Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Vetoes Controversial Religious Freedom Law SB 1062

At the Arizona Republic, "BREAKING: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoes Senate Bill 1062."

This morning's Los Angeles Times has a great piece on the enormous political backlash over the bill, which was obviously much too great for Brewer to withstand, "On gay issue, Arizona may heed national outcry this time":

TUCSON — When Arizona took controversial stands in the past — refusing to create a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and enacting a tough anti-illegal immigration law — state leaders shrugged off the criticism from out of state as the meddling of outsiders.

But now, after the Legislature passed a measure to bolster the rights of business owners to refuse service to gays and others on the basis of religion, Arizona leaders seem to be listening to a national outcry and are urging the governor to veto the bill.
So what's different this time?

Political insiders and observers say the change can be attributed to a number of forces at work: a growing acceptance of gay rights sweeping the nation, the power of social media and an economic backlash unleashed by the passage of the anti-illegal immigration law that is still fresh in the minds of those in the business community.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has said she has not made a decision on the bill, SB 1062, which the GOP-dominated Legislature approved last week. But some of her longtime advisors have said they believe she will veto the measure because of the negative reaction to the bill inside and outside the state.

Barrett Marson, who heads a public relations outfit in Phoenix, recalled that an uproar arose against Arizona in the 1990s when voters rejected a referendum to create a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. But there is a significant difference between then and now.

"That was pre-Internet," Marson said.

Much of the outrage about SB 1062 spread via social media, especially Twitter. Republican leaders, such as former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Arizona's U.S. senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, have taken to Twitter to urge Brewer to veto the bill.

They have joined a loud chorus on social media — including celebrities such as Judd Apatow as well as Arizona business owners and residents — that has tweeted against the measure.

The tweets opposing the legislation are so numerous they have overshadowed the few who have taken to Twitter in support of the bill. Proponents say the measure is not discriminatory but intended to protect religious freedom. "Would you force a Muslim butcher to slaughter pigs b/c you want bacon?" read one tweet.

Arizona also became a target of criticism after Brewer signed the anti-illegal immigration measure, SB 1070, into law in 2010. But the outcry then wasn't as  great as the current controversy, partly because the immigrant rights lobby wasn't as powerful as today's gay community and its supporters, Marson said.

"Certainly there was a short-term economic hit from 1070 … but there aren't many illegal immigrants who are CEOs or management of Fortune 500 companies," he said.

The "economic hit" Marson referred to was boycotts of Arizona businesses following SB 1070. Shortly after SB 1062's passage last week, businesses and companies took to the Internet, saying they still welcomed gay, lesbian and transgender customers.

Marriott, American Airlines and Apple are among the companies and businesses that have come out against the bill.

Some of the same foes of the legislation have threatened to boycott Arizona if the bill becomes law, and that possibility worries these businesses — some remembering the sting of the SB 1070 boycotts.

More at Memeorandum.

#Dodgers Reliever Brian Wilson Slams John McCain on Twitter

I love it.

At Hardball Talk, "Brian Wilson responds to John McCain on Twitter."

Senator McComplain knows a thing or two about coming in second and watching someone take a plunge in the pool (I mean poll) #POoLITICS
— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilson38) September 20, 2013

PREVIOUSLY: "#Dodgers Celebrate in #Diamonbacks' Swimming Pool."

#Dodgers Celebrate in #Diamondbacks' Swimming Pool

Here's Bill Plaschke:

Dodgers soak it all in after winning West, much to Arizona's chagrin http://t.co/TDWf8D32iM
— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) September 20, 2013

It was the most unusual of clinching celebrations. Yet for the Diamondbacks, it was also one of the most infuriating. Citing security issues, team officials had earlier asked the Dodgers not to return to the field once they entered their clubhouse. Even though the stadium was virtually empty when the Dodgers ran to the pool, the Diamondbacks were furious at what they perceived as the Dodgers' lack of respect for their team, their fans and their building.

