An Arizona official asks a good question: If California wants to boycott Arizona over the way it enforces federal law, what about the electricity California gets from there?
The problem with righteous indignation is that when others call you on it and tell you to put your money where your mouth is, it can cause an embarrassing leak in your hot air balloon.
Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, has done just that, calling the bluff of the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Pierce wrote Villaraigosa a letter saying in essence that if L.A. didn't need Arizona's business, maybe it didn't need Arizona's power either. Pierce noted Villaraigosa had pledged L.A. would "send a message" by cutting the "resources and ties" they share.
He wanted to know if the mayor also wants to give back the 24% of the electricity it gets from Arizona power plants.
"If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation," Pierce wrote, suggesting the mayor and the council were all hat and no cattle.
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As always, wacky stuff from The Nation
The community of Los Angeles has made it crystal clear where they stand on Arizona’s controversial Senate Bill 1070, which sanctifies racial profiling as state law. The LA city council voted 13-1 to “ban most city travel there and to forgo future business contracts with companies headquartered in the state.” The Los Angeles Times Editorial Page called for the moving of the 2011 Major League Baseball All Star game from Phoenix writing, “A new law in Arizona seems almost certain to lead to racial profiling against Latinos, violating the American values so integral to baseball.”
Everyone in Los Angeles, that is, except for iconic Los Angeles Lakers basketball coach Phil Jackson. In an interview with ESPN, Jackson spoke in support of SB 1070 saying, “Am I crazy, or am I the only one that heard [the legislature] say ‘we just took the United States immigration law and adapted it to our state.’” When sports reporter J.A. Adande remarked that SB 1070 actually represented “the usurping of federal law,” Jackson responded, “It’s not usurping…. they gave it some teeth to be able to enforce it.”
He then chided his upcoming playoff opponent, the Phoenix Suns, for coming out as a team—from owner to players—against the bill.
“I don’t think teams should get involved in the political stuff,” Jackson said. “If I heard it right the American people are really for stronger immigration laws, if I’m not mistaken. Where we stand as basketball teams, we should let that kind of play out and let the political end of that go where it’s going to go.”
Yes, Phil Jackson in the same breath, supported this draconian bill and then blasted the Suns for making a political statement about it. That’s what my grandmother would have called “cheek.”
Jackson’s words have sparked a petition campaign by the group AltoArizona.com which reads,
“Coach Jackson, Stand with Los Angeles. The city just denounced Arizona's hateful law and so should you. Targeting people based on their skin color isn't ‘giving [the law] teeth’. It's a backwards and terrible step on the wrong side of history. On or off the court, there's no room for haters. Los Lakers need to take a stand with the fans."
There is also a call to protest outside the Staples Center on May 17th before game one of the Lakers Western conference championship series against Los Suns. It states,
“What if during a basketball Game in Arizona, Lakers Fans get questioned about their immigration status? Protest outside Staples Center on Monday May17th, at 5pm to denounce Lakers Coach Phil Jackson for his support of Racist Arizona bill SB1070. We all know that a great deal of our community members support the Lakers. ….People want the LAKERS to take a stand or for Phil Jackson to clarify his position on the racist bill that criminalizes fans.”
California will agree to return Arizona's electricity, if Arizona agrees to return Colorado's water.
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