Common Dreams | Liberals, Cut Your Cable Cords Common Dreams Oxford-educated Rachel Maddow has supplanted the vanished Fox News host, and her soaring ratings undoubtedly delight the growing community of liberals who now consider themselves cable news fans. That's the good news for liberals. The bad news is ... |
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Liberals, Cut Your Cable Cords - Common Dreams
This is a story which began ramping up back in March. Liberal activists in a number of states were complaining that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was making arrests of illegal aliens in the vicinity of courthouses when they would show up for hearings. (The fact that the same thing happened on an as needed basis while Barack Obama was president didnt appear to cross their minds.) For their part, ICE argued that illegal aliens frequently have no listed permanent address or place of employment, and if local law enforcement wasnt going to assist them in their duties, a court appearance was sometimes the only opportunity they would have to locate the suspect.
Since that time, attorneys and prosecutors in several states, most notably California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado, have asked ICE to end this practice. Particularly in Colorado Denver to be precise theyve gotten their answer. Sorry no can do. (CBS Denver, emphasis added)
Arrests of illegal immigrants at the front door of Denvers courthouse is getting national attention. Denvers mayor asked Immigration Customs Enforcement agents to stop making arrests there, just as ICE will not arrest at schools or churches.
ICE rejected that request.
When witnesses and victims of crime are not showing up to testify, now we cannot pursue the individuals who have perpetrated crime. Now, hows that make us more safe? asked Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
By not turning over criminal aliens in a safe, secure environment, theyre actually putting my officers and the community at risk, said Phillip Miller, who oversees deportation agents for ICE.
Denver is a special case when it comes to sanctuary cities. Theyve gone far past the level of refusing to honor detainers from ICE. In recent months they have changed the sentencing structure for many minor crimes (which apparently includes domestic violence and assault) so that immigrants both legal and illegal who are convicted of crimes can avoid automatic deportation. And now they included a new wrinkle, allowing illegal immigrants to send in their plea for minor violations by mail so they can dodge immigration officials. (ABC Denver)
Fears of deportation kept many people from showing up to court and prompted a policy change allowing some to skip certain hearings.
Denver is now allowing people to mail in a plea for traffic court. The pilot program started several weeks ago as a response to the fear and anxiety city leaders were hearing from constituents.
Because of their fear of coming into the courthouse, they werent showing up for their hearings which only made their legal situation worse, said Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson.
If the plea-by-mail scheme doesnt do enough to thwart immigration officers, Denver has one more trick up their sleeve. Theyre experimenting with the idea of allowing suspects to show up for hearings via Skype so they dont have to physically walk in the door at the courthouse. At this rate were about six months away from Denver simply declaring that anything illegal aliens do is legal so they dont have to interact with law enforcement at all.
One wonders how the citizens feel about this, particularly when they hear about stories such as this one out of Oregon, which also fights ICE tooth and claw. Just this week, Sergio Jose Martinez was arrested for the brutal sexual assault of one woman in Portland and the attempted kidnapping of another on the same day. As the Daily Caller explains, this was not the first time authorities had encountered Mr. Martinez.
Sergio Jose Martinez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, had been deported at least 13 times since 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Virginia Kice confirmed to Portlands KATU2. Martinez, 31, was also the subject of an ICE detainer request placed Dec. 7, 2016 with the Multnomah County Jail, where he was being held on local charges.
Because Oregon law prohibits police from using agency resources to enforce immigration law, jail officials released Martinez the following day without notifying ICE.
The municipal leaders in Portland, just as in Denver, kept the streets safe for Mr. Martinez, particularly in terms of being safe from a 14th deportation. For the two women he attacked this week not so much. The citizens of Denver need to think long and hard before they go back to the polls again and keep electing the same people who are undermining their own safety.
