Obama to use Executive Action on Immigration

[Maximus]

The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences

Barack and Michelle Obama
GILLIAN LAUB
BY SANDRA SOBIERAJ WESTFALL

@sswestfall
12/17/2014 AT 06:30 AM EST

The Obamas open up about raising their daughters, the impact of stereotypes, and what's on the POTUS dance party playlist. Subscribe now for instant access to the exclusive PEOPLE interview!

The protective bubble that comes with the presidency – the armored limo, the Secret Service detail, the White House – shields Barack and Michelle Obamafrom a lot of unpleasantness. But their encounters with racial prejudice aren't as far in the past as one might expect. And they obviously still sting.

"I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years," the first lady told PEOPLE, laughing wryly, along with her husband, at the assumption that the first family has been largely insulated from coming face-to-face with racism.

"Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs," Mrs. Obama said in the Dec. 10 interview appearing in the new issue of PEOPLE.

"I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn't see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn't anything new."

In a 30-minute conversation, the president and Mrs. Obama candidly added their stories to the national discussion of race and racial profiling that was sparked by the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York.

"There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," said the president, adding that, yes, it had happened to him.

Mrs. Obama recalled another incident: "He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee."

Things have gotten better, both Obamas agreed, but there's still more progress to be made.

"The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced," President Obama said. "It's one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala. It's another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse, if he happens to be walking down the street and is dressed the way teenagers dress."




How was the Target incident a racist experience? Is she implying that the person thought she was a Target employee because she was black? Two years ago, when it happened, she thought it was a cute story and said "I felt so good" that a little short lady asked the 6'1" FLOTUS to reach something on a high shelf. But, now it's a racist experience???

I thought I was undercover. I have to tell you something about this trip though. No one knew that was me because a woman actually walked up to me, right? I was in the detergent aisle, and she said — I kid you not — she said, ‘Excuse me, I just have to ask you something,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, cover’s blown.’ She said, ‘Can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent?’ I kid you not…And the only thing she said — I reached up, ’cause she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down — she said, ‘Well, you didn’t have to make it look so easy.’ That was my interaction. I felt so good. ... She had no idea who I was. I thought, as soon as she walked up — I was with my assistant, and I said, ‘This is it, it’s over. We’re going to have to leave.’ She just needed the detergent.

And as far being mistaken for a waiter goes...

FLASHBACK: Valerie Jarrett Mistakes 4-Star General For Waiter

President Barack Obama isn’t the only powerful man in Washington who was once confused for a waiter when wearing his evening best. So was a top general in the U.S. Army — by Valerie Jarrett!

As The Daily Caller first reported back in 2011, Obama’s top adviser mistook a four-star general for a waiter during a fancy dinner hosted by the Alfalfa Club. According to a Daily Caller source, as the general walked by Jarrett’s table, she signaled to him that she wanted more libation.

“I’d like another glass of wine,” she reportedly said.

Like a gentleman, the career military man didn’t make a fuss of the matter, according to the source.

“The guy dutifully went up and got her a glass of wine, and then came back and gave it to her and took a seat at the table,” the source said. “Everyone is in tuxedos and gowns at this thing, but the military people are in full dress uniform.”

According to a corroborating report by CNN, the military man in question was then-Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Peter Chiarelli.

Discussing times they’ve been subjected to racist insults during a recent interview with People magazine, the Obamas mentioned how President Obama was also once mistaken for a waiter during a fancy dinner party in the days before he became the most powerful man in the world.

“He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee,” Mrs. Obama explained.

No word whether the Obamas think Jarrett’s slight against the general was spurred by racial animus — or just an honest mistake.

 

[The Oi]

Maybe if black people would galvanize and start tipping better, they wouldn't have these problems with restaurants and cabs?

If you've got a big nose, nappy hair with peyos hanging over your ears and tszitzits hanging out of your pockets they won't pick you up either.

#jewsrcheap2

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

How was the Target incident a racist experience? Is she implying that the person thought she was a Target employee because she was black? Two years ago, when it happened, she thought it was a cute story and said "I felt so good" that a little short lady asked the 6'1" FLOTUS to reach something on a high shelf. But, now it's a racist experience???

