pen-l  

Re: [Pen-l] Beck and call

raghu
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:01:49 -0700

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenw...@panix.com> wrote:
> The Dems need Beck to scare wavering liberals into voting for centrists. I 
> just don't believe they're as numerous or as dangerous as the likes of Media 
> Matters wants us to believe.
>


Numerous they may not be, but I think they are plenty dangerous. See
what these rabid tea-party types have done in Arizona:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007237
----------------------------------snip
I have a piece in the July issue of the magazine (not yet available
online) about the political looniness in the state of Arizona, which
goes well beyond the issue of immigration. Arizona, I note, is
essentially bankrupt; if it were a business it would be declared
insolvent and put in receivership. In May, voters approved a ballot
measure that temporarily raised the state sales tax to bring in $1
billion. That averted an immediate budget collapse but provided no
long-term solution to the crisis.

There are multiple causes for the mess in Arizona, including the fact
that the legislature is composed almost entirely of dimwits, racists,
and cranks. State lawmakers turned racial profiling into official
policy, through a law that requires police to stop suspected illegal
immigrants and demand to see their papers. The Senate passed a bill to
ban the funding of any ethnic-studies programs at state universities,
as well as one to prohibit “intentionally or knowingly creating a
human-animal hybrid.”

And as the state’s economy teetered on the brink of collapse earlier
this year, lawmakers took time out from their primary pastime —
slashing social spending — to reduce what Eagle Scouts paid for
fishing license fees, declared a Boy Scout holiday, and granted a
constitutional right to vote.







-raghu.
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