Obama (and John Boehner) on Al Punto
Since I pushed Obama’s appearance on Univision’s Al Punto the other day, I thought I should watch it.
The Obama interview lasted about 15 minutes (as did the Boehner interview that followed) and included–in addition to the questions about whether undocumented workers and health care reform I discuss in more detail below–the following questions (working from memory–my Spanish too rusty to live-blog and retranslate while listening!!):
- Whether the opposition to Obama’s policies stem from racism (he gave the answer about delegitimizing government he has given elsewhere)
- Presenting a claim John Boehner made–that Democrats don’t have the votes to pass health care by themselves–whether the Democrats could do it on their own (Obama gave a typical answer celebrating bipartisanship but saying he thought it would pass)
- Whether Obama supported a public option and whether it could be passed (Obama repeated his answers about the importance of the public option as part of a larger reform, and said he did not believe that it was dead)
- Whether Obama, who has said he supports more cultural exchange with Cuba, supported a big concert they’re doing there
- What Obama would do regarding Honduras (Obama took a middle ground, appealing to having a more legitimate election in the future)
- Whether Obama would fulfill his promise to put forth immigration reform in the first year of his Administration (again, Obama took a middle ground, and pointed out he promised he’d have to get it passed)
The most important questions, of course, had to do with the exclusion of undocumented workers from the health exchange (and therefore from health care in the United States). Al Punto host Jorge Ramos asked Obama whether this policy made sense in about three different ways (and asked the same question in his interview of John Boehner). Both Obama and Boehner generally responded by pretending that exclusion from the exchange didn’t amount to exclusion from health care (Obama said something like, "well, if they buy health care from insurers directly, that’s between them and the insurer"). Both, too, responded to questions about health care by talking about the need for immigration reform. Ramos asked Obama specifically about the number of children born in this country who, because at least one parent is undocumented, will have problems accessing health care (if I heard it right, Obama said he’d like to cover these children in SCHIP).
Obama’s worst answer, IMO (I’m going to try to find a transcript of this) was whether Democrats had stiffened the language excluding undocumented workers in response to Joe "You Lie!" Wilson’s outburst in Congress. I couldn’t make out Obama’s answer very well, but he basically made up some line about those moves happening simultaneously–that the tie between Wilson’s outburst and the new language in the bill was just a coincidence.
Yeah right.
One of the other most interesting questions concerned the use of the term "illegal immigrants" instead of "undocumented workers"–I believe Ramos was referring to this line from Obama’s address to Congress:
There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
Again, Obama’s response was weak, an attempt to pretend a really bad use of "illegal" didn’t imply he had picked up some of the nativist attitudes directed at undocumented workers.
Here’s the complete transcript from Obama’s appearance on Univision’s Al Punto.
Jorge Ramos
Let’s start. I want to understand, first of all, why there is so much opposition to your healthcare reform? Is it the expanding role of the government or is it as Republicans told us that we are looking into trillion dollar deficits?
President Obama
Yeah. You know I think that.
Jorge Ramos
What is it?
President Obama
Well, part of it is, I think, that the opposition has made a decision. They are just not going to support anything, for political reasons. I think there are some legitimate concerns about the fact that this is a big deal. I mean, we’ve been talking for forty years about trying to change healthcare. And what I’ve said is that we can’t keep on doing what we’re doing right now. That people who don’t have health insurance, the numbers are growing. And that’s true especially in the Latino community. On the other hand, people who do have health insurance, it’s very insecure. So, I think that we can solve those two problems. Give people healthcare who need it, provide security to people who do have health care, and we can do it without adding to our deficit. And we can do it, and actually, over time drive costs down for everybody by making the system work better. But, having said all that, you know, people naturally are worried even though they know that what they get is not very good, they are still worried that, you know, any change might make them more insecure. And so my whole job is to try to insist and constantly explain to people that if you’ve got health insurance already, I’m not asking you to change it. But if you don’t have health insurance or you’re not satisfied with your health insurance, this is going to give you a better option and we can do it in a very cost effective way, because the healthcare system currently wastes so much money.
Jorge Ramos
But what I want to understand, Mr. President, is what’s really behind all the opposition? As you know, President Jimmy Carter said that part of the opposition against you has to do with the fact that you are African-American. Do you agree with him?
