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Sardonicus

FoxNews.com

The Paris terror attacks may have put a clamp on President Obama's plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, as the number of governors saying they won't take them swells.

At the same time, top congressional lawmakers are urging the administration to halt the plan. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul called on Obama to "temporarily suspend the admission of all additional Syrian refugees" pending a "full review," according to a letter obtained by Fox News. 

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON TIMES!

 

Governors racing to reject Syrian refugees as Obama defends 10,000 target

By Stephen Dinan | The Washington Times

Governors are rushing to declare their states Syrian refugee-free zones after last week’s terrorist attack in Paris, with chief executives in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama all saying they’ll use their powers to try to prevent the Obama administration from shipping refugees to their states.

President Obama, however, decried their moves as shallow and politically opportunistic, insisting the U.S. has a moral obligation to house thousands of refugees, and chiding his critics for equating the refugees with terrorists.

===========================================

 

Growing number of states refuse Syrian refugees

By KELLY COHEN | Washington Examiner

A growing number of U.S. states are saying they either won't take in refugees from Syria, or are asking members of Congress to stop the Obama administration from placing refugees in their state.

As of Tuesday morning, the following states were opposed to taking refugees — most have Republican governors, although New Hampshire has a Democratic governor:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Wisconsin

READ THE FULL STORY AT WASHINGTON EXAMINER!

More than half of US governors oppose refugee resettlement

By Jesse Byrnes, The Hill

More than half of the nation’s governors have moved to at least temporarily block Syrian refugees from resettling in their states, according to a tally compiled by The Hill.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/11/16/states-say-no-obamas-syrian-refugees

NPHuskerFL

Dude it's Tuesday.  

Sardonicus

 

theyolksonyou

I thought Wednesday was the new Friday...

JohnInCarolina

This should go well.

JohnInCarolina

dmchicago

Let's say you cooked 12 Chicken Wings. But 2 of them were only cooked to 135 degrees. Would you eat them?

JohnInCarolina

https://www.lawfareblog.com/defense-refugees

"Let's concede the point that our rigorous and slow screening system will fail in some small percentage of cases and that we will admit some number of people who turn out to be bad. If that is enough to stop all Syrian refugees from finding shelter here, why do we grant visas—and we grant many of them—to people from that part of the world at all? Why do we let students come here from the Persian Gulf? Why do we let tourists come here from just about anywhere? And, more to the point, why have we let refugees come here from all sorts of nasty places in the world? Each refugee community brings with it a certain number of bad apples. But I wouldn't give back the Mariel boatlift, though it involved a fair number of Cuban criminals. The United States also sheltered a large number of Iranians after the Revolution in 1979. We are, by a few country miles, the world's leader in refugee resettlement. To suddenly say that the risk of ISIS infiltrating this particular refugee flow makes it categorically different from all others is really a backhanded way of saying that we should make a different set of security presumptions about Arabs, even those we know to be victims of the worst forms of oppression by our own military enemies."

NPHuskerFL

We **** and moan Mexicans are taking American jobs. But, we're are okay with even a slight possibly of hidden ISIS or Jihadist in refugees?  Wow!!!  I see NY isn't among this list opposed. 

DMW

Botch

The Feds determine who can enter the US.  No one's been able to explain to me how any governor can "prevent" people from settling into "his/her" state...

I guess we've learned nothing from the Japanese internments from WWII.  

DaveRichardson

As Uncle Ronal Regan said, "Trust, but verify."

JohnInCarolina

Botch said:

The Feds determine who can enter the US.  No one's been able to explain to me how any governor can "prevent" people from settling into "his/her" state...

They can't - it's all posturing.  Some of them have already let refugees in.

NPHuskerFL

@DMW Great point. However, were Jewish known for suicide bombings or pure hated for the West?  Discrimination is one thing...Being concerned for American citizen safety is another. Sadly the majority of the refugees are likely okay. Would you want to gamble and have them move into your community?  I could care less if they're Muslim....Woop dee doo! 

JohnInCarolina

NPHuskerFL said:

@DMW Great point. However, were Jewish known for suicide bombings or pure hated for the West?  

