Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Friday, September 18, 2015

Irving Texas Arrests Muslim Kid Too Smart for Irving Texas

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14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed has a bright future as a scientist of tomorrow. But until yesterday his high school in Irving, Texas, merely thought of him as "That Muslim Kid" or "Who?"

Now they won't ever forget his name. And they'll never live down what they did to him.



See, this smart kid made a clock and took it to school. Some hysterical and stupid teacher thought it was a BOMB. However, no bomb squad was ever called, and the school wasn't evacuated. But the principal and police still interrogated this boy without his parents beside him for two hours. Over a clock that wasn't a bomb.

By the middle of the day, the obviously frightened child in a NASA t-shirt was handcuffed, arrested, and taken to jail. For being smart. And Muslim. And unfortunately for Irving, Texas, what they did there infuriated most of the known world as the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed trended for 24 hours. Now he has been invited to the White House, NASA, MIT, Harvard, Twitter, Facebook - you name it! Ahmed's story has a totally happy ending. Irving, Texas, not so much.







From the New York Times
HOUSTON — Ahmed Mohamed’s homemade alarm clock got him suspended from his suburban Dallas high school and detained and handcuffed by police officers on Monday after school officials accused him of making a fake bomb. By Wednesday, it had brought him an invitation to the White House, support from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg, and a moment of head-spinning attention as questions arose whether he had been targeted because of his name and his religion.
. . . The thing in question was the product of Ahmed’s love of invention. He made the clock out of a metal briefcase-style box, a digital display, wires and a circuit board. It was bigger and bulkier than a typical bedside clock, with cords, screws and electrical components.

He said he took it to school on Monday to show an engineering teacher, who said it was nice but then told him he should not show the invention to other teachers. Later, Ahmed’s clock beeped during an English class, and after he revealed the device to the teacher, school officials notified the police, and Ahmed was interrogated by officers.
“She thought it was a threat to her,” Ahmed told reporters Wednesday. “So it was really sad that she took a wrong impression of it.”


















Thursday, August 20, 2015

Trump Gives Helicopter Rides at Iowa State Fair

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Previous Related Posts:
Trump's Hair and Other Viral Memes
First #GOP Primary Debate on Fox
Countdown to Trump Clown Car Debate
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Officials with the Iowa State Fair originally said they wouldn't allow Donald Trump to (a) bring his helicopter to the fair or (b) give helicopter rides to children of voters.
Sadly for Trump, and the many cable television producers looking forward to video of him being mobbed by hordes of helicopter-crazed children, state fair officials say a Trump touchdown “will not be happening” at the fair. “Trump did not ask for permission to do so, nor would he be granted permission if he does indeed seek it,” according to the Des Moines Register.

Then they caved, of course, The Donald arrived in his fancy hopped-up helicopter, and took unsuspecting kids up in the air like a latter-day Pied Piper, or perhaps the Child-Snatcher from Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. And once in the air, Trump told a little boy that he is Batman. Yes, Batman.





So, happy children got to ride for free in a $7 million Sikorsky S-76 helicopter – N76DT, by numeral – from which they, too, could look down on senators, former senators, former governors, one former First Lady-senator-Secretary-of-State, and a whole mob of people eating Ultimate Bacon Brisket Bombs. And that's your metaphor. Trump is smart. So are you. So are your kids. You can look down on all the other "stupid" people.​
~ Charles P. Pierce on Esquire

From CNN
The pilot cut the engines. A man got out of the helicopter. He wore white shoes and white khakis with sharp creases and a red baseball cap that said MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. He strolled across the searing asphalt and stood at the edge of a field, where nearly 100 people waited to find out what he would do or say next.
"We have quite a few children gonna take rides today," said Donald Trump, billionaire, celebrity, entertainer and Republican candidate for president. "Where are the children? Get them over here."
. . . Into the helicopter went William, 9; Sean, 6; Brendan, 5; and Henry, who just turned 3. Their mother went with them. Henry got scared just before takeoff and left the aircraft to be with his father. The other boys remained. William brought a GoPro camera to capture the experience; a clip later wound up on Facebook.
"Mr. Trump," he said, aiming the camera at his benefactor.
"Yes," Trump said, pulling on the lapels of his jacket.
"Are you Batman?" the boy asked.
"I am Batman," Trump said.














