AI
Friday, July 18, 2014 8:07:35 AM
Rep. Gingrey warns you might get Ebola from immigrants
Also, Hodor.
by Hunter
Mon Jul 14, 2014 at 02:06 PM PDT
Rep. Phil Gingrey wants you to know that all these immigrants nowadays are unclean. Unclean [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/07/phil-gingrey-migrant-ebola-vaccines ]!
Last week, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a dire warning: Some of the child refugees streaming across the southern border into the United States might carry deadly diseases. "Reports of illegal immigrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning," Gingrey wrote. "Many of the children who are coming across the border also lack basic vaccinations such as those to prevent chicken pox or measles."
This would be one of the operating principles behind the creepy and oft-openly racist anti-migrant protests in Murrieta, California [ http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-immigrants-murrieta-20140701-story.html ], and has since become a rallying cry of much of the skeeziest conservatives (Louie Gohmert has been all over [ http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/11/3456878/are-central-american-child-refugees-bringing-in-diseases/ ] this one, which I believe proves my point.) Also, putting Ebola in that mix is what we folks here in reality like to call a tell—of what, you can decide.
Now we get to the part where Phil Gingrey tuns out to have a rather curious stake in all this. You see, he's one of the people demanding Americans not vaccinate their kids.
Gingrey has long-standing ties to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a far-right medical group that opposes all mandatory vaccines. The organization touts access to Gingrey as one of its membership perks. (The AAPS has, incidentally, taken the lead in pushing the idea that migrant children are disease carriers.) In 2007, he wrote an amendment that would allow parents to block their children from receiving HPV vaccines, which are designed to combat cervical cancer.
All right, now that's just depressing.
Here's the thing, though: It turns out migrants are often better immunized than, say, Texans. This is because places like Guatamala do not have to contend with people like Phil Gingrey or Jenny McCarthy [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/11/migrant-kids-better-vaccinated-than-u-s-kids-but-fox-news-stokes-germ-fears-anyway/ ].
[A]s The Texas Observer‘s Rachel Pearson noted [ http://www.texasobserver.org/disease-threat-immigrant-children-wildly-overstated/ , in full the fourth item in the post to which this is a reply], children from Guatemala — where vaccines are provided free of charge by the government’s universal health care system — are more likely to be vaccinated against those diseases than children in Texas, where the rate of parents who “opt out” of vaccinations citing “reasons of conscience” has increased every year since 2003. [...]
According to the World Health Organization, there have been no reported cases of measles in Guatemala or Honduras since 1990, whereas anti-vaccination efforts in the United States have led to multiple outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So there you go. You're more likely to get measles from hanging out with Rep. Phil Gingrey's friends than from a Central American refugee. Probably more likely to get Ebola, too.
© Kos Media, LLC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/14/1313975/-Rep-Phil-Gingrey-warns-you-might-get-Ebola-from-immigrants [with comments]
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The Crisis of Children at the Border
By Charles M. Blow
JULY 9, 2014
The humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied minors from Central America arriving at our Southwest border has brought out the worst in some of our politicians.
The amount of double-speak coming from fork-tongued conservatives on this issue is sickening. It wraps faux-concern around unwavering, and even emboldened, anti-immigrant, border-militarization rhetoric.
On his show this week, Sean Hannity interviewed Senator Ted Cruz. Hannity ended one statement by asking:
“This is getting out of hand, all because the government refuses to send people home. I’m not sure why we refuse to enforce our laws.”
Cruz responded:
“Sean, it’s a terrific question. What is happening with these children is heartbreaking. And, the president is right that it’s a humanitarian crisis, but it is a crisis of his own creation. This is the direct consequence of President Obama’s lawlessness.”
One of the things Cruz pointed out as Obama’s “lawlessness” was a 2012 executive order that allows Dream Act-eligible students to be taken out of the deportation process and granted work permits.
As then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/obama-immigration-order-deportation-dream-act_n_1599658.html ] said at the time:
“This grant of deferred action is not immunity… It is not amnesty. It is an exercise of discretion so that these young people are not in the removal system. It will help us to continue to streamline immigration enforcement and ensure that resources are not spent pursuing the removal of low-priority cases involving productive young people.”
But amnesty is precisely what conservatives called it, and they were — and remain — furious about it. So, they are using this crisis to hammer the president, and Democrats in general, on immigration policy
Furthermore, they basically argue that because the administration is enforcing the law, one signed by President George W. Bush and meant to protect children from human trafficking, the administration is encouraging more people from Central America to send their children here.
But one can’t call the president and his administration lawless on the one hand, then blame them for proper law enforcement on the other.
If Congress wants to change or tweak the law about unaccompanied minors arriving in this country — and many conservatives are itching to do so — it can, but it would be creating a “solution” to a “problem” that Congress itself created.
To follow that line of reasoning, one must also accept the premise that the whole of a law designed to protect children arriving alone from dangerous parts of the world is not noble and humane. I reject that logic.
These are children we are talking about, not just numbers, not just data, not political pawns. And, although most may not meet the refugee threshold needed to stay in the United States, many may. How are we supposed to hold our heads high on humanitarian issues if, in our haste for a fix and our fixation on deterrence, we return even a few children to a place where their lives are in danger?
As the White House has put it, this is “an urgent humanitarian situation [ http://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/100000002932074/influx-of-illegal-unaccompanied-children-a-humanitarian-situatio.html ].”
According to Customs and Border Protection [ http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children ], 52,193 “unaccompanied alien children” were apprehended on the Southwest border of the United States from the beginning of the 2014 fiscal year through June (Oct. 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014). That was nearly twice the number apprehended during the same period in the last fiscal year.
And, as The New York Times reported last month:
“According to an internal draft Homeland Security document, officials recently revised their projections on unaccompanied minors. They now expect more than 90,000 in the 2014 fiscal year, an increase of nearly 20,000 from the previous projection.”
This surge [ http://www.dhs.gov/news/2014/06/02/statement-secretary-johnson-increased-influx-unaccompanied-immigrant-children-border ] is driven largely by children arriving [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/faces-of-an-immigration-system-overwhelmed-by-women-and-children.html ] from a few Central American countries. A United States Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Pew Research Center found:
“For example, many Guatemalan children come from rural areas, indicating they are probably seeking economic opportunities in the U.S. Salvadoran and Honduran children, on the other hand, come from extremely violent regions where they probably perceive the risk of traveling alone to the U.S. preferable to remaining at home.”
And the top municipalities by far are in Honduras, the murder capital of the world [ http://www.unodc.org/gsh/en/data.html ].
Ask yourself this: If in fact, these children were simply arriving due to the attraction of amnesty, why haven’t we seen the same surge from other nations, including other countries south of us, like Mexico
Many of these children are not safe at home or on the run. There are no easy answers for them and their families, no safe happy places where childhood innocence is protected.
To be sure, sending an unaccompanied child, alone, with a “coyote,” for a treacherous trip hundreds of miles long, is not safe. The children are vulnerable to all manner of mistreatment, and may in fact not even make it.
But that is precisely why we must treat the children who do arrive with compassion. Children aren’t caught up in the politics of this. They are just doing as they’re told, many no doubt shadowed by fear, moving surreptitiously through unknown lands toward the dream of a brighter tomorrow. They dream as any child dreams — of happiness and horrors.
And their parents are no doubt like any parents, forced to make the most wrenching of decisions, sometimes about whether to leave a child in a never-ending hell or have them risk a hellish journey to a better place.
No parent makes such a choice lightly.
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/opinion/charles-blow-the-crisis-of-children-at-the-border.html [with comments]
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Central American Minors Seek Refuge in the US: A Crisis of Children as Targets of War
07/12/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anita-sinha/central-american-minors-child-migrants_b_5579904.html [no comments yet]
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‘The Buck Stops With Me’
Boehner’s Empty Charge Against Obama
By Charles M. Blow
JULY 13, 2014
In trying to lay the blame for the border crisis on the White House’s doorstep, House Speaker John Boehner exploded at a press conference on Thursday, saying [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/07/10/boehner-gop-will-not-give-the-president-a-blank-check-to-fix-immigration-crisis ] of the president:
“He’s been president for five and a half years! When is he going to take responsibility for something?”
The suggestion in the question — that the president doesn’t take responsibility for anything — is so outrageously untrue that it demands strong rebuttal.
President Obama hasn’t taken all the blame Republicans have ascribed to him, nor should he have. But he has often been quick to take responsibility.
In 2009, after the administration came under fire for A.I.G. executives’ receiving bonuses after the bailout, Obama said [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-upon-departure ] on the lawn of the White House:
“Ultimately I’m responsible. I’m the president of the United States. We’ve got a big mess that we’re having to clean up. Nobody here drafted those contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising A.I.G. and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in. We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me.”
After the failed bombing plot on Christmas Day in 2009 by a young Nigerian man with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear, the president took responsibility [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31259.html ] for intelligence lapses, saying the next month:
“Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me.”
In a 2011 interview [ http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/16/pres-obama-ultimately-the-buck-stops-with-me-im-going-to-be-account ] with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the president took responsibility for the economy and the rate at which it was being repaired, saying:
“Well, here’s what I remember, is that when I came into office, I knew I was going to have a big mess to clean up and, frankly, the mess has been bigger than I think a lot of people anticipated at the time. We have made steady progress on these fronts, but we’re not making progress fast enough.
“And what I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I’m going to be accountable. I think people understand that a lot of these problems were decades in the making. People understand that this financial crisis was the worst since the Great Depression. But, ultimately, they say, look, he’s the president, we think he has good intentions, but we’re impatient and we want to see things move faster.”
(It should be noted that this president has produced 45 straight months of job growth [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/why-you-don-t-know-obama-has-created-6-5-million-jobs.html ], and the June jobs report [ http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm ] released this month was particularly strong.)
In an interview [ http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/07/president-obama-says-romney-should-answer-bain-capital-questions-77842.html ] in the 2012 election cycle, the president reiterated his philosophy about presidential responsibility in response to a question about Mitt Romney’s relationship to Bain Capital:
“Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility, and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and, you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.”
In a 2013 interview [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/08/23/obama_on_washington_gridlock_the_buck_stops_with_me.html ] with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the president said he was accountable for Washington gridlock:
“Well, look, ultimately, the buck stops with me. And so any time we are not moving forward on things that should be simple, I get frustrated.”
In an interview [ http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/07/obama-walks-away-from-sebelius-claims-buck-stops-with-me-video/ ] with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd after the health care rollout, the president took responsibility for the problems rather than simply pin them on Kathleen Sebelius, then the health and human services secretary, saying: “My priority right now is to get it fixed. ... Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I’m the president. This is my team. If it is not working, it is my job to get it fixed.”
(The site is now fixed, the law is working, and according to a Gallup report issued Thursday the uninsured rate has dropped to “the lowest quarterly average recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008.”)
This president is a habitual blame-taker. This is the anti-George W. Bush. The fess-upper in chief. He is the antidote to the eight previous years of obfuscation, fault-dodging and flat-out denial.
This is one of the traits that made Obama an attractive candidate, and it is one of his best traits as a president.
But taking his share of responsibility does not mean he must acquiesce to his opponents and absolve them of guilt, particularly not an intransigent Congress that would rather do nothing than something, particularly not Republican leaders who envision opportunity in opposition. The president has a duty to himself and the country to call them out for the part they play in our problems.
The real question, Mr. Boehner, is not when the president will take personal responsibility for something. He has. Many times. The real question is, When will you?
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/opinion/charles-blow-boehners-empty-charge-against-obama.html [with comments]
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Obama Administration Rallies Governors' Support On Immigrant Kids
07/13/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/13/obama-governors-immigrant-kids_n_5582986.html [with comments]
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Border Crisis: A Defining Moment of Who We Are as a Nation
07/14/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/border-crisis-a-defining-_b_5585008.html [with comments]
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Suffer the Children
07/14/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-danziger/border-children-immigration_b_5582992.html [with comments]
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Trapped on the Border
I came to Texas to document the crisis of undocumented immigrants. Now I’m stuck.
By JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS
July 11, 2014
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/07/texas-border-trapped-108826.html [with comments]
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Jose Antonio Vargas Released From Border Patrol Custody
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
by Igor Bobic
Posted: 07/15/2014 6:04 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 11:59 am EDT
Jose Antonio Vargas, the nation's most prominent undocumented immigrant, was released from U.S. Border Patrol custody on Tuesday. He had been detained for several hours [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/jose-antonio-vargas-detai_n_5587763.html ] after attempting to board a flight in the small border town of McAllen, Texas.
"I’ve been released by Border Patrol. I want to thank everyone who stands by me and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country," he said in a statement. "Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family. With Congress failing to act on immigration reform, and President Obama weighing his options on executive action, the critical question remains: how do we define American?"
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a former HuffPost editor, flew to the border last week to interview and film undocumented immigrants who have fled their home countries in Central America due to escalating violence. But what he didn't know is that in order to leave McAllen, he would need to pass through an interior U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.
A TSA agent at the McAllen-Miller Airport initially cleared Vargas' Philippines-issued passport when he attempted to board a flight Tuesday morning. He was placed into custody soon after, however, when he couldn't produce a U.S. visa at the request of a border patrol agent.
"Do you have your visa?" the agent asked, according to audio of the exchange.
"No, there's no visa," Vargas replied.
