Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was terribly upset with the news that this sequester battle is going to end up cutting into the profits of her buddies in the private prison industry: Jan Brewer: Freeing Immigrant Detainees Is ‘Height Of Absurdity’:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) is not at all happy with immigration officials for releasing hundreds of detainees in anticipation of coming sequester cuts.

“I’m appalled to learn the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun to release hundreds of illegal aliens from custody, the first of potentially thousands to soon be freed under the guise of federal budget cuts,” Brewer told the Arizona Republic in a statement. “This is pure political posturing and the height of absurdity given that the releases are being granted before the federal sequestration cuts have even gone into effect.”

In an interview with FOX News' Neil Cavuto on Wednesday, Brewer also attacked the White House over their claim that they had no involvement with the decision, saying they were in "duck and cover mode."

Maggie's Farm at Kos has more on what really has Brewer upset: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer 'appalled' DHS is releasing immigrants. Blow to prison industry profits:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's quest to imprison as many aliens as possible was steered in part by the state's powerful private prison lobby, since the "papers please" law and other tough anti-immigrant policies bring more customers to their jails. Most stories about the Department of Homeland Security releasing inmates this week have overlooked the blow to the prison industry's bottom line. It costs, for instance, about $164 a day to incarcerate one immigrant. Multiply that by tens of thousands. Day after day. [...]

Jan Brewer's been an esteemed member of the Crazy Republican Governors Club—joining lugheads like Scott Walker, Sam Brownback and Rick Scott who've embraced the tea party's "cut the deficit" gibberish, seemingly unaware of the effects in their state. Now Brewer and her looney tunes ideologues are getting a taste of Norquist's bathtub politics. She's finding out what GOP obstructionism is going to cost Arizona, and it began this week with her state's former governor, Janet Napolitano, releasing immigrants.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says she's appalled to hear that the Department of Homeland Security has begun releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants from custody. It's the first of potentially thousands of immigrants to soon be freed before mandatory federal budget cuts go into effect.

The reality chicken has come home to roost in the guise of nearly 31,000 immigrants held in jails nationwide. That's an expensive undertaking, and the sequester will wallop DHS upside the head, necessitating huge cuts. Rather than $164 a day to incarcerate one inmate, the "supervised release" planned for prisoners who pose no serious threat costs less than $14 per day—a blow to prison profits, even if only some inmates are held in private facilities.

Gillian Christensen, an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] spokeswoman, said ICE has reviewed "several hundred cases" of immigrants being held in jails around the country and released them in the last week. They have been "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release," she said.

Of course if you watch the clip above with Brewer on Cavuto's show, you'd get the impression the opposite was true and that it was more expensive to monitor the prisoners than jail them.

After giving his viewers a little reminder of what the Republicans sounded like during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race and their blatant race baiting and fearmongering over "illegal immigrants" Jon Stewart took Sen. John McCain and his buddies to task for their "craven political calculation" to try to "squeeze out enough votes" to make states like Nevada competitive again with their flip-flop on passing some sort of immigration reform.

Stewart brought on his correspondent Al Madrigal for his input as to whether the Republicans are going to be successful in their endeavor and Madrigal wasn't too optimistic, given that they appear to be holding their noses while doing what's obviously just politically expedient rather than something they actually support and due to the length of time that "Latinos hold grudges" and who are not going to forget any time soon the way they've been treated by Republicans.

When Stewart asked if there was another demographic they might have any more luck with in the future, like African Americans or women, Madrigal's fellow correspondent Jessica Williams interrupted the segment and put in her two cents about the fact that Republicans aren't going to have any luck there either, especially after remarks like those from "legitimate rape" Todd Akin and the House Republicans deciding to hold their annual retreat -- where they were supposed to be focusing on minority outreach -- at a former slave plantation.

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer recently lashed out at a reporter before her appearance at an energy conference, demanding to know "where in the hell" a question about climate change came from.

Prior to her Saturday night speech on energy at the Western Governors' Association, KTVK's Dennis Welch wanted to get Brewer's view on climate change because -- as the station noted -- it was "[i]ntertwined with the discussion of energy."

"Everybody has an opinion on it and I probably don’t believe that it’s man made," Brewer replied. “I believe, you know, that weather elements are controlled maybe by different things.”

But the Arizona governor may have not been aware that the cameras were still rolling when she approached Welch after the interview.

"Where in the hell did that come from?" she asked.

Only two of the 19 governors in the Western Governors' Association showed up to hear Brewer's three-minute keynote speech, according to KTVK.

"Since 2010, 12 renewable energy companies have relocated or expanded their operations here in Arizona, creating more than 1,900 new jobs and more than $1 billion in capital investment," she told the group.

In 2011, Brewer issued an executive order which made it clear that Arizona would no longer participate in the Western Climate Initiative, a multi-state attempt to limit greenhouse gasses.

Think Progress noted on Monday that Arizona had been "hit by three separate billion-dollar weather events since 2011 — raging wildfires, drought, and a heat wave."

