Not That Jan Brewer is Prone to Overstatement, But ….
I used to believe that Republican girls (there are no Republican women, there are only Republican girls no matter what their age) saw things in only black and white, but it’s gotten worse that that. Now they only see things in neon. Flashing neon.
Seriously. Jan Brewer.
First off, she thinks that Arizona won yesterday. That’s true. Arizona did win, but Jan Brewer and her tea party thugs lost big time. The court struck down three of the four provisions and said the fourth provision was subject to being overturned at the state level. That means Jan is batting .225, there are no players on base, it’s the bottom of the ninth, there’s two outs, you’re behind 3 to 0, and the other team is paying the ump.
So, Jan retreats to her usual position – delusion. On John King last night, Brewer accused the Justice Department of throwing bombs at Arizona.
Immigration is a federal duty. The Justice Department enters into agreements with local law enforcement to help them enforce immigration laws. After the ruling yesterday, the Justice Department rescinded their agreement with Arizona because they have no reason to trust Jan Brewer to follow the orders of the Supreme Court.
Let this be a lesson to all: do not shake your boney old finger in the President’s face.
So, Jan does what Jan does. She goes hyperbole. She tells John King ….
And immediately, three hours after the decision was made, then they arbitrarily single out Arizona and sent a bomb, if you will, across our bow and made Arizona once again a target. The people of America ought to be outraged. This is absolutely an assault.
Jan, Babe, shooting yourself in the foot is not an assault. Shooting off your mouth, looking like a fool? Also not an assault. Bombing on national teevee? Not an assault.
Claiming yourself a victim when your problems are your own making? Kinda an assault on human dignity. So, that’s close, but still no cigar.
Thanks to David for the heads up.
We left Arizona five years ago. Timing was good. Now, my husband says, “It took me 27 years to get back to Texas, and I’m not leaving again!” Unfortunately, I have offspring and grandchildren, and lifelong friends who still live there. Otherwise I wouldn’t still feel compelled to still read the New Times. I get enough drama just from the Observer.
They treat teachers worse there than the do here. One friend informed me that no longer can a teacher hug a child, not even a first grader, not at all. I couldn’t get through some days without that.
1Rather than outrage, the people of America are laughing at Arizona. Jan Brewer is the one who made Arizona a laughingstock and a target of derision.
2Does anyone remember a few years ago when the state jails were so overcrowded that people who should have left city and county facilities couldn’t be moved? They all started suing each other but ultimately it caused a rethink at the local level about what types of enforcement were important – drunk drivers important, outstanding parking ticket warrants not important.
The fed should do the same regarding the last standing provision of the AZ law…”you can ask them for documents but we have no space for violators, sorry”. When the counties start having to let robbers go free, or not pick up the guy who just smacked his girlfriend around, to make space for folks who have committed a paperwork violation I suspect the officer on the street will be told not to be suspicious that someone is illegal. As a practical matter the fed can kill this remaining provision by simply shrugging.
3Even the part they upheld they put stringent conditions on, but they have no way to know how it will be enforced:
“If the law only requires state officers to conduct a status check during the course of an authorized, lawful detention or after a detainee has been released, the provision would likely survive preemption—at least absent some showing that it has other consequences that are adverse tofederal law and its objectives.”
I don’t think a traffic stop constitutes lawful detention, at least not in most states.
4Over at Daily Kos someone made a mean comment about Gov. Jan Brewer. It was, and I paraphrase:
I want to see Jan Brewer’s birth certificate. And I want
to see the original parchment–not some photocopy from
the museum.
That’s so mean! I couldn’t wait to repeat it.
5And she appears to have a bad case of jock itch. Funny how she and Michelle Malkin, darlings of the radical right, are absolutely against the feds having any power or spending any money whatsoever except when it’s going to cost Arizona or limit fed help with wild fires in Malkin’s state of Colorado.
6How do you throw a bomb over a bow? Isn’t a bow on a ship? I think in pirate movies they shoot a cannon over the bow but throw a bomb?
7Cindy D., what I was thinking, too. But precision is not Jan’s strong point.
8She’s a stink bomb–all by herself…
9I just got “unfriended” by a high school acquaintance/old buddy,
she is so right wing Xian–that my Jewishness came on as a real threat to her sanity–me going to hell and all–I found out I was Jewish about 14 years ago, and going to Israel last summer sealed it for me…blew her away and my being a Jewish Liberal from the East–holy, moly–her finger and Jan Brewer’s are a matched set–and she would happily let children starve–I am so glad I got out of that place 40 years ago, you could never get me back…shouldn’t say never –but it’d drying out and going to blow away any day now–I’ll be glad!!
Your post is so beautifully and brilliantly written, JJ, that I’m puttin on the interwebs. Clarity and wit—long on both.
10Everytime I see that picture, I can just smell the stale cigarette breath blasting out at the President.
11“I can just smell the stale cigarette breath blasting out” Now that’s a mental picture that will stay with me forever.
12Cheryl, I think that would be stale cigarette breath, mixed with alcohol, which makes for a very sour smell.
13Give her the Mixed Metaphor award. Firing a shot across the bow is a signal from one ship to another which tells them that if they do not heave to and prepare to be boarded, the next one will be aimed where it will do some serious damage. Dropping a bomb is used to describe a sudden, unanticipated event — sometimes a literal bomb dropped from high altitude and othertimes a metaphorical bomb like when either the bride or the groom backs out at the altar.
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