The agent then placed him in handcuffs and escorted him to the McAllen Border Patrol station for further questioning.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Vargas was processed at the McAllen Border Patrol station, provided with a notice to appear before an immigration judge, and ultimately released after consultation with ICE.
"Mr. Vargas has not previously been arrested by ICE nor has the agency ever issued a detainer on him or encountered him," DHS said in a statement. "ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the agency’s resources to promote border security and to identify and remove criminal individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security."
A call to Vargas about the incident was not immediately returned.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to comment on Vargas' detention during the daily White House briefing on Tuesday. But several politicians, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), called for his release [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/bill-de-blasio-jose-vargas_n_5589021.html ] Tuesday afternoon.
The McAllen incident is not the first time Vargas has been detained by authorities over his undocumented status. In 2012, Minnesota State Police officers stopped Vargas while he was driving down a highway outside Minneapolis because he was driving with headphones on. He was taken to a county jail where he was questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but no immigration charges were filed against him.
“Mr. Vargas was not arrested by ICE nor did the agency issue a detainer,” said Gillian Christensen, an agency spokeswoman, according to The New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/us/no-immigration-charges-filed-against-jose-antonio-vargas-in-traffic-stop.html ]. “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/jose-antonio-vargas-relea_n_5589506.html [with comments]
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Tomgram: Todd Miller, Bill of Rights Rollback in the U.S. Borderlands
Posted at 8:14am, July 15, 2014
[Note: TD regular [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175834/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_the_creation_of_a_border_security_state/ ] Todd Miller [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/toddmiller/ ] is back with another hair-raising tale from America’s borderlands and since it focuses on our increasingly un-Constitutional governance, I decided to ask State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/petervanburen/ ], now embarked [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/ ] on a series of TD pieces about the tearing up of the Bill of Rights, to do the introduction. ... Tom]
You're not in the United States. Oh sure, look around at the fog lifting over the New England countryside or the diamond deserts of Arizona, but this land isn't your land, not anymore. It’s a place controlled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and your constitutional rights do not apply on their territory. CBP can, and does, detain Americans, search them without warrant, and physically mistreat them in what has become, for our 9/11 sins, a Post-Constitutional legal purgatory. You are neither outside their grasp in a foreign land, nor protected from them by being inside America.
The concept [ http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1075.pdf ] that the Constitution does not apply at America's borders is not new, particularly in relation to Fourth Amendment [ http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html ] protections against search and seizure. (In this context, “seizure” often takes the form of detention [ http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-rights/search-and-seizure-and-the-fourth-amendment.html ], as well as the more traditional concept of taking physical possessions away.) Once upon a time, the idea was that the United States should be able to protect itself by examining people entering the country. Thus, routine border seizures and searches without warrants are constitutionally “reasonable.” Fair enough. The basic rules, in fact, go back to 1789 [ http://law.onecle.com/constitution/amendment-04/18-border-searches.html ].
But the fairness of the old rules no longer applies, particularly in the face of a constantly metastasizing CBP, anxious to expand its place in the already expansive Homeland Security ecosystem. On its website, CBP boasts of making 1,100 arrests [ http://www.cbp.gov/about ] a day as, in its own words, the “guardians [id.]” of America. Do the math: that's 401,500 a year, and those arrests are not limited to dangerous foreigners. Americans who hold certain beliefs and affiliations are swept up as well, whether they are prominent journalists [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras ], activists [ http://www.salon.com/2010/11/09/manning_2/ ], or simply (as in today's piece) angry spouses of men beaten nearly to death by CBP agents. The agency now insists that its jurisdiction does not end at the physical border, the line on the map that separates say the United States from Mexico, but extends 100 miles inland.
Building on his successful new book, Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319 , http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319#reader_0872866319 ], TomDispatch regular Todd Miller brings us more examples of CBP lawlessness and brutality, while asking crucial questions about its larger meaning to our nation. Get ready to be scared. If you live near the border, cross the border after a trip abroad, or attract the attention of roving CBP patrols in New England or Arizona within 100 miles of the line, this land belongs not to you and me, but in Post-Constitutional America [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/ ], increasingly to our so-called guardians. Peter Van Buren
*
Border Wars in the Homeland
"Stop Stepping on the Pictures"
By Todd Miller
July 15, 2014
Shena Gutierrez was already cuffed and in an inspection room in Nogales, Arizona, when the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent grabbed her purse, opened it, and dumped its contents onto the floor right in front of her. There couldn’t be a sharper image of the Bill of Rights rollback we are experiencing in the U.S. borderlands in the post-9/11 era.
Tumbling out of that purse came Gutierrez’s life: photos of her kids, business cards, credit cards, and other papers, all now open to the official scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security. There were also photographs of her husband, Jose Gutierrez Guzman, whom CBP agents beat so badly in 2011 that he suffered permanent brain damage. The supervisory agent, whose name badge on his blue uniform read “Gomez,” now began to trample on her life, quite literally, with his black boots.
“Please stop stepping on the pictures,” Shena asked him.
A U.S. citizen, unlike her husband, she had been returning from a 48-hour vigil against Border Patrol violence in Mexico and was wearing a shirt that said “Stop Border Patrol Brutality” when she was aggressively questioned and cuffed at the CBP’s “port of entry” in Nogales on that hot day in May. She had no doubt that Gomez was stepping all over the contents of her purse in response to her shirt, the evidence of her activism.
Perhaps what bothered Gomez was the photo silkscreened onto that shirt -- of her husband during his hospitalization. It showed the aftermath of a beating he received from CBP agents. His head had a partially caved-in look because doctors had removed part of his skull. Over his chest and arms were bruises from Tasering. One tooth was out of place, and he had two black eyes. Although you couldn’t see them in the photo, two heavily armed Homeland Security agents were then guarding his hospital door to prevent the father of two, formerly a sound technician and the lead singer of a popular band in Los Angeles, from escaping -- even in his comatose state.
Jose Gutierrez Guzman's has become an ever more common story in an American age of mass expulsions. Although he had grown up in the United States (without papers), he was born in Mexico. After receiving a letter requesting his appearance, he went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Los Angeles and was promptly arrested and deported. Customs and Border Protection agents later caught him crossing the border in San Luis, Arizona, near Yuma, in an attempt to reunite with his wife and children.
“Stop... stepping... on... the... pictures,” Shena insisted.
As she tells the story, Agent Gomez looked at her shirt for a second, then looked up at her and said, “You have that mentality about us. You think we go around abusing.” His tone remained faux-friendly, but his boots didn’t -- and neither did those cuffs another CBP agent had put on her. Forcing her hands behind her back, they cut uncomfortably into her wrists. They would leave deep red circular marks.
On display was a post-9/11 world in which the usual rights meant to protect Americans from unreasonable search and seizure and unwanted, as well as unwarranted, interrogation were up for grabs.
While such constitutionally questionable intrusions into people’s privacy have been increasing at border crossings in the post-9/11 years, this type of hardline border policing has also moved inland. In other words, the sort of intrusions that once would have qualified as unconstitutional have moved in startling numbers into the interior of the country.
Imagine the once thin borderline of the American past as an ever-thickening band, now extending 100 miles inland around the United States -- along the 2,000-mile southern border, the 4,000-mile northern border, and both coasts -- and you will be able to visualize how vast the CBP’s jurisdiction has become. This “border” region now covers places where two-thirds of the U.S. population (197.4 million people) live. The ACLU has come to call it a “constitution-free zone [ https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights-constitution-free-zone-map ].” The “border” has by now devoured the full states of Maine and Florida and much of Michigan.
In these vast domains, Homeland Security authorities can institute roving patrols with broad, extra-constitutional powers backed by national security, immigration enforcement, and drug interdiction mandates. There, the Border Patrol can set up traffic checkpoints and fly surveillance drones overhead with high-powered cameras and radar that can track your movements. Within 25 miles of the international boundary, CBP agents can enter a person’s private property without a warrant. In these areas, the Homeland Security state is anything but abstract. On any given day, it can stand between you and the grocery store.
“Border Patrol checkpoints and roving patrols are the physical world equivalent of the National Security Agency,” says attorney James Lyall of ACLU Arizona puts it. “They involve a massive dragnet and stopping and monitoring of innocent Americans without any suspicion of wrongdoing by increasingly abusive and unaccountable federal government agents.”
Before she was so unceremoniously stopped and held, Shena Gutierrez shared [ http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/052314_nogales_vigil/photos-nogales-border-vigil/ ] the story of her husband at that 48-hour vigil. It was another story of the kind of pervasive abuse reported by people in the 100-mile zone. There were no cameras that night to record how 11 agents “subdued” Jose Gutierrez Guzman, as the CBP put it in its official report on the incident. Its claim: that Jose “struck his head on the ground,” a way perhaps of accounting for the hospital’s eventual diagnosis of “blunt force trauma.”
Considering the extent of Jose’s injuries, that CBP report is questionable indeed. Many Border Patrol agents now use the term “tonk [ http://books.google.com/books?id=5RYcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=todd+miller+tonk+border+patrol+nation&source=bl&ots=EXqgc2QMEP&sig=jOm97KDAm1B9Oauj5vKTBcbK2X0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pJa9U-XfJ4bwoAT1nYCoCA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=todd%20miller%20tonk ]” -- the sound a flashlight supposedly makes when it bangs against someone’s head -- as their way of describing border-crossers. Jose was also repeatedly “shot” with an “electronic control device,” aka a Taser. He was so badly beaten that, more than three years later, he still suffers seizures.
“Stop stepping on my pictures!” Gutierrez insisted again. But much like the CBP’s official complaint process, the words were ignored. The only thing Gomez eventually spat out was, “Are you going to get difficult?”
When Shena Gutierrez offered me a play-by-play account of her long day, including her five-hour detainment at the border, her voice ran a gamut of emotions from desperation to defiance. Perhaps these are the signature emotions of what State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren has dubbed the “Post-Constitutional Era.” We now live in a time when, as he writes [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175861/ ], “the government might as well have taken scissors to the original copy of the Constitution stored in the National Archives, then crumpled up the Fourth Amendment and tossed it in the garbage can.” The prototype for this new era, with all the potential for abuse it gives the authorities, can be found in that 100-mile zone.
A Standing Army
The zone first came into existence thanks to a series of laws passed by Congress in the 1940s [ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=413&invol=266 ] and 1950s [ http://legalactioncenter.org/sites/default/files/CBP%20100%20Mile%20Rule.pdf ] at a time when the Border Patrol was just an afterthought with a miniscule budget and only 1,100 agents. Today, Customs and Border Protection has more than 60,000 employees [ http://www.cbp.gov/about ] and is by far the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country. According to author and constitutional attorney John Whitehead, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created in 2002, is efficiently and ruthlessly building [ https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/has_the_dept_of_homeland_security_become_americas_standing_army ] “a standing army on American soil.”
Long ago, President James Madison warned [ http://books.google.com/books?id=TOV2qcsaY9MC&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=%E2%80%9Ca+standing+military+force+with+an+overgrown+Executive,+will+not+long+be+safe+companions+to+liberty%22&source=bl&ots=tK-Bz3UaIg&sig=X0EdsxJD2BcPH9Jq6-Bwe1qbbq0&hl=en&sa=X&ei= ] that “a standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty.” With its 240,000 employees and $61 billion budget, the DHS, Whitehead points out [ https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/has_the_dept_of_homeland_security_become_americas_standing_army ], is militarizing police units, stockpiling ammunition, spying on activists, and building detention centers, among many other things. CBP is the uniformed and most visible component of this “standing army.” It practically has its own air force and navy, an Office of Air and Marine equipped [ http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/air-sea ] with 280 sea vessels, 250 aircraft, and 1,200 agents.
On the border, never before have there been so many miles of walls and barriers, or such an array of sophisticated cameras capable of operating at night as well as in the daylight. Motion sensors, radar systems, and cameras mounted on towers, as well as those drones, all feed their information into operational control rooms throughout the borderlands. There, agents can surveil activity over large stretches of territory on sophisticated (and expensive) video walls. This expanding border enforcement regime is now moving into the 100-mile zone.
Such technological capability also involves the warehousing of staggering amounts of personal information in the digital databases that have ushered in the Post-Constitutional Era. “What does all this mean in terms of the Fourth Amendment?” Van Buren asks [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175861/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_what_we%27ve_lost_since_9_11_%28part_2%29/ ]. “It’s simple: the technological and human factors that constrained the gathering and processing of data in the past are fast disappearing.”
The border, in the post 9/11 years, has also become a place where military manufacturers, eyeing a market in an “unprecedented boom period [ http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/border-security-market-outlook-2014-2024-259211881.html ],” are repurposing [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175723/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_surveillance_surge_on_the_border/ ] their wartime technologies for the Homeland Security mission. This “bring the battlefield to the border” posture [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175552/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_fortress_usa/ ] has created an unprecedented enforcement, incarceration, and expulsion machine aimed at the foreign-born (or often simply foreign-looking). The sweep is reminiscent of the operation that forced Japanese (a majority of them citizens) into internment camps during World War II, but on a scale never before seen in this country. With it, unsurprisingly, has come a wave of complaints [ http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/ ] about physical and verbal abuse by Homeland Security agents, as well as tales of inadequate food and medical attention to undocumented immigrants in short-term detention.
