NEWSTHE GOP

This week, Wisconsin state representative Don Pridemore promised to sponsor an Arizona-style bill that will require local law enforcement to confirm the immigration status of anyone arrested or charged with a crime in the state. Pridemore made a flimsy case that “law enforcement, crime, taxes and social benefits” were ostensible reasons for the bill.

More probable is that state Republicans, emboldened by huge wins in last week’s elections, hope to distract from Wisconsin’s lagging economy and high unemployment by creating a scary narrative and spurious debate about the immigrants that wash dishes, mow lawns and labor on Wisconsin’s farms.

Rather than converting an impressive electoral win into more effective representation for his constituents, Pridemore’s political posturing marks a new low in state dialogue on immigration. Wisconsin Assembly District 99, which he’s represented for six years, is 98 percent white and mostly affluent. The only immigrants that find themselves in the 99^th are probably working in the kitchens of gold-rail steakhouses, not engaging in the “illegal drug trade” that supposedly has Pridemore worried.

Anti-immigrant politicians have used questionable facts and falsehoods to demonize immigrants for too long. Sign the petition and tell Representative Don Pridemore that Wisconsin won’t be the next Arizona.

And let's set the record straight on ineffective, knee-jerk immigration bills. Below are ten reasons an Arizona-style immigration bills should never make it to the Wisconsin legislature:

Almost a week after election day, the California attorney general race is still too close to call.

At present, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Republican, leads San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris, a Democrat, by less than one percent. With an estimated 1.3 million provisional and absentee ballots yet to be counted, the race is up for grabs.

If the biracial Harris wins, she would be the first female, first African-American and first South Asian attorney general in California. If Cooley wins, he can partly credit his campaign’s decision to stress that Harris is anti-death penalty, a stance which made her appear soft on crime to voters.

Cooley has arguably made a career out of recommending capital punishment for convicts. Although the majority of California counties pursue life in prison rather than the death penalty for violent criminals, a few counties in southern California were responsible for generating a whopping 83 percent of the state’s death sentences last year. Los Angeles County, which Cooley oversees as D.A., is a prime example. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, L.A. County handed down more death sentences in 2009 than the entire state of Texas.

So, what’s the problem here?

Illinois state Senate candidate Al Reynolds isn’t doing much to counter the perception that the Tea Party is racist. In fact, remarks the former East Central Illinois Tea Party head reportedly made about why women of color are better represented in higher education than their male counterparts perpetuates the idea. Asked to discuss why minority enrollment is rising at the University of Illinois during a recent candidates’ forum, Reynolds said:

“There is a difference in the fact that most minority women, either the single parent or coming from a poor neighborhood, are motivated more so than the minority men. …The minority men find it more lucrative to be able to do drugs or other avenues rather than do education.”

My cousin recently called me from London. He’s living there for the next couple of years, but he still keeps an eye on news from America. He was upset, close to apocalyptic in fact, about the upcoming elections.

“Those Republicans are crazy,” he said. “You need to write a piece telling Hispanics that they have to vote for Democrats.”

My immediate reaction was that my cousin had a greatly exaggerated impression of just how influential I really am. He was so agitated, however, that I didn’t get a chance to tell him that or my secondary issue. Namely, it’s rather arrogant for me to tell people that it’s their racial duty to vote for anybody, especially when Democrats haven’t exactly been whiz-bang in getting Latino issues to the forefront.

However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Latinos could be the block that prevents a GOP takeover of Congress. The nasty Reid-Angle contest in Nevada is just one battle in which Hispanic turnout might be the decisive factor.

Republican Spike Maynard has taken dirty politics to an entirely new level. The West Virginia candidate for Congress recently aired a despicable attack ad in which he suggests that Arab-American incumbent Nick Rahall, a Democrat, is “good for the Middle East” and “bad for America.”

How did Maynard’s camp reach this conclusion? Well, firstly, Rahall has openly supported President Barack Obama. Never mind that most Democratic politicians say they support the President. Because Rahall is Arab-American and everyone knows that Obama’s a secret Muslim (I’m being facetious, of course), he must not have the country’s best interests in mind. Rahall is actually a Christian, but even that doesn’t rule him out as being a terrorist, the Maynard campaign suggests.

Having the audacity to support the President isn’t Rahall’s only purported sin. Maynard took the xenophobia in his ad up another notch by pointing out that Rahall accepted money from a convicted terrorist.  What Maynard neglected to mention, however, is that Rahall received a campaign donation from Alamoudi years before the terrorist had been convicted of a crime. Moreover, Rahall gave the money he received from Alamoudi away.

