“Sen. Vitter knows very well that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for public benefits like welfare, food stamps, Social Security or Medicaid. They never have been,” said Susan Weishar, a migration specialist at the Loyola University’s Jesuit Social Research Institute. “It is poisonous to the political discourse that Sen. Vitter continues to scapegoat people who came to Louisiana to help us rebuild our homes and businesses after Katrina.” -The Times Picayune, Oct. 8,2010

Politics is a nasty business which is why I try to stay out of it publicly. That’s not to be confused with apathy – I keep up with the local and national scene and I have my opinions – I just choose not to flail around in the muck via this blog. There are plenty of politically experienced bloggers out there that have that domain covered so I leave it to them. This post isn’t about my political opinion of David Vitter or Charles Melancon; instead, this post is about what I, and many others, perceive as manipulative lying on a massive scale that appears to be escalating expeditiously. About a week ago I had my first viewing of David Vitter’s TV commercial portraying Hispanic illegal aliens climbing through a hole in a chain link fence and being welcomed by this scene: and it made my skin crawl. Adding to this despicable affront is the fact that he shares the opening scene with Sharron Angle’s equally racist ad against Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. It’s apparent to anyone with a brain that Senator Vitter and others are attempting to manipulate a certain segment of the population through their prejudices and fears of illegals, particularly Hispanic illegals, as is   evident by the growing numbers of these blatantly racist ads. Maybe Senator Vitter thinks this is what he needs to do to steer the attention of his conservative base away from his own questionable behavior. Whatever the reason, this kind of ad is racist garbage and I would call out anyone who condones it, regardless of political affiliation. This goes way beyond politics into the realm of just plain old fashioned hatred. I think the American people are  sick and tired of it and it’s past time we let these politicians know with our voices as well as our votes.

For those readers outside of Louisiana I’ve embedded the offending video below.