Surreal in the Middle East: Hama's human shields http://t.co/MOIP7sW0bx pic.twitter.com/83bD5LpVlw
— DEFCON (@gb_ball) July 19, 2014
What's claimed to be the Buk used to down #MH17 being driven out of Ukraine towards Russia https://t.co/4CZY9Dex4e
— Brown Moses (@Brown_Moses) July 18, 2014Ukraine released a video Friday it says shows the Buk missile launcher used to shoot down a Malaysian Airlines jet being carted toward the Russian border.
The footage was captured by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry claims. In it, one of four of the launcher’s missiles are missing, Ukraine says.
The Buk missile battery is a Soviet-era weapon equipped with a 70-kilogram warhead, designed for taking out cruise missiles, aircraft and drone planes. Usually mounted on a tracked vehicle, it is in use in both Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government in Kyiv, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all denied shooting the plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.
The University of California regents on Thursday confirmed Dr. Sam Hawgood as the new chancellor of UCSF, where he has served as dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and interim chancellor.
Hawgood, 61, identified last week as UC President Janet Napolitano's top choice for the job, will fill the role left by outgoing Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who left the university in the spring to become chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The new chancellor said he planned to focus his efforts on increasing funding for basic research at UCSF as well as promoting new partnerships to help commercialize advancements in technologic and biologic sciences.
"I understand and deeply respect the core values of UCSF - and both the principle and practice of shared governance with the faculty," Hawgood told the regents after they approved his appointment.
"But I know that, while we should remain connected to our past and preserve our values," he said, "our times call for a rigorous look at the reality of the world today and a willingness to move forward in new directions."
The regents approved a state-funded base salary of $500,000, plus $250,000 to be funded through an endowed chair, the Arthur Rock and Toni Rembe Distinguished Professorship, which was created for the chancellor position by the UCSF Foundation and uses no state funds.
Hawgood's total cash compensation ranks 34th among chancellors and presidents of the 62 public research universities that are part of the Association of American Universities, UC officials reported.
He will also receive an annual automobile allowance of $8,916 and be provided with the UCSF chancellor's home, UC officials said. The residence is maintained with non-state funds.
Obama calls on Russia, pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine to adhere to cease-fire for #MH17 probe. http://t.co/uJLy7piCtf
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 18, 2014At least 20 civilians have died when shelling continued in the rebel-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine this morning, just hours after the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, the Luhansk city administration has reported.Also at London's Daily Mail, "Calls for ceasefire in Ukraine fall on deaf ears in wake of plane crash as at least 20 are killed in heavy shelling across country."
The city’s official administration said the deaths came on “another black day” where shells hit almost every district in the city as Ukraine's forces continued to advance against pro-Russian rebels.
In a statement, it said: "Today intense bombardment of Luhansk has continued. Shells are falling in almost all districts of the city. According to preliminary information, more than 20 civilians have been killed since this morning."
Shelling in the troubled eastern region also damaged an electricity substation and reduced access to water supplies after the powercut halted water pumping stations, according to the BBC.
The conflict continued as it emerged nine Britons are among the 298 passengers who died when the Boeing 777-200 was downed as it passed over the Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk on Thursday.
US Defense official: "If the separatists shot it down, it couldn't have been done without Russian assistance." #MH17
— Julian E. Barnes (@julianbarnes) July 17, 2014Now the 2015 calendar girls have been chosen, and the calendar has been shot.. we'd like to thank all the amazing ladies who made it to the castings.
It was extremely hard to chose the final girls and we hope you enjoyed the ride. Hope to see you all again soon.
MSNBC host Krystal Ball was pranked live on air Thursday during her coverage of the Malaysian flight crash in Ukraine — with an apparent fan of shock jock Howard Stern posing as a military expert only to make a crude joke and call Ball a "dumbass."Yep, a true dullard, even by MSNBC's gutter-level standards.
"I was looking out the window and I saw a projectile flying through the sky, and it would appear that the plane was shot down by a blast of wind from Howard Stern's ass," the prankster said.
Ball ignored the remark and continued her questioning.
"So it would appear that the plane was shot down. Can you tell us anything more from your military training of what sort of missile system that may have been coming from?" she asked.
