Aww, look at that. See how pensive and deep and somber Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is in the video? He gets that way around graves of undocumented immigrants marked with bouquets of pretty flowers. What a guy. He sure cares. So-o-o much. So very much.
Why, he feels so sad and compassionate that he’s blocking immigration reform! As Think Progress notes, that would be the same reform that would “effectively prevent more senseless border deaths from occurring. Migrants often have to rely on smugglers who leave them to die in the desert.”
If you think that video is bad, wait until you hear this, as reported by Think Progress. Cornyn actually compared U.S. border security to– wait for it– Disney World:
CORNYN: My conversations with Senator Rubio, he happened to share with me that Disney World uses a biometric system to ensure people do not commit ticket fraud. If they are that easy, affordable and good enough for the Magic Kingdom, they ought to be good enough for the United States. Senator Sessions’ amendment would guarantee they would not be eligible for lawful citizenship until there is a biometric entry/exit system.
Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.
Uh-oh, Marco! The anti-immigrant right is on your case! But keep trying to appeal to those non-existent Republican Latino voters, and keep smiling for the camera as you engage in more GOP infighting.
So yes, now Rubio’s in the all too familiar conservative dog house. Here he is trying to reinvent his apparently non-reinventable party by pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, and what does he get for it? A kvetchy National Review magazine cover and claims that he supports “amnesty.” Isn’t that just like the reachy-outy right?
That’ll teach him for hanging out with occasionally reasonable politicians and trying to occasionally fake-be reasonable himself.
Bad press, schmad press, you know what they say: All publicity is good publicity.
(CNN) – When the cover was posted online, commentators noted the publication had edited out the people standing behind the three senators at the press conference, including conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.
National Review isn’t the first magazine to use Rubio on its cover with a provocative headline. TIME labeled the junior senator from Florida the “Republican savior” on its cover in February.
Apparently, it’s not. At a town hall meeting in Burlington, Wisconsin, while he was pushing his idea of a House immigration reform bill, he used the offensive term “anchor babies.” Classy, Paul, classy. You know who else uses that one? Michele Bachmann, for one.
As Think Progress notes, that little “anchor baby” slur is used to describe American-born children of undocumented immigrants, who, by the way, are citizens under the 14th Amendment.
In 2012, Ryan got an earful for dropping the “A.B.” term:
Oops! He did it again:
Paul Ryan:
To the anchor baby issue– That’s what they call it, anchor babies. It’s a person who comes and has a child here, if you’re born here you’re a naturalized citizen. You have to change the Constitution. There’s a little bit of legal debate about whether you have to or not. I think it comes down fairly clearly that you have to change the Constitution to change the definition of citizenship to not being born here, right? Or being born with legal parents. That will take a long, long time, years …
But it’s really treating a symptom, right. People are coming across the border illegally, or overstaying their visas. And therefore illegal immigration is fairly easy, and then people are having what’s called anchor babies.
Note to Paul about his “legal parents” moment. People are not legal or illegal. Their actions are, but they are not. They are people, not “illegals” or “legals.”
They. Are. People.
So much for all that New and Improved Republican Outreach.
You can find the entire transcript here. Here are a few excerpts. Please note, there were no questions about jobs, jobs, jobs. None, none, none.
President Obama:
And what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened. And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.
That’s what the American people would expect. And if we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do. There may be objections even among some people in the region who are sympathetic with the opposition if we take action. So, you know, it’s important for us to do this in a prudent way.
But the important point I want to make here is that we already are deeply engaged in trying to bring about a solution in Syria. It is a difficult problem. But even if chemical weapons were not being used in Syria, we’d still be thinking about tens of thousands of people, innocent civilians, women, children, who’ve been killed by a regime that’s more concerned about staying in power than it is about the well-being of its people. And so we are already deeply invested in trying to find a solution here.
Ed Henry: (Really, Ed, Benghazi? Seriously? Oh yeah, he’s from Fox)
And on the Benghazi question, I know pieces of the story have been litigated, and you’ve been asked about it. But there are people in your own State Department saying they’ve been blocked from coming forward, that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story. Will you help them come forward and just say it once and for all?
