21 November 2015

The American Refugee Program MUST BE Safe & Open or Business

The emotional responses (including from me!!) to the threat of terrorism that may come from the refugee program, as experienced in France where 2 are now confirmed to have entered as refugees, will hopefully begin to wind down with actions ultimately being taken to allow a healthy refugee program to continue while ensuring it is operating in a safe way. Both are important.

In my view, where Trump is right about destroying ISIS and protecting ALL innocent people in Syria, his apparent agreement with a reporter that we have a database for all Muslims is over the top and unacceptable.

Trumps comments to the reporter about a database for Muslims

His action here is NOT a sign of Leadership. He needs to think before speaking and show that he can function as a measured leader. Likewise, Obama's continous emotional and factless sniping at the Republicans is not Leadership, nor is his constant claims there others have no ideas yet when is the last time he's been seen in Congress to discuss and debate any ideas? Anyway, if we allow someone to pass into the country as an immigrant, they should have already been vetted to guarantee safety as much as humanly possible.

Some basic observations and thoughts by me that hopefully come as level headed, unemotional, and fair:
1. I have friends across the world who are from Arab countries and raised Muslim and still practicing Muslims, not practicing but identify as Muslim (like many who identify as Christian but don't practice, or are now Christian.
   - Some speak openly about their concerns of some Muslims integrating into Western culture & society with examples of challenges in Western European countries, even though some of them now live in Western countries and are 'assimilated'
   -  I guarantee you that ALL of the Muslims I know are GREAT people and I don't see their religion when I look at them; I see a great person!
   - Bad or dangerous people can come in any color, from any country, and from any or no religion; we BETTER pay better attention in our broken immigration and refugee processes to ANY who could be dangerous and we know our government isn't always the best at building and operating processes
2. I'm am considered by Switzerland, which is arguably the safest country in the world, to be an immigrant since I live and work here; the process for me to be admitted WAS NOT easy (albeit I'm not a refugee, yet anyway)
   - It had to be proven there was no one in the country who was qualified to do my job, my company had to sponsor me, I had to send a police report and other documents, I had to visit the Swiss embassy in Atlanta for an interview, more documents, etc
   - I register in the canton (state/city) where I live and register again if I move; they KNOW where I live and I'm in trouble if they learn I'm living elsewhere and haven't formally reported it
   - In the USA, the refugees who went to Louisiana (Baton Rouge I believe) were gone from where settled within a year and the State has no clue where they are
   - In the USA, the census program for all 300M+ Americans is broken, we don't know how many people have over-stayed visa, and we don't know where they are; no matter a person's politics, this is ridiculous as is fair reason to question immigration processes (would never happen in Switzerland)
   - In the USA, with the broken census process (every 10+ years the government pushes survey and goes door to door in a joke of an effort to 'count') we don't even know how many people and who are in a state and city to modulate the electoral college votes by state, and to properly manage elections; what a joke!!!
- In the USA, felons are too often released and even cross the border into America time and time again and commit more crimes, including murder; these sanctuary cities are another reason to question the integrity of America's immigration processes (would never happen in Switzerland)
3. The above broken processes with no intent by some to fix are adding fuel to the fire over the refugee screening process, and I believe rightly so
4. It's not discussed in the media but there are 19 Million humans on the radar to be admitted into the USA through the refugee program; surely we can find 10K from that number who are not a threat for terrorism
5. We need to remove the politics as much as humanly possible and demand that the US government fix the broken immigration and related refugee programs in America, and it's hard for me to understand why anyone would not want to fix them
6. We need to take an honest look at what created and what continues to create a refugee crisis to begin with in the Middle East; estimated that 350K have been slaughtered over the past 7 years yet there has been less press about that than the refugee program (policies around BOTH are broken)
7. Based on what is known now, the war in Iraq that was supported by Republicans AND Democrats (including Clinton who voted for it) was probably a mistake but that was over a decade ago with multiple issues since then
   - Obama criticized Bush for sticks his uninvited hands into the situation in Iraq but Bush did something Obama has not; Bush asked Congress to declare war and it did, again with voted on both sides of the aisle
   - While Obama criticized Bush, he is using the SAME war declaration given to Bush so he can interfere in Syria - and he is certainly uninvited by Syrian government
   - Against recommendation of the military and Congress, Obama pulled the final 10K American troops from Iraq and left the weapons behind which enabled the entry of terrorists to grow the caliphate
   - Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and supported the effort to push Khadafi out of Libya; while criticizing Bush for no transition plan, he had no plan
   - Obama spent 50 Million to train rebels in Syria to fight the Assad regime; they could only find 100 who could be trusted to fight (THEIR WORDS) and only 5-6 are thought to still be on the battlefield; if they could only find 100 to fight, how can then find many more MEN to immigrate into the USA? --- Obama should be answering that question but he won't
   - For years, Republicans and Democrats have proposed that Obama create a no fly and safe zone in Syria top protect the innocent people IN Syria and he refuses to do it; why???
8. The Director of the FBI testified to Congress that the refugee screening process is not safe and cannot be used to certify safety of refugees from Syria where documentation is missing to even be able to screen applicants, and 2 terrorists in Paris are already been confirmed to be refugees from Paris who would have been screened by at least the UN; OF COURSE there is a risk from immigrants of Syria (and elsewhere) and Obama's emotional claims that people are afraid of women and CHILDREN is unacceptable - at least one of the terrorists blew herself up with a belt in the apartment in Paris.
   - After hearing threat assessments and testimony on the refugee screening process, Congress overwhelmingly voted (Republicans + 67 Democrats) to halt refugees entry from Syria and address the 'process'
   - Fix the process and certify it is SAFE!!

