If you see a public figure being an asshole about immigration...
Add it to the comments below.
Tom Coburn, Asshole of the Day for November 20, 2014
Tonight President Obama will outline his immigration executive order, which is expected to defer deportation of at least 5 million undocumented immigrants already in the US.
Despite what you may hear the shrieking xenophobes claim about this order, what remains true is this:
As Julia Preston observes: “Congress has provided only enough funding for the administration to carry out about 400,000 deportations each year. Mr. Obama, to the dismay of immigrant-rights advocates, has met that goal.” That is a small fraction of the 11 million undocumented immigrants. The question is: How should the enforcement bureaucracy choose who belongs to that small fraction, and how far can he go in setting down guidelines for determining that?
So Obama can only deport 400K per year because that's all Congress has funded, so no matter what 10.6 million won't get deported this year. So all Obama is doing with this executive order and the one in 2012 is spelling out that of the 400K he can deport, some categories won't be pursued. That's all. And if Congress wants to deport all 11 million, then they should fund that, but they haven't.
But that's not enough for Sen. Tom Coburn, who describes what Obama will announce as a huge overreach of authority sure to be greeted by an uprising of the people:
he accuses Obama of acting like "an autocratic leader that's going to disregard what the Constitution says and make law anyway." He says changes in immigration policy require passage by Congress, not just the president's signature — a charge the White House disputes and on which legal experts disagree.
"Instead of having the rule of law handling in our country today, now we're starting to have the rule of rulers, and that's the total antithesis of what this country was founded on," Coburn says. "Here's how people think: Well, if the law doesn't apply to the president ... then why should it apply to me?"
...
"The country's going to go nuts, because they're going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it's going to be a very serious situation," Coburn said on Capital Download. "You're going to see — hopefully not — but you could see instances of anarchy. ... You could see violence."
Sorry, Senator, but you're wrong. And you could sponsor a bill to fund deporting all 11 million, but you haven't. So please stop acting like Obama deciding that 5 million aren't a priority is the end of freedom in this country.
Look, even Megyn Kelly acknowledges that nothing sinister is happening here, despite what gets shouted on Fox News:
On the November 19 edition of The Kelly File, Kelly acknowledged that the president is not actually pursuing "amnesty," because "amnesty is citizenship and that's not what [Obama] is talking about." Kelly also explained how conservatives purposely misuse the word "amnesty" for political gain: "That's a hot-button term that the right uses to sort of get people upset."
So, for pretending that Obama has the power to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, when in truth he only has the power to deport 400,000, Tom Coburn is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Tom Coburn's third time as Asshole of the Day. Previous wins were for fundraising on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy after voting against aid to Sandy victims and asking for aid for Oklahoma tornadoes after voting against aid for hurricane victims.
Full story: USA Today.
Lots of assholes have opinions about immigration
Obama's announcement on immigration is tonight. Here's all the assholes we've featured on the topic.
Mo Brooks, Asshole of the Day for August 4, 2014
According to the Census Bureau whites are 77.7% of the US population. Of course for some that's not enough. After all the president is only half white, and there are plenty of racist idiots who dispute even the 50% figure.
And with the population still a supermajority of whiteness, it would just be ridiculous for Rep. Mo Brooks to claim there is a War On Whites:
“This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else,” he said during an interview Monday with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. "It's part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true.”
Brooks was responding to comments made by National Journal's Ron Fournier, who told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that "the fastest growing voting bloc in this country thinks the Republican Party hates them. This party, your party, cannot be the party of the future beyond November if you’re seen as the party of white people.”
Yes, yes, it's really quite something here. Rep. Brooks is saying that Obama wants to divide the country along racial lines, even though Obama's side would be outnumbered 3-to-1.
Newsflash: you can't win a majority by championing the 22% against the 77%! The math just won't work.
Of course as Bill Clinton pointed out in 2012, Republican command of math hasn't been all that strong lately, so I suppose it's possible that Brooks doesn't realize that 77% is greater than 22%.
But math aside, it's clear what Rep. Brooks' purpose is-- to rile up white people along racial lines against Democrats in general and Obama in particular. He wants whites to feel like victims. He wants a white backlash.