"Boy you're a dumbass, aren't ya?" came the reply.
The Dodgers are in first place in their division and gunning for a berth in the World Series in October. But as the second half of the season begins Friday, most local fans aren't able to watch any of it on television.Keep reading.
Off the field no progress has been made in the standoff between Time Warner Cable, which is distributing the new Dodgers-owned channel SportsNet LA, and area pay-TV providers including DirecTV, Dish Network, Charter Communications and Cox Communications.
"It is unlikely that we are going to get a deal done," David Rone, president of Time Warner Cable Sports, acknowledged for the first time this week.
Dodgers President Stan Kasten called the situation "extremely troubling" and urged everyone to "return to the table to continue to work to try to make a deal as quickly as possible."
Before the start of the 162-game season, many observers expected that pressure from fans would force the pay-TV providers to the negotiating table, or face mass defections. That's what usually has happened in the past. But not this time.
Instead, Time Warner Cable and the providers are deadlocked in what could become a definitive moment for the world of sports programming, as the industry realizes that exorbitantly priced television deals can backfire...
Kate Upton reads books, not magazines when at the beach http://t.co/2nkQb78jpx pic.twitter.com/v9OzJPVi8Q
— Robert Charette (@_Charette_) July 16, 2014
Make no mistake: this is a really, really, really big deal. This is the first downing of a civilian jetliner in this conflict and, if it was the rebels who brought it down, all kinds of ugly things follow. For one thing, what seemed to be gelling into a frozen local conflict has now broken into a new phase, one that directly threatens European security. The plane, let's recall, was flying from Amsterdam.Well, maybe the Europeans will step up support for Ukraine, but Obama won't do a damned thing. What, 23 Americans were on board? Meh, "it's a terrible tragedy."
For another, U.S. officials have long been saying that there's only one place that rebels can get this kind of heavy, sophisticated weaponry: Russia. This is why a fresh round of sanctions was announced yesterday. Now, the U.S. and a long-reluctant Europe may be forced to do more and implement less surgical and more painful sanctions.
#Obama has arrived in #NYC for Democratic fundraisers.
— darlene superville (@dsupervilleap) July 17, 2014
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is traveling to New York City Thursday for two campaign fundraising events during a national transportation tour.And at the Hill, "Obama: 'World is watching' reports of downed jetliner."
He is scheduled to attend one event for the Democratic Party and another for the House Majority PAC, which tries to help Democrats win House seats. They are being held at separate private homes in Manhattan and are closed to media coverage.
Obama will spend about five hours in the city, arriving at Kennedy airport at 4 p.m., then heading to the fundraisers. He will return to the White House just after 9 p.m.
Wow. @BarackObama's entire remarks about #MalaysiaAirlines crash is basically "that sucks" & "we'll find out if there were any Americans"
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) July 17, 2014Over the years, the cast of characters in this Pageant of Evil has changed several times. Ten years ago, the Left was all about fighting such dreaded demons as Halliburton, Karl Rove, Big Oil and “neocons” (a liberal euphemism for EVIL GREEDY JEWS). Nowadays, the exaggerated object of imaginary fear is usually the Koch Brothers.Continue reading.
After a while, you notice that the list of bogeymen that liberals want you to worry about never includes actual Bad Guys — drug gangs, carjackers, child pornographers, pimps, serial killers, Islamic terrorists or dangerous foreign governments. No, it’s always some far-fetched Republican conspiracy they’re worried about. The Existential Menace to Democracy As We Know It is necessary to the campaigns of Fear and Hate by which the Party of Evil mobilizes its core constituents: Fools, thieves, radicals and perverts.
He's back...
http://t.co/sgiciT5XnC pic.twitter.com/WF5of4fOY2
— The Independent (@Independent) July 17, 2014
The latest: A grim wait for migrants at Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas http://t.co/Qc1AbleO83
— Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) July 17, 2014
The number of immigrants coming across the border near the southern tip of Texas, the epicenter of the crisis, has fallen recently, [Border Patrol Regional Chief Robert] Duff said. Agents are catching about 900 migrants a day crossing the Rio Grande, compared with 1,200 a day last month, he said.
