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The Arizona legislature has come up with an interesting bit of political gamesmanship. There are those that think it’s just good policy, but when you break it down, it’s just politics. Damn good politics, if you ask me.

If you’re not reading the news, Arizona recently passed a law that gives state police a new ability to demand to see the immigration paperwork of anybody they think might be illegal. Their stated belief is that, since the Federal government is either unwilling or unable to take care of the problem of illegal immigration, the state of Arizona would have to step up and do the dirty work.

There are other statutes in the law that seem perfectly reasonable, but it’s the stopping-and-demanding-your-papers thing that is the real sticking point.

See, that flies directly in the face of the 4th Amendment. You know the 4th Amendment, right?

No? Well, let me spell it out for you.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but on probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The distilled version, applicable here, is cops can’t stop you and demand to see your ID for any reason unless you’re presenting them with specific evidence that a crime has been committed. And, before you ask – no, “looking illegal” isn’t a good enough reason.

There was a specific challenge to the 4th regarding illegals. In USA vs. Martinez-Fuerte, the Supreme Court of 1976 ruled that Federal Immigration Officers in Southern California could operate a permanent immigration checkpoint. The majority said, however, that the ruling was in favor for only permanent immigration checkpoints, and nothing arbitrary or mobile.

Bottom line is, if this law comes to a supreme court challenge, which it will, it will get overturned instantly. A victory for civil libertarians, right?

Wrong. See, right or wrong, the American Right, currently typified by the Tea Party activists, is organizing, and they hate illegal immigration almost as much as they hate Obama. When they hear that the Supreme Court overruled Arizona’s righteous anti-immigration law, their reaction will be fast and sure.

They will absolutely lose their fucking shit.

So, what’s wrong with immigration checkpoints, anyway? Why is this such a big deal? Maybe you’re wondering why it’s such a terrible thing to just show your proof of citizenship should a police officer ask for one?

Let me paint a picture for you. Let’s say hi to Rich Weston, one of the greatest Americans I know. He was born in the UK, but worked hard and got his citizenship. Now, let’s say hi to Carlos Acosta. He’s dark skinned, English is his second language and speaks it with an accent, and was born in the Caribbean.

Rich won’t be stopped. Why? He’s white, affluent, and English. Carlos might though. Under this new law, a cop could stop him on the sidewalk and demand to see his papers. Oops, he left his wallet on his desk in the datacenter where he’s a highly paid consultant. The cop can then bring him in until his immigration status can be determined. They keep him in jail, but it’s Saturday night, and the judge doesn’t bang the gavel until Monday morning.

And we all know jail is an awesome place to spend the weekend.

Here’s the thing: Rich, while a citizen, was an immigrant. Carlos is latino, but was born in the Caribbean so… Oh, did I forget to mention? The Caribbean island he was born in was Puerto Rico, making him a natural born American citizen. So, oops. He gets to spend the weekend in jail because he looks like trouble.

If you like the Bill of Rights, you have to hate this law. It’s a totally reasonable thing to want this law rescinded, but we all have short attention spans and can’t be bothered to even be curious about Constitutional law. So, the mobilized and angry Tea Party will instead get figuratively up in arms about “activist judges” killing a perfectly reasonable law, and will only cement their view that the government doesn’t represent their views at all.

Failing to realize, of course, that they really do love the 4th amendment, and didn’t really want it marginalized. But by the time they elect the President they want, and he appoints the Supreme Court they want, it’ll be too late.

The elected Arizona legislature have to know that this law is unconstitutional. So, why bother making it law in the first place? Because they know the act of killing the law in the courts only improve their positions with conservatives. They’re either very clever political players, maneuvering the Obama administration into a difficult position, or they’re outrageously ignorant of our Constitution, and that scares me even more.

So, it’s a pickle! How to rightly kill this law without riling up the Teabaggers? Do we have the patience to teach them basic civics? Do they have the desire to learn it? Can this bell be un-rung?

Probably not.

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Heather and I sat on the couch, watching the returns, and frantically alt-tabbing and F5′ing between a dozen web-sites. We read blog posts from the left and right, watched as the numbers in Loudoun County and the state of Virginia wavered between Red and Blue, and bit our nails to absolute nubs.

At the end of the day, though, not only did I get a Blue county – I got a Blue state, and a Blue country. At 11:00pm tonight, all the major networks called the election for Senator Barack Hussein Obama, our 44th President.