And what's this backlash to? The specific trigger for Brooks was the idea that Hispanics would think Republicans hate them on the basis of how racist and xenophobic they are being on the issue of immigration. This is not crazy talk-- only a year ago the GOP "Autopsy report", from the party itself, not Democrats, said the following:
If Hispanic Americans perceive that [a] GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence. It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.
So, no, there is no War On Whites in general, and certainly not on the specific issue of immigration or the border specifically. But Rep. Brooks says there is as a way of riling up racists, and for that, he is Asshole of the Day.
It is Mo Brooks' first time as Asshole of the Day.
Full story: HuffPo
Rick Perry, Asshole of the Day for July 23, 2014
There’s a crisis on America’s southern border, and it’s not poor adult immigrants coming for work and opportunity, it’s children fleeing violence in Central America. Rather than stay and risk death, they travel hundreds of miles with very little resources with the hope of safety in America.
But of course in America, the very people who most loudly proclaim their Christianity don’t want to help. They shout loudly to deport these children who have swelled the detention centers and strained the resources to support them. There’s lots of loose talk that Obama is “in on it”, or that Obama is not following the law, but he is following the law-- a law signed by George W. Bush designed to keep immigrant children safe, whether they came here legally or not. And as to the “in on it” allegation, unless you believe that Obama got Central American drug gangs to escalate the violence and killings, there’s just no plausible other conspiracy here.
We’ve featured several assholes who have spoken out on the crisis in various ways:
- Sarah Palin accuses Obama of exploiting foreign children to orchestrate a crisis
- William Gheen wants Americans to mail dirty underwear to politicians and refugees
- Rep. Louie Gohmert wants to shoot 10-year-old refugees at the border
- Rep. Phil Gingrey fear mongering about unvaccinated immigrant children when he doesn’t think American children need to be vaccinated
- Rep. Adam Kwasman yelled at a school bus of citizens because he thought they were undocumented immigrant children
But there’s the run-of-the-mill fear mongering, conspiracy theory, and xenophobia; and then there’s Rick Perry.
Gov. Perry, you may recall, was a serious contender for the GOP nomination in 2011 until he suggested that deporting children was wrong, and his numbers were sliding even before his Oops moment. But that was then.
As the crisis has escalated Perry has tried to play to his base while still governing like a human, but if the two are in conflict, guess which he does?
- He said Obama was in on it somehow, and then stuck to it when pressed whether he really believed that days later.
- He refused to shake Obama’s hand, the customary gesture when the President comes to a governor’s state.
- As he let the right wing hype machine make a big deal out of Obama saying he didn’t want to do a photo-op on the border, Rick Perry did a photo-op with Sean Hannity on the border, playing at soldiers.
And then this: This week Perry said he would send the Texas National Guard down to the border. Sounds like he's doing something. But is he? Here's what the Texas National Guard General says about the deployment:
Most of the 1,000 National Guard troops headed to the Texas-Mexico border will take up observational positions and detain people only if they interfere with their mission, a top general over the deployment said Tuesday.
Texas Adjutant General John Nichols said the troops will help deter illicit traffic while U.S. Border Patrol agents deal with a record spike of unaccompanied minors entering the country. The Texas National Guard troops are headed to border on the orders of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has been a chief critic of the White House response to the crisis and is considering another run for president in 2016.
Nichols said troops will be armed for their safety, but when asked if their weapons would be loaded would say only that ammunition would be in magazines.
So will they be stopping people at the border? No.
What can they do? Nothing.
They are observers. They can stand there with possibly empty guns looking tough. Looking like Perry is doing something.
It’s all just for show. For Fox News footage. For his 2016 campaign commercials, and especially for his SuperPAC that he won’t coordinate with.
But it's not to help secure the border, like he's pretending to the GOP base of xenophobes. Not one single bit.
Oh, and one last thing-- Perry expects us to reimburse him for this piece of pointless theater. Yep. Mr. States' Rights wants federal money to pay for the deployment he ordered.
