Monday, October 26, 2015

Safety concerns prompt Border Patrol to pull out of college job fair amid protests

The Border Patrol is looking for a few good men and women -- but not angry confrontation, and that concern is what prompted the agency to back out of a college job fair.
Accusing the federal agency charged with protecting U.S. borders of  “unjust killings, …. racial profiling, use of force, and unjust violence,” protesters at University of California-Irvine succeeded in stopping the Border Patrol from taking part in a weekend career fair - and blocked students from learning more about a possible job opportunity.
"We regret to inform the community that out of concern for the safety of CBP Recruitment Officers, U.S. Customs & Border Protection will no longer be participating in the UCI Fall Career Fair,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ralph DeSio told FoxNews.com, instead referring students to theagency’s recruitment website.
“If you don't like the Border Patrol, it still doesn't give you license to demand their removal."
- Rob Petrosyan, UC Irvine’s College Republicans
DeSio did not say what specific threats prompted the decision. But the move followed a Change.org petition drive that some 600 people backed demanding the agency be banned from the Oct. 22 job fair at UC Irvine’s Student Center. The petition claimed “having Border Patrol agents on campus is a blatant disregard to undocumented students’ safety and well-being” and is insulting to “mixed-status families.”
UCI’s administration was “prepared to take every step necessary to ensure their safety and the safety of the attendees,” said school spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon, adding that the university never received any threats to safety.
“The Change.org petition and comments on the petition were not threatening,” Lawhon said.
The petition claimed the mere presence of Border Patrol representatives could prove traumatic for students.
"The fact that UCI has invited an agency known for racial profiling, use of force, and unjustified violence is an act of disrespect and insensitivity and ignores the struggles and needs of the undocumented student community on campus," it read in part.
Ironically, most of the people who signed the petition weren’t students from the university, said UC Irvine’s College Republicans President Rob Petrosyan. He said the campaign was organized by outsiders “politicizing a jobs fair aimed at helping college students find work once they graduate.”
“I haven't seen that petition distributed around the UCI class pages, and it seems like most of the signatures are from outside UCI,” Petrosyan said.
Even if the 640 people who signed the petition were in fact enrolled at the 30,000-student campus, that’s just 2 percent of the student body, some noted.
Whoever was behind the campaign to bar the Border Patrol showed ignorance about the important role the agency plays, according to DeSio, who said new recruits to the agency have an opportunity to save lives as well as protect U.S. sovereignty.
“The Border Patrol in San Diego conducted 37 rescue missions and saved 96 people from Oct. 1, 2014 to Aug. 31, 2015, rescuing them from the elements and environment when they attempted to cross into the U.S. illegally,” DeSio said.
On the UC Irvine student Facebook page, students and people unaffiliated with the public university carried on the debate.
“Students didn't want Border Patrol there because it is an immoral, human rights-violating institution,” wrote a commenter identified as ‪Levi Vonk‪. “This is about denouncing an organization that has ruined literally millions of people's lives through detention and deportation, and has deported unknown thousands to their deaths in their home countries. This is a civil rights movement for everyone, regardless of citizenship. This is bravery.”
However, college is supposed to be about peaceful interaction and respect, Petrosyan countered, echoing what many others said on the UC Irvine student social media page.
“If you don't like the Border Patrol, it still doesn't give you license to demand their removal. Especially since they were there to recruit for jobs as opposed to running patrols,” Petrosyan said.
Border Patrol, which has participated in several student fairs since 2010, was refunded its $600 vendor fee. More than 90 groups posted displays at the event, including the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Army, agencies that have been targets of protesters at other universities, but escaped the ire of protesters this time around.
The university had refused to ban Border Patrol from the campus, saying “UCI is committed to bringing a full spectrum of employers to campus to meet with our student population.”
“It’s up to individual students to determine which employers may or may not align with their diverse talents, values and interests,” Lawhon said.
UC Irvine is the same University that garnered national attention March 3, when The Associated Students of University of California supported a resolution to ban the American flag in some spaces on campus because it represented “hate speech” and “made people feel very uncomfortable and unsafe.”

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Chris Christie Cartoon


Christie has to leave Amtrak 'quiet' car after talking on cell phone


GOP presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had to leave an Amtrak “quiet” car for talking on his cellphone Sunday morning, shortly after boarding a north-bound train from Washington, D.C.
A fellow passenger told the website Gawker that Christie boarded the 9:55 a.m. train at the last minute and had a loud discussion with his two-man security detail about seating, then had an “intense” talk on his cellphone before being approached by a conductor.
The conductor purportedly asked Christie, known for his bombastic manner, to either concluded the call or move to a talking-permissible car.
Campaign official Samantha Smith acknowledged the incident but said Christie mistakenly sat in the no-talking car “on a very full train” and apologized for the mistake and inconveniencing fellow passengers
“After breaking the cardinal rule of the quiet car, the governor promptly left once he realized the serious nature of his mistake and enjoyed the rest of his time on the train from the cafe car,” Smith said in a statement. “Sincere apologies to all the patrons of the quiet car that were offended.”
She also said Christie wasn't asked to leave and referred FoxNews.com to a Twitter feed of a purported female passenger who said the conductor only pointed out to Christie that he was in a quiet car.
The passenger also told Gawker that Christie was drinking a McDonald’s strawberry smoothie and kept repeating into his phone: “This is frickin’ ridiculous” and “seriously?”
Amtrak conductors generally urge passengers to maintain a "library-like atmosphere" in the quiet car. It's not uncommon for conductors to ask noisier passengers to change cars.
The Republican presidential hopeful had appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation" earlier in the morning.