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Ed, I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody’s been blocked from testifying. So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you’re referring to. What I’ve been very clear about from the start is that our job with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies not just in the Middle East but around the world are safe and secure and to bring those who carried it out to justice.
But I’ll find out what exactly you’re referring to.
Jonathan Karl:
Mr. President, you are a hundred days into your second term. On the gun bill, you put, it seems, everything into it to try to get it passed. Obviously, it didn’t. Congress has ignored your efforts to try to get them to undo these sequester cuts. There was even a bill that you threatened to veto that got 92 Democrats in the House voting yes. So my question to you is do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Well, if you put it that way, Jonathan — (laughter) — maybe I should just pack up and go home. (Laughter.) Golly. You know, the — I think it’s — it’s a little — (chuckles) — as Mark Twain said, you know, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.
Bill Plante:
Mr. President, as you’re probably aware, there’s a growing hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, among prisoners there. Is it any surprise, really, that they would prefer death rather than have no end in sight to their confinement?
PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Well, it is not a surprise to me that we’ve got problems in Guantanamo, which is why, when I was campaigning in 2007 and 2008 and when I was elected in 2008, I said we need to close Guantanamo.
I continue to believe that we’ve got to close Guantanamo. I think — well, you know, I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed.
Now Congress determined that they would not let us close it and despite the fact that there are a number of the folks who are currently in Guantanamo who the courts have said could be returned to their country of origin or potentially a third country.
I’m going to go back at this. I’ve asked my team to review everything that’s currently being done in Guantanamo, everything that we can do administratively, and I’m going to re-engage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that’s in the best interests of the American people.
Roy Beck is the founder of anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA, a guy who would like nothing more than to bring immigration to pre-1965 levels. He did his best John McCain “making the media rounds” impression by appearing on 10 radio stations to make his small-minded case.
And how did he do that? By comparing the vile work he’s doing on his nasty little anti-immigration mission to the real work immigrant day laborers do. Because, you know, they’re so analogous.
Here’s what Beck (a common name among GOPutzes) said to the National Journal while saturating the air waves during his media blitz:
“It’s a little bit like being at a day labor site,” he said, describing the event.
“Or like speed dating?” I asked.
“It is like speed dating, that’s true,” he said. “But it is like a day labor site, you’re just there. The little pickup truck drives by. Drives real slowly. And I go, ‘I’m available! I’m cheeep!‘”
No bigotry or stereotyping there. I wonder who mows his lawn or cleans his toilet for him.
NumbersUSA has been responsible for some of the most virulent anti-immigrant tactics, including claiming that Americans’ quality of life was ruined by immigrants. The group has also made concerted efforts to try to drive a wedge between African-Americans and immigrants.
And to think that in one day, listeners were exposed to this jerk’s toxic message on nearly a dozen radio shows.
Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.
Muslim Woman Attacked After Conservatives Repeat False Speculation About ‘Dark-Skinned Suspects’ — Here’s what happens when you’re exposed to “fair and balanced” reporting: “A Palestinian woman said she was assaulted and aggressively harassed while walking with her infant daughter and friend near Malden Center late Wednesday morning, in an apparent hate crime motivated by Monday’s attack at the Boston Marathon.”
Family Research Council Co-Opts Tragedy To Oppose ‘Sexual Liberalism’– Did you know Jesus “instructed His disciples to buy”weapons? And that “abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, and religious hostility” are “only compounding” “these tragedies”? If I go on, this page will be unsuitable for some readers. Just follow the link.
See what I mean? So who’s up for a couple of Margs or a trough of wine?
Lt. Col Barry Wingard is the lawyer for Gitmo detainee Fayiz Al-Kandari. For their ongoing story + related topics, please click on the link below: Kuwaiti Citizen Detained at Guantanamo since 2002
You can read the complete story here or on Wikipedia.
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