Patterico's Pontifications

8/6/2014

Helping those with complicated lives

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:37 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I suppose this is standard fare at all the universities now:

UC Riverside is hiring a full-time program coordinator to assist undocumented students at the university.

Money for the new position comes from $5 million in funding that UC President Janet Napolitano announced in October to provide counseling, financial aid and other services for undocumented students throughout the UC system.

UCR Vice Chancellor James Sandoval said in a statement that the new post will help meet undocumented students’ distinct needs.

“Undocumented students face many unique non-academic challenges and the position is critical to promoting the educational interests of this population,” he said.

Committee member Ana Coria, an undocumented student who graduated from UCR in June, said having a full-time staff member to assist undocumented students will help them succeed.

“We live complicated lives with multiple identities,” said Coria, who was president of PODER, a UCR group for undocumented students. “It impacts how we do academically.”

–Dana

Justifying Executive Action

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:06 pm



[guest post by Dana]

The president has no choice in the matter, people. If obstructionist Republicans weren’t so stubborn, dysfunctional and obstructionist, he wouldn’t be forced to take action. And action he must take, because after all, we don’t want our president sitting around twiddling his thumbs and doing nothing, do we?


President Obama emphasized that while he prefers to work with Congress, he will continue to take executive action to accomplish his objectives. His administration will make sure to work within the confines of executive powers but will “scour our authorities to try and make progress” on issues such as the border crisis and immigration, he said.

“I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around, twiddling my thumbs, and waiting for Congress to get something done,” he told reporters at a press conference this afternoon that concluded a summit between the United States and African leaders.

With that, the president has decided to make the great sacrifice of breaking up his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, allotting two days to go back to Washington for meetings and updates. And of course, included in his vacation schedule will be a fundraiser for Senate Democrats.

I don’t begrudge the president a vacation, and quite frankly, I’m all for him twiddling his thumbs and doing nothing. For a very long time.

–Dana

Update: This is amusing, in light of this post:

President Obama on Wednesday dismissed charges that he broke the law by going around Congress on issues ranging from health care to immigration.

“I never have a green light. I’m bound by the Constitution. I’m bound by separation of powers,” Obama said at a press conference, concluding a Washington summit on Africa.

“What I can do is scour our authorities to try to make progress,” Obama added of his approach in the face of congressional gridlock.

House Republicans brought a lawsuit against Obama for delaying the employer mandate in his signature health law. And Obama is weighing whether to expand the deferral of deportations of Dream Act-eligible immigrants to others living in the country illegally — a move conservatives have called illegal.

Hamas Had Plans

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:01 am



[guest post by Dana]

Way to ruin the holidays, Israel:

Multiple media outlets report that Hamas’s offensive tunnel network – now known to have been composed of over forty attack tunnels dug underneath Israel’s border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – was set to be activated during the Jewish High Holidays (September 24th) as a mass terror attack.

The attack was meant to generate as many as ten thousand casualties, men, women and particularly children and hundreds of captives. Explosives were particularly placed underneath kindergartens to make certain that these “institutions” would be the first struck, even before any thing else.

The IDF recently published the below map showing that tunnels were created in pairs, to empty out on both sides of nearby communities. The known cost of the infrastructure – each tunnel costs upward of some $1 million – clearly shows that Hamas was planning a coordinated mega-attack. It must be understood that use of even one tunnel would inevitably trigger Israeli retaliation against the entire network.

Revelations regarding the planned tunnel attack magnitude played a decisive role in the Israeli government’s rejection of a ceasefire proposed late Friday by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Further, it is being reported that Sunday’s Gaza school attack was staged:

“The account promoted by Hamas and repeated by the United States and the U.N. on Sunday was that an Israeli mortar hit a U.N. school, killing 10 people, including children. However, evidence is emerging that the Israeli strike hit outside of the school and the bodies were moved into the courtyard to make it look like Israel hit the school.”

Video at the link above. Note:

In the video, two dead men are photographed outside the school, but later images show them inside school grounds, suggesting their bodies had been moved or they weren’t really dead. A little girl then appears apparently lying dead and covered in blood, but pictures indicate she was placed there. Then another man picks her up and runs away from the school with her in his arms. We never see where he takes her or whether she is really dead.

–Dana


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