"I could call it disrespectful and classless, but they don't have a beautiful pool at their old park and must have really wanted to see what one was like," said Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall, a former Dodgers executive, in an e-mailed statement.

Well, seems like you don't go all hog wild in someone else's house. And it made the front-page of today's paper.

@RSMcCain Disrespect? #Dodgers celebrate in #Diamondbacks' pool. #MLB #Playoffs pic.twitter.com/uOSVSMDe0z
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 20, 2013

But see, "Why Los Angeles Dodgers jumping into Arizona's pool wasn't disrespectful."

Truthout Labels DREAM 9 Aliens 'Undocumented U.S. Citizens...'

Hey, a classic leftist gambit to change the meaning of "citizen."

Orwell would be proud.

The Dream 9, undocumented US citizens since they were small children, challenge US immigration policies everyday: http://t.co/7d9nLNyI2N
— Truthout (@truthout) August 17, 2013

Meanwhile, that link takes you to a La Raza piece by Professor Roberto Cintli Rodriguez of the Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Arizona.

And the dude was in the O.C. last month, "Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez, Tucson Raza Studies Defender, at Libreria Martinez This Saturday!"

Open Borders Movement All Messed Up Over 'Dream 9' Clowns

At LAT, "Immigrant rights activists at odds over 'Dream 9'."

They got back in, amazingly.

Here's my previous entry, "Headline Change on the DREAMers' Self-Deport Clusterf-k."

Hotshot Widow Juliann Ashcraft Fights for Survivor's Benefits

The City of Prescott's gonna lose on this one way or another.

And to listen to Ms. Ashcraft is heartbreaking. She's been making the rounds on the news shows after a contention battle with the city council.

Here's London's Daily Mail, "Devastated Arizona Hotshot widow left to raise four children alone is DENIED lifetime benefits after city claims her husband was a 'seasonal' firefighter."

This Jake Tapper interview was excellent.



More at ABC News, "New Bill Could Boost Benefits for Some Arizona Hotshot Families."

Headline Change on the DREAMers' Self-Deport Clusterf-k

Remember this, "Illegal Aliens Self-Deport in Latest 'Poor Me' Open Borders Shakedown Scam"?

Well, the whole scam's not turning out too well for the idiot DREAMers, who probably won't be allowed back in the county. The best part is how this puts Obama in a jam. The open borders shills aren't pleased by the sideshow either.

Thus, my headline change, at Twitter.

Bwahahah!!

Stupid Demonstration at Arizona Border Makes Fools of Supporters of #Immigration Overhaul. @MichelleMalkin http://t.co/9QBAZWIW0l

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 5, 2013

Illegal Aliens Self-Deport in Latest 'Poor Me' Open Borders Shakedown Scam

And remember, the Los Angeles Times no longer uses the term "illegal immigrant," which makes this piece all the more ridiculous.

See, "Young immigrants stage a risky border protest":

NOGALES, Ariz. — Lizbeth Mateo paid her tuition Sunday for Santa Clara Law School, where classes begin next month. On Monday, she paused to send the school an email.

"I'm letting them know I may not make it in time," she said.

The reason for her delay: an unorthodox — and risky — protest at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mateo, 29, who was brought into the United States illegally at age 10, voluntarily flew back across the border recently in a protest aimed at recognizing the thousands of people deported from the United States over the last five years as the Obama administration has struggled to adopt a long-range program for overhauling immigration laws.

The protest Monday focused on the U.S. border station in Nogales. Mateo and two other young immigrants who had been brought into the U.S. as children asked to be admitted legally across the border they had surreptitiously traversed so many years ago and had spent much of their lives trying to avoid.

The immigration debate has focused on how a sweeping bill now in Congress might affect an estimated 11 million people who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas. Lost in the debate, Mateo and other protesters say, are those already expelled from the country. Deportations have increased from just under 300,000 in 2007 to nearly 400,000 in 2011, according to federal statistics.

"We should not forget the people who have been deported," she said.

