Arizona (Updated)

The changes in The Arizona Situation keep happening all the time. It's hard to know when to stop and comment on it all, because tomorrow will bring something new, so it might as well be now.

So, Arizona passes a law (text here) that is a whopping 17 pages long, including amendments and the cover page. This authorizes Arizona's law enforcement people to do the immigration enforcing that the Obama Administration won't do. It's way too long for the Obama Administration to actually stop and read it.

And of course, the Open Borders crowd doesn't like it, so Left-run cities start boycotting Arizona right and left (OK, not right, just left). Los Angeles. Seattle (but not Starbucks). San Francisco. San Diego does Boycott-Lite with a censure. And now Sacramento is moving in that direction as well.

The backlash is a thing of beauty. San Diego is hurt to the quick that Zonies think its censure is a true boycott and are canceling their vacations to San Diego's beaches in retaliation. And Los Angeles got a dose of boycott "cooperation" when an Arizona utility regulator offered to keep from sending L.A. the 25% of its electricity that it gets from the Grand Canyon State.

Not nearly as beautiful is the advertisement by the Mexican state of Sonora's tourism bureau:


¡Sign me up for a trip to Sonora right now!

Not to be outdone in anti-Arizona-ness by cities up and down the West Coast and by Mexican turismos, Obama's Department of Homeland Security declares it reserves the right not to do its job of processing the suspected illegal aliens handed over by Arizona under the new law. They say that checking on a suspect's immigration status is "not good government." I suppose thumbing your nose at America's citizens and legal immigrants is what constitutes good government in the eyes of ICE officials. At least now we know.

And the Democratic pop-up toys bounce to their feet when Mexican President Calderon slams Arizona during his speech before Congress. It's almost as inspirational when Obama does the same slamming of Americans himself. But even more inspirational is when our Assistant Secretary of State tells China "early and often" how horrible America is because of this law.

Does anybody in Washington besides Congressman McClintock get it? I have my doubts.

It may look like President Obama finally gets it, but he's really nothing more than Gesture Man, offering lip service and token action when his polling shows him backed into a corner. He's finally going to Do Something on the border: send 1,200 National Guard troops. It's not clear, though, if those troops will be patrolling the border in Arizona, or if Obama will just send them to California, where he's still got some supporters.

If I had some good vacation time, I might visit Arizona for a bit of dry heat. But that won't be happening soon. So I'll have to console myself with supporting businesses that are headquartered in Arizona. My favorite so far is Coldstone.

Update:

Now it comes out that Obama does not plan to use the 1,200 troops on the border for immigration enforcement at all. It seems they listened to Mexico's request that the troops be used to stop the smuggling of guns into Mexico and not for the prevention of illegal encroachment of our country by foreign nationals. Sheesh!