Monday, June 15, 2015

Jeb Bush is all for Public Shaming by Scarlet Letter

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Oh, Jeb. You were supposed to be the "smart" one. Not anymore.

In 1995, Jeb Bush wrote:

"One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful."

In 2001 as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush passed the "Scarlet Letter" law, as explained by Media Matters for America

...a 2001 Florida law he allowed to pass as governor ... required single mothers to list their sexual histories in a newspaper before allowing children to be adopted.
...Florida's Scarlet Letter law was an "opportunity to test his theory on public shaming," when he "declined to veto a very controversial bill," -- that Marco Rubio and five members of Congress also voted for -- "that required single mothers who did not know the identity of the father to publish their sexual histories in a newspaper before they could legally put their babies up for adoption."
NPR reported that part of Bush's rationale for the law was to decrease uncertainty about adoptions by "provid[ing] greater finality once the adoption is approved, and to avoid circumstances where future challenges to the adoption disrupt the life of the child."
But a 2004 Notre Dame Law Review article explained that the personal information required by the law to be listed in newspapers was extensive



And he hasn't changed much. This week he didn't even call for "out of wedlock" shaming - only for "single mother" shaming. Why not bring back the word "bastard" for illegitimate children too? Because GOP members and Christians never have any of those. Oh wait. This is starting to sound like Rush Limbaugh "slut-shaming" Sandra Fluke, and remember how that turned out for the GOP in the 2012 election? Good lucky, buddy.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is turning over in his grave.

From MSNBC
Asked by msnbc whether his views regarding the application of shame had changed, Bush suggested his book’s warning had proved prophetic and stressed the importance of encouraging young people to get married before having children.
“My views have evolved over time, but my views about the importance of dads being involved in the lives of children hasn’t changed at all,” he said. “In fact, since 1995 … this book was a book about cultural indicators [and] the country has moved in the wrong direction. We have a 40-plus percent out-of-wedlock birth rate.”
Bush has talked on the trail about research showing improved economic fortunes for children who are raised with two parents and on Thursday reiterated the importance of family structure.
“It’s a huge challenge for single moms to raise children in the world that we’re in today and it hurts the prospects, it limits the possibilities of young people being able to live lives of purpose and meaning,” he said.

Yeah, those single mothers - just ruining our country day by day. Well, what about "single father" shaming? And what if a parent and child are abandoned by the other parent for whatever reason - are they still to be publicly blamed and shamed? Why are the courts mostly full of single mothers trying to get some child support from these so-called fathers, instead of the other-way-around? Why shame the mothers?

And lest we forget our American Literature, the Reverend Dimmesdale could have married Rachel in The Scarlet Letter, but he was a craven coward afraid of losing his position in the village, or being stoned to death, or whatever. In effect, he was a complete Pharisee hypocrite like most of the GOP today.

This is just outright pandering to ultra-conservatives who ignore the high divorce rate in the red GOP states. Does Jeb in his wildest imagination believe he can force even GOP couples stay married? Just think of all the GOP politicians on their second, third, or fourth wife. Why not shame them first, since they were probably married in a Christian church with pomp and ceremony and prayers? Jeb and his cronies seem to misunderstand that even in the 1800s, people like writer Nathaniel Hawthorne were pointing out the idiocy and unfairness of public shaming. Yes it was "historical" but it isn't around today for a reason. It didn't work then, and it certainly won't work now.