Monday's action quickly grew as about 30 others spontaneously joined the petitioners at the border, taking activists by surprise. Organized by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, the immigrants planned to ask for humanitarian parole, which would allow them into the country, or, failing that, asylum.

As part of the planned protest, the trio was joined by six other immigrants who had returned to Mexico more than a year ago. The nine were questioned and transferred to a holding facility in Florence, Ariz. Activists in contact with the attorney for the youths said that they were denied humanitarian parole and that immigration officials would consider their request for asylum while holding them in Florence.

Immigration officials declined to comment on Monday's events and had said previously that people hoping to enter the country had to meet standard immigration requirements.

And they call these idiots "DREAMERS."

"CRIMINALS" is more accurate, and bleeding leftist tools.

Arizona Firefighters Lacked Proper Escape Route

At LAT:

The 19 wildland firefighters killed in Arizona appeared not to have established an escape route to a safe site large enough for the entire group, a forestry official said Monday.

Safety protocols require crews to have a place to go in case fire overtakes them. That did not happen in the Yarnell Hill fire Sunday. The bodies of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew were found in or near their emergency fire shelters, leading officials to believe they were overrun by the wind-driven flames.

"Obviously it wasn't a big enough open field … if they had to deploy their shelters," said Art Morrison, a spokesman with the Arizona State Forestry Division.

"They were too close to heavy fuels, so they got overrun," he said.

Being overtaken by a fire you are striving to extinguish is a firefighter's worst nightmare, but it is not uncommon: Of the more than 1,000 fatalities among wildland firefighters since 1910, about 63% occurred during "burnover," when a fire front engulfed crews.

On Sunday, the grass fire had run through half of the Arizona town of Yarnell when the unpredictable winds shifted. About 4:30 p.m., fire managers lost radio contact with the crew.

The firefighters had been cutting lines at the front of the fire, the most perilous place to be, officials said. Placing a crew at the head of a fire is a rare tactic.

Continue reading.

More at the Arizona Republic, "Yarnell Hill Fire: Seeking answers in wake of tragedy."

Also, "Yarnell Hill Fire: In small town, 'it affects every single person'," and "Yarnell Hill Fire: Fallen firefighters were in prime of their lives."

VIDEO ABOVE: "2008: Firefighters trapped in 'burnover' find safety in their emergency shelters."

Added: At WSJ, "Sudden Turn in Flames Doomed Firefighters: Officials Say 19 'Granite Mountain Hotshots' Were Killed in Burn Over; Arizona Blaze Still Raging."

South Texas Sees Increase in Illegal Immigrant Deaths

Now this is a bit more realistic for the Los Angeles Times, "Border crossers face high risk in South Texas":

FALFURRIAS, Texas — The South Texas sun had scorched the woman's face. Flies swarmed over her lips. Under a nearby mesquite plant, a plastic water jug lay empty.

Brooks County Chief Deputy Sheriff Urbino Martinez picked it up and walked back to a group of officials gathered around the sprawled body of the dead migrant.

"She got left behind for some reason," he said. "Either she got ill or she just got tired and they left her, knowing very well she wasn't going to get out of this area."

Justice of the Peace Roel Villarreal noticed that the woman's pants were pulled down around her hips, and her shirt was wrapped over her shoulders — signs of the woman's desperate struggle to cool down, he said.

"When it's damn hot, that's what you do before you die," Villarreal said.

Across the desert expanses of California and Arizona, thousands have perished over the years while attempting to cross illegally into the United States. Now another region, this one in Texas, has become a lethal magnet for increasing numbers of migrants.

Many of these deaths occur as they try to make it through the vast ranch lands that surround a Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281, some 70 miles north of the border. It is the last obstacle for migrants trying to get to Houston, so they attempt to go around it by the hundreds every night.

