What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. Anybody shocked? And notice how the White House, like the media, continues to push the lie about “heavily edited” videos. The full, unedited versions were released along with the shorter/edited version from the start. But hey, why let facts get in the way of protecting your blood money, right Barry?
From TheHill “White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday dismissed claims that Planned Parenthood has illegally profited from harvesting fetal tissue, saying the organization holds itself to “the highest ethical standards.”
Earnest defended Planned Parenthood one day after it was targeted by a second secretly recorded video that appears to show an organization official haggling over prices of fetal organs with a medical research firm.
The footage was filmed by anti-abortion activists from the Center for Medical Progress, which has threatened to release more videos until the government cracks down on Planned Parenthood.
When asked in a news conference whether President Obama had concerns about the video, Earnest pointed concerns about the video’s accuracy.
Earnest pointed to media reports that raise “significant concerns about the way those videos were selectively edited to distort not just the words of the individual speaking, but also Planned Parenthood.”
“They subscribe [to] and implement the highest ethical standards in carrying out their operations,” he said of the nonprofit health group.”
Well, you know, the highest ethical standards that butchers of unborn children can have anyway, which is obviously very low standards.
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2. Another perv/Obama bundler is in trouble. Just imagine the press coverage if he were a Republican. But he’s not, so silence once again….
From TheFreeBeacon “A proposed civil settlement by gay activist and Obama bundler Terry Bean that would have cleared Bean of criminal charges for an alleged sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy was rejected by a Eugene, Ore., judge, according to Oregon Live.
Bean, who raised over $1 million for President Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns, was arrested last November and charged with two counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of third-degree sex abuse. The charges stemmed from allegations that the 66-year-old Bean and his 25-year-old boyfriend had sex with the teenage boy in a Eugene hotel when he was 15.
Last week, Bean’s lawyer cleared the court and attempted to sell a settlement agreement that had been reached with the teenage boy, but the deal was rejected by the judge who learned that Bean had avoided similar charges through a civil agreement.”
“His name appears on the White House Visitor Log more than 30 times. On one of those visits, Bean brought along his then-boyfriend Kiah Lawson, who was also arrested and charged with identical counts as Bean for the hotel encounter.“
So this one isn’t his first victim.
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3. The number of illegal aliens who crossed the border under Obama- 2.5 million.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Some 2.5 million illegal immigrants have flowed into the United States under President Obama, with 790,000 rushing in since 2013, according to a new analysis.
Calculations from the Center for Migration Studies and the Pew Research Center indicate 1.5 to 1.7 million aliens joined the illegal population from 2009 to 2013 — either overstaying a temporary visa or sneaking into the country, according to a Center for Immigration Studiesreport out Monday morning.
The immigration watchdog’s analysis of Census Bureau data also showed that an additional 790,000 illegals entered from the middle of 2013 to May of 2015, for a total of 2.5 million new illegal immigrants since Obama took office in January of 2009. That is a rate of 300,000 to 400,000 a year.”
And he’s not done yet….
From TheFreeBeacon “The Obama administration is moving forward with plans to expand a waiver program that will allow additional illegal aliens to remain in the country rather than apply for legal status from abroad.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposed rule on Tuesday that would make changes to a waiver program created by President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration in 2013. The action created a waiver that primarily allowed illegal immigrants with a U.S. citizen spouse or parent to stay in the country instead of having to leave the United States and be barred from returning for three or 10 years, if they proved their absence would create an “extreme hardship” for their spouse.
The new rule expands eligibility to a host of other categories of illegal immigrants beyond those with citizen spouses and parents.
“DHS proposes to expand the class of aliens who may be eligible for a provisional waiver beyond immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to aliens in all statutorily eligible immigrant visa categories,” the proposed rule stated. “Such aliens include family-sponsored immigrants, employment-based immigrants, certain special immigrants, and Diversity Visa program selectees, together with their derivative spouses and children.”
The waivers allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country while they await visas, and avoid a penalty under U.S. law that bars persons who entered the country illegally from returning for at least three years.”
Diversity visas? I’m afraid to ask….. 🙄
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4. Don’t worry, I’ve found some good news for today too.
Problem solved. But atheists will still be miserable, because it’s what they do.
From StarsAndStripes “The land beneath the cross on Mount Soledad in San Diego has been purchased by a private nonprofit group for $1.4 million, a key step toward possibly ending a more than two-decade legal controversy over having a cross on public property.
The Mount Soledad Memorial Association announced Monday that it had purchased the half-acre of property from the U.S. Department of Defense.
