May 20, 2010 08:42 PM UTC

Don't You Have Jobs, Or Something, To Do Instead?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Arizona immigration law has sparked a number of protests around the country, but we’ve officially reached the “silly” level. From The Arizona Republic:

Arizona’s immigration law drew more international headlines Wednesday when an electric-utility regulator responded to Los Angeles’ boycott efforts by suggesting it stop using power from Arizona…

…”If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation,” Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce said in a Tuesday letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Pierce, who has no authority to cut off the city’s electricity [Pols emphasis], said that he did not intend his letter as a literal threat but that he wrote it to illustrate the close ties between Los Angeles and Arizona and the trouble that a boycott could cause in both places.

“A boycott is an unfriendly gesture,” he said Wednesday. “Where do you expect that to go?”

Los Angeles is among a number of cities and organizations that have called for boycotts of Arizona until the state repeals its new immigration law. The law, which goes into effect July 29, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It states that an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest shall, when practicable, ask about a person’s legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

We can’t get over the bold part above — the guy making the threat in Arizona doesn’t actually have the authority to do anything he is saying. But it earned him a lot of free press, so what the hell, right? Right?