"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Monday, July 14, 2014

CONSPIRACY!!!11! (Update)

Via Digby, the latest in the ongoing outcry against -- well, something:

A federal employment ad posted in January showing that 65,000 unaccompanied minors will enter the U.S. illegally shows that the administration expected this cross-border child abuse and encouraged it.

Concrete evidence has shown up proving our earlier assertion: The breach of our border by waves of unaccompanied alien children was orchestrated by the administration based on a strategy straight out of the playbook President Obama studied as a community organizer. His goal is to get his way on immigration reform by overwhelming the U.S. Border Patrol and collapsing an already weakened system.

Needless to say, this isn't so much an editorial as a fantasy -- as Digby points out, the "anticipation" of the surge happened in the middle of it. It would be more accurate to call it an effort to deal with a crisis in progress, but that wouldn't fit the fantasy universe these people live in.

The degree of ignorance and paranoia in the comments on that article is -- well, I guess it's more or less standard for the teabaggers and their friends. (There are a couple of comments on the terrorist training camps in California -- seriously. Complete with a link to an article in "Liberty News" (whatever that is) and the Washington Times (yeah -- real reliable source, that). Not to mention the compassion, as evidenced by one commenter who "doesn't give a damn about these children."

The background on this is simply that the violence and disruption from the drug wars in Central America has gotten so bad that people are trying desperately to get their children, at least, out of the country, and the safest place for them is here. (Update: Here's more background.)

But Gov. Rick "You Can Tell I'm Serious Because I'm Wearing Glasses" Perry has a solution:

On "Fox News Sunday," guest host Brit Hume on Sunday grilled Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on his plan for addressing the influx of undocumented children at the border — sending in the National Guard.

Perry argues that the presence of the National Guard will deter immigrants from continuing to attempt to cross the border.

"They need to be right on the river. They need to be there as a show of force because that’s the message that gets sent back very quickly to Central America," he said.

Hume challenged Perry, asking what purpose troops could actually serve.

"They’re not, under the law, allowed to apprehend any of these children that are crossing, are they?" he asked.

"The issue is with being able to send that message because it’s the visual of it, I think, that is the most important," Perry responded. "If you don’t stop the bleeding. If you don’t staunch this flow of individuals that are coming up here, this is only going to get worse."

That's it -- just have the Texas National Guard standing there. They can't shoot, they can't apprehend anyone, they can't actually do jack all but the "visual" will produce the desired effect. Or something.

That's the Republicans for you -- it's all about the visuals.

(I couldn't help myself -- I left a comment at the IBD article. Now I'm wondering if any of the commenters are going to get the sarcasm.)

Addendum: I just ran across this story at TPM. I think it says something about Republicans and how low they've fallen:
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, said that while it was sad to see young undocumented immigrants at the southwest border, some of the teens looked like a "threat."

A 17-year-old refugee looks like the threat. But then, to a Republican, everything looks like a threat.

More on this idiot, from Raw Story:
When Hume asked whether Republicans would allocate money to deal with the children who have already crossed the border, McCaul spoke generally about “dealing with it in a humane and compassionate way, but I’m not in favor of building large warehouses in the United States to warehouse these kids.”

“It’s about deterrence, about security, and about dealing with these children in a humane and compassionate way — to send them home,” he concluded.

"Send them home." That's humane and compassionate, isn't it? Especially since he admitted earlier in the interview that conditions at home are desperate.

Or we could just bomb Central America.








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