I'm anticipating a silly press release from Governor Jan "We Have Did" Brewer's camp tomorrow condemning the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the United Nations, as well as the New World Order and the Bilderbergers, if her scribes can work those last two into the text.
See, Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States will undergo its first ever Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Council. And you can bet Arizona's breathing-while-brown law SB 1070, and immigration in general, will be topics of discussion.
In fact, the ACLU of Arizona's Alessandra Soler Meetz and Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza of the group Puente are both in Geneva as I type, hammering home the injustices experienced by the immigrant community here in Sand Land and beyond.
Reza will actually give a five minute presentation as part of the three-hour long review. His testimony is expected to include a discussion of 1070.
(Correction: Reza told me upon his return that he addressed a side conference, not the Human Rights Council itself. Sorry for any confusion.)
For her part, Meetz is a member of an ACLU delegation sent to Geneva to monitor the proceedings, which are being held at the regal Palais des Nations, home to the United Nations' Geneva office.
You may recall Brewer's PR stunt from late August, where she slammed Secretary of State Clinton because the State Department's report to the U.N. Human Rights Council briefly mentions the flap over 1070.
In a hissy-fit of fake outrage, our hillbilly governor called the mention "downright offensive," and claimed that the report was "internationalism run amok" and somehow "unconstitutional."
Unconstitutional? Um, coming from the lady who signed 1070 into law, I'd say that's a case of pot-kettle-black.
The offending paragraph in the U.S. report is actually pretty low-key, in contrast to Brewer's hysteria. It reads,
"A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined."
All of which is a statement of fact. Moreover, not mentioning 1070 would simply have drawn attention to the omission. Everyone already knows Arizona is a bigot's paradise. Hell, Russell Pearce is now running this state, for cryin' out loud.
All members of the United Nations have to undergo a human rights review every four years. It's mandatory. I know, I know, most wingnuts think we shouldn't even be in the U.N. But then, they don't believe in public schools or evolution, either.
Now that Brewer's been elected, maybe her Svengali Chuck Coughlin and her PR-meister Paul Senseman won't feel the need to pull a stunt over this. Because if they'd really wanted to go hog wild, they would have shipped Brewer off to Geneva with a bottle of scotch so she could pull a brain freeze before the international community.
Still, it doesn't take much effort to pen a wacko press release. I'll be really disappointed if they don't churn one out.
