The Wandering Minstrel

I found this item at National review’s “The Corner:”

‘Eye-Popping’ Support for Arizona Law

By Mark Krikorian

A new poll from Arizona State University finds that:

Arizona voters overwhelmingly favor even the most controversial provisions within SB 1070, according to a poll released Wednesday Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

The electronic poll, conducted by the Morrison Institute and Knowledge Networks, sampled 614 Arizona voters regarding three of the most controversial measures in SB 1070:

• requiring people to produce documents verifying legal status
• allowing police to detain those unable to produce verification of legal status
• requiring police to question anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally

The poll found that 64 percent of all registered voters support all three provisions, while only 17 percent oppose all three.

In response to the finding that 93 percent of Republicans support the provision allowing police to detain anyone unable to verify their legal status, the research director for the institute said:

“I’ve been doing research for 30 years, and it’s really hard to get any group to have more than 90 percent agreement on any issue,” Daugherty said. “The size of the majority supporting [these provisions] is a little eye-popping.”

I couldn’t resist putting Jim Carrey’s eye-popping “Mask” image next to this post.

This is the third of a series of articles intended to dispel misinformation generated by illegal aliens and open-borders liberals about SB 1070, the new immigration law in Arizona. Mainstream media also seems to believe these myths.

MYTH: S.B. 1070 will make racial profiling the law of the land in Arizona and there is the possibility of detaining or arresting someone merely on the basis of physical appearance.

FACT: The opposite is true. S.B. 1070 expressly prohibits racial profiling. Per the express language of the law, police “may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution.” A.R.S. § 11-1051(B). In addition, S.B. 1070 provides that these provisions of the law “shall be implemented in a manner consistent with federal laws regulating immigration, protecting the civil rights of all persons and respecting the privileges and immunities of United States citizens.” A.R.S. § 11-1051(L).

Notice how the law was written to be consistent with those Federal laws that the Obamination isn’t enforcing. I have read the entire S.B 1070 text and found that they went out of their way to write laws consistent with Federal law.

Update: According to Rasmussen Reports, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) is leading Terry Goddard (D) by a 57% to 38% margin, mostly due to her signing this popular law. A majority of all Americans favor a similar law for their states.

This is the second of a series of articles intended to dispel misinformation generated by illegal aliens and open-borders liberals about SB 1070, the new immigration law in Arizona. Mainstream media also seems to believe these myths. With this entry I have posted the first two of the 10 most common myths. I will post the other eight soon.

MYTH: S.B. 1070 requires police officers in Arizona to stop, ID and arrest anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally..

FACT: Police officers are authorized, but not required, to determine any person’s immigration status if reasonable suspicion exists as explained above. Police officers are only required to: (1) make a “reasonable attempt” to determine a person’s immigration status (2) “when practicable” (3) but not “if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation.” Arizona Revised Statutes (”A.R.S.”) § 11-1051(B). The only absolute requirement for law enforcement officers and agencies to confirm a person’s immigration status is if they are arrested for another crime. A.R.S. § 11-1051(B).

Again, nothing in Arizona’s new statute does anything more than the Federal statutes. All the blown-out and hyped bullshit coming out of the left and the media are purely lies in defense of legalizing an open border immigration policy.

This is the first of a series of articles intended to dispel misinformation generated by illegal aliens and open-borders liberals about SB 1070, the new immigration law in Arizona. Mainstream media also seems to believe these myths.

MYTH: S.B. 1070 grants new powers to police officers to pull drivers over just to check their immigration status. Police can now just come up to you for no reason and ask for papers.

FACT: S.B. 1070 is a “secondary enforcement” law. S.B. 1070 requires that there must first be a “lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency . . . in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance. . . .” A.R.S. § 11-1051(B). Much like enforcement of seat belt laws in many states such as Arizona – under S.B. 1070 there must first be reasonable suspicion that you are breaking some OTHER law before an officer can ask a person about their legal status. Only then, after law enforcement officers have a “reasonable suspicion” that another law has been broken, can they inquire about immigration status – but ONLY if that individual’s behavior provides “reasonable suspicion” that the person is here illegally.

“Reasonable Suspicion” is a well-established legal standard defined by the U.S. Supreme Court and used by law enforcement in every state and jurisdiction in the country for decades.