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

After a couple of her well known on-air brain farts, I wonder Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is the one that we should be worried about being on the road, not the deferred-action immigrants who are just trying to get to work in her state. Arizona Governor Compares Undocumented Immigrants To Drunks And Children:

Since President Obama issued an administrative directive allowing some undocumented young immigrants to temporarily remain in the country, states have adopted policies to ensure they have equal work opportunity. But on Thursday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) reiterated her opposition to granting driver licenses to the eligible immigrants and compared them to children or people with a record of driving under the influence.

Speaking on Fox News, Brewer suggested that she would never issue licenses to undocumented immigrants because that’s what state law says, despite the fact that it was her executive order that interpreted state law to mean that:

BILL HEMMER (HOST): In June the White House announced a new plan if you were here in the U.S. before the age of 16, and you are younger than the age of 31, and you’ve been here at least five years, you can stay. That is the broad outline of his proposal passed over the summer. What you’re arguing is that the law of the land in Arizona if you’re illegal you don’t get the same rights as those who are legal, correct?

BREWER: The state is the one who licenses the people to be able to drive, it’s not the federal government. And we don’t license kids under 16. We don’t license DUI drivers. And our laws are very clear and I took an oath to uphold that.

[...] These laws have been passed for reasons of public safety; lawmakers believe that unlicensed adult immigrants are likely to drive anyway because they need to get to work, risking increased accidents and higher insurance costs. Public safety concerns, of course, run the opposite direction with children and serial drunk drivers, who cannot ever be trusted to drive safely and hence must be kept off the road.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office is walking back comments from the Republican governor, that it was "fine and dandy" to work on comprehensive immigration reform before the border was secured.

In an interview with KPNX that aired on Sunday, host Brahm Resnik told Brewer that both House Speaker John Boehner and Fox News host Sean Hannity had called for comprehensive immigration reform after Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of the Hispanic vote.

"We all know that we need to resolve this huge issue that's facing the United States," Brewer agreed. "And if I believe that if we could get our border secured -- and I've said this all along -- secure our border and then we can deal with all these other issues."

"But here's the thing," Resnik pointed out. "With John Boehner and Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist and [Maricopa County Attorney] Bill Montgomery -- what he said in particular was, 'You know what? We can do both at once. We can secure the border and do comprehensive immigration reform.' Is that something you're on with? Because it sounds like you are just a secure-the-border-first person."

"What ever works," Brewer replied. "If we can do both at the same time, I'm fine and dandy with that. But we cannot resolve these kinds of issues today and then have the problems still existing."

"So, again, these national Republicans and even here in the county are ready to move on, to move forward with immigration and, I would assume, at the same time pursue a secure border," Resnik pressed. "Are you willing to do that, yes or no?"

"Yes," Brewer insisted. "Of course, I think everybody is on board."

On Sunday, KPNX reported that Brewer's office had contacted him after the interview was recorded on Friday to walk back her support for comprehensive immigration reform in concert with securing the border.

"Spokesman Matt Benson said the governor still believes in securing the border first," Resnik wrote. "He added that she was willing to 'come to the table' to deal with all immigration issues. Later Friday, the governor's office issued a statement reaffirming her 'secure the border first' stance."

During her interview with Resnik, Brewer also said that no blame could be placed on the Republican Party for losing the Hispanic vote.

"No," she said. "President Obama, in the last four years, they've had four years to get our borders secured and they refused to do it, but yet we know they can. We know that they can secure the borders. Why won't they secure the border? Because they wanted that out there because they knew that they could turn it into an issue of all about racism."

"I think the Democrats have been more responsible because they keep want to make this a race issue. The keep using the race card, that we are racists and we are bigots because we want our borders secured because we are the recipient of a lot of the crime that happens and the costs that it takes."

"So SB 1070 and Sheriff Joe Arpaio's divisiveness have nothing to do with the national Republicans' problem with Latinos?" Resnik wondered.

"Senate Bill 1070 simply mirrors federal law," Brewer opined. "We believe in the rule of law and that's why we're the country that we are."

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

The Arizona Governor never seems to be "all there" when she's speaking but she might have outdone herself tonight at the Republican National Convention.

John Amato: OMG, here's what she said:

Brewer: And I know that if President Obama is elected which I hope that he is, he will be able to come together with all of us and come up with a solution and I believe he will secure our borders and therefore we can resolve all those other issues..

It reminds me of a similar brain lock when Mitt Romney introduced Paul Ryan as the 'next president of America'

Today is a good day for America,and there are better days ahead. Join me --(APPLAUSE)-- join me -- in welcoming the next President (sic) of the United States, Paul Ryan.

RYAN: Wow! Hey. And right in front of the U.S.S.Wisconsin, huh? Man!

ROMNEY: Every now and then I'm known to make a mistake.(LAUGHTER) But I did not make a mistake with this guy. But I can tell you this, he's going to be the next vice president of the United

Our own managing editor Tina Dupuy joined the set of The Young Turks along with The American Prospect's Paul Waldman as part of Cenk Uygur's Power Panel this Tuesday. The topics for the panel included Mitt Romney's problems with Latino voters and whether this helps or harms either candidate in the Presidential election.