No, we just thought they were dirty.  That was obviously completely different.

NPHuskerFL

@JohnInCarolina Truth. FL opposes it. However, we already have some refugees here (believe in the Tampa area). 

Acn

DMW

NPHuskerFL said:

@DMW Great point. However, were Jewish known for suicide bombings or pure hated for the West?  Discrimination is one thing...Being concerned for American citizen safety is another. Sadly the majority of the refugees are likely okay. Would you want to gamble and have them move into your community?  I could care less if their Muslim....Woop dee doo! 

@NPHuskerFL - I get it, I really do. That said, I live and work with Muslims on a daily basis, never feel in danger at all. I have spent time in Muslim majority areas of the world. Again, never felt in danger (I was a bit of a novelty as a white person). I'm sure that at a certain point in history Catholic's would have had a protectionist attitude towards Protestants and vice versa. What is the solution? Allow some risk and extend help, or ignore the fact there are innocents on the other side of the world?

NPHuskerFL

@JohnInCarolina Clearly Jews aren't "dirty". Good with numbers and jewelry maybe   Totally Joking!  

DaveRichardson

I know that here in Georgia, the governor can keep the state from spending any money on the process of moving people around in the state, finding services, government assistance housing that is state subsidized, etc.  Anything that would involve spending state $$, he can restrict.  The federalies cannot mandate how the individual states spend money.

nolaegghead

Jesus H. Christ Offers to Give Republican Politicians a Christianity Refresher Course

James Schlarmann November 16, 2015Funny Business

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KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, ETERNITY — Citing their recent commentary on Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris, France terrorist attack carried out by ISIS, Jesus Hubert Christ has offered to give “any and all Republican politicians a refresher course in Christianity.”

Many know Mr. Of Nazareth from his lifetime role of Vice-President at Holy Trinity, Inc., the universe’s leading human after life supplier, serving as the “Christ” in “Christianity” for just over 2000 years at time of publication. Christ is considered by most o be the preeminent expert on Christianity. He told reporters at a Monday morning heavenly press conference though, that “clearly there are a hell of a lot of Republicans masquerading as Christians.”

“Here’s the thing,” Jesus told reporters, “the fundamental, core tenet of this hole Me-tianity thing we’ve got going on is agape love. Do you know what agape love means,” Christ asked rhetorically before answering himself, “it means that you’re supposed to love everybody. Literally everybody. See that guy over there that just took a dump on the doorstep of an orphanage? You have to love him. See that woman over there, selling her body for money? You have to love her. That’s how it works.”

Christ said that when he heard Republican governors like Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Michigan’s Tom Snyder, Alabama’s Robert Bentley, and Texas’ Greg Abbot announce that they would no longer be accepting refugees from war-torn Syria in light of the ISIS attack on Paris he knew he “had to get those idiots on the horn and disciple some sense into them.” Jesus said that he made several calls to governors’ mansions and presidential campaign managers to “get everyone together so [he] could smack some sense into them.”

“It’s like, literally the most anti-Christian thing you could do,” Jesus said emphatically at one point, “to turn away someone in need of shelter. I mean, did they forget my birth story for Dad’s sake?! The whole reason I was born in a damn manger and not in a bed like most normal people is that a-holes kept turning their backs on my Earth mom and Earth dad. That’s actually one of the many lessons that Christians are supposed to take away from the Nativity.”

Christ made sure to say that the refresher course he’s offering “would be the most ridiculously short lesson plan ever” because, according to Christ, “the founding principles of Christianity are literally one thing and one thing only — don’t be a ****.”

“If you ask me, telling a whole lot of people without homes, money, food or shelter they aren’t welcome because a handful of violence bastards used them as cover is just completely antithetical to what it is we’re supposed to do around here,” Jesus said. He insisted that “nothing shows you don’t understand what [he] was teaching down there quite like turning away people in their time of need.”

