Back in September of last year, Stephen Colbert did a report on just how tough it was to be a migrant worker in the United States when he hosted this segment here -- Stephen Colbert's Fallback Position - Migrant Worker. That was followed by his testimony the next day before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration which you can watch some of here -- Colbert reads opening statement at House immigration hearing.

After Alabama ran into some problems with their harsh new immigration laws that Dave Neiwert wrote about here -- Alabama Harvests the Bitter Fruit of Its Harsh New Immigration Laws: Tomatoes Dying On the Vine -- Stephen Colbert got the opportunity on his show this Wednesday to tell Alabama... "I told you so!"

After John McCain tried to blame illegal immigrants for starting the wildfires in Arizona last Saturday, the Daily Show decided to bring back the puppet John McCain, who continued to blame the immigrants for starting the fires, along with hiding his remote and taking his reading glasses.

DOWNLOADS: (887)

PLAYS: (632)

Embed

Chris Matthews proves once again that he never gets tired of the sound of his own voice. While he's correct that the topic of immigration has been used as a political punching bag by a whole lot of people who are happy with the status quo as long as the fear mongering wins them votes, I don't see how some national ID card that he's pushing for here is going to solve the problem of people being taken advantage of for cheap labor.

The unions Tweety loves to bash and did so again here want to make sure those immigrants aren't being used as slave labor by allowing them to organize. Matthews would rather paint them as part of the problem while he runs his mouth.

Transcript via Lexis Nexis.

MATTHEWS: Well, let’s get back what I think the heart of the issue. And I think we might all agree. The issue’s illegal immigration and how you look at it, politically, culturally, socially, in terms of human sympathy.

Mr. King, Congressman King, wouldn’t a guy or man, a woman or a young guy, whatever, still try to get into America if they thought there was a job here, even if they couldn’t have their kid born here and become an American? Wouldn’t there still be that great draw of a job in America? Isn’t that why people come from?

And if you outlaw the job hiring, the illegal hiring, wouldn’t that be a better way to stop illegal immigration, stop the illegal hiring?

KING: Well, Chris, I’m for doing all things to put an end to illegal immigration in the United States.

MATTHEWS: But we don’t do that. But that’s the main reason people come here.

KING: And this is one of them.

MATTHEWS: No. The main reason people come to the United States is to get a job. And business will not allow us to have a simple I.D. system, where people coming into the country can be checked out by an employer.

If you want somebody to cut your lawn, you say, can I see your card, a simple card, so you’re not breaking the law and that person is not breaking the law? Why don`t we have a simple system like that? I don’t understand it. You can’t get served in this country if you’re not 21 years old. You have to show an I.D. card.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (200)

PLAYS: (523)

Embed

Keith makes Jan Brewer his 'Worst Person' for for her interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos where she stood by her claims that a great deal of illegal immigrants are "drug mules" and pretended she apologized "immediately" for her statement about the beheadings that she lied about that were supposedly going on at the border. I keep wondering just how worse of a candidate Brewer has to become before the wingnut electorate of Arizona won't vote for her.

She's pretty much evidence that among a lot of other Republican candidates, it doesn't matter what you say or what you do, there is no way common sense is going to make its way into the minds of the Republican base that apparently has no concern over whether their candidates this year have IQ's over 90 or that any of their positions are grounded in anything like facts instead of wingnut talking points. This woman should not have had a chance in hell of being elected and would not have until she decided to start making fear mongering over illegals the center point of her campaign. It's a sad, sad statement about the electorate of her state and that of the country when they respond in the way they have to this sort of hatred and race baiting.

The runners up went to whoever scheduled Rudy Giuliani to appear at "Total Tool".

And to Carl Paladino for telling Andrew Cuomo to "Come out and debate like a man."

Stephen did a good job of whacking the Republicans for their fear mongering on anchor babies and for wanting to change the 14th Amendment in this segment from Tuesday.

All I can say is thank goodness I've got Stewart and Colbert around to mock these guys because our sorry excuse for "news" sure is hell isn't holding their feet to the fire for their insanity.

DOWNLOADS: (891)

PLAYS: (4263)

Embed

As Anderson Cooper explained on his show this week, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) was recently spreading his completely unfounded conspiracy theory that women are coming to the United States to have "terror babies".

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT: I talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our system.

And it appeared they would have young women who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby. They wouldn't even have to pay anything for the baby. And then they would return back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists.

And then, one day, 20, 30 years down the road, they could be sent in to help destroy our way of life, because they figured out how stupid we are being in this country.

Then he went on Fox Business Network and changed his story.

GOHMERT: It first came to my attention. Some of us were traveling to the Middle East last August, a year ago. And a lady on the plane was telling one of our group that they were about to have their second granddaughter. Her husband was with Hamas. Her grand -- I'm sorry -- her son-in-law was with Hamas -- and that they were going to do with the second as they did with the first grandchild. Daughter is going to come to America right before it's born on a tourist visa, have the baby.