The agents are seeing half as many families as before, and unaccompanied children account for less than 20% of the people being apprehended, Duff said. It's not clear why the numbers have dropped, but the Border Patrol doesn't expect the trend to last.
The station was built to house migrants temporarily, not for days at a time. Duff said the facility could hold as many as 380 people, though he acknowledged that some officials say it should be fewer. There were 350 detainees on Tuesday, the day of the tour.
We are all people. #Murrieta pic.twitter.com/5BIFBeecVC
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 7, 2014
Sick. RT @jgurbin @CassandraRules @AmPowerBlog Israel is the Cancer of the world, jews are nice people, better?
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 17, 2014
.@CassandraRules @beautifulchaosJ Well u 2 have some kinda nerve having a civil conversation with @drginaloudon. Don't u 3 know its WAR?!?
— W. James Casper (@repsac3) July 17, 2014
.@DrGinaLoudon in #Murrieta last Monday. pic.twitter.com/3jtTqA5x9N
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 12, 2014What @DrGinaLoudon learned from #Murrieta #BorderCrisis Protesters @CassandraRules & @BeautifulChaosJ - Video: http://t.co/plPz1eNEMJ
— Producer Bieber (@jsnbieber) July 15, 2014#LaRaza, #AlexJonesAcolytes & about 75 others face off at @CBPSanDiego #Murrieta @AmPowerBlog pic.twitter.com/GkfqvOkl79
— Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) July 7, 2014@RSMcCain More crazy open-borders thugs in #Murrieta. https://t.co/zAN7k7Hhsc
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 7, 2014How about a count of children you have murdered? You are terrorists. @IDFSpokesperson
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 16, 2014.@Loricatus_Lupus @IDFSpokesperson funny, since that's not even a photo I have seen. Looks like propaganda to discredit the MANY real photos
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 16, 2014Will you make excuses for these deaths if the IDF terrorists bomb this hospital? http://t.co/6jWSbshBCh @Loricatus_Lupus @IDFSpokesperson
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 16, 2014.@Loricatus_Lupus @CascadiaDuck @IDFSpokesperson or Israel could stop keeping people in an open air prison and go back to the '67 map.
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 16, 2014.@cdnrod @Loricatus_Lupus @CascadiaDuck @IDFSpokesperson no, I think it's about being oppressed for decades & bombed like fish in a barrel
— Cassandra (@CassandraRules) July 16, 2014WESLACO - A center for unaccompanied minors set to open in Weslaco later this year will be the first of its kind in the nation, officials with a network of non-profits said.Yes, I'm sure it'll be nice.
BCFS Health and Human Services secured a multi-million federal contract to house young illegal immigrants at the site of the current Palm Aire Hotel and Suites on FM 1015.
Representatives with BCFS said the Palm Aire will undergo a multi-million dollar transformation. BCFS runs a temporary detention center for young illegal immigrants at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
BCFS began as an orphanage for Hispanic children in San Antonio in 1944 "Children ... who weren't able to go into other orphanages. They weren't allowed at the white orphanages, they weren't allowed at the African-American orphanages," said Krista Piferrer, with BCFS external affairs.
The agency has grown into a multi-national network of health and human service non-profit organizations.
"We lead efforts that range from emergency management and disaster response to serving teens and youths who are aging out of the foster care system to serving impoverished communities and expectant mothers in the colonias," Piferrer said.
BCFS said the Weslaco facility will be completely self-contained.
In Honduras, child migrants fleeing poverty and gang warfare http://t.co/cRhnpos2uK
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 16, 2014Border Patrol's RGV Sector Division Chief Robert Duff walked us through the center explaining how immigrants are typically processed.Yeah, well, adult illegal alien criminals are getting in on the amnesty action, and the criminal-coddling Democrats are ready to throw the borders wide open to them. At Twitchy, "Rep. John Lewis declares his support for unfettered borders: ‘Our doors are open’."
Tuesday, the facility was holding an estimated 350 immigrants, which is just under its maximum capacity.
The center has 10 concrete holding cells and five additional cells for isolation. Immigrants are separated based on age and gender.
Duff said that on a good day, 1,300 people can be processed in 24 hours, which is a significant increase from past years.