So, for making a big show of sending the National Guard, even though they can't and won't do anything, Rick Perry is Asshole of the Day.
It is Gov. Perry’s sixth time as Asshole of the Day. Previous wins were for
- saying his wife never meant to defend women’s right to control their own bodies
- claiming his abortion bill is about protecting women’s health, even though it has no provision to save the life of the mother
- saying all women should be forced to have babies as teenagers because Wendy Davis did
- suggesting that expanding Medicaid will invent people to be sick
- refusing to shake Obama's hand and saying Obama was "in on" the border crisis somehow
Full story: Talking Points Memo
Adam Kwasman, Asshole of the Day for July 16, 2014
The migrant children crisis enters its second month, and while the politicians have yet to solve it, there's been a real clown car of rhetoric with some calling for shooting children at the border to others claiming that Obama is somehow in on a scheme that involves Central American gang violence pushing parents to send their children thousands of miles by themselves for the hope of a better life. But of course if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that people don't think through the accusations they hurl at opponents.
But yesterday we had a new entry from Arizona. State legislator and GOP congressional candidate Adam Kwasman went out to protest a school bus full of children and ended up looking like a fool:
Adam Kwasman had just raced up to Phoenix Tuesday morning from the Oracle protest over the expected arrival of dozens of migrant children at a shelter.
He had tweeted from the scene, "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law." He included a photo of the back of a yellow school bus.
Kwasman later told me he saw the migrant children. "I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces.... This is not compassion," he said.
But there was a problem with Kwasman's story: There was no fear on their faces. Those weren't the migrant children in the school bus. Those were children from the Marana school district. They were heading to the YMCA's Triangle Y Camp, not far from the Rite of Passage shelter for the migrants, at the base of Mt. Lemmon.
And he doesn't just look like a fool, he looks like a racist too. He says he saw the children, and that was enough to confirm that they were the undocumented migrants. He'd hardly be the first racist nativist to assume everyone darker than him is illegal, though few of them actually get so far as to confront a school bus of citizens. But he did. And for that, Adam Kwasman is Asshole of the Day.
It is Adam Kwasman's first time as Asshole of the Day, though one of many during the immigration crisis:
- Sarah Palin accuses Obama of exploiting foreign children to orchestrate a crisis
- William Gheen wants Americans to mail dirty underwear to politicians and refugees
- Gov. Rick Perry accuses Obama of "being in on it" and won't shake his hand
- Rep. Louie Gohmert wants to shoot 10-year-old refugees at the border
- Rep. Phil Gingrey fear mongering about unvaccinated immigrant children when he doesn't think American children need to be vaccinated
Full story: Arizona Republic (sent by the Everlasting GOPstoppers)
Is President Obama Asshole of the Day?
Mike Nealon sent me this on Facebook, and since we gave Rick Perry Asshole of the Day for not shaking hands, we thought it was worth asking:
Asshole of the day: Barack Obama, for saying he’s not interested in photo ops right after he invited the governor of Texas to shake his hand for a photo op while refusing to meet with him for a meaningful discussion on the influx of illegal immigrants on the Texas border.
Of course there was more to the Perry story than just not shaking hands— he also claimed that Obama was “in on it somehow”, meaning that Obama had conspired to create this crisis of Central American immigrants.
So is President Obama asshole of the day? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Photo source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama
Rick Perry, Asshole of the Day for July 8, 2014
Last week Gov. Rick Perry was discussing the immigration crisis and suggested that Obama was "in on this somehow". How? Well, he wouldn't say. When pressed a few days later, he stuck to his story and even said he didn't want to venture into conspiracy theories. Sorry, Governor, but suggesting the President is somehow getting children to illegally cross the border without explaining details or motive is conspiracy theory. You're already there. I satirized this as
Rick Perry: “I just think Obama sponsored Central American death squads so concerned parents would flood the US border with their kids.”
— Top Conservative Cat (@TeaPartyCat) July 8, 2014
But that's just one theory. I'm sure Perry has more and will share them when he gets a chance, right?