The Rio Grande Valley recently surpassed the Tucson sector as the area with the most migrant arrests. The surging traffic has besieged border agents at the once-relatively tranquil checkpoint near the small town of Falfurrias. It also illuminates one of the major obstacles to a comprehensive immigration overhaul being debated in the Senate.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who visited the region in May, has expressed reluctance to support any bill that would not guarantee a 90% arrest rate of all illegal crossers, including a proposal unveiled Thursday that would double the size of the Border Patrol. He has cited the growing death count as evidence that the border remains out of control at the southern tip of Texas.

"As a policymaker, I have a responsibility to find real solutions to these issues that are all too familiar to Texans," Cornyn wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News. "Anything less only perpetuates this grotesque human tragedy playing out every day on American soil."

Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "L.A. Times Pooh-Poohs Border Security."

L.A. Times Pooh-Poohs Border Security

See, "Border Surge Proposal Has Many Skeptics":

BISBEE, Ariz. — When George Joyal saw a group of people who appeared to have crossed the border illegally sneak by his land recently, his first call was to the Border Patrol.

Joyal, 67, a retired U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, gave the agent his location, then hurried outside with the cellphone to his backyard and made himself visible to a border surveillance camera perched atop a tower half a mile away.

"I see you," the agent said.

Moments later, Border Patrol agents zoomed up in a cloud of dust to detain the group. Joyal said there's no need for Congress to spend billions beefing up border patrol.

"I don't see that as giving us more security," Joyal says. "It's impossible to be 100% secure. Just how safe are you going to get and at what price?"

The Senate appears ready to approve immigration legislation next week providing a $30-billion boost in security along the U.S.-Mexico border, doubling the number of Border Patrol agents, but some experts and border residents like Joyal are skeptical that the buildup would pay off — even those who supported similar surges in the past.

The Border Patrol already has more than 20,000 agents. Last fiscal year, border-related agencies received about $18 billion in funding — more than the FBI, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Marshals Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives combined.

In Arizona, the federal government has spent billions fortifying the border with fencing, drones and more than 5,100 Border Patrol staff. It has paid off, with border apprehensions all along the border down to an all-time low of 356,873 last year, compared with 1.6 million in 2000.

Joyal said federal authorities needed to better manage staff they already had by moving agents from northern checkpoints closer to the border and relying less on fencing.

"We don't need more people," he said. "We need the proper employment of resources."

Bisbee Mayor Adriana Zavala Badal says most people in town think there are already too many border agents.

"You feel like you're always being looked at and watched. It's a nuisance," she said.

She still can't get used to the Border Patrol helicopters that hover overhead.

"You feel like you're in a war zone. It's noisy," she said, and "that's just with one helicopter."

Well, hey, they keep coming.

At the video, a secret camera shows drug smugglers coming over the border, although that $4.8 million figure sounds a little astronomical.

The border's not secure.

This is all pro-amnesty baloney. Even the Wall Street Journal's got the fever. See, "The Border Security Ruse."

'Rubio-Free' Senate

Boy, Coulter really wanted to talk about immigration!

Here's a write-up, at Politico, "Ann Coulter waits for ‘Rubio-free’ Senate."

PREVIOUSLY: "Marco Rubio Interview With Dana Bash on CNN Yesterday."

Marco Rubio Interview With Dana Bash on CNN Yesterday

I was never one to get on the Rubio bandwagon. And he is reviled now among conservatives on Twitter. I watched this yesterday and he just looks like the most pathetic weasel.

More at Legal Insurrection, "Moving to final stages of Senate #amnesty push."

And see Mark Krikorian, "CBO: Schumer-Rubio Bill Will Be a Failure," and "Mass Immigration Crowd Achieves Self-Parody."

I'll have more on immigration throughout the day...

A Shouting Ingraham Destroys O’Reilly After His Uninformed, Laughable Endorsement of Senate Immigration Bill

That's Pat Dollard's headline.

And at the Washington Post, "Border deal greatly improves chances for immigration bill":

Prospects for the contentious immigration bill that has been working its way through the Senate for months vastly improved Thursday after senators agreed to spend several billion more dollars to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border.