As the press conference was wrapping up, Jesus told reporters he was “sickened by people who would absolutely self-immolate if you tried to lump them in with the Westboro baptist church making sweeping generalizations about [his] Muslim children.” He reminded reporters that the song’s lyrics are “Jesus loves the little children of the world and not Jesus loves only the white, Christian children of the world he thinks he can trust because he’s been pumped full of xenophobia.”

“I’ll bottom line it for you all,” Jesus said as he was ending the press conference, “every single religion has its violent factions. The KKK was a Christian organization. The Taliban is a Muslim one. But you know what? They’re both equally terrible in my eyes, so what I’d suggest to Bobby Jindal and all the rest is that they read their Bibles, and if after they do that they still think I want them to deny safe haven to refugees they can come see me, and my pimp hand is awful strong. Ask the money changers.”

nolaegghead

DaveRichardson said:

I know that here in Georgia, the governor can keep the state from spending any money on the process of moving people around in the state, finding services, government assistance housing that is state subsidized, etc.  Anything that would involve spending state $$, he can restrict.  The federalies cannot mandate how the individual states spend money.

Sure they can.  Depends on what it is and how much the state wants to suffer.  There's a long history of this going back to the amendments, but here's a later case:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_v._Dole

NPHuskerFL

@nolaegghead Brotha we have ten fold the number of crazy people right here in America. There's no denying it. Turn on the news on the boob tube or web and it's obvious. And they're Americans. So, you feel it's a good idea of bringing people here that nobody can deny could be a sleeper ISIS etc?  Really.

Eggcelsior

NPHuskerFL said:

@DMW Great point. However, were Jewish known for suicide bombings or pure hated for the West?  Discrimination is one thing...Being concerned for American citizen safety is another. Sadly the majority of the refugees are likely okay. Would you want to gamble and have them move into your community?  I could care less if their Muslim....Woop dee doo! 

Look at what we did to Japanese-Americans. Fear is one powerful drug in this farce of "keeping us safe". Especially when they are not WASPs.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Aren't we supposed to be a "beacon on a hill"? This is BS politicking and nothing more. How many Vietnamese tried to turn us into The US of Hanoi of the million or so that immigrated?

DMW

With all of the violence and extremism rising up around the globe, we have two choices. We can add to the hate, and anger, or we can be a part of bringing true change and fighting extremism through education. Help us raise up the next generation in Pakistan to think for themselves. You can invest in them….http://ow.ly/UI2OA

Davec433

Their is no way to vet any of these refugees minus taking their word. We don't have an extensive biometric pool for Syria so whenever you hear them talk about this extensive vetting process know they are lying.

DaveRichardson

Yes, @Nolaegghead, the SD vs Dole case involved money, but it was specifically in regards to the Federal Money for highways.  and I know that this also had ramifications in Louisiana and their highway funding until the mid-90's when the drinking age was raised there as well.  I spent many a drunken evening in New Orleans and Baton Rouge as a college student.

It also set forth, from the wiki page, the following:

The Court established a five point rule for considering the constitutionality of expenditure cuts of this type, noting that:

1. The spending must promote "the general welfare";
2. The condition must be unambiguous;
3. The condition should relate "to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs";
4. The condition imposed on the States must not in itself be unconstitutional; and
5. The condition must not be coercive.

I can't see how the two cases are anyway similar.  The fact that congress is asking to hold back the influx of refugees as well as a myriad of other federal agencies warning that this needs to be better planned rather than a "Fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants" program.

Yes, we can screen people, but what do we base the interviews and the information gathered on?  Is there a database of Syrian people that we can compare to?  I doubt it!

nolaegghead

Moderate Muslim American Wondering When He Can Start Generalizing About Christians

James Schlarmann November 17, 2015Funny Business

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GARRISON, CALIFORNIA — Mohammed Fadel has lived in America his entire life. Though his father and mother are both from Pakistan, Fadel was born in Fontana, California in 1982, and he considers himself a “proud, American Muslim,” in his own words.

