While the BP oil spill garnered the most attention during President Obama‘s press conference today, a number of other pressing issues came up as well, namely, the passing of a controversial immigration law. When asked if he would support a boycott of Arizona, he indicated that, while he understood the frustration of the people of Arizona, he thought the law was the wrong approach, also adding, “I’m President of the United States, I don’t endorse boycotts.

The news that President Obama will send 1200 additional troops to the border, which was greeted by a number of media folks with barely a shrug, has been greeted by the GOP with calls for more. Rachel Maddow noted last night that the announcement has started a bit of a bidding war on the right.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and TV personality Sarah Palin have thrown down the gauntlet in an epic smackdown of opponents of Arizona’s new immigration law that allows officers to ask for identification when probable cause of illegal immigrant status exists. Enlisting the help of Kermit one of those frogs Lady Gaga wore as a dress once, they’ve created an instructional children’s sing-along to teach kids that reading is good!– which is why opponents of the Arizona law just don’t do it.

With all the controversy surrounding the illegal immigration bill she signed several weeks ago, it’s surprising we haven’t seen more of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. She came out swinging on Thursday in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, accusing the federal government of negligence with the illegal immigration and expressing frustration at the lack of communication between Phoenix and Washington.

Poor Ann Coulter. America has left her starved for attention, like a stray cat under the rain. Perhaps in part due to her op-ed yesterday, an attempt at being offensive that descended into gibberish somewhere along the way, she felt the need to up the ante yet again on last night’s Hannity, where instead of sticking to, as many would expect, attacking illegal immigrants, Coulter “leaped beyond” the illegal factor to attack immigrants that go through the proper avenues to get to America, like “80-year-old, wheel-chair bound AIDS victim” and/or “ex-felons.”

Arizona’s controversial new immigration law may be going to the next level. According to a local news report, emails released by State Senator Russell Pearce reveal a rather stunning claim to his supporters: “I intend to push for an Arizona bill that would refuse to accept or issue a birth certificate that recognizes citizenship to those born to illegal aliens, unless one parent is a citizen.” Children born in the US to illegal immigrants are often referred to as “anchor babies” a derogatory reference to the role of a naturalized child that may facilitating legal immigration for the child’s parents.

After appearing before Congress and attacking Arizona’s new illegal immigration law, Mexican president Felipe Calderón appeared on CNN to talk shop with Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer, rather surprisingly, turned the tables on the president, opting to ask him instead about his country’s immigration laws, and whether they were just as strict (if not stricter) than Arizona’s. Calderón admitted that laws were stringent in the past but clarified that it is currently not illegal to be undocumented in Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Cadleron spoke this morning to a joint session of the U.S. Congress and took the opportunity to blast the controversial new immigration law recently passed in Arizona. Calderon said “I am convinced that a comprehensive immigration reform is also crucial to securing our common border. However, I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona.”

Last week, the City Council of Los Angeles approved a business boycott of the state of Arizona in response to its recently-passed illegal immigration law. Today, the Arizona Corporation Commission responded to the threat with one of their own: Arizona currently provides about 25% of Los Angeles’ power, but if the boycott goes through, they will be happy to “take those electrons off your hands.”

President Obama appeared with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on the White House lawn today, and publicly addressed for the first time in weeks the Arizona Immigration law passed last month. “Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others,” President Obama said today at the ceremony. “And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”

Perhaps it is early morning delirium, or perhaps he is in his more aggressive radio mode by default, but early morning Glenn Beck on Fox and Friends always seems to culminate in a string of terse, shocking, or sometimes just plain unpredictable comments. This morning, Beck was all about Barack Obama‘s destruction of the family– not the nuclear family, but the American Family.

With the Arizona immigration law debate begins another week of discussion on cable news, Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano joined Gregg Jarrett on America’s Newsroom for a frank discussion. Napolitano offered a bipartisan critique of past immigration enforcement, and had low hopes for any imminent immigration law enforcement in Arizona.

Where have you gone Carrie Prejean? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. During last night’s Miss USA pageant, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard was asked by actor Oscar Nunez (from NBC’s The Office for her thoughts on the controversial. Arizona Immigration law.) In a rather remarkable turn, Woolard made clear her support of the anti-immigration law in a nuanced and unoffensive way. Perhaps she should run for office?

