Conservative Blogger
Friday, July 25, 2014
Border crisis: Central American leaders convening at White House
Bailey: "Idiot pictured in middle to represent America?"
The meeting comes as the administration is considering creating a pilot program giving refugee status to young people from Honduras, White House officials said Thursday. The plan would involve screening youths in their home country to determine whether they qualify for refugee status. The program would be limited and would start in Honduras but could be expanded to include other Central American countries.
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, speaking Thursday in Washington, said he hadn't heard about the plan but expected it to come up Friday. He said Central American nations have sought to pursue a unified approach. "We expect that the solution to this problem also is equal for the three countries," he said.
Besides Molina, Obama was to host Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and El Salvador's President Salvador Sanchez Ceren on Friday, the day after they met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are considering Obama's requests for emergency funds and additional authority to send unaccompanied children back to their home countries more quickly. Those lawmakers appear unlikely to resolve their differences on either front before leaving Washington late next week for their annual August recess.
With critics claiming Obama's own policies triggered the crisis, the president has been eager to demonstrate an aggressive approach to reducing the flow of immigrants and returning those found not to have a legitimate claim to stay here.
The U.S. has mounted a communications campaign to inform Central American residents that they won't be allowed to stay in the U.S., and Obama sent a team to Texas this week to weigh the possibility of dispatching the National Guard to the border.
Under the in-country screening program the White House is considering, the legal standard for youths to qualify for refugee status would remain the same as it is for those who seek the status after arriving in the U.S., officials said, adding that the goal is to deter children who would not ultimately qualify for refugee status from attempting the dangerous trek. The officials briefed reporters ahead of Obama's meeting on the condition they not be identified by name.
More than 57,000 minors have arrived since October, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The trio of nations has become one of the most violent regions in the world in recent years, with swaths of all three countries under the control of drug traffickers and street gangs that rob, rape and extort ordinary citizens with impunity.
In recent weeks the number of children being apprehended daily has fallen by roughly half, but White House officials said seasonal patterns or other factors unrelated to the administration's efforts may be to thank for some of the decline.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with the Guatemalan and Honduran presidents Thursday. He said he was impressed by what the leaders were doing to crack down on human trafficking. Yet he said he also made clear the responsibility those governments had to follow through as the U.S. considers sending more money to Central America to help address the problem.
Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending, but lawmakers were looking at cutting that number down significantly. At the same time, Republicans said they wouldn't agree to any money without policy changes to give the government more authority to turn kids around fast at the border and send them home.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Border crisis: Latino media not presenting a fair and balanced debate on immigration
Duh!
I call it bias, because the only news stories I see from these networks paint the issue as a humanitarian catastrophe and depict some Americans as heartless or indifferent towards the issue. From Univision and Telemundo, I constantly hear about all of the human casualties near the border and how Central American refugees must be allowed to stay, no matter what.
It seems that the Latino networks just care about keeping their viewers happy and simpatico, so that they return each day to watch the latest programming.But what I don’t hear is a balanced debate about immigration control or any criticism of these refugees' countries, such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras or even Mexico – nations which have been overrun by gangs and police and government corruption.
I don’t hear enough Latino journalists discussing how these nations bear a responsibility to ensure the safety of their citizens.
Nor do I hear Latino journalists discussing how citizens of these countries should demand better elected officials so that there would be no need for them to run from their homelands.
The crisis reminds me of that old saying: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” We need to discuss ways to fix the root of this problem, rather than address its symptoms.
But the reason most Americans don’t comment on this media bias is because all these news broadcasts are in Spanish, tailor-made for these specific ethnic groups. To me, it seems that the Latino networks just care about keeping their viewers happy and simpatico, so that they return each day to watch the latest programming. Meanwhile, the networks are not presenting them with alternative view points, discussions about problem solving or scenarios that could arise from an out-of-control border.
Tuesday night on "The Factor," Bill O’Reilly made a brilliant observation about an anchor from Univision named Jorge Ramos. To me, the only talking point from Mr. Ramos on this immigration debate revolves around the humanitarian issue, but he has no words on how to control it, or who should be held responsible. Now I tell you, what do you think he and his peers are saying in the Latino media?
Mr. Ramos even tried to compare the immigration crisis to the Cuban exile – something I found offensive. The Cuban exile is a political exodus, in which an oppressive regime, similar to that of North Korea has been destroying individual freedoms and repressing the rights of its citizens to self-express. In Cuba, nearly everything is controlled by the government, and you can go to jail on the drop of a dime – and hundreds of Cubans have died under this oppressive regime.
Countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have freedom of expression, open markets, and other civil liberties. Instead, their problems consist of corruption and a lack of a moral compass. So don’t compare the Cuban exile with the problems seen in Central America.
At the end of the day, Latino media is just going to keep on growing. But as journalistic entities in America, they also bear the responsibility of being fair and balanced rather than picking stories that fit a biased narrative. There’s only one United States of America, and we must all protect its integrity and future.
Fox News Poll: Voters say Obama exceeded authority, but oppose impeachment
Idiot Voters!
By a 58-37 percent margin, the latest Fox News poll finds that voters think President Obama exceeded his authority under the Constitution when he unilaterally changed the health care law by executive order.
Click here for the poll results.
And, more generally, a similar majority disapproves of Obama bypassing Congress, acting unilaterally and refusing to enforce laws he disagrees with: 37 percent approve, while 58 percent disapprove.
Obama’s use of executive power plays well with the party faithful, as a 64-percent majority of Democrats approves of his actions, while a majority of every other demographic group disapproves (including fully 91 percent of Republicans).
Some prominent Republicans, including 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, have called for the president’s impeachment. Yet more than six voters in 10 oppose impeaching Obama for changing some laws and failing to enforce others or “for any other reason” (61 percent). Some 36 percent favor impeachment.
Nearly four in 10 Democrats think Obama is guilty of executive overreach on changing the Obamacare law (39 percent), and one in five Democrats favors impeaching their party’s leader (20 percent).
Among Republicans, 83 percent consider Obama’s actions on the health care law a violation of the Constitution. Yet far fewer Republicans -- although still a 56-percent majority -- favor impeachment.
Fifty-five percent of independents believe Obama violated the Constitution, and 37 percent favor impeachment (61 percent are opposed).
The highest level of support for impeaching Obama -- 68 percent -- is among those who are part of the Tea Party movement.
Overall, 81 percent of those favoring impeachment believe President Obama went beyond his authority when he changed the health care law unilaterally.
Charges that Obama has violated the Constitution have helped raise the political temperature in Washington this summer. In early July, House Speaker John Boehner took steps to file a lawsuit against Obama for his “failure to follow the Constitution” on the health care law by altering the individual mandate via executive order. On Tuesday two federal appeals courts took opposing views on whether Obama illegally ignored the language of the Obamacare law to give federal subsidies to people who are not entitled to them. Despite one court ruling that says he did, the White House announced subsidies will continue.
Forty-one percent of voters approve of how Obama is handling health care, while 54 percent disapprove. That’s a bit of an improvement from last month’s 41-56 percent rating. It also makes health care his best issue, topping the job performance ratings he receives on the economy (40-57 percent), foreign policy (36-56 percent) and immigration (34-58 percent).
Pollpourri
Obama has the most powerful job in the world -- and all the perks that go with that. Yet he’s been criticized by some for seeming disengaged and frustrated with his job. What does the public think? The poll finds a large 41-percent minority thinks Obama doesn’t even want to be president anymore. Still, just over half of voters think he does (52 percent).
Forty-seven percent of independents, 44 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Democrats think Obama is tired of being president.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,057 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from July 20-22, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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