Showing posts with label immigration policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immigration policy. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2013

More bad news about Team Rubio: Contempt for Floridians 24/7! Not that you'll hear about this from Miami's sleepwalking press corps but... Rich Lowry tweets what Ryan Lizza's new New Yorker piece re immigration reform reveals about Marco Rubio's staff, and Politico adds fuel to the fire: "Marco Rubio's office shows their contempt for American workers" (More interested in legalizing illegal aliens than plight of average Floridians.) And then some!;






















More of the inherent weaknesses of Team Marco are being revealed every day.
That is, IF you are paying attention. (Like me.)

 Sounds to me like the anonymous Rubio staffer quoted here,
http://www.politico.com/playbook/0613/playbook10932.html?hp=l6
is talking about Overtown, Liberty City, Opa-Locka and Carol City and Miami Gardens and large swaths of Fort Lauderdale to me.
Do Reps. Frederica Wilson and Alcee Hastings agree with this assessment of their constituents?

 Too bad for this country and this state that so many Florida-based reporters and columnists are in-the-bag for Rubio, even those who disagree with him philosophically or politically. 
They continually pull their punches and don't challenge him enough -just like they pull their punches for almost everyone else, too.
That used to be called gutless, but now called "new normal" in American journalism.

 As many of you regular readers of the blog may recall, while I lived and worked in Washington for 15 years, I always thought that Tim Russert was very over-rated and very fortunate to be a top dog in an era where there were so many no-talent journalists in the Washington Beltway who were more publicist than journalist, people who carried water for policies, not honestly examine them.

 Still, despite my feelings about him, I'm 100% certain that the late host of NBC News 'Meet the Press" would've absolutely humbled Marco Rubio and brought him down a few pegs the past few weeks as the immigration debate has once again become one of the main issues in D.C. now that the Beltway media have decided amongst themselves that the the Benghazi and IRS scandals don't really matter since they would require lots of legwork during the hot D.C. summer.  

 I think Russert would've positively undressed Rubio like a storefront mannequin by running one of those incisive video sequences he was so noted for that would show Rubio's recent penchant for flip-flopping in ways that would be hard to get out of your head.
He'd then come back from the videos with a LIVE interview and ask, "When will you be changing your mind again? And will you be just as certain then as you were this week and last month that you were right, right before you changed your mind?"

 It's the bell that isn't ringing, that punch that nobody in DC seems interested or willing to deliver to Rubio's glass jaw, which is absolutely frustrating the hell out of me, especially given Rubio's very pious comments about his role and his comments about how necessary it is that all of the 11 million illegals get to stay.
Where's the proof that they should ALL stay, especially the ones that aren't interested in becoming citizens? 
Shouldn't we able to make some distinctions? 

 Like the ones that Mickey Kaus talked about?
Serial drunk drivers!


http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/13/the-secret-dui-factor/

So why is Rubio so mum about other supporters of S.744 saying they think requiring people to be able to speak and understand basic English before becoming a U.S. citizen, as he would require, is a bridge too far?
Nobody even asks him!
What kind of people think THAT common sense requirement is unreasonable?

 Since you asked, the very people and groups who are constantly emailing the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times and the Orlando Sentinel and being quoted there, which are then picked-up and run on TV station websites.

 Still, say what you will about how contemptuous Rubio's staff may be, they can't be worse than the many unprofessional female staffers Connie Mack III had for years while he was Florida's junior senator, who would order beauty and health supplies for themselves over the main telephone in the front reception room while you waited to see someone.
Retin A anyone?
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Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich: total cost for illegal immigrants to LA County taxpayers exceeds $1.6 billion dollars a year; LA County Dept. of Public Social Services study: children of undocumented immigrants cost L.A. County $54 Million a MONTH, represents 20% of all CalWORKs and food stamp issuances in the county; Sen. Boxer Boxer to push funding for health costs of uninsured illegal immigrants


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Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich: total cost for illegal immigrants to LA County taxpayers exceeds $1.6 billion dollars a year; LA  County Dept. of Public Social Services study: children of undocumented immigrants cost L.A. County $54 Million a MONTH, represents 20% of all CalWORKs and food stamp issuances in the county; Sen. Boxer Boxer to push funding for health costs of uninsured illegal immigrants

 LA Times: Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services study: Children of Undocumented Immigrants Cost L.A. County $54 Million a month and represent 20% of all CalWORKs and food stamp issuances in the county

 http://ktla.com/2013/06/15/study-claims-children-of-undocumented-immigrants-cost-la-county-54-million-a-month

 “These costs do not even include the hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually for education.”
Post-Midnight addition to the post:

 I caught a LA Times has story about Senator Barbara Boxer doing what she does best -asking for taxpayer dollars.