The result is a permanent, low-intensity state of exception that makes the expanding borderlands a ripe place to experiment with tearing apart the Constitution, a place where not just undocumented border-crossers, but millions of borderland residents have become the targets of continual surveillance. If you don’t see the Border Patrol’s ever-expanding forces in places like New York City (although CBP agents are certainly present at its airports and seaports), you can see them pulling people over these days in plenty of other spots in that Constitution-free zone where they hadn’t previously had a presence.
They are, for instance, in cities like Rochester, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania, as well as in Washington State, Vermont, Florida, and at all international airports. Homeland Security officials are scrutinizing people’s belongings, including their electronic devices, from sea to shining sea. Just ask Pascal Abidor, an Islamic studies doctoral student whose computer was turned on by CBP agents in Champlain, New York.
When an agent saw that he had a picture of a Hezbollah rally, she asked Abidor, a U.S. citizen, “What is this stuff?” His answer -- that he was studying the modern history of the Shiites -- meant nothing to her and his computer was seized [ https://www.aclu.org/free-speech-technology-and-liberty/abidor-v-napolitano ] for 10 days. Between 2008 and 2010, the CBP searched [ https://www.aclu.org/national-security/government-data-about-searches-international-travelers-laptops-and-personal-electr ] the electronic devices of more than 6,500 people. Like many of us, Abidor keeps everything, even his most private and intimate conversations with his girlfriend, on his computer. Now, it’s private no longer.
Despite all this, the message politicians and the media generally offer is that the country needs more agents, new techno-gadgets, and even more walls for our “safety.” In that context, President Obama on July 7th asked Congress for an additional $3.7 billion [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/us/obama-seeks-billions-for-children-immigration-crisis.html ] for “border security.”
Since last October, in what officials have called a “humanitarian crisis,” 52,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Central America, have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents. News about and photos [ http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/06/19/16874/as-more-unaccompanied-minors-arrive-some-family-re/ ] of some of those children, including toddlers, parentless and incarcerated in warehouses in the Southwest, have led to a flood of articles, many claiming that border security is “strained [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/us/poverty-and-violence-push-new-wave-of-migrants-toward-us.html ].” A Border Patrol Union representative typically claimed [ http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/06/18/Border-Patrol-Official-Border-Most-Porous-That-Its-Ever-Been-Fed-Numbers-Inaccurate ] that the border is “more porous than it’s ever been.” While such claims are ludicrous, all signs point to more money being packed aboard what Whitehead has called a “runaway train.”
Make no bones about it, every dollar spent this way works not just to keep others out of this country, but to lock American citizens into a border zone that may soon encompass the whole country. It also fortifies our new domestic “standing military force” and its rollback of the Bill of Rights.
Resistance Inside the 100-Mile Zone
The first thing Cynthia (a pseudonym) asks the supervisory agent with the green Border Patrol hat and wrap-around sunglasses who stops her car is: “Can I have your name and agent number please?” She’s been halted at a checkpoint approximately 25 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border on a road running east-west-running near the small town of Arivaca, Arizona, where she lives.
The agent pauses. He looks like he’s swallowed a hornet before he barks, “We ask the questions here first, okay? Do you have some ID on you?”
This starts a tense exchange between the two of them that she videotaped [ http://vimeo.com/92093104 ] in its entirety. She is only one of many challenging the omnipresence and activities of the Border Patrol in the heart of the 100-mile zone. Like many locals in Arivaca, she is sick of the checkpoint, which has been there for seven years. She and her neighbors were fed up with the obligatory stop between their small town and the dentist or the nearest bookstore. They were tired of Homeland Security agents scrutinizing their children on their way to school. So they began to organize [ http://phparivaca.org/?page_id=7 ].
In late 2013, they demanded that the federal government remove the checkpoint. It was, they wrote in a petition [ https://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-border-patrol-remove-the-check-point-on-arivaca-rd-in-amado-az-quite-el-ret%C3%A9n-de-la-carretera-de-arivaca-en-amado-az ], an ugly artifact of border militarization; it had, they added, a negative economic impact on residents and infringed on people’s constitutional rights. At the beginning of 2014, small groups from People Helping People in the Border Zone -- the name of their organization -- started monitoring [ http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/022714_arivaca_observers/observers-tracking-border-patrol-stops-arivaca-checkpoint/ ] the checkpoint several days a week.
This Arivaca Border Patrol road barricade, one of at least 71 in the southwest, functions as a de facto enforcement zone away from the border. In Border Patrolese [ http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/bp_checkpoints_2.pdf ], it’s “an additional layer in our Defense in Depth strategy.” This particular checkpoint isn’t exactly impressive -- just a portable trailer with an attached tarp for shade, but it still qualifies, according to one of the Patrol’s informational brochures [id.], as “a critical enforcement tool for securing the nation’s borders against all threats to our homeland.”
The agents manning it stop every car on the road, do a quick visual check of its interior, and ask the driver and passengers their citizenship. There are also dogs available to sniff each car for traces of drugs or explosives. “Our enforcement presence along these strategic routes reduces the ability of criminals and potential terrorists to easily travel away from the border,” the brochure explains.
The Homeland Security surveillance gaze in the Southwest is, in fact, so pervasive that it has even nabbed [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333570/Willie-Nelson-arrested-marijuana-possession-Texas-Border-Patrol-checkpoint.html ] singer Willy Nelson in Texas for marijuana possession. It detained [ http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/border-patrol-detains-former-arizona-gov-castro-after-radiation-alarm/article_f9517e5f-d600-53bb-9e13-d8de6d0d1e68.html ] 96-year-old former Arizona governor Raul Castro and made him stand in 100-degree heat for more than 30 minutes because a dog detected the radiation from his pacemaker. In the past three years in the Tucson sector, the Patrol has made more than 6,000 arrests [ http://archive.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/10113693 ] and confiscated 135,000 pounds of narcotics at checkpoints.
But this is no longer just a matter of inland areas near the Mexican Border. A Border Patrol agent forced [ http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=78415.0;wap2 ] Vermont’s senior senator Patrick Leahy from his car at a checkpoint 125 miles south of the New York State border. The ACLU of Vermont unearthed [ https://acluvt.org/blog/2013/09/24/border-checkpoints-that-arent-at-the-border/ ] a prototype plan for CBP to operate checkpoints to stop southbound traffic on all five highways through that New England border state.
On Sunday afternoons in Sodus, New York, about 30 miles east of Rochester, green-striped Border Patrol vehicles can sometimes be found [ https://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/25/post-911-sodus-us-canadian-border-display ] parked in front of a laundromat which farmworkers (many undocumented) use. In Erie, Pennsylvania, agents wait [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgAdhu7pEA (next below)]
Or perhaps it is simply the color of your skin. Arrest records [ http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/NYCLU_justicederailedweb_0.pdf ] from both bus terminals and railway stations in Rochester, New York, show that of the 2,776 arrests agents made between 2005 and 2009, 71.2% were of “medium” complexion (likely of Latino or Arab background) and 12.9% “black.” Only 0.9% of those arrested were of “fair” complexion.
Back in Arivaca, the agent with the wraparound sunglasses tells Cynthia that she needs to get out of her car. Much like Senator Leahy, she responds that she doesn’t “understand why.”
“You don’t have to understand,” he says. “It’s for my safety. And yours. Do you understand that?”
Then his tone gains an angry edge. He clearly doesn’t like having his authority challenged. “We don’t have time for this. We have criminals here, okay? If you have a political or an emotional situation here” -- he makes an emphatic chopping motion with his hand -- “I don’t want to hear about it. I want to see your ID.” He pauses. “Now!”
The adrenaline is obviously pumping and he is about to edge up on the limits of what an agent can do, even with extra-constitutional powers. He thrusts his hand through the open window and into the car and unlocks it. With a yank, he pulls the door open from the inside. When Cynthia is out of the car, he asks, his voice rising, “What do you think we’re looking for here?”
“I don’t know,” Cynthia responds.
“That’s where I’m gonna educate you a little bit. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says.
“What happens through this checkpoint is that we catch smugglers of aliens, smugglers of drugs, child molesters, murderers, and everything else. Okay? Does that make sense?”
This rural area of Arizona, he insists as they stand under a vast cloudless blue sky, is infested with bandits, criminals, and drug dealers. “We have methamphetamine being made and manufactured,” the agent explains. “Do you think methamphetamine is a good thing?”
“Personally, no,” she says.
“Personally, I don’t think so either. I think they’re poisoning our world, okay? So when we ask you just to do something simple, like uncover something, do it! It’s a relief for us that it’s not something dangerous or something else.” By now, the agent is making the full-blown case for Homeland Security’s rollback of the Bill of Rights: the world’s a dangerous place, too dangerous for us not to have a free hand searching wherever we want whenever we want -- and it’s your job to understand that new twenty-first-century American reality. He ends with a final dig at her for her initial resistance: “You’re destroying your rights, because what happens is, is that the criminals take your rights away, okay? Not us. We’re here to protect you.”
According to the ACLU’s Lyall, the fact is that the abuses of Customs and Border Protection in that Constitution-free zone are “massively underreported” and “far more prevalent than anyone has been able to document.” Many people, according to him, are simply afraid to come forward; others don’t know their rights.
In Shena Gutierrez’s case, she returned to the same Nogales “port of entry” with two other activists to lodge a complaint about the purse incident. When she refused to leave federal property (for which she now faces [ http://www.kpfknews.org/_socal_border_activist_claims_abuse_at_arizona_border ] charges), the CBP arrested and detained her for hours. This time they did what she described as “an invasive body search.”
“I told them that I had not given my consent to be touched.” They nonetheless made her take off her wedding ring “for safety.” When she resisted, they said that they “would force it off her.” Again, the handcuffs cut into her wrists. This time, an agent kicked her in the ankle from behind. A female agent searched her thoroughly, from head to toe and in her private parts, because she “might have drugs or contraband or documents.”
As the agent groped her, she told me, she began to think yet again about what her husband had gone through. If this can happen to a U.S. citizen, she told me, “Imagine what happens to a person without documents.”
Imagine what can happen to anyone in a realm where, increasingly, anything goes, including the Constitution.
Todd Miller [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/toddmiller ], a TomDispatch regular, has researched and written about U.S.-Mexican border issues for more than 10 years. He now writes on border and immigration issues for NACLA Report on the Americas [ http://nacla.org/ ] and its blog “Border Wars [ http://nacla.org/blog/border-wars ],” among other places. His first book is Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches From the Front Lines of Homeland Security [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319 , http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319#reader_0872866319 ]. You can follow him on twitter @memomiller and view more of his work at http://toddwmiller.wordpress.com/ .
Copyright 2014 Todd Miller
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175868/ [also, minus the introduction, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-miller/border-wars-in-the-homeland_b_5587592.html (with comments)]
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Reporter Baffled After TSA Agent Rejects His District Of Columbia ID, Demands To See Passport
By Ryan Grenoble
Posted: 07/15/2014 4:37 pm EDT Updated: 07/15/2014 4:59 pm EDT
It seems our nation's capital is giving TSA agents some difficulty.
A TSA agent at the Orlando International Airport demanded to see the passport of Justin Gray, a Washington, D.C., correspondent for central Florida's WFTV news. According to WFTV [ http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/orlando-tsa-agents-getting-geography-refresher/ngfmH/ ], the agent was not familiar with the District of Columbia, and therefore could not accept Gray's D.C. driver's license as a valid form of ID [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/statuses/487922546163986432 ]:
Justin Gray
@grayjustin
@TSA Agent in Orlando never heard of "District of Columbia." Demanded passport because he didn't believe my drivers license was from US!?
4:32 AM - 12 Jul 2014
Fortunately, Gray was able to pass through security, ultimately notifying the supervisor on duty [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/status/487973217026314240 ] of the odd problem.
According to a later tweet from Gray, the TSA has responded by showing every Orlando agent [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/status/488770195084025857 ] a picture of a D.C. license.
Perhaps surprisingly, this wasn't an isolated incident. In February, a TSA agent in Phoenix delayed a D.C. resident [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/tsa-drivers-license-airport-security_n_4874581.html ] because the traveler couldn't present a "state-issued" ID.
At the time, a TSA representative told The Huffington Post that licenses from Washington, D.C., should pose no problem for its agents: "A valid Washington, D.C., driver's license is an acceptable form of identification at all TSA checkpoints. When issues arise at the checkpoint, TSA officers work to make sure facts are gathered and quickly resolved to avoid future confusion."
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/tsa-agent-dc-license-passport_n_5588735.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Jon Stewart To Those Who Want To Deport Kids: 'What The F*&k Is Wrong With You'
07/16/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/the-daily-show-immigration-reform_n_5591910.html [with the segment ( http://www.hulu.com/watch/661751 {no comments yet}, original at http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/zrmf57/america-s-immigration-crisis---kids--edition {no comments yet}) embedded, and comments]
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You May Not Know About The First Chinese Americans, But You Should
This 1950 watercolor by artist Jake Lee depicts Chinese laborers laying the transcontinental railroad track through the Sierra Nevada mountains, a pivotal project in the development of America.
07/07/2014
[...]
These early accomplishments happened despite landmark barriers. Among them was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, "the nation's first-ever exclusionary immigration policy," Mirrer writes.
At its worst, the law took advantage of poor Chinese laborers, allowing them entry without naturalization. At its best, it treated Chinese Americans like criminals, demanding they register their identity with the government (the only other Americans subject to the rule were, in fact, criminals).
