Presumptuous Politics : Nov 19, 2015

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Cuban Cartoon

Better red than fed: California school's communist Che Cafe needs handout

It may offer the best political science course on campus, but the lessons are lost on bureaucrats: UC-San Diego's fabled "Che Cafe" is awash in red ink and in need of a bailout.
Students have run the restaurant, named for Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, for 34 years, but they've steered it into the ground. Boasting of "exorbitantly low" prices, the vegan co-op and concert venue that once hosted an up-and-coming Nirvana has cost the student body nearly $1 million over the years, and isn’t kept up to fire or safety codes. The ragtag band of volunteer staffers, who call themselves a "collective," faced eviction in March, but have persuaded the school to save their beloved stronghold.
"I would say the current students have gotten a lot more involved in the Ché since all this started,” Fabiola Orozco, a fourth-year psychology major and Ché collective member, told the San Diego Reader.

"To execute a man we don’t need proof of his guilt."
- Che Guevara

Orozco was involved in talks with school Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, who is in talks to have the school pay for a new fire suppression sprinkler system, a fire alarm pull system, tempered windows, and a “travel/exit path evaluation” -- all items needed to bring the building up to code.
"Vice Chancellor – Student Affairs Juan González and his team have been meeting with the Che Collective representatives over the course of several weeks," school spokesman Jeff Gattas said in a statement. "The discussions have been productive and we remain optimistic that we will be able to address the fire and life safety upgrades at the Che Café. We look forward to the continued dialogue."

The code violations earned the cafe a 180-day eviction notice back in March, but supporters and volunteers staffed it around the clock in anticipation of a standoff with sheriff's deputies. That prompted Khosla to postpone the eviction in July and schedule talks with the students. Earlier this month, school administrators told The College Fix they are exploring how to subsidize the repairs, and committed to footing the bill.

The cafe's supporters believe it has historical significance.
“The venue has been operating for 34 years and it’s the longest-running volunteer space in Southern California, if not in all of California,” café volunteer Rene Vera told FoxNews.com last year. “And our building is covered in murals that document a lot of that history.”
But there are critics on campus who believe a failing cafe that celebrates a murderous revolutionary does not deserve public funds. But Amanda Fitzmorris, chairwoman of the College Republicans at UCSD, told The College Fix that the space "celebrates a dictator who enforced a murderous totalitarian police state that clamped down on free expression." Her group spray-painted one of Guevara's most infamous quotes, “To execute a man we don’t need proof of his guilt,” on a mural in a campus free speech zone to raise awareness to Guevara's legacy.
The cafe's namesake, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who was killed in Bolivia in 1967, was a key figure in the Cuban Revolution he fought alongside Fidel Castro. His legacy remains a contentious issue decades after his death, but the guerilla leader has enjoyed a posthumous resurgence in popularity among some circles, in no small part to the "Guerrillero Heroico" image characterized by some as the world's most famous photograph.
Students shouldn't have to prop up a failing business just because of their classmates' nostalgic romanticism, said one student.
"I do not believe Che Cafe closing will be a severe blow to the campus' overall aesthetic," soon-to-be graduate Marco Vasquez, a political science major and vice chair of the university's College Republicans, told FoxNews.com in an email last year. "The majority of students that I have spoken to do not know what or where the Che Cafe is, given that it is on the edge of campus. Those who do know either visit it regularly or describe it as creepy."

Contrary to Obama claim, US has history of admitting refugees based on faith

Immigration experts give President Obama Pinocchios for his claim that the U.S. has never used “religious tests” to determine which refugees get passage to America.
Russian and Ethiopian Jews, Armenians Christians and Catholics from Vietnam have all been moved to the front of the line in previous eras based on their faith, according to historians. And giving one religious group preference is tantamount to sending others to the back of the lines, noted immigration experts.
“Clearly, there have been policies that said we will consider certain people from certain religions,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“I don’t know that I would say put Christians at the front of the line in every case, but I would say, as a policy, to put religious minorities first.”
- Randall Everett, 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative

Obama spoke after more than 30 governors and virtually all Republican presidential candidates called for a moratorium on Syrian refugees amid fears that ISIS terrorists may have infiltrated the desperate wave of mostly Muslims pouring out of the Middle East. Obama has called for the U.S. to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees through an expedited process. Critics, who say it is impossible to screen them, objected on national security concerns, but Obama likened their opposition to religious discrimination.
“When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution -- that’s shameful,” Obama said, in an apparent swipe at senators and GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both children of Cuban immigrants. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
But under the 1990 law known as the Lautenberg Amendment, the federal government initially granted a presumption of refugee eligibility for Jews and Christians fleeing the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia. Nowadays, the amendment, extended last year by Obama, prioritizes the resettlement of Jews, Christians, Baha’is, and other religious minorities who flee Iran.
Obama, his critics and some experts appear to have taken at least three sides in the debate. The president believes not taking in Muslim refugees is religious discrimination; critics say doing so could expose Americans to Islamic extremists who hide among them and still others who spoke to FoxNews.com say religious minorities, which in the Middle East are Christians, deserve priority.
The State Department has even indicated that Syria’s Christian community, which made up an estimated 10 percent of that country’s population prior to the civil war, and has faced horrific brutality from Islamic State, should get preferential treatment based on their status.
“Due to the unique needs of vulnerable religious minority communities, the State Department has prioritized the resettlement of Syrian Christian refugees and other religious minorities fleeing the conflict,” wrote the department’s Special Advisor for Religious Minorities, Knox Thames, in a recent email.
Any religious minority is at greater risk and therefore due extra consideration, said Randall Everett, president of 21^st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting religious persecution.
“I don’t know that I would say put Christians at the front of the line in every case, but I would say, as a policy, to put religious minorities first,” Everett said. “In Iraq and Syria, Christians and Yazidis are the minority, and their situation is dire.”
The whole argument may be moot anyway, given that determining anyone’s true identity – much less their religion – may not always be possible in the chaotic and war-torn region where phony documents are everywhere and desperate people and evil terrorists will both say whatever they must to achieve their goal.
“It would not be unprecedented to choose refugees in part on the basis of their religion,” said Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies. “ Nevertheless, a program to focus resettlement on Syrian Christians is still risky, for the same reasons as one that does not specify religion. We still have no way to ascertain the true identities of the applicants, or verify their claims.”

Fox News Poll: Trump rules GOP race in New Hampshire, Sanders by 1 over Clinton

Donald Trump leads the race for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire, while Bernie Sanders edges Hillary Clinton among Democrats.
That’s according to the latest Fox News poll, released Wednesday, and conducted since Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
Trump leads with 27 percent of New Hampshire Republican primary voters. Marco Rubio receives the support of 13 percent, just above Ted Cruz at 11 percent. That’s it for the double-digit candidates.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
Jeb Bush and Ben Carson garner 9 percent each, followed by John Kasich at 7 percent and Chris Christie at 6 percent.
Just three percent back Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul, while Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum get one percent each.
There are differences in how some candidates are doing in New Hampshire versus their recent national standing (pre-Paris). For example, Carson is Trump’s closest competitor nationally, yet he doesn’t break double digits here. And the reverse is true for Bush, Christie and Kasich, who do better in New Hampshire than nationally.
The poll, however, also shows that the race is in flux: 55 percent of GOP primary voters say they could change their mind before February’s balloting. Less than half, 44 percent, feel certain of their choice.
When asked about their second choice candidate, GOP primary voters put Carson at the top of the list at 16 percent. Rubio is close behind at 13 percent and Trump at 11 percent.
When first and second-choice preferences are combined, Trump (38 percent) and Rubio (26 percent) are still at the top. However, Carson (25 percent) moves above Cruz (20 percent) and Bush (16 percent).
The favorites among those NH GOP primary voters who identify as “very” conservative are Cruz (27 percent), Trump (26 percent), Carson (13 percent) and Rubio (13 percent).
Here’s how the race for the Democratic nomination stands: Sanders has a razor-thin one-point edge over Clinton -- 45-44 percent. Martin O’Malley gets 5 percent.
Sanders can thank younger voters for his edge. Those under age 45 back him by 29 points (59-30 percent). Those ages 45 and over are more likely to support Clinton by 17 points (52-35 percent).
Men go for Sanders over Clinton by 49-37 percent. Among women, the vote divides 48 percent for Clinton vs. 42 percent for Sanders.

