by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The crowds are back again today at the state house, they've been there for days. The lingering protest over Governor Brewer signing the overtly racist Senate Bill 1070 may continue for some time.
In fact, if Congressman Raul Grijalva of Tucson has his way, our state is about to be subjected to a tourist boycott like the one that started in the late 1980's after Governor Mecham signed a proclamation revoking the state's recognition of the Martin Luther King holiday.
It was racism then, and it is racism now. Brown has become the new black.
SB 1070 was authored by State Senator Russell Pearce, a legislator who is developing a national fan base over his ill-conceived, right-wing fantasy bills that are beginning to mark Arizona as the looniest state in the nation.
Our Arizona politicians are trying to laugh off Gvijalva's threatened boycott, but deep in their guts they know how effective a commercial boycott of Arizona can be. They understand the power of these populist endeavors because a national boycott in response to Mecham's racist act two decades ago proved to be too much for the state to withstand, and the public had to come to the rescue of its fascist leaders by voting the Martin Luther King holiday back onto the state calendar.
The boycotters won - handily, and they will win this time,too.
The whine coming from Jan Brewer and Herr Pearce is that tourists will still come to Arizona because their bizarre, attack-on-Hispanics law makes the state a safer place. That claim is nonsense on its face. All the new law has done so far is to inflame people on both sides of the immigration issue - hardly a recipe for peace.
But even if Brewer and Pearce are right, which they aren't, one must still look at the whole picture when considering Arizona for a vacation or convention destination. On April 17th, just over one week ago, our governor signed another Russell Pearce masterpiece into law. This one gives state residents the right to carry concealed weapons without a permit - hence, without any training in how to use the weapons, or any criminal or mental health background checks.
Arizona is changing in several ways, but unfortunately none of them are good. The state is a hotbed of hatred and it is infested with gun-totting morons. Arizona is anything but safe.
Tourists beware!
3 comments:
Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws and the state can continue to boycott Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
Wow, Montana, thanks for that blast of impassioned feedback! I don't know who you are, but you need to be channeling that outrage into print much more often because you have a very effective way of saying things. I especially liked your use of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to describe today's Republicans, and will certainly steal it for one of my own posts in the not-too-distant future!
Thanks for checking in.
Pa Rock
The boycott is named after an Irishman. Captain Charles Boycott, served as an agent for an absentee landlord.
After steadfastly refusing to fairly negotiate with the Irish tenants of County Mayo Boycott evicted them.
In response the Irish Land League organized a social ostracism of the evil captain.
The action was so successful that Captain Boycott lost all of his hired help and local merchants refused to trade with him.
Boycott had to import labor from what is now called Northern Ireland to bring in his harvest, at a cost that exceeded the value of the harvest.
May I suggest that you begin a boycott within Arizona.
Start by refusing to trade with any grocery store other than Southwest Markets or any other primarily Hispanic merchant. The same goes for restaurants, mechanics, plumbers, etc.
When those who have supported the right wing nuts in control of Arizona's government have to pay for the privilege of their choices then change cannot be far behind.
The Irish might say: "Ditto for the Dos Equis!"
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