If you’re following the California gubernatorial race, you’ve more than likely seen the headlines about candidate Meg Whitman’s “nanny problem,” as Politico.com put it. Apparently, when Whitman learned that her longtime housekeeper Nicky Diaz Santillan was an undocumented immigrant, she fired Santillan. Now Santillan has filed a lawsuit against the woman who employed her for nine years, asking for back wages and unreimbursed mileage.

Because her former housekeeper alleges that Whitman knew all along that she was undocumented but abruptly dismissed her upon entering the gubernatorial race, the media is making this out to be an immigration controversy. And who can blame them, especially since as recently as Tuesday Whitman said during a debate with rival Jerry Brown that employers who hire undocumented immigrants should be held responsible. But I have a different take. I’m concerned about Whitman’s track record with women of color in her employ.

Santillan isn’t just asking for back pay from Whitman, after all. She’s alleging that working for Whitman was a “nightmare," according to lawyer Gloria Allred. During a press conference Wednesday, Allred said that Whitman "exploited, disrespected, humiliated, and emotionally and financially abused” Santillan. The former housekeeper, who appeared by Allred’s side, tearfully accused Whitman of treating her as if she were not human.

Think about the flood of emails that arrive in your inbox daily. Which ones do you reply to? Which ones do you automatically delete, and which ones do you forward on to others?

How you manage your inbox may seem like a private matter, but if you’re a public official, that’s not necessarily true. Take New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. The Republican previously acknowledged forwarding emails depicting blacks and women in a highly offensive manner and, for that, this week has been the subject of discussions on ABC’s The View and in The New York Times.

One email featured a doctored photo of President Barack Obama and wife Michelle dressed as a stereotypical pimp and whore. Another email featured a photo of black men trying to dodge a plane making its way over a field. It contained the cutline: “Run n___ers, run.” Arguably the most offensive photo in Paladino’s email collection depicted a woman engaged in a sex act with a horse.

Asked why he sent these emails, Paladino has simply answered “bad judgment.” But that response doesn’t really cut it. While Paladino has no control over what shows up in his inbox, choosing to distribute racist and sexist emails to others is an endorsement of their harmful messages. Even The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a staunch conservative, said as much.

"Orwellian" is an adjective used to describe the deliberate practice of calling something its opposite, and in so doing, destroying the meaning of both. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

Although the idea refers to 1984, a novel over 50 years old, some Republicans have found Orwellian doublespeak to be just as effective today.

For example, a "campaign against voter fraud" can actually be a blatant attempt to prevent minorities from voting, as liberal organization One Wisconsin Now recently discovered.

Last June, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity and Wisconsin Tea Party groups met to plan their suppression of the minority vote using an old Republican technique called "voter caging," claims the organization.

Voter caging means sending innocent-looking mail to minority and student addresses. If the mail is sent back as undeliverable, the name is added to a list of potentially fraudulent voters. On Election Day, voting vigilante groups, backed by conservative attorneys, formally challenge those voters at the polls and often prevent them from successfully casting their vote.

Is the Postal Service relevant in a world with online bill pay? This question was posed during a recent debate on Fox Business Network. Seems a harmless enough topic, right? But then GOP strategist Jack Burkman had to go and play the race card.

“Most of these guys working in the post office should be driving cabs, and I think we should stop importing labor from Nigeria and Ethiopia — that’s about the skill level,” Burkman said.

Seriously? In a debate about the need for the U.S. Postal Service, Burkman found a way to insinuate that immigrants are inferior — specifically African immigrants. And when other debaters, including former New York Sen. Al D’Amato, rightfully labeled Burkman’s remarks “racist,” the strategist just didn’t get it.

So, let’s break Burkman’s comments down. He’s basically saying that postal workers are unskilled. But for some reason he’s hesitant to insult American laborers in this way, so he puts the blame on “imported” Africans. There’s just one problem: The United States Postal Service isn’t importing labor from anywhere. Take a look at its hiring policy.

“Employees must be a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident alien, a citizen of…any…territory owing permanent allegiance to the United States. Individuals solely granted asylum status, refugee status or conditional permanent resident status are not eligible for…employment.”

Way down south in the land of cotton it's clear that  "old times there ain't forgotten," particularly if you're  State  Sen. Glenn McConnell,  leader of the South Carolina GOP.

A  picture of McConnell in a Confederate general's uniform with two blacks in historically accurate antebellum attire, taken at a party hosted by the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women,  has ignited rumblings across the blogosphere louder than the cannon barrage on Fort Sumpter that sparked the Civil War.

According to Fitsnews, which first broke the story and shared the "gotcha" photos, neither McConnell nor the GOP ladies feel remorse or embarrassment over the incident.  As a matter of fact the GOP women who put on the "Southern Experience" shindig proudly said the event allowed party goers to "get a taste" of the beauty, heritage and culture of South Carolina.