Even movie stars were subject to the law. Above, the government-issued identification card for Anna May Wong, the silent film actress. Starting in 1909, Chinese entering or residing in the U.S. were required to carry such ID at all times.
If it all sounds a little familiar -- calling to mind modern border state politics [ https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/court-places-limits-sheriff-arpaio-prevent-future-racial-profiling ] -- that's not by accident. ...
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/chinese-american-exhibit_n_5528081.html [with comments]
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Obama Tells Lawmakers He Won't Cave On Deportation Review
07/16/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/obama-deportation-review_n_5593514.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Bill O'Reilly Wants To Build A Berlin Wall On The Southern Border
By Katherine Fung
Posted: 07/17/2014 9:42 am EDT Updated: 07/17/2014 9:59 am EDT
The debate about how to fix America's immigration system is raging, but the solution, according to Bill O'Reilly, is simple.
He proposed on Wednesday night building something like the Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Because we all know how well the Berlin Wall went.)
"Nobody could get through that fence," O'Reilly said to Karl Rove. "Nobody. It was a formidable obstacle. The Israelis have done the same thing to keep out terrorism there. We haven't done that on the southern border. That's mistake number one."
(h/t Media Matters [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/07/16/foxs-oreilly-advocates-for-a-berlin-wall-style/200131 ])
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/bill-oreilly-border-wall_n_5594879.html [with embedded video, and comments]
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The best worst president ever
By Mark Morford [ http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/author/mark/ ]
Posted on Tuesday, July 8 at 6:16pm
“Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country,” declares the wealthy, rakish, silver-haired Newport Beach white guy to his small group of perfectly tanned 50-something females sitting just a few feet away from us at a stunning restaurant patio overlooking the sun-kissed California coastline, just off of Highway 1, as he sipped his pinot and adjusted his wraparound Ray Bans, flush from the economy’s spectacular recovery that has benefitted his exact demographic most of all, stroking his purebred dog and taking various selfies with their $500 phones, oblivious to the furious swirls of irony and hypocrisy fluttering just above their heads.
I laughed out loud. Couldn’t help it; I had just overheard Mr. Newport Beach say something about how Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster (despite how, of course, it’s not [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/17/fact-sheet-affordable-care-act-numbers ]), and if America were to somehow actually develop a health care system similar to, say, Canada’s, that would be the end of America for certain; we’d never recover from such a devastating blow. Or something. And then came the “worst thing to ever happen” quip, and I couldn’t hold back.
They didn’t hear me, of course; the orgasmic thrum of their perfect lives drowned out my chuckle, and as I turned and looked at this beautifully entitled, happy crew from my vantage point only a few feet away but a million light years in perspective, we all shared one of the most spectacular, envied locales in the world and all of us sipped superb regional grape and not a single one of us suffered the slightest personal, social or economic indignity, every first-world need instantly met, every crab cake perfectly formed, the sunshine as flawless as Jesus on toast and no lines at the restroom and lots of free parking for his Lexus SUV.
A few thoughts struck me, all at once. The first was how nice this group all seemed – and of course they probably were – and I imagine if we had all had met under different circumstances and been chatting about, say, the weather or the soul-exploding coastline, I’m sure we would have been fast, easy friends – noting that, if we wanted to remain that way, we’d never talk about politics. Or religion.
Even so, I desperately wanted to ask Mr. Newport Beach what his stock portfolio looked like a mere six or seven years ago, when Bush & Co. ravaged the country and led us into one of the deepest, most brutal social and economic pits in modern history. Did he lose half his net worth? More? Was he worried he couldn’t feed his family or pay his mortgage? Did he lose his house? His job? Did he blame Bush? Clinton? Islam? The gays?
And by the way, how does he like the recovery so far? Which of his three perfect, multimillion-dollar homes was he on his way to, right now?
I also wanted to know, when Bush/Cheney lied to the world, openly violated the tragedy of 9/11 and invaded Iraq, killing tens of thousands, was he furious? What about now, when even Fox News is calling out Cheney and declaring Iraq invasion a colossal mistake, a lie from which we’re still unable to extricate ourselves?
Nevertheless, Obama ended Bush’s disastrous war, just like he said he would, on time and under budget. Does it matter?
And what of Newport’s female companions? I wonder if he knows that upwards of 99 percent of sexually active women have used some form of contraception. Is he in line with the GOP’s recent spate of nasty misogyny and anti-abortion spew? What about the awful SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, further bashing women, and Obama’s immediate moves to defend women’s rights? Is he aware? I bet those women are. Or surely, their daughters [ http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/01/slut-shaming-for-the-righteous/ ].
And really, what about the stock market? The Dow dances around record highs, Wall Street snorts rails of finely chopped gold every day, the income gap between the 1% and everyone else [ http://www.salon.com/2014/07/06/the_god_that_sucked_how_the_tea_party_right_just_makes_the_1_percent_richer/ ] is more demeaning than ever and the banks haven’t fundamentally changed in the slightest. Why isn’t Mr. Newport Beach positively orgasmic about the Obama Administration’s generally wealth-favoring policies that made it all happen? Say what you like, but Obama managed to do what nearly all economists and pundits thought impossible back in 2008: reverse the ugliest, GOP-led social and economic tailspin in modern history, and make guys like Mr. Newport richer than ever.
My new friend looked good. Healthy. Fit. Good teeth, thick head of silver hair, that prostate cancer scare a couple years back easily nipped by a few wildly expensive treatments he never paid a dime for. Who did pay for his insurance? His company? Medicare? Did he have any idea what it was like not to be able to afford it, or be offered any in the first place?
I sipped my rosé, took a deep breath, enjoyed the magnificent landscape as one final, predominant thought swam into view: how? How can there be such a radical disconnect between Mr. Newport’s engorged portfolio, his fantastic insurance plan, low mortgage rate and grotesque corporate privilege – most of it born of the past six years – and Obama’s overall policy successes? Does he consider it all just a fluke [ http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-get-obama-reelected-2012-10 ]? Dumb luck? Is he drunk on Limbaugh and Fox News, unable to see actual facts?
Look here, Newport: Since Obama took office, corporate profits are way up [ http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2014/01/28/obama-economy/index.html ]. So is business investment, job growth (moderately [ http://www.jsonline.com/business/people-voluntarily-leaving-jobs-at-highest-rate-since-2009-downturn-b99303175z1-265866551.html ]), retail sales, manufacturing (well, barely). Want to buy another house? Interest rates are fantastic [ http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-interest-rates-20140706-story.html ]. The housing crisis has largely subsided, and home foreclosures are way down. Also, people are buying lots of new cars [ http://www.autonews.com/article/20140707/OEM01/140709885/detroit-3-to-shorten-eliminate-summer-break-at-some-plants ], and there’s a fully recovered auto industry ready to meet all demand.
Did he know federal discretionary spending is well below average? Or that the poverty rate has stabilized? And the stock market is, as mentioned, breaking records, benefitting rich white dudes more than ever?
Of course, it’s all pretty shaky. Flawed and imbalanced and could give out at any second – but that’s just the nature of the excruciatingly complex, unstable world economy these days. And while corporations are raking it in, workers are seeing less and less of their fair share. There are still myriad problems, and Obama’s policies are far from perfect. No party’s ever are. Regardless, given the impossible economic hell-pit Obama was left with, it’s unlikely any president could have possibly done better.
Clearly I’m missing something, a huge bed of terrifying data to prove all these respectable charts and graphs wrong. But where is it? I’ve heard Mr. Newport Beach’s bizarre lament a thousand times, but I’ve yet to see a solid batch of evidence that proves Obama’s outright failure, or the nation’s savage decline. I see a blip about food stamps, I see a few weak economic signs here and there, but mostly, since 2009, it all’s been somewhere between timidly and shockingly positive. Did God smite us for gay marriage? Did the abortion factories, death panels and Nazi Kenyan socialist brain-washing farms steal my very soul? Hard to tell with all this perfect sunshine in my eyes.
The bottom line seems obvious: Much to the GOP’s bitter revulsion, it turns out a calm, intellectual black man really can run an entire country – certainly far better than an inarticulate Texas bumbler, and even in the face of what is easily the most obstructionist, hateful, acidic and often downright racist Congress in modern memory. Quite an achievement, really.
It’s curious, no? The unmitigated hate for Obama comes from the right, but the real disappointment comes from the left. It’s we liberals who seem to have the most legitimate gripes with a man we all thought would be far more radical and revolutionary. From the NSA to drone warfare to a shocking lack of transparency, a shameless kowtowing to Wall Street, a lack of serious education reform and barely a blip about the environment (until very recently) – Obama has been a far more mixed bag for the left than anyone wants to admit.
But right now, that seems like quibbling. To hear Mr. Newport Beach tell it, my president is a downright monster. Who cares if he ended the war, saved the economy [ http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-get-obama-reelected-2012-10 ], restored America’s stature in the world, nailed Osama bin Laden, invested billions in clean energy, partially reformed what is still the most expensive, least effective health care system [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/06/16/once-again-u-s-has-most-expensive-least-effective-health-care-system-in-survey/ ] in the industrialized world, or made the rich even richer? The guy’s the worst thing to ever happen to America. I mean, obviously. Now who wants more wine?
© 2014 Hearst Communications, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/08/the-best-worst-president-ever/ [with comments (the concluding item next below courtesy of one of them)]
--
Anti-Christ UNVEILED: The Sun Rising in the West
Published on Mar 10, 2014 by theJonathanKleck [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3NFHqD3AAU90eqhI5XvOFA / http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJonathankleck , http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJonathankleck/videos ]
http://www.be4thefire.com
Revelation 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
Revelation 3:11 "Behold I AM (JESUS CHRIST) Coming Soon!" Hold Fast to what you have that no man take your crown."
Acts 2:11 "Whomsoever shall call upon the name of the LORD (JESUS CHRIST), shall be saved.
--
Our bodies are referred to as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, we are once again (through Christ's sacrifice) a habitable dwelling place for the Spirit of the Living God, a divine connection that had been cut-off since Adam & Eve in the Garden. Well, we all know Satan mimics the nature and character of God, thus, the passage from Daniel 9:27 says "and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation".
We would argue that this verse is talking about the Temple body becoming desolate, hacked into by Satan and his demons. Wherein the Mark of the Beast would ultimately unleash this dark potential within the human genome, with the spirit of fallen angels descending onto Earth, and Lucifer himself ultimately setting up residence in the flesh of the willing Antichrist: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." REVELATION 12:9
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LINKS referenced in Video
---------------------------------------
"Obama Satanic Cult Clone: The Renegade President"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zVHl5GPtTI
"The Ukraine Maserati Lady Gaga Connection: The Trident"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCpQczDtTIw
"Ye are of your Father the Devil: Lady Gaga Telegraphs NYC Destruction"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5xRB90grZE
"The Beast Inside - Destruction of the Temple"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BodYlU-J1aY
"The Birth Must Come - NWO Agenda BudLight 2014"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKbYQ2rggkc
"Barack Obama 2014 - It's a Trap!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSgjGdhysqQ
"Grammy Worship 2014 - Ye worship what ye know not"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3KoMDoedCM
"Allah 666 Abomination of Beyonce & Katy Perry"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SC4hvi3FvI
"2008 Prophecy Fulfilled: The Travail Begins" - Jonathan's prophetic utterance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B5cfBtEREA
All the False Flag Terror Events on the US$ - "For The Skeptics"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCy7kvXW12Y
"The Hidden Hand 1 - Shine Out The Darkness"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfNUnDh2TU
"Dead Sheep / Nike Shark Testimony - The Spirit That Worketh"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPcAtMgCXI
"The Hidden World Part I - DNA Infection"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEb9uvwQJH0
"2014 Biblical End Times - Finish the Race"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPcAtMgCXI
"The Satanic HIVE Mind Exposed"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpCKXS3HpY
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"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
1 PETER 5:8
"As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2 CORINTHIANS 4:18
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There are spiritual entities that are able control the human race, if you are not protected by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are a target whether you realize it or not. This video shows some real-world manifestations of these Spiritual Hosts of wickedness in high places, foul spirits who seek only to confuse and destroy mankind.
This is why we must receive a new SPIRIT from the Father, through Christ, the Holy Spirit- so that we can be protected from these pervasive and foul spirits that roam the Earth, seeking whom they can devour.
----------------------------------------------------------
"In which in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:"
EPHESIANS 2:2
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
EZEKIEL 36:26
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" For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
EPHESIANS 6:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFCQvvXSwx4 [with comments]
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34492312 and preceding and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34514208 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54078883 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56694192 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58568119 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70623908 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104256465 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104256646 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104257300 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104257530 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104263418 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104271609 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104273532 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104273690 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104275040 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104279413 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104279549 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104280804 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104287926 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104291685 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104292159 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104293342 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104295059 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104301261 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104310324 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104317832 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104319405 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333092 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333473 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104329580 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104345429 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333384 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334270 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334593 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334696 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104344934 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104348529 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104344934 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104357406 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104377035 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104378235 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104348139 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104417790 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104421591 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104422553 and preceding (and any future following)
Also, Hodor.
by Hunter
Mon Jul 14, 2014 at 02:06 PM PDT
Rep. Phil Gingrey wants you to know that all these immigrants nowadays are unclean. Unclean [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/07/phil-gingrey-migrant-ebola-vaccines ]!