Boxer to push funding for health costs of uninsured immigrants
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-boxer-healthcare-costs-uninsured-immigrants-20130613,0,6087718.story

 340 reader comments as of 3:11 a.m. Eastern
http://discussions.latimes.com/20/lanews/la-pn-boxer-healthcare-costs-uninsured-immigrants-20130613/10
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Friday, June 14, 2013

"Fertile" territory for media bias! Or, that's why it's the Miami Herald -and is shedding longtime readers! Former Florida governor Jeb Bush makes some nonsensical comments on Friday morning in hopes of passing the amnesty-first immigration bill, but while MSM and blogosphere duly write about what he said and give it due attention, the Miami Herald wouldn't post the story and leave it visible on their website for hours -like they'd do if other pols had said same thing -like Rick Scott for instance

Above, what the Miami Herald's webpage looked like shortly before 11 p.m. Friday.

On a day when an embarrassing and nonsensical comment by former Florida governor Jeb Bush was one of the top political stories of the day as judged by the country's political class and blogosphere, guess which Florida newspaper has nothing about it on the front page of their website, even while continuing to carry a story at the top of their website about Brit boy band One Direction?
Yes, the Miami Herald.
Surprise!

More than 12 hours after The National Journal has posted their story using some informed tweets, 

Jeb Bush Says Immigrants Are 'More Fertile,' Twitter Gets Mad
By Ben Terris and Matt Berman
Updated: June 14, 2013 | 10:34 a.m. 
June 14, 2013 | 10:24 a.m
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/jeb-bush-says-immigrants-are-more-fertile-twitter-gets-mad-20130614 

you literally couldn't find the story by examining what appears on the Herald's landing page.

Another example of the Florida news media running interference for the darling of the GOP East Coast Establishment and Florida's influential low-wage agribusiness industry, and a scenario that keen-eyed observers have seen time and again at the Herald the past ten years as its era of genuine relevancy in the community recedes farther and farther back in time and memory.

But then the Herald has long treated Jeb Bush differently than it does other pols in Florida -that is, once he finally got elected governor.
Typical media suck-ups.

By the way, who, exactly, is going to be persuaded to support this bill, S.744, because some self-serving and over-rated politician says that female immigrants are fertile?
That's a very, very weird thing to say aloud and makes you wonder what would have happened if some quick-witted reporter had asked him how he knew that.

I'd like to meet those people, or rather, I'd like the Florida news media to try to seriously try to find even one person in this state who is convinced by Bush's comment to change positions.
Just one person.
You couldn't find one, which makes Bush's comments even more asinine and queer.
This guy could NOT win an argument to save his life -or our country's..

If current Florida governor Rick Scott had said something along these lines, that story would've been the lead story on Friday night's six o'clock TV newscasts in Miami and be parked at the top of the Herald webpage for days on end, full of feigned outrage by liberals and La Raza about "the hurtful comments."

But yet again with Jeb Bush, someone I'd never vote for, and someone too weird, off-putting and self-serving for my tastes -to say nothing of his being very, very over-rated as a policy person- the Miami Herald gives him another hall pass.

Here's where the Herald buried the story
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/14/3451208/jeb-bush-america-will-decline.html

 And if you're paying attention, you'll see that it was an AP reporter doing the story on the former Florida governor, not even one of the Times/Herald reporters or a McClatchy reporter in D.C.
Now that's embarrassing!

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re immigration reform: Is Marco Rubio becoming a dissembling, thin-skinned, over-exposed loser? Byron York observes the metamorphosis of Marco Rubio on immigration from border security stalwart to a flip-flopper who now wants amnesty first border security later, and who objects to being called a flip-flopper or #sellout. York puts it perfectly: Rubio: "We need to legalize immigrants so they can pay for border security"

Is Marco Rubio becoming a dissembling, thin-skinned, over-exposed loser? Byron York observes the metamorphosis of Marco Rubio on immigration from border security stalwart to a flip-flopper who now wants amnesty first border security later, and who objects to being called a flip-flopper or #sellout. York puts it perfectly: Rubio: "We need to legalize immigrants so they can pay for border security"
Hmm-m... interesting. 
Out of curiosity I checked @marcorubio and he hasn't tweeted ANYTHING about immigration in well over a month. No tell-tale sign of his flip-flopping!
The Washington Examiner
Immigration fight revolves around security question
By Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent
June 13, 2013  8:00 pm
There's a fundamental conflict at the heart of the Senate debate over the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill. Most Republicans believe a policy to integrate 11 million currently illegal immigrants into American society must be conditioned on stronger border security and internal enforcement. Most Democrats don't. At bottom, that's what the fight is about.
Most Republicans believe security must come before integration, in one of two ways. Some believe enhanced security must be in place -- not a plan, but a reality -- before the 11 million can be granted temporary legal status. 



