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Saturday 31 July 2010

The law was never about border security or immigration. It was about changing our perceptions and shifting blame for our economic collapse from politicians to illegal immigrants. Politicians like state Sen. Russell Pearce, who sponsored SB 1070, have altered the way people think about those who cross the border illegally. Such people are no longer given the benefit of the doubt for being peaceful or hardworking, but in the eyes of many – including those who once believed differently – they are common (or worse) criminals. E.J. Montini

Monday 19 July 2010

Ever since [Jan] Brewer signed SB 1070, she and U.S. Sen. John McCain have given countless interviews on national TV in which they portray Arizona as a horrifying amalgam of Mogadishu, Kabul, Dante’s fifth circle of Hell and Mel Gibson’s house. The border is “out of control,” shrieks Brewer. Phoenix is second to Mexico City for kidnappings, shouts McCain. There are beheaded corpses and body parts in the desert, Brewer cries. The state is overrun by smuggling cartels and the majority of those crossing the border are drug mules, wails the governor. These ridiculous political rants range from wild exaggeration to complete myth, but fear mongering (along with a promise to fight the federal government and crack down on illegal immigration) has put both Brewer and McCain way ahead in the polls. E.J. Montini

Thursday 8 July 2010

Laws like SB 1070 and employer sanctions make people feel good. They help politicians get elected. They make lawyers rich. But since we pay for the lawsuits, the only things they’re tough on are taxpayers’ wallets. E.J. Montini

Saturday 19 June 2010

Among other things, SB 1070 makes it a crime to transport, harbor, conceal or shield an illegal immigrant if you do so while committing a separate criminal offense. Since no one transports more illegal residents around town than good-willed, good-hearted, church people, it’s likely that one of them will be the first arrested under the law. Assuming they have the guts to carry on with ministries that had no such dangers before, but will now. EJ Montini

Wednesday 17 February 2010

If we really want to establish a procedure for taking away taxpayer funds from people who waste them, it probably isn’t the men and women at the bottom of the ladder we should begin with, but the people at the top: Politicians. E.J. Montini

Thursday 3 September 2009

I do wonder, however, how we would feel if he were a imam speaking in a mosque rather than a self-proclaimed Baptist preacher. I wonder what the reaction would have been to such a person saying the exact same things about President George Bush during the early days of the invasion of Iraq. Would such a person have been described as an extremist expressing constitutionally guaranteed opinion, or as a traitor and a threat? E.J. Montini

Tuesday 11 August 2009
Tuesday 28 April 2009

People who are 100 percent Democrats or 100 percent Republicans share one common trait: they’re liars. In order to demonstrate 100 percent loyalty to a political party (or to the philosophical labels of Conservative or Progressive) a person has to be willing to ignore his common sense and even his sense of decency and stand up for his side even when he KNOWS they’re wrong. EJ Montini

Thursday 5 February 2009

We won’t throw a parade for a football team that was roughly 2 minutes away from an NFL championship, but we’ve got no problem with the local sheriff staging a parade of suspected illegal immigrants through downtown. EJ Montini

Tuesday 9 December 2008

The incident that brought Townsend to the public’s attention began shortly before midnight on Dec. 3. A Department of Public Safety motorcycle officer who was parked underneath the 59th Avenue overpass on the Loop 101 heard what he later described as “loud banging noises.” According to the officer, 26-year-old Townsend was striking the metal and glass housing of a photo enforcement camera with a large pickax. In addition to a criminal damage charge, Townsend stands accused of “interference with a traffic control device” and criminal trespassing. EJ Montini

Wednesday 13 August 2008

Americans have a tough time accepting the notion that even lowlifes have constitutional rights. You’d also have a tough time getting many of us to go along with the idea that a person arrested for a crime should be presumed innocent. Near as I can tell, these concepts remain difficult for us to grasp until someone we know is locked up. EJ Montini

Thursday 6 December 2007

So, does an illegal immigrant have the right to free speech? To go to any church that he wants? To be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures? To a fair trial? If you don’t know the answer to these questions, then you’re American ONLY by birth. You have squandered the opportunity afforded you to a free education, which leads to an understanding of the ideals set forth in the constitution. Which have to do with the rights of “people,” not just citizens. That’s what sets the USA apart from everyone else. E.J. Montini

Wednesday 28 November 2007

It has become a holiday tradition that the folks at Go Daddy Group Inc. completely out fox the media. The company does this by appearing to waste millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads when in fact that they are pulling the wool over idiots like me by getting us to GIVE them what could amount to millions of dollars in free publicity to help offset the cost. E.J, Montini

Tuesday 28 August 2007

It’s only a matter of time before Idaho Sen. Larry Craig resigns. Eventually, even he will get that it isn’t about whether he’s gay or not. It’s about whether he’s a hypocrite or not. And if he’s a pervert or not. The fact is, a man’s foot does not ‘accidentally’ drift into a neighboring stall far enough to touch another man’s shoe. That’s just creepy. And in more than one bathroom it would get you a beating, rather than simply get you arrested. EJ Montini

Saturday 14 July 2007

It’s funny that the group of high profile business people trying to stop the new law and initiative aimed a punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants call themselves ‘Wake Up Arizona!’ Apparently, they’ve been napping for the past several years while public concern on illegal immigration has mounted. Apparently, they’d dozed off all those years when Congress did nothing. Apparently, they were catching some Z’s while xenophobia and anger replaced rational discussion and reasonable solutions. EJ Montini

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