Gov. Janet Napolitano ate a bowl of bills for breakfast Tuesday, May 8. She mostly vetoed minor technical stuff—we’re looking your way, tax breaks for commercial photographers—but there were some crunchy nuggets of illegal immigration in the mix.

Senate Bill 1236 would have banned the use of matricular cards handed out by the Mexican government. In her veto letter to Sen. President Tim Bee, Napolitano said the cards helped law enforcement and reduced fraud:

Without the ability to accept a consular ID card, Arizona’s law-enforcement officers may be unable to confirm the identities of foreign nationals who are stopped for any reason. If a foreign national is pulled over for a traffic violation and presents a consular ID, our law-enforcement officers must have the ability to use the ID to determine whether the person is wanted for other crimes. It makes no sense to hamstring out law-enforcement agencies efforts to know the criminal histories of foreign nationals they encounter.

And, as I stated in 2005, if foreign nationals are unable to use consular identification cards, they will be more likely to try to obtain forged documents that are accepted by state government, including social security cards or other documents that are accepted for the purpose of gaining access to state and local public benefits. The state is better served by having foreign nationals use identification that accurately identifies them as foreign nationals.

State Rep. Russell Pearce blasted Napolitano for supporting AMNESTY—which, yes, he put in all caps to make sure we wouldn’t miss it. Evidently, the word means anything Russell now wants it to mean.

Immigrants in this country legally have green cards, state driver's licenses, or passports/visas. They have no need of the consular ID, the only constituent for this card are illegal aliens.

SB1236 would have banned the use of consular identification cards in Arizona. Under federal law they are illegal due to large scale forgery and unreliability.

Congressional testimony by the FBI and Homeland Security Department officials on numerous occasions say the acceptance of this card poses one of the greatest threats to Homeland Security.

For illegal aliens consular cards are the easiest way for illegals to obtain official-looking ID’s. They are issued by the Mexican consulate, but do not certify immigration status.

“The issuance of these cards is tantamount to AMNESTY. They break our laws when they cross the border, repeat offenders when they undercut Americans for jobs and three-strikers when they use false identification to obtain services or cash the checks.” said Pearce.

Napolitano also shot down Sen. Jack Harper’s plan to create a state militia she could call out in times of emergency. In her veto letter, Napolitano said thanks, but she’s already got one:

Moreover, the governor already has the specific statutory right to call the unorganized militia into service of the state in times of emergency. See A.R.S. 26-124 (A).

Napolitano also killed bills that would have given scholarships to kids who graduate early from high school, expanded the membership of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and let people sue the Arizona Department of Transportation in small-claims court. A complete—and growing!—list here.

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has awarded the first Molly Ivins Award to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

You can read all of the details in this here news release.

Truth be told, I voted for someone else, but I can't criticize the choice of Olbermann. He's done some great stuff on MSNBC over the last several years. Congrats to Keith!

I joined a really cool Facebook group today. It's called "IF U STOP FRONTIN, WE CAN PROCEED WITH THE PRECEEDINGS.."

Its creator, a guy named Ernest, explained the group's purpose thusly: "THIS PAGE IS FOR ALL MALE/FEMALE WHO WANT TO TOUCH, AND FEEL, AND BASICALLY GET IT IN WITH NO BULLSHIT.............. YOUR IN THE RIGHT PLACE...."

Ermest started a fascinating conversation on the group's bulletin board: "WHY WE AS MALES GOTTA GUESS WHEATHER YALL WOMEN GONNA GIVE IT TO US OR NOT. YALL KNOW WITHIN THE FIRST 5MIN OF OUR INITAL CONTACT WEATHER U WOULD LET ME TAP THAT ASS OR NOT..." He makes some really good arguments, doesn't he?

He also posted a news update: "IM STARTING MY OWN SITE FOR ALL WHO WANNA FEEL THAT CERTAIN SOMEONE, BUT CANT KNOW DOWN THAT DEFENSE.." I can't wait to point my browser toward it!

And he had this to say on the group's "wall": "Is a site for all of ur disire's to come true,just with out and strings attached.. may that be giving up some blood(#ick) for males, or givin up that kiddy cat u can do so a adult manner.. therefor we discuss topics on surrounding subjects..(SITE WILL BE UPGRADED SOON,BUST RIGHT NOW THO..)"

I don't know why, but this group really speaks to me. It's compelling.

We are confronted yet again with the latest in a string of episodes (Don Imus, Alec Baldwin) that have allowed the media to engage in self-righteous grandstanding. I’m talking about the video showing David Hasselhoff at his most vulnerable—shirtless, drunk and awkwardly eating a hamburger on the floor.

