Leave Arizona Alone!

I'm so confused by the reaction to this immigration status law that passed in Arizona that I really don't know what to think anymore. I have been completely surprised at the majority of the reactions that I've been hearing. I've even had at least one really close friend join some dumbass anti-racism group on freaking Facebook protesting this law. And this is a person who is extremely educated and extremely sane. I'm completely blown away. Let's review a couple of things, shall we?

If you're in this country illegally, you're breaking the law. Period. There's no way around this fact. To say that "most" of the illegals are law-abiding individuals is completely false. They're breaking the law by being here illegally. That's not law-abiding.

From New American, we learn that Phoenix has averaged a kidnapping a day in recent years, the AP reports, with some resulting in torture and death. A kidnapping per day? Really? Yep. Many of these kidnappings are fueled by the illegal drug trade which has wandered its way across the border and into Phoenix. And that makes Phoenix the kidnapping capital of the United States. U-S-A! U-S-A!!

Now, if you just listen to East Cost media, you'll think that there is no one in the country, sans Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who is in favor of this new law. Not quite. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey showed that "...70% of likely voters in Arizona approve of the legislation, while just 23% oppose it." Seventy percent of the people IN the state where the law is are just fine and dandy with it. (I'd really like to know what is up with the other 7% that weren't represented by a yes or a no answer. Who can't answer yes or no to a simple question like that?) Why is that figure not reported more often? Because that wouldn't fit the narrative of what the media wants you to believe.

Granted, that's just the voters in Arizona. What about the rest of the country? Well, again, according to a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, when people were asked "Do you favor or oppose legislation that authorizes local police to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant?" 60% of them said that they were in FAVOR of it. Only 31% said that they opposed it and the rest said that they weren't sure. Even with the sampling error of +/- 3%, that's still a majority of 57% in favor of it at the very least. And that's nationwide.

The next person who is within an arm's length of me that says "We're a nation of immigrants" is going to get punched. I'm going to point out again that when this great nation was being built, it's not like just anyone was allowed to come in. At the whole Ellis Island checkpoint thing, they checked to make sure you had either money, a job, or relatives over here. THEN they asked you a series of 29 questions. I'm pretty sure that there was some sort of health screening involved. The point here is that they did not let people just wander on over simply because they wanted to!

Next in line of people that I'd like to punch would be anyone suggesting any sort of a boycott of anything having to do with Arizona. I've mentioned this before, but because of the number of softheads that have crawled out of the woodwork (as they so often do when needed legislation is passed) I'm going to mention it again. Boycotts rarely work. I can cite the Montgomery bus boycott as an effective boycott that took place in this country. I am hard pressed to come up with another one, probably because there aren't any. Getting a boycott to actually accomplish something is extremely difficult. The main problem is having enough people all on the same page. Do you think that you can get anyone in the year 2010 to be on the same page as someone else? Highly unlikely. While you're explaining which page to go to, they're updating their Facebook. It's a lost cause.

But here's the most ridiculous idea for a boycott against Arizona that I have heard so far. According to the huffy folks over at the Huffington Post, "An initiative apparently started on the Internet asks people to boycott the AriZona Beverage Co. because of claims the law will unfairly target Hispanics." Wait. What now?

They want people to stop buying AriZona Iced Tea products? Look, the stuff isn't that great to begin with, but that's not the point. The point is that it's only A NAME! You nimrods! AriZona Beverage Co. is based in Woodbury, 20 miles east of New York City! According to the article "Chairman Don Vultaggio says it was started by "two hardworking guys from Brooklyn" in 1992 and has always been in New York." Good Lord....

This is how some people are choosing to make a statement? By not buying cold beverages from a company that has nothing to do with the law OR the state? Are you the type of people who tell people not to ever buy sheets from bedding manufacturers because you're against the Ku Klux Klan? (They still use the sheets, right? That's still a Klan staple? I'm really not sure. I've never been real up on my Klan references. And these days, when you're looking to make a racist analogy, everyone automatically reaches for Hitler, so I'm a little fuzzy on the Klan. But I'm sure you understand my point.) Are you people going to boycott the NFL's Arizona Cardinals? What about the Arizona Diamondbacks? Are the Phoenix Suns out as well? Seriously, what is wrong with you?

