“This is not surprising considering he made the same evolution in 2008,” the statement said. “It’s too bad he didn’t choose to follow through on those promises after his election.”

They also invited Obama to visit the Arizona border, the busiest illegal entry point in the nation, rather than El Paso, where illegal traffic has plummeted in the last two decades.

“It is no wonder the President chose El Paso and not Tucson as a backdrop to talk about immigration reform,” the senators said.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, also a Republican, also said Obama should have gone to Arizona, saying in a statement: “Our state remains America’s gateway for illegal immigration, and we continue to bear the brunt of the federal government’s failure on this issue.”

“If the president felt confident in declaring the border secure, he should have come to tell the people of Arizona face-to-face,” she said.

Young Congressman Quayle is dissatisfied with the President on border security:

Republican U.S. Rep. Ben Quayle said Obama’s speech was “driven by politics and politics alone.”

“Instead of real solutions and reforms, the president offered finger pointing and spin,” he said. “The U.S. border with Mexico is far from secure. No campaign speech can change that fact.”

Finger pointing and spin! Gosh, that’s harsh. I was curious to see what legislation Quayle, who is on the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee, has sponsored on immigration and border control. The answer is none.

Last week Sen. John McCain, who had previously sponsored DREAM Act legislation, vowed to block the latest effort.

The Arizona Republican, who is ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said Democrats were using the defense measure as a tool to push liberal agenda items in the runup to the midterm elections.

Excuse me, but why was this guy ever given the benefit of the doubt, so much so that Democrats I know were willing to vote for him in 2000? He voted against the MLK Federal holiday in 1983 when he was in the House.

He likes cheap labor. The laborers, not so much. He doesn’t think too highly of American workers either, as evidenced by what he said about them in 2006.

John McCain never was and never will be “good on immigration”, nor on anything else that matters to anyone who isn’t rich and powerful.

A uniform carries power because it reflects the authority and trust of the public that chose it. It’s a violation of military regulations to wear your uniform “for the furtherance of political activities” if you’re on active duty, and even former military members are prohibited from appearing in public in their uniform with the exception of certain ceremonial occasions. Maybe there is no bar to an elected peace officer in Arizona wearing his uniform to promote his preferred candidate. But when you’re in uniform you are never representing only yourself, Sheriff Babeu.

All of it in earmarks.

I read the White Privilege Checklist about five years ago and it certainly caused me to check myself. I always knew that my fair white skin and blue eyes conferred a buttload of unearned privilege and protection upon me but I was blind to the full extent of it.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”

Daily effects of white privilege

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions…

…13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children’s teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others’ attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider…

I canvassed for Barack Obama in Nevada and Texas in 2008. I heard the N word more than a few times. I’ve talked to sweet white haired grandmas in Sun City who thought Joe Arpaio was the bee’s knees, because he was protecting them from the menacing Mexicans. I recently had a conversation with a white woman who expressed her concern that the “wrong” kind of people were breeding too many children. When I ran for the State Senate in 2006 I heard from several people in my district who thought that immigrants from Mexico were bankrupting the state and should really learn English.

All of the aforementioned were registered Democrats.

The Health Reform Denounce-A-Thon is in full swing, with (mostly white) Democratic politicians demanding that (nearly all white) Republican politicians repudiate the racist epithets and death threats and tone down their own inciting rhetoric. The Republicans, naturally, are responding with the “both sides are guilty” dodge and victim-blaming.

Are the Republicans mostly to blame? To my Democratic Diva mind, yes, they are. But if I’m going to be honest, and cognizant of my life experience as a person who has enjoyed a buttload of privilege, I’m going to have to say, refer to White Privilege Checklist item #23: I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

And how.

Edit for clarity: I was trying to avoid my post being a long-winded tome and I really want everyone to read Peggy McIntosh’s article. However, my attempt at brevity may have caused me state my case awkwardly. My intention was not to draw an equivalence between Democrats and Republicans as Republican politicians and the MSM are doing with respect to threats of violence and general ugliness of tone over the health care bill. I fully believe that Republicans and conservative pundits like Limbaugh and Beck are willfully and maliciously inciting hatred and anger and no Democrat or prominent left-leaning media figure is doing anything like that.

My point was that those of us who are white can’t deny that the environment of white privilege in which we all operate is a big part of why the angry mob and the elite conservatives who orchestrate and/or egg them on have been able to get away with it this long. Angry groups of brown people would not be coddled like this. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

Good job to Brahm Resnik, who did his best not to let McCain slide with his talking points on government spending.

Here’s a (paraphrased) synopsis of the exchange between Resnik and McCain on spending:

McCain: The Democrats are spending too much! Earmarks!

Resnik: But earmarks are only a minuscule percentage of government spending. Entitlements like Social Security and Medicare are a way bigger chunk of spending. Are you in favor of cutting those entitlements?