The Republican Presidential candidates (mostly Trump & Carson) need to more closely align themselves with the tact of the majority of Congress (includes 67 Democrats) who want to address the issues IN Syria along with the refugee screening program in a act based, unemotional way.

We LOVE immigrants and we need to LOVE the innocent in harms way even more. The cries now for refugees are 1000x louder than the cries for the slaughtered. The fighting which Obama fueled with rebels and weapons is THE reason why the refugee crisis is so great!!

19 July 2014

The cost of a weak American President.

Many in the middle of the political spectrum voted for Obama based on his 'Hope & Change' rhetoric, including promises to negotiate with threats versus hitting them head on.  It sounds good if negotiations work but we know some cannot and do not want to negotiate.  How many people have died because of a weak US international policy versus a strong one?  We'll never know but the number of dead can can arguably be associated with this President's weakness is adding up, and it really accelerated when he drew his Red line in Syria which meant nothing.

Now we have a civilian airliner shot down by a Russian rocket launcher that cannot be operated by untrained farm boys.



Who actually believes Putin isn't squarely behind the fighting in Ukraine as he runs his proxy war to destabilize the situation to expand Russian control in an ex-Soviet style?  Incredible that Western Europe are so weak (and dependent on Russian oil) while Obama blocks drilling and the Keystone Pipeline which will just be run elsewhere creating more environmental damage while the US imports oil from our Middle East enemies again creating even more environmental damage to ship the oil halfway around the world.

04 January 2014

88 year old veteran needs help to repair building

I found this story to be a pretty sad read. This man is 88 years old, served his country in WWII, still works, and is facing what I consider to be an overly aggressive town that is chasing him over repairs to his building - repairs that he cannot afford. I'm as conservative as they come and believe people should take personal responsibility but conservatives are also compassionate and recognize when someone cannot help themselves and simply need a helping hand.

Please visit this site and make a contribution to help this man and his wife.

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/y1r3/help-kenneth-knudson-wwii-vet-repair-his-business-#





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

18 May 2013

Obama, the great Change Agent

People wanted 'change' and voted for the change. Increased transparency, closed prison for terrorists, reduced debt, more jobs, etc were all in the cards.
How are we doing?
- Blood on the hands of Clinton and Obama who stood down SEALs who were in Libya and on the way to help those who were murdered; oh, and there were no demonstrations resulting from a video as represented by our great leaders.
- Naming of Czars and others without following constitutional process (first in history); two now shot down in court so at least we maintain some balance of 'power'.
- IRS rejecting non tax status for conservative political party supporters; I'm sure no one in the administration knew it was happening.
- White House obtaining phone numbers from AP in attempt to intimidate the press.
- If we spend trillions for 'government' to create jobs, unemployment won't go beyond n%; oops, well we probably didn't waste enough so we should spend more.
- 'I will cut the debt as we cannot pass this to our children'; welllll, it only tripled with the 'annointed one' in power.
- Even the terrible prison in Cuba remains open. But, there really is not threat of terrorism anyway. Just ask the families of the Bengazi victims or those from Boston. After all, Obama defected terrorism.


Good grief. We could go on and on. Is this the change we really need as a country. I say 'No'.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

28 October 2012

Invitation to Elite Online Communities Sought

As an expat who is always interested in connecting with professionals or people with similar, or even different, life experiences, I'm always on the watch for interesting in-roads. In Switzerland, I've been a member of several 'communities' (no names) but cannot say I'm overly impressed.

Maybe I'm slow to the latest, but I've become aware of several more 'elite' if not niche environments. Without doing a poll of friends to see who are already members, I have one I know of who is... They only have a handful of invitations in total which ensures these communities remain small, unlike Facebook for example.

The two sites are 'A Small World' and 'Best of all Worlds'. I figured I'd try the power of a blog to see if I can get an invite to one or both...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cully,Switzerland

08 November 2009

Blogging Balance

I have fallen off the blogging wagon and left all of my devoted followers behind. Shame on me!! With this short few words I hope to get things moving again...

29 March 2009

Future of Baylor Women's Basketball

After losing out of the Sweet 16 yesterday, it's good to know our girls have a bright future with the #1 recruiting class coming in, including this Super Star!!