The Washington Examiner
Rubio: We need to legalize immigrants so they can pay for border security
By Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent
June 13, 2013  10:00 pm 
Why is it necessary to legalize the roughly 11 million currently-illegal immigrants in the U.S. before newly enhanced border security and internal enforcement measures are in place? Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Senate’s Gang of Eight, says part of the reason is that the federal government can’t afford to secure the border on its own and needs financial help from the immigrants themselves, in the form of fines paid when they are legalized.
Rubio made the statement during a radio interview after he voted against an amendment from Republican Sen. Charles Grassley that would have put off legalization until after the border is secure — a position supported by majorities of voters across the political spectrum.





Byron York @ByronYork  https://twitter.com/ByronYork 
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

When Rush Limbaugh admits he's disappointed in Marco Rubio's flip-flop on immigration, it's only going to get worse for Rubio. Only positive of S.744, the Schumer-Rubio “comprehensive” immigration amnesty bill, i.e the #setup4sellout, IF it passes, is that Rubio gets properly 'schooled' and roughed-up a bit to wear off his new car smell and conservatives see his true faults for what they are -he's still too gullible. Consider that Mission (already) Accomplished; Mickey Kaus is masterfully connecting-the-dots on why defeating this is more important to U.S. long-term than getting more info re Benghazi, IRS, NSA snooping scandals


The Daily Caller video: Rush Limbaugh "disappointed" in Sen. Marco Rubio for changing his "set-in-stone" position on immigration and border security and now telling Spanish-language media (Univision) something different from what he'd been saying before.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/11/rush-limbaugh-disappointed-in-rubio-audio/

 Senator Rubio now says he favors amnesty first and border security second, which in my opinion is not a good policy for this country's future because we know from past experience that the federal government will NOT fairly enforce new rules any more than they are enforcing the current ones. 
Especially under President Obama












On Tuesday, a big day for S.744, in the so-called gateway to Latin America, it was 16 minutes into the CBS4/Miami 11 p.m. newscast before immigration was even brought up -and that was less than 45 secs!

Not that it came as any surprise to your faithful observer of the passing political scene here at the blog, but on Tuesday, a big day on Capitol Hill for S.744, the Schumer-Rubio “comprehensive” immigration amnesty bill, here in what is constantly called The Gateway to Latin America, it was 16 minutes into the CBS4/Miami 11 p.m. newscast (while Miami Heat's blowout loss to the Spurs was still going on over at ABC) before immigration was even brought up -and was less than 45 secs!

Is that a result of the fact that the corporate management types at South Florida news media outlets, to say nothing of their sycophantic advertising people, are SO biased in favor of AMNESTY at all costs, that it never even occurs to them that it might not get the 60 votes?

 Is that a result of them being in complete lockstep over this issue and NEVER allowing their own people or others to write, report or comment intelligently on why so many Americans are genuinely opposed to the bad and unsound provisions of this bill?

 Never allow any public discussion about why so many smug Democrats nationally and in Florida just shrug their shoulders over security and border control on our own borders, but when it comes to Israel's, well, that's another story.

 THAT requires them to actually fly to Israel to -yes- "stand with Israel" after their taxpayer-financed spokesperson fires off some self-serving press releases to the lapdog legacy media
so that Jewish voters hereabouts know they've jumped thru the hoop again.

How many times over the years have we read about national, state and South Florida pols who are happy "to stand with Israel" but who don't give a crap about their fellow American on the Arizona border who lives on a farm or a ranch miles and miles from any police protection.

 Yes, when strong borders have to do with Israel, a firm stance predicated on safety and security is always to be admired and never undermined.
Do they think we do not see the hypocrisy of this, the condescending and patronizing tone and the self-evident showboating?

