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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Anti Refuge Hysteria: We're Better Than This-or Are We?

It's amazing how fast things have changed.

"I had thought the Syrian passport found at the scene of one of the Paris attacks -- and now generally believed to be a fake -- was the spark that lit the anti-Syrian-refugee fire. But upon closer look, the fire had been smoldering in right-wing circles well before the Paris attacks. Tierney Sneed has a tick tock on how the homegrown attacks in Paris turned into an xenophobic inferno in the United States, where interning of Syrian refugees is now being publicly proposed with a straight face."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/syrian-refugees-passport-paris-attacks

It really takes so little to get us here again. Hillary says we're better than this. I hope so. But I'm not so sure.
"In a speech laying out her plan to fight terrorism, former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton bashed the recent calls to block Syrian refugees after Friday's Paris attack."

"Clinton kicked off the Thursday speech, given at New York's Council on Foreign Relations, by implicitly criticizing the anti-refugee hysteria that has overcome American politics since 129 people were killed by Islamic extremists."

"After a major terrorist attack, every society faces a choice between fear and resolve," Clinton said. "The world's great democracies can't sacrifice our values or turn our backs on those in need. Therefore, we must chose resolve and we must lead the world to meet this threat."

"Muslim Americans are working every day on the front lines in the fight against radicalization,” she said.

She argued that "slamming the door on every Syrian refugee, that is just not who we are. We are better than that."

"It would be a cruel irony indeed if ISIS can force families from their homes and also prevent them from finding new ones," she said.

"This is not a time for scoring political points," she added.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-refugees-slammed-backlash

Not a time for scoring political points. But that game is already afoot.

:"House poised to approve Syrian refugees bill."

"The bill will see near unanimous support from Republicans and broad support from Democrats."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/syria-refugee-bill-vote-216053#ixzz3rxTqNb00

There you go. At the end of the day, House Dems are so afraid as being called soft on terrorism that they'll take an action that has nothing to do with keeping us safe. 

"Democratic insiders expect 60 members of their caucus to support the GOP measure. Some rank-and-file Democrats are concerned about looking soft on national security. Already the Blue Dog Coalition — a group of moderate Democrats — has announced that it will support the bill."

"The legislation, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, would require the FBI, Homeland Security Department and director of national intelligence to certify to Congress that any refugee from Syria or Iraq is "not a threat to the security of the United States" before being allowed to settle in the United States. President Barack Obama has proposed allowing 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the country this year, part of the Western response to the wave of millions of refugees fleeing that country's bloody civil war and Islamic State-related violence."

"The White House has threatened to veto the measure, which is sponsored by Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). The Senate won't take up the bill until Congress returns in December from the Thanksgiving recess."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/syria-refugee-bill-vote-216053#ixzz3rxUQzJWJ

Yet again, fear and prejudice have won. 

7 comments:

  1. "Yet again, fear and prejudice have won."

    That's why I'm not opposed to Texas seceding from the Union this time around... let 'em go, and take a few other states with you please. Once they implement their gold standard hard money inflationista policies, adopt the Bible as their new science and history text, put up an impenetrable wall around their bastion of conservatism, and kick out all the brown people or people with funny names or accents... they'll be "bumming beer money" from the "rump" US in short order... blaming "secular progressivism" wafting over their walls for their problems... ... that's when we drive a hard bargain with them.

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  2. Mike, you've probably seen this:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/19/donald-trump-wont-rule-out-warrantless-searches-id-cards-for-american-muslims/

    WTF? ... Why not make Muslims were a green crescent? Someone should suggest that to him or Carson... they're probably brain dead enough to endorse that.

    Democrats should shout loud and clear in opposition to this... they can continue to accumulate minorities that will be loyal for the next half century:

    Blacks, Jews, homosexuals, Hispanics, Muslims.... bring it on! Better to collect some loyal lifelong motivated voters now rather than play to the extremely short sighted view this hysteria is causing.

    The GOP needs to start blathering more and more about only letting Christian immigrants in... that will help solidify the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and "none" votes as well as the Muslim (for the Democrats of course).

    Dems should be reminding people of this constantly... maybe start reminding people of the Japanese internment camps a bit more... to help solidify the Asian vote.

    Don't let Trump's ignoramus words go to waste!... Highlight them... they'll both help Trump win the nomination and solidify lifelong opposition to the GOP from many many other groups.

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    1. Who knows... the Dems could even pick up a few evangelical Christian votes if they stick with that.

      Also, they should highlight the idea that ISIS going after soft targets in France is a sign of their desperation and weakness... they've lost some ground to Kurds recently, etc. It's a sign they're on the ropes. Of course they should highlight that if it's true (I'm assuming it is... at least in part).

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    2. Don't worry I'm sure they'll top that. Carson just compared the refugees to dogs and a few have already talked seriously about Japanese style camps

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    3. Dogs?... Trump will have to outdo that. Hopefully he'll use "vermin"... that has some good Nazi overtones. The more Nazi the better Trump will do.

      My high school AP history teacher... blonde hair, blue eyes, crew cut, Vietnam vet, super in-shape, football coach tough guy... who lived through the McCarthy era and the red scare... who happened to be out jogging when Khrushchev's motorcade went by... so (like any good American at the time) he flipped him off (I don't know if that was before or after Khrushchev's visit to Disneyland was cancelled, but it was in LA)... that guy... no "bleeding heart liberal" by any stretch of the imagination, always told us that in his opinion the US was always much more likely to go fascist than communist. I think he's exactly right.

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  3. Yes, this has been a disappointing day. For the Dems to let me down like this. They are this scared of GOP attack ads they turn on Syrian refugees.

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  4. Mike, as an avowed "Trump Democrat" perhaps you have the street cred to get a trending tweet going... something directed to real Trump supporters:

    #MakeEmWearGreenCrescents

    Maybe we could photoshop a Syrian refugee family living in the "ghetto" they've been assigned to, huddled together with their Green Crescents pinned to their coats.

    The average Honey-Boo-Boo fan / Republican / GOP candidate probably won't get the connection to the Nazi policies towards the Jews in the 1930s, and will think it's a wonderful idea.

    ReplyDelete