It is not every day that you get an e-mail from the President of the Arizona State Senate, offering to help me petition Congress. But, that is just what Russell Pearce (R-LD18) and his anti-illegal immigration group sent me (and the more than 800,000 people*1 presumably on their e-mail lists) yesterday.
Pearce is not only the President of the State Senate and the "Tea Party Senate President", but is also the "Honorary National Co-Chairman of BanAmnestyNow.com". In that role, he signed and blasted out an e-mail with the subject line "Fax Congress and Help Me Secure the Border." Along with the usual rundown of the battles he has won and is fighting (and the proven-false statistic thrown in), and the request for money to keep fighting ("...to protect American and American families."), Pearce repeatedly asks his supporters to click on the link to "FAX Congress". (text of e-mail below the jump)
Click on the link, and you are sent to B.A.N.'s "Contribution" section, and a page to "Send Blast Faxes To Congress", for the stated purpose of "Stop(ping) Congress From Passing the DREAM Act!" It is a convenient way to donate to B.A.N. while letting them do the hard work of exercising your Constitutional right of petitioning Congress and the President.
The options are enticing and run the gamut from hitting just the Senators from one party or the other ($19), all 100 Senators ($29), all 435 Representatives ($99), and all 535 MOC's plus President Obama ($119). All well and good, and a fine way to exercise our free market rights and our free speech rights simultaneously.
But, wait. B.A.N. offers this "SPECIAL- FAX Every Member of Congress and Obama Every Day for 5 Days - Let them know you mean business for just $250". That's right. Because nothing lets a Congressperson know you mean business like placing your name in the "From" line with Pearce, Arpaio, Tancredo, Buchanan and McCaffrey and sending the same generic message over and over and over (and over and over). (Let's not even discuss the propriety of a State Senate President and a tax-exempt political organization adding to our national debt by wasting Congressional resources.)
By the way, the proposed fax does not explicitly address the "DREAM Act" that must be stopped. Instead, it is a laundry list that includes "opposition to the dangerous and divisive amnesty schemes proposed and promoted by Barack Obama and others in Washington." It requests the recipients' to "join us in our mission to save our great nation."
Pearce's e-mail seems to suggest that the pay-for-faxes and contributions help him and B.A.N. to travel "to the recent court hearings in liberal San Francisco" to "defend SB-1070 in the courts" and to pass similar laws in all 50 states.
It is hard to figure out where the line is drawn between Pearce's legitimate private life fundraising for a tax-exempt organization (which he may or may not receive support from), his political campaign committee's activities, and his government-paid expenses. For example, it would appear that Pearce's campaign committee reimbursed Pearce on November 5 for airfare and lodging, in the amount of $551.17. (The hearings in "liberal San Francisco" took place the week before.)
The Arizona Senate President using his position and prestige to solicit monies for a massive Congress-bombarding operation would seem to be a major effort at erasing those lines altogether.
(NOW how much would you pay for a fax? BUT WAIT, here's more:)
BONUS POINTS:
1) Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio removed himself as Pearce's "Honorary Co-Chair" of B.A.N. last October after B.A.N. sent out an e-mail over Arpaio's signature calling for an army of volunteers to monitor polling places. However, Arpaio's name remains on the fax that Pearce is hawking, and is still all over the website.
2) Pearce sticks to his guns; however, this time his "guns" are false statistics. His e-mail repeats the oft-discredited statistic that "more than 9,100 Americans are killed each year by illegal aliens." Arizona Republic's Fact Check thoroughly demonstrated that Pearce and Iowa Rep. Steve King could not validate their "fact". (And Arizona's Politics took the Republic to task for claiming that theevidence was "inconclusive"; Pearce's claim deserved - and deserves - a "double F" for False Fact.)
3) Pearce's e-mail to stop the Dream Act came mere hours before Obama mentioned two specific immigration-related measures in the State of the Union address: the Dream Act and the STAPLE Act. The latter bill was re-introduced in Congress the day before by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R-CD6).
4) Pearce and his B.A.N. buddies really need to be more careful and proofread and/or update their appeals. Not only do they bounce back and forth and back again about the main topic, but they have not even updated their Senate numbers to reflect the gains that the GOP made in November's election.
5) What is up with Pearce self-identifying as the "Tea Party Senate President"?
TEXT OF PEARCE E-MAIL (sent 1/25/11):
Fellow Americans,
The legislation I sponsored in Arizona, SB 1070, is still under scrutiny. Sued in court by Barack Obama, the government of Mexico and the ACLU – three leading advocates for open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens in the United States – I am doing everything in my power to stop their lawsuits!
Just as I am doing everything in my power to stop Obama’s amnesty schemes before they can overrun our nation and tear down what little law-and-order remains on America’s southern border.
FAX CONGRESS & HELP ME SECURE THE BORDER!
Today, more than half of our great nation’s states are considering legislation similar to SB-1070. The reason why is simple: if Barack Obama and the federal government won’t secure our nation, our communities and our schools… WE WILL!
The federal government has become a Fantasy Land. The worse our economy gets, the more in debt our government gets, the more money it borrows, taxes and spends!
The same logic applies to the federal government response to illegal immigration and border security. The worse a problem gets, the less seriously Obama and his cronies actually take it.
FAX CONGRESS & HELP ME SECURE THE BORDER!
More than 9,100 Americans are killed each year by illegal aliens – homicides, drunk driving, accidents and otherwise – and Barack Obama’s response was to send a few hundred National Guardsmen to the border, but NOT allow them to stop illegals they witness crossing into the U.S.!
We have a big job to do. We must defend SB-1070 in the courts, which is why I am working to keep public opinion strong across the nation, and have traveled to the recent court hearings in liberal San Francisco to remind our courts that real American lives are at stake with the decisions they are making.
FAX CONGRESS & HELP ME SECURE THE BORDER!
And we have an even bigger job to do helping other states pass their own versions of SB-1070, so that we as Americans can all start doing the job Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder won’t do: enforce the laws to protect America and American families.
Please join me today and help our efforts at B.A.N. with a contribution of $50 to support our efforts to pass SB-1070 in all 50 States! But whether you can afford $15 or $150, whatever you can contribute will help us make a great difference!
Thank you for your continued support... and God bless America!
Your friend,
Sen. Russell Pearce
Sponsor, SB-1070
*1: As claimed in several B.A.N. documents. (e.g. http://bit.ly/emBzya)
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