Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s office is accusing the American Civil Liberties Union of spreading fear and disinformation over the state’s illegal immigration law. On Wednesday, the ACLU issued travel warnings for Arizona, apparently concerned over the state’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
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“Instead of spreading fear, hate and disinformation about the legislation, it would be helpful for the ACLU to instead join Governor Brewer’s demand that the federal government stop discussing and begin implementing an honest plan to secure our nation’s border,” said Paul Sensemen, Brewer’s deputy chief of staff.
Affiliates of the ACLU in Arizona, New Mexico, and 26 other states put out the alert over fears the new state law could lead to racial profiling and warrantless arrests. However, the law has generated bi-partisan support not only in Arizona but among Americans across the nation.
The ACLU alleged that some people have already been targeted even though the law doesn’t take effect until July 29, according to the Associated Press.
The alert, issued in advance of the Fourth of July weekend, sparked outrage from Governor Jan Brewer’s office.
“It appears that the ACLU once again has proven how hopelessly out of touch they are with the vast majority of Arizonans, as well as most Americans,” Sensemen wrote in an email to FOX News Radio.
He denied claims by the ACLU that police are targeting certain demographics based on the language of SB 1070.
“The legislation includes very specific language that makes it abundantly clear that racial profiling is and will continue to be illegal in Arizona,” he said.
However, the Arizona chapter of the ACLU said they’ve heard unsubstantiated reports of people being stopped by police based on their accent and appearance.
“Our goal is to protect Arizona residents from misconduct by law enforcement and to make sure they know their rights should they be subject to it,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, the executive director of the Arizona ACLU. “These are not just rights reserved to citizens of this country but are available to everyone.”
But most residents in Arizona support the new law and have taken offense at the ACLU’s warning.
“I am outraged,” Mary Roberts, of Lake Havasu, AZ, told FOX News Radio. “I am a taxpaying American citizen and I have the right to be protected in my own state. I should be protected from all terrorists, whether they be from the Taliban or illegals.”
Teresa Wendt told FOX News Radio that she lives in a quiet suburb near Phoenix that his actually home to a drop zone for illegals. “I wonder how safe I am,” she said. “I do have some Mexican friends who are warning their kids to keep their license or ID on them when they are out at night. My question to them — why would the kids be stopped? If they are doing something illegal they have plenty of reason to worry.”
Wendt and Roberts both said illegal immigrants have made the state a dangerous place to live.
“We have lived in Arizona a long time,” Wendt said. “It didn’t use to be this way.”
When Sean Harrington arrived at Arlington High School three years ago, he noticed something peculiar — there were no American flags in the classroom and no one recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Harrington enlisted the aid of his fellow students and during his freshman year they were successful in getting flags in the classrooms. The pledge, however, will not be recited.
The school committee in Arlington, MA, defeated the 17-year-old’s request that would have allowed students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Some education leaders worried that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite the pledge, according to a report in the Arlington Patch.
Harrington had presented school officials with a petitioned signed by 700 people along with letters of support from lawmakers like Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman. The request failed to gain support on a 3-3 tie.
“I was really heartbroken,” Harrington told FOX News Radio. “It’s hard to think that something so traditional in American society was turned down.”
His fight has received quite a bit of support from the community. Francis De Guglielmo, 55, told the local newspaper, the Pledge ban is an “absolute travesty” and a “disgrace.”
“When I was going to school, it was an honor and a privilege to pledge allegiance to the flag,” he told the newspaper.
Harrington, who will be a senior in the fall, said he will continue to fight. “I’m not a person who quits and I don’t back down. It’s a very righteous cause and needs to be followed through until the end.”
Some committee members voiced concerns about forcing people to do something that might violate their beliefs – including religious beliefs. Among the no-votes was committee member Leba Heigham.
“Patriotism is a very personal thing for all of us, but I do not think it is in the School Committee’s best interest to mandate that any of our employees recite the pledge,” she told the Arlington Patch.
But Harrington said the recitation would have been strictly voluntary.
“If we can’t find one teacher who is willing to say the pledge, then the system we have is cracked,” he told FOX News Radio, noting that a number of teachers signed his petition.
Harrington said the school’s ban on the pledge sends the wrong message. “It tells me that we’ve basically case aside what our country is founded on,” he said. “It’s saying that we don’t really care and it’s sad.”
UPDATE: Arlington’s Superintendent of Schools returned my call late this evening. Following is additional information about the pledge of allegiance.
After controversy erupted over the matter, the principal of Arlington High School offered to host a daily recitation of pledge before the start of the school day in the foyer. Students will be allowed to voluntarily recite the pledge before attending homeroom class.
Kathleen Bodie, the superintendent of schools, told FOX News Radio the pledge is voluntarily recited at the elementary and middle schools but hasn’t been recited at the high school in decades.
“The principal wanted to be very respectful about the pledge and be sensitive to the Supreme Court ruling that students are not forced to say the pledge,” she said. “He wanted to be sensitive to the diverse group of students we have.”
She acknowledged that there are concerns about the words “under God.”
“I don’t know if it’s all about ‘under God’ but that is certainly an aspect of it,” she said.
Bodie also said there was reluctance to mandate or put teachers in a position of reciting the pledge.