The agreement calls for doubling the number of federal border agents at a cost of about $30 billion, the completion of 700 miles of fencing, and expanded radar and aerial drone surveillance at a time when the domestic use of unmanned aircraft is the subject of an acrimonious national debate.

The deal is expected to secure at least a dozen more Republican “yes” votes for the measure and could help ensure its passage by the sizable margin that proponents have said they need to make it viable in the House.

However, supporters say the chances of immigration legislation advancing in the GOP-controlled House remain a source of concern, and that concern has shaped the Senate negotiations from the outset.

Supporters have insisted that approval by a significant bipartisan majority of senators would politically compel House Republicans to vote on the Senate bill even as its members debate more limited and conservative proposals. But that is an untested proposition, and Thursday’s failure in the House of a federal farm bill, after the Senate passed its version 66-27 last week, only deepened the concerns.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sought Thursday to tamp down expectations about immigration, saying that “regardless of what the Senate does, the House is going to work its will.”

Still, there was optimism in the Senate on Thursday following the announcement of the border security agreement. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the overall bill “is gaining Republican support” and that the new agreement “will be very helpful.”

Continue reading.

Amnesty Proposal Triples Number of Illegal Aliens Crossing Border

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine:

It’s like legalization is a magnet or something. But we know that can’t be true because we were repeatedly told by amnesty advocates that illegal aliens would not show up just because we promised to legalize them.

But someone neglected to tell them that.

Arrests of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States have nearly tripled in recent months — in anticipation of Congressional efforts to enact comprehensive immigration legislation, border patrol agents told CBS News Wednesday.

“Once the first group gets across, they call their family, they call their friends and let them know, ‘Hey the time is right, come on over,’” Border Patrol agent and union representative Chris Cabrera told CBS News.

In March, 7,500 illegals were arrested in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas — which includes McAllen — Cabrera told CBS News. That’s up from 2,800 in January.

In February, nearly 4,800 illegals were arrested in the Rio Grande, the local news website The Monitor.com reports.

In fact, agents in McAllen used their station’s carport to process nearly 900 illegals caught over three days in March, according to the Monitor.com.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

Mexico Doesn't Want America's Tired, Poor Americans Coming Over Its Borders — Or Anybody Else!

An excellent piece, from Michelle Malkin, "Reminder: How Mexico Treats 'Undesirable' Foreigners."

Exit question: If such self-interested “nativism” is right and good for the protection and survival of Mexico, why not for the United States?

Illegal Immigrant Climbs Border Fence While Senators McCain and Schumer Look On

At Pundit Press, "Illegal Alien Climbs Fence Right Behind Senators McCain, Schumer." And Hot Air, "Illegal immigrant climbs border fence right in front of McCain and Schumer; Update: Video added."

Is the United States-Mexican border better secured than it used to be?

Asks the New York Times, at its very prominent front-page story on immigration, "Border Security - Hard to Achieve, and Harder to Measure":

PENITAS, Tex. — The border fence behind Manuel Zamora’s home suggests strength and protection, its steel poles perfectly aligned just beyond the winding Rio Grande. But every night, the crossers come. After dark and at sunup, too, dozens of immigrants scale the wall or walk around it, their arrival announced by the angry yelps of backyard dogs.

“Look,” Mr. Zamora said early one recent morning, “here they come now.” He pointed toward his neighbor’s yard, where a young man in a dark sweatshirt and white sneakers sprinted toward the road, his breath visible in the winter dawn. Three others followed, rushing into a white sedan that arrived at the exact moment their feet hit the pavement.

“I don’t know how the government can stop it,” Mr. Zamora said, watching the car drive away. “It’s impossible to stop the traffic. You definitely can’t stop it with laws or walls.”

The challenge has tied Congress in knots for decades, and as lawmakers in Washington pursue a sweeping overhaul of immigration, the country is once again debating what to do about border security.