President Obama
You know, I think that it really has more to do with the fact that there are some people who think government can’t do anything. As I said, there’s some people who just cynically want to defeat me politically, but there’s nothing new about that.
Jorge Ramos
Well what about the racism…
President Obama
I think it’s much more an issue of people just thinking that government of any sort is bad. And that group is not new. They , you know, were mad at FDR when he started Social Security. They were mad at Lyndon Johnson when he started Medicare. And, you know, I think that the fact that this has become such a heated debate, is a sign that we’re really trying to change the system. That we’re not just tinkering around the edges. Now, I do hope that people can maintain civility in these conversations. And I’ve been concerned about how much anger and venom has been expressed. I think that we can disagree and still be polite, and still give other people the benefit of the doubt that they want what’s best for the United States.
Jorge Ramos
Now, being very pragmatic, I had the opportunity to talk to Minority Leader John Boehner, and he told us that Democrats right now don’t have the votes to pass any healthcare reform without Republicans.
President Obama
Well, you know…
Jorge Ramos
Is he right? Do you have the votes? That’s the question.
President Obama
Let me put it this way. You know, I’d love to get Republican votes, but I don’t count on them. And I’m confident that we’re gonna get healthcare passed.
Jorge Ramos
But do you, at this point, do you have the votes?
President Obama
I’m confident we’re gonna get healthcare passed.
Jorge Ramos
Those who favor a public option say that creating an insurance mandate without a public option is really rewarding the insurance companies that brought us into this mess in the first place. Do you agree? How do you respond to that?
President Obama
Well I think that the public option is an important part of keeping insurance companies in check by giving them competition, giving consumers more choice. If we’re going to have very explicit reforms that say, you can’t drop people because of pre-existing conditions, that you can’t charge people exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, that you can’t place lifetime limits so that suddenly people find themselves without care. And the public option is one element, but just one element of keeping those insurance companies in check.
Jorge Ramos
So at this point the public option is not dead.
President Obama
I absolutely do not believe that it’s dead. I think that it’s something that we can still include as part of a comprehensive reform effort.
Jorge Ramos
Do you believe that undocumented immigrants should be required to buy insurance? Basically, what I would like to know is, could you clarify if they will have access to private insurance in the exchange?
President Obama
Right now, the plan that we’ve put forward, I want to be absolutely clear, should not include undocumented workers, because I think that as is true with SCHIP, as is true with all our various social insurance programs, you’ve gotta be an American citizen, or at least a legal resident in terms of access for those programs. Now, as I’ve said before, and as I did with SCHIP, I do think that children of legal residents, for example, should have access to care. That’s good for all of us. And that’s a principal that I will continue to fight for.
Jorge Ramos
But if an undocumented immigrant wants to buy private insurance…
President Obama
If they want to buy private insurance, then that’s between them and their private insurer, but they can’t do it through the exchange because the exchange is going to be part of an overall plan including subsidies and I don’t think it’s fair for American taxpayers to be including those subsidies. Particularly when there’s not gonna be a lot of money to go around.
Jorge Ramos
Then, there are going to be millions of people who are not going to be covered. So if undocumented immigrants can’t get neither public or private insurance, then they’re going to keep on going to the emergency rooms of the hospitals, and this is too expensive. Isn’t that exactly what you wanted to avoid in the first place?
President Obama
Well look, the… Here’s what I’d like to deal with. I’d really like to solve our immigration problem, but I can’t solve every problem all at once. The immigration problem is one set of problems and a whole range of issues are raised through immigration. Healthcare is a problem that doesn’t just affect all Americans. It especially affects Hispanic Americans, who have the highest rate of uninsurance. Now I’m not talking about undocumented now.
Jorge Ramos
I have a specific problem and let me see how we can find a solution. There are four million children born in the United States who have at least one undocumented parent. What are they supposed to do?
President Obama
Well, if they are born in the United States, they are U.S. citizens. And we’re gonna make sure…
Jorge Ramos
Yes, but one of their parents…
President Obama
We’re gonna make sure that those children are covered, as we already have expanding coverage with respect to SCHIP. As I said, Jorge, we’re gonna have to solve the immigration problem. That’s a commitment that I have made.