As Tina noted, it may be a wash given Romney's huge deficits in the polls already with that voting bloc, however as Paul noted, it's never a good thing for Mitt Romney when voters are being reminded of his extremely harsh rhetoric on immigration he made during the primary race.

They also discussed crazy Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer doing her victory dance today after the Supreme Court struck down most of her state's "papers please" SB1070 law. They wrapped things up talking about Romney's spokesperson dodging the question 20 times today on Romney's stance the court's ruling.

Earlier this week, The Daily Show decided to take on the Tucson Unified school board and their decision to outlaw Mexican-American studies in their classrooms.

Here's more from the LA Times on the board's decision -- Mexican American studies: 'Daily Show' segment strikes a nerve:

After that stint on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” the Tucson Unified school board is probably wishing it had hired a media consultant before trying to explain its position on the district’s controversial Mexican American Studies program.

Normally, when people are featured on a television show, they call family and friends and let them know the time and channel. That might not be the case for board member Michael Hicks, who appeared in a segment about the ethnic studies controversy.

The Tucson school board voted to end the program after Arizona's education chief had ruled the district in violation of a controversial state law banning classes designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government."

Defenders of the Mexican American Studies program have said it does no such thing. Some board members said they voted to discontinue the program under duress because the legislation allowed the state to withhold funding from the district unless it complied with the law.

The law and the board's vote -- and protests by Latino students -- have prompted fiery discussions in Tucson and across the state. Into that atmosphere stepped Hicks when he explained his vote on "The Daily Show."

"My concern was a lot of the radical ideas that they were teaching in these classes," Hicks is quoted as saying.

"Telling these kids that this is their land, the whites took it over and the only way to get out from beneath the gringo — which is the white man — is by bloodshed."

The segment quotes him as saying he has never gone to any of the classrooms and based his opinions on "hearsay."

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I think we will never have an honest discussion about race or about whether gestures -- verbal, images and physical -- imply white superiority over people of color. I just don't think it's possible because no matter how hard one might try to keep the discussion neutral, it just degenerates into a defensive, angry pile on the floor.

Megyn Kelly was just breathless and wider-eyed than ever on Monday over the mere suggestion that anyone could possibly think Arizona governor Jan Brewer's finger in the face of the President and disrespect shown to the office, much less the man, could possibly be construed by anyone as racist.

Enter David Webb, creator of Tea Party 365 and BigGovernment.com contributor, who takes a dim view of anyone calling Brewer's contrived gesturing racist. Jehmu Greene rounds out the panel for Megyn, where they hash out the issues.

Greene has a strong point when she points out that whether or not it was overt racism (she doesn't believe Brewer is racist), it had racial undertones that played out for people viewing that image. Combined with Brewer's claim that the conversation left her feeling 'intimidated', there's no question that the dog whistles were sounding loud.

David Webb is Andrew Breitbart in the body of an African-American man. He loves meanness, just like Breitbart does. It's not enough to dislike someone if you're Webb. Dislike is too kind. It must be hateful and mean, spewed with sneer and squinty eyes. I saw him give Sally Kohn a hard time last week, and today he actually managed to get the usually unflappable Jehmu Green close to livid with his repeated references to the "black mafia" and denial that there could possibly be racist overtones to the Brewer incident.

Webb leads off his argument with this question: "Did Jan Brewer's finger have the N-word written on it? That would have made it racist." He follows that up with this: "Or is this a case where the President and his acolytes need to call out the Black Mafia, which is what they are, to turn it into racism?"

I understand the need on these 24/7 networks to be outrageous in order to garner attention, but these comments were stomach-turning to me, not only for their obtuseness, but for the sheer joy he gets in trying to criminalize President Obama and other respected members of the black community like Greene. The fact that he, too, is black doesn't give him free license to spew racism on the airwaves, even if he thinks it does.

This exchange is particularly difficult, starting at about 3 minutes in.

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I've got to say I agree with Ed Schultz here. Whether you agree with his policies or not, I don't think we've ever seen a President of the United States put up with as much disrespect as we have since President Obama took office, with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer sticking her finger in his face here just one of the latest examples and not the worst by any means.

As E.J. Dionne noted in the interview, I'm sure it will score her a few points with the rabid Republican base, which hates the President and has just about lost their minds from the day he got elected.

From The Huffington Post -- Jan Brewer, Obama Face Off Over Book, Immigration Issues:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer traded words with President Obama after she greeted him at a Phoenix airport Wednesday.

Brewer and Obama "spoke intensely for a few minutes" after he landed at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, according to a White House pool report. At one point, the GOP governor shook her finger at the president.

"He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told a reporter after the incident, referring to her political memoir, "Scorpions for Breakfast." In the book, Brewer depicted Obama as "patronizing" during an earlier meeting.

"I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president," Brewer said. "The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So."

Brewer said Obama told her "that he didn't feel I had treated him cordially."

"I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn't get my sentence finished," Brewer said. "Anyway, we're glad he's here. I'll regroup." Read on...

Karoli adds:

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