And now today the Perry has taken it up a notch by refusing to shake hands with President Obama when he comes to Texas:
The governor's office says the White House extended an invitation to Perry to meet Obama on the tarmac when he arrives for Democratic fundraisers in Dallas and Austin. However, Perry refused the offer, asking instead to meet with Obama in private to discuss the high number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.
“I appreciate the offer to greet you at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, but a quick handshake on the tarmac will not allow for a thoughtful discussion regarding the humanitarian and national security crises enveloping the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas,” Perry wrote Monday in a letter to the president. “I would instead offer to meet with you at any time during your visit to Texas for a substantive meeting to discuss this critical issue.”
Yes, you read that right-- Rick Perry said he wants a "thoughtful discussion". Rick Perry.
Now I’m sure any minute now Fox News and Republicans will begin hyperventilating over Rick Perry refusing to shake hands with the President of the United States, just like they did over the Dixie Chicks saying they weren’t proud of President Bush. I’ll wait…
Still waiting…
Of course that's never going to happen, because Fox News never cared about respecting the office, only respecting it when a Republican is in it. Just another cudgel to use against their opponents.
And maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe Rick Perry has some valid excuses:
Maybe he only has room in his head for two things, so if he shakes hands, then he’ll forget something important. Oops!
Maybe he’s worried he’ll catch socialist cooties.
Maybe he’s worried shaking hands will allow Obama to perform a jedi-mind-meld on him.
Maybe he’s worried a photo of him shaking hands with Obama will be used against him in the 2016 primary.
Oh, wait! That’s it!
And more to the point-- what thoughtful discussion does Rick Perry want to have with the man who he's accused of "being in on it"? Frankly after his previous statements, you'd think Rick Perry was planning a citizen's arrest of Obama; anything less and he's just another RINO squish.
So, for accusing Obama of plotting to create a humanitarian crisis and then refusing to shake hands with him, Rick Perry is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Gov. Perry’s 5th time as Asshole of the Day. Previous wins were for
- saying his wife never meant to defend women's right to control their own bodies
- claiming his abortion bill is about protecting women's health, even though it has no provision to save the life of the mother
- saying all women should be forced to have babies as teenagers because Wendy Davis did
- suggesting that expanding Medicaid will invent people to be sick
Full story: HuffPo
Asshole of the Day for June 27, 2014: William Gheen
America faces an immigration crisis. One year since the Senate acted to solve the crisis, John Boehner (yesterday's Asshole of the Day) still hasn't allowed the Senate bill to be voted on in the House.
What can Americans do? Three responses we've observed:
Try to help: Speak out, as Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown did today. Or join the growing movement that's applying constant pressure on Congress to act.
Be a wimp: Like Marco Rubio, who's spent all year giving policy speeches to burnish his 2016 credentials--while avoiding his once-signature topic of immigration entirely.
Be an asshole: Like William Gheen, the guy who runs the anti-immigrant group Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC). He was Asshole of the Day once before, for claiming he was championing white rule for historical, not racist, reasons. Now he's responding to the current border crisis and the news that Homeland Security is seeking underwear for thousands of detained immigrants in the least tasteful manner possible: by suggesting that "tens of thousands of Americans" mail used underwear, not just to "illegals," but to Speaker Boehner and President Obama too.
As Talking Points Memo notes: "In April, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated ALIPAC as a hate group."
It's a hate group run by a now two-time Asshole of the Day.
Sarah Palin, Asshole of the Day for June 16, 2014
It's not often you see Sarah Palin criticize Republicans and Democrats alike for the same thing, which is really no surprise really when Mitch McConnell and others conspired in 2009 to make sure that Republicans never, ever voted for anything with Obama. In 5 years they've pretty much been the Grand Old not-Obama Party.
But with the growing crisis in detention centers along the border, St. Sarah of the North gives Republicans an equal share of blame for doing nothing. Both parties, she says, must do something.
And then, before anyone can think about giving her a primary challenge from the right for being bipartisan and soft on immigration like Eric Cantor, she launches into a diatribe about how Obama caused it, even though of course she expects both parties to fix it:
So, GOP and Democrats alike, where are you on this humanitarian issue of child abuse?
