Monday, January 14, 2008

Quick update on Pearce's email

In my most recent post, I wrote of Rep. Russell Pearce's latest email misadventure. Paul Stiles, the author of the economics/stock market-focused blog, The Novice Bear. Mr. Stiles had taken issue with some of Pearce's assertions regarding the free markets and the economic effects of strict enforcement of immigration laws and mass deportation of illegal immigrants.


I asked Mr. Stiles to forward Pearce's email to me, and he graciously did so.


Mr. Stiles wrote a brief note - 173 words, including salutation and closing - to Pearce at Pearce's AZ House email address. While his note was certainly critical of Pearce, it was civil and succinct.


Pearce replied with a somewhat longer note - 1865! words, not including the salutation and closing because Pearce didn't bother with either one. Notwithstanding the lack of normal courtesy (no salutation or closing), Pearce's response wasn't uncivil per se, but it certainly wasn't succinct. His response was more than 10 times longer than Stiles' initial note.


Yet, buried within all of Pearce's assertions, nativist rhetoric, unsupported statistics, and more than a few self-congratulatory pats on his own back, was a complete absence of a response to Stiles' original criticisms.


Mr. Stiles wrote things like "[i]llegal immigrants are the epitome of free markets", "[y]our legislation is an artificial restriction on free markets and your state's economy will suffer for it", and "I cannot for the life of me why a legislator would deliberately shrink his or her own economy, especially one with such a rapidly ageing population."


Besides the material quoted in my previous post, Rep. Pearce responded with phrases like "[u]ntil the day I die, I will insist that 'illegal' is 'illegal' ", "ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: Amnesty: Winning the Jackpot for Breaking the Law! Enforcement not Reform", and a laundry list of the various anti-immigrant legislation and referendum questions that he has authored or co-authored.

Other sections of Pearce's letter include a "myths and facts about HB2779 [Employer Sanctions Law]" piece, credited to Pearce, but reading like a press release (to be fair, though, I could easily see him writing such a press release.)

In my previous post, I wrote that Rep. Pearce's writing was "unprofessional." That may have been a mistake.

His writing is also lazy.

His reply to Mr. Stiles' correspondence not only was unresponsive to Stiles' criticisms, it actually read more like a 'copy and paste' mash-up of different nativist screeds and Pearce's campaign bio, only a small amount of which may have actually been written by Pearce himself.

I won't post the entire email here for two reasons -

1. At nearly 1900 words, it really is too long. In addition, it's loaded with the kind of grammatical errors that I make only when I'm writing at 2 in the morning after a long day (12 hours) at work.

2. It's utter crap. Not that I've never posted crap here before, but it's *my* crap. Not somebody else's.

Having said all that, if there is any significant demand for it, I'll post larger sections of the letter (though you can probably find most of his stuff on various white supremacist websites.)

Maybe Rep. Pearce could find the time to take a writing course to help improve his writing, perhaps at one of the community colleges that he wants to cut so desperately. He should do *something* to improve his writing, especially that which goes out under the auspices of his seat in the legislature.

I don't care if he embarrasses himself, but he's embarrassing the entire state with his written (and other) rantings.

8 comments:

Richard said...

Here is the list of courses at Mesa Community College for the spring 2008 semester that might help our ghetto-fabulous friend. There's still time for him to register for the open sections (although it is too late for him to approve the budget cuts to cancel them):

ENG061-- BASIC WRITING SKILLS 3 Credit Hours

-M-W-F-
09:00 AM - 09:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Jordan, Barbara
closed
4150 SD
LA
2W
-M-W-F-
11:00 AM - 11:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Lerman, Amy
closed
4155 SD
LA
1S
--T-R--
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Sims, Melinda
closed
8750 SD
LA
2W
--T-R--
05:45 PM - 07:00 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Vasicek, Alvin
closed
-----------------------------------