 Is that what we should expect from people in the media who never want to publicly discuss this hypocrisy and  border protection at all, or even gets into the particulars of what is being discussed?
Yes, yes and yes.
Laura Ingraham: Marco Rubio has betrayed conservatives

 Washington Post
The Plum Line 
Marco Rubio’s careful immigration dance
By Greg Sargent, Updated: June 10, 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/06/10/marco-rubios-careful-immigration-dance/

 Washington Examiner
Marco Rubio: In immigration reform, legalization comes first — ‘It is not conditional’, 
By Byron York
June 10, 2013 | 12:36 pm | Modified: June 10, 2013 at 2:00 pm
http://washingtonexaminer.com/marco-rubio-in-immigration-reform-legalization-comes-first-it-is-not-conditional/article/2531504

 Much of this genuine concern about the reliability of Marco Rubio and his willingness to actually adopt or formulate a position and keep it, recalls my blog post of April 27, 2013, which also featured a video of Rush Limbaugh talking about immigration.
Except that it was a conversation with Rubio on the air, with him in Washington, trying to defend his ever-changing position, and yet, seemingly, only making things worse for himself as far as reassuring his own past supporters, which has been a quite noticeable development over the past nine months.

 Some people I talk to regularly in South Florida and in Washington who like Rubio but who are far from fanboys, wonder if that is because, quite frankly, the GOP has forced Rubio to be the face of the party nationally on far too many issues, while other Republican senators seem top be doing nothing at all. (Or less than nothing-at all, given how rarely you hear their names.)
In short, Rubio's over-exposure is now starting to rub people the wrong way.

That post was titled, BUSTED! Breitbart's Matthew Boyle reports that Sen. Marco Rubio was "outed" by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with LEOs BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill; Daily Caller's Byron York on the deluge of angry anti-immigration bill email into Sen. Rubio's office; The shiny, new toy that is Rubio is now not-so shiny; audio of Rubio's interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin

 Meanwhile, blogger Mickey Kaus, long one of my favorite pundits going back to my days in Washington D.C. because of his great enthusiasm, mordant wit and willingness to actually READ everything on a subject instead of commenting on things he's never read -like South Florida's reps in Congress, who are a pretty dim crew collectively- has been doing everything he can to let people know that the defeat of this intellectually LITE immigration bill, NOT learning more details on Benghazi or the IRS or NSA scandals, is actually THE most important and far-reaching issue on the public docket now.
He's right, of course.  
Put trigger before legalization.

 Below, Mickey makes the case against it.

The Daily Caller
Kaus Files blog
Handy U-Print-It Pocket Guide: Why S.744′s a Fraud
By Mickey Kaus
5:34 PM 06/06/2013
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/06/handy-u-print-it-pocket-guide-why-s-744s-a-fraud/

 http://dailycaller.com/author/mickeykaus/
https://twitter.com/kausmickey
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Saturday, April 27, 2013

BUSTED! Breitbart's Matthew Boyle reports that Sen. Marco Rubio was "outed" by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with LEOs BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill; Daily Caller's Byron York on the deluge of angry anti-immigration bill email into Sen. Rubio's office; The shiny, new toy that is Rubio is now not-so shiny; audio of Rubio's interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin


Right Scoop YouTube Channel video: FULL INTERVIEW: Nationally-syndicated radio show host Rush Limbaugh, the most-listened-to personality on American radio, discusses the Gang of Eight's immigration bill and its possible consequences with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Uploaded April 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/dJjDbj6M16M 
BUSTED! Breitbart's Matthew Boyle reports that Sen. Marco Rubio was "outed" by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with LEOs BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill; Daily Caller's Byron York on the deluge of angry anti-immigration bill email into Sen.  Rubio's office; The shiny, new toy that is Rubio is now not- so shiny; audio of Rubio's interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin
BUSTED! Late Friday night we learned via Breitbart's Matthew Boyle that Sen. Marco Rubio was outed by a constituent over Rubio's lack of personal effort to meet with law enforcement officers, especially ICE agents, BEFORE the Gang of Eight released their very-flawed immigration bill. 

 The bill was made public the day after Sen. Rubio met with the union head of ICE agents -for ONE HOUR!- and after Rubio and the others had secretly been meeting with pro-amnesty & GOP business establishment groups in Washington and elsewhere for MANY, MANY WEEKS. 

 Personally, as a Rubio supporter, someone who was for him in 2009 when the Florida news media had already pretty-well handed the 2010 GOP U.S. Senate nomination to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, I think this public miscue is one that WILL haunt Rubio for a long time, since it is both symbolic and TRUE.

