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Yesterday US District Judge Susan Bolton made an historic and courageous decision in blocking the major parts of Arizona’ controversial new immigration law. But the fight is not over, as proven by this statement released on the state’s official website by Governor Jan Brewer. In my opinion we can not forget that the issue here is less illegal immigration, and more protecting the rights of individuals given by  the Constitution of the United States.

I ask …Why isn’t the Tea Party fighting to protect these rights?

STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR JAN BREWER

PHOENIX – “I am disappointed by Judge Susan Bolton’s ruling enjoining several provisions of “The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” — SB 1070; though I am heartened by some findings – including the ban on sanctuary cities.

“This fight is far from over. In fact, it is just the beginning, and at the end of what is certain to be a long legal struggle, Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens. I am deeply grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from across our nation in our efforts to defend against the failures of the federal government.

“I have consulted with my legal counsel about our next steps. We will take a close look at every single element Judge Bolton removed from the law, and we will soon file an expedited appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

“For anyone willing to see it — the crisis is as clear as is the federal government’s failure to address it.

“The judge herself noted that the stash houses where smugglers hide immigrants from Mexico before bringing them into the country’s interior have become a fixture on the news in Arizona and that, ‘You can barely go a day without a location being found in Phoenix where there are numerous people being harbored.’”

“When I signed the bill on April 23rd, I said, SB 1070 – represents another tool for our state to use as we work to address a crisis we did not create and the federal government has actively refused to fix. The law protects all of us, every Arizona citizen and everyone here in our state lawfully. And, it does so while ensuring
that the constitutional rights of ALL in Arizona are undiminished – holding fast to the diversity that has made Arizona so great.

“I will battle all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, for the right to protect the citizens of
Arizona. Meanwhile, I also know we still have work to do in confronting the fear-mongers, those dealing in hate and lies and economic boycotts that seek to do Arizona harm.

“We have already made some progress in waking up Washington. But the question still remains: will Washington do its job, and put an end to the daily operations of smugglers in our nation, or will the delays and sidesteps continue? I believe that the defenders of the rule of law will ultimately succeed with us in our demand for action.”

The entry below was crossed posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Scott Brown drew a huge crowd to a New England Council breakfast this week. His speech was a reminder of the regular-guy appeal that won him the seat last January and the power he is currently relishing as the 41st vote in the U.S. Senate, a guy who can stop a filibuster or put a closely partisan bill over the top. He also demonstrated enormous hubris about his importance in the national dialogue and a reluctance to deal in nuance and context.

First, the regular-guy appeal. His campaign-style delivery dishes out slogans that are simple and capture the mood of much of the electorate. “There’s only so much spending that we can do,” he reminds folks, talking about how “People are frustrated about overspending,” and “Washington is not doing the people’s business. Anyone running for office should have to…have the experience of waking up in the middle of the night wondering if they can make payroll.” Members of the largely business audience nodded in agreement. He decried the campaign disclosure bill then under discussion because it distracts from the issue of job creation. “Seven days left (in the session) and they want to spend time on this?” he asks.

“Six months ago, I was Scott Brown from Wrentham driving the truck. I still have the truck. It’s in D.C. The only difference is: today I could probably sell it for $100,000.” Of course he gets a good laugh from the audience. And another when he says, “When I get the crap kicked out of me every day from the left and the right, I must be doing something right.”
(This unassuming aspect to our truck senator is particularly appealing, given the public relations pickle that our senior senator has gotten himself into because of where Kerry has been docking his new $7 million luxury yacht. But the contrast between the two senators is about far more than their choice of transportation.)

Let’s move from Brown’s appealing to his appalling moments. To show his distrust of extending unemployment benefits, he told how North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler had hosted a job fair and “only three people showed up for 100 jobs.” Brown said the people “didn’t want to work because they are on unemployment.” I suspect that unemployed workers who think like that are few and far between; you don’t pull in enough on unemployment benefits to support a family adequately. More importantly, I spoke to Congressman Shuler’s office. Staff person Myrna Campbell told me that Scott Brown’s story is an urban myth that somehow got into the media. While Rep. Shuler has had some job fairs, the event in question was not a job fair, and there were no jobs being offered. It was an informational session for small business owners and community college professionals about the state of the marketplace and how to prepare people for the workplace.

Our truck senator was shockingly dismissive when asked whether he felt aggressive deficit-cutting at this time in our fragile recovery might be premature in light of the nation’s experience in 1936, when, out of concern for the deficit, President Roosevelt pulled back from the stimulus initiatives of the early 1930’s and prolonged the Great Depression. Brown said bluntly, “I don’t buy that.”

Brown also asserted that “the stimulus bill hasn’t created one single job!” Take the census workers out of the equation, and the stimulus bill has both created jobs on roads, bridges and other badly needed infrastructure projects and has staved off the loss of jobs for teachers, police and firefighters.

