I considered writing a post today, despite the fact that I started the day late, but then I finally took the five minutes to watch this video. It should be played across the internet as the definition of hypocrisy. It isn't just Glenn Beck either, it is the foundation of the Tea Party "movement".

All summer long we saw pictures of President Obama with a Hitler mustache. Well, excuse me the President Republican governor of Arizona would like your papers.

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Let me add an actual bit of analysis to the Arizona immigration law. Many Republicans have constantly run out polls talking about how much Americans like the law. I'm not going to attack the polls - they are right. You would like the law too, if all you ever heard about it was that it was keeping illegal immigrants from taking American jobs and killing Americans in drug wars.

Here's what else is does:
- It will cost the city of Phoenix millions of dollars in lost tourism revenue, thanks to different boycotts and travel warnings from Mexico.
- The same can be said about the Arizona Diamondbacks and possibly the planned 2011 MLB All-Star game.
- It will likely cost local law enforcement agencies money thanks to a provision allowing lawsuits against them if they fail to enforce the law.
- It was followed by another bill targeted ethnic studies programs - a specific shot a Latino studies program in Phoenix, where more than 40 percent of the residents are Latino.
- It threatens to pull funding from schools that allow teachers with accents to teach English classes.
- And the one I continuously say: It makes illegal immigration a crime in America. Until this law was passed, it was a civil issue. You paid a fine, we sent you home. Now, we have to waste money throwing you in jail. For something that isn't a national security threat. More on that in a minute.

- One positive effect is that it targets those who pick up "day labor" from street corners, when the laborers are illegal. This is positive because it is on the right track. If you actually want to stem illegal immigration, you have to do it through the business owners that hire illegal immigrants. That, however, is against the Republican creed. You can't punish small businesses, they'll go out of business. Nevermind the fact that they weren't employing Americans anyway!

Ah, but the goal of this legislation is not to stem illegal immigration, or at least it is a very ineffective way of doing it, as I said. No immigration bill will succeed without significant penalties levied on business owners. Same way no meaningful safety improvements will be seen without significant penalties levied on oil and coal companies. That's reality.

No reduction in crime will be seen for a couple of reasons: one, criminals don't walk across the border. They use tunnels and other means. And maybe you haven't noticed my little tidbits here and there about Juarez, but Mexican cartels have never shown they are unwilling to murder police officers or US government officials. These people are ruthless.

Which brings me to my real solution. For decades, we have been fighting a war on drugs. Everywhere but here. Yeah, I remember "Just Say No" (not as much as Just Do It), but did it work? Hundreds of billions have been spent in Columbia, Mexico, and other countries. However, the problem is not the source, it is the buyer. So first, identify the problem: the United States of America. We buy the drugs. I've said this so many times, but we have an insatiable need for drugs in this country. Without solving that, immigration will never be solved. Ever. If there is a buyer, the seller will always find a way to get the product to them. No matter how many people have to die.

- A thing about Beck. Few people can deliver a message like him. He takes huge, complex ideas and brings them down to bite size sound bites. On Wednesday he blatantly said: "if God tells you to do something, do it. If your government tells you to do something, question it." Nevermind that the Bible itself says that you should obey your governments, because those people are put there by God, to lead. Details. And don't even get me started on his crusade against Social Justice. I suppose God was just bored when called on Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to "let my people go." Or in the New Testament, when the focus became saving Gentiles. Is that not the definition of Social Justice?

Have you ever been to a church which does not hold, as a major pillar, helping the poor? And Beck claims to be a leading voice in the plight of blacks. But when Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said he had a dream, was he not asking for Social Justice? Some of my conservative friends like to point out that "conservatives" have always been better for black people in this country than "liberals" (George Wallace - "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever" - was a Democrat, for example), nevermind that today's conservatives are far different from those historically. Abraham Lincoln was the most liberal conservative in history. And when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he was giving Social Justice a government policy. But that wasn't enough for him. Instead, as I quote often, in his second inaugural address, he said: "With malice toward none, with charity for all."

God did not create this country. His people did it according to His design. And His people, for the first time in history, said to him that we believe that all men are created equal. The foundation of this country is Social Justice.