The bottom line here is that if you’re in compliance with Arizona statutes, police and other law enforcement agencies may not detain you to establish legal residence. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

Kagan confirmed to SCOTUS by the US Senate

The most anti-military, anti-straight marriage, anti-firearms, pro-abortion and generally anti-constitution person to have been named and confirmed to the Supreme Court yet. To exacerbate the issue, she has zero judiciary experience.

She dodged her way through the Senate hearings and gave no reason why anyone should vote to confirm. But yet all Senate Democrats (except one) and five Republicans voted to confirm. Senator Ben Nelson (D - NE) voted no but had voted for cloture. A little game the Senator is playing to try and give the impression he was against her nomination - that won’t work, Benny, gun owners in Nebraska should see right through that little charade.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R - AL) made these remarks before the confirmation:

Either we embrace our constitutional heritage or we let it slip away. Either we move forward, more secure in our freedom, or we fall back to the old bankrupt idea of big government—an idea that has failed in every place and time it has been tried.

God help us if one of the conservative members of the Supreme Court has to be replaced by the Obamination.

Joe Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff (where we’re building our new home), has instituted a program of matching or even trumping the types of arms being used by criminal alien gangs.

The machine gun in the clickable image to the right, appears to be a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun, one of the more famous designs of Saint John Moses Browning, designed towards the end of WW1. It can project lead accurately up to a distance of over a mile. Arpaio conducted a sweep of a drug cartel infested area last Thursday aimed at putting down the operations in the Vekol Valley.

“I want to send a message to these criminal traffickers that we will not be intimidated by reports claiming that traffickers are better equipped than our law enforcement officers […] we have the machine guns too and we will not hesitate to use them if the situation calls for it.”

“If anyone shoots at our deputies, they are going to have a problem,” said Arpaio in a news conference in the minutes prior to the sweep.

The Better Half and I like our Sheriff’s attitude - and his arsenal.

As you probably know, the ACLU and DOJ have brought lawsuits against Arizona. What I didn’t know is that a couple of border Sheriffs have been named. These Arizona Sheriffs need your help. If you’re passionate about stopping illegal aliens, you should try and help them out. We need to stop the ridiculous lawsuits only meant to harass these lawmen doing their legal duty.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, President of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, is Arizona’s youngest Sheriff and leads the third largest Sheriff’s Office in the state with 700 full-time employees.

Sheriff Larry Dever is serving his fourth term as sheriff of Cochise County - a county bigger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined - which shares its entire southern border with Mexico. Few people understand the toll that the violence and the lawlessness that illegal immigration and its ugly cousins, human and drug smuggling take on this country better than Sheriff Dever.

The website BorderSheriffs.com has this message about the invasion and the lawsuits:

Arizona is a state that has seen an invasion of illegal immigrants continue unabated for years. Illegal immigration has taken its toll on Arizona in the form of billions of dollars spent on social services, education and prison costs.

Much more devastating, though, has been the human toll it has taken. Human and drug smuggling, kidnappings, drop houses and the murder of immigrants and American citizens are just some of the byproducts of our porous border.

After years of begging the federal government for help, Arizona finally had enough and decided to do something about it. The result is the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, better known as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 (SB1070).

The Legacy Foundation is disappointed in the lawsuits brought by the ACLU and the US Department of Justice against Sheriffs Babeu, Dever and the state of Arizona. The Sheriffs needed financial resources to engage lawyers who believe in SB 1070 to make their best arguments for them. Legacy is happy to be able to provide this support, but needs donations from people passionate about the issue in order to do so. Your donation through Legacy’s “BorderSheriffs.com” project will be used to pay for the legal defense of SB1070 on behalf of Pinal County Sheriff Babeu, and Cochise County Sheriff Dever.

Via Rich Lowry at The Corner.

In the aftermath of the McDonald victory, Pro Second Amendment organizations gear up for more battles to be waged against anti-gun laws. Wayne LaPierre’s remarks after the 5-4 decision favoring the McDonald case seem to indicate that the NRA will begin picking off some of the more onerous gun grabbers . . .

“This is a landmark decision,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. “The Second Amendment — as every citizen’s constitutional right — is now a real part of American constitutional law. The NRA will work to ensure this constitutional victory is not transformed into a practical defeat by activist judges defiant city councils or cynical politicians who seek to pervert, reverse or nullify the Supreme Court’s McDonald decision through Byzantine labyrinths of restrictions and regulations that render the Second Amendment inaccessible, unaffordable or otherwise impossible to experience in a practical, reasonable way.”

Emphasis added.

Clickable image - The Better Half’s S&W .38 special “Rosie the Riveter” and Old Glory.