Todd Starnes is a FOX News Radio reporter and author. Click here to get a copy of his book.
Kroger has banned a weekly newspaper from its stores near Nashville after The Rutherford Reader ran articles critical of the Muslim faith. The grocery store chain accused the newspaper of publishing “hate rhetoric” — something co-owner Pete Doughtie strongly denied.
The newspaper ran a column that accused Islam of being “evil.” It also called for a ban on Muslim immigration. A local man complained and that led Kroger to launch a five-week review of the publication.
“We saw a consistent pattern of what we believed to be hate rhetoric,” Kroger spokeswoman Melissa Eads, told The Tennessean. “We can’t and don’t promote hate speech against anyone.”
The Tennessean reported the newspaper has also been removed from a local Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.
The Rutherford Reader is a free newspaper, published weekly and distributed in grocery stores and other retail outlets. Doughtie denied his publication is a vehicle for hate speech.
“We’re American patriots,” he told the newspaper. “Don’t you think someone needs to ask what may be going on here when this country is at war with Islamic fascists?”
The controversy rages as Tennesseans debate proposed mosques in and around Nashville – a city that is home to the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
Anthony Mijares told The Tennessean he filed the original complaint against The Rutherford Reader.
“When The Rutherford Reader publishes the statement that Islam is evil, defiling and dehumanizing, all you have to do is substitute the word Judaism (in place of Islam) and you know what that kind of commentary is without question,” he said. “People would get it immediately. That is hate speech.”
The First Amendment Center said Kroger was within its rights to ban the newspaper.
Todd Starnes is a FOX News Radio reporter and best-selling author. For more on his book, click here.
The life stories of Senators Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd are similar but the way they were covered in death has been as different as night and day.
Thurmond, a Republican, opposed segregation and supported states rights. When he died, the Associated Press story included the following headline that appeared on June 27, 2003:
STROM THURMOND, FOE OF INTEGRATION, DIES AT 100
Byrd, a Democrat, was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. When he died, the Associated Press story included the following heading on June 28, 2010:
ROBERT BYRD, RESPECTED VOICE OF THE SENATE, DIES AT 92
Both obituraries were written by the same writer, Adam Clymer. The headlines appeared in the The New York Times.
In the June 27, 2003 story he wrote, “Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a one-time Democratic segregationist who helped fuel the rise of the modern conservative Republican Party in the South, died Thursday.
Then consider how he wrote about Byrd, the Democrat. “Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virgina, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.”
Readers would have been hard-pressed to find any reference to Byrd’s involvement with the KKK. It was buried in the 21st paragraph of the story.
Tim Graham, director of media analysis for Media Research Center, said the two stories represented a classic case of media bias.
“Over the years people have been aware that Senator Strom Thurmond and Senator Robert Byrd both had racist or segregationist pasts,” Graham told FOX News Radio. “You’ve seen this repeatedly over (the) decades that Thurmond’s past was always thrown in his face and Byrd’s past was sort of left down the memory hole.”
Graham said there’s a pattern of the media dismissing or excusing Byrd’s involvement with the KKK.
“Both of these politicians changed their ways yet the coverage of Thurmond seems to imply that he never changed,” he said.
He added that the way the stories were written “illustrate the media’s mindset that they find alot of racism still lurking in the Republican Party and there’s none in the Democratic Party.”
And the average reader doesn’t notice the pattern, Graham said, unless they’ve been clipping out headlines from seven years ago.
The Obama Administration has refused to remove a 6-year-old girl from Homeland Security’s “no-fly” list.
Dr. Santhosh Thomas and his family were boarding a Contential flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis when the ticket agent informed them their daughter, Alyssa, was on the list.
“We were, like, puzzled,” Thomas told FOX 8. “I’m like, well, she’s kinda six-years-old and this is not something that should be typical.”
The family was allowed to make their trip but they were told to contact Homeland Security to rectify the situation — and that’s where the story really gets interesting.
The Thomas family told FOX the received a letter from the government notifiying the 6-year-old that she her status on the no-fly list has not changed and will not be changed.
“She’s been flying since she was two-months old, so that has not been an issue,” Thomas said. “In fact, we had traveled to Mexico in February and there were no issues at that time.”
Thomas said they will appeal the ruling.
Todd Starnes is a FOX News Radio reporter and best-selling author. For more information on his books, click here.
The Obama Administration has refused to remove a 6-year-old girl from Homeland Security’s “no-fly” list.
Dr. Santhosh Thomas and his family were boarding a Contential flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis when the ticket agent informed them their daughter, Alyssa, was on the list.
“We were, like, puzzled,” Thomas told FOX 8. “I’m like, well, she’s kinda six-years-old and this is not something that should be typical.”
The family was allowed to make their trip but they were told to contact Homeland Security to rectify the situation — and that’s where the story really gets interesting.
The Thomas family told FOX the received a letter from the government notifiying the 6-year-old that she her status on the no-fly list has not changed and will not be changed.
“She’s been flying since she was two-months old, so that has not been an issue,” Thomas said. “In fact, we had traveled to Mexico in February and there were no issues at that time.”
Thomas said they will appeal the ruling.
