Monday, May 30, 2011

Guest Voz - David Holthouse: Dangerous Levels of Overlap Between Xenophobic 'Minuteman' Movement and Tea Party

Last August, more than 600 right-wing activists gathered for a Tea Party Nation rally on private land near the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County, Arizona. Fluttering in the desert breeze were hundreds of tiny American flags attached to a border fence of 15-foot-tall rusty poles. Rally speakers included Tea Party candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as marquee names from Arizona's anti-immigration movement. The headliner was Maricopa County Sheriff (and Fox News favorite) Joe Arpaio, the swaggering lawman whose ski-masked deputies terrorize suspected "illeegals" in controversial roundups, and whose idea of a good photo-op is the forced march of shackled Latino inmates down a city street. Arpaio shared the stage with Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce, the chief architect of Arizona's infamous Senate Bill 1070. "We have an invasion going on that's going to destroy this Republic," Pearce said. "USA!" came the chanted reply. "USA!"

Grinning on the sidelines behind mirrored sunglasses was Glenn Spencer, the leader of the border vigilante group American Border Patrol and the owner of the Tea Party Nation rally site. Spencer's founding of American Border Patrol in 2002 pre-dated the first Minuteman "civilian border patrols" by three years. Before his ranch land became a Tea Party rallying point it served as both meeting grounds and temporary housing for high-ranking members of various border vigilante factions. Minutemen American Defense leader Shawna Forde lived on the property in an RV owned by Spencer in the summer of 2008. The following May, Forde masterminded the home invasion murders of a 9-year-old girl and her father in Arivaca, Arizona. Two weeks after the slayings, a SWAT team arrested Forde on murder and conspiracy charges as she was leaving American Border Patrol headquarters.



Spencer informed Media Matters that he travels almost weekly to speak at Tea Party events, and that his ranch, the onetime vigilante outpost where Forde took shelter, is now a Tea Party rallying point. "Plans are for Tea Party groups to come to the ranch every week from now on," he said. "They are really fired up over the border issue." Despite his association with Forde and his well-documented history of bigoted ranting and "reconquista" conspiracy mongering, Spencer is a rising star in the Tea Party movement. He's not alone.

Over the past two years, more than a dozen former border vigilante leaders have taken on key roles in the Tea Party movement. Some, like Spencer, continue to maintain their hardcore nativist personas. Others have sought to separate themselves from their Minutemen identities in pursuit of mainstream political legitimacy.

"The Forde killings really made the whole movement sordid and these guys [Minuteman leaders] needed to find somewhere else for their ambitions," said Heidi Beirich, co-director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which tracks extremist groups. "Rebranding themselves as Tea Party figures is their effort to stay relevant. They saw the rising populism as a good thing to latch onto, so they just toned down their anti-immigrant messaging a bit and synced themselves with the larger Tea Party agenda."

Read the rest of this article here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the picture of Shawna Forde inside the Camp Vigilance command center! the Minutemen and the BPAUX Border Patrol Auxiliary under Ken Dreger and Carl Braun will be very unhappy that you are digging up this chapter of their organization's sordid past. I found one of their nuts on youtube at the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/hutaree2010

Defensores de Democracia said...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor : 'Permitting States to make use of E-Verify mandatory improperly puts States in the position of making decisions for the Federal Government that directly affect expenditure and depletion of federal resources'
.
SEIU : Service Employees International Union : "Business Death Penalty" Wrongly Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court"

It is my impression that SEIU and Sonia Sotomayor think that "Human Nature" as it is will create more cheating and shrewd methods to evade and elude the law.

You can have one million intelligent reasons to think that the Supreme Court Decision is right, or that it is very constitutional and juridically intelligent. And you may be right ..... But does this Arizona Law make sense from an economic point of view ??



SEIU : Service Employees International Union
"Business Death Penalty" Wrongly Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court"
By Gebe Martinez
May 26, 2011


"Business Death Penalty" Wrongly Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.seiu.org/2011/05/seius-medina-business-death-penalty-wrongly-upheld.php



Some excerpts :

As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent: 'Permitting States to make use of E-Verify mandatory improperly puts States in the position of making decisions for the Federal Government that directly affect expenditure and depletion of federal resources.'"

"Such policies ruin the economy and create a disadvantage for honest employers who are trying to follow the law, while tax-cheating employers drive the underground cash economy with disqualified workers.

"The clear message that should come from this ruling is this: Immigration continues is the sole responsibility of the Federal government, much in the same way that printing money is a uniquely federal responsibility. Immigration enforcement should not be up to the states where short-sighted efforts are more focused on attacking hard working people than on helping our economy.

"Congress must act quickly on comprehensive immigration solutions so that our economy can thrive with workers who become legalized and allow all employers in all states to play by the same set of rules."
.

admin said...

