home

Monday Morning Open Thread: Boycott Arizona!

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Blog Related
Posted on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 06:25:19 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Boycott Arizona! What a Boycott Can Mean:

In 1982, President Reagan signed a bill making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday, but it wasn’t until almost a decade later that Arizona finally recognized it. In the meantime, the state lost NFL support and Super Bowl XXVII. The game — and the economic boost that comes with a Super Bowl — was to have been held at Tempe’s Sun Devil Stadium in 1993, but was moved to California to protest the state’s failure to recognize the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

No Super Bowls for Arizona. The Fiesta Bowl out of the BCS in the next negotiations. This can be effective pressure.

Open Thread.

< The Regulatory State, FinReg And "Private Attorneys General" | Does Making Fun Of Tom Friedman Still Matter? >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Monday Morning Open Thread: Boycott Arizona! | 54 comments (54 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    Terrible damage Saturday (5.00 / 5) (#1)
    by jeffinalabama on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 07:37:45 AM EST
    night to Albertville, Alabama, from an EF3 tornado. No houses, stores, churches destroyed, no electricity, gas, etc. for much of the town, and no internet, either. Keep us in your thoughts.

    Will do Jeff... (5.00 / 2) (#3)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 07:47:37 AM EST
    Mother Nature sure has been flexing her muscle lately...good luck.

    Parent
    Good luck Jeff and everyone else (5.00 / 1) (#24)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:06:34 PM EST
    Just no telling what is around the corner for anyone.

    Parent
    I had hoped the state would be (none / 0) (#2)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 07:44:52 AM EST
    spared but no such luck.  I drove home from Montgomery that night and while I could still see the overhead clouds they looked ominous, but I phoned home and they told me that I was pretty safe.  Tornado sirens went off in Montgomery, encouraging everyone to play it safe.  My thoughts are with you guys today.

    Parent
    Ugh...typo (none / 0) (#12)
    by jeffinalabama on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:39:00 AM EST
    typing while tired... houses, stores, schools and churches destroyed or damaged. All of the city schools are closed for at least a week. Might be till the end of the week before power is restored to everyone.

    Parent
    Was all amped up for... (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 08:37:42 AM EST
    "The History of Us" on the History Channel...but the lengthly Bank of America adverts almost ruined it for me...please spare us in the next installment BofA, who do you think you're fooling? You are not what makes/made this country great, any greatness is in spite of you.  A smuggler of contraband tobacco seeds...aka a drug criminal...thats what put us on the road to greatness:)

    Remember when sponsors had class? A quick mention of "this program brought to you by" and that was it...now they hit us with a mini-doc of pro-bank propaganda.  

    And Don't Forget (none / 0) (#7)
    by ScottW714 on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 09:52:07 AM EST
    The commentators, Newt & Giuliani, discussing why we decided rise up against tyranny to form the country.  According to Newt, this is actually in the Declaration of Independence,"...they (all people) are endowed by God with certain unalienable Rights.  Not to be nit-picky, but 'God' doesn't appear, the wording should be 'their Creator'.

    Would it be too much to ask the channel dedicated to History to cut obvious non-sense, or better yet, get a commentator that isn't a partisan hack who's own party drove him out of office because of his serial infidelity.  Ditto for for Rudy G. who knows about as much history as a third grader with ADHD.

    The series is damn good, but between the Bank of America pseudo-commercials and the right wing commentary ruined what could have been a great series.  It's getting to the point where I cannot watch the History Channel because of it's subtle right wing message.

    During Bush, they pushed WWII stuff every time Bush was getting flack over Iraq, now they are pushing the American Revolution every time Obama takes on new legislation.

    Parent

    Good points... (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 09:59:14 AM EST
    and what the hell was Donald Trump doing flappin' his yap?  Get those stooges off the tube!

    It's a shame too becuase the actual historical stuff was great...ya just had to hold your nose through too much bullsh*t.

    Parent

    It would be sweet... (none / 0) (#13)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:39:02 AM EST
    if the cut out all the commentators and just stuck to the narrator and reenactments.

    I really don't need Prof. Gates take either, even though I tend to agree with him...just the facts jack.

    Parent

    I decided to skip (none / 0) (#18)
    by brodie on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:54:53 AM EST
    watching this first installment because it appeared to be just another flag-waving series involving the usual consensus voices that always get trotted out yacking about how America is the Greatest Country in the History of Mankind.  Looks like it's even worse than I had anticipated, what with Newt, Rudy and the insufferable Trump apparently providing commentary sponsored by BofA.

    What's left to like about this series after having to sit through RWers like those?  Just quality production values?

    THC is a most curious channel, and I wouldn't doubt that certain underlying conservative instincts from management are beginning to assert themselves into the programming.  But when are liberals going to get going with their own cable channels to counter the HC propaganda?

