BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
LAST WEEK THE BARRY O CHEERING SQUAD -- AKA U.S. PRESS -- USED OFF THE CUFF WORDS SPOKEN BY MITT ROMNEY TO DISTRACT FROM BARRY O'S FAILURES WHICH LED TO THE DEATHS OF 4 AMERICANS IN LIBYA DESPITE WARNINGS THE WHITE HOUSE RECEIVED, DESPITE REQUESTS FOR BEEFED UP SECURITY.
THIS WEEK, THE BARRY O CHEERING SQUAD AGAIN OBSESSES OVER AN OFF THE CUFF REMARK BY MITT ROMNEY TO DISTRACT FROM THE FACT THAT OBAMACARE WILL FORCE 6 MILLION MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS TO PAY A PENALTY TAX.
BUT DON'T WORRY WHEN THE PRESS GETS OVER THEIR OBSESSIVE WALL-TO-WALL ABOUT GOSSIP THAT DOESN'T MATTER, THEY'LL SPEND 4 SECONDS ON THE TAX OR SOMETHING ELSE THAT EFFECTS YOU, JUST LONG ENOUGH TO DISMISS IT AND INSIST EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW ABOUT IT.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
It's really not about being a veteran or her stance as
a war resister. Kimberly Rivera is both of those things. But she's
not in the military now. What is she? A young mother of four children
-- the youngest being only 18-months old. And she and her husband have
made a home for those children in Canada. She and her husband went to
Canada to make a home there. And now she may be forced out.
She's been ordered by the Stephen Harper government to leave Canada by tomorrow. If she doesn't, she faces deportation.
She
went to Canada to have a safe home for her family. That wasn't
requesting the world, that wasn't asking for the moon and the stars.
She wants to become a Canadian citizen and has done her part to go
through that process.
Stephen Harper and Jason
Kenney would apparently rather kick out a mother, risk separating her
from her children, than offer the most basic kindness of residency or
citizenship to this woman who has spent over five years in Canada
embracing the country she wants to make her own. Patty Winsa (Toronto Star) reports today:
A
Thursday deportation order looms, despite frantic calls from
supporters, politicians and even a Nobel Peace Prize winner to stay the
order and allow Rivera and her family, including two Canadian-born
children, to remain. Rallies were slated at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in front
of the Federal Court building and in several other cities from Halifax
to Vancouver.
Ottawa, which in the 1960s
allowed both draft-dodgers and Vietnam deserters to immigrate freely,
has taken a hard line this time.
They're
"not genuine refugees under the internationally accepted meaning of the
term," Alexis Pavlich, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Jason
Kenney, wrote in an email. "These unfounded claims clog up our system
for genuine refugees who are actually fleeing persecution."
Rivera
has applied to stay permanently on humanitarian and compassionate
grounds. That request continues despite the deportation order that
followed a negative "pre-removal risk assessment," which is based on
whether the person's return could result in persecution, torture, cruel
and unusual punishment, or even loss of life.
Does
Stephen Harper not grasp how cruel he's going to look on the world
stage if he deports a mother? That the obvious question in people's
mind -- or, better, accusation, is going to be, "Oh, that Harper, yeah,
he'd deport his own mother if he could." It's not going to look good,
it's not going to increase his standing. Offering Kim residency or
citizenship could change things immediately, could improve his image and
have the whole world talking -- saying good things -- about him. But
maybe he's okay with being considered Little Bush? John Howard took
that route and, outside of Australia, most people don't know his name
but think of him as a min-George W. Bush. Is that the fate that Harper
wants? He could do so much for his own image just by doing something
so minor to him but so major for Kim, her children and her husband.
The War Resisters Support Campaign staged rallies throughout Canada today. CBC notes,
"Members of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War set up camp in front
of the Federal Building at 55 Bay St. North on Wednesday in support of
former American soldier and conscientious objector Kimberly Rivera." In
addition, the Canadian Press notes,
"A number of people have gathered in downtown Toronto for an
eleventh-hour protest against the planned deportation of U.S. war
resister Kimberly Rivera." Krystalline Kraus (Rabble) reports,
"According to Michelle Robidoux, a spokesperson for the War Resisters
Support Campaign (WRSC). '(Kim) faces a court martial and jail sentence,
which, based on what other people have gotten, is a harsh jail
sentence,' Robidoux said. 'She will be separated from her family. Her
husband suffers from a disability and he's going to have four kids on
his hands'."
Cracks about deporting his own
mother? If Stephen Harper deports Kim, people will be saying things
like, "Forget saying the inn was full, Harper would have denied Mary the
manger as well!" Who is advising Stephen Harper, who is telling him,
"This is the way you, the Prime Minister of Canada, wants to be seen by
the whole world"? He's not getting good advice.
Yves Engler (iPolitics.ca) reports on Kim and notes what she saw in Iraq:
While Rivera expected to spend her time unloading equipment at a Colorado base she soon found herself guarding a foreign operating base in Iraq. It was from this vantage point that she became disillusioned with the war. Riviera was troubled by a two-year-old Iraqi girl who came to the base with her family to claim compensation after a bombing by U.S. forces.
"She was just petrified", Rivera explained.
"She was crying, but there was no sound, just tears flowing out of her
eyes. She was shaking. I have no idea what had happened in her little
life. All I know is I wasn't seeing her: I was seeing my own little
girl. I could imagine my daughter being one of those kids throwing rocks
at soldiers, because maybe someone she loved had been killed. That
Iraqi girl haunts my soul."
Deporting Kim will haunt the reputation of a number of Canadian officials. Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls for Kim to remain in Canada. Erin Criger (City News) notes
"Amnesty International, the Canadian Labour Congress and the United
Church of Canada have all supported Rivera." In addition, many
individual Canadians support her as well as organizations such as the United Steelworkers of Canada which issued a statement calling for the government of Canada to let Kim and her family stay and Canada's National Union of Public and General Employees which also issued a statement. She also has the support of the United Church of Canada. Joining the call today, Luke Stewart observes in his letter to the editor of The Record,
"It was guarding the front gate of a forward operating base in Baghdad
where Rivera's conscience grew with every fatal day. She decided she
could no longer participate in the war that Kofi Annan, then the UN
Secretary General, said in 2004 was illegal under the United Nations
Charter." Leah Bolger and Gerry Condon of Veterans For Peace note in their open letter,
"According to the UN Handbook on Refugees, soldiers who refuse to fight
in wars that are widely condemned by the international community should
be considered as refugees. Unfortunately, the Immigration and Refugee
Board in Canada has yet to grant asylum to a single person who refused
to kill in the war against Iraq, a war that has most certainly been
condemned by peoples and nations around the globe."
19,739 people have now signed the War Resisters Support Campaign's petition for Kim to stay.
It's a new petition, started only a few weeks ago. There is support
for Kim. What is done to her and her children will register -- across
borders, around the world. Stephen Harper has a chance to do something
that will help a family and also enhance his worldwide standing. Or he
can deport her and turn himself into a joke. Again, I have to wonder
who is advising Harper because the humane thing to do here is also the
politically smart thing.
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