 I think it directly undercuts his claim to both "authenticity" and being an honest broker on this issue, one that many Republicans had perhaps too willingly given him lots of latitude on, assuming that he would be someone who could take a public role larger than his two years in the Senate warranted, and meet with groups that had something tangible to add to the mix on border security before the bill was finalized.

 And important because it reveals Rubio's blind spot, which is that he sometimes believes what he says about himself too much -not enough hubris!

I also think that much more than any of the Florida-based reporters or columnists or "experts" know or will acknowledge, this effort of Rubio to finesse something very important, will likely prove to some within the GOP's national rank-and-file that just like other American pols, though perhaps less frequently than most, there's what Rubio says, and then there's what he actually does when nobody is looking. 

 For people who want border security first, and are not willing to compromise on that, for good reason, people like me, the upshot is that this mis-step proves to some of them that he is NOT yet someone to be implicitly trusted.

 Especially in light of how little he has actually accomplished in Washington his first two years, outside of drawing attention to himself and the Syria issue, where he has been miles and miles ahead of both President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Mainstream Media, as I've noted frequently on these pages.




Rubio's inability or unwillingness to meet with people weeks ago whom he SHOULD HAVE, people with a real tangible insight into the immigration issue from a first-hand perspective, makes him appear to be what he is on this issue -NOT as tough or fair-minded as he advertises himself.

 I honestly believe that because this issue is so important to many rank-and-file Republicans in parts of the country where they don't have a news media that is SO easily cowed by the professional amnesty and immigration rights groups the way they are routinely here in Florida
-esp. here in Miami and South Florida as I've documented dozens of times over the years here on the blog- where the groups practically hand reporters a script and the reporters dutifully read their lines as written.
On this issue, it's NOT journalism, it's public relations.

 No place in the country is more skittish and less-honest in reporting truthfully on the negative effect of runaway illegal immigration, or unwilling to ask tough questions, than South Florida's news media, especially the Miami Herald.

 (Even new young reporters to this market, like a certain new female reporter at WFOR-TV I could name, seem to absorb by osmosis the general understanding that seldom is heard a discouraging word on immigration, and thus they routinely do segments that are completely one-sided, and don't even think to ask questions that should be asked, but which here in Miami are never, ever asked for fear of what, being fired? 
Those of you who don't live here can't fully appreciate it, but reporting honestly on immigration is the Third Rail of South Florida, talked about in the abstract, perhaps, mostly here on this blog, but never ever actually seen on-the-air or in-print.)

 So begins the first serious patch of political mis-steps, bad headlines and obvious displays of tone-deafness by Sen. Rubio, as his lofty abstract ideas about public policy get held up to their proper scrutiny and he is found wanting. 
It'll be interesting to see how he responds to this.
Will he adapt, evolve or double-down on what he's been doing and think he can ride it out.
While he'll probably be able to do the latter here in Florida, in the rest of the country, I wouldn't be so sanguine.

I believe that his personal reputation is about to get roughed-up but good by sincere and caring people outside of Florida who don't have to just grin-and-bear it like they do here in Florida.

 I further believe that 2013 will prove to be the year where Rubio's sometimes patronizing myopia and faulty antennae will lead to him making some SERIOUS political enemies among fellow national Republicans and their supporters at the state and county levels.

 And based on conversations with people and reading certain things I have, some of that antipathy and disregard he earns will last the rest of his political career, and cost him in ways that he can't even imagine now, because those people who are upset are mostly below the media's radar right now.
But by 2016, they'll be County party chairs in Iowa... and they'll be quoted in 2015 by the New York Times and by Politico and The National Journal...

 People who never pass on an opportunity to make Rubio and his staffers suffer in small ways, or make him work much-harder than he needs to simply because they don't like the way that he's handled an issue that they care passionately about, and see Rubio as someone who didn't fight hard enough and long enough.

 In short, someone who was too willing to work with Democrats to give them what they wanted, which is not enough attention to border security. 
Really.

 You'll see.

 The South Florida news media is, of course, completely under-reporting this issue, just as they do so many other issues that ought to be getting attention but don't.

 They'll wait for someone else in another city to do that particular story, and then act like they were always working on it themselves, which is the usual excuse given when you talk to local reporters in-person and ask why real political news is NOT appearing in-print or on-air immediately like it would in other parts of the country, but instead, put in a freezer whjere they can report it when it's no longer relevant.