ENG071-- FUNDAMENTALS OF WRITING 3 Credit Hours
-M-W-F-
07:00 AM - 07:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Baptista, Marcilyn
open
4160 SD
LA
3S
-M-W-F-
08:00 AM - 08:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Lerman, Amy
closed
4162 SD
LA
1S
-M-W-F-
08:00 AM - 08:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Karelitz, Amy
open
4164 SD
LA
1S
-M-W-F-
09:00 AM - 09:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Kalia, Rajinder
closed
4166 SD
LA
4S
-M-W-F-
09:00 AM - 09:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Cataldo, Margie
closed
4168 RM
RDM
V122
-M-W-F-
09:00 AM - 09:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Bergquist, Linda
open
4170 SD
LA
1S
-M-W-F-
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Kalia, Rajinder
open
4172 SD
LA
5N
-M-W-F-
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Cataldo, Margie
closed
4177 SD
LA
5S
--T-R--
09:00 AM - 10:15 AM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Karelitz, Amy
closed
4178 SD
EF
1E
--T-R--
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Fazio, Gene
closed
4180 RM
RDM
V123
--T-R--
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Riley, Leslie
open
4182 SD
LA
6N
--T-R--
12:00 PM - 01:15 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Lerman, Amy
closed
4184 RM
RDM
V123
--T-R--
12:00 PM - 01:15 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 STAFF
closed
4186 SD
LA
4S
--T-R--
01:30 PM - 02:45 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Fazio, Gene
closed
4188 SD
LA
2N
--T-R--
03:00 PM - 04:15 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Hellner, Nancy
closed
8752 SD
LA
2N
-M-W---
04:25 PM - 05:40 PM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Hellner, Nancy
closed
8754 SD
LA
2N
-M-W---
05:45 PM - 07:00 PM
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Hellner, Nancy
closed
8760 RM
RDM
V123
--T-R--
04:25 PM - 05:40 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 McCourt, Sharon
open
8762 SD
LA
1S
--T-R--
05:45 PM - 07:00 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Kalia, Rajinder
open
8764 SD
LA
1S
--T-R--
07:10 PM - 08:25 PM
01/15/2008 - 05/09/2008 Kalia, Rajinder
open
8766 SD
LA
5S
------S
09:00 AM - 11:45 AM
01/12/2008 - 05/09/2008 Thacker, Dawn
closed
----------

ENG100AA AMERICAN-ENGLISH SPELLING SYSTEM 1 Credit Hour
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008
8768 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open
----------

ENG100AB VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT 1 Credit Hour
4192 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open
8770 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open

----------

ENG100AC THE MECHANICS OF WRITTEN ENGLISH 1 Credit Hour
4194 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open
8772 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open

----------

ENG100AD GRAMMAR & USAGE 1 Credit Hour
4200 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open
8773 SD
LB
175
TBA
TBA
01/14/2008 - 05/09/2008 Florschuetz, Timothy
open

----------

ENG100AE COMPOSITION SKILLS 1 Credit Hour
4196 SD
LB
175
-MTWRF-
09:00 AM - 11:40 AM
12/26/2007 - 01/03/2008 STAFF
closed 1 week course
4198 SD
LB
175
-MTWRF-
01:00 PM - 03:40 PM
12/26/2007 - 01/03/2008 STAFF
closed 1 week course
----------

Craig said...

Richard -

Maybe ENG107, First-Year Composition for ESL, would be a better choice.

He might some interesting people in one of those sections - maybe his perspective would be broadened; on the other hand, his head might explode when one of those ESL students earned a better grade than he did.

:)

Exurban Jon said...

I don't know about those courses. Professors with last names like Baptista and Cataldo? You sure them folks is 'murican?

(/sarcasm)

Marcie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marcie said...

ave you ever googled your name and then found out that you were mentioned in some random person's blog? Well, I did, and just so you know, I AM an American.

Craig said...

Ummm...there's a "margie" mentioned in a comment, but no "marcie." Are you the Cataldo that was/is a teacher at Mesa (AZ) Community College?

Craig said...

Oops, never mind. Checked my site traffic and found someone searching for "Marcilyn Baptista."

Are you the Marcilyn Baptista who was/is an instructor at MCC?

Marcie said...

yup. that's me.