Ouch. Her specifically relating this story to the height difference a few years ago makes it look crappy as hell to make it a racial issue now.

And as far being mistaken for a waiter goes...

“The guy dutifully went up and got her a glass of wine, and then came back and gave it to her and took a seat at the table,” the source said. “Everyone is in tuxedos and gowns at this thing, but the military people are in full dress uniform.”

According to a corroborating report by CNN, the military man in question was then-Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Peter Chiarelli.

Who is white.

Maybe the Obamas should read up on "The boy who cried wolf." It started almost from the moment he was elected with the beer summit, which all came out of a false accusation/assumption that a police officer had harassed a black professor because of his race. But hey, don't let the false premise detract from having a beer to discuss racial stereotypes anyway....

 

[Maximus]

‘Amnesty Bonuses’ in Tax Code: Illegal Immigrants to Receive Earned Income Tax Credit
Could cost ‘more than $24,000 to those who receive deferred action’
Daniel Halper
February 6, 2015 7:16 AM



President Barack Obama has promoted his recent executive action on immigration by arguing that he’s only deferring action – holding off on enforcement of the current immigration laws until an immigration reform he approves of passes Congress. But that's not really true; in fact there’s a way for illegal immigrants immediately to receive “amnesty bonuses,” as Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska terms it.

Here’s how. A recent Homeland Security Committee hearing on immigration revealed an alarming consequence of President Obama’s executive amnesty—that illegal immigrants with deferred status may be able to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Moreover, this person, who is here in the U.S. unlawfully, could be able to file an amended tax return for up to the last three tax years, possibly receiving upwards of $24,000 in tax credits.

The discovery was made by Eileen J. O’Connor, a tax lawyer and the former head of the tax division of the United States Department of Justice, who used her congressional testimony in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to explain it. “The law makes a social security number a requirement of eligibility to receive the earned income credit,” O’Connor explained.

“But in 1999, the Chief Counsel’s office of IRS ruled (in a non-binding, non-precedential way, but no one but the IRS pays attention to those disclaimers) that when a person receives a social security number, he can file amended returns to claim the credit for the three preceding years during which he did not. The logic is puzzling: the credit is not available if you don’t have a social security number, but you can receive it retroactively for years during which you did not qualify for it because you didn’t have a social security number.”

Senator Sasse, who along with Senator Ron Johnson has written a letter addressed to the inspector general of the U.S. Treasury Department, has released a statement commenting on the “amnesty bonuses.”

“By offering illegal aliens new payments under the Earned Income Tax Credit, the IRS may encourage fraud from those claiming children living in other countries. The Administration may have blown open the doors for fraud with amnesty bonuses of more than $24,000 to those who receive deferred action,” Sasse says in the statement.

“This is basic economics: if you want more of something, you subsidize it. By subsidizing illegal entry with four years’ worth of new tax credits, the IRS would promote lawlessness. This program severely undermines the White House’s lip-service to enforcing the law and would increase the burden on law-abiding taxpayers.”

In his own statement, Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, seconds Sasse’s concerns. “Non-U.S. citizens who qualify for President Obama’s temporary deferred actions will now be eligible to receive permanent Social Security numbers. A Social Security number is the key that opens a whole treasure chest of benefits, including significant tax credits,” Johnson’s statement reads.

“Most notably, qualifying applicants for the president’s programs can now claim thousands – even tens of thousands – of dollars in payments from the Earned Income Tax Credit and, for some, the Additional Child Tax Credit. These two programs, which cost taxpayers $89.6 billion in 2013, were responsible for $21 billion in improper, potentially fraudulent payments that same year. Americans deserve to know where their taxpayer dollars are being spent and whether the Internal Revenue Service is failing to protect them from improper payments.”

Here’s the full text of Sasse’s letter, which is signed by Johnson, and nine direct questions f

 

[brownindian]

‘Amnesty Bonuses’ in Tax Code: Illegal Immigrants to Receive Earned Income Tax Credit
Could cost ‘more than $24,000 to those who receive deferred action’
Daniel Halper
February 6, 2015 7:16 AM



President Barack Obama has promoted his recent executive action on immigration by arguing that he’s only deferring action – holding off on enforcement of the current immigration laws until an immigration reform he approves of passes Congress. But that's not really true; in fact there’s a way for illegal immigrants immediately to receive “amnesty bonuses,” as Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska terms it.