Always refreshing to wake up and see Karl Rove on television - or nauseating, maybe? He was of course on Fox 'n Friends, with everyone's favorite playing dumb, highly educated mother (Gretchen Carlson), promoting his new book.

This is where I am hoping someone can do me a favor. Take a look at Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. When I first saw the cover, it immediately struck me that it looks exactly like a well-known book I once read, about blacks fighting for a place in society and within their own race. He stole it. Only I can't remember the name of the book or its author. Anyone have any ideas?

In other sports news:
- Sports: The Pac-10 Tournament starts today in LA. This time last year I was hoping a quick Southwest flight down there for what turned out to be an awesome few days of basketball and listening to Tim Floyd berate officials. Remember having a conversation with someone about a guy named Renardo Sidney and the cost it would take to bring him to your program. Turns out, after pulling his commitment from USC, it cost Miss. State one year, nine games and $19K.
- Sports: UConn will likely spend the NCAA tournament practicing for NIT games. St. Johns pounded the Huskies through the Madison Square Garden floor Tuesday to knock UConn out of the first round of the Big East tournament.
- Sports: Another report that Ernie Kent has been fired at Oregon. The Dean of Pac-10 coaches is in his 13th season, but has seen the Ducks finished 10th and 9th in the last two seasons of Pac-10 play.

Now in other news:

• This is a really bad clip for Meg Whitman, who is running for governor in California.
• Yesterday, now former Rep. Eric Massa went on the Glenn Beck Program. All you need to know about it is that Beck himself apologized to his audience at the end, for wasting an hour of their time. From Politico: Massa admitted to groping and tickling at least one staffer but insisted that he did 'nothing sexual' -- just hours after it was reported that he's been accused of having inappropriate physical contact with at least four male subordinates, including one intern.
  This is just a clip of what the whole thing was like.
• One of the major stories hitting news today is the chasm between the White House and the Supreme Court. It obviously kicked off with Obama taking a shot at them during the State of the Union and, as the story says, Chief Justice John Roberts had some words for that. Interestingly, this all happens the week after an erroneous rumor was circulated, saying that Roberts was going to retire. He would would of course die, literally, before allowing Obama to fill his seat.
• Bank of America has changed its debit card overdraft fee policy.

Finally, if you have like five minutes to dedicate just to flipping through this website, do it. I think I've linked it before, but a friend of mine is doing a screening of the movie, Crude, which reminded me of it. The devastating things Chevron has been involved in, not just pollution, but cold-blooded murder, around the world are painful to read about.

And one more interesting thing that I picked up from today's paper (people actually still read the real newspaper, did you know that?): 48% of the children born in the U.S. in 2008 were born to minorities in 2008. I know it seems weird that 2008 is in that sentence twice, but it means the parents were minorities in '08. They may no longer be that. Demographers believe 2010 may be the year more minority children are born, which begs the question: who even counts as a minority these days?

Had to get this up there quickly:

I just did a post on ActGreen about UW being named the greenest college in America. Don't forget to hit play down at the bottom.

Also, pay visit to GoHuskies.com when you get a chance. The opening video had me fired up. And go check out my Facebook for a really awesome video from the 2009 National Champion Washington softball team.

Oh, how I miss UW.

Is Glenn Beck getting fired?



The entire Politico newspaper is about Ted Kennedy today. My favorite headline: The next Ted Kennedy? There isn't one. And this article, Never forget you saw this man

Michael Vick makes his return to the NFL tonight.

And Barkley has been named the starter at USC. Yes, he's a freshman.

Later.

Morning y'all from the town that got the outstretches of a hurricane on Saturday. First time I've done an extended day of basketball, which in my growing age is about 2.5 hours. But we did it outside over in NE which is pretty ghetto. It was horribly humid and just difficult to move. Between the four of us we drank at least three gallons of water while we were playing and probably lost more than that to sweat. And it was right as we were finishing that the rains came.

And they didn't stop until Sunday morning. The the storm actually started Friday afternoon and we had about a 36 hour lightning storm with a small break from the rain on Saturday morning. It was nice to have rain back and get the air cleared out. Yesterday was just amazing. Clear and mid-80's.

Alright, enough about the weather. I possibly have real things to talk about.

