Thom Hartmann: Welcome back to the place where smart people get their news. Dr. Mike Newcomb on the line with us. He is the host of the Dr. Mike Newcomb show on 1480 KPHX, our affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona where we are so pleased to be heard live every day from the equivalent of noon to 3 eastern time. You guys are, are you on mountain time in Arizona? I can never figure out Arizona time.
Mike Newcomb: Thom, I’ve been living here for 20 years and I still can’t figure it out.
Thom Hartmann: Because it changes at a different time than everybody else but.
Mike Newcomb: Yeah we just don’t change our clocks, that’s all I know. We always keep it the same.
Thom Hartmann: Oh that’s what it is, okay. So anyhow, Mike, Dr. Mike, what happened? You know, yesterday we all saw the TV news reports but usually that’s only half the story. And, you know, the day before, you heard, you know, we really go into this with a few people. We had sheriff Joe Arpaio on, we had sheriff Dupnik on. Kind of all sides of the story. What’s the state of affairs in Arizona?
Mike Newcomb: Well it’s interesting, Thom, because first and foremost, let me say, one of the callers called in yesterday to the program, said they were listening to your show and then they said that you had had Arpaio on and they said that he was Jekyll and Hyde. They said that if you would have not know who he was he seemed calm and, you know, seemed reasoned. But, you know, that’s not the Joe Arpaio that we know out here. He actually was the catalyst yesterday, because as you know that’s when, at least certain parts of the law went into effect, of a huge protest. And he was conducting his 17th, what he calls Thom, are his crime suppression sweeps. But we know that’s code word for racial profiling.
Thom Hartmann: "Get the brown people!"
Mike Newcomb: Yes, exactly, which I was a little nervous because I just got back from Hawaii and had a little bit of a tan so…
Thom Hartmann: Uh oh.
Mike Newcomb: I was a little nervous about that. But in any case, no, it was a big protest, about 50 people were arrested including actually former state legislator and former gubernatorial candidate, Alfredo Gutierrez, so the people are still out here en masse, Thom. They’re very upset about it. I mean the poll numbers that you hear at about, you know, 70% of people being for this, I don’t know where they’re getting that poll number because we had about almost 100 thousand people during one of the holiday weekends protest senate bill 1070 and I don’t know if you heard about that, if the national media heard about that…
Thom Hartmann: Oh yeah. We talked about it here. I didn’t see much of it though on the national media. You’re right. It’s the same thing, it’s like we had in Detroit for the US social forum a couple of weekends ago, we covered that here on this program. 15 thousand progressives showed up for four days in Detroit, there was a march down to Cobalt Hall, about a five mile march, tens of thousands of people showed up for it. Not one network covered it except FreeSpeechTV which is the network which carries our program on Dish Network and DirecTV. Not one of the other networks showed up for that thing, yet if 300 people call themselves a Tea Party you’re going to have wall to wall coverage.
Mike Newcomb: No, no, absolutely. And see the thing with here, Thom, is we have a very, very far right conservative legislature. And they really, I mean we really are at the epicenter of this crazy, lunatic far right, you know, kind of ideology and I’m sure you’ve heard of senator Russell Pearce…
Thom Hartmann: Yeah.
Mike Newcomb: He was the kind of lead legislator who was pushing forward 1070, well now he, you know how they say they love the constitution? Well now they want to attack the constitution and they want to go after, you know, what they call disparagingly anchor babies, you know, if you’re born here in Arizona…
Thom Hartmann: Yeah, change the 14th amendment, yeah.
Mike Newcomb: Yeah. So this is the next thing that they’re now trying to do is deny people born in this country citizenship. So it’s not going to stop here. They're going to keep pushing this agenda further and further and further and we are pretty much at the eye of the storm here in Arizona.
Thom Hartmann: So yesterday, the giant protest, people showed up from all over the country. We talked the day before yesterday with one of the leaders of the AFL-CIO who was leading a bus of I think 700 people from LA out to Phoenix. The clashes in the streets happening in Phoenix, is this going to continue or is this going to go back down to the legal level and what’s the consequence or impact of the judicial challenge? We had a judge roll back some parts of the law day before yesterday.
Mike Newcomb: Well, you know what’s interesting about that, because Judge Susan Bolton who actually enjoined the major provisions of the law that pretty much gutted the law. As you know the conservatives are now calling her the activist judge and this and that.
Thom Hartmann: Right.
Mike Newcomb: But ironically here, in her own state, senator John Kyl, when she was nominated by Bill Clinton in 2000, John Kyl gave a sterling recommendation for Susan Bolton, more or less saying she’s, you know, an impeccable judge, great reasoning, fair and that Arizona couldn’t be in better hands. So it’s going to be real interesting to see, you know, on a go-forward basis, how senator John Kyle and others react. But they’re still pushing forward. Nothing’s going to stop them, Thom.
That’s why, you know, as you know I’m a doctor and I studied physics. For every action there’s an opposite and equal reaction. And the progressive community has to obey the laws of physics. We have to keep pushing back with as much passion and bigger and I don’t want to say venom because we’re not like that, but, you know, just passion as they are. And I don’t think it’s going to end here. Because the law did go into effect, as you know, there’s still certain of the provisions that did go into effect, albeit not as Draconian as the other ones but none the less, it’s going to be a battle. I know Alfredo Gutierrez, I don’t know if you knew this but I actually followed your policy, tag you’re it, in 2002 I ran for governor here in Arizona.
Thom Hartmann: I know.
Mike Newcomb: He was one of the Gubernatorial candidates and he will not stop. He was arrested yesterday, he’s, you know, at the forefront of pushing a lot of good…
Thom Hartmann: He’s a good guy.
Mike Newcomb: He’s a great guy, so it’s not going to stop. There’s a lot passion here, Thom. As you know, Arizona, it’s estimated that at least 25% of our population is Hispanic. And it’s probably, it’s probably more than that. And it’s just sad. I mean my wife is Hispanic, Thom. And her parents actually were born in Mexico on the Sonoran side of Nogales and they are now dual citizens, Thom. They have citizenship in Mexico and Arizona. But they’re 80 something years old, Thom. They really, their native language is Spanish, they speak very limited English. But one of the provisions of the law that was, you know, temporarily barred was that, you know, the police officers are being trained that if somebody speaks poor English, then that’s reason to suspect they’re here illegally which would mean that my in-laws, based off of this law, who are legal citizens of this country, would actually have their freedom curtailed. They could be detained, they could be, you know, incarcerated if they didn’t have certain papers.
Thom Hartmann: And not just could be, Joe Arpaio is out looking for them.
Mike Newcomb: No, absolutely. And then where we live, we kind of live in the area that’s covered by Arpaio because it’s kind of out in the suburbs, so it’s kind of scary to think. And that’s what I don’t understand, Thom. How can conservatives say they love freedom and they love liberty, but they’ll allow people who are legally here to be profiled and have their liberty restricted?
Thom Hartmann: Well they love freedom and liberty for white people, Mike.
Mike Newcomb: Right, right, right.
Thom Hartmann: Dr. Mike Newcomb, host of the Mike Newcomb Show on 1480 AM KPHX, our, proud to be on there, affiliate in Phoenix Arizona. Dr. Mike you’re doing a great job. Keep up the great work.
Mike Newcomb: As are you Thom, we love you out here, we want to get you out here soon.
Thom Hartmann: Yeah, we’ve got to work that out, we will do that. Thank you Mike.
Mike Newcomb: All right. Take care.
Thom Hartmann: Good talking with you.
Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.
