So Republicans, how's that minority outreach program of yours going? It seems xenophobes like Kris Kobach haven't learned anything from his buddy Mitt Romney's loss in the presidential election.

Big Surprise: Kris Kobach Still Believes in Self-Deportation:

Remember how the Mitt Romney-espoused "self-deportation" rhetoric was supposed to end up in the dustbin of history following President Obama's huge margins among Latino voters back in November? Apparently no one told Kris Kobach.

The Kansas secretary of state and intellectual author of harsh laws in states like Arizona and Alabama was back at it again earlier today, this time at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on the Gang of Eight's immigration bill. In response to questions from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kobach said that "self-deportation is not some radical idea. It is simply the idea that people may comply with the law by their own choice."

GOP Immigration Guru Insists DREAMers Should Self-Deport:

Speaking at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, Kobach insisted that DREAM eligible applicants, many of whom have lived in the United States for most of their lives, should not be rewarded for the “sins of their parents.” Instead, DREAMers should go back to their parents’ country of origin, Kobach said, and “get in line with the rest of their countrymen.” “That just defies basic compassion,” Durbin shot back, pointing to to Gabby Pacheco, an undocumented immigrant brought to America at the age of eight from Ecuador, who was testifying alongside Kobach. “She’s never known any other country,” Durbin explained, “this is her home.” [...]

Kobach responded by reviving self-deportation, arguing that “if you ratchet up the penalties for violating the law, people choose to leave.”

But Durbin predicted that the momentum has shifted from deportation to reform after the 2012 election. “Ultimately the voters have the last word. The voters had the last word on self-deportation on Nov. 6, so we’re beyond that now,” he said.

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Any time I hear Rep. Marsha Blackburn start talking about "adult conversations" and Republicans needing to pay attention to their tone on any topic, I'm reminded of this little hissy fit she threw on the floor of the House just after the health care bill passed. Blackburn appeared on MSNBC's The Cycle and was asked about the immigration proposal put forth by a group of Senators this Monday and the fact that Republicans have been losing Latino voters in droves over the last few election cycles.

Her response was that they need to do a better job of getting their message out to the voters and that "sometimes their messengers aren't as good" or maybe they just haven't repeated their message enough times to be getting through to the voters. If she thinks the GOP needs some better messengers, maybe she ought to take a good look in the mirror and start spending a little less time throwing flames in front of the cameras.

And note to Rep. Blackburn, as Susie pointed out this Monday... the problem is not your messaging. It's you. She was all smiles for this interview but repeating the same rhetoric we've been hearing out of her for years now. You'd better secure the border first, even though migration from Mexico is at zero or below. No amnesty. Fix ICE even though we've had record deportations over the last year.

She and her cohorts have lots of obstacles lined up against making any meaningful changes to our immigration policy, regardless of all of the rhetoric we're hearing out of them right now.

Rep. Blackburn weighs in on new immigration proposal:

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) who joined the show, said that along with other Republicans she is waiting to see what the exact details are and what other options are available. Rep. Blackburn said overall the “good thing is people are coming out and saying let’s get this problem solved and I like the fact that it has gone from being a back burner issue to a front burner issue.” However, when it comes to the bill there are certain “must haves” that she believes need to be included.

We need to make certain that we have a secure border, amnesty should not be included as it has not worked before and will not work again, those that are in our country need to pay and right their wrongs, she said. Rep. Blackburn continued to say, “Finally, you have to make certain that ICE is going to clean up their act, and that the immigration service is going to finally be a service that works. We all appreciate legal immigration, we want to encourage legal immigration and bring those individuals that want to come to America to seek a better life, we want to make certain they have the ability to be here legally.”

The eight senators do agree with Rep. Blackburn when it comes to borders; they said that before we can start creating permanent residents, we must first work on securing America’s borders and launch an employment verification system that actually works. As Rep. Blackburn said during the show, “This is a time to be very honest with the American people, just to say this is where we are, these are the facts, help us work through to a solution. I have to tell you I certainly hope that we do.”

Talk is cheap. I will be surprised if anything actually gets through the House, but we'll see. And I certainly don't underestimate the ability for any of them to come up with a really bad bill that doesn't have any labor protections in it.