Border Patrol told Action 4 News the goal is to process immigrants as quickly as possible because this is a temporary facility with no showers.
We asked about the processing times for minors and were told the average time is currently 21 hours, and there are only six kids in custody that have been processed for over 72 hours.
In June, that number was much greater.
We are talking about human beings, real people. We have to respect the dignity and worth of everyone. #AskDems
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) July 15, 2014We are all connected. We can't just build a wall or a fence and say no more. This is America. Our doors are open. #AskDems
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) July 15, 2014#NotMurietta RT @LATpoliticsCA: Mayor @EricGarcetti says L.A. will shelter children who have crossed border http://t.co/qkekZtYe8Y
— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) July 16, 2014Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday that the city would help shelter immigrant children who have been detained after crossing the border and has begun talks with a federal agency about doing so.Also at Breitbart, "L.A. MAYOR GARCETTI WELCOMES ILLEGAL ALIENS, UPSETS HOMELESS ACTIVISTS."
"Before you get partisan, before you tell me where you are on immigration—these are children," Garcetti said Tuesday at a forum hosted downtown by Politico magazine.
"As a father, who are we as Americans if we don't step forward first and say, these kids who are isolated, alone … let's get them someplace safe and secure," the mayor told the crowd. Garcetti said the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services has contacted the city, but he had few details Tuesday about what accommodating the children would entail or when it would occur.
Federal money would flow to pay for legal representation and temporary shelter, while local nonprofits are expected to help find homes for the children, he said.
Garcetti added that the city would also be an appropriate place to reunite many of the children with their families as their legal situation is worked out, because many of their parents are probably in the Los Angeles area.
Garcetti spokeswoman Vicki Curry later said the city's Office of Immigrant Affairs convened a meeting on Friday with officials from the Health and Human Services Department and representatives of local organizations that work with immigrants and the homeless.
An illegal-alien Icarus, Vargas had been riding high after movie theaters and CNN aired his biographical, pro-illegal immigration documentary.And don't miss this, from Michelle previously, "“Undocumented” folly: A liberal reporter’s illegal alien sob story."
His amnesty activism is backed by the progressive Tides Center, a project of George Soros and former ACORN chief organizer Drummond Pike. To his elite friends in the no-borders industry, he’s a “hero.”
Journalists, celebrities and politicians immediately swallowed the propaganda bait, rallying to their privileged pal’s side. “#DontDeportJose,” they all cried in an orchestrated Twitter campaign.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of law-abiding people from around the world are waiting patiently for their backlogged visa and green card applications to be reviewed.
Vargas’ outraged reporter friends don’t have much sympathy for those would-be Americans. Or for the Americans who’ve dedicated their lives to protecting homeland security and upholding our laws. Vargas’ enablers jumped to condemn the CBP employees in McAllen for doing their jobs and demanded that he be freed from “unfair” and “out of hand” detention, as one hysterical Roll Call reporter put it.
Unfair and out of hand?
As I’ve noted previously, Vargas came here from the Philippines as a child, but knowingly broke multiple laws as an adult in order to stay in the country. After being supplied with a fake passport with a fake name, a fake green card and a bogus Social Security number, he committed perjury repeatedly on federal I-9 employment eligibility forms. In 2002, while pursuing his journalism career goals, an immigration lawyer told him he needed to accept the consequences of his law-breaking and return to his native Philippines. He ignored the counsel and instead used a friend’s address to obtain an Oregon driver’s license under false pretenses. It gave him an eight-year golden ticket to travel by car, board trains and airplanes, work at prestigious newspapers, and even gain access to the White House — where crack Secret Service agents allowed him to attend a state dinner using his bogus Social Security number.
The Vargas stunt will backfire because it is a smug and emblematic middle finger to everyone outside the D.C.-Manhattan bubble who believes in following the rules. As legal immigrant Asoka Samarasinghe wrote to me on Monday, “Michelle, this guy is a slap to the face of all us legal immigrants and citizens.”
As for “due process,” celebrity illegal alien Vargas will undoubtedly get more bites at the immigration court and federal appeals apple than law-abiding citizens will ever enjoy (see Zeituni Onyango).
But the sob-story violins play on. Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sanctimoniously tweeted Monday afternoon: “I stand in solidarity with journalist and advocate (Vargas). He exemplifies what America is about.”