Fadel recently told our reporter that after the ISIS terror attack in Paris, France recently, he’s noticed that “once again certain Americans seem ready to round up the Muzzies and put us all in camps.” Mr. Fadel says the last time he felt such intense societal pressure was just after 9/11. “You know, I’m not a Bush guy by any stretch, but at the very least, you could say that he was humane enough to remind the country that they weren’t mad at all Muslims, just the ones that attacked us that day,” Mohammed told us. Now he says, nearly 15 years of veiled — thinly and not so thinly — Islamaphobia have left him apathetic enough to wish to generalize about Christians the way he feels Muslims are generalized about.

“Without fail, whenever there is one of these horrific attacks that any sane person — Muslim or not — would condemn,” Fadel told our reporter, “you see a ramping up of the hostilities in this country toward people of the Islamic faith. It’s like they really don’t remember or care that people of the Christian faith have killed far more Americans than Muslims have.” Fadel went on to ask rhetorically, “How many Muslims do you think were fighting for Germany, Italy, or Japan in the Second World War? How many Muslims were on either the Confederate or the Union side of the Civil War? If this is truly a ‘Christian’ nation as some claim it is, then by the sheer numbers alone that means Christians commit far more atrocities in this country than Muslims do.”

“I’ve never met a Christian that didn’t want to distance themselves from the KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church,” Fadel lamented, “and yet why aren’t there demands for all Christians to denounce radical Christianity when one of their people flies off the handle and murders a bunch of black people in a church in South Carolina?” Fadel said that “seeing the difference between how a white supremacist Christian is arrested and held for trial and a suspected Muslim terrorist who’s just summarily executed with a drone-fired missile” should tell any American “all they need to know about different applications of the Constitution to different people.”

So, Fadel wonders, when can he begin lumping all Christians together? “When can I make a broad assumption that all Christians are only moral on Sunday,” he asked rhetorically before asking another question, “When can I see a crucifix on a car and just presume that they are hate-filled, selfish hypocrites who relish war like their savior would slap them around silly for?”

“I’d like to start doing that now, please,” Fadel said as he ended the interview, “If they get to pretend as if I’m a criminal just because of my religion, then guess what? Turnabouts is fair play.”

nolaegghead

Heaven to Close Gates and Turn Away Xenophobic Americans

James Schlarmann November 17, 2015Funny Business

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KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, ETERNITY — A spokesman for Larry “God” Schumway, founder and CEO of Holy Trinity, Inc. told a group of gathered holy reporters that in light of the rampant Islamaphobia God has seen in the United States over the past week directed toward the Syrian refugee crisis, that all xenophobic Americans would no longer be welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven or any of its franchises in the tri-state area.

“From henceforth,” the spirit of Barnabus McGee told the press, “any and all Americans who speak in favor of turning away refugees from war torn areas will be barred from the Kingdom of Heaven. Any American politicians who actively work to keep refugees out of their country, state, or town will not only be kept out of Heaven, but will be made to clean the toilets in Purgatory for a minimum of 14 centuries.” McGee said that God and his son, Jesus Hubert Christ held an emergency board meeting last night and that’s when the new admittance policy was hammered out.

At his own presser later that day, Christ told reporters, “It could not be any simpler — you’re not acting like a real Christian if you turn your back on people in need.” He went on to say that while he “can’t actually stop anyone from calling themselves anything” that he does have “direct control over whether your bigoted and ignorant ass will make it past the Pearly Gates’ turnstiles.”

“You can call yourself a kangaroo,” Mr. Of Nazareth told the media, “but if you don’t have a pouch, huge tail and live in the Outback, chances are you aren’t remotely like a kangaroo.” Christ told reporters that “the same theory applies” to Christianity. “You can call yourself a Christian,” Jesus said, “but if you don’t practice the very first principle of Christianity — treating others as you’d be treated yourself — you’re a fake Christian, and fake Christians are the ones who we are turning away as long as they turn away Syrian refugees.”