Jorge Ramos
I’m interested to know what happened after Joe Wilson said you lied in Congress. Was that the moment in which you think undocumented immigrants got involved into these healthcare debates?
President Obama
No, no, no…
Jorge Ramos
What happened?
President Obama
Well, well… Keep in mind, first of all, I said that undocumented workers wouldn’t be covered before Joe Wilson shouted. So obviously, if there was any cause and effect, it was from what I said. It wasn’t me responding to him. But this is a position that I have said consistently during the campaign. There’s been no change in my approach.
Jorge Ramos
Now, in your speech to Congress you used the words "illegal immigrants." However, and I remember very clearly, during the campaign you were very careful to use the words "undocumented immigrants". Why the change? You said words matter. Now, why do you choose to use the language that is being used by…
President Obama
Well, keep in mind…
Jorge Ramos
…those who criticize immigrants.
President Obama
Well, keep in mind what I was addressing. I was addressing misinformation by the other side that was engaging in scare tactics. So I was essentially quoting them. I was saying, "for those of you who are saying that illegal immigrants are going to be covered under this plan," I said that’s not true. Right? So I’m using their language because I was addressing the misinformation that they are providing. And I was speaking directly to an audience, the American people, who because of this misinformation, I think actually were very responding oftentimes in a negative way.
Jorge Ramos
OK, so. But what I wanted to ask you is about what Latino’s call, "la promesa de Obama – Obama’s promise." On May 28th you told me, and I am quoting, "what I can guarantee is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support." And then I asked again, "in the first year?" And you said, "Yes, in the first year." This is your promise and the question that many of them have is, are you going to keep your promise. Can you do it before January 20th?
President Obama
Here’s what I’ve said. I have met with not just the Hispanic caucus, but leaders from both the House and the Senate, Republican and Democrat. I’ve said I want to get this done. I’ve put Secretary Janet Napolitano, of Homeland Security, in charge of first making a whole host of administrative changes and eliminating the most negative practices that we have been seeing. And then what I’ve said is, start working up legislation that we think can, over time, move through Congress. Now, whether that bill gets introduced on November 15th or December 15th or January 15th, that’s not really the issue. I mean, it would be easy for us to get a bill introduced. The challenge is getting the bill passed. And there I’ve been realistic. What I said is that this is going to be a tough fight and that we’re going to have to make sure that we are working as hard as we can to do it. I am not backing off one minute from getting this done, but let’s face it, I’ve had a few things to do. We had an economic crisis that almost…
Jorge Ramos
I understand.
President Obama
…saw a financial meltdown. Healthcare has taken longer than I would have liked, but it’s a big, tough issue. Immigration reform is gonna be tough as well, but I think we can get it done.
Jorge Ramos
Two more questions. Colombian singer Juanes will be performing this Sunday in Havana, but before that, he met with Secretary Clinton. Is your government supporting this concert and do you think that concerts like this and cultural exchanges between Cuba and the United States will promote democracy in Cuba?
President Obama
Well, let me be clear. The U.S. government isn’t a concert promoter.
Jorge Ramos
Did he get your blessing? Or Secretary Clinton’s blessing?
President Obama
I don’t think it’s a matter of us providing blessings. My understanding is that he’s a terrific musician. He puts on a very good concert. I certainly don’t think it hurts U.S./Cuban relations. These kinds of cultural exchanges. I wouldn’t overstate the degree that it helps. I think what’s gonna be more important is, as we have now opened up travel restrictions and remittance restrictions to Cuba. What I’d really like to see is Cuba starting to show that it wants to move away from some of the anti-democratic practices of the past.
Jorge Ramos
And the last question has to do with Honduras. Will you recognize the winner of the next presidential election in November in Honduras?
President Obama
I really would like to see the parties embrace the Arias approach. That will, I think, confer much greater legitimacy on the elections that are coming up.
Jorge Ramos
Mr. President, thank you so much.
President Obama
Oh, it was a pleasure. Thank you.
Apologies for any inaccuracies here. I found I could follow Ramos fine, but it was really hard following the Spanish translations of the interviews–which were conducted in English–because you could just barely hear the English in the background.
Nitpick: in the second paragraph, surely you meant ‘lasted’ here rather than ‘latest’?
Thanks.
Thanks, EW. I watched Stephanopolis, and was not impressed with much Obama had to say. They had a fight over whether mandates equal taxes.