A provision in the defense authorization bill passed in December called for the federal government to sell the land beneath the cross to the memorial association, which has pledged to retain the cross as part of a war memorial.
The 43-foot cross was erected in 1954. More than 3,000 plaques honoring veterans are on walls surrounding the cross. The memorial association has long tended the cross and surrounding property, holding Memorial Day and Veterans Day events there.
Since the late 1980s, litigants, including the ACLU and Jewish War Veterans, have argued that the cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state. In 2006, the land was transferred from city ownership to the federal government.
The case is now with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in a previous ruling ordered the cross removed, although it remains unclear what effect the sale of the property by the Department of Defense will have. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the case.”
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5. Repaying a debt.
From Breitbart “In 1938, 19-year-old George Weidenfeld was given safe passage to the United Kingdom, thanks to the help of a Christian group called the Plymouth Brethren. Weidenfeld would later work at the BBC and go on to co-found the publishing firm Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
The publisher just recently financed the resettling of 42 Syrian Christian families into Warsaw, Poland, who all made it safely to Europe. The operation was carried out in total secrecy, as identifying the refugees’ names may threaten their family members remaining in Syria. Furthermore, 200 more Syrian Christian refugee families are expected to receive safe passage to Poland in the next few months, Weidenfeld said.
Weidenfeld, who feels he has a “debt to repay,” told The Times of Israel, “We have been deeply moved by the plight of Christians in conflict-torn Middle East countries, and we are supporting the transfer of Christian families to safe havens where they can lead normal lives.”
Additionally, the Jewish National Fund–a pro-Israel organization–has stepped in to help finance the Christian rescue operations, according to the report. Another charity, the Warsaw-based Esther Foundation, has provided temporary accommodations for the refugees.”
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Wandering Views 
There are good people in the world. Thank you for the story about the repaying of a debt. Our Jewish brethren understand persecution. We must never forget and we must never forget the persecuted Church.
“Almighty God who created us in your own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to
contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may
reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice
in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
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$’s 4&5, Thanks for the good news. I don’t know where you found them.
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From Drudge: You can find hope and sanity in the strangest places.
NAIROBI, Kenya — President Barack Obama heads to Kenya Thursday for a global economic summit. It will be Obama’s first visit as president to his father’s homeland.
While some hope the trip will bring closer ties between our two countries, there’s one subject many Kenyans don’t want the president to talk about: gay rights and same-sex marriage.
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Shooting the messenger is much easier than checking to see if his message was true. Besides, they must protect their blood money.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/22/if-you-accurately-quote-abortionists-discussing-organ-harvesting-the-democrats-will-demand-an-investigation-of-you/
“The Democrats can’t make the Planned Parenthood disaster go away. They can’t rebut the facts. They can’t convince people that the evidence of their own senses is a hoax. So they’re trying to use their political power to protect their investment and maintain their control.”
“House Dems just sent letter to AG Lynch asking for probe into Center for Medical Progress over its sketchy Planned Parenthood videos.”
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Here’s some more numbers on illegal immigrants…..
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2015/07/22/alien-crime-wave-in-texas-611234-crimes-2993-murders/
“The murder of Kathryn Steinle on the Embarcadero in San Francisco by an illegal alien is the most familiar example of a crime committed by an alien. But an unreleased internal report by the Texas Department of Public Safety reveals that aliens have been involved in thousands of crimes in Texas alone, including nearly 3,000 homicides.
PJ Media obtained an never-before-released copy of a Texas DPS report on human smuggling containing the numbers of crimes committed by aliens in Texas. According to the analysis conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, foreign aliens committed 611,234 unique crimes in Texas from 2008 to 2014, including thousands of homicides and sexual assaults.
The report describes an alien crime wave of staggering proportions exacerbated by federal officials unwilling to enforce immigration laws.
The Texas DPS report says well over 100,000 individual criminal aliens have been booked into Texas jails:
From October 2008 to April 2014, Texas identified a total 177,588 unique criminal alien defendants booked into Texas county jails. These individuals have been identified through the Secure Communities initiative, in which Texas has participated since October 2008.
There are almost certainly more criminal aliens who haven’t been identified as aliens. The 177,588 criminal aliens identified by Texas through the Secure Communities initiative only can tag criminal aliens who had already been fingerprinted. Arrests of illegal aliens who have not been fingerprinted prior to arrest are not included in these arrests numbers derived from the Secure Communities initiative.”