And it'll all be his own fault, too, since he's now starting to be viewed more realistically -as someone who perhaps prefers the spotlight a little TOO MUCH, prefers to go-along to actually standing strong against the GOP's Beltway/Chamber of Commerce Establishment that was, for decades, more-than-willing to take advantage of illegal immigrants, esp. in the agricultural sector.. 

 Marco Rubio's charmed existence in the U.S. Senate so far is about to get some much-overdue and, it would seem to me, much-deserved turbulence.
But it will have little to do with anything any FL-based reporters or columnists say or write or uncover, but rather everything to do with his own bad choices and myopia, especially on the issue of immigration and its consequences.

 The shiny, new toy is now not so shiny.
And will be less so by the end of the year.

 RUBIO TOUTS TALK WITH ICE OFFICIAL WHICH SPURRED NO CHANGES TO IMMIGRATION BILL
by Matthew Boyle
27 Apr 2013, 12:58 AM PDT
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/26/Rubio-struggles-to-explain-to-constituents-why-ICE-agents-had-no-real-prior-input-into-immigration-bill


Right Scoop YouTube Channel video: Nationally-syndicated radio show host Mark Levine discusses the immigration bill and its possible consequences with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Uploaded April 17, 2013. http://youtu.be/USG2SLWbKew
------
http://www.therightscoop.com
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

#MUSLIMRAGE - 2010 video is perfect follow-up to my last post on problems associated with Muslim immigration to Sweden, inc. inability or unwillingness to adopt Western norms re free speech, are proven in video thru use of heckler's veto to stop performance, attack caricaturist Lars Vilks in Uppsala


BeTheBalls video: The Muslim attack on noted Swedish caricaturist Lars Vilks in Uppsala, Sweden 2010 - "the Entire Event". Uploaded May 27, 2010. http://youtu.be/lbpyk1uHNWY
Be sure to watch the woman in the second row wearing the multi-colored sweater, holding cell phone. This was captured by the TV operation of newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning in Uppsala.


I knew that I had the links to this video somewhere saved in Draft on my Gmail account, it's just that it wasn't yesterday when I really needed it to buttress my points in my blog post that eventually got around to the subject of Muslim immigrants' assimilation in Sweden, which is not going so well, owing mostly to the fact that many new refugees, mostly male, think they can out-smart the system that demands they make an honest effort to do several things, including adopting the norms of the country they're now living in, not being held hostage to the ones of the country they left behind in the rear-view mirror.
re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/re-fouad-ajamis-washington-post-essay.html

This 2010 video of a rather shocking display of anti-democratic behavior by Muslims attending an event in Uppsala that I heard about a day or two after it first happened, serves as a friendly yet-chilling reminder that unlike authoritarian regimes in Muslim-controlled countries around the world, when you live in a real democracy, like the U.S. or Sweden, it doesn't mean that you have a right to NOT have your personal feelings or religious sensitivities hurt, nor do you have a right to prevent other citizens from exercising their guaranteed rights, like freedom of speech.

 You can always choose to not attend events that will be upsetting, but you get the sense in watching the video that the whole thing was almost pre-meditated if not pre-ordained, given the reaction that you can see for yourself.

 Unfortunately, as we have seen for the past week with respect to the protests/riots in Egypt and Libya, and the premeditated murder of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, this concept of tolerance continues to elude both many Muslims who leave the Middle East, as well as ones who stay there and who seem to go out of their way to continuously be outraged.

 That's made worse by many in the American Mainstream Media who ought to know better, but who instead of dealing with them realistically, and call them on what they say and do, instead, coddle them, like ABC News' Christiane Amanpour, wife of a former Clinton State Dept. spokesman, Jamie Rubin, now an executive editor at Bloomberg News.


Breitbart's Big Journalism
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: WEST IS EXTREME, NOT ISLAMISTS
by William Bigelow  
15 Sep 2012 
ABCNews video: Christiane Amanpour, Martha Raddatz, and Brian Ross join guest host Jake Tapper to discuss political issues sweeping across the Middle East. Uploaded September 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/A0wPXV-BL5k
ABCNews video: Muslim Violence, Anti-American Protests, Fallout From Middle East: 'This Week' Roundtable. Uploaded September 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/miqHPq5l3SE
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Monday, September 17, 2012

re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE


IkoIko video: A 2006 Fox News Channel segment by reporter Steve Harrigan on immigration strife in Sweden and ethnic violence caused in the Rosengård area of Målmo by Muslim immigrants. Uploaded April 17, 2006. http://youtu.be/whWgCOE56K8

 Despite all the changes that have taken place since it first came out, Prof. Fouad Ajami's 1982 book, The Arab Predicament, which I first read in school, still remains a go-to
book for those who need to make sense of the current Mid-East reality and how we got to this point, for better and worse, as well as an insightful look at Arab sensitivities and sensibilities (and ultra-sensitivities) to being seen as the outlier. My comments follow the essay.

