"America is a lot like Disney World in that once you get a ticket, you're in."

[jefferson_dem]

The "people are angry and frustrated" premise notwithstanding, I'm happy to see Huckleberry steps up to question "SHOWMEYOURPAPERSGATE".

"It's not my place to agree or disagree"

That's Mike Huckabee's response to Arizona's new immigration law in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

Q: Do you agree with the recently passed law in Arizona that empowers law enforcement officials to check whether a person being stopped or detained is a U.S. citizen?

A: It's not my place to agree or disagree.

I understand why it was passed and why 70 percent of the people of Arizona support it. They're angry, they're frustrated, and they're scared. There are a half-million illegals who have poured into their state. ... They feel under siege, and I understand that.

What does concerns me is that if it's not carried out and applied carefully, you could end up in the situation where people are indiscriminately stopped who are absolute citizens. ... America is a lot like Disney World in that once you get a ticket, you're in. You don't have to keep showing your ticket to keep riding the rides. That's the whole point of liberty.

http://www.gop12.com/2010/04/its-not-my-place-to-agree-or-disagree.html

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. I was shocked the other day, watching the Daily Show and seeing Tom Tancredo bash the AZ bill.

I've met that guy before - he's certifiably nuts, ESPECIALLY on immigration. When a guy like that has serious problems with the law, it's a problem.

[YOY]

2. Of course they still won't go after those who employ those undocumented folks sieging them...

n.t.

[atreides1]

4. Sure they will

But they have to have "knowingly hired an illegal"!

If someone applies for a job and has the required paperwork, then they did not "knowingly" hire an illegal.

[YOY]

6. I've seen AZ carwashes.

Those dudes they have working there are picked up in the morning from day laborer worksites. Paid afterwards in cash.

It's rampant there. There is no paperwork involved. Just blind eyes.

[sandnsea]

7. That's illegal too

Except I will bet they will use it to round up people on the streets and let the ones driving the vehicles keep driving.

[Igel]

10. Most people don't look past the outrage.

The bill has a couple of interesting provisions. Not sure I'd call them "good." Just "interesting."

The first is that it makes it a misdemeanor to stop and hire a day laborer. I don't think it specifies documented or undocumented.

The second is that it requires an anonymous report form be drawn up so that people can report any suspected illegal immigrant hired by an employer. If a person doesn't use it, the report can still be deemed valid and investigated. The employer gets fined heftily if he can't weasel out by saying he didn't know. Note that Arizona already has a fairly draconian law nailing employers for hiring ineligible workers.

Having been in the position of hiring, I sympathize with the "knowingly" provision. I mean, when the I-9 went into effect I was given SS cards from the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. They were all different. Some could easily have been forged; none were, but I know that because I had known the people for years beforehand, and their parents (and in some cases their grandparents). And, of course, one had a name mismatch because everybody used the guy's middle name and that's the name he had been hired under--so that the SSA during a SSN verification binge bounced him and required that we correct our records. He wasn't "George", he was "Thomas G."

Yes, it's a provision that's abused. But do we punish the innocent to make sure we get all the guilty folk, or let some of the guilty slide to keep from punishing the innocent?

[dkf]

3. I knew it! We love people who break the law. It's the people who follow the law that are the

Schmucks.

Screw the law. Steal what you can evade your taxes and fudge your income to get a mortgage you can't afford. It's all good.

If we all break the law they can't stick us all in jail right?

I'm beginning to see why the right insists on guns. We are devolving into a "laws are meaningless" society so you can't expect the government to do bunk for you.

[sandnsea]

8. That is just nuts

A. If an employer isn't withholding taxes, the employer is breaking the law.

B. That means the worker is paying taxes, unless the employer is breaking the law.

C. When the worker is paying taxes, and making minimum wage, it doesn't matter where that worker was born. That worker is going to use social services that the citizens will have to provide, because the employer has duped the citizens into believing they're the ones who can't afford to pay decent wagers or benefits... or taxes.

D. If you are offered a no-interest loan, and the possibility of ownership, on a house for $600 a month; or rent for $900 a month, which would you choose?

E. Just where the hell do you live?

[Arkana]

5. That's actually kind of a good analogy Huck made there.

America as Disney World.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Huck is afraid to directly come out and say it, but he knows what this shitty law is really about.

Look at this electoral map showing the change from Repuke to Democratic vote from 2004 - 2008



Notice how Huck's state stands out like a sore red racist thumb? He knows exactly what would happen if such a law was passed in Arkansas.

[Orsino]

11. What was that noise? A cock crowing?

Or just a weenie chickening out?