Last week, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) wrote a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a dire warning: Some of the child refugees streaming across the southern border into the United States might carry deadly diseases. "Reports of illegal immigrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning," Gingrey wrote. "Many of the children who are coming across the border also lack basic vaccinations such as those to prevent chicken pox or measles."
This would be one of the operating principles behind the creepy and oft-openly racist anti-migrant protests in Murrieta, California [ http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-immigrants-murrieta-20140701-story.html ], and has since become a rallying cry of much of the skeeziest conservatives (Louie Gohmert has been all over [ http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/07/11/3456878/are-central-american-child-refugees-bringing-in-diseases/ ] this one, which I believe proves my point.) Also, putting Ebola in that mix is what we folks here in reality like to call a tell—of what, you can decide.
Now we get to the part where Phil Gingrey tuns out to have a rather curious stake in all this. You see, he's one of the people demanding Americans not vaccinate their kids.
Gingrey has long-standing ties to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a far-right medical group that opposes all mandatory vaccines. The organization touts access to Gingrey as one of its membership perks. (The AAPS has, incidentally, taken the lead in pushing the idea that migrant children are disease carriers.) In 2007, he wrote an amendment that would allow parents to block their children from receiving HPV vaccines, which are designed to combat cervical cancer.
All right, now that's just depressing.
Here's the thing, though: It turns out migrants are often better immunized than, say, Texans. This is because places like Guatamala do not have to contend with people like Phil Gingrey or Jenny McCarthy [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/11/migrant-kids-better-vaccinated-than-u-s-kids-but-fox-news-stokes-germ-fears-anyway/ ].
[A]s The Texas Observer‘s Rachel Pearson noted [ http://www.texasobserver.org/disease-threat-immigrant-children-wildly-overstated/ , in full the fourth item in the post to which this is a reply], children from Guatemala — where vaccines are provided free of charge by the government’s universal health care system — are more likely to be vaccinated against those diseases than children in Texas, where the rate of parents who “opt out” of vaccinations citing “reasons of conscience” has increased every year since 2003. [...]
According to the World Health Organization, there have been no reported cases of measles in Guatemala or Honduras since 1990, whereas anti-vaccination efforts in the United States have led to multiple outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So there you go. You're more likely to get measles from hanging out with Rep. Phil Gingrey's friends than from a Central American refugee. Probably more likely to get Ebola, too.
© Kos Media, LLC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/14/1313975/-Rep-Phil-Gingrey-warns-you-might-get-Ebola-from-immigrants [with comments]
--
The Crisis of Children at the Border
By Charles M. Blow
JULY 9, 2014
The humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied minors from Central America arriving at our Southwest border has brought out the worst in some of our politicians.
The amount of double-speak coming from fork-tongued conservatives on this issue is sickening. It wraps faux-concern around unwavering, and even emboldened, anti-immigrant, border-militarization rhetoric.
On his show this week, Sean Hannity interviewed Senator Ted Cruz. Hannity ended one statement by asking:
“This is getting out of hand, all because the government refuses to send people home. I’m not sure why we refuse to enforce our laws.”
Cruz responded:
“Sean, it’s a terrific question. What is happening with these children is heartbreaking. And, the president is right that it’s a humanitarian crisis, but it is a crisis of his own creation. This is the direct consequence of President Obama’s lawlessness.”
One of the things Cruz pointed out as Obama’s “lawlessness” was a 2012 executive order that allows Dream Act-eligible students to be taken out of the deportation process and granted work permits.
As then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/obama-immigration-order-deportation-dream-act_n_1599658.html ] said at the time:
“This grant of deferred action is not immunity… It is not amnesty. It is an exercise of discretion so that these young people are not in the removal system. It will help us to continue to streamline immigration enforcement and ensure that resources are not spent pursuing the removal of low-priority cases involving productive young people.”
But amnesty is precisely what conservatives called it, and they were — and remain — furious about it. So, they are using this crisis to hammer the president, and Democrats in general, on immigration policy
Furthermore, they basically argue that because the administration is enforcing the law, one signed by President George W. Bush and meant to protect children from human trafficking, the administration is encouraging more people from Central America to send their children here.
But one can’t call the president and his administration lawless on the one hand, then blame them for proper law enforcement on the other.
If Congress wants to change or tweak the law about unaccompanied minors arriving in this country — and many conservatives are itching to do so — it can, but it would be creating a “solution” to a “problem” that Congress itself created.
To follow that line of reasoning, one must also accept the premise that the whole of a law designed to protect children arriving alone from dangerous parts of the world is not noble and humane. I reject that logic.
These are children we are talking about, not just numbers, not just data, not political pawns. And, although most may not meet the refugee threshold needed to stay in the United States, many may. How are we supposed to hold our heads high on humanitarian issues if, in our haste for a fix and our fixation on deterrence, we return even a few children to a place where their lives are in danger?
As the White House has put it, this is “an urgent humanitarian situation [ http://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/100000002932074/influx-of-illegal-unaccompanied-children-a-humanitarian-situatio.html ].”
According to Customs and Border Protection [ http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children ], 52,193 “unaccompanied alien children” were apprehended on the Southwest border of the United States from the beginning of the 2014 fiscal year through June (Oct. 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014). That was nearly twice the number apprehended during the same period in the last fiscal year.
And, as The New York Times reported last month:
“According to an internal draft Homeland Security document, officials recently revised their projections on unaccompanied minors. They now expect more than 90,000 in the 2014 fiscal year, an increase of nearly 20,000 from the previous projection.”
This surge [ http://www.dhs.gov/news/2014/06/02/statement-secretary-johnson-increased-influx-unaccompanied-immigrant-children-border ] is driven largely by children arriving [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/faces-of-an-immigration-system-overwhelmed-by-women-and-children.html ] from a few Central American countries. A United States Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Pew Research Center found:
“For example, many Guatemalan children come from rural areas, indicating they are probably seeking economic opportunities in the U.S. Salvadoran and Honduran children, on the other hand, come from extremely violent regions where they probably perceive the risk of traveling alone to the U.S. preferable to remaining at home.”
And the top municipalities by far are in Honduras, the murder capital of the world [ http://www.unodc.org/gsh/en/data.html ].
Ask yourself this: If in fact, these children were simply arriving due to the attraction of amnesty, why haven’t we seen the same surge from other nations, including other countries south of us, like Mexico
Many of these children are not safe at home or on the run. There are no easy answers for them and their families, no safe happy places where childhood innocence is protected.
To be sure, sending an unaccompanied child, alone, with a “coyote,” for a treacherous trip hundreds of miles long, is not safe. The children are vulnerable to all manner of mistreatment, and may in fact not even make it.
But that is precisely why we must treat the children who do arrive with compassion. Children aren’t caught up in the politics of this. They are just doing as they’re told, many no doubt shadowed by fear, moving surreptitiously through unknown lands toward the dream of a brighter tomorrow. They dream as any child dreams — of happiness and horrors.
And their parents are no doubt like any parents, forced to make the most wrenching of decisions, sometimes about whether to leave a child in a never-ending hell or have them risk a hellish journey to a better place.
No parent makes such a choice lightly.
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/opinion/charles-blow-the-crisis-of-children-at-the-border.html [with comments]
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Central American Minors Seek Refuge in the US: A Crisis of Children as Targets of War
07/12/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anita-sinha/central-american-minors-child-migrants_b_5579904.html [no comments yet]
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‘The Buck Stops With Me’
Boehner’s Empty Charge Against Obama
By Charles M. Blow
JULY 13, 2014
In trying to lay the blame for the border crisis on the White House’s doorstep, House Speaker John Boehner exploded at a press conference on Thursday, saying [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/07/10/boehner-gop-will-not-give-the-president-a-blank-check-to-fix-immigration-crisis ] of the president:
“He’s been president for five and a half years! When is he going to take responsibility for something?”
The suggestion in the question — that the president doesn’t take responsibility for anything — is so outrageously untrue that it demands strong rebuttal.
President Obama hasn’t taken all the blame Republicans have ascribed to him, nor should he have. But he has often been quick to take responsibility.
In 2009, after the administration came under fire for A.I.G. executives’ receiving bonuses after the bailout, Obama said [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-upon-departure ] on the lawn of the White House:
“Ultimately I’m responsible. I’m the president of the United States. We’ve got a big mess that we’re having to clean up. Nobody here drafted those contracts. Nobody here was responsible for supervising A.I.G. and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in. We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me.”
After the failed bombing plot on Christmas Day in 2009 by a young Nigerian man with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear, the president took responsibility [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31259.html ] for intelligence lapses, saying the next month:
“Moreover, I am less interested in passing out blame than I am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. For ultimately, the buck stops with me.”
In a 2011 interview [ http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/16/pres-obama-ultimately-the-buck-stops-with-me-im-going-to-be-account ] with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the president took responsibility for the economy and the rate at which it was being repaired, saying:
“Well, here’s what I remember, is that when I came into office, I knew I was going to have a big mess to clean up and, frankly, the mess has been bigger than I think a lot of people anticipated at the time. We have made steady progress on these fronts, but we’re not making progress fast enough.
“And what I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I’m going to be accountable. I think people understand that a lot of these problems were decades in the making. People understand that this financial crisis was the worst since the Great Depression. But, ultimately, they say, look, he’s the president, we think he has good intentions, but we’re impatient and we want to see things move faster.”
(It should be noted that this president has produced 45 straight months of job growth [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/07/why-you-don-t-know-obama-has-created-6-5-million-jobs.html ], and the June jobs report [ http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm ] released this month was particularly strong.)
In an interview [ http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/07/president-obama-says-romney-should-answer-bain-capital-questions-77842.html ] in the 2012 election cycle, the president reiterated his philosophy about presidential responsibility in response to a question about Mitt Romney’s relationship to Bain Capital:
“Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility, and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and, you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.”
In a 2013 interview [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/08/23/obama_on_washington_gridlock_the_buck_stops_with_me.html ] with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the president said he was accountable for Washington gridlock:
“Well, look, ultimately, the buck stops with me. And so any time we are not moving forward on things that should be simple, I get frustrated.”
In an interview [ http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/07/obama-walks-away-from-sebelius-claims-buck-stops-with-me-video/ ] with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd after the health care rollout, the president took responsibility for the problems rather than simply pin them on Kathleen Sebelius, then the health and human services secretary, saying: “My priority right now is to get it fixed. ... Ultimately, the buck stops with me. I’m the president. This is my team. If it is not working, it is my job to get it fixed.”
(The site is now fixed, the law is working, and according to a Gallup report issued Thursday the uninsured rate has dropped to “the lowest quarterly average recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008.”)
This president is a habitual blame-taker. This is the anti-George W. Bush. The fess-upper in chief. He is the antidote to the eight previous years of obfuscation, fault-dodging and flat-out denial.
This is one of the traits that made Obama an attractive candidate, and it is one of his best traits as a president.
But taking his share of responsibility does not mean he must acquiesce to his opponents and absolve them of guilt, particularly not an intransigent Congress that would rather do nothing than something, particularly not Republican leaders who envision opportunity in opposition. The president has a duty to himself and the country to call them out for the part they play in our problems.
The real question, Mr. Boehner, is not when the president will take personal responsibility for something. He has. Many times. The real question is, When will you?
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/opinion/charles-blow-boehners-empty-charge-against-obama.html [with comments]
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Obama Administration Rallies Governors' Support On Immigrant Kids
07/13/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/13/obama-governors-immigrant-kids_n_5582986.html [with comments]
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Border Crisis: A Defining Moment of Who We Are as a Nation
07/14/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/border-crisis-a-defining-_b_5585008.html [with comments]
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Suffer the Children
07/14/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-danziger/border-children-immigration_b_5582992.html [with comments]
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Trapped on the Border
I came to Texas to document the crisis of undocumented immigrants. Now I’m stuck.
By JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS
July 11, 2014
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/07/texas-border-trapped-108826.html [with comments]
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Jose Antonio Vargas Released From Border Patrol Custody
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
by Igor Bobic
Posted: 07/15/2014 6:04 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 11:59 am EDT
Jose Antonio Vargas, the nation's most prominent undocumented immigrant, was released from U.S. Border Patrol custody on Tuesday. He had been detained for several hours [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/jose-antonio-vargas-detai_n_5587763.html ] after attempting to board a flight in the small border town of McAllen, Texas.
"I’ve been released by Border Patrol. I want to thank everyone who stands by me and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country," he said in a statement. "Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family. With Congress failing to act on immigration reform, and President Obama weighing his options on executive action, the critical question remains: how do we define American?"
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a former HuffPost editor, flew to the border last week to interview and film undocumented immigrants who have fled their home countries in Central America due to escalating violence. But what he didn't know is that in order to leave McAllen, he would need to pass through an interior U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.
A TSA agent at the McAllen-Miller Airport initially cleared Vargas' Philippines-issued passport when he attempted to board a flight Tuesday morning. He was placed into custody soon after, however, when he couldn't produce a U.S. visa at the request of a border patrol agent.
"Do you have your visa?" the agent asked, according to audio of the exchange.
"No, there's no visa," Vargas replied.
The agent then placed him in handcuffs and escorted him to the McAllen Border Patrol station for further questioning.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Vargas was processed at the McAllen Border Patrol station, provided with a notice to appear before an immigration judge, and ultimately released after consultation with ICE.
"Mr. Vargas has not previously been arrested by ICE nor has the agency ever issued a detainer on him or encountered him," DHS said in a statement. "ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the agency’s resources to promote border security and to identify and remove criminal individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security."
