Hang 'em High

Kennewick, Washington seems like a lovely place.  300 days of sunshine a year and beautiful in the sunset (or is that a photo of sunrise?).  And the bridge, bridges really, as the city is on the banks of the Columbia River near where it splits from the Yakima.  It's in the heart of Washington's wine country with some 160 wineries within a 60 mile radius.  There's golf and minor-league hockey and arena football and hydroplane racing and well, gosh, they're even going to dedicate an artifact from the World Trade Center on September 11 at the new sports complex.

On top of that, housing's affordable and it's a great place to raise kids, they say.

Really, you'd just want to up and move there, wouldn't you?

Unless, of course, you happen not to be an American citizen - or maybe just if you happen not to look like one.  At least, not if Loren Nichols should happen to win a sit on City Council.

Oh, sure.  Nichols knows that Kennewick needs to get its budget in order.  Doesn't every city?  And that's a real priority for him.  But first things first.

And the first thing is to . . . wait for it . . .

Kill every undocumented immigrant.

Yep.  He spoke to KEPR-TV.

Illegal aliens should have been shot when they crossed the border.

But since they weren't, and since the feds won't actually execute them, well then it's up to Kennewick.

Nichols: "Kennewick needs to do what's best for Kennewick. We need to take jurisdiction for ourselves and mandate that as the penalty"

KEPR Question: "Mandate death as the penalty if you get caught in Kennewick?"

Nichols Answer: "correct"

Nichols has two opponents in the race.  Steve Young, the incumbent and Kennewick's mayor, thinks Nichols's comments are "inappropriate," but that immigration really is a serious problem.  William Miller thinks Nichols's plan might "alienate voters" and, anyway, goes "too far."  (Perhaps Young and Miller favor LWOP with weekly waterboarding?)

To be fair, Nichols doesn't just want to execute the undocumented.  He also wants to banish Spanish.

The good news is that there's nothing racist about any of this.  We know that because Nichols says so.

This is an issue that doesn't deal with race so I hope it's not interpreted that way. It has to do with violation of our country.

I feel better.  So, I'm sure, do the 17.1% of the population (2000 census data - a quick search didn't turn up figures from 2010) who aren't white.

All of this is pretty clearly unconstitutional.

Which you might want to mention to the next Canadian who slips across the border and heads for Kennewick which is, after all, less than 200 miles away.

You know, tell him before they kill him.