Dispatches from Oklahoma from ormondsacker

There was a report a few weeks back that the new director of the International Finals Rodeo here in OKC had installed a revamped sound system and was looking to pump up the crowd between events with some NBA-style excitement. I do not know how that came out.

Instead, I'd like to draw your attention to the tense checkers match that is House Bill 1804. As some of you may be aware, the most comprehensive anti-immigration state law in the US went into effect on November 2007, followed by a sizable exodus of illegal immigrants, legal immigrants who know illegal immigrants, and persons of Hispanic origin generally who are not looking forward to carrying three forms of ID when they go to get the morning paper. The Latino Clergy Coalition filed a lawsuit that was irritably slapped away, and most of us figure we were stuck with the law for a couple of years until the hysteria died down.

Then there's this ad in this week's Oklahoma Gazette. According to this, the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma Builders Association, and the Oklahoma Restaurateurs Association have joined in a suit to overturn House Bill 1804, before Oklahoma's businesses are dealt irreparable harm by not having access to mumblemumble. The ad goes on, of course, to urge all right-thinking, red-blooded Americans to fight this cowardly attempt by Commie capitalists to sell out our country to the blahblah, so it looks like the thoughtful idealists on both sides of the question have arguments left to make. We should have excruciating political drama a-plenty right up through the fall session, when the bill's original author plans to introduce legislation making English the official state language and giving police the right to seize property.

Published by :ormondsacker 2008-03-02 05:59:23.0