Monday, February 2, 2015

Chris Christie and Rand Paul Want "Measure of Choice" for Vaccinations ~ Updated

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Previous Related Post:
Measles Epidemic Pits Anti-Vaxx Parents Against Public Health

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Presidential hopefuls Chris Christie and Rand Paul have decided that raising money for their 2016 campaigns is more important than the health of children everywhere. Both are pandering to the Anti-Vaxx movement, saying that vaccinating your kids should be a "choice" and not a mandate from the government. This is an epic fail on their parts, and completely irresponsible!

But what do they care about the public good? They only want to be President of the United States, right?

In order to get elected, these guys have to be seen as the "Anti-Obama," and the President is pro-Vaccination (because he is also pro-science and has a brain).





It's bad enough that Rand Paul's father, perpetual candidate Ron Paul, is a medical doctor, and Rand Paul himself is some type of doctor. But Chris Christie is worse, since he recently had an Ebola patient quarantined and basically held at house arrest in New Jersey, but for kids who get measles from the unvaccinated - you're on your own, kids!

UPDATE: The Nurse who was quarantined by Chris Christie for Ebola had some words for him:

"I think this is a good example of Gov. Christie's making some very ill-informed statements. We heard it a lot during the Ebola discussion, and now it seems to have happened again," Maine medic Kaci Hickox said in an interview that aired Monday night on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes."
. . . "I think the unfortunate thing or the scary thing is that I want a leader who consults experts and thinks about sort of all of the different sides to an issue before making statements and — and policies that are unfounded in science," she said.



They are both being intellectually dishonest about their true beliefs. Notice they both used the phrase "measure of choice," which tells me that this is probably a GOP talking point and not something they actually wanted to say. They are pandering to the base.

From Guardian UK
Christie, who is considered a leading presidential candidate, told press during his visit to the UK that parents should have “some measure of choice” in the decision to vaccinate their children.
“It’s more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official,” said Christie. “I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”
Within hours, Christie’s office had sent a clarification. “The governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated,” wrote a representative. “At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate.”

From The Hill
Paul was asked to weigh in on vaccines, after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a likely rival for the GOP nomination in 2016, said Monday morning that there should be "some measure of choice" for parents leery of vaccinating their children.

"I'm not anti-vaccine at all, but most of them ought to be voluntary," Paul, an ophthalmologist, said Monday on the "Laura Ingraham Show," in a segment circulated by the Democratic National Committee along with criticism of Paul's views.

Paul added a shot at potential presidential primary rival former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who made an HPV vaccine mandatory in his state before later calling it a "mistake."

"I think there are times where there can be some rules, but for the most part it ought to be voluntary and the biggest one is — I don't know if you remember when Governor Perry made it mandatory to get, for a sexually transmitted disease, to have everybody have to take it," Paul said. "While I think it's a good idea to take the vaccine, I think that's a personal decision for individuals to take and when they take it."































Measles Epidemic Pits Anti-Vaxx Parents Against Public Health

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No parent enjoys taking their infants and toddlers in for vaccinations. My husband hates needles, which meant that I was the one who always had to take our kids to the health department for shots against Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) or Diptheria(whooping cough) and Tetanus (DpTt) shots. I would go in with a happy smiling baby, come out with a screaming, cranky baby who would then run a fever for several days as the antibodies from the shots built up immunity in the blood.

No parent enjoys taking a little lamb in for shots, but I always reminded myself that children once died from things like Measles and Whooping Cough. Vaccines are a miracle. The kids in the U.S. are lucky to have nearly free vaccines for the asking.

Except when parents don't ask and don't care, and don't take the steps to get their children vaccinated. And when there's an actual "Anti-Vaxx" movement, then many more children are at risk. And now it is causing a dangerous epidemic that started, of all places, in Disneyland!

From Time Magazine
Somewhere in Orange County, Mary Poppins and Ariel the mermaid may be running a fever. The same could be true for her coworkers—any of the other 23,000 people (OK, or characters) who punch in for work at Disneyland every day. And the same could be true too for any one of the estimated 16 million people who will pour into the theme park this year.