    Parent

    To be fair... (none / 0) (#19)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 11:26:57 AM EST
    Trump only appeared for 2-3 sentences...and we did have Gates in there.

    The long BofA bits were the worst of it...the actual program was pretty good. Nothing wrong with celebrating what is great about this country, as long as you don't ignore the nasty bits.

    I found the description of conditions on British prison ships most informative...I didn't know 9 out of 10 colonist rebels died in British custody on those god-forsaken ships.

    Parent

    Went to the HC site to (none / 0) (#22)
    by brodie on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 11:53:40 AM EST
    see a few available snippets of upcoming episodes.  I'll give them production values.  There was some good, rare color film of FDR for instance.  Usually all they serve up on tv history programs re Roosevelt is the same lousy b&w grainy clips we've all seen.  

    Also a few moments of high-quality color film of JFK speaking at the Berlin Wall.  Much higher quality than the disappointingly crummy b&w film of that speech I bought from the Kennedy Library yrs ago.

    Still, I wonder how much I'll be learning sitting through hours of high quality production, the usual reenactment scenes, and the likes of Colin Powell, Katie Couric and Tom Brokaw sound biting their way around saying anything remotely controversial or interesting.

    Parent

    Funny (none / 0) (#20)
    by MyLeftMind on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 11:27:55 AM EST
    I've always thought my "creator" was my mom. Her body basically grew mine from a little speck of a cell to a full blown human baby.

    Parent
    Hey now... (none / 0) (#21)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 11:43:28 AM EST
    don't forget Pops...it takes two to create, and a planet to nourish.

    Parent
    Drill Baby, Drill (5.00 / 3) (#10)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:16:56 AM EST
    BP is mobilizing two rigs that could drill relief wells that could send mud and concrete into the cavity of oil and gas that drilling punctured through the explosion of the oil rig off Louisiana. Although, drilling relief wells nearby would take two to three months to stop the flow.  Other efforts, such as engaging the "blowout protector" to protect against a blowout may or may not work in a shorter time period.  In the meanwhile, 42,000 gallons of oil a day are pouring out into the Gulf over a 600 sq mille area. No oil expected on the shores for about three days, so relax.

    Clamor about it (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:41:49 AM EST
    from everyone helps imo.

    Good point (none / 0) (#23)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:04:43 PM EST
    I was wondering the same thing- wishing I had some business to withdraw.

    I wax thinking about it from the opposites side too- what if they got all the business and had no workers left to handle it? But they would just take the money and give lousy service.

    Parent

    Las Vegas... (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:43:50 AM EST
    will take your action without papers...up to $9,999 anyway, and if you don't have a baby-face:)

    Aren't we still boycotting California (5.00 / 2) (#25)
    by beefeater on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:11:05 PM EST
    Over that "gay marriage" thing? How is that working out?

    So many boycotts, so little time.

    Well I won't boycott AZ (5.00 / 2) (#27)
    by TeresaInSnow2 on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:40:05 PM EST
    because I don't think killing the economy of a state is beneficial to human beings.

    Boycott the politicians, destroy them.  Don't boycott the citizens of the state who had nothing to do with this.  They don't all vote the same way.

    Saying the people of AZ... (5.00 / 3) (#28)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:47:09 PM EST
    had "nothing to do with it" is a serious understatement...I know its not the fairest of deals, but at the end of the day the people of AZ are responsible for their legislature and governor.

    Parent
    Do you want the people of AZ telling (5.00 / 1) (#29)
    by Inspector Gadget on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:49:55 PM EST
    you how to manage your state problems?

    Parent
    BS (5.00 / 1) (#32)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:58:24 PM EST
    The people opposed to Arpaio and his brigades are living in fear. Any opposition to these anti american freaks means bomb threat, physical intimidation, bringing false charges, even RICO cases, with zero evidence.

    It is like fascism in germany. Those who protested were beaten first, and if they continued their protests, they were disappeared.

    For a little background on the terror people of Arizona experience on a daily basis from these fascists, digby shines a light..

    Parent

    If my state was overriding the Constitution (5.00 / 2) (#33)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:59:57 PM EST
    I would expect it to be brought to my attention, so yes.

    Parent
    How is making a personal decision (5.00 / 3) (#36)
    by CST on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:13:00 PM EST
    not to visit a state due to their draconian laws equivalent to telling them how to manage their problems?

    It's telling them that you will not support the way they manage their problems.  They are free to act as they choose and I am free to not visit due to those choices.  It's not their right to have me visit and buy their products.

    Parent

    Me and my state... (none / 0) (#30)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:55:05 PM EST
    will take all the help we can get...if they have any ideas I'd hope they'd share them...as well as calling out any and all bad news my state is up to.

    Sh*t...the NYPD and/or Wall St. are reason enough to boycott NYC....and if it stung the average NY'er enough to finally do something about those two outfits, all the better.

