Pinky Links

an Arizona arizona radio station, KTAR, is reporting that j.d. hayworth, who is running for john mccain’s senate seat, is demanding an apology from the Phoenix Suns for wearing their “Los Suns” jerseys in last night’s NBA playoff game. from KTAR:

“For [Suns General Manager] Steve Kerr to make comparisons with this law with Nazi Germany is beyond the pale,” he said. “He should apologize, that has no basis in fact.”…

“Does he [Robert Sarver] want a bunch of people showing up tonight, basically walking into the arena without tickets, taking the best seats in the arena for tonight’s game, demanding free food and drinks and then after the game demanding unfettered access to the players,” he asked of the team’s owner, “of course not.”

Hayworth said it is a shame the Suns diverted attention away from what he said is a great playoff series.

i call BULLSHIT on everything this guy said. as Seth Meyers noted a couple weeks ago, there isn’t anything more Nazi than the phrase, “show me your papers.” the objectification of the Jewish people in Nazi Germany began with their de facto then official classification as second-class citizens. Arizona’s new law makes second-class citizens of a far vaguer group of people: anyone who subjectively seems like they might not be an American citizen. the problem with that is that five of the six immigrant classifications are legal: naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees/asylees, immigrants with work authorizations (green cards), immigrants with Special Purpose Work Authorizations, and undocumented immigrants. yep, only the undocumented immigrants are committing any kind of crime. so i, along with everyone else who is offended by the very idea of being asked to prove that they are where they are legally, ask mr. hayworth to kindly shove it up his ass.

secondly, how exactly does wearing a jersey saying “Los Suns” offend mr. hayworth so egregiously? it’s simply a gesture to show solidarity with the community who is being unfairly targeted by the law. i truly fail to understand why he believes an apology is warranted.

thirdly, i’m infuriated at mr. hayworth’s unbelievably inept analogy: that undocumented immigrants are like people forcing their way into a game and helping themselves to the best of everything. that is HARDLY the case with illegal immigrants, especially the Latino and Hispanic people who are being targeted by this law. how are these undocumented immigrants getting “the best seats” in our society? how are they getting anything they don’t deserve here? what they get when they come into the U.S. as undocumented immigrants (NOT as “aliens”) is exploited by businesses looking for cheap labor, sub-legal wages in jobs where they are terribly overworked, absolutely no public aid for even their most basic needs, and taxes taken out of any legal check they get to pay for government services that they cannot access. j.d. hayworth, as an entitled, priviledged, WEALTHY, arrogant, white man, in no way has any reason on his side when he talks about undocumented immigrants taking “the best” of anything.

j.d. hayworth is right up there with john boehner and mitch mcconnell in my book. as far as i’m concerned, they can choke on it.