Is there anybody alive on the planet better at whipping up catchy political slogans than Sarah Palin? The woman is really unmatched in her ability to sum up national issues in one line or less. Today’s contribution to the political conversation comes, as per usual, via her Facebook page. It is about the Arizona Immigration law. Here’s what she had to say.

Here’s something you won’t see every day: A man declaring himself an avowed socialist and calling for revolution, a la Latin America, after calling for a revolt against “racist white people”– on Fox News. The man is Santee High School teacher Ron Gochez, and he is an Arizona schoolteacher accused of inciting armed rebellion. As a response to the bad press, Fox News’ Griff Jenkins gave him an extensive interview to clear up his name and ideology.

Attorney General Eric Holder is catching fire for admitting that, despite speaking out against it, he has yet to read the Arizona illegal immigration law. During a House Judiciary hearing, Republican Congressman Tom Poe asked Holder about his comments that the federal government might sue Arizona over the law and, more specifically, whether he had read the bill himself. Holder, embarrassingly, muttered that he hadn’t gotten around to reading it.

Last night, Sean Hannity took to fighting the Highland Park, Illinois school system Sarah Palin is furious at over their refusal to allow their high school girls’ basketball team to travel to Arizona for a tournament. Their reasoning for preventing them from going was an opposition to the new Arizona illegal immigration law. Hannity had two of the girls from the team on the show to discuss their reaction to not being able to compete in Arizona, and they admitted they were, for the most part, confused.

Arizona has doubled down on its racially-charged controversies this week with a new law opposing ethnic studies in public schools. Last night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper invited Tom Horne, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (and Attorney General candidate) and sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson to debate the issue, and rather than come to a concensus on what’s best for students, both sides came to the conclusion that the other is racist.

Sarah Palin really knows how to get the most bang for her buck out of her catchphrases. Palin’s Twitter account— apparently she’s retreated from Facebook after the backlash against her Carly Fiorina endorsement Update: and her Facebook — already hinted at her fury about this, but today Palin took to Fox News to discuss the Illinois girl’s basketball team whose school is protesting against the new Arizona illegal immigration law, and she wants the girls to “go rogue” in response.

Get your “Hollyweird” insults locked and loaded, fans of immigration laws, because the latest opponents of the Arizona Immigration Bill appears to be the entire city of Los Angeles. Well, not the entire city, of course, but the council elected to represent them. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the L.A. City Council voted 13-1 to “ban most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with companies” in the state of Arizona.

Arizona Senator John McCain made an appearance on Hannity to make a plea for his state after the city of Los Angeles announced an end to business within Arizona: Please don’t boycott our state. Despite any moral objections to the law, McCain reminded viewers that a boycott of Arizona businesses “will be hurting a lot of Hispanic citizens who work in that business” and that the law is not Arizona’s fault, but the federal government’s.

Maybe this is John McCain’s new way of being a ‘maverick.’ McCain just released a new campaign ad which features him strolling the Mexican border with a border sheriff who tells him “we’re outmanned…with all the illegals in America more than half come through Arizona.” McCain’s response: “Complete the dang fence.” Says the sheriff: “Senator, you’re one of us.”

On Wednesdsay, 5 California high school students were sent home from school when they were asked to remove their American flag shirts, out of respect for Cinco de Mayo, and refused. The following day, many students staged a mass walkout to attend a rally protesting the fact that the 5 students weren’t punished more harshly. The story got national news attention, but gratifyingly doesn’t seem to have caught on with many people (beyond Roger Ebert). Still, there are some surreal elements to this story that deserve closer inspection.

Last night on Real Time, Bill Maher celebrated Mother’s Day by saying a hearty thank you to America’s nannies– especially the illegal immigrant ones. Attacking the Arizona immigration law, Maher put the blame on corporate America for breaking down unions and hiring illegal aid, and offered that, in his experience, immigrants make much better workers than American citizens (though his example of an American employee was Stephen Baldwin).

On last night’s O’Reilly Factor host Bill O’Reilly and former Bush adviser Karl Rove got into a heated exchange over immigration reform in this country. O’Reilly seemingly held Rove’s feet to the fire for the Bush Administration’s ineffective policy about this problem. Rove not only defended his and the former administration’s efforts, but shot back at O’Reilly’s critiques, saying, “Easy to say. Hard to do.”