A call to Vargas about the incident was not immediately returned.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to comment on Vargas' detention during the daily White House briefing on Tuesday. But several politicians, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), called for his release [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/bill-de-blasio-jose-vargas_n_5589021.html ] Tuesday afternoon.
The McAllen incident is not the first time Vargas has been detained by authorities over his undocumented status. In 2012, Minnesota State Police officers stopped Vargas while he was driving down a highway outside Minneapolis because he was driving with headphones on. He was taken to a county jail where he was questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but no immigration charges were filed against him.
“Mr. Vargas was not arrested by ICE nor did the agency issue a detainer,” said Gillian Christensen, an agency spokeswoman, according to The New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/us/no-immigration-charges-filed-against-jose-antonio-vargas-in-traffic-stop.html ]. “ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of public safety threats, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States.”
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/jose-antonio-vargas-relea_n_5589506.html [with comments]
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Tomgram: Todd Miller, Bill of Rights Rollback in the U.S. Borderlands
Posted at 8:14am, July 15, 2014
[Note: TD regular [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175834/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_the_creation_of_a_border_security_state/ ] Todd Miller [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/toddmiller/ ] is back with another hair-raising tale from America’s borderlands and since it focuses on our increasingly un-Constitutional governance, I decided to ask State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/petervanburen/ ], now embarked [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/ ] on a series of TD pieces about the tearing up of the Bill of Rights, to do the introduction. ... Tom]
You're not in the United States. Oh sure, look around at the fog lifting over the New England countryside or the diamond deserts of Arizona, but this land isn't your land, not anymore. It’s a place controlled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and your constitutional rights do not apply on their territory. CBP can, and does, detain Americans, search them without warrant, and physically mistreat them in what has become, for our 9/11 sins, a Post-Constitutional legal purgatory. You are neither outside their grasp in a foreign land, nor protected from them by being inside America.
The concept [ http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/library/P1075.pdf ] that the Constitution does not apply at America's borders is not new, particularly in relation to Fourth Amendment [ http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html ] protections against search and seizure. (In this context, “seizure” often takes the form of detention [ http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-rights/search-and-seizure-and-the-fourth-amendment.html ], as well as the more traditional concept of taking physical possessions away.) Once upon a time, the idea was that the United States should be able to protect itself by examining people entering the country. Thus, routine border seizures and searches without warrants are constitutionally “reasonable.” Fair enough. The basic rules, in fact, go back to 1789 [ http://law.onecle.com/constitution/amendment-04/18-border-searches.html ].
But the fairness of the old rules no longer applies, particularly in the face of a constantly metastasizing CBP, anxious to expand its place in the already expansive Homeland Security ecosystem. On its website, CBP boasts of making 1,100 arrests [ http://www.cbp.gov/about ] a day as, in its own words, the “guardians [id.]” of America. Do the math: that's 401,500 a year, and those arrests are not limited to dangerous foreigners. Americans who hold certain beliefs and affiliations are swept up as well, whether they are prominent journalists [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras ], activists [ http://www.salon.com/2010/11/09/manning_2/ ], or simply (as in today's piece) angry spouses of men beaten nearly to death by CBP agents. The agency now insists that its jurisdiction does not end at the physical border, the line on the map that separates say the United States from Mexico, but extends 100 miles inland.
Building on his successful new book, Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319 , http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319#reader_0872866319 ], TomDispatch regular Todd Miller brings us more examples of CBP lawlessness and brutality, while asking crucial questions about its larger meaning to our nation. Get ready to be scared. If you live near the border, cross the border after a trip abroad, or attract the attention of roving CBP patrols in New England or Arizona within 100 miles of the line, this land belongs not to you and me, but in Post-Constitutional America [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175856/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_rip,_the_bill_of_rights/ ], increasingly to our so-called guardians. Peter Van Buren
*
Border Wars in the Homeland
"Stop Stepping on the Pictures"
By Todd Miller
July 15, 2014
Shena Gutierrez was already cuffed and in an inspection room in Nogales, Arizona, when the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent grabbed her purse, opened it, and dumped its contents onto the floor right in front of her. There couldn’t be a sharper image of the Bill of Rights rollback we are experiencing in the U.S. borderlands in the post-9/11 era.
Tumbling out of that purse came Gutierrez’s life: photos of her kids, business cards, credit cards, and other papers, all now open to the official scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security. There were also photographs of her husband, Jose Gutierrez Guzman, whom CBP agents beat so badly in 2011 that he suffered permanent brain damage. The supervisory agent, whose name badge on his blue uniform read “Gomez,” now began to trample on her life, quite literally, with his black boots.
“Please stop stepping on the pictures,” Shena asked him.
A U.S. citizen, unlike her husband, she had been returning from a 48-hour vigil against Border Patrol violence in Mexico and was wearing a shirt that said “Stop Border Patrol Brutality” when she was aggressively questioned and cuffed at the CBP’s “port of entry” in Nogales on that hot day in May. She had no doubt that Gomez was stepping all over the contents of her purse in response to her shirt, the evidence of her activism.
Perhaps what bothered Gomez was the photo silkscreened onto that shirt -- of her husband during his hospitalization. It showed the aftermath of a beating he received from CBP agents. His head had a partially caved-in look because doctors had removed part of his skull. Over his chest and arms were bruises from Tasering. One tooth was out of place, and he had two black eyes. Although you couldn’t see them in the photo, two heavily armed Homeland Security agents were then guarding his hospital door to prevent the father of two, formerly a sound technician and the lead singer of a popular band in Los Angeles, from escaping -- even in his comatose state.
Jose Gutierrez Guzman's has become an ever more common story in an American age of mass expulsions. Although he had grown up in the United States (without papers), he was born in Mexico. After receiving a letter requesting his appearance, he went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Los Angeles and was promptly arrested and deported. Customs and Border Protection agents later caught him crossing the border in San Luis, Arizona, near Yuma, in an attempt to reunite with his wife and children.
“Stop... stepping... on... the... pictures,” Shena insisted.
As she tells the story, Agent Gomez looked at her shirt for a second, then looked up at her and said, “You have that mentality about us. You think we go around abusing.” His tone remained faux-friendly, but his boots didn’t -- and neither did those cuffs another CBP agent had put on her. Forcing her hands behind her back, they cut uncomfortably into her wrists. They would leave deep red circular marks.
On display was a post-9/11 world in which the usual rights meant to protect Americans from unreasonable search and seizure and unwanted, as well as unwarranted, interrogation were up for grabs.
While such constitutionally questionable intrusions into people’s privacy have been increasing at border crossings in the post-9/11 years, this type of hardline border policing has also moved inland. In other words, the sort of intrusions that once would have qualified as unconstitutional have moved in startling numbers into the interior of the country.
Imagine the once thin borderline of the American past as an ever-thickening band, now extending 100 miles inland around the United States -- along the 2,000-mile southern border, the 4,000-mile northern border, and both coasts -- and you will be able to visualize how vast the CBP’s jurisdiction has become. This “border” region now covers places where two-thirds of the U.S. population (197.4 million people) live. The ACLU has come to call it a “constitution-free zone [ https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights-constitution-free-zone-map ].” The “border” has by now devoured the full states of Maine and Florida and much of Michigan.
In these vast domains, Homeland Security authorities can institute roving patrols with broad, extra-constitutional powers backed by national security, immigration enforcement, and drug interdiction mandates. There, the Border Patrol can set up traffic checkpoints and fly surveillance drones overhead with high-powered cameras and radar that can track your movements. Within 25 miles of the international boundary, CBP agents can enter a person’s private property without a warrant. In these areas, the Homeland Security state is anything but abstract. On any given day, it can stand between you and the grocery store.
“Border Patrol checkpoints and roving patrols are the physical world equivalent of the National Security Agency,” says attorney James Lyall of ACLU Arizona puts it. “They involve a massive dragnet and stopping and monitoring of innocent Americans without any suspicion of wrongdoing by increasingly abusive and unaccountable federal government agents.”
Before she was so unceremoniously stopped and held, Shena Gutierrez shared [ http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/052314_nogales_vigil/photos-nogales-border-vigil/ ] the story of her husband at that 48-hour vigil. It was another story of the kind of pervasive abuse reported by people in the 100-mile zone. There were no cameras that night to record how 11 agents “subdued” Jose Gutierrez Guzman, as the CBP put it in its official report on the incident. Its claim: that Jose “struck his head on the ground,” a way perhaps of accounting for the hospital’s eventual diagnosis of “blunt force trauma.”
Considering the extent of Jose’s injuries, that CBP report is questionable indeed. Many Border Patrol agents now use the term “tonk [ http://books.google.com/books?id=5RYcAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=todd+miller+tonk+border+patrol+nation&source=bl&ots=EXqgc2QMEP&sig=jOm97KDAm1B9Oauj5vKTBcbK2X0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pJa9U-XfJ4bwoAT1nYCoCA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=todd%20miller%20tonk ]” -- the sound a flashlight supposedly makes when it bangs against someone’s head -- as their way of describing border-crossers. Jose was also repeatedly “shot” with an “electronic control device,” aka a Taser. He was so badly beaten that, more than three years later, he still suffers seizures.
“Stop stepping on my pictures!” Gutierrez insisted again. But much like the CBP’s official complaint process, the words were ignored. The only thing Gomez eventually spat out was, “Are you going to get difficult?”
When Shena Gutierrez offered me a play-by-play account of her long day, including her five-hour detainment at the border, her voice ran a gamut of emotions from desperation to defiance. Perhaps these are the signature emotions of what State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren has dubbed the “Post-Constitutional Era.” We now live in a time when, as he writes [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175861/ ], “the government might as well have taken scissors to the original copy of the Constitution stored in the National Archives, then crumpled up the Fourth Amendment and tossed it in the garbage can.” The prototype for this new era, with all the potential for abuse it gives the authorities, can be found in that 100-mile zone.
A Standing Army
The zone first came into existence thanks to a series of laws passed by Congress in the 1940s [ http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=413&invol=266 ] and 1950s [ http://legalactioncenter.org/sites/default/files/CBP%20100%20Mile%20Rule.pdf ] at a time when the Border Patrol was just an afterthought with a miniscule budget and only 1,100 agents. Today, Customs and Border Protection has more than 60,000 employees [ http://www.cbp.gov/about ] and is by far the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country. According to author and constitutional attorney John Whitehead, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created in 2002, is efficiently and ruthlessly building [ https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/has_the_dept_of_homeland_security_become_americas_standing_army ] “a standing army on American soil.”
Long ago, President James Madison warned [ http://books.google.com/books?id=TOV2qcsaY9MC&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=%E2%80%9Ca+standing+military+force+with+an+overgrown+Executive,+will+not+long+be+safe+companions+to+liberty%22&source=bl&ots=tK-Bz3UaIg&sig=X0EdsxJD2BcPH9Jq6-Bwe1qbbq0&hl=en&sa=X&ei= ] that “a standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty.” With its 240,000 employees and $61 billion budget, the DHS, Whitehead points out [ https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/has_the_dept_of_homeland_security_become_americas_standing_army ], is militarizing police units, stockpiling ammunition, spying on activists, and building detention centers, among many other things. CBP is the uniformed and most visible component of this “standing army.” It practically has its own air force and navy, an Office of Air and Marine equipped [ http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/air-sea ] with 280 sea vessels, 250 aircraft, and 1,200 agents.
On the border, never before have there been so many miles of walls and barriers, or such an array of sophisticated cameras capable of operating at night as well as in the daylight. Motion sensors, radar systems, and cameras mounted on towers, as well as those drones, all feed their information into operational control rooms throughout the borderlands. There, agents can surveil activity over large stretches of territory on sophisticated (and expensive) video walls. This expanding border enforcement regime is now moving into the 100-mile zone.
Such technological capability also involves the warehousing of staggering amounts of personal information in the digital databases that have ushered in the Post-Constitutional Era. “What does all this mean in terms of the Fourth Amendment?” Van Buren asks [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175861/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_what_we%27ve_lost_since_9_11_%28part_2%29/ ]. “It’s simple: the technological and human factors that constrained the gathering and processing of data in the past are fast disappearing.”
The border, in the post 9/11 years, has also become a place where military manufacturers, eyeing a market in an “unprecedented boom period [ http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/border-security-market-outlook-2014-2024-259211881.html ],” are repurposing [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175723/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_surveillance_surge_on_the_border/ ] their wartime technologies for the Homeland Security mission. This “bring the battlefield to the border” posture [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175552/tomgram%3A_todd_miller,_fortress_usa/ ] has created an unprecedented enforcement, incarceration, and expulsion machine aimed at the foreign-born (or often simply foreign-looking). The sweep is reminiscent of the operation that forced Japanese (a majority of them citizens) into internment camps during World War II, but on a scale never before seen in this country. With it, unsurprisingly, has come a wave of complaints [ http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/ ] about physical and verbal abuse by Homeland Security agents, as well as tales of inadequate food and medical attention to undocumented immigrants in short-term detention.
The result is a permanent, low-intensity state of exception that makes the expanding borderlands a ripe place to experiment with tearing apart the Constitution, a place where not just undocumented border-crossers, but millions of borderland residents have become the targets of continual surveillance. If you don’t see the Border Patrol’s ever-expanding forces in places like New York City (although CBP agents are certainly present at its airports and seaports), you can see them pulling people over these days in plenty of other spots in that Constitution-free zone where they hadn’t previously had a presence.