Hang on to your hat, because here’s the issue: Barack Obama has orchestrated this newest “crisis” in order to overload the system with the intention of “fixing” the problems his own policies create – by fiat, and that infamous phone and pen; screw the rule of law. He’s warned you by proudly claiming his executive orders can bypass the peoples’ representatives and obviously ignore the will of the people.
This exploitation of foreigners’ children is an inhumane ploy to entice families to break laws by literally shoving kids across one of Obama’s infamous and irrelevant lines, with assurance that parents, aunties, step-uncles and third cousins twice removed will get to cut in line too – that sacred line that previously led law abiding, hardworking immigrants to build this great nation. Barack Obama will keep phoning in and penning the message that he will NOT secure borders, so, hey, extended undocumented relatives, you’re free to join the kids being used and abused to snag that golden ticket. Obama surely knows a nation is not a nation without borders, while we must surely know this is the “fundamental transformation of America” that he promised and some of us warned about.
Congress and American voters, how long will you let Team Obama get away with this? The recent avalanche of devastating crises caused by a president believing he is above the law has set the most dangerous precedent a once-free people can imagine. To encourage and reward lawlessness by refusing to enforce the will of the people as proven by laws passed by our political representatives is the signature of a tyrant. In this case, Obama’s refusal to enforce immigration laws and his blatant suggestion that his chosen illegal activity will be rewarded are proof of his tyrannical tactics. The recent numerous manipulated “crises” have the media pinging and ponging trying to keep up with what is the scandal of the day, which one overshadows another, and how will they distract next, and who’s on first?! Purposeful decisions causing these crises are meant to overload the system, justify abuse of executive power to “fix” it all, and ultimately tighten control of the people.
And she ends by saying she wants the major expenditure to be jet fuel to send all these children home. How exactly they get matched back to their parents or even how border agents will know which country they go to is not of interest to her. It's not even a stretch to suggest that were it up to her to execute, they'd all be dumped in the wrong country where they would face a new humanitarian crisis, but not here, so she would no longer be interested.
Of course an unsecured border and the prospect of more generous welfare benefits might be enough to get someone to cross and take advantage. She's right about that-- because she tells a story about how her family crossed into Canada to take advantage of free Canadian healthcare when she was young.
But still, the accusation that Obama created a humanitarian crisis with foreign children is laying it on a little thick, even by Palin standards. It's up there with her lie about "Death Panels", which were actually to pay doctors to discuss what types of life saving measures (if any) patients wanted instead of leaving it to their families to decide.
So, for saying Obama enticed people to send their children illegally to the US so they can become anchors to pull in all the rest of their clan, Sarah Palin is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Sarah Palin's seventh time time as Asshole of the Day. Previous wins include:
- saying that by becoming a grandmother Hillary will adopt conservative views
- making a huge “scandal” out of a president having someone hold an umbrella
- saying black people don’t understand her definition of slavery
- defending Phil Robertson’s homophobic, racist interview without even reading it
- saying Putin invaded Crimea because Obama wears “mom jeans”
- saying if she were in charge “waterboarding is how we’d baptize terrorists”
- criticizing Obama for bringing home Bowe Bergdahl after she had publicly prayed for Bergdahl's return
Full story: Sarah Palin Facebook page
Asshole of the Day for May 24, 2014: John Boehner
The arguments have been made. The economic benefits have been documented. And the polls have been taken.
Americans overwhelmingly support immigration reform, Prominent Republicans--even noted Tea Party leaders--have demanded action. Yet, almost a year after the Senate voted 68-32 to pass a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill, Speaker John Boehner still refuses to bring the bill up for a vote in the House.
Even more shocking, when confronted by Univision's Jorge Ramos on Thursday, Boehner claimed that "no one has read" the Senate bill.
Boehner made a pathetic attempt to blame Obamacare for his inaction on immigration reform. But Ramos was having none of that: "What does Obamacare have to do with immigration reform?" he demanded.
Boehner, of course, was unable to offer a coherent response.