So the numbers are actually higher/worse. And this is just in Texas.
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1. Fetal body parts are governed by the same rules governing the sale of human remains and other body parts. By law PP and any other organization cannot make a profit but are allowed to cover the costs (procurement and transportation). Although it is rather morbid, the “organ trade” is an active non-profit business — if PP is attempting to generate profit, they should be investigated, otherwise other than a crude and unprofessional employee there’s nothing illegal here.
It is interesting to note, the left is ignoring the video — my newsfeed is full of Sandra Bland discussions and videos, not a word of PP. Other than noting similar to me that fetal remains are governed by the same rules as human remains, nothing more has been said. You really can’t defend the employee.
3 Illegal immigration declined in the post 2008 recession. Its now increasing as the economy improves. The current increase then can be viewed as the result of an improved economy.
5. A good news story for the individuals involved. However, as a community, its part of the decline of Middle Eastern Christianity — a group of broad, diverse cultures — Assyrian, Chaldeans, Armenians, Maronites, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, etc. A community that last over a 1000 years under Islamic rule is only now being expelled or eliminated — one wonders why it took Islam so long — or is it modernity with its technological ability to assimilate and demand compliance.
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Steyn out of Canada is frequently brutal and cynical, but then, so is the subject matter:
http://www.steynonline.com/7064/ive-got-a-crush-on-you-baby
AND, just as I thought, the Nuremberg trials addressed this issue: http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/doctors-trial/nuremberg-code#Permissible.
Of course, PP is dealing with dead infants so perhaps they don’t believe the ghoulish accords apply to them?
😦
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HRW #3,
Thanks, I needed a good laugh… Improving economy…. now that’s funny…. 🙄
Let’s see is it the economy, or the promise of amnesty and federal aid that has drawn them since Obama decided our laws are meaningless? Hmmmm….. that’s a tough one…. 🙄
Guess which one I pick. 🙂
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Free healthcare and education would be my guess, at least for here in CA,
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HRW,
Some questions for you, if you would indulge me…… I know we’re in different countries and all, with differing laws, but you’re more left leaning than most folks I know, so I wondered if you can answer from your perspective.
Isn’t the left’s line that these are mostly women and children, and not work aged males and gang members? Which is it? The left says they’re fleeing violence (which in some cases is true and we already had an asylum system for that) now you say it’s the economy and jobs they want. You guys need to get your story straight.
And 94 million uncounted, yet still jobless Americans disagree with the assertion that the economy is booming. They know better, they’re livin’ it. Their numbers continue to grow, yet the unemployment number drops. And how do you feel about those folks while givin’ away the alleged opportunity and jobs in your so-called “recovering economy?” The left seems so willing to give any imagined gains to illegal, unlawful residents instead. And please, don’t give me that nonsense about “jobs Americans just won’t do.” I know too many unemployed dry wallers, construction laborers, roofers, and landscapers to buy that. They’d love to still be working, but they’ve been replaced, by in many cases, illegal and underpaid workers, which the left now wants to make legal.
The whole thing is just a bad idea, will not benefit US citizens and other law abiding legal residents, yet they push away like they’re intent on a takeover like is happening in much of open borders Europe. Does Canada have similar border laws, and if so, do they actually follow and enforce them, unlike this administration?
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AJ, I’m in Texas and this is where the Mexicans land because this is where the jobs are. Most undocumented aliens are young, most are male and they are very hard workers. They do jobs that Americans won’t do: Yard work, road construction, hotel cleaning, maids, day laborers, etc. Our young people won’t do most of that work, and the Yankees that are pouring into Texas sure won’t do that work. I am against the current system: we need a guest worker program where the Mexicans can move freely between the U.S. and Mexico. Crimes here are committed in disproportionate numbers by one group, but it is not the Mexicans.
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The economic correlation was too obvious for me not to note. However, its difficult to say what push or pull migration factor is most dominant. I suspect its varied and depends on nationality, gender, class etc.
As a leftist i tend to view causation through socio-economic structures. Very few americans have a similar view (sanders and maybe warren) In north America especially in the US, the socalled left tends to look at individuals attempting to gain the same rights and freedoms as more privileged groups. Thus, they are liberals (clinton) who only differ from business republicans (bush, walker, etc) in terms of what classical liberal right to emphasize and how to achieve these rights. Non-liberal republicans tend to look at social cohension, responsibility as well as rights. The political spectrum thus isnt very wide in the US.
