This Wikipedia entry on Arizona’s anti-immigration law might answer some questions people have about what the exact language of the law mandates.

Law Provisions

The law makes it a state misdemeanor crime for anyone to be unable to prove lawful residence in the United States upon being asked to provide such proof pursuant to a specific section in Title 8 of the United States Code, and requires police to make a reasonable attempt, when practical to determine immigration status if there is cause to suspect they are illegal immigrants. Only when making lawful contact, anyone who appears to be an illegal alien upon reasonable suspicion and fails to produce such proof is subject to arrest without warrant, and, upon confirmation of the individual’s illegal status by the federal government, a fine of at least $500, and up to six months in jail.

A person is “presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States” if he or she presents any of the following four forms of identification: (a) a valid Arizona driver license; (b) a valid Arizona nonoperating identification license; (c) a valid tribal enrollment card or other tribal identification; or (d) any valid federal, state, or local government-issued identification, if the issuer requires proof of legal presence in the United States as a condition of issuance.

SB1070 also prohibits state, county, or local officials from limiting or restricting “the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law” and provides that Arizona citizens can sue such agencies or officials to compel such full enforcement.

In addition, the law makes it a crime for anyone, regardless of citizenship or immigration-status, to hire or to be hired from a vehicle which “blocks or impedes the normal movement of traffic.” Vehicles used in such manner are subject to mandatory impounding. Moreover, “encourag[ing] or induc[ing]” illegal immigration, giving shelter to illegal immigrants, and transporting or attempting to transport an illegal alien, either knowingly or while “recklessly” disregarding the individuals immigration-status, will be considered a class 1 criminal misdemeanor if less than 10 illegal immigrants are involved, and a class 6 felony if 10 or more are involved. The offender will be subject to a fine of at least $1,000 for each illegal alien so transported or sheltered.

Arizona is the first state with such a law. Prior law in Arizona, and the law in most other states, does not mandate that law enforcement personnel ask about the immigration status of those they encounter, and many police departments discourage such inquiries for fear that immigrants will not report crimes or cooperate in other investigations.

A Flagstaff, Arizona citizen argues that the state’s new anti-immigration law, requiring law enforcement authorities to determine the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally, does not go far enough. From elephantjournal.com:

Is it just me or has Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070 not gone far enough? If the Arizona police are only going to be stopping Hispanic people and asking for their papers, won’t everyone else feel left out? Being a yoga teacher, this kind of thing concerns me.

So, what if we included everyone so that nobody feels excluded? I’ve sketched out a simple system that should make everyone feel good.

First, we’ll have the government give all the “legals” green armbands that they must wear at all times. It will be for their safety and would end pesky inquiries for papers from law enforcement. Police officers can get back to focusing on crime like robberies, rape, murder, and citizens can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their brown-skinned neighbors are paying their taxes.

Native Americans can get another color, since they sometimes, you know, look like Mexicans. Maybe turquoise blue, since that color is often associated with “Indians.”

Maybe we should go a step farther, and give all citizens with IQs under 110 an orange band. They will not be allowed to carry guns…

And all of us non-brown folks who have an IQ over 110 get a gold sparkly band, so we can do pretty much whatever we want.

Then, anyone who is overweight has to go to work repairing roads or sewers (for free) until they lose weight as payback to society for taking more resources than one person should. We can use the tax money that would have gone toward infrastructure maintenance and put it back into securing our borders. Hey, these armbands may be cheaper than fitting everyone with microchips but they’ll still cost something!

Anyone not wearing a band is subject to “treatment” – you know, the kind Rumsfeld seems to like. And every now and then, specific band colors (such as green) get special jobs, like cleaning up toxic waste dumps – stuff like that. We can just round them up and have them live in barracks…it’ll be nice for them. They can work all day and feel really good about it.

I haven’t worked out the system completely yet, but I’ve heard about someone from the last century who really thought this one out . . .

I mean seriously, some people are advocating for a fascist state…so why not give it to them?

Wow surprise. Seems we have all 59 Democrats supporting a sprawling piece of reform legislation, and all 41 Republicans opposing it. And of course, those 41 votes are enough to maintain a filibuster. Sound familiar?

Democrats say the bill imposes new financial industry regulations necessary to prevent the kind of meltdown that nearly collapsed the global financial system in 2008. Republicans say the bill encourages a “too big to fail” mentality that requires government bailouts, an argument that many observers feel is, to put it charitably, malarkey. (Watch Paul Krugman, in hyperbolic mode, call it “possibly the most dishonest argument ever made in the history of politics.”)

