Why I support the AZ Law

Now the title will shock you but follow me here (I've been trying to post this but the formatting has been off):

A) The idiots talking about the Democrats violating the Constitution have gone quiet sharpish. Why? Because despite clearly violating citizens' 4th Amendment rights and steam rolling the Equal Protection Clause of our 14th Amendment those very same idiots who were screaming about the "Obama Gestapo" are now screaming STATES RIGHTS!!!! It's great to see them jump from talking point to talking point.

B) The Florida GOP is shooting itself repeatedly in the foot, leg and arms. Starting with Attorney General Bill McCollum who as the Miami Herald says: "threw his support Thursday behind a tough new immigration law in Arizona that he criticized as ``far out'' just two weeks ago." You're welcome Alex Sink for your first campaign ad. It doesn't even matter that you're whiter than most bridal dresses, just run that in Miami, Broward and Orlando/Tampa on the hispanic TV stations and pick up the votes. Label him a racist flip flopper.

This may work in the Panhandle:

"I support Arizona's law as amended, and if the federal government fails to secure our borders and solve the problem of illegal immigration, I would support a similar law for Florida."

But the AG is now going to get murdered in the South and Central Florida. Puerto Ricans may not jump on because they're US citizens but they may feel empathy for their fellow Hispanics. Maurice Ferre should scream bloody murder in midstate.

That very article then brings up this AG candidate Holly Benson quote : ``Illegal immigration is a serious problem facing our country and it is unfortunate that the Los Angeles City Council came down in support of illegal activity, over the actions of Arizona's attempt to enforce the law.'' In what is the most open race in the state, where no one knows who'll win the primary for AG on either side, all I can say is well done, she just locked up the primary and may have lost the general election.

And speaking of inner party fights here are some people who disagree:

`Hispanics are going to remember in the future whether candidates supported us at this historic moment,'' said Juan Hernandez, a political consultant who directed McCain's Hispanic outreach in his 2008 presidential campaign.

So your presidential nominee's Hispanic outreach chair is sounding, well nasty about it and then you get money quotes like this:

``I am reconsidering my endorsement,'' said state Rep. Juan Zapata, a member of McCollum's leadership team in Miami-Dade who chairs the education fund for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. ``All this law does is fuel an anti-Hispanic fire. . . . All it does is cause fear and innocent people to be persecuted. If you happen to look Hispanic, they're going to go after you? What about an elderly person who doesn't speak English?'

Bill and Holly, your endorsers are considering leaving you. They see the possibility for discriminatory policies. I've heard the rumors of some Hispanic Republicans angry at this law as well, meaning your activist base down south is unhappy. If I'm Alex Sink, I mobilize university students to go to Bill McCollum events in Miami and protest about this every single time from now until November. And throw in Rick Scott if the polls continue to tighten up.

(By the way Zapata, a Colombian, is actually a pretty common sense Republican most the time and if it weren't for some boneheaded party line votes could pull a Crist and really run as an independent in the future. He's one to watch out for.)

And hell, if Sink decides to not do what her husband did last time and goes all out and throws everything including the kitchen sink at the GOP nominee then she'll use an ad on what the Tampa Tribune thinks about McCollum having "personally chose Rekers, a notorious antigay psychologist, as an "expert'' witness in Florida's legal effort to defend the state's indefensible ban on gay people adopting children." And not to mention we, the taxpayers paid Rekers about 60 thousand dollars for his b.s. homophobia!

How the Miami New Times dug up the dirt, got Rekers on camera at the airport and totally caught this jackass with his pants down is beyond me. Great journalism from them.

Here's a tip: If your career is based on being anti-gay, don't use someone from rentboy.com. Don't take him on an all expenses paid trip to Europe. And don't forget to pay your rentboy.com person so he doesn't tell people you're homosexual. And don't say you're confused about what rentboy.com does when it can easily be made fun of by a satirist, like say Stephen Colbert.

But the coup de grace was Marco "the boy king" Rubio's flip flop. As Politifact points out this was his statement on April 27, 2010 here in Miami:

States certainly have the right to enact policies to protect their citizens, but Arizona's policy shows the difficulty and limitations of states trying to act piecemeal to solve what is a serious federal problem. From what I have read in news reports, I do have concerns about this legislation," Rubio said in the statement.