    Parent

    Boycott Ritz-Carlton as Well (5.00 / 1) (#41)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:44:46 PM EST
    WTF??


    A British family is at the centre of a legal case in America after they allegedly told a luxury hotel they did not want to be served by black staff.

    The family, whose principal member has only been named as Rodney Morgan, were said to have asked management at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida, they did not want to deal with "people of colour" or staff with "foreign accents".

    Legal papers state their request was then entered into the computer system at the five star hotel before a black waiter was then stopped from serving them.

    The race row came after lawyers acting for the waiter, Haitian-born Wadner Tranchant, sued the hotel.
    The 40 year-old black waiter claims he was stopped serving the family during their stay in February to avoid upsetting them.

    Link

    man (5.00 / 1) (#42)
    by CST on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:03:54 PM EST
    my sister had to deal with that attitude all the time when she was working at an English language school.  These teenage students would come from Europe and be absolutely horrified that they were placed with black host families.  She spent many hours on the phone with angry parents and organizations explaining to them that she would NOT move their kid without a legitimate complaint and that they were asking her to break the law.

    Her boss (in Japan, it was a foreign owned company) wanted her to just $hut up and move them.  But she made that her private battle... until she finally quit.

    Parent

    Good For Her (5.00 / 1) (#45)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:34:22 PM EST
    And glad that she is not lending her talents and skill to a company that places profit over civil rights.

    Parent
    I heard about this (5.00 / 3) (#46)
    by lilburro on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:36:45 PM EST
    and it is ridiculous (as one Gawker commenter said, they're British, wouldn't any American serving them have to them a "foreign accent"?).

    Fortunately I won't have a hard time boycotting the Ritz Carlton...

    Parent

    Go SF! (5.00 / 3) (#47)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:41:45 PM EST
    SAN FRANCISCO--San Francisco city officials are calling for a boycott of Arizona and businesses based there to protest that state's strict new immigration law.
    The city attorney, Dennis Herrera, offered on Monday to help with any challenges to the law. He says his teams will start determining which contracts between the city and county of San Francisco and Arizona could be severed without penalty.

    link

    More of that please. And the fascist Gov. Brewer and her cronies will soon be bankrupting the state due to all the civil rights lawsuits Arpaio and his pals will bring on.

    These morons are going to be voted out of office, and a stain will be on the GOP for supporting this unAmerican nonsense.

    I had to turn the sound off (4.00 / 3) (#4)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 08:21:15 AM EST
    when the news this morning began playing Obama speechifying on the dead miners.  Obama doesn't care about little people.  It was just about as bad for me as when Dubya used to get up there with all the soldiers as a backdrop and talk about how noble we all were........I turned the sound off then too.  With both Presidents, they are reigning over a huge amount of human suffering that they have now each caused and will not face their complicity in as well as how needless and completely selfish and only "big power/big money" serving that suffering is.

    The mining disaster in WV (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by Dr Molly on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 09:42:42 AM EST
    has the same root cause as the current economic disaster - politicans have been given complete license for corporate greed, with zero regulations to protect the average people.

    Isn't it shocking that, without regulation, corporate leaders would maximize profit at the expense of us? History just keeps repeating itself, and people just keep accepting it...

    Parent

    We have regulations... (5.00 / 2) (#8)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 09:54:00 AM EST
    the problems are...they are usually written by those who they are meant to regulate, or they are written by people in their pockets, or they have loopholes big enough to drive a schoolbus through, or the penalties are less expensive than living up to the regs.

    What we end up with is legal exploitation, legal hazards, legal pollution, legal theft...and frankly I don't know what can be done about it within the current rotten framework.  We need to take it upon ourselves, our representation has been representing others for several decades now.

    Parent

    But what happens in Vegas (none / 0) (#16)
    by jeffinalabama on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 10:41:51 AM EST
    stays in Vegas. Besides, do you want more mega-casinos to fail?

    ... has a mega casino ever failed?

    NYC taxpayers... (none / 0) (#26)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 12:55:00 PM EST
    out another chunk of change due to thugs with badges...Link.

    Will we ever tire?

    Speaking of thugs with badges (5.00 / 1) (#31)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 01:57:25 PM EST
    I just read John Grisham's 'An Innocent Man', his non-fiction book about a man in Ada, Oklahoma who spent 11 yrs on death row for a crime he did not commit. Also his supposed accomplice was sentenced to life. They sued virtually the whole state government apparatus from the county on up and won, because the prosecutor, police, and crime labs basically fabricated the case. That little town is probably still paying off that judgement. but they still have the same prosecutor and staff (or did as of the writing of the book) so thye deserve what they get for not cleaning house.

    Very fast read. Main tip I got from it: never, under any circumstances, talk to the police without a lawyer present. Just don't do it. If you don't think what happened to these guys can happen to you, you are wrong.