I generally favor the unfettered dissemination of information unless there’s an extremely cogent reason for not doing so. For example, I think the media should air graphic pictures of war, because people need to be confronted with such imagery so they’re not deluding themselves into thinking war is like a day at Universal Studios. Sparing the feelings of family or sensitive members of the public isn’t a valid reason for not doing so. We’ll save my (angry) opinion on Dick Cheney—a person elected to represent us—being able to withhold information on whom he consulted to devise energy policy for later.

But I couldn’t even watch the Hasselhoff video in its entirety; the thing made me so sad for the guy. I just hope all the posturing over his alcoholism doesn’t obscure the fact that the person who released this video to the public (don’t forget—it will live on the Internet forever) is the scum of the Earth, as far as I’m concerned. It was an unimaginably malicious act.

We’ve got it all wrong when someone’s intimately private breakdown is made public, while crucial matters relating to government policy are shielded from view. But, hey, what else is new?

Politico had an interesting piece earlier this month on Sen. John McCain's advertising guru. Wonder if McCain will be outrunning fireballs in the campaign commercials...

As we all know, Proposition 201, which prohibits smoking in most public places, went into effect on May 1. 

Not even a week since the proposition went into effect, I myself have been noticing the changes. For instance, my smoker buddies and I were at Frog and Firkin the other day, and they had to ask the waitress if they were at least 25 feet away from the building.  Thank goodness for their nicotine-loving souls that they were, but it was tough luck for the customers sitting at outdoor tables that were too close to the building and wanted to light up. 

Has anyone else noticed any extreme changes in the past week regarding Proposition 201?

Mr. Saxon Burns had a good point the other day about the pernicious intrusion of advertising on our television screens. But I'm even more disturbed by this story in Slate about a new effort by the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to limit what we can watch, in the name of--you guessed it-- protecting children.

The Los Angeles Times Book Review has praise for Twin Study, the new book of short stories by Tucson author Stacey Richter, whose "Christ, Their Lord" was featured in the Weekly a couple of weeks back.

Reviewer Erika Schickel, author of You're Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom, declares: "With prose as beautiful and spiny as a flowering cactus, Richter coaxes us close enough to deliver a sting. The stories are wry and funny, reminiscent of Lorrie Moore at her snarky best."

So say we all!

How polarized has the debate on the STRIVE Act become in Congress? We got an e-mail the other day from Don Goldwater--the late, legendary Sen. Barry Goldwater's half-wit nephew, who has tried to make himself politically relevant by scapegoating illegal immigrants as the root cause of all that is wrong with the state--that attacked U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl for selling out on the border-security issue.

Say what you will about Kyl, but he's never struck us as a softy on border security. But Goldwater warns that Kyl is--gasp!--willing to negotiate to find a way to resolve the illegal immigration mess.

Here's an excerpt from Goldwater's e-mail. The lack of spelling and grammatical errors makes us suspect it was cut and pasted from somewhere else:

Grassfire is providing this in-depth analysis of the Flake-Gutierrez "Comprehensive" immigration reform bill -- essentially a re-working of the 2006 amnesty bill. We are expecting a similar bill in the Senate sponsored by Teddy Kennedy.

Make no mistake -- this is an amnesty bill through and through. And much worse. This bill actually creates a "common security perimeter" for the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- part of the master plan of the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the move toward a North American Union. That is why the President is now calling our immigration crisis a "migration" discussion.

Then there's other side, represented by Tucson-based Derechos Humanos, which supports the nutball notion that we can have open borders, and everything will work out just fine. Check out their analysis of the STRIVE Act, from press release issued last month:

“STRIVE is not a legalization bill, it’s a detention and deportation bill. It takes the same intensive policing tactics and sweeping criminalization inflicted primarily on border communities for the past 12 years and extends these to every corner of the U.S.,” said Alexis Mazon of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos and Tucson May 1st Coalition. “The 699 pages of the STRIVE bill actually detail how more ICE raids, mass incarcerations and deportations will be conducted, not less. STRIVE even mandates that the head of every immigrant household deport themselves,” she added.

So is the STRIVE Act too soft or too hard? We're not sure, but we're certain that listening to either of these sides is going to get us exactly nowhere.

More Cinco de Mayo celebrations that didn't make the Noshing Around column:

• Zivaz - 4590 E. Broadway - 325-1234

  5 to 9 p.m. - live music - Enjoy the Latin rhythms of Cool Breeze

  $1 off margaritas + beer

  Enter to win Zivaz gift cards

  Share a special Cinco de Mayo platter of 2 margaritas, dorado poblano fish, chicken pibil, fantastic flautas and pork tenderloin plus rice, beans, salad and tortillas for $30 per special

  Regular menu available too

• Old Pueblo Grille - 60 N. Alvernon Way - 326-6000

  Party on the Patio starts at noon

  $2 margaritas

  $5 taco bar

  $5 ultimate margaritas

  drawings & giveaways

  Please bring canned or non-perishable food items for the Community Food Bank