From this Saturday's show, Chris Hayes on the White House's failure to understand that it did not matter how far they moved to the right on anything from the health care law, to immigration, to gun control, Republicans don't care much about reality. They're going to create their own reality instead for political gain. As he noted at the end of his monologue:

And so, that's why promoting this implausible conspiracy theory about a secret plot to make gun owners look bad by giving guns to Mexican traffickers is so important to the right and the NRA. It's why they've been flogging Fast and Furious and why the NRA scored the vote on contempt. Since there is no actual case that the President wants to crush gun-rights, they have to make one.Because this is post-truth politics. Because you cannot make political gains with substantive concessions. They're still going to call you a gun-hating Kenyan socialist.

I think as evidenced by the White House's announcement last week of protections for DREAM Act eligible youth, that they are finally starting to wake up to that fact.

The panel discussion followed with Hayes' guests, Jose Antonio Vargas, Michael Ian Black, L. Joy Williams and the New York Times Ross Douthat, who as expected as soon as I saw his name on the guest list for this weekend, had lots of false equivalencies to offer on things such as GOP obstruction and their abuse of the filibuster to what is or is not a political witch hunt and when it's actually fair to say an administration is shredding our Constitution or not and why.

I think Hayes point on Republicans and their feigned outrage over the death of the border agent in this Fast and Furious case can't be repeated often enough as well. They don't show the same outrage or grief about the 30-thousand people killed every year by guns, so we know full well this is not about them having one iota of concern for gun control. It's pure politics.

More of Hayes commentary below the fold: The era of post-truth politics:

Continue reading »

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Jon Stewart started out this segment from Tuesday night's show going after the Republican hand wringers such as John McCain, his BFF Lindsey Graham and Tim Pawlenty, for claiming that President Obama's change in immigration policy, where he is no longer going to deport those who would have otherwise been protected if the DREAM Act had been passed by Congress, is somehow unprecedented.

As Stewart pointed out, that's not true if you count George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, but hey, why should a few facts get in the way of Republicans coming on the air and clutching their pearls and feigning outrage? It's never stopped them before.

Stewart also knocked them for having selective amnesia and pretending that the President did not try to get these reforms passed, only to blocked by Republicans and played some footage of the news coverage back in December of 2010 when the Senate filibustered the legislation.

Stewart wrapped things up by taking a shot at Fox News and Sean Hannity for deceptively editing President Obama's statement on whether he had the authority to act unilaterally after the Congress has continually failed to act and pass the DREAM Act. I don't expect we'll be getting an acknowledgement or apology out of Hannity any time soon.

If by some miracle Hannity does say he's going to apologize, let's just hope Stewart doesn't put himself through another hour of the torture of having to sit through Hannity's show waiting for it like he did a few years ago. That had to be one of the funniest Daily Show clips I've seen in a long time because it rang so true. Watching too much Fox News or Hannity will make most sane people physically ill after a while.

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Stephen Colbert had a bit of fun with El Presidente Barack Obama for his "shocking" new policy where he's now "thrown open America's doors to people who already here" with his administrations newly announced policy of halting deportations for young undocumented immigrants.

COLBERT: This of course replaces our long standing policy of not deporting them if they were really good at baseball. This is shocking folks. This is shocking! [...] Now we can expect a steady stream of preexisting, born into their present locations.

After showing clips of Tim Pawlenty, Lindsey Graham and Karl Rove carping about President Obama using this as nothing but a "cynical political move" Colbert pointed out that President Obama needs to do something about November and that 43 point lead he's "barely clinging to" with Latino voters.

After noting that even Bloody Bill Kristol, George Will and Matt Dowd said this was the right thing for the President to do, Colbert noted "Fine but, the President's not supposed to do anything in an election year. Let alone the right thing. Now maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but I'm beginning to think Barack Obama is trying to get reelected. You don't see Republicans cynically pandering to Latinos like this."

Cue the RNC's Latino outreach page with stock photos of Asian children and Mitt Romney touting self-deportation during one of the Republican debates.

COLBERT: Yes, if Mitt Romney is elected, illegals will self-deport. In fact, some Americans might even join them. But folks, that's how effective... that's how effective the policy will be.

Colbert followed up with a bit mocking Neil Munro from Tucker Carlson's rag, The Daily Caller, for interrupting the President when he was announcing this policy during his press conference and pretending he didn't realize President Obama wasn't done talking and some "footage" of Colbert supposedly joining Munro at the press conference as well and heckling the President.