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Keeping ICE away from courthouses turns out to be harder than liberals thought - Hot Air
Recently on HBO's "Real Time," Bill Maher had this to say about the recent attack on Republican legislators: "We would never really think this would happen on the left. We think of the right as the people who pick up guns and do crazy things like this."
And that's just what they think. Liberals are peaceful and conservatives are violent. Even those who take pride in their political incorrectness repeat it. But you don't have to be an American historian to know how little it holds up to the facts.
Every year on the anniversary of JFK's assassination, media people talk about right-wingers in Dallas. But the real shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was a Soviet sympathizer. And Robert Kennedy's killer was a Palestinian radical.
Last year at the Super Bowl, America watched Beyonce's half-time tribute to the Black Panthers, who loved their guns as much as any NRA fanatic, and used them enthusiastically.
The media did everything they could to make us forget about former President Barack Obama's friendship with fellow Chicagoans Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, both members of the bomb-wielding Weather Underground. This month's Puerto Rican Day Parade controversy resurrected the 1970s leftist terrorist group the FALN. Today we have the Antifa, whose black mask image has become an emblem of America 2017.
And just last month, Obama appeared on video at the Songwriters Hall of Fame to help induct Jay-Z, who once wrote these lines in his song "Money, Cash, Hoes":
Money cash hoes money cash chicks what
Sex murder and mayhem romance for the street
Only wife of mines is a life of crime ...
"Jay, you have been inspiring," Obama said, but he didn't mention how the millions of young men who've listened to Jay-Z and other rappers have been affected by lyrics such as: "Now if I kill you I probably do ten in the box / Come down on appeal then I'm killin' your pops" ("Reservoir Dogs").
It takes a strange act of the mind to overlook leftist violence in the American present and recent past. It's as if attributing deep hate to right-leaning people was a drug. An obvious addict is Bill Moyers, the former LBJ operative who's made a career out of sanctimonious exposes of conservative wrath. A few years ago, he spoke of how "Conservative Talk Radio Incites Domestic Terrorism & Hate" and last year during the campaign he warned:
"Trump and his ilk would sweep the promise of America into the dustbin of history unless they are exposed now to the disinfectant of sunlight, the cleansing torch of truth. Nothing else can save us from the dark age of unreason that would arrive with the triumph of Donald Trump."
Whether it's real (the softball shooter) or make-believe (Kathy Griffin), liberal violence in contemporary America is a fact. It would seem to be a natural focus for Moyers' campaign against political hatred. But at his website one can only find brief notices of the shooting in Alexandria, Va., that emphasize the bipartisan nature of wrath in the United States, citing another story on "potential incitement of political violence by Democrats and Republicans, the right and the left," as well as a population research finding that "Republicans and Democrats were indistinguishable in their support for political violence."
This all sounds like a cross-political appeal to reason, but in truth, it's an effective way to push the liberal-peace and conservative-violence meme. When a lunatic with right-wing opinions goes on a rampage, it says something about the essence of conservatism. When a lunatic with left-wing opinions acts, it summons forth bipartisan expressions of civility.
Conservative hate is conservative, but liberal hate isn't liberal at all.
Republicans and conservatives should recognize the across-the-divide call for unity as a hustle. The next time a right-wing crazy picks up his gun, the one-sided denunciations of conservative hate will come once more. Liberals pay themselves a compliment when they attribute vice to their adversaries, and they double down on back-patting when they (putatively) rise above politics after one of their own commits violence. Conservatives shouldn't help them do it.
They should instead proclaim that liberalism circa 2017 is not "give peace a chance."
It has a malicious streak, and too many liberals don't just despise President Trump and everyone who voted for him, but also take pleasure in their spite.
Mark Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory University. He wrote this for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers may email him at engmb@emory.edu.
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Liberals conveniently forget acts of violence on their side - Eagle-Tribune
Watching news outlets go out of their way to hide a potentially huge Democratic scandal is almost funny. So-called journalists are too busy covering presidential tweets to report on a topic that might embarrass their friends.