The Washington Post
Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?
By Fouad Ajami
Published: September 14, 2012
Modernity requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.
Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

Responses to the Ajami essay, which I sent out via email early on Saturday evening, consisted largely of "Maybe because the lunatic religious fanatics are running the show?" and even a link to Google Maps of the Middle East and questions about where are those Moderate Muslims that the Mainstream Media so adores, anyway?
Where are they hiding, exactly?

Well, actually, they're not hiding, per se, rather it's just that a disproportionate number of them live far from the field of battle and the negotiating table, living as so many of them do in New York, London, Paris and Berlin among many other places, which is why reporters there have no problem finding them - THERE.

 This, of course, is a self-fulfilling prophecy in a sense in that having so many educated "moderates" in Western cities -a problem the MSM never sees or brings up- means that there's less actual resistance to tenets of radicalism in those countries.
Radicalism fills the vacuum, not reasonableness.

 As for the rest of his essay, I do have an important correction for those of you who will perhaps not see it yourselves, and it actually touches on a subject that I've been wanting to write about and update since my last post on it, which netted me many interesting emails, though not all positive, since there's always someone who prefers butt-kissing to honesty.

 In the middle of his essay, Prof. Ajami says something that with just a slight bit of word substitution could just as easily be said is true of large swaths of current-day Miami, "You can live in Stockholm and be sustained by a diet of al-Jazeera television."
(Just substitute "Spanish-language programming"for al-Jazeera.)

While that is factually true about Stockholm as much as it is true of dozens of other large and dynamic Western cities, as I've stated previously here on the blog, a better yet more troubling example of what he speaks about is in Målmo, on Sweden's west coast, opposite Denmark's capital, Copenhagen.

 See my January 6, 2011 post titled, Uh-oh! Upcoming BBC World Service 'Open Eyes' segment on racial tensions in Malmö. Hmm-m...; Swedish immigration policy costs borne by local residents

Unfortunately for Målmo, owing to both past immigration patterns, geography, and familial ties, it's now home to not only an area that soon will be 50% Muslim, but also home to a large percentage of Muslim immigrants in the Rosengård area who, in many cases, make little effort to even try to assimilate Swedish values and norms.
No, Malmö, despite an avalanche of internal and external Political Correctness regularly sprinkled on the city and its inhabitants by a very PC and often patronizing national and European news media, is also the home to what all reasonable parties acknowledge is a very big long-term problem: a large percentage of all the Muslim immigrants in Sweden who fail to fully appreciate Sweden's freedoms, liberties and culture and incorporate that into their daily lives, people who actively fight assimilation, live right there. 

And many of the people who don't feel they should need to change are cocky and uncivil and don't care what you think about them being so publicly ungrateful.
And they aren't afraid of using violence, either, as the video at the top makes clear.

 When you attack firemen trying to put out a fire in YOUR neighborhood... you DON'T get the benefit of the doubt.


 But it's a lot more than just a PR problem to be solved, since the things that have happened there the past ten years have ranged from very negative to extremely dangerous and even deadly, and have been well-documented by the Swedish news media.
Everyone knows what has happened there.
Because of this extensive coverage, the rest of the country has largely started to develop negative feelings about Målmo as a whole because of what they view, essentially, as a policy of appeasement.

No, even worse from the point of view of Swedes who don't like what they see with a small but not insignificant number of immigrants taking advantage of their good nature and willingness to help, they see far too many people who won't even pretend that they're trying to assimilate, which, if you didn't know, is the one thing that educated Swedes of all political persuasions DO rather INSIST upon -immigrants actually trying to assimilate.

 And that includes learning enough Swedish to at least get by, not consciously going out of your way to cause offense by intentionally NOT speaking Swedish in public or govt. interactions, just to make others uncomfortable.