Here’s how. A recent Homeland Security Committee hearing on immigration revealed an alarming consequence of President Obama’s executive amnesty—that illegal immigrants with deferred status may be able to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Moreover, this person, who is here in the U.S. unlawfully, could be able to file an amended tax return for up to the last three tax years, possibly receiving upwards of $24,000 in tax credits.

The discovery was made by Eileen J. O’Connor, a tax lawyer and the former head of the tax division of the United States Department of Justice, who used her congressional testimony in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to explain it. “The law makes a social security number a requirement of eligibility to receive the earned income credit,” O’Connor explained.

“But in 1999, the Chief Counsel’s office of IRS ruled (in a non-binding, non-precedential way, but no one but the IRS pays attention to those disclaimers) that when a person receives a social security number, he can file amended returns to claim the credit for the three preceding years during which he did not. The logic is puzzling: the credit is not available if you don’t have a social security number, but you can receive it retroactively for years during which you did not qualify for it because you didn’t have a social security number.”

Senator Sasse, who along with Senator Ron Johnson has written a letter addressed to the inspector general of the U.S. Treasury Department, has released a statement commenting on the “amnesty bonuses.”

“By offering illegal aliens new payments under the Earned Income Tax Credit, the IRS may encourage fraud from those claiming children living in other countries. The Administration may have blown open the doors for fraud with amnesty bonuses of more than $24,000 to those who receive deferred action,” Sasse says in the statement.

“This is basic economics: if you want more of something, you subsidize it. By subsidizing illegal entry with four years’ worth of new tax credits, the IRS would promote lawlessness. This program severely undermines the White House’s lip-service to enforcing the law and would increase the burden on law-abiding taxpayers.”

In his own statement, Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, seconds Sasse’s concerns. “Non-U.S. citizens who qualify for President Obama’s temporary deferred actions will now be eligible to receive permanent Social Security numbers. A Social Security number is the key that opens a whole treasure chest of benefits, including significant tax credits,” Johnson’s statement reads.

“Most notably, qualifying applicants for the president’s programs can now claim thousands – even tens of thousands – of dollars in payments from the Earned Income Tax Credit and, for some, the Additional Child Tax Credit. These two programs, which cost taxpayers $89.6 billion in 2013, were responsible for $21 billion in improper, potentially fraudulent payments that same year. Americans deserve to know where their taxpayer dollars are being spent and whether the Internal Revenue Service is failing to protect them from improper payments.”

Here’s the full text of Sasse’s letter, which is signed by Johnson, and nine direct questions f

In simple words this means?

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Obama slams 'frustrating,' 'heartbreaking' Supreme Court immigration decision

President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s deadlocked decision Thursday that effectively thwarted his efforts to expand executive actions on immigration, arguing that alternatives to his executive actions would not bring about desired change.

"Our founders conceived this country as a refuge for the world. Welcoming wave after wave of immigrants kept us youthful and dynamic and entrepreneurial," Obama said. "It has shaped our character and it has made us stronger. But for more than two decades now our immigration system, everybody acknowledges, has been broken. And the fact that the Supreme Court wasn't able to issue a decision today doesn't just set the system back further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/obama-slams-supreme-court-immigration-decision-224728#ixzz4CQCvJUDt

Someone should clue-in this constitutionally-ignorant fucktard. It is not the role of the Supreme Court to resolve legislative deadlocks, to steer the country in the direction of being "youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial", nor to make us more like the country "we [allegedly] aspire to be." It is the role of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and laws as written. That's it.

I also like the part about him shoving words in the mouths of the Founders about how they allegedly "envisioned" this country. I think he's confusing what the Framers actually said with a poem some woman wrote and stuck on the base of the Statue of Liberty more than 100 years later. Eh, details, details.....