Welcome to theImran Awan-Debbie Wasserman Schultz scandal or Compugrab, as I like to call it.
Awan was the top IT aide to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The FBI reportedly seized smashed computer hard drives from hishome. He was arrested trying to flee to Pakistan after wiring almost $300,000 to the country, according toThe Daily Caller,which has owned the story because it does actual news reporting.
Heres an amazing paragraph from the Caller: Awan and members of his family received $4 million from the Democratic congressmen they were working for since 2010. Wasserman Schultz has been especially uncooperative with the probe into her staffers and eventhreatened the Capitol Police chief for gathering evidence. She refused to fire Awan until after he was arrested, even though Capitol Police had already revoked Awans access to the congressional IT system in February in relation to a major security breach. ($4 million, and you wonder where your tax dollars go.)
This is why so many Americans no longer trust the traditional media. Its because we cant. Theyd rather write snarky stories about the presidents Twitter comments than do actual reporting.
The traditional media has barely even acknowledged this story exists. In the 24 hours after his arrest, only CBSThis Morningreported on it for 37 seconds. And co-host Gayle King made a point of ending the story with the claim by Awans attorney that charges are due to anti-Muslim bigotry.
Newspapershave been almost as bad.The Washington Postwasnt just slow to the party. Legal reporter Spencer Hsu didnt mention Awan's ties to Hill Democrats until the seventh paragraph. Imagine the Postwriting like that about Hill Republicans. A headline on an Associated Press story was especially entertaining: Florida lawmaker fires IT staffer; Anti-Muslim bigotry is cause of client's arrest, lawyer says.
This is why so many Americans no longer trust the traditional media. Its because we cant. Theyd rather write snarky stories about the presidents Twitter comments than do actual reporting. Hats off to The Daily Caller News Foundations Luke Rosiak for remembering what journalism really means.
2. Summertime For Hitler:President Trumps speech to the Boy Scouts caused journalists and lefty media to have a Goebbels moment and envision the entire event as aHitler Youth Rally.The alt-left marched in goose step comparing American boys to Nazis. Director Michael Moore, soap opera star Nancy Lee Grahn and other liberals pretended that chanting U.S.A. and cheering Trump made them equal to the people who supported Hitler.
While The Viewdidnt Sieg heil like many on the left, it did bash Trump and put pressure on the Scouts. Among The Views Things Not to Say When Giving A Speech to 40,000 Boy Scouts was this horrifying statement: You will be saying Merry Christmas again when you go shopping.
Theres nothing more offensive to secular media liberals than faith. Hard to tell if it terrifies them more in the here-and-now or if they are looking toward the hereafter.
That media pressure, andattacksby the Late Show host Stephen Colbert,Trevor Noah of The Daily Show, and CNNsChris Cillizzaintimidated the Boy Scouts into distancing themselves from Trump. Based on the cheering Trump received, there was no such distance between the president and the Scouts who heard him speak.
3. Those Hateful Conservatives, Oops!:Weve watched six months of demented hate from the lefty media against White House Press SecretarySean Spicer.Hes gone, so now well get demented hate from the media against new White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Ira Madison III, who writes about culture for The Daily Beast and GQ, welcomed Sanders with a cruel critique of her looks. Madisontweeted: Butch queen first time in drags at the ball, next to a picture of Sanders.
Conservatives were outraged but liberals barely noticed. The War on Women only applies to liberal women, after all. White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci called it reprehensible and asked for anapology. Madison gave a half-hearted one for his ill-judged joke.
While working at MTV News earlier this year, Madison embarrassed himself by bashing then-Sen. Jeff Sessions. He accused Sessions of using an Asian-American girl as aprop during a hearing. Sessions, sir, kindly return this Asian baby to the Toys 'R' Us you stole her from, he wrote on Twitter. The girl was actually Sessions granddaughter. Madison deleted the comment.