That tension and anger felt by a majority of Swedes is largely due to not only the natural resentment of knowing that you're being taken advantage of by others, but also, frankly,  knowing for a fact that there are many more would-be immigrants in other countries who would only be too happy to do what little is expected of them if they could legally move to Sweden.
People who'd be happy to try their best to fit in without having to be asked or reminded, and who would contribute something positive to society.
That's who they want more of!


There are some positive things going on in Rosengård, thanks to the hard work of some very dedicated people who want to show Sweden and the rest of the world that there are lots of immigrants who are, indeed, grateful for their new lives in Sweden, and the myriad opportunities that they and their families now have.

 No, not every immigrant has a chip on their shoulder -or a rock in their hand.
Some DO take pride in their area, and are well-adjusted, including the kids shown in this mittomrade video, which got posted to YouTube last week.


mittomrade video: Sophästen på Rosengård. Ivan Varga of "Ivan's Wagon Trail" and his horse, Bango, paid a trip recently to the Rosengård area of Malmö and proved an instant hit. Uploaded September 14, 2012. http://youtu.be/gAw1r4DJ_6Y

http://www.mittomrade.nu
http://www.aventyrsarken.se/


I didn't mention it before but among the many aspects of the failed immigration policy that causes people heartburn is the not-insignificant matter of all that taxpayer money being spent on all these social programs and activities, which contrary to what you may think in the U.S., actually comes more from local government, not from the national government.
Which means that something locally that might've done some good, was not funded because something for immigrants was. 

 A majority of people in Sweden feel that thru not only their words and actions but also thru their willingness to put their money where their mouths are, and bankroll a humanitarian process that makes it easy for newcomers to become part of the dynamic modern world that is Team Sweden, they don't think it's unreasonable for the newcomers to act more civilized and think before acting, not throw-down at the smallest sign of a slight, like where they came from.

 Taxpayers feel like they've shown their good intentions, and think it's not unreasonable for more immigrants to show more effort and gratitude, NOT act like they're still living in their old Mid-East country, and act publicly and privately in ways that are contrary to Sweden's customs and culture.

Yes, unfortunately for the people of Malmö, many Muslim immigrants in their part of the country have really mastered the art of bending-over-backwards to be seen publicly as the sullen "other," the outlier, and to get media attention for that.
The foreigner who publicly takes advantage of Swedish hospitality and who won't get with the program.
Is it because that's how they really feel, or because they thought they could get away with it and know that it gets them more attention? 
Probably both, but then the outlier never tells, do they?

 The thing is, despite all their democratic freedoms, Sweden, like Japan, is a consensus-driven and still-largely homogeneous country, and one that does NOT like people trying to consciously go against the grain and undermine Swedish society or customs simply for the sake of doing so; as opposed to doing so because of some larger, well-intentioned principle or policy.

 You can be a thirty-SOMETHING college-educated female that thinks that teenage girls in Sweden vying to be selected as the Lucia in their hometown, school or church is pretty silly in the 21st Century, and write about it on your too-cool-for-school political or fashion blog.
But that's very different than verbally attacking the teenage girls in public, or you publicly saying that the tradition should stop merely because you and your hip pals are not enthusiastic about it.






The photos above are December 13, 2010 screenshots I took of Amanda Römmesmo Diaz (as Lucia) from the 7 a.m. St. Lucia concert at Kungsholms Church in Stockholm that was nationally broadcast LIVE by SVT -and to me here in South Florida via SVT Play- in an event that was officially titled, Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Nobody is forcing you or your hung-over pals to get up early on December 13th and watch the national TV broadcast of the candlelight and music ceremony from some well-known church,  while you all sit on your sofa thinking and saying disparaging thoughts about people you don't even know, while eating hot crossed buns or cold pizza pulled from the fridge.
Sleep-in, it's all the same to everyone else
It's freedom of choice.

But denying others the choice to make their own personal decisions, well, that's the problem in a nutshell isn't it for the Muslim in Muslim-dominated countries today?
He or she is part of a religious culture that continues to deny personal choices and freedoms and micro-manage all aspects of someone's life.

That sort of attitude is anathema to most Swedes, who, thanks to several well-chronicled exploits of several Muslim troublemakers, have in many cases largely given up on the idea that most future Muslim immigrants will do the right thing and assimilate.
Which, logically, is why some ask, Why not just turn off the faucet to the Middle East?

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Meanwhile, over at Romesnsko.com...

 NEWSWEEK’S #MUSLIMRAGE = BIG #FAIL
http://jimromenesko.com/2012/09/17/newsweeks-muslimrage-big-fail/ 
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