The reason? Measles. The cause? This may not come entirely as a surprise: the anti-vaccine crowd.

. . . The outbreak has spread to five other states—which is to be expected when the place that is ground zero for any infection attracts visitors from all over the world. Of the first 20 Disneyland victims, 15 were unvaccinated. Concern about the infections has gotten so great that California State epidemiologist Gil Chavez warned the public that anyone who has not had the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine should avoid all California theme parks “for the time being.”



Schools were once the frontline against epidemics, either becoming makeshift clinics for vaccinations, or by insisting that parents have their children vaccinated before they could attend school. But thanks to the Anti-Vaxxers, some systems began to allow parents to opt-out of the requirement for religious or personal reasons. In politically red states, the Anti-Vaxx movement has been helped along by a GOP that appears to hate any type of mass health care, and who like to pander to far-right Libertarians and Homeschool parents.





How did the Anti-Vaxx movement get started? Mostly because there are "clusters" of autistic children around the country and no one has proven scientifically why that is happening. One scientist decided to "prove" that it was the vaccination mixtures causing autism. And since autism remains vastly more frightening to parents who have never actually seen what measles can do to child, they bought the idea hook, line and sinker.



From Forbes
...The wave began with a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield, claiming that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. Wakefield’s work was later shown to be fraudulent, and his claims about the vaccine “dishonest and irresponsible.” After lengthy investigations, the paper was retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license. Despite this very public repudiation, Wakefield has stuck to his claims, though, and has spent much of the past 15 years speaking (or perhaps “preaching” would be a better term) to anti-vaccine groups, to whom he is a kind of folk hero.
It’s not just Wakefield, though. Anti-vaccine messages have been broadcast aggressively by the group Generation Rescue, led by former Playboy playmate and MTV host Jenny McCarthy, and by Age of Autism, a group dedicated to the proposition that vaccines cause autism. (Age of Autism is doing it again right now.) And just last summer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published a new book further promoting the long-discredited claim that thimerosal causes autism.

Who are these parents?

From Washington Post
. . . the anti-vaccination movement is fueled by an over-privileged group of rich people grouped together who swear they won't put any chemicals in their kids (food or vaccines or whatever else), either because it's trendy to be all-natural or they don't understand or accept the science of vaccinations. Their science denying has been propelled further by celebrities, like Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and actress Mayim Bialik, who is also a neuroscientist and even plays one on TV.

Of the 34 patients in the current measles outbreak whose vaccination status is known, only five were fully vaccinated, according to the Los Angeles Times. And the worst of the outbreak is centered in Orange County, ground zero for the anti-vaccination movement that's put children at risk over junk science.
























Friday, August 8, 2014

Bachman Hates Border Children, but ALSO Fears "Lawless" Obama Will Experiment On Them

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Cuckoo Human Looney-Toon Michele Bachmann R-Minnesota, she of the "crazy eyes," believes that President Obama should be Impeached. She also thinks he is "lawless" like a runaway slave and needs punishment -- so put him in handcuffs! Yes, handcuffs! Why? Because he dared to give children of illegal immigrants, known as "Dreamers," the right not to be deported. What a horrible crime! Impeach!

This all happened as the GOP-led House of Representatives took their last stand before summer vacation by passing a bill the Senate will never pass, and the President will never sign.

But Michele never lets a lost cause stop her. And this gave her a chance for a dog whistle to the Tea Party as well.

From Roll Call
The Minnesota Republican made the figurative remark while speaking on the floor during debate on legislation ending the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granting deportation relief and work permits to some children brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The legislation also would prohibit President Barack Obama from expanding the program to other illegal immigrants as the president reportedly is considering whether to expand the program to as many as 5 million people.

Bachmann said House passage of the bill would “put a handcuff on one of the president’s hands” and said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., should bring the Senate back and pass the bill.
“He needs to put the other handcuff on this lawless president’s hands,” she said as she grabbed one of her wrists.