Never forget that the left believes inNO H8TE.Or, in the words of Madisons bosses atThe Daily Beast,they value an inclusive culture, committed to the public good.
4. The Media Climate Isnt Changing:Liberals whine about global warming, but the media climate is just the same as it was 11 years ago whenthe film An Inconvenient Truthcame out. Who cares if climate guru Al Gore warned then that Earth had only 10 years before Mother Earth turned crispier and reached apoint of no return? That didnt stop him from going Hollywood and producing a sequel.
The news and entertainment media loved Gore then and love him now. His sillyInconvenient Sequel: Truth to Powerhits national theaters Aug. 4. To ensure the propaganda (Oops, documentary) is successful, Viacom is deploying 10 of its TV outlets to push the film. Viacom, whichhasapproximately 700 million global subscribers, is harassing viewers on MTV, VH1, LOGO, Comedy Central, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick@Nite and Teen Nick.
MTV will actually air a town hallwhere,Gore will be joined by rapper and Miami resident Fat Joe, as well as 17-year-old activist Delaney Reynolds; DJ and fellow Miami-born artist Steve Aoki will act as a correspondent. Apparently, no sports mascots were also available.
Dan Gainor is the Media Research Center's Vice President for Business and Culture. He writes frequently about media for Fox News Opinion. He can also be contacted on Facebook and Twitter as dangainor.
A day after Christy Clark announced she is resigning as BC Liberal leader, one of the partys MLAs says he is considering a run to replace her.
Prominent former TV reporter Jas Johal, first elected to the BC legislature in the spring election that set off events that have ousted the Liberals from power, says he is thinking about a leadership run but has not made any final decisions.
I think this is a great time to focus on renewal and we need a substantial policy discussion. I am looking forward to that whether I run or not, Mr. Johal said in an interview on Saturday. He is the first of the partys MLAs to announce that he may go for the leadership now that the job is open.
Among the challenges for the BC Liberals, he said, is better connecting with millennial and GenX voters.
He said he is thinking about whether he has the time and energy to completely commit himself to leading the BC Liberals, who have had two leaders Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark since they began their 16-year run in government that recently ended.
Ms. Clark led the party into a spring election her second as premier which reduced the party to a minority. Last month, the Liberals were defeated on a confidence vote, the Lieutenant-Governor then asked the NDP to form the government and Premier John Horgan was sworn in earlier this month.
Mr. Johal, 47, who is married and has an eight-year-old son also said he is considering the impact on his family.
Theres a lot to think about, he said. He was a journalist for 23 years, working for Global Television in BC, Beijing and New Delhi. Before seeking and winning the riding of Richmond-Queensborough in the May election, he was a communications director at the BC LNG Alliance.
Mr. Johal said he was surprised at Ms. Clark's decision to leave.
He also said he did not think his relative lack of elected political experience would be a liability in what is expected to be a crowded race. When you look at voting here and internationally, people want something new," he said.
People dont want professional politicians. I am proud to be an outsider. I bring a different experience.
After six years as premier and saying she would serve in opposition, Ms. Clark told her caucus Friday that she would quit as party leader on Aug.4. She also will quit her Kelowna-area seat. In announcing her decision to the media in a statement, Ms. Clark gave no specific reason for leaving now. She is expected to hold a news conference early next week.
Liberal caucus members praised Ms. Clark on Friday, but the party will now face the necessity of picking a new leader to face the BC NDP government. Caucus prospects were avoiding discussion about leadership runs in the hours after Ms. Clarks announcement.
The BC Liberal party executive plans to meet within 28 days to come up with details on the leadership race. After Gordon Campbell announced his exit in 2010, it took about four months for the leadership convention that saw Ms. Clark become leader. The BC legislature is expected to resume sitting in September.
Follow Ian Bailey on Twitter: @ianabailey
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Former television reporter Jas Johal considers running for BC Liberal leadership - The Globe and Mail