Brown dismissed the stimulus bill as a wasteful indulgence in photo ops announcing bridges and road projects that don’t create jobs. His approach to job creation is no tax increases, don’t increase the deficit, get the “money owed to us” (not sure what he means buy that), reducing the payroll tax, and then “targeted stimulus” for transportation and infrastructure improvements. So how is that different from what we have been doing on infrastructure?

To hear him talk, his negotiation may in fact have been the determining factor in getting a financial services regulation bill passed. But he’s less convincing when he attributes President Obama’s heightened interest in job creation to a conversation Brown had with him in the Oval Office. In his newcomer enthusiasm, he needs to avoid the pitfall of overweening pride.

But here’s a possible cause for optimism regarding Scott Brown. He quite rightly says he doesn’t work for Harry Reid and he doesn’t work for Mitch McConnell either. He says he can play a significant role in helping to build a bi-partisan caucus involving moderate Republicans, like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as well as Democrats like Warner, Casey and Udall. And, if he can deal with folks on both sides of the aisle, find common ground and decide things on an issue-by-issue basis, if he can do his homework and not descend into slogans that reinforce his Tea Party-type notions, he can make a significant difference in how Washington does its business.

- Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below

Local playwright Jack Neary is blogging again…the entry below was cross posted from Jack’s own blog, “Shards”.

So until I can construct one extended, cohesive thought, I’m gonna have to keep the “Shards” thing going. I’m trying to remember the last extended, cohesive thought, I had. Let me see…uh…

On another matter, I’m in Shaw’s in Derry the other day, seeking out my beloved Waist Watchers aspartame free diet soda, when I see this kid, like eight years old, and not a miniature eight years old at that, sitting INSIDE the shopping cart his mother is hauling through the store. The kid (young adult) barely fits inside the thing, and his mother has to find whatever body-part-free nooks and crannies the lazy brat has left so she can stuff her various shopping items in them. He’s sitting there, sucking on some kind of ice cream treat, while she’s gathering foodstuffs and carefully inserting them in the parts of the cart where her son isn’t. Okay, I’m coming down pretty hard on the kid when, truthfully, what the hell is this mother thinking? I hope she’s thinking, “He’d better remember me when it comes time for the nursing home.” And he’d better.
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The cable went out for a few hours yesterday afternoon, during the Red Sox game. And…I didn’t care. Goes to show you what kind of season they’re having. Plus, I dropped two notches down from leading my fantasy league this week. It doesn’t help to have Pedroia, Buchholz and Justin Murneau all on the DL at the same time.
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I finished a short play which I hope will be part of the new Emerson College-Paramount Theatre event this fall. I utilized, once again, the two characters from my recent Boston Theater Marathon plays–Bethel and Clarice–who have been so beautifully played by Ellen Colton and Bobbie Steinbach. It’s called CASTING AMANDA, for those of you keeping score.
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From the “My Mother Never Threw Anything Out” department–I just found my father’s draft card from 1944. He never entered the service, but from the card it looks like he was 1-A. Perhaps the events in Normandy slowed things down a bit. Plus, I think he was kind of the head of his household at that time.
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Up until this year, I had not been in a swimming pool since 1973, when I broke down and took a swim in Gail Gilman’s pool. Why, you may ask, if I’m such an aquaphobe, did I take a swim in Gail Gilman’s pool in 1973? One look at Gail Gilman in 1973, and you’d have your answer. She asked me to. I did what I was told. Since that time, though, I’ve had no reason to indulge in any kind of waterfest. Now, though, with a beautiful pool in the backyard, I’ve come to see the attraction of a cool dip on a sweltering afternoon. “A Cool Dip On A Sweltering Afternoon.” Sounds like the B-side of a bad Mel Torme 45.
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I listened to the Original Cast album of CHICAGO as I ran today. We’re kinda thinking of doing the show at Dracut High School next spring. I have my fingers crossed, ’cause I’d love to direct it. Listening to the album also reminded me of the great, great show business career turned in by the late Jerry Ohrbach, who played Billy Flynn in the original. A New Yorker who pretty much stayed there, he fashioned himself a career that, while based in the theatre, spanned movies and TV, including superb work on LAW AND ORDER and in Woody Allen’s terrific CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. He was the original El Gallo in THE FANTASTICKS and the original stage version of Chuck Baxter in PROMISES, PROMISES. And then there was 42nd STREET. And many other shows. Amazing.
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Okay, I’m now guilty of over-using the word “amazing,” and I will work to avoid using it in the future. I’m still trying to get the rest of the world off “awesome,” but I’m failing miserably. Even when I suggest the far more jauntily tongue-tripping “wicked pissa” as a replacement.
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Two entries in one week. I’m exhausted.