Now I have heard it all! You actually fall for these wack jobs who think they belong to BPAUX? Really, are you that stupid? OMG, these crazies are just the fringe elements of the internet and probably some type of Nazi group trying to recruit young and impressionable kids. There are a lot of wack jobs who think they belong to BPAUX, we have had many of the Youtube accounts shut down for various reasons, mostly for the use of our images or logos and for making false statements.
You can fall for their BS, or you can do your own homework. These wack jobs have never been, nor will ever be part of BPAUX.

admin said...

O, Anonymous (or what ever your real name is) The Forde issue is getting its just reward, she was guilty, and all of her friends will get the same punishment. Nobody supported the terriable crimes she did, you can keep digging, but you are just going to fined the same old things that have been brought up in the past.... Old news...sorry....

Defensores de Democracia said...

Sonia Sotomayor : "U. S. Congress does not hide elephants in mouseholes" but SCOTUS does - "10 Immigration Predictions : 10 Consequences of Supreme Court's Arizona E-Verify Decision" - Five SCOTUS elephants opened the door of the IRCA 1986 mousehole.

Michigan and Utah want something different - Weight of Business against Irrationality. -

From "Nation of Immigrators" - Attorney Angelo A. Paparelli, The grandson of Italian immigrants, passionate defender of Immigrants. - Angelo is founder and immediate past President of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, a 38-member worldwide alliance of leading immigration firms, and a partner in Seyfarth Shaw LLP, practicing in Southern California and New York. The 2010 recipient of Edith Lowenstein Award conferred by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Angelo co-authors the Immigration Column for the NY Law Journal. He is an expert witness/consultant on immigration to law firms, businesses and individuals.

Important excerpt :

"Republican Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, perhaps signalling a trend in the opposite direction, expressed his opposition to an AZ-style immigration enforcement bill, noting that it would be "divisive" and bad for business. As noted above and at length in this blog before, Utah has passed legislation creating a guest worker visa program (that will require a Federal waiver)."



Nation of Immigrators
A public policy blog on Americas Dysfunctional immigration System
By Attorney Angelo A. Paparelli
May 29, 2011

http://www.nationofimmigrators.com/immigration-reform/10-immigration-predictions-the-foreseeable-consequences-of-the-supreme-courts-arizona-e-verify-decis/


Some excerpts :

The U.S. Supreme Court freed a herd of immigration "elephants [hiding] in a mousehole" on May 26. That's when five Justices used a four-word exception to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) -- an act which, among its extensive provisions, banned the employment of foreign citizens whom the employer knows lack work permission -- to trample the immigration landscape. The majority ruled, based on the exception, that IRCA is not the final or sole word on the extent of punishment for unauthorized employment.

Relying on an IRCA exception for "licensing and similar laws," the 5-3 majority decided that Arizona may use the threat to revoke a business license as a means to punish AZ employers for the unauthorized hiring of foreigners and to require all the state's public and private employers to enroll in the Feds' E-Verify online work-clearance database.

Among the dissenters, Justice Sonia Sotomayor challenged the use of this squib of an IRCA exception as a means for the majority to undermine the "carefully constructed [and] uniform federal scheme for determining [unauthorized employment]." She cited an earlier case which observed that Congress "does not . . . hide elephants in mouseholes." (Ironically and perhaps poetically just, all of the Justices in the majority had been appointed by presidents of the Republican party, whose avatar is the pachyderm.)

What does the decision, U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, mean for large and small employers? Here are my predictions (I welcome any comments or critiques below or on my Twitter page):
.

Anonymous said...

Admin? you do not write like the admin, more like someone trying to get sober. You can't deny the FACT that double convicted murderer Shawna Forde was participating in operations with the BPAUX as shown in the picture in this article. BPAUX's links to the white christian militia Hutaree is also shown here.

noopenborders said...

Brian Brian, again you are up to your hateful lies and trying your very best to discredit anyone who opposes your views on the subject. We all know where you stand it is all over the web sites Brian. Time to get a real job and life and work at something that really matters. Trying to discredit the organization by old news that has been proven over and over to you and your gang of thugs to be factual even if you don’t have the capacity to comprehend it. You will try to make associations with all the Right Wing groups of “Nazis, KKK, Militias” and every other wack job just to try to get people to believe you.
Brian, it is not about you sorry to say, it is about the rule of law and the enforcement of it in every country. Our groups have never broken any laws, and we are not racists, and we don’t shoot Illegal’s, we don’t sell arms to the cartels, and we don’t allow racist behavior in our groups. I know you know this because I have stated it many many times before and you still seem to not know how to read and comprehend what is being said. You will continue to make postings all over the internet Brian, and yes we will be right there behind you to make our rebuttals just like always.

