Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses - except in AZ

Emptywheel has a post up this morning that really chaps my ass. It's about the new State bills in AZ that want to take citizenship away from babies born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens. It's the hate that the rightwing nutters have for anyone of color and specifically brown babies born to brown parents that aren't citizens of our nation. First, let me quote Emma Lazarus, from the Statue of Liberty and how people were never questioned when they showed up on our shores:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"(emphasis mine)

Unless you are a full Native American Indian, the poem above applies to all of you and your relatives, just as it applies to me and I am quite sure it applies to that pile of steaming batshit known as Russell Pearce. From Emptywheels writeup over at FDL:

With the filing in the Arizona legislature of twin bills at the end of this week attacking the automatic citizenship granted to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants under the 14th Amendment, it seemed like time to return to the matter.

Specifically, we are talking about the following Arizona Legislative measures:

- House Bill 2561 and Senate Bill 1309 would define children as citizens of Arizona and the U.S. if at least one of their parents was either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent U.S. resident and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

- House Bill 2562 and Senate Bill 1308 would seek permission from Congress to set up a system so states can create separate birth certificates for children who meet the new definition of a citizen and those who do not.

These are the provisions engendered by the hateful right wing “anti-anchor baby” effort. Arizona is, as it was with the previous “immigration papers please” law enacted in SB 1070, on the cutting edge of the national anti-immigrant and hatred of brown movement. While Arizona may be the test lab, it is certainly not necessarily the originator for these discriminatory and bigoted efforts. The “father” of the measures, leader and vocal mouthpiece for them in the Arizona legislature is State Senator Russell Pearce, newly crowned President of the state senate. Pearce worked off the template written by national movement conservative Kris Kobach for SB 1070, and the attempt to blow up the 14th Amendment birth citizenship guarantee is also being pushed by national extreme right wing movement conservatives such as Rand Paul and David Vitter.

But the point man and patron saint of anti-immigration hate in Arizona is indeed President of the Arizona Senate Russell Pearce, a former top deputy and confidant of the pernicious Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. When Pearce first arrived in the Arizona state legislature in 2001, it was as a state representative from the heavily Mormon (Pearce’s religion) area of Mesa, and he was known for little more than being a:

…loudmouthed backbencher, unhealthily obsessed with illegal immigration.

Russell Pearce is a horrible, hate-filled little man. He is someone that should not be allowed to decide the fate of anyone other than himself.

Emptywheel's article goes on to tell you why Pearce is a disgusting, worthless human being and how he came into power in the Grand Canyon State. How he got canned from running the Department of Motor Vehicles for tampering with state records. One would think this would be enough to keep his smarmy ass out of politics, but no. Not when rich folks, and high-powered lobbyists love him and his bigoted self.  Hell, its been widely reported in AZ that he is buddies with a longtime neo-nazi supporter and this article contains the picture to prove it. Rachel Maddow did a great piece on Pearce's nazi/supremacist connections and the PhoenixNewTimes has an informative writeup here (link opens in new tab)including the video of Maddow's show.

But in AZ Republican circles, being a nazi supporter and having supremacist associations evidently is a red badge of courage that keeps getting you elected in certain districts. Go read Emptywheels piece to really get a feeling of how ugly it has gotten in AZ with regard to the nutter right and their control there. I have lived in that beautiful state twice now. I was not political both times and must admit I never noticed the rightwing nutjobs, only the gun-toting ones scared me. There were plenty of them btw.

Emptywheel is sad for the 'state' of his state and he quotes and prints a biting Will Bunch piece that was in HuffPo shortly after the AZ massacre that left so many dead and injured including Rep Giffords.  The Bunch piece ate at EmptyWheel and he contacted Bunch to tell him as much,  but he admits that it's true now more than he would like to admit.

And that should bother every friggin one of us.