Almost all of the Corporate Republicans that I talk to want to see the companies that use undocumented labor suffer heavy fines – but you never see them actually put any teeth into enforcement or legislation.
Otoh, at a football viewing party yesterday, I ran into a guy who was giddy over how much money he had saved by using ‘mezkins’ back when he was flipping houses a couple of years ago.
With the Republicans, it seems, moral considerations come second to profits.
This is aside from the interview topic, but for those not living in the border states, it may be interesting–namely, significant portions of border state economy are driven by undocumented laborers. Housing, agriculture, and yes, even brushclearing/land maintenance.
The schizophrenic nature of this can be illustrated by a story. I once bumped into an elderly rancher, over 70, clearing brush with a bunch of what are called down here “wetbacks”–undocumented workers from latin america. I asked him what he thought of all the frenzy about illegal aliens these days. He said he was all for kicking them all out of the country. Understand, he said this as 5 or 6 illegal aliens were working all around him. The reason he wanted them all gone was not that they weren’t all excellent workers, nor that they caused problems for him of any kind. He said it was because the lines were longer at the friday night fish fry that he and his wife liked to go to at a nearby restaurant–and some of those folks in line with him were ‘Mexicans’.
People in border states live this bizarre double life, in which they absolutely depend upon undocumented workers, but at the same time want them to completely disappear after the workday is done.
Well, people used to know their place, eh? Things just aren’t the way they used to be (and some of us are old enough to remember how that was). /s
The closest parallel we have to that “bizarre double life” is government programs for bringing domestic workers, especially nannies, into Canada from Asia-Pacific or the Caribbean, on a kind of second-track immigration level that condemns them to live as indentured labour for years. The scandals have been many, but enough very smart workers, especially Filipinas, have survived that system and learned to fight back politically that there is some hope for real change, maybe not with this government but soon.
That bizarre entitlement-blindness double-standard seems to be everywhere.
Back in the 90’s, when I sold for Big Blue, my territory included the rural, southern half of the State. In many of those Counties, Welfare, WIC (Women, Infants, Children) and Food Stamps were the largest ‘payroll’ in the community – and upwards of 80% of the recipients were white.
But, when I would talk to the folks in charge – County Administrators and Commissioners – about their problems, they invariably pointed to the do-nothing blacks on welfare holding them back!
several years ago, when i worked for my brothers marine construction company,I worked with young, white laborers who wanted their money “under the table” so their live in girlfreinds wouldnt lose thier PA and food assistance and wic, all the while complaining about the dark skinned others who were the problem. I KNOW it hasnt changed a bit since then, that hasnt changed in over 300 years. That irony is at the root of white racism. Poor whiteS were(are) allowed to feel superior to blacks by the white ruling class, it keeps the working class divided better than ANYTHING else they could have come up with.
Hey thank you so much for posting this transcript! Really appreciate it.
I wonder why one of the best orators and debaters in recent history, maybe 50 yrs, is unable to bring voters, let alone progressives, to heel on his/Baucus health care bill debacle. This doesn’t bode well for the rest of his years in office, especially with the neo-con bozos incoherent blathering as his main, sad, opposition.
I guess it’s in celebration of Obama’s appearance on Al Punto – the State Dept has contacted me to let me know that I am eligible for a Visa. How cool is that? AND I get $100,000 too, apparently because I’m “diverse.”
I knew TX and MN were talking about it, but apparently Kentucky went ahead and became disrepublicked when I wasn’t looking. I guess I should contact McConnell and thank him – after all, it has netted me $100,000.
There was a disclaimer, but I know I can’t have received it by mistake, since, after all, internet screening was used. I’m hoping my lawyer, bmaz, will help me shop for a time share in AZ with my 100,000.
Obama might be right that, “The US government is not a concert promoter” but man, it looks to me like someone operating under that name has got Ticketmaster beat sweet.
Outstanding!! Since I know you will want horses, I suggest a horse property in Paradise Valley. But if you only want a condo, the new Waterfront District in downtown Scottsdale is very happening. If you don’t really want it, there are about a thousand landscapers working my neighborhood that would love the green card rights.
In related news, I have won the Nigerian Tobacco Lottery and Viagra wants me to spend my lottery winnings with them.