(This is an interjection. It occurred to me that I didn't actually write anything about the Yankees. Well, they beat Boston. Again. sixth time in seven games. And they hit five homers off Josh Beckett. And their awesome. See grandpa, we don't disagree on everything. However, the Raiders? Well, let's just say - actually let's not.).

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Okay wow. I had to add a gap there. Now, I knew today was going to be busy. I started the blog post before I left this morning because I knew this and I'm liking the trend of two-a-day (as long as content keeps up, which I know hasn't quite been the case - sorry). I already had plans for the second blog that I hashed out on the bus this morning. On the DC public school system. Some interesting stuff that hopefully I will visit tomorrow. But instead of being able to finish it off, here I am at 9:36 pm finishing, trying frantically to get done because I have work to do as well.

Oh, Monday. The day always feels short because we have a staff meeting and often times other meetings throughout. Even though the big meeting only takes about 30 minutes, it is at 11 am so it feels like it just cuts the day in half. I also don't like to leave projects undone so that really bugs me. That would be a normal Monday, though. On this Monday I had all the normal stuff to do, as well as a couple of blog posts to write, updating the Heat Is On (HIO) site (which hasn't been done yet) and a couple more meetings to sit. Oh yeah, and one more thing: the Sarah Palin project.

I cannot really reveal the details yet because the entire project is not completed, but as soon as it is, look for a link. One of the requirements was to just find something ridiculous that Palin has said. Obviously this isn't hard. However, it needed to be an audio or video clip (not just text) and it needed to be in the context of energy. Even if it was about energy, as long as she was talking about energy and then just said something like "my foreign policy experience is great because Russia is my neighbor," that would've been find. Now that is harder than you think. Hard to the tune of, wait for it, SIX HOURS of listening to Sarah Palin speeches, interviews, town halls, ropeline discussions, fishing tips, you name it. If I have to hear the words maverick, drill, baby, gosh, well, or her voice again I might jump off the Washington Monument. Six hours of her high-pitched squeaky voice in which she can never string a series of words together into that thing some of us call a sentence. I watched her last speech at the Governor's picnic (her last day in office) three times. That is when she tells the press to stop making things up, in honor of the military. WHAT?! I remember when I first heard the on the day she gave it, telling someone it was a "train wreck" and that person responding to me, "those are the exact words someone else used to describe it." At least I'm not alone. At one point I actually got up, walked down the hall to my boss'as office and said rather matter-of-factly, "I bet you could walk down Crenshaw and hear better English." That is not racist, it's the truth. Period. Still, at some point in the near future, this final video should be hilarious.

That right there was six of my 9.5 hours physically in my office today. Not including before I left or now. Which could very well stretch into the night. Hard to tell you more about today than that, honestly.

So here are some links for you to check out:

First a quote that is moving around the internet today, attributed to Kirk Herstreit, even though he didn't really say it:

“Ducks are the college football version of Paris Hilton… they’re famous for no reason, they look pretty and they got a rich daddy.” - Again, sorry grandfather. Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Continuing with sports first:

Pete Rose should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame 17 years ago this month.




This has only happened twice in history. And only the fourth time since 1950 that a team has done it and hit an inside-the-park homerun in the same game.

Edge is a Hawk.

Social media is taking over the world, as evidenced by UW Athletics having a YouTube page (to go along with Twitter, Facebook, you name it). LCV actually has multiple YouTube pages, as well. Unfortunately it is too new to have any video content that I was involved it, but here's something I will really miss.



That Jon Brockman was special huh?

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If this is even remotely true then it only heaps more sadness on an already sad tale. Regardless of your feelings for the man, Michael Jackson was one of the most talented musicians in history.

Only in SoCal.

Boycotting Whisky? That might be taking it a little too far. However, Scotland screw this one up, big time.

I've already shared this on my Facebook, but Glenn Beck is from Mount Vernon, Wash.

I honestly really do like the pre-Presidential politics John McCain. Nice words about Ted Kennedy.

As always you should check out Act Green. But on this day story about Southwest was written by me. It is actually pretty cool.

I'd like to make a habit of highlighting something that a friend, new or old, of mine is doing on a regular basis. Today I have nothing. However, I will point out that I have just started ready The Ragin Cajun himself, James Carville's new book, 40 More Years. I'll let you know how it goes.

As always, thank you for reading. Stay Classy.