There is a surprising twist to the State of Arizona v. Illegal Immigration. Actually it's not surprising, but I was lost for an opening line. Nothing in politics surprises me. Accusations, false claims, allegations, counter-allegations, counter-counter-allegations, and so on....
Like many States here Across the Great Divide, Arizona relies on private contractors to man and run their prison system. Not all of them, but they are moving to privatize their entire penal system to outside contractors. 30% of prisoners currently held in Arizona prison system are being guarded by private, for-profit companies.
These companies are paid a per-diem for each prisoner incarcerated. We've all seen how the low bidder usually performs on a Government contract. Death Row inmates for the moment are under the domain of the State. Not much incentive to execute a source of revenue.
The 'surprising twist' does get a little complicated however, basically the Governor has political advisors and aides who are financially connected to a private prison corporation, 'Corrections Corporation of America'. This Corporation stands to make a lot of money housing inmates, specifically illegal immigrants.
The Governor of Arizona seems to have surrounded herself with staffers who will make a financial killing if the crackdown on illegal immigration continues. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign chairman and policy adviser is a lobbyist for the largest private prison company in the country. The other administration member is communications director Paul Senseman, a former CCA lobbyist. His wife still lobbies for the company.
Just why Arizona is trying to increase the numbers of illegal immigrants detained is starting to make sense. There's money in their madness.
More immigrant arrests, more inmates in prison, more money. Simple economics.
Statistics show that crime is down in the border states, illegal immigration has significantly decreased in the past decade and the only rationale for going after a minority of immigrants is to increase profits for a private prison company.
Illegal immigration is down because life is starting to look a little better south of the border.
In order to spice up her claims on the horrendous crimes illegal aliens were committing, Gov Brewer cited decapitated bodies being found in the Sonoran Desert. This disgusting tidbit backfired, as businesses and tourists have no desire to move to a state with a reputation for having people's heads chopped off.
Unfortunately Gov Brewer knew this was not true, and she has modified her statement in that the headless torsos were actually over the Mexican border. This is where Gov Brewer loses most rationale people.
What do headless bodies in Mexico have to do with Arizona?
I have a mental image of headless illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border.
Governor Jan Brewer who was not elected, is an appointed governor due to a legal 'line of succession' in the Arizona constitution.
Once labeled 'Hitler's daughter' Gov Brewer reminded voters her father died fighting the Nazis in WWII. Unfortunately her father never served in the military and died in 1955 of cancer.
Arizona has now outpaced Texas as being our most backward state.
BP spent ninety three million dollars on TV ads to clean up their image. Those ads did give me a warm'n fuzzy feeling at first although I would have preferred they used the money to clean up the Gulf and assist the fisherman.
As predicted, BP is maintaining that they may not be able to repay all of the twenty billion dollar reparation claims from their superfund, unless they can continue to drill in the Gulf. In a bold move they actually want permission to drill an even deeper well off shore.
That's not going to happen of course.
If BP decides not to pay we can always turn headless Arizona zombies on them.........
Across the Pond
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