There are lots of people that suggest that this vote represents a sea-change, but I respectfully disagree. Even though I’m almost 39, I’ve seen enough elections, and have read enough history, to know that this is just one side of a cycle. I’ll likely see the pendulum swing back to conservative in eight to twelve years, and then back to liberal again some time after that.

The great wheel turns.

So, to my friends and family that supported the Republican ticket, I hope you don’t feel the same despair I felt in 2000 and 2004. I learned some time after those elections that the fundamentals of the country don’t change much for those of us firmly entrenched in the middle class. Those on the margins feel the biggest changes, and none of you are there.

You’ll be fine. Really. For all the doom and gloom I thought I would endure in 2000 and 2004, I was fine.

Tonight is the final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. With only 19 days left until the election, this is their final chance to have a face-to-face discussion of their very different views.

Please make sure and watch the debate. Before you do, however, watch this video. Watch it all the way through. See the impact this war and this economy has had on us all. **Watch and learn about the struggles of people who have done their best, worked hard, asked for nothing, and were *still* victimized**.

Like many Americans, I watched the Vice Presidential debates last night. And, again – like many Americans – was expecting a train-wreck. I didn’t get one, but that doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind on Sarah Palin. It means she was extremely well rehearsed, decently coached, and naturally comes across as warm, genial, and charming.

The after-debate analysis from Pat Buchanan and Rachel Maddow was great. Pat Buchanan described Biden as boring, while Palin was constrastingly exciting. Maddow then quipped that America’s choice has become “Boring and right, or Exciting and wrong.” I was hoping to hear about more of the instant polling like CNN did during the last Presidential debate, but it was noticeably absent.

So, this debate was full of a whole lot of nothing, and that’s fine. The debate was Palin’s to win or lose. All Biden had to do was show up and be courteous. Give nothing to the wingnuts to latch onto and claim Joe was being unkind or unctuous. He did a great job, with a few mistakes – sure.

As a side note, any time I hear so-and-so voted for a bill, or raised taxes, I always take that info with a giant grain of salt. On the one hand, Biden claimed that McCain voted to raise taxes in the same way that Obama did (though, that analysis is, itself, incorrect) when in truth, McCain voted for an amendment to that bill, but ultimately voted the bill itself down. Palin claimed that Obama voted to raise taxes on families making just $42k a year. Actually, the vote was to repeal the Bush tax-cuts,which had individual $42k earners paying more. Voting for a removal of a tax-cut isn’t the same as voting for a tax increase.

Both candidates made those kind of errors (or should we call them exaggerations?), and even each-other out, in my opinion. Style points to Palin for being warm and cheerful, but big minus points for not answering the questions that Gwen Ifill asked. Biden looked steady and showed his absolute command of the issues, showing nuance of thought and analysis.

If I weighed those points evenly, I’d call it a tie, but I don’t think style should count as much as intelligence, so I’d give the debate to Biden. Don’t get me wrong – Palin did well, but she’s just not presidential. After this election, I’d say she has a great career ahead of her as a Fox news pundit.

I am absolutely disgusted with people right now. Seriously. The whole “lipstick on a pig” so-called controversy is driving me crazy.

The republican smear machine is claiming that Barack O’Bama called Sarah Palin a “pig” when he used the following quote:

**”You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It’s still gonna stink.”**

But the outrage from the right is hysterical! “OMG HE JUST CALLED PALIN A PIG! BLATANT SEXISM!!” they scream as they wring their hands and rend their clothing.

No, he didn’t, and if you think so, you’re stupid.

I know I’m not going to win any friends by saying that, but seriously! How dumb can you be? Don’t you understand what that phrase means? He was referring to the “change” mantra adopted by the “new” Republican party. The lipstick in this metaphor is the mantra. The pig is the Republican party.

If you still can’t get past Obama’s comment, then maybe you had better have a look at this:

I am in awe of Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana, giving a clean sweep to Barack Obama! That’s 158 more delegates for my candidate.

Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention? I’m pulling for Obama for President. I’ll give you a few reasons why.

1. While I’m fairly sure Clinton would be an effective executive, it’s not that ability I worry about. I doubt her ability to draw independent voters. I doubt her ability to change their minds about her already very poor likeability.

2. I am disgusted with the Clintons’ negative campaigning. They can’t keep things civil, and have to resort to taking quotes out of context. It appears as if they will subvert people making an informed decision to win. I can’t abide by that.

