When recalled state Senate President Russell Pearce's Ban Amnesty Now announced a "buy-cott" of New Times' advertisers, I quipped that it was like being boycotted by the Ku Klux Klan. An exaggeration, to be sure, but not by as much as you might think.
Take for example the comments of BAN supporters to a YouTube video of nativist lobbyist William Gheen of the North Carolina-based group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (aka, ALIPAC). In it, Gheen goes on a three-minute rant about illegal immigration, apparently before a panel at the Tar Heel State's legislature.
The video is introduced on BAN's Facebook page with this statement,
"William Gheen, good friend from our grassroots ally ALIPAC, stands tall as illegal aliens actually LAUGH when he discusses those killed by illegal aliens."
Well, first off, you can't hear anyone laughing in the video, though Gheen accuses someone of chuckling as he mentions "those that have been killed by illegal immigration in this state."
But even if someone did chuckle at Gheen's raving, how would he or BAN know that it was an "illegal immigrant" who did so? Do they know "illegal immigrants" on sight?
Gheen offers no sources for his stats, and about halfway through his diatribe, he goes off on a Biblical tangent, referring to people "coming up here to mock the Bible and Christianity."
I'm guessing someone may have used a quote from scripture to bolster the concept of compassion for the undocumented.
Compassion? Come on, that Jesus fella didn't mean for that love thy neighbor stuff to apply to them thar illegals, did he?
More instructive than Gheen's tirade are the comments on BAN's Facebook page to the posting, many of which border on self-parody.
For example, there's a conspiratorial musing from Patricia Jahner about, "Radicl Isamics [sic] coming over the border."
Commenter George Hill joins in on the tinfoil-hattery with the claim that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez maintains a training camp to "teach middle east types how to `pass' as Hisapanic [sic]."
Which reminds me of that old Woody Allen crack from Annie Hall: "I have to go now...because I'm due back on planet Earth."
However, this comment from Gary Jones is particularly disturbing: "OBAMA'S plan is working, flood the country with illegal slime to murder & kill us from within...exactly what he wants!"
That incendiary statement is "liked" by 10 Facebookers, including Ban Amnesty Now, which in reality is probably BAN founder Sean McCaffrey typing in his underwear.
Granted, wacky comments are par for the putt-putt course on the InterWeb, but did you really "like" that one, Sean? "Slime," Sean? Now that's sad.
A while back, I remember McCaffrey, whom I used to be friendly with before this silly "buy-cott" took hold, describing a close relative, whom he labeled a lefty, chiding him for heading up an organization that promotes hate.
Seeing McCaffrey's "like" of Jones' sicko comment gives me one more reason to share in his relative's disappointment.
There are other bigoted remarks on the post, like this one from Anna Lee Miller: "We all ned [sic] to remember that the majority of them have little to no schooling and aren't right in the head either."
Then there's this one from John Heidenreich: "its [sic] all the drugs they use in their own country then come over here with a warped mind kill somebody then blame society for it get some bleeding heart from th [sic] ACLU to defend them at the tax payers [sic] expense then have obama admin let them go because they need the illegal vote..."
And this one from Carolyn Miller Ravenshire Leathercrafting: "then we need to not support business that hire them and buid [sic] abigger fence with big machine gun."
A big machine gun, eh? For what, to mow down all those unfortunates risking their lives to come to this country, some of them women and children?
Jeez, with haters like these on BAN's Facebook page, who needs the KKK?
As a side note, I want to give a thumbs up to the local Republican blog PoliticoMafioso for its "Top Ten Reasons Not to Elect Russell Pearce," which includes the awesome image above of Sean McCaffrey as Russell Pearce's mini-me.
Kudos to blogger Jeff Vath. I laughed out loud, first when I saw the pic, and again when I perused the post. You can read PM's entire anti-Pearce top ten, here: politicomafioso.blogspot.com/2012/04/ban-russell-pearce-now.html. Enjoy.
