Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

T R E 4 5 O N

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Everybody saw this coming.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

You cannot shame the shameless.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Let there be snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / Embarassing

Embarassing

by | 21 Comments

This post is in: 

What else can you say to this:

The United States accepted only some 450 Iraqi refugees in October, well short of the Bush administration’s stated goal of 1,000 a month.

The figure also marks a decline from September, when 889 refugees were admitted. Iraq’s neighbors have been overwhelmed by a flood of more than 2 million Iraqi refugees fleeing the violence in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion. After being criticized for failing to accept the country’s proper share of refugees, the Bush administration vowed that the United States would accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal 2008 (out of a total of 80,000 refugees Washington plans to admit).

Disgraceful. Guess I figured out something else to say.

Reader Interactions

21Comments

  1. 1.

    Delia

    Well, golly gee, I guess the surge is just going along so swimmingly now that there’s just no need for refugees or anything nasty like that.

    I mean, Karen Hughes fixed everything up just fine in the PR department, didn’t she? So we don’t have to worry about those reality-based types anymore, who might imply nasty things like we should be taking care of people whose homes and families we’ve blown to bits, especially when we’re afraid of their religion. Anyhow, Karen’s gone back to Texas now that everything is wonderful.

  4. 4.

    ConservativelyLiberal

    Remember people, they are brown and of the wrong religion. When it comes to ‘those people’, the right only pays them lip service. I bet the snafu will be blamed on someone other than who is responsible for it. After all, that is the hallmark of this administration.

    The buck stops when it lines our our campaign contributors pockets. Personal responsibility? What a quaint old concept.

    Helping the Iraqis costs money, and if the money ain’t going to their right wing buddies, it ain’t going in the right direction.

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    What else can you say to this:

    I believe the precise wording is considered a threat to national security because Herr Bush can’t perform the anatomically impossible actions described.

  6. 6.

    Pb

    And you know why that is, right…

    The reason, Iraqis say, is that they are not allowed to apply in Iraq, requiring them to make a costly and uncertain journey to countries like Syria or Jordan, where they may be turned away by border officials already overwhelmed by fleeing Iraqis.

  7. 7.

    Jess

    It’s deeply wrong, of course, but I can also see why we might not want a bunch of piss-off Iraqis whose country we just destroyed to end up on our doorstep. Talk about chickens coming home to roost…

  9. 9.

    ConservativelyLiberal

    Yup, and if one of the Iraqis ‘blows up’, so to say, then shit will rain on the right over it.

    Kinda adds up, right?

  10. 10.

    Nancy Irving

    Even 12k per year is laughable. Our “fair share”? We *created* this crisis, our “share” is 100% of Iraqi refugees.

    Bush will burn in hell, if there is a hell.

  11. 11.

    dslak

    Bush will burn in hell, if there is a hell.

    We could always prosecute him for something here and now, just in case.

  12. 12.

    Media Glutton

    Not only do we not accept 1,000 Iraqis but we alienate 12 MILLION PEOPLE who are in our country right now! Who are hard-working! Who risked their lives coming across a 100-mile desert to make a better life for their family!

    Immigrant families in America = the enemy. How did this become the Republican position??

  13. 13.

    dutchmarbel

    Kristoff compares this years figures upto september:

    Between January and August this year, Sweden took in 12,259 Iraqis fleeing their decomposing country. It expects 20,000 for all of 2007. By contrast, in the same January-August period, the United States admitted 685 refugees, according to State Department figures.

    The numbers bear closer scrutiny. In January, Sweden admitted 1,500 Iraqis, compared to 15 that entered the United States. In April, the respective numbers were 1,421 and 1; in May, 1,367 and 1; and in August 1,469 and 529.

    True, the Iraqis in Sweden are asylum-seekers, whereas those reaching these shores have refugee status conferred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. But the numbers — representing the bulk of the Iraqis getting into a country of nine million and another of 300 million — are no less of an indictment for that.

    When Tobias Billstrom, the migration minister, says, “Yes, of course the United States should do more,” you can feel his indignation about to erupt like milk boiling over. He notes that given the huge population difference, Sweden’s intake of Iraqis “is the equivalent of the U.S. taking in about 500,000 refugees.”

  15. 15.

    Wilfred

    Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
    With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

    Minus any brown-skinned, Muslim motherfuckers, sure, but otherwise – America, fuck yeah!

  16. 16.

    jake

    The reason, Iraqis say, is that they are not allowed to apply in Iraq, requiring them to make a costly and uncertain journey to countries like Syria or Jordan,

    And WTF? Bush repeatedly calls Jordan & Syria terrorist havens and puppy stompers and all that mean nasty stuff (despite the fact they’re at least trying to help victims of our fuck up), so if an application does come through from either country it probably goes straight in the fucking shredder.

    What am I saying? It probably goes straight in a fucking database labled “Terrist,” so the guy now has even less chance of getting the fuck out of that mess.

    War crimes. Anyone who still hmms and haws about that is too fucking stupid for a mother’s tears.

  17. 17.

    cd6

    I suspect this is because they’re finding it more difficult than expected to round up white skinned Iraqis.

  18. 18.

    libarbarian

    I think Racism is less important than political calculations. Allowing them in would be an admission of failure and reduce the distance of the average american from the consequences of the war. Bush can’t alow that to happen

  20. 20.

    Svensker

    No, no, you guys aren’t getting it. See, we let 1.5 million Iraqi refugees into Syria, then we bomb Syria, see? We get regime change against an Islamofascist yet secular state, AND we reduce the refugee problem. It’s so simple and obvious!

    Gotta run. That incoming phone call is from Doug Feith and, good news!, I’m getting a job offer!

  21. 21.

    capelza

    Good for Blumenauer…I’d take a family in…did it for Katrina.

    ibarbarian Says:
    I think Racism is less important than political calculations. Allowing them in would be an admission of failure and reduce the distance of the average american from the consequences of the war. Bush can’t alow that to happen

    You may be right…allowing the people in here would be an admission of failure.
    The Vietnamese boat people…of course they had a hell of a time here, many of them when they did get here.

    We do want to go screw up other people’s countries to “free” them..but having the resultant refugees right in our face…not so much.

    Especially when we have villified their religion and way of life in our jingositic “America, Fuck yeah!”…they should just be grateful we got Saddam and suck up all that infrastructure and civil destruction.

Comments are closed.