David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, objected to the language and tried to have the remarks stricken from the record, but was told the request was not "timely."

“Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to strike from the Congressional Record the words of the gentlewoman from Minnesota who described placing a handcuff on one hand of the President’s—-

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I object as the request is not timely.

Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, a point of order.

Excuse me. May I finish my unanimous consent request? Thank you.
She in one moment described putting one handcuff on one hand of the President’s and a second handcuff on the second hand of the President’s and handcuffing the lawless President of the United States.
Those are words which are not appropriate in the Congressional Record. I ask unanimous consent that they be stricken. Impugning the character and integrity of the President of the United States is a clear violation of the rules of this House.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Rhode Island?
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I do object. The request is not timely.

Bachmann has also accused the "lawless" President of being some sort of wicked Dr. Frankenstein, wanting to perform some strange medical experiments on immigrant children who are coming across the border with Mexico. Yeah, right - it's Obama who hates those children and wants them to suffer, not the Right-Wingers screaming at them, or the Militia folks shooting at them.

Bachmann can't seem to make up her mind whether she hates these children or wants to protect them.

Via Right-Wing Watch
This entire narrative is based on a bizarre misreading of the hospital's policy for allowing Wards of the state to participate in medical research trials, which is actually designed to protect such wards. The fact that Wards of the state can participate in medical trials under certain conditions and within specific guidelines is being intentionally misrepresented by Bachmann and others on the Right to claim that foster children are being used for wild medical experiments funded by grants from the federal government without oversight or limits.
. . . "Now President Obama is trying to bring all of those foreign nationals, those illegal aliens to the country and he has said that he will put them in the foster care system," Bachmann said. "That's more kids that you can see how - we can't imagine doing this.
But if you have a hospital and they are going to get millions of dollars in government grants if they can conduct medical research on somebody, and a Ward of the state can't say 'no,' a little kid can't say 'no' if they're a Ward of the state; so here you could have this institution getting millions of dollars from our government to do medical experimentation and a kid can't even say 'no.' It's sick".





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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

GOP Fearmongering about "Diseases" on the Border

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Previous Related Posts:
Oops! Rick Perry Looks Like Grumpy Cat
Murrieta Mob Screams at Immigrant Children
Ann Coulter Rants that Immigrants will Ruin GOP
GOP Painful Rebranding on Immigration
Grinchy Jan Brewer Denies Dreamer Rights
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Arrests 6-year-old Girl
Obama Immigration Speech Makes Right Wing Heads Explode

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The Prophets of Doom, that is to say the Republican Party and Fox News, are spreading more lies about the poor immigrant children arriving on our southern border. The key word of their talking point is "disease," and the hyperbole making the rounds is that all the kids are infected with everything from HIV to Leprosy, and they are "invading" a town near you!!!

What Republicans are saying is the stereotypical racist diatribe against the "other" arriving on our shores. They said it about the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Chinese - just name any ethnic group. And don't forget the strange "Kenyan" President. It's a story old as time.

These fear-mongering doofus-twits forget that most large cities in the U.S. have an epidemic of bedbugs right now. Homegrown bedbugs. And every elementary school in the country, private as well as public, has had recent bouts with head lice, fleas, chiggers, or something else. Same thing with summer camps, where all sorts of itchy and crawly things run rampant in hot weather. For all we know, these kids on the border are catching parasites after arriving in the American camps.

You can't just glance at a child and diagnose whether they merely have a heat rash, allergy, or mosquito bites as opposed to being "infected" with something more sinister. Maybe it's not measles, it's merely chicken pox? The GOP just loves to play doctor, and here they go again.

What is the harm in giving these poor chidren some nutritious food, a bath, and a clean place to sleep? Is that too much to ask from the richest country on earth? What would Jesus do? Didn't he heal the sick and say "suffer the little children to come unto me." Those words are lost on the faux-Christians pretending to be holier than the immigrants. Shame on them!