There is one man in America with the power to advance immigration reform this year. Speaker of the House John Boehner has a clear 6-week window in June-July to call a vote. Yet when told, "You can do it. And you really haven't done it," by the nation's most prominent Hispanic journalist, Boehner feebly replied: "I appreciate your opinion," then moved on to the next question.
For his shameful inaction on immigration reform, compounded by the lies he tells to deflect blame, Speaker John Boehner is Asshole of the Day.
It's John Boehner's 7th time as Asshole of the Day: http://assholeoftheday.us/tagged/john-boehner
Is Bryan Fischer Asshole of the Day (again)?
Is Bryan Fischer asshole of the day for saying immigration has put Americans "in a worse position than slaves"?
Fischer then took a call from a listener named Chris who said that he had to pull his child out of the local public school because nobody spoke English while he has been unable to find work in the insulation industry because he does not speak Spanish.
That prompted Fischer to declare that Chris was literally in "a worse position than slaves because at least slaves had a job"
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bryan-fischer-immigration-devil-and-slavery
"At least slaves had a job"? Really? That's your comparison.
There's just no way this caller is telling the truth:
First of all, where in America is there a public school where nobody speaks English?
Second, while there may be Spanish speakers in the insulation industry, there certainly are plenty of English speakers. And many of the customers are certainly English speakers.
Though it's possible I suppose that the caller isn't lying, and has somehow wandered into Mexico and is too stupid to notice he's no longer in the US.
That's how stupid this call is. But, sure, take this idiot's side since it allows you to speak out against immigration, Mr. Fischer.
Photo source: http://www.glaad.org/cap/bryan-fischer
Chris Mapp, Asshole of the Day for February 25, 2014
The primaries are heating up already, and in the Texas Senate race, Chris Mapp is doing all he can to stand out:
A U.S. Senate candidate is facing fierce criticism after saying ranchers should be free to shoot “wetbacks" on sight, using a derogatory term that the candidate describes as "normal" in his home state.
Texas Republican Chris Mapp, who is challenging Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the upcoming GOP primary, made the remarks during an interview with the Dallas Morning News' editorial board. The board noted Mapp's remarks in its February 16 endorsement of Cornyn.
"South Texas businessman Chris Mapp, 53, told this editorial board that ranchers should be allowed to shoot on sight anyone illegally crossing the border on to their land, referred to such people as ‘wetbacks,’ and called the president a ‘socialist son of a bitch,’ the editorial reads.
There's two problems here:
- Ranchers should be allowed to shoot anyone on sight. No due process, no checking if they are US citizens or anything, just armed citizens going with their gut about whether someone is illegal or not. This idea is so racist and awful that I'm surprised he didn't suggest hiring George Zimmerman to help patrol.
- "Wetbacks"? He knows this is an offensive term, but then he excuses it because "it's normal". It's like he said "I know n***** is offensive, but everyone says it." That's not OK.
I'm now referring to this "it's normal" excuse for hate speech as the Geraldo Rivera defense, in which he states that any slur, no matter how offensive, is OK if it was prevalent when you were growing up. And to be clear about how weak this defense is, the effect of it would be that no slur can ever be wiped out as long as people keep saying it.
So, for using a racist slur that he clearly knows is wrong and then suggesting it's OK for people to just start shooting people because they "think they might be illegal", Chris Mapp is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Chris Mapp's first time being named Asshole of the Day.
Full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/chris-mapp-wetbacks_n_4849184.html
Laura Ingraham, Asshole of the Day for February 5, 2014
Most people know that they can't get away with outright racism any more. They try to couch it in other things. Or even when they do say outright racist things, they'll preface it with "I'm not racist, but…" like 2013 Racist of the Year Ted Nugent saying he could fix the black problem by getting them alarm clocks.
But every now and then what they really mean, or why they're really upset, slips out. Today that was Laura Ingraham attacking Justice Sotomayor for having the divided loyalties of an immigrant:
Conservative pundit Laura Ingraham on Tuesday criticized Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor for claiming the term “illegal alien” is insulting, and that people should instead used the term “undocumented immigrant.”
