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How's that pandering working out for you President Obama? Sen. Get-Off-My-Lawn McCain is never going to be happy even if he sent the 6000 troops he's demanding. As Digby pointed out "it's paranoid, wingnut crap that has no bearing on reality". I agree with her here as well:

Mean Old Man McCain says we need 6,000 troops on the border, so I'm guessing President Goldilocks will say his "compromise" on this is "just right." But hey, ratcheting up xenophobia is so good for everyone right now, why not just pretend there's a huge problem that doesn't really exist? We don't have enough real ones apparently. After all, there are some Democrats who apparently think they need to show how much they hate Mexicans in order to win, so it's all good.

(Oh, and remember that while there's a huge "appetite" for expensive, stupid bullshit like this, there's none for extending unemployment benefits to the lazy bums who want to live like kings on 250 bucks a week from government rather than get a non-existent job.)

That money would be better spent doing something about this disaster in the Gulf as well. Arizona's Attorney General Terry Goddard on the other hand seemed pleased with the decision and was critical of the tone of McCain's rhetoric. I'm sure he knows full well we wouldn't see McCain acting like this if he didn't have wingnut J.D. Hayworth for a primary challenger.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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As Think Progress noted, John McCain doesn't mind cracking down on the illegal immigrants who are crossing the borders to find work, but when it comes to doing something about those businesses that hire them... maybe not so much.

McCain: Enforce Immigration Laws On Undocumented Workers, But Not On Businesses That Hire Them:

Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed the state’s new anti-immigrant bill into law last month, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been a fervent supporter. The law gives state police broad power to identify, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants. McCain, who called the law a “good tool,” said last night on Fox News that he is “proud of the work” Brewer is doing on immigration, and justified the law “because the federal government would not enforce its responsibilities.”

But while McCain offers support for this new draconian law targeting day-laborers and other undocumented immigrants, he is not in favor of enforcing laws prohibiting employers from hiring undocumented workers. Instead, he would rather “secure the borders” before holding Arizona businesses accountable to the law.

As they point out this is just another flip-flop for the not-so-mavericky McCain:

Back in 2007, McCain wanted to “strengthen the laws and penalties against those who hire illegal aliens and violate immigration law.” Now, it seems that McCain is all for enforcing immigration laws when when it is politically convenient, as Arizona businesses are presumably more organized and have more money and influence than the state’s undocumented workers.

This man just gets more pathetic by the day as this Senate race of his goes on. Van Susteren at least asked a decent question here but of course with no follow up, like telling him that his answer is completely ridiculous. I used to get sick of the same stuff out of Lou Dobbs who would attack the poor people coming here looking for work night after night on his show, but never made it a point to highlight the businesses that were hiring them.

You dry up the employment and they're not going to be flooding over the border. We've got businesses addicted to slave labor and politicians who would rather demonize the slaves than fix the trade laws that destroyed their small farms and drove them here to begin with. And round and round we go. Step on the little guy's neck, pit the workers against each other that should be on the same side of an issue and give the big guys taking advantage of everyone a pass.

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A new Arizona immigration allow will allow police to demand proof of residency if they have "reasonable suspicion" that a person is not in the country legally. Fox News' Brit Hume supports the bill but predicts it will lead to civil rights violations.

"I think it's going to be quite a trick to train the police officers in that state so that they can carry out this mandate to check anybody who they have a reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegal without engaging in profiling or violating their civil rights. I think that's going to be very difficult to do. There probably and inevitably will be civil rights violations," Hume told Chris Wallace Sunday.

Hume called the bill "emergency policy" but said it was unclear if it would stand up to a court challenge.

"The question really though is, that seems to me, did Arizona act reasonably here under the circumstances by passing this somewhat draconian law? And the answer may well be yes, because they are facing a serious crisis down there induced by the presence in their midst of a lot of illegals, some of whom are causing terrible problems," said Hume.

Arizona law enforcement got a head start on harassing Latinos even before Gov. Jan Brewer could sign the bill into law Friday. AZFamily.com reports that a truck driver in Phoenix was arrested because he could not immediately produce a birth certificate.

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Apparently the leader of The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Arizona, Carmen Mercer has figured out that if you ask people to "come locked and loaded", they just might take you literally. From TPM:

Minuteman Leader: When I Said To Come To The Border Locked And Loaded, I Didn't Mean Locked And Loaded:

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the Arizona-based anti-illegal-immigration group whose members keep watch on the border, is disbanding as a national organization, after its leader asked for volunteers to come "locked, loaded, and ready," then got more than she bargained for. [...]

It appears that Minuteman members responded enthusiastically to Mercer's call to arms -- maybe too enthusiastically:

Mercer said she received a more feverish response than she expected and decided the group couldn't shoulder the responsibility and liability of what could occur, she said.

"People are ready to come locked and loaded, and that's not what we are all about," Mercer said. "It only takes one bad apple to destroy everything we've done for the last eight years."

In other words: When I told people to come locked, loaded and ready, I didn't mean locked, loaded and ready.