Only if “America” means protecting leftist law-breakers from the consequences of their reckless, arrogant actions.
The protest over immigrant children coming to Pinal County fizzled Tuesday afternoon after their buses failed to show.Also at the Arizona Daily Star, "Immigration tension boils over in Oracle."
A congressional source confirmed that the buses were not coming.
The buses were supposed to deliver between 40 and 60 children who were caught crossing into the U.S. illegally to the Sycamore Canyon Academy, a boys ranch in the Catalina Mountains, near Oracle, according to the Pinal County Sheriff's Department.
There was no word on alternate plans for the children. Protesters and supporters began gathering early Tuesday morning for an expected confrontation. But there was only a brief skirmish between the groups, which have differing views on how the U.S. should deal with the surge of immigrant children from Central America who have crossed the border alone.
At one point, a few supporters of the immigrant children ventured toward the protesters, who had gathered a couple of miles away on Mount Lemmon highway. The protesters responded by shouting, "Commies!"
But there was nothing like the heated confrontations between similar groups in Murrieta, Calif., earlier this month.
Many women who today identify themselves as feminists have never examined the history of these conflicts and are unfamiliar with the militant personalities and radical ideologies that have influenced feminism for the past half-century. When confronted with the extremist rhetoric of feminists — vehement denunciation of males, condemnation of heterosexuality, claims that men (collectively) oppress and victimize women (collectively) in ways comparable to the Holocaust — the average woman is understandably startled and, if she thinks of herself as a feminist, she quickly shifts into denial mode. The anti-male passage you’ve just quoted to her is an aberration, an anomaly, an expression of fringe beliefs that does not represent the feminism that she endorses. She is not a Marxist, she is not a lesbian or a man-hater, she is not the kind of pro-abortion fanatic who views motherhood as male-imposed tyranny. The question thus arises: Is she actually a feminist?Keep reading.
.@DrGinaLoudon in #Murrieta last Monday. pic.twitter.com/3jtTqA5x9N
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 12, 2014
(CNN) - After his strong criticism of the Obama administration's plans to return thousands of young undocumented migrants back to Central America, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked a top White House official that the children not be sent to a site that was under consideration in his home state, sources familiar with the conversation said.There you go.
"He privately said 'please don't send these kids to Western Maryland,'" a Democratic source told CNN. The heated discussion between O'Malley and White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz occurred during a phone call late Friday evening, sources familiar with the conversation added.
A potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, O'Malley surprised some in his party when he sharply criticized a White House proposal to give new legal authorities to the Department of Homeland Security to expedite the deportation of the unaccompanied minors and their families.
“We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to certain death,” O’Malley said last week at a National Governors Association meeting in Nashville....
Instead, the governor urged the administration to show compassion toward the children, describing some of the facilities where the young detainees are being kept as "kennels."
“Through all of the great world religions we are told that hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity,” O’Malley said.
Hours after making those remarks, O'Malley expressed concerns to Munoz about a proposal under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services to convert a former Army Reserve Center in Westminster, Maryland to house the children.
A senior O'Malley administration official confirmed the conversation took place. But the official stressed O'Malley did not reject the idea of temporarily housing some of the children in other parts of the state. "Governor O’Malley and his administration are working cooperatively with federal officials to find suitable locations in Maryland for unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America," said O'Malley press secretary Nina Smith. "As he has said repeatedly, he believes the priority should be placing children with family members and–if that’s not possible–locating housing that is safe, humane, and non-restrictive," she added.
The HHS plan stirred up outrage among local elected officials in Maryland, including Rep. Andy Harris, R-Maryland, whose office cited "potential health risks" to the surrounding community. "Flying them to Maryland only to turn around and fly them back home is nonsensical.
Instead, President Obama should immediately return them to their nation of origin," Harris said in a statement.
HHS has since scuttled the plan for the Western Maryland site, an O'Malley official said.
.@4alaboroflove The #Murrieta model is spreading to #Oracle, Arizona!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 15, 2014
HHS has told AZ Rep. Raul Grijalva's office there will be no buses to Oracle today. Most everyone is leaving the protest.
