It’s really painful to be reminded. But Peter Beinart has more on the shame of the ADL’s decision to come out against the so-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque’.
By issuing a legal opinion, Virginia’s ultra-conservative Attorney General has brought Virginia into line with Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law. Virginia police can now check people’s immigration status during routine stops. So, no new law has passed. But Virginia’s policy is now the same as Arizona’s.
I hate to say it. But anybody got a guess how long Christiane Amanpour lasts at This Week?
To be clear, I think she was an absolutely inspired choice by the ABC brass. Brilliant. But with this pushback from the right, do they have the stomach?
There was a very important development this afternoon which Sam Stein of the Huffington Post managed to get the jump on: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has come out in support of congressional hearings into the matter of whether the US Constitution grants citizenship to every person born in the United States — so-called ‘birthright’ citizenship. (The Hill followed up with a more detailed story.)
In a sense this isn’t surprising. Opposition to birthright citizenship — or as its called by anti-immigrant forces, ‘anchor babies’ — has been rising on the right for some time, as we’ve been reporting: here for instance is a round-up we did just a few days ago of all the various Republicans coming out against it. One of them was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who’s usually above that sort of crass demagoguery.
But McConnell’s decision signifies not only that this is now the mainstream, establishment Republican position but also that the GOP plans to make it a key plank of their 2010 campaign. Read More
TPM Reader RW on birthright citizenship …
In some sense, birthright citizenship is birtherism writ large–Obama is the son of a non-American born on American soil. It draws attention to Obama’s alleged “foreign” origins. It isn’t a mere stalking horse–in other countries, including, until recently Germany, the child of a male citizen and a female non-citizen was a citizen but the child of a female citizen and a male non-citizen was not a citizen. Although equal protection would likely prohibit such an interpretation here, attitudes like this are installed deep in some human psyches.
Blogger Jesus’ General launches “Burn a Confederate Flag Day,” timed to overlap with Glenn Beck’s and the tea partiers’ September 12 rallies.
An interesting situation shaping up down in Tennessee in the GOP primary for governor: Rep. Zach Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey are working hard to outcrazy each other, splitting the uber-conservative vote and leaving the more moderate mayor of Knoxville, Bill Haslam, in the lead going into this week’s election.
You may remember Paul Babeu, sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, as one of John McCain’s top supporters. In fact, McCain’s campaign has included Babeu in two of his campaign commercials. He was McCain’s co-star in the somewhat hilarious ‘danged fence’ ad where McCain walks with Babeu along the border getting cranky about illegal immigration.
Now, though Babeu is creeping into militia-ish territory, saying that “our own government has become our enemy” and even appearing on an openly white supremacist radio show.
McCain’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment.
A reader comment that nails it:
a little off topic, but I think you’re on to why the “Tea Party” was created, i.e. to give conservatives a way to rally with the Republican brand name in ruins, nothing more. They’re the Altria of politics.