    Parent

    Thanks for the reco... (none / 0) (#34)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:01:56 PM EST
    sounds like a good, if infuriating, read.

    Parent
    yes - I had to put it down a few times (none / 0) (#35)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:07:01 PM EST
    for some deep breathing.

    The main subject of the book was helped by The Innocence Project and DNA evidence. Grisham also talks about a different case from the same prosecutor with similar raillroading - two probably innocent guys have been in jail for 20+ years now. Unfortunately there was no DNA to clear them, since there was no crime scene found, since the body was dumped in the woods.

    2nd tip I got from the book - juries can be real idiots. If you are relying on them to not get taken in by the most ridiculous so-called evidence ....you are in trouble.

    Parent

    Innocent defendents (5.00 / 1) (#53)
    by jondee on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:54:38 PM EST
    can also be idiots - or painfully naive - and investigators and prosecutors can be amoral, conniving bastards. The book Adams vs Texas makes for some very instructive reading in how that dynamic can play out..

    Parent
    I think prosecutors... (none / 0) (#37)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:15:46 PM EST
    use that "juries can be real idiots" theory to their advantage, to force plea deals.

    I have no doubt people plea to sh*t they didn't do because of it.

    Parent

    No doubt (none / 0) (#48)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:03:18 PM EST
    What a terrible choice to have to make - plead guilty to a lesser crime that you did not do, in order to avoid being convicted of a worse crime that you did not do.

    And yet it happens every day.


    Parent

    I got the message that juries can be idiots (none / 0) (#38)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:18:49 PM EST
    when one of OJ's jurors was interviewed after his murder trial (weird that we have to specify among his various trials now) who when asked about the DNA evidence said something along the lines of "DNA? That's just something they made up to try to confuse us."

    Parent
    As awful as that was (5.00 / 1) (#49)
    by ruffian on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:07:44 PM EST
    I would much rather the 'juries are idiots' examples be on the side of letting someone off than convicting someone with no evidence.

    Parent
    Amen sister... (5.00 / 1) (#51)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:39:15 PM EST
    In fact I was taught it is the bedrock of our entire system...better untold guilty go free than one innocent be convicted.

    Parent
    Sounds like (none / 0) (#44)
    by jbindc on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:22:40 PM EST
    The defense played the "jurors are idiots" card in that one - especially when you have a man who was a paid professional actor, on trial for his life, who struggles to put on a pair of his gloves, and the jurors bought it.

    Parent
    Excellent read (none / 0) (#43)
    by jbindc on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 03:19:36 PM EST


    Parent
    Wake Up Call For VA Voters (none / 0) (#39)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:37:34 PM EST
    50 miles offshore, not very effective when a spill can cover 1800+++ sq mi. And "state of the art" only means something to those who believe it will avert something like this:

    NEW ORLEANS -- Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana is now covering more than 1,800 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the water's surface.

    NYT

    Well... (none / 0) (#40)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 02:44:13 PM EST
    we shouldn't only pollute far off lands in our thirst for the black stuff...if we're gonna use it, lets live in the mess it creates...maybe then we'll get serious about alternatives.

    Parent
    Walmart (none / 0) (#50)
    by CST on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:22:06 PM EST
    could be in some serious trouble.

    "A federal appeals court has certified the largest class-action employment lawsuit in U.S. history, in a long-standing dispute against retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over alleged gender bias in pay and promotions."

    emphasis mine

    "a decision against the company could result in billions in damages. (...)

    At issue is whether more than a million current and former Wal-Mart employees can band together in their claims of discrimination, which they say has occurred over the past decade, at least."

    The high cost of low prices.... (none / 0) (#52)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:42:51 PM EST
    sock it to 'em ladies, sock it to 'em!

    Parent
    Pocket Change (none / 0) (#54)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 04:56:30 PM EST
    The net worth of the Waltons is about $90billion, the annual sales revenue of Walmart 2009 is $401.bil. $13bil profit.

    What's a few billion lost to perpetuate a Wingnut agenda.

    Parent

    Cutthroats (none / 0) (#55)
    by jondee on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 05:17:32 PM EST
    posing as God fearin' wingnuts, who would probably outsource America's grade schools to (totalitarian) China, if they could engineer it and it would somehow expand their market share.

    Meanwhile, in their book department, they stock every God-wants-us-ta-bomb-I-ran "prophetic" work in print, in order to convince the yahoos of that they're all about traditional values.

    Parent

    lol (none / 0) (#56)
    by squeaky on Mon Apr 26, 2010 at 05:23:23 PM EST
    Good one... they would outsource our children to China... ah the limits of the creative mind... and I am talking not about you but the failings of American entrepreneurs not to have figured this one out already as it is a golden goose for certain..

    Parent
    Monday Morning Open Thread: Boycott Arizona! | 54 comments (54 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment