| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Latino 911! | ||||
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These are two related video clips from The Daily Show, both dealing with Arizona's immigration law (and both very funny). Above, we see Arizona's attempt to make a racial-profiling law seem politically correct. No one can be arrested for not having papers, but if you don't have papers, you'll be "detained" by police. Nice distinction, huh?
And just think of the bullet we dodged two years ago. We could have had Insane McCain - new slogan: Just Tell Me What to Say And I'll Say It - and Caribou Barbie in the White House right now. (Admittedly, Palin would probably have quit by now, since the vice-presidency doesn't pay enough.)
We get a nice slam at Fox "News" there, too. (I always love that!) But the second clip is, if anything, even funnier. White Republicans in Arizona are up in arms about an unconstitutional law. No, they don't care how many Hispanic Americans are hassled by police. That's their fault for looking Mexican anyway. But cameras checking for speeding vehicles on the highway? Man the barricades!
Yes, this is a "gross invasion of privacy"! Because we all have an expectation of privacy when we're driving down the highway, right? And this system targets speeders by... seeing who is actually speeding. How can you get more unfair than that? How about all of us law-abiding speeders? Benjamin Franklin would be outraged!
I loved Olivia Munn's realization that "speeding is probable cause for checking immigration status, but speeding is not probable cause to give you a ticket for... speeding." Honestly, could Republicans be any more ridiculous if they tried?
Tragically, the murder of a rancher, presumably by illegal immigrants, was one impetus for the immigration bill. Well, the GOP has always found it easy to scare people (and all too many of us Americans seem to have become hopeless cowards.) But these radar cameras are apparently cutting highway deaths by 19%. Doesn't that matter? Well, not alongside the fact that even white people are getting ticketed, apparently.
"Clearly it's better to have officers issuing tickets," according to State Rep. Carl Seel. I mean, a real human being can tell if the violator is white or Hispanic. I guess that's the American - or at least the Arizonian - way. And if you start handing out speeding tickets to truckers, well, just imagine the potential for disaster!
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Arizona's Photo Radar | ||||
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These were both very funny.
ReplyDeleteWhat no one seems to want to admit is that Mexicans come to America because they can find work. They can find work because they usually end up doing jobs no one else wants. We don't need to close the borders we just need to make sure there are stiffer penalties for businesses and or people who hire illegals.
If they couldn't get work, they wouldn't bother crossing the border.
John
Republicans did nothing about illegal immigration when they held power because their corporate backers wanted it that way. Immigrants helped them cut pay for ordinary labor. And those who were here illegally weren't inclined to form unions or object to bad working conditions.
ReplyDeleteThe beef-packing plant in my hometown started off strongly unionized, with good pay for hard, disagreeable work. Then they started recruiting along the Mexican border, bringing back truckloads of people who would work for far less, scab labor to break union strikes.
Now, pretty much everyone but management is an immigrant, and wages are low (which has depressed wages elsewhere, too). At the same time, local governments are struggling with extra costs due to the many people who don't speak English well. Residents suffered both the loss of good, union jobs AND increased costs. But the packing-plant owners and upper management made out like bandits.
The community blames the Hispanic workers for all this, when they just wanted a job. (That's certainly understandable, isn't it?) Locals are still strongly Republican, even though it's the Republicans who did this to them. Well, the Republican Party encourages their bigotry, fear, and hatred, so they eagerly support tax cuts for the wealthy as their own economic situation deteriorates.
It would be a lot different if the immigrants were Germans, Norwegians, or English. But given the racial angle to this, locals eagerly accept every racist pitch from the GOP (especially with a black Democrat in the White House). Well, no one wants to be a "socialist," right? Heh, heh. It's really pretty sad, though.
We could certainly do a better job of guarding our borders. Indeed, that would seem to be a necessity in this day and age. But we'll never be able to round up the 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants and deport them, certainly not without becoming totalitarian ourselves. Well, the hysteria on this issue is ridiculous, anyway. We've got far bigger problems to worry about. Illegal immigration is nothing we can't live with.