Friday, January 8, 2016
Saturday Politics : Syrian Refugees, Cologne Sexual Assaults, and US States vs Obama
Saturday politics. Alabama sued the US government this week to force the Obama administration to provide information on the settlement in Alabama of refugees from Syria and elsewhere, accusing the administration of failing to consult state officials about refugees to be settled in the state, in violation of the federal Refugee Act of 1980. Governor Robert Bentley is one of 30 US governors trying to keep Syrian refugees from their states after the November attacks in Paris, where ISIS claimed responsibility and Syrian refugees were identified as participants. Governor Bentley said the White House has not answered three of his letters asking about plans to place refugees in Alabama : "The process and manner in which the Obama administration and the federal government are executing the Refugee Reception Program is blatantly excluding the states." Alabama wants the federal government to disclose information on each refugee, including medical history, and certify that each refugee is not a security risk. ~~~~~ Texas recently tried to stop the entry of nine Syrian refugees, but in December a federal judge dismissed the request for a restraining order, calling the state's evidence "largely speculative hearsay." The ruling cleared the way for the last of 21 Syrian refugees, some children under the age of 15, to resettle in Houston. But, the lawsuit goes on, with the next hearing to be scheduled soon. ~~~~~ In the Texas case, the Justice Department said the Refugee Act requires the federal government to consult regularly with states about the sponsorship process and distribution among states but does not require it to discuss individual resettlements in advance. The Southern Poverty Law Center said Alabama Governor Bentley lacks the authority to bar the resettlement of refugees, adding that his "grandstanding is fueling xenophobia and helping to create an environment ripe for hate and violence." ~~~~~ BUT, the German Syrian refugee experience tells a different story. On New Year's Eve, a thousand men described as inebriated and "from the North African and Arab world" formed a mass and robbed and sexually assaulted women in the Cologne train station -- 121 of the women have filed criminal complaints, including three for rape. Stuttgart and Hamburg had similar troubles. The German Interior Ministry said yesterday that 18 of the 29 men arrested in Cologne were asylum seekers. A police officer anonymously told a newspaper his squad detained several people who had "only been in Germany for a few weeks....14 from Syria and one from Afghanistan." The level of disrespect toward police was “like I have never experienced in my 29 years of public service," he said. Amid calls for her resignation, Chancellor Merkel said this week the behavior was "completely unacceptable" and deportations were possible. The Cologne attacks have shaken Germany and Merkel's governing coalition and called into question the whole idea of the huge German Syrian refugee program. ~~~~~ Terrorists disguised as refugees are not confined to Germany. In Texas, federal agents have arrested a 24-year-old Iraqi man born in Palestine, who immigrated to Houston in 2009, and charged him as a terror suspect allegedly aligned with ISIS. The US Attorney's office in Houston said Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, a designated terrorist organization. Al Hardan is one of three suspects. The other two were arrested in California, scene of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, and Wisconsin. Texas Governor Abbott said : “I applaud the FBI for today’s arrest of this dangerous subject. I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, President Obama -- responsible for Americans' safety -- cannot insist on taking 10,000 Syrian refugees into the US until each one is certified not to be a security risk. It violates his self-proclaimed duty.
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Do I hear a cry of 'STATES RIGHTS" coming from Texas and Alabama?
ReplyDeleteIf Ibama feels an insurmountable need to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees all he needs to do is call his old buddy Ron Emanuel ( Mayor of Chicago) and have him meet them at the train station.
Before you dump trash in someone's yard, it's best to at least ask permission.
Why do governments fail? Well they fail when it becomes so self-important that it loses touch with the values that created it. They begin to believe that they are the destiny of the world.
ReplyDeleteThe magnetism of power is for most irresistible; and those that are drawn into its control lose touch with the qualities that gave them the importance and worth.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” wrote the English essayist and historian Lord Acton in 1887. Corruption at the top leads to lawlessness at the bottom.
The likeliest result of obama’s new gun push will be that hundreds of thousands of Americans who understandably fear the mission creep of government will end up buying a whole bunch of guns. The flow of donations to Second Amendment advocacy groups will almost certainly rise, and gun violence — which has fallen considerably over the past 20 years of gun ownership expansion — will not be addressed.
ReplyDeleteBut more consequential — and this may be the most destructive legacy of the Obama presidency — is the mainstreaming of the idea that if Congress “fails to act,” it’s OK for the president to figure out a way to make law himself. Hillary Clinton’s already applauded Obama’s actions because, as she put it, “Congress won’t act; we have to do something.” This idea is repeated perpetually by the left, in effect arguing that we live in a direct democracy run by the president (until a Republican is in office, of course). On immigration, on global warming, on Iran, on whatever crusade liberals are on, the president has a moral obligation to act if Congress doesn’t do what he wants.
To believe this, you’d have to accept two things: that Congress has a responsibility to pass bills on issues important to the president and that Congress has not already acted.
In 2013, the Senate rejected legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases and to ban certain weapons and ammunition, and it would almost certainly oppose nearly every idea Obama has to curb gun ownership today. Congress has acted, just not in the manner Obama desires.
NO ONE IS OWED A NEW LIFE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY - NO ONE. A NEW LIFE CAN BE EARNED AND IF GIVEN SHOULD BE TREASURED AND RESPECTED FOR THE GIFT THAT IT IS
ReplyDeleteIn 1877, Lord Salisbury, commenting on Great Britain’s stance on the Eastern Question, noted that “the commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.”
ReplyDeletePresident Nixon, ahead of his time, as he (Nixon) began the drawdown of U.S. forces in Vietnam in 1969; he declared in Guam that while America would meet her treaty obligations, henceforth, Asian nations should provide the ground troops to defend themselves. Gen. MacArthur had told President Kennedy, before Vietnam, not to put U.S. foot soldiers onto the Asian mainland.
Under NATO, we are committed to go to war against a nuclear-armed Russia on behalf of 27 NATO nations, including tiny Estonia. We have megalomaniac all over this globe like Kim Jong Un in North Korea and the all the radicle fundamentalists Muslim leaders & terrorists in the Middle East that tonight would be lobbing Nukes at Israel if they had them to lob.
Does no one talk to the President anymore or does the President simply not listen to anyone anymore? Either way friends as the old anti-Vietnam war song said …” you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction…”