No Ill-Eagles Graffiti in Maryland:



Via Raw Story
Fox News has reported, repeatedly, that the children entering the country are doing so “with active scabies,” one of the three most common skin infections among children.
However, The National Review cast doubt about verifiability of the scabies claims, noting that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent who made them, Ron Zermeno, received a cease and desist order from his employer, reminding him that he should not speak without prior authorization.

From the Texas Observer
With thousands of children from Central America arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, an old plague is once again sweeping the country—the fear of the diseased immigrant.

“Our schools cannot handle this influx, we don’t even know what all diseases they have,” U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said recently. “Our health care systems can’t withstand this influx.”

Fox News commentator Cal Thomas asks, for example, if “the unaccompanied minors pouring over the border…have brought with them proof of vaccination?” Thomas accuses the border-crossers of harboring vaccine-preventable diseases such as “mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria.”

Before demonizing undocumented children, we should look at the facts: The vast majority of Central Americans are vaccinated against all these diseases. Governments concerned about health, and good parents investing in their kids, have made Central American kids better-vaccinated than Texan kids. We fear them not because they are actually sick, but because of powerful anti-immigration narratives that link foreigners to disease.

In fact, as the Texas Observer notes, the kids arriving on the Texas border are actually better vaccinated than our own children in the U.S., thanks to smear campaigns by famous celebrities blaming vaccines for everything from autism to cancer, as well as a lack of health insurance up till now for the poorest families.

By comparison, one in six kids in Texas is uninsured, and even insured families often must pay for vaccination. That means that many Texas kids fall behind on vaccinations, or miss them altogether when their family can’t afford a doctor’s visit. Other families refuse vaccination.
. . . Fact check: UNICEF reports that 93 percent of kids in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are vaccinated against measles. That’s better than American kids (92 percent).


Friday, July 11, 2014

Oops! Rick Perry Looks Like Grumpy Cat

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When Governor Rick Perry of Texas found out that President Obama was going to visit his state, he vowed he would never meet him at the airport or shake his hand. He wasn't going to do that because when Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey shook hands with Obama after Hurricane Sandy, it knocked Christie off the list for future GOP Presidential candidates, at least as far as the Tea Party was concerned. They call Christie a RINO (Republican in Name Only) to this day.

So Rick Perry wasn't going to do that. No Way! Nuh-uh.

Except, then he did. They met, shook hands, smiled. Oops.

So to make up for being an adult Governor and meeting the President of the United States with a handshake, Perry decided to put on a serious face for their meeting. Verrrry SERIOUS. Maybe he was trying to hard because he made a face that reminds everyone of the "Grumpy Cat" meme. This ridiculous photo will haunt him for the rest of his career.

Also, Perry couldn't bully the President into visiting the Border with him, so he went out on a boat in the Rio Grande with Sean Hannity from Fox News. They are wearing bullet-proof vests and holding big machine guns as if they are going to hunt down all these five-year-olds and their mothers and shoot them. Another mistake on his part, if Perry really wants to be President of the whole country and not just the anti-immigrant Fox-loving Gun Nuts. But then, they are the only ones who would EVER vote for Rick Perry. That man will never be President.

Who wants Grumpy Cat for President? Oops.

Previous Related Post:
Gov. Rick Perry thinks Obama is Sending Small Children to the Texas Border



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Rick as Grumpy Cat


















Rick Perry and Sean Hannity






















Monday, July 7, 2014

Gov. Rick Perry Thinks Obama is Sending Small Children to Mexican Border

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Previous Related Post:
Murrieta California Anti-Immigrant Mob

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Rick Perry in his hipster-retro glasses reminds me of 1950s TV icon Rod Serling, and on the Sunday talk show "This Week" he jumped right in to the Twilight Zone by blaming the current border crisis on President Obama. Never mind that George W. Bush signed a law saying all people coming from non-contiguous Latin American countries have to be "processed" by immigration at the border. No, according to Governor Perry, Obama somehow rigged the system so all these small children would show up and we would have to take them in. Cue Twilight Zone music...