— Astrid Galván (@astridgalvan) July 15, 2014
ORACLE, Ariz. (AP) - Protesters carrying "Return to Sender" and "Go home non-Yankees" signs faced off with immigrant rights activists Tuesday in a small Arizona town after a sheriff said a bus filled with Central American children was on its way.Well, yeah: "Sheriff Paul Babeu Slams Obama Administration: 'Nobody Has Talked to Us' About Shipping Dangerous Aliens to Arizona."
The rallies demonstrated the deep divide of the immigration debate as groups on both sides - and in similar numbers - showed up in Oracle to speak out on the issue.
It turned heated at times, with shouting matches and a group of mariachi musicians getting shoved before the skirmishes were quelled.
Anger has been spreading in the town of Oracle since Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu warned residents last week that immigrant children from Central America caught crossing the border illegally would be placed at the Sycamore Canyon Academy in Oracle. Protesters were hoping to mirror demonstrations in Murrieta, California, when immigrants were taken there recently.
"We are not going to tolerate illegals forced upon us," protester Loren Woods said.
Babeu is credited with stirring up the anti-immigrant protesters via social media postings and a press release Monday and by leaking information about the migrants' arrival to a local activist.
He addressed both sides of the protesters, asking them to remain civil, abide by the law and keep the roads cleared. Immigrant rights activists questioned Babeu about why he is stirring up protesters when he should be bringing order as the county's top lawman.
Babeu said he was simply informing the public and was at the site to make sure the protests on both sides were peaceful.
"All this was done in secrecy, and that's where a lot of people are upset," Babeu said Tuesday. "My concern (is) where's the federal government? Why are they not here? Why did they not hold a town hall to answer some of these questions?"
The only IDs I have for security: Philippine passport and my pocketbook US Constitution @DefineAmerican & @MAC_UTPA pic.twitter.com/IFH0Vb4oX7
— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) July 15, 2014About to go thru security at McAllen Airport. I don’t know what’s going to happen. For updates follow @DefineAmerican & @MAC_UTPA
— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) July 15, 2014#plsRT @joseiswriting detained @CBP, being taken to the mcallen border patrol station. http://t.co/sMR25cYtl2
— Define American (@DefineAmerican) July 15, 2014Before today's @joseiswriting stunt: Fake passport/green card/SSN/DL & I-9 perjury. Now he wants another free pass: http://t.co/JyZLyQ2KUu
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 15, 2014#PCSO says buses will arrive "shortly" in #Oracle. Group of protestors wait. #cbs5az http://t.co/G3YB8TLj0G
— Greg Argos (@GregArgosCBS5) July 15, 2014#PCSO says buses will arrive "shortly" in #Oracle. Group of protestors wait. #cbs5az http://t.co/G3YB8TLj0G
— Greg Argos (@GregArgosCBS5) July 15, 2014
Protestors on Mt. Lemmon Highway. The music shuffles between pop country hits and patriotic ballads. pic.twitter.com/8WOhZtvtwZ
— Mariana Dale (@mariana_dale) July 15, 2014
Pipeline of Migrant Children: A remote boys retreat in Oracle, AZ is site where up to 50 boys will be housed by Feds. pic.twitter.com/jcuTKAwkpi
— JOE DANA (@JoeDanaReports) July 15, 2014Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has played a key role in dueling protests planned for today in Oracle over the arrival of Central American immigrant children at a youth ranch — a position that has left the sheriff's critics and supporters at odds over whether he is inciting unrest or simply sharing information.
Last week, Babeu, a strong border-security proponent, mentioned that the displaced children were coming to Oracle as he promoted the candidacy of Christine Jones for governor. He later told political supporters and advocates of stricter immigration enforcement the exact location of the juvenile detention center where the displaced children will be temporarily housed.
Until then, a detention center for wayward youths in the Catalina Mountains called the Sycamore Canyon Academy had been a secret. The Sheriff's Office learned of the location from "whistle-blowers" within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Babeu's spokesman said in a news release Monday.
"We already have our hands full fighting the drug cartels and human smugglers. We don't need unaccompanied juveniles from Central America being flown into Arizona, compliments of President Obama," Babeu said in the statement. "Local residents have every right to be upset and to protest."
