result of some of the poor, the desperate and the unemployed taking matters of government into their own hands.

Given the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping Arizona and the US this quote could have been uttered by a local politician or activist. In actuality, this is a statement by African Christian Democratic Party Gauteng leader Lydia Meshoe as quoted in today’s Times Live from Johannesburg, South Africa. The online newspaper goes on to say, “Sixteen people, mostly foreign nationals, were attacked at Kya Sands informal settlement north of Johannesburg in the past few days.”

Hmmm… this is not unlike actions of the neo-Nazis vigilantes patrolling Pinal County, is it? (OK, they haven’t shot anyone that we know of, but they’re armed and ready.) Why are we as a country sliding backward from racial equality and tolerance for “the other”?

I blame extremist politicians and media personalities who twist the facts.. and sometimes just plain lie (1, 2). I’m not going into how irresponsible and destructive Faux News celebrities like Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly are but instead will focus on Arizona politicians’ lies and the related facts.

Arizona’s Republican politicians– particularly those running for office– have been fanning the flames of xenophobia to further their political careers. Unelected Republican Governor Jan Brewer, septuagenarian Senator John McCain and his senatorial sidekick Joh Kyl, and Arizona Legislator Russel “Father of SB1070″ Pearce are four politicians who obviously do not employ fact-checkers.

A few weeks ago, Brewer made headlines when she accused most border crossers of being drug dealers and talked about beheadings in the desert. (For a video, try this link.) Presented with the facts, she tried to mumble her way out of it. Although McCain flip-flops on multiple issues with impunity, recently he and Kyl have been beating the border enforcement and fear drums, along with Right-Wing Anchor Baby Pearce, who has no need for facts in his rhetoric.

So where is the truth? In yesterday’s part 1 on The Rest of the Story, I quoted several polls that show most Americans favor comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship. Today, I’ll offer some statistics to debunk the lies being told by politicians who hope to capitalize on your fear.

40 people have died in the desert since July 1, 2010. Pima County’s Medical Examiner is quoted as saying, this could be “the deadliest month of all time.” These people are not ranchers or drug dealers; they are undocumented border crossers– los desconocidos– the unknown dead who come to the US everyday for work and a new life. According to the No More Deaths website, 153 have died in the desert since October 1, 2009.

Ironically, although more people are dying in the desert this year, fewer people are crossing the border illegally. According to the Arizona Daily Star, “Apprehensions in the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector have decreased each of the past five years; remittances to Mexico have declined and anecdotal reports show the economic recession has slowed illegal immigration. Yet more people are dying than ever.”

Brewer, McCain, and others have blamed undocumented border crossers for beheadings, home invasions, murders, and kidnappings. In actuality, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the violent crime rate in Arizona has been decreasing since it peaked in 1993. (It will be interesting to see if Arizona’s violent crime rate increases after the new “Constitutional” Carry law goes into effect next week.)

Again, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics, Tucson ranks 38th in crime– far behind heartland cities like Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Many US citizens are heavily armed, and people get shot everyday. As this blogger points out, when someone is shot in DC, no one calls for thousands of troupes to be deployed.

Unfortunately, in US politics, facts don’t matter much, and according to a research study reported by National Public Radio (NPR), people don’t generally change their minds– even when presented with facts. Sigh.

Repeatedly, news outlets have reported that a majority of US and Arizona citizens support SB1070. More often than not, those reports do not provide the question(s) asked to determine that finding. For example, an early Rasmussen poll asked if people thought it was acceptable for police to ask for identification during a traffic stop. Most people said, “Sure. That’s OK,” since it is already standard procedure to ask for a drivers’ license, registration, and proof of insurance. The problem with SB1070 is that it goes far beyond that (1,2).

An article from yesterday’s Daily Kos quotes several other surveys that are not getting the same media attention as the pro-SB1070 polls. For example:

Did you know that most US citizens favor comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship — particularly for undocumented workers who have been here for years? The Daily Kos quotes not one but four independent polls that revealed those results. Check the link for full details from these surveys conducted by the Associated Press, CNN, CBS/New York Times, and other reputable sources.

Even though the bill has not become law yet, SB1070 is already creating consequence beyond lawsuits, convention cancellations, protests, pizza boycotts, and the meteoric rise in Governor Jan Brewer’s popularity.

We are seeing an increase in aggressive law enforcement by law officers and armed vigilantes. Last week, on the same day that the SB1070 hearing started in the courts, Sheriff Joe Arpaio conducted a desert raid with 100 of his men in the outskirts of Maricopa County. (How much did that cost to round up 11 people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time with brown skin?) In addition, we have civilian neo-Nazis patrolling the desert in Pinal County.

Seriously, folks, do we really want to live in a police state where big white boys with dangerous toys fan out across the desert looking for exhausted border-crossers to shoot? Enough is enough. I don’t want to live in a heavily armed, extremist police state. This is what the Republican Legislature has given us with SB1070 and the new gun law SB1108. Both laws go into effect next week.