Several House Democrats spoke at a rally this week in front of the Alabama legislature in opposition to HB 56, an immigration-enforcement bill patterned after Arizona's "papers please" law. They linked their own historical struggle for civil rights in Alabama to the battle being waged over immigration. As I watched, it occurred to me that Alabama might be the first state where local history provides a focus for opposition to the tea-fueled wave of pandering state immigration bills. This took place just blocks from the Civil Rights Museum and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church:

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Well, the Congress might be on vacation but that doesn't mean there's any shortage of wingnuttery from the right. From Countdown's Worst Persons, Keith's winner takes the cake on amping up the crazy from the right.

GOP candidate calls for internment camps for ‘people that snuck into the country.’:

Speaking at a rally sponsored by Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, GOP state house candidate in Florida, Marg Baker, endorsed building concentration camps for undocumented immigrants:

We can follow what happened back in the 40s or 50s. I was just a little girl in Miami, and they built camps for the people that snuck into the country, because they were illegal. They put them in the camps, and they shipped them back. We can do that.

Runners up were Rush Limbaugh -- Limbaugh says "the top colleges are the functional equivalent of leadership schools from totalitarian nations"...

...and Grandpa McGrumpy promising to be as petulant as ever when it comes to working across the aisle. So much for that "Maverick" b.s. he thought we were supposed to be buying into -- McCain Promises He Won’t Work With Democrats On Immigration If He Is Re-Elected.

Note to President Obama... these people are not your friends. Quit kissing their butts when all they do is spit in your face.

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If President Barack Obama adopts the Republican platform then one Tea Party-backed candidate for Senate from Florida would be more than willing to work across the aisle. Mark Rubio told Florida State House Speaker Mark Rubio that he wouldn't make bipartisanship worse in Washington if his Senate bid was successful.

"Partisan gridlock is not something I'm in favor of. Okay? But the problem is it depends on what you're standing for. What are you fighting for?" asked Rubio.

"I've been more than happy to work across the aisle to do things like lower the capital gains tax, lower the corporate tax, flatten the tax rate, lower all these other taxes that make America increasingly unfriendly place to do business. And if the Obama administration tomorrow announces that is their agenda or the leadership in Congress does, I'll be more than happy -- I'll be thrilled to work with them," he said.

"But what they're attempting to do fundamentally redefine the role of government in America. And we can't cooperate with that. We have to stop that from happening," explained Rubio.