This law wasn't something that was just thought up and passed overnight. No, it was passed because there was a need for it. It was a need that the Federal government refused to address. Governor Brewer had written at least FIVE letters over the past two years (so those of you that want to blame Bush for everything, make sure that you realize that President Barry ignored her letters, too) to the White House explaining that they needed some help to combat the illegal immigration problem that was occurring in Arizona. She never received a reply. Not ONE. Just completely ignored. If the Federal government wasn't going to do the job that it is supposed to do, then Arizona was going to take care of itself. And I'm glad that it did. Come on, California. Stop being such a wuss and do the same thing.

Tea Party Photo Goodness

Yesterday was tax day here in the US. And as one could expect, there were Tea Party protests/rallies/demonstrations across the country. They were entertaining, but not as entertaining as the health care protests last summer were. Now those were something. One of the main differences that I've noticed is that the Tea Party folks, for the most part, can spell. That doesn't mean they know what they're talking about, but it is concerting that they have a grasp of the basics. That being said, let's take a look at some signs and scenes from yesterday, shall we?

Here we have a child being made to hold a sign that is supposed to represent her feelings. The sign reads "Obama took my toof fairy money!" He apparently also took the forward facing Fs, Rs and Es, as well as the TH sound.

That wasn't the only sign wielding child out yesterday. Here's another one. Um, honey? I'm not so sure that you want to be part of a "tea bagger family". Tea party family, perhaps. But I think that being a "tea bagger family" is probably illegal. Definitely off-putting.

I appreciated the originality of the Tea Party Mobile or whatever you want to call it below. I like how there's just a little bit of everything thrown in there. Jesus. Truth. Insanity. Disaster. Lies. Taxes. Pork. Health care. Right. Wrong. Repent. Perverts. Wait. Perverts? Yep. Over there on the left. Next to Pork. Perverts. OK. I'm against perverts. Nice. Thanks.

This was one of the very few misspelled signs that were out there. The sign to the left of it was one of the most all inclusive signs out there.

It wouldn't be a protest in America without some nutjob questioning President Barry's citizenship. What is wrong with you people?

Where's the birth certificate? It's on the Internet, nutjob. And yes, it's real. For cryin' out loud.

And along those same lines, it just wouldn't be a protest without someone making the Obama-Osama comparison. Yes, we know. They sound a lot alike. Adolf and Rudolph sound a lot alike as well, but you don't hear folks comparing that little reindeer fellow to Hitler, now, do you?

Ahh. Go back to Kenya. Lovely. You're not doing a lot to add credibility to your cause, but you do make me laugh, so that's something. By the way, HE'S NOT FROM KENYA! Morons.

And here we have a little birther action combined with a little "In Living Color" action. Interesting combo to say the least.

Why bother with multiple signs when you can just cram it all onto one piece of poster board. The problem with it is that they're really only taking a stand against two of those things. They don't want the fascism or the socialism and they seem to think that the Obamacare sucks. Other than that, they're just sort of stating issues. Oh, how I only wish they had stated what "ALIAN CARE" was exactly and why it is illegal.

I've got feathers and a pitchfork. I also have torches and axe handles if you need some of those as well, sir.

And finally, we have these folks. The one, dressed like a priest (I think) is proclaiming that God hates taxes. I don't know why God would care about taxes. God doesn't pay taxes. But that's not really what I'm focused on here. I'm focused on what in the hell that is over to the right of that dude! It's like one of those guys from the cantina in Star Wars wearing some sort of mossy coat and trousers. It's odd and I have no idea what it has to do with tax protests. And I'm dying to know what brochure he's holding.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs

I love it when these Tea Party rallies or any sort of rally for that matter, take place. Sure, part of it is because of my whole love of the First Amendment and crap like that. I mean, at least the First Amendment reason sounds really good. But let's face it. It's the potential for mocking that really intrigues me and draws me to pay close attention to these things. The more offbeat the cause, the wackier the signs, and the greater my enjoyment. Oh, and the bigger chance that there are going to be some hilarious misspellings.

