State Senator Scott Beason is the man behind Alabama’s worst in the nation’s anti-immigrant law. Beason is a hard-core rightist who is so committed to an ideology that he has placed the county that Birmingham is on the verge of bankruptcy because he won’t let them impose a tax to replace one that had already been in place but was ruled unconstitutional on a technical issue. He has suggested that the county gut services for poor people instead. The county has already had to lay off nearly a quarter of its workforce.

Beason, who comes from a district that has long been known for its racism, made headlines in June when it was revealed that he had discussed ways of keeping down the black vote in Alabama. That wasn’t the shocker, conservatives in the state had been doing that for years. What caught the public’s attention was that he referred to black voters as “aborigines“.  He later said “I don’t use that term normally” to refer to blacks.

We all recall with horror the Arizona shootings in January in which a deranged gunman emptied his clip of ammunition into Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her supporters. A few weeks later, Beason, when asked about what should be done with illegal immigrants at a meeting replied that conservatives needed to “empty the clip, and do what has to be done.”