With polls showing a big majority of Americans favoring more financial regulation, Democrats think the GOP won’t be able to hold fast on this one, and even many Republicans in Congress are predicting the bill’s eventual passage.

Here are some comments from New York Times and Washington Post readers.

According to figures released on Meet the Press, Sen. Dodd received over $6 million last year from the financial sector. He’s retiring this year – undoubtedly to a lucrative consulting job representing Wall Street interests. Depend on him and his well-funded Senate cronies in both parties to produce some overheated flimflam accomplishing nothing and leaving the bad actors, including the Fed and Goldman, at the top of the greed heap, the taxpayers holding the bag and the US government headed toward overt bankruptcy.

Not a word about auditing the Fed, overwhelmingly passed by the House, or investigating the central bank/Morgan/Goldman manipulation of the gold markets as recently heard by the Commodity Futures board, or anything about the phony gold-plated tungsten bars received last fall by the Chinese, apparent source: Fort Knox and the Fed. The Dodd Senate bill actually empowers the Fed even more than presently, and restricts the attempts at transparency in the House bill. That’s not going to be good for anybody except the financial elites and their politicians.

Nope, all these characters are going to try to take the money and run and cover their tracks with a lot of meaningless hot air. Any one of them up for reelection this had better get out in front on this with something meaningful, because the public on both the Right and the Left is wise to them at last.

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What does herding cats and a united Congress have in common? They are near impossible to do. I put my bets on herding cats.

The so called big tent of the Democratic Party can’t do anything without watering bills down to their weakest component. The health care bill, helping the unemployed and the stimulus bill showed that. The “Blue Dogs” are just Republicans in disguise. And the Republicans? They know they have the Democrats on the ropes and they can continue down the road of obstructionism. Their hope, to have nothing come out of Congress through November, so they can say that the Democrats cannot run the country (page one from their 1994 playbook). Couple this with a President that has done a lousy job in uniting his party and forcing through his agenda. His “hands off” on health care is also a glaring example.

So, if an financial reform bill does emerge it will be similar to the health care bill. That is, it placates the special interests and the very companies that reform was suppose to target. And in the end, Wall Street will bring the economy down again before 2020.

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We know many of the democrats leading this legislative effort took plenty of money from the financial industry. Our own President took $1 million from Goldman. I would like CSPAN on during deliberations and a full disclosure singling out who got what from whom and which lobbyists are out in the hallways passing out information sheets and leaning on legislators.

This whole thing smells like low tide already and the “blame republicans” rally call is old before it gets going. Are Pelosi/Reid even capable of sincere bi-partisan efforts? I am not sure. I do hope they remember their Congress has an approval rating around 14% and that means the public has seen their dog and pony show before and is not pleased.

In short, let’s keep this clean, open and non partisan. America deserves better.

Continue Reading

• 10. The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness – 24-year-old Brianna Karp’s blog about losing her job and falling into homelessness (Mar 4, 2010)

Our original post:

The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness is now over a year old. In February, 2009, 24-year-old Brianna Karp started blogging when she realized she would soon be without residence after losing her job. Things have picked up considerably for her since then (she has a book coming out), but here was the situation when she started, explained in her initial, gripping post:

In three days, I will be homeless.

This is not by choice… Personally, I enjoy having a permanent residence and the sense of stability and security that it gives me. I look forward to living in an actual house again. However, it is what it is – in three days, I will be homeless. There are no caveats here, no “maybe” or “unless” or “possibly I can come up with something before then.” Come Thursday, February 24, I will be making my way on the streets of Orange County as best I can, and I will be considered that most stigmatized of people – a homeless woman.

Initially, the idea of this terrified me. Here is a summary of the commentary that first ran through my head: This would never happen to me. I am not the kind of person that lives on the street. I have a life, I have friends, I have a dog, I have stable employment and residential history, references, education, skills, talents – I have worked hard all of my life to ensure stability for myself. How did this happen, HOW CAN I DO THIS?!?!?!?!

So, I cried for a few hours. I cried and I let the panic run its course. Then, I started planning…

Continue Reading

• 11. Living Craigslist – Unemployed college grad travels cross-country using only Craigslist. (Feb 1, 2010)

• 11. Who’s paying taxes?; Distribution of wealth – charts showing which income levels pay what percentage of taxes in the U.S., and the distribution of net worth and wealth (Feb 4, 2010)
  

Previous entries:

• 25. Colorado Springs: City of the future? – Anti-tax haven Colorado Springs finds itself in desperate fiscal straits, touching off schadenfreude and defensiveness on the Web.
• 24. Sub-prime the Musical – college student creates series of podcasts on the causes of the credit crisis and, naturally, adds song parodies to illustrate the concepts.
• 23. Friday photo gallery Nov 20, 2009
• 22. The Skyscraper Index – This metric shows that the world’s tallest buildings rise on the eve of economic downturns.
• 22. Chances of passing a health care bill – On March 10, Bush administration economist Keith Hennessey upped the chances of health care’s passage from 10% to 40%.