So she and the board's two other directors voted to dissolve the Minuteman corporation. Read on...

As Keith noted, Sarah Palin could take a lesson from Carmen Mercer, but I don't expect that to happen any time soon. From Alan Colmes blog -- Sarah Palin “Unloads” On Her Facebook Page:

In a sad and slightly amusing attempt to strike back at liberals who condemn the use of her recent violent language, Sarah Palin has taken to what I believe to be satire in a recent Facebook blog entry: “Warning: Subject to New Politically Correct Language Police Censorship“. [...]

As (not so) funny as this might be to some, I think she is either underestimating her followers, or worse, anticipating they’ll rachet up the game in response to her “loaded” commentary. Either way, her actions become more irresponsible by the day.

And AMERICAblog -- Sarah Palin discovers drunk-Facebooking:

Paragraphs three and four are the best. This is real. Apparently, Sarah Palin is the only person in America who doesn't find troublesome the recent violent tenor of political talk by the right, and their Teabagger surrogates, directed at members of Congress. So she decided to invoke more imagery of guns and executing people to prove her point that only PC people get upset when you call a congressman a "n***er" or a "f***t," or attempt to cut the gas line to their home.

I know, she revels in attention, and poking people in the eye. But it's serious when the FBI has to give security to ten-plus members of Congress, and there are concerns about the safety of the home of the Senate Parliamentarian. Palin thinks this is a joke. That is why this woman is and always will be a blithering idiot, and a dangerous one at that.

Thom Hartmann and Bay Buchanan discuss our immigration policy and I agree with Thom when he said he never thought he'd agree with Bay Buchanan about anything. I found myself agreeing more than disagreeing here as well. Hartmann was spot on though with how to solve the problem if the government was actually interested in protecting American jobs. Go after the employers rather than the workers and fix our trade laws. Buchanan (surprise, surprise) wanted to focus in the immigration problem. Must run in the family.

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From AC360 Sept. 10, 2009. While discussing Rep. Wilson's outburst during the President's speech, Tea Party oganizer Mark Williams says this about illegal immigrants receiving health care benefits:

WILLIAMS: Everybody seems to be leaving one very important thing out of this. And that is, the federal courts have spoken with regard to illegal immigrants or illegal aliens getting benefits, especially health benefits. We tried to bar them from doing that in California back in the '90s, and the federal courts slapped us down.

Even language specifically excluding them is not going to stand a court battle. So, whatever Obama believes -- and, for that matter, I don't even know what bill he was talking about. Does he have a proposal? Does he have a plan? What's he even talking about?

He and Roland Martin get into it in the above segment after the commercial break where Williams reiterates what he said about the courts, and Martin insists that there are no provisions for illegal immigrants to receive benefits in any of the proposed health care legislation.

Dave Neiwert gave me his slant on this:

Illegal immigrants entering an emergency room for treatment will be covered under any health-reform plan – because they are already. It’s a basic legal matter that emergency rooms cannot turn away anyone in need of emergency care. The courts have indeed decided this. The question is, does Mark Williams want it otherwise? Does he want emergency rooms deciding who lives and who dies depending on their ability to prove their citizenship? Does he want people to die on emergency-room doorsteps because they are undocumented?

Undocumented immigrants get no insurance benefits under the Obama plan, but the costs of their care will be covered under a more sane system. The taxpayers will wind up covering the costs, as they do now, but the costs should be less because the payment system will be more direct.

Those are the questions Roland Martin or anyone on that panel should have been asking Williams, but I guess that's expecting too much of CNN. I also would have liked for one of them to ask Williams if he thinks going to an emergency room is the equivalent of having health care coverage as I've heard one too many Republican member of Congress assert.

BLITZER: Let's get back to our panel talking strategy on health care reform and Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst, CNN's Candy Crowley joining us, political contributor Roland Martin, and Tea Party Express organizer Mark Williams.

We're going to get what Dana just reported. But, Mark, I want to give you a chance to respond to what Roland said, that John McCain himself agrees with the president that nothing in this legislation would give illegal immigrants in the United States the opportunity to gain from this proposed legislation.

WILLIAMS: Well, Wolf, it doesn't have to, because the courts have already spoken on. And that they will speak again if -- if -- if it happens.

But this bitterness that supposedly is directed toward Obama, if I have learned anything in my work with OurCountryPAC.org, it's that it's not bitterness. It's outrage at the socialist policies being embraced by this administration.

MARTIN: Nonsense. It's bitterness.

WILLIAMS: And that goes -- that goes double for W., by the way.

And, as far as the Republican Party goes, it's no surprise to any of us working stiffs out here that they allow themselves to be a doormat for what is happening in Washington, D.C.

The fact of the matter is, the Republican Party, as a whole, is absent without leave from this debate. And our representatives, our elected representatives, are falling down on the job of upholding and protecting the Constitution. And that's why the American people are rising.

That's why I had almost 10,000 people outside Chicago at our tea party the other day. People are sick and tired of being abused and then being called a mob of Nazis because they object to that.

BLITZER: All right.

WILLIAMS: We're the people who pay the bills.

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