One of the paranoid theories that Arizona Republicans are floating to support their immigration law is that Hezbelloah is going to recruit Mexican immigrants as operatives to come across the border and attack the US. According to the GOP, Mexicans are not coming here for a better life. They’re coming here as Hezbollah operatives determined to destroy our way of life. Who knew?
For decades Republicans have been using voter intimidation tactics to prevent minorities from showing up at the polls to support Democratic candidates, and as Hispanics have fled the GOP, it appears that they are the newest voter intimidation target. As 2012 looms, one of the intended consequences of the AZ immigration law is to keep Latinos away from the polls.
It seems the GOP, in its quest to distort the racist realities of Arizona’s immigration reform law, is forgetting about W’s ill-fated attempt at pushing his own immigration reform legislation in 2007.
On his Fox News show tonight Sean Hannity used a list of the events of the past week to make the case that President Barack Obama should either resign or not run for a second term. Hannity said, “Mr. President what in the world are you doing. Is it time to step up, or maybe step aside?”
Sarah Palin and her Misinformation Express turned up in the safe and comforting arms of Sean Hannity tonight, and Palin claimed that President Obama and the Democrats are using the new immigration law in Arizona to play politics and incite their base. Palin said, “It’s really to incite and energize some of Obama’s base hoping that they will show up at the polls in the midterm election in November.”
While trying to defend Arizona’s new immigration law, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the Arizona bill is not as big a usurpation of power as Barack Obama’s plans to take away salt. Of course, Obama isn’t really trying to take away anyone’s salt, but this didn’t stop Limbaugh from comparing a policy of discrimination to FDA warnings about the amount of salt in processed food.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough has earned the wrath of many of his fellow Republicans for his criticism of the new Arizona immigration law. In the face of growing volumes of hate mail, today Scarborough continued as he called the bill un-American. Scarborough said targeting legal Hispanics is, “unacceptable and un-American.”
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, Republican Joe Scarborough put the new Arizona immigration law into context by talking about the totalitarian nature of this law. He said, “For every 10 illegal immigrants that they catch and send back home, what about that one American citizen who is a Hispanic who now every time that he goes to the grocery store has to be worried that he is going to be stopped…”
For the past 10 days, Fox News has been full throatily endorsing the new immigration bill that was just signed yesterday in Arizona. Fox has been consistently pushing the idea that the AZ bill is the model for the nation. Here are some examples of the Goebbels like usage of propaganda by Fox News on this story.