McCain: Shut UP!! Earmarks are corrupt!! I don’t like earmarks!!! LA LA LA I’M NOT LISTENING!!!!!!

Do the teabaggers like you? (paraphrased)

Resnik: Do the Tea Partiers like you?

McCain: Yes.

(After the Sunday Square Off broadcast, Joe Dana interviewed two local teabaggers who stated, emphatically, that they don’t care for John McCain.)

Loving father McCain responds to Glenn Beck insulting his daughter Meghan (paraphrased):

Resnik: Glenn Beck called your daughter a “useful idiot”. Are you offended?

McCain: Nope.

Arizona PIRG Education Fund Releases New High Speed Rail Report

Calls on State of Arizona and ADOT to Follow Through on Commitment to High Speed Rail Funding & Development

Today the Arizona PIRG Education Fund released its new report The Right Track: Building a 21st Century High Speed Rail System for America which quantifies the benefits of high speed rail and sets recommendations for future investment.

Recently, the Obama administration announced that 31 states will receive a portion of $8 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to plan & build high speed rail. Arizona was not awarded any money in this most recent round of grants, although the state did receive $1 million from the Federal Railroad Administration in 2008 to begin design of a Phoenix-Tucson passenger rail line.

“A national network of fast, frequent and dependable trains is a critical tool for reinventing the nation’s economy. Our state has previously recognized the need to greatly improve our rail system and now needs to be committed to building off of the momentum provided by the Administration,” said Jesse Victor, Transportation Associate for the Arizona PIRG Education Fund.

The Arizona PIRG Education Fund report analyzes the potential of high speed rail in nine different regions, including the Southwest. According to data cited in the report:

• The completion of a national high-speed rail network will curb congestion by reducing car travel by 29 million trips and air travel by nearly 500,000 flights annually.
• The task of building out the nation’s high speed passenger rail network is estimated to generate up to 1.6 million construction jobs, providing a needed shot in the arm for America’s manufacturing sector.
• A national high speed rail network will reduce global warming pollution by 6 billion pounds, the equivalent of taking almost a half a million cars off the road.
“The Phoenix area light rail represents a great step our state has taken toward a 21st century transportation solution to reduce the amount of time we spend in traffic, create jobs, reduce our dependence on oil and the pollution we spew into the air. As a mode of public transportation that has already proven far more popular than was even expected, Arizona decision makers must remain committed to ensuring rail’s continued success and expansion throughout our state,” Victor stated.

The report concludes with public interest recommendations for how to spend high speed rail investments including the need to invest adequate resources, maximizing “bang for the buck,” assuring transparency, setting standards and measuring progress.

-30-

The Right Track: Building a 21st Century High Speed Rail System for America can be downloaded at www.arizonapirg.org

The Right Track pdf

Some perspective: In the executive summary of that 77 page report, you’ll learn that China is spending $293 billion on high speed rail while the U.S. is spending a total of $10.5 billion. I’m looking forward to reading the whole thing tomorrow.

Behold the rocket surgeon that is Jim Deakin: jimdeakin.com

America should not have Czars

No doubt. Good thing that “Czar” is a made-up media construct and not a real position anywhere in America.

“Hello, this is newly elected United States Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts and I am honored at the role that your Senator John McCain played in my election yesterday. When few thought I had a chance of winning, John stood by me and supported my campaign. He was the first one. I want to thank him for his support for me and I want to encourage you to continue to support John. I look forward to joining him as he fights against wasteful spending and a government takeover of your health care. Please call his campaign today at (602) 604-2010 and tell John what a great job he is doing. Thank you for your time.”

Three things are evident right off the bat. 1. John McCain has a lot of money to piss away. 2. John McCain prefers helping a candidate in Massachusetts to doing anything for his own state. 3. John McCain can’t see a downside to reminding Democrats that Teddy Kennedy’s seat is occupied by the male version of Sarah Palin.

The third one is puzzling. Were the robocalls to Democrats intentional? If so, what was the point of that? Gloating? Man, I wish I had a pile of extra money lying around so I could robocall every Republican in Arizona. It would be Nancy Pelosi reminding them that she’s the Speaker of the House and that a Democrat named Barack Hussein Obama is President.

There’s a phone number so you can tell McCain what a great job he’s doing. Y’all know what to do. Ask them what Senator McCain was doing for Arizona while he was campaigning for Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Also, don’t forget to help Rodney Glassman. As a Tucson City Councilmember, he’s done more for Arizona than John McCain has done throughout his entire career in elected office.

“This is your newly elected Senator from Mass. and I want to tell you how much I appreciate the role your Senator, John McCain played in my winning this election. Please support John McCain in his re-election so together we can change Washington and stop this outrageous government takeover of Healthcare. Thank you.”

That was quick.