They are, for instance, in cities like Rochester, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania, as well as in Washington State, Vermont, Florida, and at all international airports. Homeland Security officials are scrutinizing people’s belongings, including their electronic devices, from sea to shining sea. Just ask Pascal Abidor, an Islamic studies doctoral student whose computer was turned on by CBP agents in Champlain, New York.
When an agent saw that he had a picture of a Hezbollah rally, she asked Abidor, a U.S. citizen, “What is this stuff?” His answer -- that he was studying the modern history of the Shiites -- meant nothing to her and his computer was seized [ https://www.aclu.org/free-speech-technology-and-liberty/abidor-v-napolitano ] for 10 days. Between 2008 and 2010, the CBP searched [ https://www.aclu.org/national-security/government-data-about-searches-international-travelers-laptops-and-personal-electr ] the electronic devices of more than 6,500 people. Like many of us, Abidor keeps everything, even his most private and intimate conversations with his girlfriend, on his computer. Now, it’s private no longer.
Despite all this, the message politicians and the media generally offer is that the country needs more agents, new techno-gadgets, and even more walls for our “safety.” In that context, President Obama on July 7th asked Congress for an additional $3.7 billion [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/us/obama-seeks-billions-for-children-immigration-crisis.html ] for “border security.”
Since last October, in what officials have called a “humanitarian crisis,” 52,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Central America, have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents. News about and photos [ http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2014/06/19/16874/as-more-unaccompanied-minors-arrive-some-family-re/ ] of some of those children, including toddlers, parentless and incarcerated in warehouses in the Southwest, have led to a flood of articles, many claiming that border security is “strained [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/us/poverty-and-violence-push-new-wave-of-migrants-toward-us.html ].” A Border Patrol Union representative typically claimed [ http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/06/18/Border-Patrol-Official-Border-Most-Porous-That-Its-Ever-Been-Fed-Numbers-Inaccurate ] that the border is “more porous than it’s ever been.” While such claims are ludicrous, all signs point to more money being packed aboard what Whitehead has called a “runaway train.”
Make no bones about it, every dollar spent this way works not just to keep others out of this country, but to lock American citizens into a border zone that may soon encompass the whole country. It also fortifies our new domestic “standing military force” and its rollback of the Bill of Rights.
Resistance Inside the 100-Mile Zone
The first thing Cynthia (a pseudonym) asks the supervisory agent with the green Border Patrol hat and wrap-around sunglasses who stops her car is: “Can I have your name and agent number please?” She’s been halted at a checkpoint approximately 25 miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border on a road running east-west-running near the small town of Arivaca, Arizona, where she lives.
The agent pauses. He looks like he’s swallowed a hornet before he barks, “We ask the questions here first, okay? Do you have some ID on you?”
This starts a tense exchange between the two of them that she videotaped [ http://vimeo.com/92093104 ] in its entirety. She is only one of many challenging the omnipresence and activities of the Border Patrol in the heart of the 100-mile zone. Like many locals in Arivaca, she is sick of the checkpoint, which has been there for seven years. She and her neighbors were fed up with the obligatory stop between their small town and the dentist or the nearest bookstore. They were tired of Homeland Security agents scrutinizing their children on their way to school. So they began to organize [ http://phparivaca.org/?page_id=7 ].
In late 2013, they demanded that the federal government remove the checkpoint. It was, they wrote in a petition [ https://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-border-patrol-remove-the-check-point-on-arivaca-rd-in-amado-az-quite-el-ret%C3%A9n-de-la-carretera-de-arivaca-en-amado-az ], an ugly artifact of border militarization; it had, they added, a negative economic impact on residents and infringed on people’s constitutional rights. At the beginning of 2014, small groups from People Helping People in the Border Zone -- the name of their organization -- started monitoring [ http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/022714_arivaca_observers/observers-tracking-border-patrol-stops-arivaca-checkpoint/ ] the checkpoint several days a week.
This Arivaca Border Patrol road barricade, one of at least 71 in the southwest, functions as a de facto enforcement zone away from the border. In Border Patrolese [ http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/bp_checkpoints_2.pdf ], it’s “an additional layer in our Defense in Depth strategy.” This particular checkpoint isn’t exactly impressive -- just a portable trailer with an attached tarp for shade, but it still qualifies, according to one of the Patrol’s informational brochures [id.], as “a critical enforcement tool for securing the nation’s borders against all threats to our homeland.”
The agents manning it stop every car on the road, do a quick visual check of its interior, and ask the driver and passengers their citizenship. There are also dogs available to sniff each car for traces of drugs or explosives. “Our enforcement presence along these strategic routes reduces the ability of criminals and potential terrorists to easily travel away from the border,” the brochure explains.
The Homeland Security surveillance gaze in the Southwest is, in fact, so pervasive that it has even nabbed [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333570/Willie-Nelson-arrested-marijuana-possession-Texas-Border-Patrol-checkpoint.html ] singer Willy Nelson in Texas for marijuana possession. It detained [ http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/border-patrol-detains-former-arizona-gov-castro-after-radiation-alarm/article_f9517e5f-d600-53bb-9e13-d8de6d0d1e68.html ] 96-year-old former Arizona governor Raul Castro and made him stand in 100-degree heat for more than 30 minutes because a dog detected the radiation from his pacemaker. In the past three years in the Tucson sector, the Patrol has made more than 6,000 arrests [ http://archive.theadvertiser.com/usatoday/article/10113693 ] and confiscated 135,000 pounds of narcotics at checkpoints.
But this is no longer just a matter of inland areas near the Mexican Border. A Border Patrol agent forced [ http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=78415.0;wap2 ] Vermont’s senior senator Patrick Leahy from his car at a checkpoint 125 miles south of the New York State border. The ACLU of Vermont unearthed [ https://acluvt.org/blog/2013/09/24/border-checkpoints-that-arent-at-the-border/ ] a prototype plan for CBP to operate checkpoints to stop southbound traffic on all five highways through that New England border state.
On Sunday afternoons in Sodus, New York, about 30 miles east of Rochester, green-striped Border Patrol vehicles can sometimes be found [ https://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/25/post-911-sodus-us-canadian-border-display ] parked in front of a laundromat which farmworkers (many undocumented) use. In Erie, Pennsylvania, agents wait [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgAdhu7pEA (next below)]
at the Greyhound bus terminal or the Amtrak station to question people arriving in town. These are all places where the Border Patrol was all but unknown before 2005. In Detroit, simply being at a bus stop at four in the morning en route to work or fishing [ http://forums.officer.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-168556.html ] in the Detroit River is now “probable cause” for an agent to question you.
Or perhaps it is simply the color of your skin. Arrest records [ http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/NYCLU_justicederailedweb_0.pdf ] from both bus terminals and railway stations in Rochester, New York, show that of the 2,776 arrests agents made between 2005 and 2009, 71.2% were of “medium” complexion (likely of Latino or Arab background) and 12.9% “black.” Only 0.9% of those arrested were of “fair” complexion.
Back in Arivaca, the agent with the wraparound sunglasses tells Cynthia that she needs to get out of her car. Much like Senator Leahy, she responds that she doesn’t “understand why.”
“You don’t have to understand,” he says. “It’s for my safety. And yours. Do you understand that?”
Then his tone gains an angry edge. He clearly doesn’t like having his authority challenged. “We don’t have time for this. We have criminals here, okay? If you have a political or an emotional situation here” -- he makes an emphatic chopping motion with his hand -- “I don’t want to hear about it. I want to see your ID.” He pauses. “Now!”
The adrenaline is obviously pumping and he is about to edge up on the limits of what an agent can do, even with extra-constitutional powers. He thrusts his hand through the open window and into the car and unlocks it. With a yank, he pulls the door open from the inside. When Cynthia is out of the car, he asks, his voice rising, “What do you think we’re looking for here?”
“I don’t know,” Cynthia responds.
“That’s where I’m gonna educate you a little bit. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says.
“What happens through this checkpoint is that we catch smugglers of aliens, smugglers of drugs, child molesters, murderers, and everything else. Okay? Does that make sense?”
This rural area of Arizona, he insists as they stand under a vast cloudless blue sky, is infested with bandits, criminals, and drug dealers. “We have methamphetamine being made and manufactured,” the agent explains. “Do you think methamphetamine is a good thing?”
“Personally, no,” she says.
“Personally, I don’t think so either. I think they’re poisoning our world, okay? So when we ask you just to do something simple, like uncover something, do it! It’s a relief for us that it’s not something dangerous or something else.” By now, the agent is making the full-blown case for Homeland Security’s rollback of the Bill of Rights: the world’s a dangerous place, too dangerous for us not to have a free hand searching wherever we want whenever we want -- and it’s your job to understand that new twenty-first-century American reality. He ends with a final dig at her for her initial resistance: “You’re destroying your rights, because what happens is, is that the criminals take your rights away, okay? Not us. We’re here to protect you.”
According to the ACLU’s Lyall, the fact is that the abuses of Customs and Border Protection in that Constitution-free zone are “massively underreported” and “far more prevalent than anyone has been able to document.” Many people, according to him, are simply afraid to come forward; others don’t know their rights.
In Shena Gutierrez’s case, she returned to the same Nogales “port of entry” with two other activists to lodge a complaint about the purse incident. When she refused to leave federal property (for which she now faces [ http://www.kpfknews.org/_socal_border_activist_claims_abuse_at_arizona_border ] charges), the CBP arrested and detained her for hours. This time they did what she described as “an invasive body search.”
“I told them that I had not given my consent to be touched.” They nonetheless made her take off her wedding ring “for safety.” When she resisted, they said that they “would force it off her.” Again, the handcuffs cut into her wrists. This time, an agent kicked her in the ankle from behind. A female agent searched her thoroughly, from head to toe and in her private parts, because she “might have drugs or contraband or documents.”
As the agent groped her, she told me, she began to think yet again about what her husband had gone through. If this can happen to a U.S. citizen, she told me, “Imagine what happens to a person without documents.”
Imagine what can happen to anyone in a realm where, increasingly, anything goes, including the Constitution.
Todd Miller [ http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/toddmiller ], a TomDispatch regular, has researched and written about U.S.-Mexican border issues for more than 10 years. He now writes on border and immigration issues for NACLA Report on the Americas [ http://nacla.org/ ] and its blog “Border Wars [ http://nacla.org/blog/border-wars ],” among other places. His first book is Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches From the Front Lines of Homeland Security [ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319 , http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872866319#reader_0872866319 ]. You can follow him on twitter @memomiller and view more of his work at http://toddwmiller.wordpress.com/ .
Copyright 2014 Todd Miller
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175868/ [also, minus the introduction, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-miller/border-wars-in-the-homeland_b_5587592.html (with comments)]
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Reporter Baffled After TSA Agent Rejects His District Of Columbia ID, Demands To See Passport
By Ryan Grenoble
Posted: 07/15/2014 4:37 pm EDT Updated: 07/15/2014 4:59 pm EDT
It seems our nation's capital is giving TSA agents some difficulty.
A TSA agent at the Orlando International Airport demanded to see the passport of Justin Gray, a Washington, D.C., correspondent for central Florida's WFTV news. According to WFTV [ http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/orlando-tsa-agents-getting-geography-refresher/ngfmH/ ], the agent was not familiar with the District of Columbia, and therefore could not accept Gray's D.C. driver's license as a valid form of ID [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/statuses/487922546163986432 ]:
Justin Gray
@grayjustin
@TSA Agent in Orlando never heard of "District of Columbia." Demanded passport because he didn't believe my drivers license was from US!?
4:32 AM - 12 Jul 2014
Fortunately, Gray was able to pass through security, ultimately notifying the supervisor on duty [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/status/487973217026314240 ] of the odd problem.
According to a later tweet from Gray, the TSA has responded by showing every Orlando agent [ https://twitter.com/grayjustin/status/488770195084025857 ] a picture of a D.C. license.
Perhaps surprisingly, this wasn't an isolated incident. In February, a TSA agent in Phoenix delayed a D.C. resident [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/tsa-drivers-license-airport-security_n_4874581.html ] because the traveler couldn't present a "state-issued" ID.
At the time, a TSA representative told The Huffington Post that licenses from Washington, D.C., should pose no problem for its agents: "A valid Washington, D.C., driver's license is an acceptable form of identification at all TSA checkpoints. When issues arise at the checkpoint, TSA officers work to make sure facts are gathered and quickly resolved to avoid future confusion."
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/tsa-agent-dc-license-passport_n_5588735.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Jon Stewart To Those Who Want To Deport Kids: 'What The F*&k Is Wrong With You'
07/16/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/the-daily-show-immigration-reform_n_5591910.html [with the segment ( http://www.hulu.com/watch/661751 {no comments yet}, original at http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/zrmf57/america-s-immigration-crisis---kids--edition {no comments yet}) embedded, and comments]
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You May Not Know About The First Chinese Americans, But You Should
This 1950 watercolor by artist Jake Lee depicts Chinese laborers laying the transcontinental railroad track through the Sierra Nevada mountains, a pivotal project in the development of America.
07/07/2014
[...]
These early accomplishments happened despite landmark barriers. Among them was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, "the nation's first-ever exclusionary immigration policy," Mirrer writes.