Scottsdale has water?
Scottsdale has enough water to have a waterfront?
It is a huge canal actually that comprises the water part. But it is all right next to Scottsdale Fashion Square with Old Town on the other side. All pretty nice, but not your traditional waterfront, that is for sure.
Ah, right up there with subdivision and golf-course lakes: totally artificial, but possibly useful if they decided to plant fish or allow boating.
Naw, this is okay. The canal has been there forever; the path of the modern day Salt River “grand canal system” here was actually cut by the Hohokam Indians hundreds of years ago back in the 14th century. It is part of the irrigation and water system system for the entire valley; they have just done a fancy development along it in downtown Scottsdale.
I heard some piece on NPR a while back that reported that folks watering their lawns out there brings in some of the plants that people are trying to escape from the east due to their allergies. Crazy
Ew thanks for this post. On NPR even Cokie Reberts said that this Obama interview on “Univisions Al Punto” was a really good idea
mucho toro ca ca …
So, Baucus and Conrad immediately leaped to add even more language to the bill because Obama made an issue of it in his speech, not because of the stir after Wilson’s outburst?
What’s that on my leg? I don’t think it’s raining.
Watch out where the huskies go, don’t you eat that yellow Snowe.
OT — very much so…
Hope you folks have been reading the stuff coming out of Matt Latimer, former Bush speech writer.
Jeebus. We knew it was bad, but I don’t think we have yet seen how really, REALLY bad it was inside the last administration.
Hope EW notes this graf from Latimer’s piece in WaPo today (yes, I broke down and read something at that POS WaPo):
Emphasis mine.
In other words, the report we saw this past year about the DOJ hiring practices was only the tip of the iceberg.
Must read the WaPo piece and the GQ piece. As much I hate giving money to conservatives, I may have to break down and buy Latimer’s book.
That future USA would have to be Tim Griffin, wouldn’t it?
That would sure be the assumption given the “Rove aides” bit. Jeff Taylor, who was working with both Ashcroft and Gonzales during that time is the only other possibility I can think of, but it must be Griffin.
Can’t think of anybody else who fits the bill, can you? Griffin worked for Rove as his aide in 2005-2006.
Griffin also had a one-year deployment, too…so when exactly did this all go down? And did Rummy ship his ass out because he didn’t like Rove’s boy in his face about hiring?
I read the GQ piece this morning. I thought this part was hysterical:
Bush talking about Obama, ” ‘This is a dangerous world’ he said for no apparent reason, ‘and this cat isn’t remotely qualified to handle it’…He wound himself up even more. ‘You think I wasn’t qualified? he said to no one in particular,’I was qualified.’”
But,it was appalling (though I guess not surprising) to have Latimer confirm how clueless they were about how to handle the financial meltdown, and how Bush was just basically confused.
Yeah, I was pretty scared myself watching from the outside, hoping these guys knew WTF they were doing to keep the financial markets and the economy from completely imploding. It looked like baling wire and chewing gum holding it all together.
But jeebus, to find out that they had a scant grip on things by their brittle fingernails makes me wonder how we escaped…and continue to wonder how bad things are even now, even though they have managed to adopt a thicker veneer of control.
Would be nice to put Latimer and Scott McClellan together side-by-side and see if one didn’t free up the other’s tongue during a free-for-all Q&A session, huh?
So what would have happened had we not bailed out the banks,AIG? I wonder what was over the precipice. I’ve never seen an explanation.
That’s apparently a burn-before-reading secret.
Yes, apparently so. Lots of gardens planted, and today the WaPo tells us that it costs more to grow our own than to buy. I KNOW that!
But you know where the veggies are coming from. And it is fun unless someone steals your frickin’ tomato plants. Planters and all.
They’re stealing the entire plant? How in the world would they transplant it?
Tomato plants arent that big
There would have been a complete seizure, an utter lack of liquidity. No money. Business would have ceased.
Yeah, it’s really hard to wrap one’s head around, and I think that’s why Latimer described Bush having a hard time. Even the guys who were really smart couldn’t stop this freight train, and the cognitive dissonance arising from this alone gave those who had complete and blind faith in the free market nothing on which to grab for mental stability.