Babeu is deploying an unknown number of deputies to the site in southern Pinal County. The ranch has taken on extra staff in preparation for the children, who are described by people on one side of the immigration debate as refugees and and on the other as illegal immigrants.
Both sides will be in Oracle today. From 50 to 300 protestors are expected, Sheriff's Office Director of Administration Tim Gaffney said. No group asked for a permit, and they will be prevented from blocking roads, he said.
The planned Oracle protests could be a repeat of a recent showdown in the Southern California town of Murrieta, an inspiration to activists such as Robert Skiba. "We're going to stop it if we can," Skiba said.
"We will take all peaceful means necessary to stop the buses from entering this place."
Protesters in Murrieta, a city of 107,000 about 60 miles west of Palm Springs, thrust the community into the national spotlight earlier this month when demonstrators blocked buses carrying recent immigrants to be processed at a Border Patrol facility there. Another round of buses slated to arrive in the city on July 4 was rerouted, but dozens of people on both sides protested anyway. Six were arrested.
Skiba, a Babeu supporter, said he first learned of the transfer of children from Babeu at a National Rifle Association luncheon last week.
Alicia Bristow, another protest organizer, told allies in an e-mail Monday: "I spoke with Paul B. yesterday and he said the only way to stop this was for our community and the area to organize; and to contact our congressional members to tell them to stop this ludicrous dumping of illegals all over the country and especially, Pinal County."
The federal government is scrambling to find temporary housing for thousands of children streaming across the Mexican border, asking states for help as an increasing number of governors and local officials protest efforts to send the migrants to their communities.And at the video up top, John Russell, of Agawam, Hampden County, Massachusetts, say illegals should be "deported."
While some officials are welcoming the children, concerns voiced in states and communities near the southwest border and beyond demonstrate the depth of the Obama administration's challenge in trying to manage the crisis.
In Escondido, Calif., the planning commission denied a permit to turn a former nursing home into a 96-bed youth shelter after residents protested at a packed public meeting. Federal officials abandoned plans to locate a facility near Richmond, Va., after protests from residents. In Texas, two communities passed resolutions stating they don't want shelters—before anyone suggested opening them there.
At the National Governors Association meeting in Nashville, Tenn., over the weekend, governors expressed concerns over the cost of housing children in their states. And Nebraska's governor complained about 200 children who were sent to his state to live with their families, saying federal officials should have told the state who was being sent there.
"Governors and mayors have the right to know when the federal government is transporting a large group of individuals, in this case illegal immigrants, into your state," Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, said in an interview this weekend. He said he is concerned federal officials won't answer questions about plans to send the children to public schools and the potential costs to taxpayers.
Federal law requires that children from countries other than Mexico or Canada who cross the border unaccompanied by an adult be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for housing them on a temporary basis and then finding sponsors, usually families, where they can live while their deportation cases unfold.
HHS says it is working with local officials as it tries to open new shelters. But an agency spokesman said HHS is legally barred from notifying states when it places children with their families, as was the case in Nebraska, due to privacy concerns.
Until recently, HHS had about 100 shelters, capable of housing a total of 6,600 children, a capacity that quickly proved inadequate.
This spring, the agency opened three temporary facilities at military bases in Texas, Oklahoma and California, to house nearly 3,000 more. The agency said it is identifying a "wide range" of potential facilities in hopes of finding a few more.
To expand its options, HHS sent a letter to governors on July 1 seeking assistance identifying additional sites.
The border crisis was a major topic of concern this weekend at the summer meeting of governors, who met privately with HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell about the issue. They expressed concerns about the costs to states that wind up housing children, about their health upon arrival and what the federal government ultimately plans to do with them, said the NGA's chairwoman, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican.
More broadly, she said she worried that the U.S. may be signaling to other countries that it has an "open border" policy and that they can send children here in perpetuity, assured that America will "feed, house, shelter and take care of" them.
The White House has said that it is working to stem the flow of unauthorized immigrants, both because the U.S. cannot handle the influx and because it wants to discourage children from making the perilous journey. The president has promised that children who don't qualify for legal status here will be deported home, and to speed deportations, he has proposed changing a 2008 law that mandates a drawn-out court process for Central American children that has made speedy removals difficult.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, said costs must be a concern. "Our citizens already feel burdened by all kinds of changes. They don't want to see another burden coming into their state. So, however we deal with the humanitarian aspects of this, we have to do it in the most cost-effective way possible," he said Sunday.