"For Your Inspection" as Rod Serling used to say . . .



From ABC - "This Week" July 6, 2014

Martha RADDATZ: -- but Governor, this -- this is about a law. This isn't necessarily about Border Patrol. This is about a law. You heard in Jim Avila's piece, they have to let these people into the country when they're from non-contiguous nations, when they're from Central America or South America.

Should that law be changed?

PERRY: The rule of law is that "The Constitution" requires the United States to secure the border. And we're not doing that. We haven't done it for years. And we are paying a huge price.

When you have catch and release policies that send...

RADDATZ: But -- but, Governor, please...

PERRY: -- a message to people...

RADDATZ: -- go back to the law...

PERRY: -- in Central America...

RADDATZ: -- the 2008 law that was signed into law by George Bush.

Isn't this is a backlog in the courts?

Doesn't that have to be addressed first?

Gov. Rick PERRY: What has to be addressed is the security of the border. You know that. I know that. The president of the United States knows that. I don't believe he particularly cares whether or not the border of the United States is -- is secure.

And that's the reason there's been this lack of effort, this lack of focus, this lack of resources...

MARTHA RADDATZ: He's telling people not to come.

PERRY: -- and...

RADDATZ: He's telling them in ads not to come into the United States, not to leave their homes.

PERRY: About -- about five years too late would be my response to that. The president has sent powerful messages time after time...

RADDATZ: You know, Governor...

PERRY: -- by his policies, by nuances, that it is OK to come to the United States and you can come across and you'll be accepted in open arms. That is the real issue.

RADDATZ: But, Governor, you've made -- I -- I want to go back to an interview you did on Fox News. You re--- you recently made some pretty serious allegations against the federal government.

Let's -- let's listen to what you said to Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY: The federal government is just absolutely failing. We either have an incredibly inept administration, or they're in on this somehow or another. I mean I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: Governor, do you really believe there's some sort of conspiracy to get people into the United States by the federal government, by the Obama administration?

PERRY: When I have -- when I have written a letter that is dated May of 2012, and I have yet to have a response from this administration, I will tell you they either are inept or don't care, and that is my position.

We have been bringing to the attention of President Obama and his administration since 2010, he received a letter from me on the tarmac. He sends -- I have to believe that when you do not respond in any way, that you are either inept, or you have some ulterior motive of which you are functioning from.

So the issue is, this president understands now that we have a huge problem on our southern border. We have to deal with it. And I don't think you're going to be able to address it until you put the resources there, and that's boots on the ground. We're asking for the FAA to allow for drones to be used.

Unless we secure our southern border, this is going to continue to be a massive amount of individuals that are coming to the United States. And, frankly, we don't have a place to house them as it is. And if we have a major event, a hurricane that comes in to the Gulf Coast, I don't have a place to be housing people who are displaced.

RADDATZ: OK, governor, I'm going to have to stop you there.

PERRY: This administration is housing them.

RADDATZ: I'm going to have to stop you there. But thank you very much for joining us.

PERRY: Martha, thank you. Yes, ma'am.









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Friday, July 4, 2014

Murrieta, California ~ Anti-Immigrant Mob Screams at Bus Full of Children

 photo murrieta.png

*Sigh* ~ Happy Fourth of July!

From the Los Angeles Times
A crowd of 200 to 300 people in downtown Murrieta surrounded three buses carrying immigrant detainees Tuesday afternoon, causing the buses to turn around before they reached a Border Patrol station in the Riverside County city.
Waving Americans flags and protest signs, the crowd refused to give way when the buses arrived with some 140 detainees from Texas, which has seen a flood of Central American immigrants cross the border in recent weeks without legal permission.





























Day 2 - The Fourth of July