A bipartisan group of senators has agreed in principle to lay out a path to American citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally, but only after quantifiable progress is made on border security, raising thorny questions: What does a secure border mean exactly? How should it be measured? And what expectations are reasonable given the cost, the inherent challenges of the terrain and the flood of traffic crossing legally each year in the name of tourism and trade?

Some Republicans argue that the southern border remains dangerously porous and inadequately defended by the federal government. Obama administration officials, insisting there is no reason for delaying plans to move millions of people toward citizenship, counter that the border is already safer and more secure than ever. They say record increases in drug seizures, staffing and technology have greatly suppressed illegal traffic, driving down border apprehensions to around 365,000 in 2012, a decline of 78 percent since 2000.

Indeed, by every indicator, illegal migration into the United States has fallen tremendously — in part because of stricter immigration enforcement — and has held steady at lower levels for several years.

But all camps leave a lot out of the discussion. Visits to more than a half-dozen border locations over the past two years show that the levels of control vary significantly along the line in ways that Congress and the White House have yet to fully acknowledge.

It's not secure. Even asking if it's secure is a joke. Here's that Casey Wian report at CNN from last month, "Locals: Arizona border is not secure."

The Democrats don't want a secure border. They want to pad their Hispanic voting constituency. But we'll see how it goes. Thankfully the House GOP's lukewarm to immigration reform. But folks need to hold their feet to the fire. Boehner's on a roll right now, and he might used that momentum to cave to the White House, again.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Caves on ObamaCare's Medicaid Expansion

She's a real fighter, and always one of my favorite GOP governors, but this is not the best news.

At WSJ, "The GOP's ObamaCare Flippers":

As D-Day looms for ObamaCare, one big question is how many states will sign up for its Medicaid expansion. The recent and spectacular flip-flop of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is a case study in the political pressure and fiscal gimmicks designed to get states to succumb. It's also a study in the arcane and perverse ObamaCare incentives that are intended to gather ever more health-care spending under federal control.

***
Arizona's current Medicaid program is well run by the program's standards—a low bar—but it is also too large. The program now finances one of every two in-state births and two of every three days seniors spend in nursing homes. Spending tripled in the last decade to $9 billion a year.

That's despite $1.8 billion in cuts since 2009. The state fisc was such a mess that in 2010 Arizona Medicaid banned paying for several types of organ transplants. In March of that year, Ms. Brewer wrote to Mr. Obama calling the Affordable Care Act "a vast new entitlement program that our country does not have the resources to support" and also one that "makes our situation much worse, exacerbating our state's fiscal woes by billions of dollars."

Arizona argued before the Supreme Court that the Medicaid mandate was unconstitutional, anti-federalist commandeering—and seven Justices agreed it was "a gun to the head" and allowed states to opt out without penalty.

But so much for that. In her State of the State address last month, Ms. Brewer pulled a political 180°—or maybe 540°—and said expanding Medicaid would "inject $2 billion into our economy and "save and create thousands of jobs." (Is Larry Summers moonlighting as a Brewer speechwriter?)

One secret of her switcheroo is Medicaid's "matching rate" formula, in which the feds pick up 67% of Arizona's existing spending and 100% (and later 90%) of the costs of ObamaCare's newly eligible population. The state supposedly no longer needs to spend "billions" but merely an extra $154 million in 2014—then bank $1.6 billion from Washington, which her budget documents call "a return on investment of more than 10-to-1."

How can the state conjure such money from nothing? The answer is that Ms. Brewer and Arizona hospitals have cooked up a spending scheme to rip off national taxpayers to avoid even the $154 million the state would at first pay. The hospital lobby first floated this scheme in 2011 "for the specific purpose of generating matching federal Medicaid funds."

Continue reading.

RELATED: At Politico, "Kasich's Obamacare flip burns conservatives."

Casey Wian Reports on America's Unsecured Southern Border

A great report.

Wian used to be Lou Dobbs' main hard-hitting immigration reporter. Glad he's still telling like it is, on CNN amazingly.