At one point on the edge of catastrophe, one of the largest money market funds, through which so much cash flowed each day, “broke the buck” — it paid out less than a buck for every buck put in. Yet this particular tool is used all the time to float cash between sales and purchases of investments as a way to continue to earn money while safeguarding value; it was simply not worth as much as cash at that point, because of the failure of Lehman. And cash itself was failing value because faith in the American system was shot. There was no place to put money, none, and there was no way anyone with smarts would trust it in a bank last September-October, because there was no confidence in any bank’s solvency.
Could this all have been one big massive scam? Sure, but the participants must have emerged with deep wounds of their own. The real scam began years earlier, after Gramm-Bliley-Leach and the propping up of the U.S. economy through excessively cheap money.
Emptywheel, You are my hero, ok jane too, seriously you two provide the much needed coverage of what is happening our country. Wish I could contribute to you but out of work since Jan 08. I came accross a web site that states (”I was thrilled when he picked up my kids,” says mother of two, Jenna Winters. Winters fondly remembers the school addresses of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush from her childhood, but explains that President Obama is “different” from those presidents. “For starters, he’s a– you know, a socialist. I wouldn’t want my kids listening to his speech any more that I’d want them listening to any of that socialist rap music.”) the n word is now socialist. This is a rightwing spewwing machine,http://nationalinquisition.blogspot.com/ this needs to stop. This is just to hateful. Keep it on, the heat that is.
Keep heat on not hate.
Thank heaven people are finally catching on to the socialist threats that have been growing in America in the past decade, especially in the music industry. I have been amazed at how few Americans are aware of the importance of bling and Escalades in the writings of Marx and Hitler.
Tough for folks to realize that Jesus was a socialist
hey faux gnus, suck on THAT …
had to say it …
O/T. Reminds me of some of the discussion back on the Dog Day Afternoon thread. Take a deep breath–and hope for the best!
Protesters make final G20 plans as Pittsburgh digs in
BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Published: September 20, 2009 Updated 5 minutes ago
“Pittsburgh is beefing up security with thousands of extra police, as anti-globalization, anti-war, anti-government and anti-poverty activists descend on it for the G20 summit.
“Protesters say they plan to air their opposition to “the undemocratic way in which the G20 operates and the decisions the group makes, which affect the more than six billion inhabitants of this planet.”’
More.
OT
A judge has rejected former Rep. Rick Renzi’s attempts to prevent a majority of the evidence gathered from wiretaps and search warrants, as well as interviews with his former aides, from being admitted in his corruption trial.
Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco determined that the Arizona Republican’s interpretation of constitutional separation-of-powers protections was overly broad and should not protect all of the information derived from taped phone calls and interviews with former aides. He made the argument in a court document filed Wednesday.
http://thehill.com/homenews/ne…..s-evidence
Thanks, Rayne. I sure wish I’d listened to Ian…
When you say an utter lack of liquidity, do you mean that none of us would have had any money? You say NO MONEY. We’d have been on the barter system?
Not quite — but businesses would have found an inability to get credit to buy raw materials and pay wages, and other businesses would have had difficulty getting credit to pay for goods produced by other businesses. Their banks could have been insolvent (likely were) and without anyway to continue to support their clients. There would have been a necessity for an immediate bank holiday of some unspecified length until they sorted it out, if they didn’t boost liquidity and literally lie (see: Latimer’s speech) to sooth everybody and get them to continue to act as if nothing was wrong. It’s the panic which would have caused everything to begin to seize up; if businesses didn’t believe they would get paid, they’d stop shipping and horde cash, while banks would stop lending. Individuals would have caused a run on banks, which were already insolvent.
I don’t know exactly what this scenario would have looked like, so some of this is a bit fuzzy, but this is what I think it would have looked like. We know credit markets did tighten up considerably until the Feds backstopped the financial industry in a number of ways, and credit continues to be tight as banks over-correct for their too loose habits of the early 2000’s while working on paying down their TARP monies.
All brought to you courtesy of Republican policy and legislation, greased with a lack of Democratic spine.
O/T: The nightmare is upon us
‘Project Indect’: An A.I. to police all of Europe
BY STEPHEN C. WEBSTER Published: September 20, 2009 Updated 25 minutes ago
“The European Union is spending tens of millions of euros on an artificial intelligence system known as “Project Indect,” which would draw from multiple data sources, namely public surveillance cameras, in order to detect “threats” and recognize “abnormal behavior” across the whole continent.