• 22. Friday photo gallery Oct. 30, 2009
• 21. If persons were treated like corporations – Political cartoon from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt site.
• 20. Rappin’ economics – Rap adaptation of the classic econ textbook “Principles of Economics.”
• 19. Friday photo gallery Oct. 9 2009
• 18. Facebook “likes” by city – 210 million Facebook profiles broken down into which pages users click the “like” button on, organized by city.
• 17. Repaired Things – The blog – collection of pictures of things that have been repaired
• 16. Podcast: Local currency bucks the dollar – cash-strapped communities throughout the U.S. make their own money
• 16. Defriending over health care – Did you defriend anyone on Facebook, or were you defriended, in the midst of the furious health care debate?
• 16. Cards of change – altered business cards uploaded by people who have either been laid off or experienced a change in career situation

• 15. Who are the worst tippers? – Waiters comment on which groups of people are the worst tippers, and no one is spared. (Dec 9, 2009)
• 14. 100 Motivational Blog Posts for the Unemployed (Jan 29, 2009) – practical and emotional tips, tools, and resources
• 14. Teabonics – misspellings spotted on Tea Party rally signs (Apr 19, 2010)
• 13. Facebook connections analyzed – interactive Facebook map with lines drawn between geographical areas that share a lot of friends (Feb 22, 1010)
• 13. Friday photo gallery Nov 6 2009

• 12. Happy all the time – Apr 5, 2010 – Diary of a McDonald’s Happy Meal purchase, in which the subject of the experiment stays unnaturally fresh for a whole year
• 12. Merry Recession! – Recession-themed Christmas cards (Dec 15, 2009)

• 12. Happy all the time – Apr 5, 2010 – Diary of a McDonald’s Happy Meal purchase, in which the subject of the experiment stays unnaturally fresh for a whole year
• 12. Merry Recession! – Recession-themed Christmas cards (Dec 15, 2009)

  

Previous entries:

• 25. Colorado Springs: City of the future? – Anti-tax haven Colorado Springs finds itself in desperate fiscal straits, touching off schadenfreude and defensiveness on the Web.
• 24. Sub-prime the Musical – college student creates series of podcasts on the causes of the credit crisis and, naturally, adds song parodies to illustrate the concepts.
• 23. Friday photo gallery Nov 20, 2009
• 22. The Skyscraper Index – This metric shows that the world’s tallest buildings rise on the eve of economic downturns.
• 22. Chances of passing a health care bill – On March 10, Bush administration economist Keith Hennessey upped the chances of health care’s passage from 10% to 40%.

• 22. Friday photo gallery Oct. 30, 2009
• 21. If persons were treated like corporations – Political cartoon from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt site.
• 20. Rappin’ economics – Rap adaptation of the classic econ textbook “Principles of Economics.”
• 19. Friday photo gallery Oct. 9 2009
• 18. Facebook “likes” by city – 210 million Facebook profiles broken down into which pages users click the “like” button on, organized by city.
• 17. Repaired Things – The blog – collection of pictures of things that have been repaired
• 16. Podcast: Local currency bucks the dollar – cash-strapped communities throughout the U.S. make their own money
• 16. Defriending over health care – Did you defriend anyone on Facebook, or were you defriended, in the midst of the furious health care debate?
• 16. Cards of change – altered business cards uploaded by people who have either been laid off or experienced a change in career situation

• 15. Who are the worst tippers? – Waiters comment on which groups of people are the worst tippers, and no one is spared. (Dec 9, 2009)
• 14. 100 Motivational Blog Posts for the Unemployed (Jan 29, 2009) – practical and emotional tips, tools, and resources
• 14. Teabonics – misspellings spotted on Tea Party rally signs (Apr 19, 2010)
• 13. Facebook connections analyzed – interactive Facebook map with lines drawn between geographical areas that share a lot of friends (Feb 22, 1010)
• 13. Friday photo gallery Nov 6 2009

• 13. Facebook connections analyzed – interactive Facebook map with lines drawn between geographical areas that share a lot of friends (Feb 22, 1010)
• 13. Friday photo gallery Nov 6 2009

  

Previous entries:

• 25. Colorado Springs: City of the future? – Anti-tax haven Colorado Springs finds itself in desperate fiscal straits, touching off schadenfreude and defensiveness on the Web.
• 24. Sub-prime the Musical – college student creates series of podcasts on the causes of the credit crisis and, naturally, adds song parodies to illustrate the concepts.
• 23. Friday photo gallery Nov 20, 2009
• 22. The Skyscraper Index – This metric shows that the world’s tallest buildings rise on the eve of economic downturns.
• 22. Chances of passing a health care bill – On March 10, Bush administration economist Keith Hennessey upped the chances of health care’s passage from 10% to 40%.