"While I don't believe Arizona's policy was based on anything other than trying to get a handle on our broken borders, I think aspects of the law, especially that dealing with 'reasonable suspicion,' are going to put our law enforcement officers in an incredibly difficult position. It could also unreasonably single out people who are here legally, including many American citizens," he added. "Throughout American history and throughout this administration we have seen that when government is given an inch it takes a mile."

But as The Miami Herald notes about his flip flopping after 2 amendments were added to the AZ law:

But the changes don't appear to have eliminated the shortcomings Rubio laid out in West Miami.

Not carrying immigration papers -- the provision that Rubio said evoked a ``police state'' -- remains a crime.

Rubio's concern about the police questioning someone based on a ``reasonable suspicion'' of illegal status? Still there. And still no explanation of what an illegal immigrant is supposed to look like.

The law's prominent opponents -- including Rubio's political mentor and one of his most important backers, former Gov. Jeb Bush -- remain prominent opponents.

In contrast, Rubio said one thing to a bilingual group of reporters in West Miami and something different to a Washington website where one regular columnist asked recently, ``What's Wrong With Racial Profiling Anyway?"

Or as the article says a couple paragraphs later:

Rubio's attempt to have it both ways recalls his close ties to Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a chief proponent of the ``English-only'' movement and an early Rubio supporter who has helped him raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wonder what DeMint would have thought of Rubio's opening remarks to the predominantly Cuban-American crowd in West Miami.

``I have a statement I'd like to make in English,'' Rubio said, ``but if you'll permit me for a moment [I'd like to] to start in Spanish because we have a lot of people here who would understand it just a little bit better and it's important to me.''

Charlie Crist and Kendrick Meek must be laughing it up. But the worst part is then left for last, because as bad as the immigration bill being ridiculously stupid, don't forget the horrible legislation mandating that teachers with the wrong accent can't teach English. I think those of us near a Marco Rubio or Bill McCollum rally have the duty to ask if they also support this legislation. This bigotry has yet to be driving furor from people, despite it having zero tangible benefits.

The group that I've most seen pushing the Hispanic law as being threatening though? Univision News. I speak some Spanish, and from what I gather combined with what my friends tell me; they've been reporting on this in a pretty one sided fashion. One friend told me "The English stations are giving a mixed review type thing and some are now trying to ignore the situation, but the 6 and 11 o clock Univision or Telemundo news are attacking and have been on full on interview and grilling mode recently. They're not allowing the Hispanic public to forget who passed it and it's effect. Frankly, this is right in their ally to push because it directly affects their constituency and demographics. They've made this an albatross around the GOP, so when you hear that other states like Georgia, Indiana and Michigan are considering passing this, it really becomes that much worse for the GOP.

But what the hell do I know? Don't forget according to Tom Tancredo, I'm just another citizen of a "third world country" called Miami. Check out that article recalling some of the signals that Hispanics recently have been given by the GOP. Let's not forget that Hispanics support Obama by more than 2 to 1. That only 27% of Hispanics want the GOP to be in control of Congress while more than half want Democrats in control. 73% of them think these type of policies target Hispanics overwhelmingly, according to a AP-Univision poll. So in sum, I support it because it makes the GOP look like a bunch of jackasses.

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P.S. The pathetic/shamless spin of the week? State Senator Dan Gelber emailing supporters saying "Mason-Dixon released its first poll of the Attorney General’s race and it shows us leading our primary opponent by three points. This is the second straight poll that has us in the lead. While it's better to be ahead, both polls also show that the great majority of Floridians are still undecided."

This gives the impression the race is like 40 to 37 and tightening. Sen. Gelber, I've met you on a number of occasions and you are a bulldog of a progressive. I genuinely respect and admire you. But to even dare sending out that email with the title "we're in the lead" in it. In the lead? Here are the numbers:

Gelber 15%

Aaronberg 12%

Undecided 73%

Margin of Error: 4%.

So you're within the margin of error, and 73% of people are undecided. Don't try to build a narrative of how you have momentum when right now if I put my name on the ballot, I'd poll at about 10% just from people randomly circling my name because they think it's a nice name, this is embarrassing.