Thus my leftist view on migration probably wont match the typical liberal left view you are exposed to. Migration, legal or illegal, tends to be economical. If it wasnt finiancial advantageous to migrate people wouldnt. Social factors do play a role – theres no doubt central American women and children flee to escape some of the most violent societies in the world. But they immigrate to the US not costa rica for an economic reason not the least of which is health and education for their children.
However, the vast majority of migrants are those seeking work. To counter the effects migrate labor and preserve jobs for legal residents greater regulation if the job market is needed. In Obama’s first adminstration there were hints that they would do just that — enforce labor laws at the job site. Send federal agents to cobstruction sites, canaries, meatpacking plants etc. Once this becomes the norm, the economic pull would diminish and you would be left with the genuine refugee ie a el salvadorean woman with kids. Corporate america doesnt like this type of enforcement. Illegal migrant advocates claim corporations suddenly remember the law when they no longer need the labor. The govt becomes a convenient means of sending workers home.
Btw, stronger private sector unions would also help to reduce illegal migrant labor.
Its this strict enforcement of labor laws and strong unions which makes illegal migrant labor a much smaller problem in northern europe than commonly believed in america. Illegal migrants are more common in southern europe (and for different reasons in the UK). The Mediterranean sea is a far better barrier than the rio Grande. And the only real overland route is across the balkans which is not a friendly walk. Europe is not wide open. Its a far greater ussue in the US.
By enlarging the eu, a source for cheap seasonal labor is now within the eu. Poles and Lithuanians are quite willingly to travel across Europe for temporary work, thereby eluminating any need for Turkish or African labor. Its interesting to note poles who are better of economically than Bulgarians or Romanians are far more willing to work in the west. Sometimes non economical factors hold people back – cultural, language, transportation, etc.
Canada is fairly isolated from illegal migration patterns. We have a temporary foreign worker programme which traditionally was used to bring in harvest hands but has been expanded to bting in service workers much to the chargin of organized labor and the left
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Christians need to understand that the U.S. is an “attractive nuisance” to the poor Mexicans. The men leave their families and come up here for work and have a difficult time going back and forth to visit their families. A guest worker program solves that problem.
We also need to stop anchor babies. A baby born here to two Mexicans should not be an American citizen. That baby should go home to Mexico. Christians need to understand that the child is much better off spiritually growing up outside of the perverted U.S.
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To HRW’s statements about Canada, I would add that the general perception among my acquaintances, most of whom are among the Canadian working class, is that corporations are abusing the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program to bring in cheaper labour, and taking away jobs from Canadians. In 2011, the Conservative federal government brought in new laws that TFWs could only stay four years, which would have started to take effect this year. However, early this year, the same government gave extensions to companies in the province of Alberta (where the current Prime Minister holds a seat) which have a lot of foreign workers in the oil fields. So, if the TPW program developed into a problem with illegal immigration (the estimates are that there are only about 75,000 people here illegally in a population of over 35 million), the perception of the Canadian public would be that the problem was caused by corporate greed.
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Same here Roscuro. The guest worker visa system is being abused big time. Disney is a prime example.
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Ricky,
No one disputes their work ethic. But don’t tell me those are all jobs Americans won’t do. I know plenty who used to, but their jobs are now held by illegals who work for less, and under the table. American workers can’t work for those wages. So they were undercut by illegals who were given jobs illegally. Almost 2 decades ago I worked in a pallet yard. We were an paid hourly wage, some was piece work, had healthcare too. After 2 years there the pattern became obvious. Every time someone left or was fired, they were replaced with under the table illegals until few of us legal citizens remained. I blame the company, the govt for allowing and enabling it, and the lawbreakers stealing our jobs and resources, in many cases to send back home and prop up the joke that is the Mexican economy. It’s not that American workers won’t, but they can’t for that amount of money.
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We need a guest worker program at the top and at the bottom. On the low end, Americans are too lazy to do the low skill, low paying jobs. We give them too much for not working. On the high end, our education system is not great and we have too many folks studying sociology and gender studies. Therefore, companies look to foreigners to find scientists and engineers.
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AJ, Could your old company afford the Obamacare cost of healthcare? Do modern Americans have the same work ethic as their parents? When I was young I worked at a number of tough minimum wage jobs. None of the youth in our area would do that work for minimum wage. Mexicans will, and the best of them are soon making more than minimum wage, living on very little, and sending much of their earnings home to support their families. I have nothing but respect for the Mexicans and nothing but contempt for Trump.
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Deep down I know there are Mexicans making my Confederate and Texas flags.
http://www.ultimateflags.com
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