. . .
“Perhaps more chilling, the project promises “continuous monitoring” of “web sites, discussion forums, usenet groups, file servers, p2p networks [and] individual computer systems”.
. . .
“But Indect is just one cornerstone of what EU officials are calling Europe’s “justice agenda,” the achievement of which would see European police agencies sharing information on suspects and cooperating on arrest warrants.”
More.
In re: Children who were born here with one or both parents undocumented.
I don’t see what the question is about children who were born here. These children are US Citizens regardless of their parents’ status. 14the amendment. Natural born US Citizens. They are already eligible for SCHIP. Could birtherism be creeping into the health care debate?
One big problem is if you are illegal, you don’t go filling out forms to qualify for anything, especially forms about income or birth. If you have brown skin and speak with an accent, a bunch of people assume you are illegal even before you have to produce proof of income and have no tax documents. You’re lucky if they think you’re just a regular illegal and not a drug dealing gang member. Contrary to the stories about illegals doing everything they can to cash in on America’s entitlements while living high on the hog, it’s a tough decision to risk deportation of mom or dad. Odds are better at the ER where they can’t ask a whole lot of questions and you can lie about the ones they do ask without them being able to verify before providing services. Plus it’s an emergency by then so risking deportation seems more worthwhile.
The other thing that is naive is the idea that covering the children of illegals is any different politically. The people who hate the illegals REALLY hate that a pregnant woman can come here and have a baby and thereby entitle that child to full citizenship. Baucus would have to write up a whole new section on the child having been in the country for 20 years before they could take advantage of health care if they ever wanted to please the Republicans on that issue. Better to leave it vague and let the poor immigrants fight it out.
Bmaz, I think that the AZ market needs to tank way more than it has for me to afford a horse property there with only 100,000.
OT, but a prominent voice in support of torture of innocent people has decided that the Yale murder is a
horribly sad situationopportunity to polish his Constitutional credentials. Alan Dershowitz:At least Clark can rest assured that as long as he was only torturing someone while meaning to ask questions, people like Dershowitz and Yoo have given him a whole raft of defenses, straight from the heart of
hellthe DOJ.giants and cowballs –
does anyone understand how coaches think?
to me, football coaches are like white house gurus; they make stupid decisions and then pretend they didn’t or spend man-years having their spokesmen invent lies to defend those stupid decisions.
case in point:
how is it that the giants can run for 12 yards in the first half
and then,
starting the second half, let their mack-truck of a halfback, brandon jacobs, run all over the cowballs,
and then set him down on the bench with the ball at around the 20.
and then order manning to throw passes – three incompetent throws.
do coaches, or presidents, know anything about psychology?
if his linemen and jacobs are having fun,
for goods sake let them run!
i cannot count the number of times i have seen this coaching folly played out in the nfl.
oh, well.
What Obama would do regarding Honduras (Obama took a middle ground, appealing to having a more legitimate election in the future)
Is there any way for someone to see this interview? Any chance a transcript will be available in Spanish?
This answer by Obama goes beyond anything anyone in the administration has said before in its assumption that the legitimate Honduran government will not be restored between now and November. (Which has everything to do with U.S. complicity with the coup during July and most of August, topped by Obama’s thin-skinned insult in Mexico to those asking the U.S. to live up to its own laws and to his empty words of opposition to the coup regime.)
Clinton, Obama, and the permanent government at State and DoD thought it would be cute to string things out and restore a tamed Zelaya to office just before the elections. Well, guess what, it’s not about Zelaya. It’s about the grasping, corrupt oligarchy trying to hang onto its complete grip on power in the face of popular pressure for more participatory democracy — and the two-going-on-three months of continuous mobilization has fused the various streams of the anti-coup resistance into a solid force for real change. Joke’s on you, elitist scum (North American and Honduran).
Okay, I clearly should have gone to bed a few hours ago; somehow skipped over the transcript (for which huge thanks). It’s not a new position; but it’s a slippery and clusterfvck-creating restatement of the existing position.
Will you recognize the winner of the next presidential election in November in Honduras?
President Obama: I really would like to see the parties embrace the Arias approach. That will, I think, confer much greater legitimacy on the elections that are coming up.