"Why do we have a Supreme Court justice whose allegiance obviously goes to her immigrant family background and not to the U.S. Constitution?" Ingraham asked on her show. “Her duty is to defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. And that’s what she says?”
Ingraham ripped into Sotomayor while complaining that “whatever illegal aliens want, illegal aliens get.”
Except, and here's where Ingraham reveals herself-- Sotomayor’s family is from Puerto Rico, and Puerto Ricans aren't immigrants. They are citizens. They are Americans.
It's not like Ingraham just heard of Justice Sotomayor, or that it's a big secret that her family is from Puerto Rico. It's pretty much available to anyone with 10 seconds and access to the internet.
But Ingraham doesn't feel she needs to spend that 10 seconds before smearing a Supreme Court justice, because it's enough for her to "know" that there's something not American about Sotomayor because of her name or background. And for that, Laura Ingraham, you are Asshole of the Day.
It is Laura Ingraham's first time as Asshole of the Day.
Full story: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/laura-ingraham-sotomayor-immigrant-family-background AND http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/04/laura-ingrahams-attacks-on-sonia-sotomayor-miss/197915
Is Laura Ingraham Asshole of the Day?
Is Laura Ingraham asshole of the day for saying Justice Sotomayor's allegiance is to "her immigrant family", even though they're from the US?
Conservative pundit Laura Ingraham on Tuesday criticized Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor for claiming the term "illegal alien" is insulting, and that people should instead used the term "undocumented immigrant."
"Why do we have a Supreme Court justice whose allegiance obviously goes to her immigrant family background and not to the U.S. Constitution?" Ingraham asked on her show. "Her duty is to defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. And that's what she says?"
Ingraham ripped into Sotomayor while complaining that "whatever illegal aliens want, illegal aliens get."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/laura-ingraham-sotomayor-immigrant-family-background
Oh, and oops! Sotomayor's family is from Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico is in the US and all residents are US citizens.
Your racism is showing, Ms. Ingraham.
Photo source: http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2010/10/laura-ingraham-being-gay-absolutely-not-a-choice/
Is Paul Broun Asshole of the Day?
Is Rep. Paul Broun asshole of the day for saying "Democrats need illegal aliens to win Georgia"?
"The only way Georgia is going to change is if we have all these illegal aliens in here in Georgia, [and] give them the right to vote," Broun said in an interview with Georgia Public Radio, which was noted by The Hill. "It would be morally wrong, it would be illegal to do so, under our current law."
"Actually, all these illegal aliens are getting federal largesse and taking taxpayers’ dollars," Broun continued. "That’s the only way that this state is going to become Democratic again, in the next number of decades."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/paul-broun-illegal-aliens_n_4556625.html
Or, and I know this is going to sound crazy, Rep. Broun, Democrats could win Georgia because Republicans go too far trying to oppress women and minorities and punish the poor to reward the rich. But you wouldn't understand that because there's no such thing as too far for you.
Photo source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Broun_Congressional_Portrait.jpg
Asshole of the Day for January 4, 2014: William Gheen
A guy who runs the anti-immigrant group Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) realizes he won't get far if people are able to make people think he's a racist. But of course at least some of his supporters are against immigration for racist reasons, and he has to come up with ways to make sure they know what he's talking about. So in come the racist dog whistles.
ALIPAC president William Gheen chooses to say he's not preserving white rule, which would offend people, but instead, he's preserving America's history of being “predominately governed by people of European descendancy.” Serioulsy:
William Gheen, head of the anti-immigrant group Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC), explained to an Idaho radio host last month that he’s not a racist, he’s just opposed to the people who are trying to change America’s history of being “predominately governed by people of European descendancy.”
The people who call him a racist, Gheen told host Kevin Miller, are just “looking for any way to create division among any group,” a practice that he claims has increased under the Obama administration.
Sorry, you're going to have to do better than that, asshole. The Constitution and Declaration of Independence don't say "all men are created equal except those who aren't of European descendancy."
It is William Gheen's first time as Asshole of the Day.
Full story: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/william-gheen-explains-hes-not-racist-just-wants-preserve-white-rule