Yes Brian, we all saw it, and we all know the explanation of it! Did you forget? I’ll try and refresh your memory if you need it. Remember she used a false expired ID card to sneak onto the property with our new care taker and took photos in our comm. Center with the broken radios like it was a real operation! Remember the orange tag on the broken radios from the broken radio box? She got what she deserved, and it is really shameful that you still keep trying to drag down people who work hard to protect your sorry &^% !

If you ever sent in $50.00 I would love to see the receipt! I would gladly return it and another $50.00 just to show that we have no use for your dirty money.

So the truth comes out that you support the Nazi Movement! We knew it Brian.... from all the hate you try to write about it must of been something like that maybe a KKK group also Brian? Brian you have some really serious issues and following us all over the internet creating lies and really stupid things that it would be hard to imagine making up! You need to seek real help Brian......

Hey Brian (Or who ever you are) how about some new information? Everything here that you tried to pass along has been hashed out for years and years.....Just the same old crap and lies Brian, you really can't come up with anything valid so you get to make up new stuff all the time....Show us some real documented proof of your accusations and then we will research it for you and everyone else to see. But until then bRian349.5 you are just blowing smoke…And everyone here knows it….

Hey Brian, where is all that “Proof” you keep bragging about? Show us some videos of what you are claiming or just shut up. Show us the proof bRiAn that you were a member of the organization! Show us Brian!

noopenborders said...

Brian Brian, again you are up to your hateful lies and trying your very best to discredit anyone who opposes your views on the subject. We all know where you stand it is all over the web sites Brian. Time to get a real job and life and work at something that really matters. Trying to discredit the organization by old news that has been proven over and over to you and your gang of thugs to be factual even if you don’t have the capacity to comprehend it. You will try to make associations with all the Right Wing groups of “Nazis, KKK, Militias” and every other wack job just to try to get people to believe you.
Brian, it is not about you sorry to say, it is about the rule of law and the enforcement of it in every country. Our groups have never broken any laws, and we are not racists, and we don’t shoot Illegal’s, we don’t sell arms to the cartels, and we don’t allow racist behavior in our groups. I know you know this because I have stated it many many times before and you still seem to not know how to read and comprehend what is being said. You will continue to make postings all over the internet Brian, and yes we will be right there behind you to make our rebuttals just like always.

Yes Brian, we all saw it, and we all know the explanation of it! Did you forget? I’ll try and refresh your memory if you need it. Remember she used a false expired ID card to sneak onto the property with our new care taker and took photos in our comm. Center with the broken radios like it was a real operation! Remember the orange tag on the broken radios from the broken radio box? She got what she deserved, and it is really shameful that you still keep trying to drag down people who work hard to protect your sorry &^% !

If you ever sent in $50.00 I would love to see the receipt! I would gladly return it and another $50.00 just to show that we have no use for your dirty money.

So the truth comes out that you support the Nazi Movement! We knew it Brian.... from all the hate you try to write about it must of been something like that maybe a KKK group also Brian? Brian you have some really serious issues and following us all over the internet creating lies and really stupid things that it would be hard to imagine making up! You need to seek real help Brian......

Hey Brian (Or who ever you are) how about some new information? Everything here that you tried to pass along has been hashed out for years and years.....Just the same old crap and lies Brian, you really can't come up with anything valid so you get to make up new stuff all the time....Show us some real documented proof of your accusations and then we will research it for you and everyone else to see. But until then bRian349.5 you are just blowing smoke…And everyone here knows it….

Hey Brian, where is all that “Proof” you keep bragging about? Show us some videos of what you are claiming or just shut up. Show us the proof bRiAn that you were a member of the organization! Show us Brian!

Felix Jaure said...

In a recent interview with a local news station, Arpaio announced the possibility of running for the future vacant Senatorial seat of Sen. Kyl of Arizona.

Arpio appeared quite confident of a victory, as he flirted with the possibility of bestowing upon his constituents, the honor, of accepting their proposal for him to run in the 2012 general election.

Arpaio seemed to be in full control of his destiny, untouched by the allegation's of 6,300 reported cases of Civil Rights violations against his Department, of which 1,828 have resulted in lawsuits against Maricopa county, costing the taxpayer approximately $50,000,000 in legal defence spending.

The federal grand jury also is investigating Arpaio over abuse-of-power and his departments inappropriately use of 99 million dollars from two jail funds over the last eight years.

Arpaio, much like the Titanic, seems unsinkable at the present time in his home state of Arizona. Has his reputation, placed him in a position, that's beyond the reach of the long arm of the law?

Fearful of the possibility of an uprising in the State, the Justice Department appears to be reluctant, from aggressively pursuing an indictment against the Sheriff.

Is the term illegal, is illegal in reference to everyone that violates the law, or is there some type of amnesty for the chosen few.

It appears that the blindfold on lady justice has temporarily been removed for the sake of Arpaio, by his nation wide group of supporters, and the scales which were formally used for judgement, are found to be inadequate for use in the balance of justice any longer.

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