Ryan gets more, key support ahead of big vote this week to become next GOP House speaker

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan


Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan got added support Sunday from a key part of the chamber’s Republican conference when the leader of the House Freedom Caucus said he was the “right guy” to be the next speaker.
“We think Paul has the kind of vision and is the kind of messenger our party needs to accomplish the things we told the voters we’re going to accomplish,” group Chairman Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said on "Fox News Sunday."
Ryan, House Ways and Means Committee chairman and 2012 vice presidential candidate, was recruited by Capitol Hill Republicans to become the next House speaker.
Ryan agreed to run for the post after talking last week with members of the Freedom Caucus -- part of the chamber’s most conservative wing, which largely forced House Speaker John Boehner to resign in late-September.
“He didn’t quite get the endorsement threshold we have in our group, but a super majority of our members said we think Paul Ryan is the right guy at the right time to lead our conference,” Jordan also said Sunday.
The small-but-powerful wing continuously disagreed with Boehner and members of the leadership team, accusing them of not digging in hard enough on spending cuts, repealing ObamaCare and other important conservative issues.
Ryan in talking with the caucus members reportedly agreed to address their concerns including committee leadership assignments and legislation from rank-and-file members not getting more consideration.
The speaker vote is expected later this week.
“We have a commitment from Paul to work on changing the rules and we may even get a change before the vote this coming Wednesday and Thursday,” Jordan said.
Ryan was recruited after a couple of wild weeks after Boehner’s resignation. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the second-in-command, dropped out of the race after suggesting the House Select Committee on Benghazi was responsible for damaging the campaign of Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. And South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Benghazi committee, was mentioned for the job, but he quickly and emphatically declined.
Ryan needs 218 votes from the chamber’s 434 members, including 246 Republicans.
He has made clear he doesn't want to squeak by in the vote. Last week, he got support from the Republican Study Committee and the Tuesday Group, two key groups that should help him get enough votes.

NYPD union calls for boycott of Quentin Tarantino films after director's anti-cop protest


The head of the New York Police Department's union has called for a boycott of Quentin Tarantino's films after the director took part in an anti-police protest Saturday, four days after one of New York's Finest was murdered by a suspect he was pursuing. 
Tarantino, whose oeuvre includes the notoriously violent films "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction", and "Django Unchained", flew in from California to take part in the event with hundreds of other demonstrators.
"I'm a human being with a conscience," Tarantino said. "And if you believe there's murder going on then you need to rise up and stand up against it. I'm here to say I'm on the side of the murdered."
"It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too," Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, said Sunday in response to Tarantino. "The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big-screen fantasies — they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem."
Saturday's rally, which gathered in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood at Washington Square Park before marching about 2 miles along Sixth Avenue, came in the wake of the shooting death of 33-year-old Officer Randolph Holder. Holder was shot to death in the city's East Harlem neighborhood while pursuing a bicycle thief. A suspect has been charged with murder and robbery in the case.
"I think it’s very disrespectful,” Holder's cousin Shauntel Abrams told the Post. "Everyone forgets that behind the uniform is a person."
The New York Post reported that Tarantino acknowledged the timing of Saturday's rally was "unfortunate." But the director, whose latest film "The Hateful Eight," is due out early next year, said the rally had to go ahead because people had traveled long distances to attend.

Biden opted out on 2016 Dem race because he 'couldn't win'


Vice President Joe Biden says he decided against running for president because he "couldn't win," not because he would have had too little time to get a campaign up and running.
"I'll be very blunt. If I thought we could've put together the campaign ... that our supporters deserve and our contributors deserved, ... I would have done it," he said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes."
In the wide-ranging interview, in which Biden took questions for a time joined by his wife, Jill, the vice president also said he would not have gotten into the race just to stop Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I've said from the beginning, 'Look, I like Hillary. Hillary and I get along together," he said. "The only reason to run is because ... I still think I could do a better job than anybody else could do."
He used the interview to play down suggestions his announcement not to run, made at the White House Wednesday with President Barack Obama standing at his side, included a jab at Clinton.
At the White House event, Biden lamented partisan bickering in Washington politics and said, "I don't think we should look at Republicans as our enemies." Clinton had made a statement to that effect during the Democratic presidential debate earlier this month.
"That wasn't directed at Hillary," Biden told "60 Minutes."
"That was a reference to Washington, all of Washington," he said.
The 72-year-old Biden also sought in the interview to dispel recurrent rumors that his late son Beau, who died earlier this year at age 46 of brain cancer, had made a last-minute plea to his father to run for president.
Biden said there was no such "Hollywood moment ... Nothing like that ever, ever happened," he said. "Beau all along thought that I should run and I could win."
"But there was not what was sort of made out as kind of this Hollywood-esque thing that, at the last minute, Beau grabbed my hand and said, 'Dad, you've got to run,' like win one for the Gipper," Biden said.
The vice president did say he wants to continue to have a voice in party affairs and will speak up whenever he wishes. He has not endorsed a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"I will make no bones about that," he said. "I don't want the party walking away from what Barack and I did."
Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley are still in the race.

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