Congress being "unable" to do what the President views as necessary or desireable is not a "bug" of our system -- it is a feature specifically designed by the Founders themselves.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

Congress being "unable" to do what the President views as necessary or desireable is not a "bug" of our system -- it is a feature specifically designed by the Founders themselves.

I agree, that's why we have checks and balances. He makes it sound like they are blocking legal immigration. You can still legally come to the US and live here. This is the part that makes me mad, acting like we owe it to those who came here illegally.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I agree, that's why we have checks and balances. He makes it sound like they are blocking legal immigration. You can still legally come to the US and live here. This is the part that makes me mad, acting like we owe it to those who came here illegally.

Obama is mad because he doesn't like the way our laws are working, and he therefore believes that he should have the authority to ignore them. And he's somehow convinced himself that this is in keeping with what the Founders of the country had in mind.

What the laws should be, and how they should work, is something that should be decided through legislation. And if Congress and the President don't agree on what the changes should be, then the law doesn't change.

And on the substantive issues, if I'm the Republicans, I make this the centerpiece of the campaigns. Because Obama's actions not only just make people eligible to stay, but make them eligible for a whole class of additional federal monetary benefits.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

Obama is mad because he doesn't like the way our laws are working, and he therefore believes that he should have the authority to ignore them. And he's somehow convinced himself that this is in keeping with what the Founders of the country had in mind.

What the laws should be, and how they should work, is something that should be decided through legislation. And if Congress and the President don't agree on what the changes should be, then the law doesn't change.

And on the substantive issues, if I'm the Republicans, I make this the centerpiece of the campaigns. Because Obama's actions not only just make people eligible to stay, but make them eligible for a whole class of additional federal monetary benefits.

It is going to be interesting how Hillary reacts to this. She almost can't support Obama here.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

It is going to be interesting how Hillary reacts to this. She almost can't support Obama here.

She already did. She's on record as having urged the Supreme Court to uphold Obama's actions, and has already condemned the decision today.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-...lary-clinton-obama-immigration-actions-222086

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hill...tion-decision-tear-millions/story?id=40074354

 

[AZ_]

I also like the part about him shoving words in the mouths of the Founders about how they allegedly "envisioned" this country. I think he's confusing what the Framers actually said with a poem some woman wrote and stuck on the base of the Statue of Liberty more than 100 years later. Eh, details, details.....

*Reads full text of Second Amendment aloud with hand over heart

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

*Reads full text of Second Amendment aloud with hand over heart

The Second Amendment was actually written into the Bill of Rights and passed by the Founders along with the Constitution. It is their words.

The poem on pedestal of the Statue of Liberty was written by some unelected women in the 1880's, and stuck there by a private foundation.

So yeah, one legitimately represents the thoughts of the Founders, and the other does not.

 

[AZ_]

I'm sure Jefferson would be thrilled with America's current interpretation of the text.

 

[Notorious]

My family came here too and all sides of my family followed the proper rules to entering the country. Illegals and real immigrants have nothing in common. No reason to compare illegals with immigrants who take the time to follow the law. You can enter this country. The borders aren't closed. You have to follow the rules to do so though.

My great grandparents came here to work and did so. They said all the same things about them that they say about illegals today. It's embarrassing. Immigration is a strength of ours not a weakness. Republicans have no plan. Sounds a lot like when slave owners wanted to send slaves back to Africa. It's just impossible. You can't deport millions of people. 2nd class citizenship does nothing to help assimilation.

We know you don't like anything the President does. What's the plan Max? Better plan?

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I'm sure Jefferson would be thrilled with America's current interpretation of the text.

That's because Jefferson died before the passage of the 14th Amendment, which made the Bill of Rights binding on states, not just Congress.

Prior to the passage of the 14th Amendment, states could lawfully restrict rights to guns.

They could also squelch the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion, because only Congress was restricted from infringing on those rights. Same with rights under the 4th and 5th Amendment, etc.,

The passage of the 14th Amendment subsequently changed all that, so now, states can't regulate guns the way the Founders would have permitted.

But that's how your supposed to change the Constitution - by Amendment. Don't like the Second Amendment limiting state gun control? Repeal it.