Let's head on over to Tea Party Nation during their Nashville stop last Thursday. We have these folks who are advising President Barry to "Read the Consitution". I'm going to advise them to read the dictionary or at least, perhaps, consult spell check somehow before proudly displaying your misspelled direction for the President.

Perhaps if the folks above do get that dictionary or that spell check (for posterboard?) they can loan it to the folks below who are, apparently, VERY against the "pubic option". I'm not really sure what sort of situation we're talking about in which one of the options is the pubic one, but I think I might be against it too. I don't think I'd make a big ol' sign stating my opposition, but still...

Down in Texas, there was a rally to support the Governor Rick Perry. Now if there was only a rally to support those who are "homescholed", as they are going to need some sort of support with the atrocious spelling skills that they have finely honed from all of those years in "schol" at home.

I spend a fair amount of time reminding people that President Barry is not a Muslim. He's not. He's not a Muslim. Apparently, I now have to begin reminding people that's he's not made out of a textile fabric either. Nope, he's not muslin. (Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Both the ones who think he's Muslim and the ones who think he's muslin. What is wrong with you?

Are you familiar with whack-a-do nutjob Fred Phelps? Fred Phelps is the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The Anti-Defamation League has labeled them to be a hate group. That is probably due to their protests and their signage/slogans consisting of little gems such as "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "America Is Doomed" and "Priests Rape Boys". They're not well.

Anyway, the point here is that a couple of weeks ago for some reason, Phelps and his group decided to protest outside of the Twitter offices in California. When asked what the problem was with Twitter, one woman with this group of lunatics explained that "Twitter should be used to tell the punks of doomed America that God hates you!" Huh. Sooooo...since Twitter can't tweet itself, it's up to the WBC to protest against...Twitter? What now? (If you weren't convinced that they were a little bit off their rockers before now, the protest against Twitter for the given reason should have convinced you of otherwise.)

Mind you, Twitter offices are headquartered in San Francisco. There's nothing that San Francisco loves more than a good street protest. Heck, there's nothing more that San Francisco loves more than any reason to get out on the street and be different. And this was different. Somehow it was decided that the best way to protest the ridiculousness of the WBC's protest was to do so with said ridiculousness themselves. What resulted was hilarity at its finest.

See, the Fred Phelps followers signs are just idiotic. What's even more idiotic is having more signs and more hate than you have people. For instance, the person below clearly cannot manage all of their signs. And that really makes the hate protest seem not only silly, but disorganized as well. Behold!

Other signs that these morons were wielding were inexplicable to me. For instance, why is a frog (or some sort of amphibious creature) seeming to jump out of President Barry's mouth? I"m sure that the Bible passage that they have noted on their sign has something to do with it, but I'm not going to look it up. It's not going to change my mind and make me think that it's not ridiculous. See, I have a belief that protest signs shouldn't involve any work on the part of the person reading the sign. You want to protest something and get your message across to me? Fine. But don't expect me to be running around doing all of your work for you. Put your message on your blasted sign!

But in retaliation or response to the WBC nutjobs, the fine folks that showed up for this thing brought their A-game. They also brought signs such as those that stated the obvious (and the pointless, which mirrored the WBC protest exactly).

They brought signs suggesting other ridiculous things that God might hate. (I find it odd that a church can go around spouting that God hates anything, but whatever. These signs merely accentuated that point quite nicely.) Perhaps He is not fond of ponies.

Maybe the WBC folks have it all wrong and God doesn't "hate fags", but instead really "hates flags".
Or maybe He just finds retweets as annoying as the rest of us do.

But at least they couldn't lie and say anything derogatory about Kraft Mac n' Cheese. Come on! Who doesn't love that stuff?! No one! Not even God!

All I know is that after looking at all of the energy that the WBC puts into their hate campaigns, I had the same sentiment that the fellow below seemed to have with his sign.

But seeing them all together like this still managed to keep me amused. Man, I love a good sign. I'd really like to know who was behind this idea so that I could encourage them to spread the idea of their message to other folks who have to deal with the morons. Nothing like the silly to point out the sillier. It's hard to take hate seriously when you're laughing your butt off.