Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup: Alienation.

Searching for the best analogy to Arizona’s new immigration law, James Fallows came up with a doozy: Communist China.

Here’s the point of comparison between the impending Arizona situation and China: it’s no fun knowing — as citizen and foreigner alike know in China, and as Hispanic-looking people in Arizona soon will — that you can be asked to show proof of your legality at an official’s whim.

Commies! China! That’s enough to make J. Edgar Hoover roll over in his entombed lingerie closet.

No way those Tea Party Real American Patriot Wolverines would ever stand for that kind of egregious comparison, right? …

… Of course they would. Paul Krugman, for example, knows better than that.

We’ve got more links on Arizona, “President” Palin, boobs, the NFL draft and other assorted randomness in this week’s roundup. Let’s get it:

1. A number of opponents to Arizona’s immigration law are questioning whether its even legal. James Doty makes the case that the most controversial portion of the law isn’t. Others worry that the law will force the White House to deal with immigration reform before climate change. But Jonathan Chait argues that the the long-term political benefits might be too tempting for Democrats to ignore.  (Blackink)

2. Tracy Clark-Flory writes about something that moved her past the ladyblogger’s plateau of feminist outrage: finding out about an insurer that has allegedly sought out women clients with breast cancer and dropped them from coverage. (Shani-o)

3. From Man versus Debt, a really absorbable chart on impending health care changes. (Belleisa)

4. Newsweek profiles Annabel Park, founder of the Coffee Party. “Park didn’t set out to create a political movement in the first place. She was just exhausted by all-Tea-Party-all-the-time on the news.” (Blackink)

5. In North Dakota, socialism is alive and well when it comes to banking. (Blackink)

6. Should we be concerned that some of the Supreme Court justices aren’t tech savvy? It’s an issue made glaringly clear during a case based primarily on a California police officer who was “sexting” on a job-issued phone and believes his privacy was violated because his employers reviewed the messages. (Belleisa)

7. Tired of dealing with questions about President Obama‘s birth certificate, the Hawaii Legislature is close to passing a law that would allow the state to ignore for to produce the document. (Blackink)

8. Renina Jarmon muses on democracy, James Baldwin and the lack of a Negro agenda. (Blackink)

9. Steve Benen notes the right-wing affection for Guy Fawkes: “It’s a reminder that the Republican mainstream made a right turn at scary, and have arrived right at stark raving mad.” (Blackink)

10. South Africa has had a notoriously abysmal record on HIV prevention — its former president, Thabo Mbeki, was an AIDS denialist — but the country is now ramping up its prevention efforts, including what the U.N. called the that United Nations officials say is the largest and fastest expansion of AIDS services ever attempted by any nation.” (G.D.)

11. The Pill turns 50. (Alisa)

12. Boobs=sexy. Big boobs=inherently slutty. (Shani-o)

13. Next time, Tavis Smiley should pony up the cash for Stanley Crouch‘s trip to the State of the Black Union. It’s clear Crouch is still mad that he couldn’t make it to the most recent one. (Blackink)

14. A condemned Utah inmate wants to be executed by a firing squad. He may be one of the last to die this way. (Blackink)

15. Via M_LeBlanc‘s Twitter feed, Jaclyn Friedman challenges us to “unmask” the college-aged rapist. (Blackink)

16. The Atlantic has highlights from the Gabby Sidibe-hosted “SNL.” (Shani-o)

17. One day, Times (UK) columnist Melanie Reid was fit and independent. And then she wasn’t. And then she wrote this. (Blackink)

18. The managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier, which won the top Pulitzer Prize this year, is not happy with the Washington Post‘s recent write-up of his newspaper. “… the Post story should have said: that we were the little engine that could … and did.” (Blackink)

19. In other newspaper news, the Wall Street Journal unveiled its new New York section today and topped the list of the nation’s largest-circulation daily newspapers. (Blackink)

20. A matador was nearly gored to death by a half-ton bull in Mexico. I guess this is the part of bullfighting that makes it sport, eh? (Blackink)

21. What’s got more calories then the KFC Double Down? Believe it or not, a Wendy’s Chicken BLT Salad with Honey Dijon dressing made Gawker’s list. (Belleisa)

22. Speaking of fast food, would you eat a “peanut butter and bacon burger”? (Belleisa)

23. Can video games be art? Roger Ebert doesn’t think so. But he’s willing to consider it. (Blackink)

24. Boing Boing‘s Cory Doctorow writes about Nina Paley, who refused to license her film, “Sita Sings the Blues” to Netflix because the latter wouldn’t allow her to tell people they could watch the film for free. (Shani-o)

25. Via The Root: every Guru and Gang Starr video ever, in chronological order. (Alisa)

26. To counter Facebook’s efforts to reduce user privacy, Gawker offers tips on how to restore some of it. (Blackink)

27. Esquire profiled Usain Bolt in this month’s edition. And in case you missed it, Bolt is still a freak. “At this point, there’s every reason to believe that Bolt is like Alexander in his prime, a young conqueror whose future conquests will not be determined by ability but simply by desire and discipline.” (Blackink)

28. If you enjoy watching the NFL Draft, you should familiarize yourself with James “Yazoo” Smith. He almost stopped the whole thing from happening. (Blackink)

29. Also on the draft, Myron Rolle, who G.D. blogged about previously, was taken in the sixth round; Shutdown Corner reviews the best and the worst of the draft; and a University of New Hampshire tight end who didn’t get drafted at all this weekend told the NFL thanks but no thanks. (Blackink)

30. And finally, New York magazine details how Sarah Palin became president of the right wing and got rich. “… forget elections (as many Palin supporters already seem to have done); she’s already the president of an alternative America—and also its CEO.”

Even Deion Sanders could appreciate that kind of ethos.

Because, in the end, I’ve said it before: Sarah Palin really ain’t nothing but a wack-ass rapper. In lipstick.

Joel

Joel Anderson —blackink —  writes about sports, politics, crime, courts, and other issues far beyond his competence at BuzzFeed. He has worked at media outlets in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Atlanta and contributed to a number of publications, including The Root and The American Prospect, among many others.