• 22. Friday photo gallery Oct. 30, 2009
• 21. If persons were treated like corporations – Political cartoon from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt site.
• 20. Rappin’ economics – Rap adaptation of the classic econ textbook “Principles of Economics.”
• 19. Friday photo gallery Oct. 9 2009
• 18. Facebook “likes” by city – 210 million Facebook profiles broken down into which pages users click the “like” button on, organized by city.
• 17. Repaired Things – The blog – collection of pictures of things that have been repaired
• 16. Podcast: Local currency bucks the dollar – cash-strapped communities throughout the U.S. make their own money
• 16. Defriending over health care – Did you defriend anyone on Facebook, or were you defriended, in the midst of the furious health care debate?
• 16. Cards of change – altered business cards uploaded by people who have either been laid off or experienced a change in career situation

• 15. Who are the worst tippers? – Waiters comment on which groups of people are the worst tippers, and no one is spared. (Dec 9, 2009)
• 14. 100 Motivational Blog Posts for the Unemployed (Jan 29, 2009) – practical and emotional tips, tools, and resources
• 14. Teabonics – misspellings spotted on Tea Party rally signs (Apr 19, 2010)

Some new photos mixed in with best-ofs. Click on an image to see it full size.

More photos here

More anecdotes of woe from the site FMyLife.

Today, after five months of not working, I have a check waiting for me at the office. Too bad the office is in another city. My gas tank is empty, and I have no money to put gas in my car. FML

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Today, I applied and was accepted for a part-time network engineering position. Being contract work they asked me what I charge. I replied, “$12 an hour.” After a look of surprise they accepted me for the position and said, “Our last guy charged $200 an hour, you’re a bargain.” FML

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Today, I had to file for bankruptcy because my ex-wife didn’t want to pay for the house she didn’t want me to have in the divorce, and didn’t bother to have my name removed from the loan before she filed bankruptcy herself. FML

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Today, I got a call from the police saying they found my stolen car. Not only did I not know my car was stolen, but it was completely stripped. No tires or doors left, and the engine was taken apart. FML

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Today, I received notice that I had not been paying my bills and had an outstanding debt of $2074. Apparently, my 7 year old son has been taking my mail and playing “mailman” for the past 3 months. FML

Continue Reading

• 14. 100 Motivational Blog Posts for the Unemployed (Jan 29, 2009) – practical and emotional tips, tools, and resources
• 14. Teabonics – misspellings spotted on Tea Party rally signs (Apr 19, 2010)

Previous entries:

• 25. Colorado Springs: City of the future? – Anti-tax haven Colorado Springs finds itself in desperate fiscal straits, touching off schadenfreude and defensiveness on the Web.
• 24. Sub-prime the Musical – college student creates series of podcasts on the causes of the credit crisis and, naturally, adds song parodies to illustrate the concepts.
• 23. Friday photo gallery Nov 20, 2009
• 22. The Skyscraper Index – This metric shows that the world’s tallest buildings rise on the eve of economic downturns.
• 22. Chances of passing a health care bill – On March 10, Bush administration economist Keith Hennessey upped the chances of health care’s passage from 10% to 40%.

• 22. Friday photo gallery Oct. 30, 2009
• 21. If persons were treated like corporations – Political cartoon from Kevin Moore’s In Contempt site.
• 20. Rappin’ economics – Rap adaptation of the classic econ textbook “Principles of Economics.”
• 19. Friday photo gallery Oct. 9 2009
• 18. Facebook “likes” by city – 210 million Facebook profiles broken down into which pages users click the “like” button on, organized by city.
• 17. Repaired Things – The blog – collection of pictures of things that have been repaired
• 16. Podcast: Local currency bucks the dollar – cash-strapped communities throughout the U.S. make their own money
• 16. Defriending over health care – Did you defriend anyone on Facebook, or were you defriended, in the midst of the furious health care debate?
• 16. Cards of change – altered business cards uploaded by people who have either been laid off or experienced a change in career situation

• 15. Who are the worst tippers? – Waiters comment on which groups of people are the worst tippers, and no one is spared. (Dec 9, 2009)