They just like the option of having American citizens in the family.

Hamas, we recognize as terrorists. They're coming over -- oh, and she added, as a real kicker: And you know what the best part of it is? We don't have to pay anything for the baby to be born.

Apparently Rep. Gohmert didn't want to come AC360 and defend his story, so we got treated to this wingnut Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle instead. If Michele Bachmann ever gets ousted from the House of Representatives it looks like we've got a replacement waiting in the wings in the Texas State House. Does she remind anyone else of a cross between Mary Matalin and Marsha Blackburn?

Rep. Riddle insisted that the conspiracy theory put out there by Rep. Gohmert is a real threat and claimed as Gohmert did that her sources were "ex-FBI agents". When questioned for any proof of her claims, Rep. Riddle didn't take to kindly to Cooper's tepid questioning.

Continue reading »

When your race-baiting is too far over the top for even nativist serial race-baiter Lou Dobbs, that's pretty bad. Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Jon Kyl are hoping to make a campaign issue out of birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens for the mid-term elections.

This might play well for now with their nativist base but I don't see how this ends up being a good strategy for them in the long run given the changing demographics in the United States.

h/t Media Matters

DOWNLOADS: (665)

PLAYS: (510)

Embed

Candy Crowley does her best to paint Sen. Lucy van Pelt Lindsey Graham as someone who is interested in bipartisanship. I guess Crowley thinks that saying you're willing to work with the Democrats but then refusing to vote on that same legislation is somehow reasonable and being bipartisan. Looks more like snake oil to me.

Lindsey Graham might talk a good game but far too often like some of his other "moderate" cohorts all he does is get legislation he's not going to vote for anyway pushed further to the right and watered down. What I don't understand is why the Democrats continually cater to these people if they're not going to get their votes in exchange for their compromises. At the end of the interview Graham claims that they could get immigration reform passed if the Democrats just sat down and did "some good old-fashioned horse trading".

Uh... Lindsey, they already did that when you guys tried to get that immigration bill passed back when Bush was in office and your base and the talking heads on right wing radio went crazy and killed any chance of anything being passed. The problem is not the Democrats willingness to negotiate with Republicans. The problem is your party wants to obstruct for obstruction's sake. That and your party's nativist base that would vote you out during a primary in a heartbeat if you help pass a bill on immigration.

Here's Crowley's lead-in and the second half of her interview with Graham today.

CROWLEY: Senator Lindsey Graham is from South Carolina, one of the most conservative states in the country. He scores an 88 on a scale of 100 from a leading conservative group. He is also one of a handful of Republicans who have worked periodically with Democrats on major issues. Graham has been at the Obama White House some 20 times, and it has cost him. Glenn Beck calls Graham "Obama lite."

Graham supports a secure border, but also bucked party orthodoxy supporting a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here. Rush Limbaugh labeled him Senator Gramnesty. Though he eventually walked away from the table, Graham teamed up with Democratic John Kerry and independent Joe Lieberman to put together climate legislation, and he was the lone Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote to confirm President Obama's two nominations for the Supreme Court. Limbaugh theorizes Graham has been trying to make up for having been a manager on the Clinton impeachment bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK SHOW HOST: He is groveling, he's hoping they will forgive him. They never will, but this is what happens to you when you leave your integrity at the cloak check.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: When we come back, a conversation with Senator Lindsey Graham in his office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (500)

PLAYS: (1013)

Embed

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has ordered an investigation into a list of 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants that is being circulated in Utah.

The list has spread fear among the Hispanic community. It contains birth dates, social security numbers and contact information. Even the due dates of some pregnant women are listed.

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gehrke told MSNBC's Tamron Hall that the probe will begin by looking into who has access to government databases.

"Any time anybody accesses one of these state databases it kind of leaves behind fingerprints," said Gehrke. "So, what they're doing is all of these agencies that might have this information are going in to find out who, you know, who's been accessing their databases and if any of the information lines up."

"The assumption right now is that a state agency is sort of the most likely suspect because of the detail of the information that was provided," he said.

DOWNLOADS: (640)

PLAYS: (2132)

Embed

After being asked by Jake Tapper why President Obama is bringing up the issue of immigration reform now even though it doesn't appear there's any chance that something is going to get passed in the Senate, Al Hunt takes John McCain to task for his fear mongering interview earlier in the show where he lied about the crime rate in Arizona.

HUNT: I must say, John McCain, in his interview with you, Jake, that was extraordinary to say that crime is up there. He's talking about Mexico. Crime is down in Arizona. Every single academic study that's been done shows that immigrants commit fewer crimes.

RAMOS: That's right.

HUNT: We have a system where there are now three-and-a-half-fold more illegal immigrants than there were 20 years ago. It's a system that's broke. And for John McCain to say that there's been a dramatic change just simply is not the case.

It's too bad Al Hunt is the one bringing this up instead of Jake Tapper calling out McCain while he had him on the air.