At its worst, the law took advantage of poor Chinese laborers, allowing them entry without naturalization. At its best, it treated Chinese Americans like criminals, demanding they register their identity with the government (the only other Americans subject to the rule were, in fact, criminals).
Even movie stars were subject to the law. Above, the government-issued identification card for Anna May Wong, the silent film actress. Starting in 1909, Chinese entering or residing in the U.S. were required to carry such ID at all times.
If it all sounds a little familiar -- calling to mind modern border state politics [ https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights-racial-justice/court-places-limits-sheriff-arpaio-prevent-future-racial-profiling ] -- that's not by accident. ...
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/chinese-american-exhibit_n_5528081.html [with comments]
--
Obama Tells Lawmakers He Won't Cave On Deportation Review
07/16/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/obama-deportation-review_n_5593514.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Bill O'Reilly Wants To Build A Berlin Wall On The Southern Border
By Katherine Fung
Posted: 07/17/2014 9:42 am EDT Updated: 07/17/2014 9:59 am EDT
The debate about how to fix America's immigration system is raging, but the solution, according to Bill O'Reilly, is simple.
He proposed on Wednesday night building something like the Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Because we all know how well the Berlin Wall went.)
"Nobody could get through that fence," O'Reilly said to Karl Rove. "Nobody. It was a formidable obstacle. The Israelis have done the same thing to keep out terrorism there. We haven't done that on the southern border. That's mistake number one."
(h/t Media Matters [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/07/16/foxs-oreilly-advocates-for-a-berlin-wall-style/200131 ])
Copyright ©2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/bill-oreilly-border-wall_n_5594879.html [with embedded video, and comments]
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The best worst president ever
By Mark Morford [ http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/author/mark/ ]
Posted on Tuesday, July 8 at 6:16pm
“Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country,” declares the wealthy, rakish, silver-haired Newport Beach white guy to his small group of perfectly tanned 50-something females sitting just a few feet away from us at a stunning restaurant patio overlooking the sun-kissed California coastline, just off of Highway 1, as he sipped his pinot and adjusted his wraparound Ray Bans, flush from the economy’s spectacular recovery that has benefitted his exact demographic most of all, stroking his purebred dog and taking various selfies with their $500 phones, oblivious to the furious swirls of irony and hypocrisy fluttering just above their heads.
I laughed out loud. Couldn’t help it; I had just overheard Mr. Newport Beach say something about how Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster (despite how, of course, it’s not [ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/17/fact-sheet-affordable-care-act-numbers ]), and if America were to somehow actually develop a health care system similar to, say, Canada’s, that would be the end of America for certain; we’d never recover from such a devastating blow. Or something. And then came the “worst thing to ever happen” quip, and I couldn’t hold back.
They didn’t hear me, of course; the orgasmic thrum of their perfect lives drowned out my chuckle, and as I turned and looked at this beautifully entitled, happy crew from my vantage point only a few feet away but a million light years in perspective, we all shared one of the most spectacular, envied locales in the world and all of us sipped superb regional grape and not a single one of us suffered the slightest personal, social or economic indignity, every first-world need instantly met, every crab cake perfectly formed, the sunshine as flawless as Jesus on toast and no lines at the restroom and lots of free parking for his Lexus SUV.
A few thoughts struck me, all at once. The first was how nice this group all seemed – and of course they probably were – and I imagine if we had all had met under different circumstances and been chatting about, say, the weather or the soul-exploding coastline, I’m sure we would have been fast, easy friends – noting that, if we wanted to remain that way, we’d never talk about politics. Or religion.
Even so, I desperately wanted to ask Mr. Newport Beach what his stock portfolio looked like a mere six or seven years ago, when Bush & Co. ravaged the country and led us into one of the deepest, most brutal social and economic pits in modern history. Did he lose half his net worth? More? Was he worried he couldn’t feed his family or pay his mortgage? Did he lose his house? His job? Did he blame Bush? Clinton? Islam? The gays?
And by the way, how does he like the recovery so far? Which of his three perfect, multimillion-dollar homes was he on his way to, right now?
I also wanted to know, when Bush/Cheney lied to the world, openly violated the tragedy of 9/11 and invaded Iraq, killing tens of thousands, was he furious? What about now, when even Fox News is calling out Cheney and declaring Iraq invasion a colossal mistake, a lie from which we’re still unable to extricate ourselves?
Nevertheless, Obama ended Bush’s disastrous war, just like he said he would, on time and under budget. Does it matter?
And what of Newport’s female companions? I wonder if he knows that upwards of 99 percent of sexually active women have used some form of contraception. Is he in line with the GOP’s recent spate of nasty misogyny and anti-abortion spew? What about the awful SCOTUS Hobby Lobby decision, further bashing women, and Obama’s immediate moves to defend women’s rights? Is he aware? I bet those women are. Or surely, their daughters [ http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/01/slut-shaming-for-the-righteous/ ].
And really, what about the stock market? The Dow dances around record highs, Wall Street snorts rails of finely chopped gold every day, the income gap between the 1% and everyone else [ http://www.salon.com/2014/07/06/the_god_that_sucked_how_the_tea_party_right_just_makes_the_1_percent_richer/ ] is more demeaning than ever and the banks haven’t fundamentally changed in the slightest. Why isn’t Mr. Newport Beach positively orgasmic about the Obama Administration’s generally wealth-favoring policies that made it all happen? Say what you like, but Obama managed to do what nearly all economists and pundits thought impossible back in 2008: reverse the ugliest, GOP-led social and economic tailspin in modern history, and make guys like Mr. Newport richer than ever.
My new friend looked good. Healthy. Fit. Good teeth, thick head of silver hair, that prostate cancer scare a couple years back easily nipped by a few wildly expensive treatments he never paid a dime for. Who did pay for his insurance? His company? Medicare? Did he have any idea what it was like not to be able to afford it, or be offered any in the first place?
I sipped my rosé, took a deep breath, enjoyed the magnificent landscape as one final, predominant thought swam into view: how? How can there be such a radical disconnect between Mr. Newport’s engorged portfolio, his fantastic insurance plan, low mortgage rate and grotesque corporate privilege – most of it born of the past six years – and Obama’s overall policy successes? Does he consider it all just a fluke [ http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-get-obama-reelected-2012-10 ]? Dumb luck? Is he drunk on Limbaugh and Fox News, unable to see actual facts?
Look here, Newport: Since Obama took office, corporate profits are way up [ http://money.cnn.com/gallery/news/economy/2014/01/28/obama-economy/index.html ]. So is business investment, job growth (moderately [ http://www.jsonline.com/business/people-voluntarily-leaving-jobs-at-highest-rate-since-2009-downturn-b99303175z1-265866551.html ]), retail sales, manufacturing (well, barely). Want to buy another house? Interest rates are fantastic [ http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-interest-rates-20140706-story.html ]. The housing crisis has largely subsided, and home foreclosures are way down. Also, people are buying lots of new cars [ http://www.autonews.com/article/20140707/OEM01/140709885/detroit-3-to-shorten-eliminate-summer-break-at-some-plants ], and there’s a fully recovered auto industry ready to meet all demand.
Did he know federal discretionary spending is well below average? Or that the poverty rate has stabilized? And the stock market is, as mentioned, breaking records, benefitting rich white dudes more than ever?
Of course, it’s all pretty shaky. Flawed and imbalanced and could give out at any second – but that’s just the nature of the excruciatingly complex, unstable world economy these days. And while corporations are raking it in, workers are seeing less and less of their fair share. There are still myriad problems, and Obama’s policies are far from perfect. No party’s ever are. Regardless, given the impossible economic hell-pit Obama was left with, it’s unlikely any president could have possibly done better.
Clearly I’m missing something, a huge bed of terrifying data to prove all these respectable charts and graphs wrong. But where is it? I’ve heard Mr. Newport Beach’s bizarre lament a thousand times, but I’ve yet to see a solid batch of evidence that proves Obama’s outright failure, or the nation’s savage decline. I see a blip about food stamps, I see a few weak economic signs here and there, but mostly, since 2009, it all’s been somewhere between timidly and shockingly positive. Did God smite us for gay marriage? Did the abortion factories, death panels and Nazi Kenyan socialist brain-washing farms steal my very soul? Hard to tell with all this perfect sunshine in my eyes.
The bottom line seems obvious: Much to the GOP’s bitter revulsion, it turns out a calm, intellectual black man really can run an entire country – certainly far better than an inarticulate Texas bumbler, and even in the face of what is easily the most obstructionist, hateful, acidic and often downright racist Congress in modern memory. Quite an achievement, really.
It’s curious, no? The unmitigated hate for Obama comes from the right, but the real disappointment comes from the left. It’s we liberals who seem to have the most legitimate gripes with a man we all thought would be far more radical and revolutionary. From the NSA to drone warfare to a shocking lack of transparency, a shameless kowtowing to Wall Street, a lack of serious education reform and barely a blip about the environment (until very recently) – Obama has been a far more mixed bag for the left than anyone wants to admit.
But right now, that seems like quibbling. To hear Mr. Newport Beach tell it, my president is a downright monster. Who cares if he ended the war, saved the economy [ http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-get-obama-reelected-2012-10 ], restored America’s stature in the world, nailed Osama bin Laden, invested billions in clean energy, partially reformed what is still the most expensive, least effective health care system [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/06/16/once-again-u-s-has-most-expensive-least-effective-health-care-system-in-survey/ ] in the industrialized world, or made the rich even richer? The guy’s the worst thing to ever happen to America. I mean, obviously. Now who wants more wine?
© 2014 Hearst Communications, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/08/the-best-worst-president-ever/ [with comments (the concluding item next below courtesy of one of them)]
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Anti-Christ UNVEILED: The Sun Rising in the West
Published on Mar 10, 2014 by theJonathanKleck [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3NFHqD3AAU90eqhI5XvOFA / http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJonathankleck , http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJonathankleck/videos ]
http://www.be4thefire.com
Revelation 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
Revelation 3:11 "Behold I AM (JESUS CHRIST) Coming Soon!" Hold Fast to what you have that no man take your crown."
Acts 2:11 "Whomsoever shall call upon the name of the LORD (JESUS CHRIST), shall be saved.
--
Our bodies are referred to as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, we are once again (through Christ's sacrifice) a habitable dwelling place for the Spirit of the Living God, a divine connection that had been cut-off since Adam & Eve in the Garden. Well, we all know Satan mimics the nature and character of God, thus, the passage from Daniel 9:27 says "and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation".
We would argue that this verse is talking about the Temple body becoming desolate, hacked into by Satan and his demons. Wherein the Mark of the Beast would ultimately unleash this dark potential within the human genome, with the spirit of fallen angels descending onto Earth, and Lucifer himself ultimately setting up residence in the flesh of the willing Antichrist: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." REVELATION 12:9
---------------------------------------
LINKS referenced in Video
---------------------------------------
"Obama Satanic Cult Clone: The Renegade President"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zVHl5GPtTI
"The Ukraine Maserati Lady Gaga Connection: The Trident"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCpQczDtTIw
"Ye are of your Father the Devil: Lady Gaga Telegraphs NYC Destruction"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5xRB90grZE
"The Beast Inside - Destruction of the Temple"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BodYlU-J1aY
"The Birth Must Come - NWO Agenda BudLight 2014"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKbYQ2rggkc
"Barack Obama 2014 - It's a Trap!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSgjGdhysqQ
"Grammy Worship 2014 - Ye worship what ye know not"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3KoMDoedCM
"Allah 666 Abomination of Beyonce & Katy Perry"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SC4hvi3FvI
"2008 Prophecy Fulfilled: The Travail Begins" - Jonathan's prophetic utterance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B5cfBtEREA
All the False Flag Terror Events on the US$ - "For The Skeptics"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCy7kvXW12Y
"The Hidden Hand 1 - Shine Out The Darkness"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfNUnDh2TU
"Dead Sheep / Nike Shark Testimony - The Spirit That Worketh"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPcAtMgCXI
"The Hidden World Part I - DNA Infection"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEb9uvwQJH0
"2014 Biblical End Times - Finish the Race"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPcAtMgCXI
"The Satanic HIVE Mind Exposed"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpCKXS3HpY
---------------------------------------------------------
"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
1 PETER 5:8
"As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2 CORINTHIANS 4:18
----------------------------------------------------------
There are spiritual entities that are able control the human race, if you are not protected by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you are a target whether you realize it or not. This video shows some real-world manifestations of these Spiritual Hosts of wickedness in high places, foul spirits who seek only to confuse and destroy mankind.
This is why we must receive a new SPIRIT from the Father, through Christ, the Holy Spirit- so that we can be protected from these pervasive and foul spirits that roam the Earth, seeking whom they can devour.
----------------------------------------------------------
"In which in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:"
EPHESIANS 2:2
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
EZEKIEL 36:26
--
" For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
EPHESIANS 6:12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFCQvvXSwx4 [with comments]
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34492312 and preceding and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=34514208 and preceding and following
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http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104256465 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104256646 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104257300 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104257530 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104263418 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104271609 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104273532 (and any future following)
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http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104275040 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104279413 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104279549 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104280804 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104287926 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104291685 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104292159 and following
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http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104295059 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104301261 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104310324 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104317832 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104319405 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333092 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333473 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104329580 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104345429 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104333384 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334270 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334593 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104334696 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104344934 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104348529 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104344934 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104357406 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104377035 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104378235 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104348139 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104417790 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104421591 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104422553 and preceding (and any future following)
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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