Both McGee and Christ said at their respective press conferences that this new policy is only temporary, and will be lifted when they’ve seen “an adequate number of American Christians acting like actual Christians,” McGee said. He also said that God is “not adverse to building a new eternal residence, separate from Heaven, Hell or purgatory” just for American xenophobes. “The truth is that no one wants to be around those **** when they’re alive,” McGee said as he finished up the press conference, “and so really no one wants to be around them in the after life anyway. If they want to live their mortal lives in segregation, we might as well let their spirits spend eternity isolated from everyone too.”

nolaegghead

Area Atheist Doesn’t Want Any More ‘Damn Christian Terrorists’ Moving To Her City

James Schlarmann November 17, 2015Funny Business

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FLUSHING MEADOWS, WISCONSIN — Failed 2016 Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker also happens to be the governor of the State of Wisconsin. Walker is one of the over 20 governors who have decided they would like to keep refugees from the war torn country of Syria out of their respective states. Federal authorities have been quick to point out the supremacy of the Constitution and how that supremacy means governors technically don’t have the legal authority to turn away anyone the feds approve. One atheist in Walker’s state however, says she is going to push him to keep a different group of religious fundamentalists from flooding into Wisconsin.

“I don’t want any more damn Christian terrorists moving into my city,” Helen Faber told us via phone interview. Faber said she is a 43-year old long time resident of Flushing Meadows, Wisconsin and she has seen over time “just how much the Christians in this town can terrorize people” and she believes “America’s fundies aren’t really much different from fundamentalist radicals in other parts of the world.”

Herself an atheist, Faber has her doctorate degree in anthropology and has studied human history for the better part of two decades. She told our reporter that “one of the first things that ISIS does when they take control over an area is decimate the schools and destroy libraries” because she says, “controlling education and information is one of the hallmarks of a theocratic, closed society.” Ms. Faber said, “If you look at what’s happening here in the States, you have conservatives in states like Colorado and Texas openly changing the curriculum taught at schools to create a whole new narrative about American exceptionalism, and to downplay racist institutions.”

“There is far more in common between ISIS and radical Christianity than they’ll ever admit,” Faber says, “and the simple fact is that keeping the general populace dumb and easily manipulable is a common goal between them.” Faber said that no religion is free from its abusers and that she finds it “extremely comical” when Christians behave as if they don’t have violence in their past, but also in their most recent history. “Timothy McVeigh was a conservative Christian anti-government guy,” Faber said, “and Breivik over in Norway was a Christian.” Faber said she finds it ironic that any religion that has led an Inquisition in the past would find the moral high ground to deny solace for refugees that belong to another religion.

Ms. Faber pointed out that “both ISIS and the Religious Right don’t want LGBT people to be equal” and that both groups “think they have a right to tell a woman what to do with her reproductive organs based on their religious beliefs.” She further said that they all “want to force their religiously-based view of the world on everyone and those that oppose it are expected to either stop fighting and give in, or be eliminated from society in one way or the other.”

“Let me put it this way,” Faber said at one point during the interview, “maybe they’re worried that some Jihadist will sneak in with the average refugee and blow up one of their buildings. But can any of us really be reasonably assured that some half-cocked, self-righteous, anti-choice Christian isn’t going to shoot up or bomb an abortion clinic?” Faber said she finds the intellectual inconsistency of the religious right the most offensive because “Christians are supposed to help those in need, not trample and turn their backs on them.”

“The only difference is that right now,” Faber said as the interview was concluding, “is that Christianity isn’t really openly calling for the murder of people who don’t follow their religion — oh wait, yeah they are. How many Christians have we seen on TV just in the last few days demanding that we enter into a Holy War with ‘Islamist terrorists’ again,” she asked rhetorically. “So I can’t help but think that keeping Christians out of my town might be beneficial. Maybe not for me, but for any of my gay friends or any of my female friends who might need an abortion one day,” Faber said.

A petition has been started by Faber and a few of her friends to have Walker sign an executive order barring any Christians from other states to move into Wisconsin until his policy against Syrian refugees is changed. This story will be updated as it develops.

DMW

Davec433 said:

Their is no way to vet any of these refugees minus taking their word. We don't have an extensive biometric pool for Syria so whenever you hear them talk about this extensive vetting process know they are lying.

The innkeepers didn't have a good way to vet a wandering pregnant couple who became with child before being wed...