Potential General Election Matchups
All the candidates remain below 50 percent in the hypothetical matchups tested in this battleground state.
Although Trump is the top choice of Republican primary voters, he performs the worst against Clinton in general election ballot tests. Clinton bests Trump by seven points (47-40 percent), Cruz by three points (44-41 percent) and Christie by one (44-43 percent).
Clinton and Fiorina tie at 43 percent each.
Four Republican candidates come out ahead of the presumptive Democratic nominee: Rubio is ahead by 7 points (47-40 percent), Bush (45-42 percent) and Kasich (43-40 percent) are up by 3 points each, and Carson has a 2-point edge (45-43 percent).
President Barack Obama won New Hampshire in both the 2012 presidential election (by 52-46 percent over Republican Mitt Romney) and in 2008 (by 54-45 percent over Republican John McCain).
Among New Hampshire voters overall, about 6 in 10 are unhappy with the way things are going in the country today (58 percent), including 31 percent who are “not at all” satisfied.
Nearly 9 of 10 Republicans are dissatisfied with how things are going (86 percent), compared to 60 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats.
That dissatisfaction is reflected in Obama’s performance rating, as more New Hampshire voters disapprove (50 percent) than approve (43 percent) of the job he is doing.
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The poll was conducted November 15-17, 2015, by telephone (landline and cellphone) with live interviewers among a sample of 804 New Hampshire registered voters selected from a statewide voter file. Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and 5.5 points for Democratic primary voters and 5 points for Republican primary voters. The hypothetical matchups were split sampled, which means each question was only asked of half the sample and the results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 points.

NYC officials reassure residents after ISIS video shows Times Square, praises Paris attackers

New York City officials vowed that they were prepared to handle any terror threat late Wednesday after a video released by ISIS praised the recent attacks in Paris while using previous footage of a suicide bomber preparing to attack Times Square.
The video's release came just before the city goes into full holiday mode, with next week's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by the Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center on Dec. 2. These and other events attract tens of millions of visitors each year.
Police Commissioner William Bratton described the video as "hastily produced," while Mayor Bill De Blasio insisted that New Yorkers "should continue to go to work, live their lives, and enjoy the greatest city in the world."
"Be aware, but do not be afraid. The NYPD will protect you," Bratton said. "We cannot be intimidated, and that's what terrorists seek to do. They seek to create fear. They seek to intimidate. We will not be intimidated, and we will not live in fear."
The video, released by ISIS’s media arm the Furat Media Center, features several men, some speaking in Arabic and French, congratulating ISIS over the Paris attacks and promising that terror group will prevail.

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The video also shows French President Francois Hollande’s address following the attacks on Paris last week, mixed in with scenes of an older video of New York City.
Before showing scenes of New York's Times Square, an ISIS militant is pictured saying that the attacks in Paris were just the beginning.
The video then cuts to a militant donning a bomb vest mixed with footage of flashing billboards and yellow taxi cabs.
The video ends with a message on screen that reads "and what is to come will be worse and more bitter."
However, none of the speakers in the video specifically mention attacking Times Square, despite the imagery of the suicide bomber preparing to attack.
New York City Police Department spokesman Stephen Davis said the agency is aware of the video, and will continue to work with the FBI and intelligence community.
“While some of the video footage is not new, the video reaffirms the message that New York City remains a top terrorist target,” he said, later adding "While there is no current or specific threat to the city at this time, we will remain at a heightened state of vigilance and will continue to work with the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the entire intelligence community."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that after the attacks in Paris he directed state agencies to "enhance their preparedness."
"Remember that the terrorists' goal is to let fear win - New Yorkers never have, and we never will," he said.