3. Most importantly – I like the man, and I think a lot of people do. I’ve spoken with many Republicans and Clinton supporters who think that’s a terrible reason to vote for someone, but I believe it’s one of the most important. Every politician has a vision – something they desperately want to do, and make speeches to that affect. Often, however, they lack the political will and capital to see their vision through fruition. I believe that if you can couple vision with a powerful personality, you can accomplish great things. Sure, that can go very badly with a negative vision, but Obama’s vision of a clean environment, energy independence, universal health care, and a balanced budget is one I share.

Ok, Tuesday was a total waste, writing wise. I couldn’t stop flipping between Microsoft Word and CNN.com’s coverage of the vote count. I sat and stared at the returns for the Allen / Webb race. One moment, Allen was up by a few thousand, then Webb was up by a few thousand. Back and forth, until finally I went to bed. Allen was ahead by some 30,000 votes, and I only got about 300 words written. Sigh. What a waste.

Heather woke up before me so she could get to work early. She woke me up, gently, and told me that Webb had pulled it out overnight, with some 7,000 votes more than Allen! I jumped up, and went right for the laptop! Back to the habit of hitting every single news-site I could find, checking for confirmations. Wednesday night, happy as I clam, I banged out two nights worth of words, and got caught right up. While I was writing, I opened a browser to quickly check the news. NBC was calling it for Webb! OMG!

More analysis shows that of the two recounts ever in Virginia history amounted to only a few hundred vote swings, so it was highly unlikely Allen could recover 7,000. Still, the Washington Post isn’t sticking its neck out. Only AP and NBC are “calling it.”

For the record, I am all for counting and recounting all the votes. I’m for paper-trails on voting machines. I’m for investigations of fraud and intimidation at the polls. It’s critical all the votes are counted, and the winner the people intend is elevated to office. If it turns out Allen won, that’s fine. At least we know for sure, and we don’t spend 6 years wondering.

Virginia re-elected every single incumbent. Every one. Jesus Christ, people! Grow a pair! Think for yourself! Fucking sheep.

Wednesday Morning Update!: What a difference a day makes! When I went to bed, 91% of precincts reporting, Webb was behind Allen by some 30,000 votes. Although the precincts that hadn’t yet completely reported were solidly blue (Richmond, Loudoun, and Charlottesville), I didn’t believe we had enough votes to pull it out. Wow! What a great way to be greeted in the morning!

That said, however, it could still swing. We still have absentee ballots to count, but I have a glimmer of hope that we still have the edge, there. Please, oh please, oh please, oh please.

Of course, if the Democrats control both the House and the Senate, we’ve got a lot of work to do.

An excerpt from Bill Maher’s article on Salon

1. When they say, “Democrats will raise taxes,” you say, “We have to, because some asshole spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton’s taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden.” In just six years the national debt has doubled. You can’t keep spending money you don’t take in, that’s not even elementary economics, that’s just called “Don’t be Michael Jackson.”
2. When they say, “The terrorists want the Democrats to win,” you say, “Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorist’s wet dream, and nonpartisan commissions have confirmed that he’s a recruiter’s dream: theirs, not ours. And, he has exhausted our military without coming away with a win, the worst of both worlds.” Bush inflames radical hatred against America and then runs on offering to protect us from it. It’s like a guy throwing shit on you and then selling you relief from the flies.
3. When they say, “Cut and Run” or “Defeatocrat,” you say, “Bush lost the war — period.” All this nonsense about “the violence is getting worse because they’re trying to influence our election.” No, it’s getting worse because you drew up the postwar plans on the back of a cocktail napkin at Applebee’s. And of course Democrats want to win, but that’s impossible now that you’ve ethnically cleansed the place by making it unlivable, just like you did with New Orleans.
4. When they say that actual combat veterans like John Kerry are “denigrating” the troops, you say, “You’re completely full of shit.” Remember when Al Gore caught all that flak for sighing and moaning during that debate? Yeah, don’t do that. Just say, “You’re full of shit.”
5. So when they say, “Democrats are obstructionists,” you say, “You’re welcome.” Because with a bad administration that has bad ideas, obstruction is a good thing, just as it’s a good thing to obstruct a drunk from getting his car keys. I would be happy to frame the debate as a fight between the Obstructionists and the Enablers. There’s your talking point: “Vote Republican, and you vote to enable George Bush to keep ruling as an emperor.” A retarded, child emperor, but an emperor.

If you haven’t already, go out and vote!