More on Arizona's new immigration law

Pima County (Tuscon) Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Republican opposes the law. His Department already arrests and turns over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more illegals than any other law enforcement agency in the nation. I already told you that the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police opposes it, right? Dupnik's problem is that the law doesn't give public safety officers any tools to do this job but it does mean that more people will sue policemen and departments (keep that in mind when I tell you about the law's author in a couple paragraphs). He doesn't like the fact that this law also puts the economic burden squarely on local departments to hold/house/feed/care for/and prosecute illegals, where as currently they are handed over to ICE, a federal agency to deal with. Dupnik (again- a Republican)says that he believes the only reason this law was created was racism or possibly to create political division.

This law wasn't even written by Arizona legislators, but by Kris Kobach, a lawyer from Kansas, at the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR),which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as an anti-immigrant hate group since 2007. Joe Arpaio had already been paying Kobach $1,500 per month, plus expenses and travel, plus $300 per hour to teach Maricopa County Sheriff personnel how to racially profile immigration suspects.

Kobach has a conflict of interest because he is also Kobach is senior counsel for the Immigration Law Reform Institute, which describes itself as representing “citizens experiencing injury resulting from illegal immigration.” In other words, he stands to profit financially from people who are hurt by the very law he helped craft!

Republicans should probably oppose it because Nationally Hispanics voted for Obama 2 to 1, in AZ it was something like 54% to 41% and that's over home state favorite McCain. Hispanics constitute the fastest growing minority group in the US., making up almost 15% of our population. 30% of Arizona residents happen to be Hispanic! This issue may activate the tea-party base, but it's bound to erase whatever gains the GOP thought it was making over health care reform.
I knew that the GOP had gone crazy, but I didn't think it had become so foolish that they didn't even CARE if they got back into power or not. Wouldn't a political party WANT to appeal to the fasted growing segments of society? They proved that they're the party of the rich by opposing Wall Street reform, now they're proving that they're the party of white racists too. Keep it up Republicans, you're helping the Democratic Party more than all the elitists in Hollywood ever could

RNC Candidate Distributes 'Barack The Magic Negro' Song

RNC Candidate Distributes 'Barack The Magic Negro' Song

No, I'm sorry, this is not a case of bleeding heart liberals being "politically correct," this is a case of top level Republicans showing their true colors- mean spirited, ugly, racist colors.

Can you believe this? Chip Saltsman included this CD in his Christmas card, along with a letter asking members of the RNC to make him their chairman? Friends, even if this were not blatant racism, it is not acceptable, mature behavior for reasonable adults seeking power and responsibility.

And this is the kind or tripe that Rush Limbaugh puts on his show all the time??!! And you "Ditto Heads" think it's funny? Please take a good long look and consider what he really stands for stands for.

Racism, bigotry, intolerance, and xenophobia are not "Family Values."

Double-standards still standard 50 years after Little Rock

Thursday, September 27, 2007 the Mapleton PRESS

A year ago a black high school student in Jena, Louisiana, a town about the size of Mapleton, asked his principal if it would be alright for him to sit under a tree that white kids were claiming was only for them. The principal said it was okay, but the next day, there were nooses hanging in the tree. This was an unmistakable reference to the historical practice of lynching Black people in the South, and an unmistakable threat.

Haven't we make ANY progress? This may as well be 60 years ago. Well, not completely true, they wouldn't all be at the same school 60 years ago.

The principal wanted to expel the white kids who hung the nooses in the tree, but his superintendent decided that they'd only receive a short, in-school suspension.
At first I didn't know whether or not I'd have done more than suspend the white boys either. Of course, I'm not in the South, I'm safely sheltered here in mostly homogeneous rural Iowa. And I'm not Black.

I was thinking from the point of view of a high school teacher, someone who's been around 12-18 year olds all day long for the last 14 years. I always look for the best in kids and I'm slow to believe the worst. I also always assume that they are immature, impulsive, short-sighted, and insensitive to others and therefore not as responsible for all of their actions as adults. Of course, this side of 35, with 3 kids of my own, I'm starting to think the same way about anyone under say 32.

Droves of protesters traveled from all over the country to Jena last week to march past the high school because lawyers were calling for a sentence of up to 80 years for "attempted murder" for 6 Black kids who beat up a white kid, Justin Barker for taunting a black kid, Robert Bailey about getting hit in the head with a beer bottle in the weeks after the nooses appeared.

Barker was knocked out and got a black eye, but he was in good enough shape to go golfing the next day. Not exactly attempted murder. Personally, I'd say he was asking for it. The point is, white kids threatened murder the same way the Klu Klux Klan used to and almost nothing happened to them, it was blown off as a "prank." But when the black kids stood up for one of their own, the hammer of "justice" came down full force.

A couple of weeks ago we went to an outdoor church service at "Timber Ridge." After church was a brunch at the Timber Ridge Lodge, which used to be sort of a dance hall and saloon. It has an old west theme; they use antlers in all of their decorating, if you know what I mean.

Being an Arizona boy it was right up my alley- lots of cowboy junk and taxiderm/ trophy animals. I had fun identifying and explaining all of the deer, antelope, rattlesnakes, raccoons, bobcats, and even a wild turkey to my girls.

But thank God, they didn't seem to notice or ask me to explain the noose hanging from the wagon wheel chandelier. The thing made my blood run cold. I don't know if it was the racial implications or vigilante/anarchy aspect from our frontier history, that they're used so often in suicides, or just the brutality of the thing. But I definitely don't have the stomach for that sort of thing anymore.

Hanging a noose in that tree was far worse than most any vandalism to cars, lockers, desks, or walls that those kids could've done. It was infinitely more than just a "prank."

I'm proud that so many people traveled down there for the protest march today. I heard that Rev. Jackson challenged Sen. Obama to speak out on it. I don't know to be more frustrated with the media for not reporting their outrage- or more disappointed with ALL of the Democratic candidates for not speaking up because I haven't herd boo from ANY of them about it today.

Talk radio reveals a lot of hate

I was tempted to draw something about Don Imus, but that's like shooting fish in a barrel. Besides, with all the attention he's getting, the U.S. Attorney hearings has been allowed to fall under most people's radar- just what Bush, Rove, and Gonzales want, I'm sure. Plus, since he's out of office and long dead, how many opportunities will I get to draw Nixon? Actually, I think the Rove I drew a couple of weeks ago as a Humpty Dumpty egg was better, but he does kind of lend himself to caricature, doesn't he?

Interested in seeing some of the process of how this cartoon was made?
Just visit http://malloryart.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-cartoon-magic-demystified.html

Want to see over 100 more of my cartoons? Political and otherwise?
Just visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Talk radio reveals a lot of hate
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, April 19, 2007 – Page 3

I’m almost as sick of hearing about Don Imus as I am about Anna Nicole Smith. That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to draw a cartoon about him- that and that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

But as sick of all the hubbub as I am, I’m not above writing about it. Not so much because I side with the politically correct folks who are gleefully gloating about his getting fired or because I side with the die hard defenders of the First Amendment who think he shouldn’t have been raked over the coals at all- but just because I’ve had in mind to write something about talk radio for a long time anyway. By the time this gets printed, the Imus scandal will have died down and the dust settled. Of course, MSNBC will probably fill his time slot with a show exclusively about Anna Nicole Smith, but, whatchya gonna do?

Also, because I already started writing about it on my blog and decided to go ahead and run with it. (Scroll down, you're bound to find it).

I don’t know if I’m just too old to rock and roll or if I’m just such a product of TV and radio that I can’t stand to be alone in a quiet room, but I am much more likely to listen to talk radio than to music.

But I get so tired of yelling and malice that I prefer to listen to 640 WOI AM. It’s the NPR station out of Ames. Half the time they have people call in to ask questions from the Iowa State University Extension’s climatologist. I’m not a farmer and know nothing about gardening, so it’s pretty dry stuff, but between it and the market reports, which I also don’t understand, I somehow feel connected to the world.

As you might expect, I listen to Air America Radio on the internet quite a bit. But the thing with Air America is, there are experts like Rachel Maddow and Tom Hartman who are all policy talk and no humor, or loud mouths like Ed Schulz and Randi Rhodes who are just as angry and loud as the right-wingers like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

Once upon a time, they boasted Al Frankin, the political author, USO entertainer and former Saturday Night live writer did what almost no other talk radio host has, he combined intelligence, idealism, and humor, without belittling or bullying anybody. But alas, the expert satirist and left-wing intellectual has retired from radio in order to run for the Senate in Minnesota.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit to once being a regular Imus in the Morning listener. He used to be on 620 AM, I think it’s a sports station from either Omaha or Sioux City. I enjoyed listening whenever John McCain or Terry Bradshaw. But eventually it dawned on me that Imus was just another adolescent drive time D.J., only with no teenage pop music and high-end guests. I kicked the habit about a year ago.

Let’s face it, Imus was known for being a sexist, racist jerk- that’s his schtick, that’s why people tune in, so while yes, he deserves what he got, we shouldn’t all be so PC and hypersensitive to sexist, racist, jerks when after all, that’s their schtick anyway.

We should also recognize that there is a huge double standard because right-wing hate mongers like Mike Savage and Bill Bennett are constantly saying things that are as bad or worse (forget about Howard Stern). Remember Bennett suggested that crime rates would go down if Black babies were aborted? How about when Rush Limbaugh was making fun of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s tremors? Rush has also called Halle Berry and Barack Obama “Half-rican-Americans.”

Glenn Beck referred to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina as “scum bags.”
Now, I’m no Rosie O’Donnell fan, but Glenn Beck actually talked on his radio show about how many oil lamps we could keep burning off of her fat? But he’s so sweet and middle-of-the-road on his TV show on CNN.

And how about that Ann Colter? Oh yeah, I forgot, she’s a writer who’s a frequent guest on talk radio and TV.

The other thing people seem to have forgotten is that there are people making OBSCENE amounts of money selling 11-22 year old white kids music by “Gangstas” that really, REALLY perpetuates negative racial stereotypes and sexist attitudes. Now I’m a white, male, middle-class, Midwesterner, so I realize that it may not be my place to preach to the African American community, but I think that before we throw a fit about an old shock jock who made it big like Imus, we should listen to what Doctor Bill Cosby has been saying for years. If I were Black, I think I’d be way more offended by most of rap and hip hop music than one crotchety old cowboy who raises a lot of money for kids with cancer- even though what Imus said was flagrantly outrageous and even cruel to the Rutgers women’s basketball players.

Finally, Imus is a jerk and he’ll probably say things like this again if he ever gets back on the air, but he has apologized more clearly, succinctly, more earnestly, more directly and more often then Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, Trent Lot, Joe Biden, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton or any other public figure in recent memory. That ought to be worth something.

Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Just how ready are we?

Just how ready are we?
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, March 1, 2007 – Page 3

There was a time when people asked if America was ready for a Catholic President. Then there was John Kennedy. People wondered if we were ready for a divorced President, then there was Ron Reagan.

This time around, of course people are asking a lot of those kinds of questions.
Would we be ready for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon?

I’ll admit, I’d be one of those who aren’t especially comfortable with that, considering some of the theology of the Church of Ladder Day Saints, under close scrutiny it doesn’t look a whole lot better than Scientology.

Of course, plenty of members of government, including a few Presidents and many of our founders were Free Masons and we’re still here.
Ordinarily, you expect a “lefty” like me to be more tolerant than that. Certainly no one bat an eyelash when Joe Lieberman was the first serious Jewish primary candidate and then Vice Presidential candidate. Of course Judaism is a lot older than Mormonism and after all, Jesus is Jewish. (was Jewish if you don’t believe in His resurrection, is an alien from another planet if you believe what some religions teach).

There was a time when you just couldn’t be Italian and from New York and run for President. People whispered “mob” under their breath when talking about Mario Cuomo.

This time around, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is a pretty serious candidate. Three wives and two gay roommates? Cancer survivor? These are all things that not so many years ago would’ve killed him as a Democrat, but the leadership he showed during the September 11 attacks have made hip appealing to both parties.

And, lest I tip toe around the elephants (er, donkeys) in the living room, the big questions that Newsweek magazine has been asking are whether or not America is ready for a woman or a Black President?

That may be the wrong question. What Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may need to ask themselves is whether or not Iowa and New Hampshire are ready for them?

Lots of people thought that Howard Dean was a regular juggernaut in 2004, but Iowans weren’t sold on him and his internet based base of college egg head progressives. Iowa Democrats like tall, slow moving veterans like John Kerry and good old fashioned, pro labor, pro agriculture Midwestern Democrats like Richard Gebhardt. And then Dean screamed like a Hockey-Dad when he celebrated placing third in our caucus and it was completely over then.

So, how can they expect to win us over? Hillary has to not just distance herself from her husband, but maybe from New York too. She should appeal to her Illinois roots and maybe even the fact that she was a “Goldwater girl.”

Because I know readers who I easily rile won’t believe this , especially about me, but basically, even Iowa Democrats are fairly conservative.

If Hillary wants to win Iowa over, she has to come off as a steady, clear-headed, hard working matriarch. She can’t be too attractive so that we think of her as a woman. But she can’t be too shrill so that we think of her as trying too hard to seem tougher than a man either. Practical, wise, steady. Slow to talk but says the right thing when she does. That’s what I imagine Iowans would like if Uncle Sam were to be replaced with an Aunt Samantha.

There have been plenty of Black candidates for President. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton. But I think that neither of them were Presidential candidates who happened to be Black, Let’s face it, they were both Black candidates. Jackson has represented minorities and the down-trodden his entire career. Not every American is down-trodden. And Sharpton? Well, let’s just say he made Jackson look mainstream.

Of course, and for a while, the perennial non-candidate General Collin Powell. I think that if he came out and pointed fingers and named names and apologized for helping lie us into war, most Americans would still like to draft him for President.

All Obama really has to do is make sure he defines himself and not let Fox news or other right-wing propagandists do it for him. He’s running as a Democrat, not as a Black Democrat.
So far he also talks the talk of a post-partisan, someone who just happens to be a Democrat, almost like he happens to be Black. He speaks his own mind, and speaks carefully and eloquently. Those are things Iowans like; making up your own mind and knowing what the heck you’re talking about.

After the last six years, I’m certainly ready for some of that.