But other governors were more open to the idea....
But there has been resistance in many other places—notably in Murrieta, Calif., roughly 65 miles north of San Diego, where protesters blocked buses carrying migrants, mostly women and children from Central America, to a U.S. Border Patrol station.
In Escondido, between Murrieta and San Diego, commissioners worried that the proposed shelter would increase traffic and overburden the neighborhood, said Jay Petrek, the city's assistant planning director. "They felt this was not the right location."
League City, Texas, enacted an ordinance last week that prohibits local officials from cooperating with any federal requests to house undocumented immigrants in the community because of "the potential threat of communicable diseases reported to be prevalent among illegal aliens."
And in the town of Greece, in upstate New York, supervisor William Reilich said constituents raised concerns after learning that the federal government was looking into placing immigrant children in a warehouse in town. The plan was scrapped.
After HHS officials said Thursday that they were considering housing undocumented children at a former Army Reserve facility near Westminster, Md., local officials protested. By Saturday, HHS said it was no longer considering the former Army site, though that may be because it was abandoned years ago and it doesn't have access to drinking water, according to local officials.
Concerns have also been expressed about a federal facility recently repurposed by the Department of Homeland Security in Artesia, N.M., to detain families with children until their cases can be heard. Artesia Mayor Phil Burch said his community of about 11,000 people will have to spend $225,000 to install a new traffic light near the facility due to the increased traffic. Mr. Burch said DHS officials projected the site will be used to house undocumented immigrants for up to a year—a duration he said locals find implausible.
Conventional wisdom is clear that the next Congress has a considerable likelihood of being a Republican Congress.More.
That same consensus also holds that if the GOP does indeed take control, the next two years will be marked by confrontation with the White House and even less actual legislative action than the present Congress has accomplished.
To be fair, there is some compelling logic behind these conclusions. President Obama has clearly opted out of the role of governing through legislation. He has become the most defensive president since at least World War II, blaming the Congress not just for all the ills of the nation but even for some of his international failures.
The president is pursuing this strategy while his party controls the Senate. This being so, it is difficult to imagine him shifting from that approach in a scenario where his party does not hold either chamber of Congress.
The Republican House appears to be equally averse to working with the administration. It has developed into a controlling party that has no control over itself.
Factions rule, and compromise or governance is simply not where their interests lie. Does adding a Republican Senate to the Republican House change this equation? Or, more likely, does it simply mean more of the same, only at an amplified volume?
The Beltway pundits are betting on the latter.
It seems like a good bet, especially since a Republican Senate will have its own dysfunctional factions in the persons of Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) et al.
But, in fact, this is not the direction in which things would go if Republicans gained the majority in the Senate...
William Hague stands down as Foreign Secretary as David Cameron ousts a dozen older male ministers in major reshuffle.Cameron's obviously under pressure to diversify the cabinet ahead of parliamentary elections.
Inner City Blacks Ask Obama: Where's Our Asylum? http://t.co/DtVthES54l via @IBDinvestors - pic.twitter.com/t7YR7iYMuD
— Daniel John Sobieski (@gerfingerpoken) July 14, 2014TORONTO — As the Gaza conflict continued in the Middle East, more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters faced off on either side of Bloor Street at Avenue Road early Friday evening, waving placards and flags and hurling insults across a sea of Toronto police officers and crowd-control fencing.More.
Mike Trout is the consensus best player in baseball.More, "Home Run Derby: Some sluggers would just as soon sit than swing."
He would have been a natural for Monday night's Home Run Derby -- he has more home runs than any of the 10 contestants -- but he rejected an invitation.
"A lot of guys were giving me crap about it," Trout said Monday.
His Angels teammates?
"Around the league," Trout said. Trout, 22, left little doubt that his decision reflected the wishes of Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Trout said he would welcome another opportunity to participate.
"If I get another chance, and if I said I wanted to do it," Trout said, "Scioscia would be against it, but he would support it."
