Community colleges have some pretty good communication courses. I think her problem is incipient dementia. Another Reagan.

God Bless my dear departed Father. He used to tell me that "Knowledge is Power" . I listened sporadically, and tried to become as educated and well spoken as I could. I think he would be proud, however, he would be greatly dismayed by the "dumbing down" of America, especially American Politics and those running for office today. Having ALL gone through the "Looking Glass", we find ourselves surrounded by idiots and idealogues who PRAISE ignorance and abhor Knowledge. Racists and Right wing nut jobs seek to overtake the running of our Country. Is Anybody else out there as terrified at that prospect as I am? If you are, and you're of voting age, I urge you to exersize your rights and VOTE in the November election. The "Know nothings" seek to take power and WILL, if elected, from those who don't vote. If you don't vote then you have no right to complain about the debacle that ensues. STOP the dull and ignorant from attaining even MORE power than Bush. VOTE out the "Know Nothings", ie; regressive Republi-WON'T party of NO! and keep competence and ability in Washington.

Amy , you are PATHETIC . common sense would tell even the simple minded that ILLEGAL is ILLEGAL in no uncertain terms . Look at what is happening in Mexico , terrorist drug lords who are more than willing to murder anyone who gets in their way , police , military , politician or civilian . These people are VICIOUS and EVIL . We are spending hundreds of millions a year fighting the drug wars but leave our borders wide open . Obviously our leadership in Washington are bought and paid for Wh_res.

AMY...I THINK YOU HAVE BEEN MOLESTED INTELLECTUALLY BY THE ETHNIC STUDIES CROWD...ILLEGALS HAVE TAKEN THE POOREST AMERICANS JOBS...WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND COULD ARGUE THIS IS GOOD FOR AMERICA...ILLEGALS BEHIND YOUR BACK THINK AMERICANS ARE CHUMPS....YOU ARE VERY NAIVE

Ever notice that when people attack the writer of an article by a man, they are more likely to use his last name to address him? But when it's a female writer, then it's "Amy." Wonder why that is?

To those who are attacking, do your research. Because clearly what you think is common sense is just crap. Many illegal immigrants pay money into local, state and federal taxes; and they pay even more in states with high sales tax and no income tax, like Florida. In MOST cases, they get minimal benefits from that money because they don't already cannot legally use most social programs. I know, you think most illegal immigrants are using food stamps and state aid, but your wrong, and you won't find a single legitimate report which says otherwise. And if you've ever bothered to look at the state aid programs in the country you'll find many people have to prove legal residency to use them, WIC being one of few examples to the contrary.

And you also can't say that the illegal immigrants are causing higher crime based on drug lords are doing. Because despite what Brewer told you, most drug mules are not illegal aliens. Even the border patrol said she was wrong on that. You already have a hard enough time sneaking illegals into this country, drug runners aren't going to double down their risks. They use people who can get into the country legally, often white people.

I think everyone here needs to watch A Day Without A Mexican, and read the sources it's research numbers come from. They might learn something. Or you could just go to the Migration Policy Institute and find several of the (fully independent) studies you don't think exist.

Anonymous @ 15:33 on 9/04: Perhaps more than "incipient." Alcohol-related/induced, more like.

Carl @ 16:00: You make, in your first observation, the common error of confusing correlation with causation. In your second observation, you simply don't know what you're talking about. Do a bit of research, as Titania has suggested, instead of smugly asserting that what you "know" is "true," even though it's false.

Arminius Aurelius and cheyennebode: Immigration, legal or not, is NOT nearly the issue, nor of the significance, which you both seem anxious to attribute to it.

Ms. McMullen: AZ has been in the twilight zone for a long, long time. Restoring the current corrupt Rethug administration and legislative majority likely will just make that occupation permanent. But maybe, just maybe, DoJ can put Sharf Joe and his lap-dog Andrew Thomas into one of Joe's tent-city jails.

@Carl, I just want you to know that, as reported by Bloomberg, there is a report from The Federal Reserve Bank of SF showing that "Immigration has no “significant” effect on the number of jobs available to U.S.-born workers and helps boost incomes and productivity over time"

There is also a study by National Bureau of Economic Research that shows immigrants do not crowd out jobs for native-born workers and
"a one percent increase in employment in a US state, attributable only to immigration, is associated with a 0.4 to 0.5 percent increase in income per worker in that state."

I do not write lies, and your accusations do not bear up. Perhaps you should stop listening to hate faux news and radio and start doing some objective research on this subject for a change.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-30/immigrants-don-t-take-jobs-away-from-americans-fed-study-finds.html

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2010/el2010-26.html

http://www.nber.org/digest/mar10/w15507.html

Left winger Cesar Chavez held protest marches against the use of illegal immigrant labor.

Was he racist too ?

I am a life long far left winger and I will support any politician that deports illegals and fines and jails thier employers.

They are scabs that drive down wages.

Well lets look back at afew of the "politicians" we have had here in Az. Anyone remember Mecham? He was a used car dealer who called young black children "pickaninnys", and other assorted racist terms. He was our governor and he got recalled. Then there was Gov Symington, another gov who went down for being a crook. Now we have Jan Brewer, who is just a pawn in the wheel of the crooks who have been raping Az for decades. Lets not forget McPain and Kyle, Or Mr Russell Pearce who spoke at a Nazi rally, and was the creep who introduced SB1070. This stated has been well and truly screwed for longer than I can count. I don't think there is anything that can be done to correct this in the near future, but please people, get out and VOTE. An vote for Goddard here in Az.

Someone once told me that it is illegal to work a medical student intern more than 80 hours a week, but that if that law were followed, the medical system would collapse.

Illegal workers of all types keep the American dream going.

As an Evil NY Liberal, I have thousands of black UN helicopters at my disposal and could solve this whole undocumented worker thing in a year. This is why I am not going to do it.

It is your job that will be destroyed in the process. It isn't just that tomatos will cost a few cents more. It's that the state and federal governments profit from collecting taxes from undocumented workers but don't pay out as much to serve them. Thus giving us the illusion we are paying our fair share of the tax burden.

Our employers pay us a percentage of the profits. If more is spent on labor or on costs because of increased labor in other industries, our wages go down.

We who are "Legal" are all vampires, drawing our sustenance from those who are kept outside the system.

All the black UN helicopters in the world won't save me from the wrath of America if I break THAT addiction.

Thanks for a great article, Amy -- and for your work and writing, which is much needed. I am also sick for what we are doing to this state, and embarrassed to have a Governor who can't even put together a decent sentence. Pearce is a sad and pathetic character as well. The real estate-industrial and prison-industrial complex is just using Brewer as a tool...and not a very bright tool at that.

Why don't we REQUIRE multiple debates? For heavens sake, don't the citizens at least deserve that?