Somehow, someway, we have to return sanity to immigration policy

This is nuts. Without a doubt, this is the most infuriating thing I have come across in a while.

A valedictorian in Fresno California is in the process of being deported after his parents appeals for asylum were exhausted. His father has been taken into custody and is in a detention center in Arizona. He and his mother have been ordered out of the country. He has a twelve year old brother who is a natural born American citizen will be expatriated back to Armenia with his mother and brother if the family is to remain together.

Arthur Mkoyan has not seen Armenia since he was two years old, and he does not want to return. He doesn't speak the language and he barely understands it when he hears it spoken to him. "Hopefully, I can somehow stay here and continue my studies here," he said. "It would be hard if I go back."


The Mkoyan family fled the crumbling Soviet Union in it's waning days. Ironically, they did not seek asylum because they were dissidents - they sought asylum because Arthur's father was a police officer in the old USSR, and the family was targeted by independence forces. The families home was burned to the ground and the general store they operated was looted and ransacked.

Seeking a better life, his father left for Fresno in 1991, choosing Fresno because he knew someone who had emigrated there, and soon applied for political asylum. Arthur and his mother arrived in Fresno in 1995, after three years in Russia.

His father's application for asylum, which included his wife and son, was ultimately rejected. Asylum is an arduous process, and asylum seekers must prove they would suffer severe persecution if they return to their country.

Arthur said he thinks it's unfair that he has to return to a country he hasn't seen since he was 2.

He already has been accepted to the University of California at Davis, where he planned to major in chemistry. He would like to become a dentist or a pharmacist.

Bullard High School Principal Glenn Starkweather said he wasn't aware of Arthur's situation but said he had a good academic record. Arthur has just over a 4.0 grade-point average, making him a valedictorian.

"He's obviously a very strong student. I'm proud of him," Starkweather said.

With deportation on the horizon, Silverman said, Arthur has limited options.

Once he is back in Armenia, Arthur could return to the United States on a student visa. Or he could ask a member of Congress to introduce a private bill on his behalf to grant him legal residency, Silverman said.

Arthur contacted Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein for help weeks ago. Feinstein has introduced private bills in the past in an effort to grant legal status to individuals.

Feinstein's office is looking into Arthur's case, said Claire Bowyer, Feinstein's deputy press secretary.

Private bills are rarely introduced and often don't pass, according to Feinstein's office. Once a bill is introduced, deportation is halted. If it passes, the applicant receives a green card. In some cases, the bill allows a parent to obtain legal residency along with the child.

"Arthur Mkoyan represents another reason why Congress needs to pass the Dream Act," Feinstein said in a prepared statement. "It is in our nation's interest to provide talented students the incentive to take this path toward being responsible and law-abiding members of our society."

Arthur, clinging to hope that something will give, hasn't told his classmates that he is under a deportation order and will be forced to leave the country. "I can't really concentrate on my studies. It's hard to focus, [but] I'm still keeping my grade-point average high."

I will be contacting my elected representatives and encouraging them to support passage of the DREAM Act, and letting them know that I support making allowances for all of the children who were brought here by their parents and had no voice in the decision. But it's just cruel to take a kid out of their "homeland" when they are too young even to remember, admit them to this country, educate them,and Americanize them - and then tell a 17-year-old they have to go back to a country they can't remember because their dad's application for asylum was denied.

And until we have some sanity restored by legislative fiat, can we please, pretty please, take a look at these kids on a case-by-case basis? They have done nothing wrong and don't deserve to have their lives ripped away.

Where the hell is the common sense?

There is a damned good reason I took myself out of the game early and turned to taking on staggering examples of "stupid" that I had to just shake my head about when I was part of the system. One intelligent, clear-eyed person can only absorb a set amount of cognitive dissonance and power-structure stupidity over the course of a career and still retain a shred of sanity; and here is a text-book example of the sort of stupid that made me say "Hmmm...I can retire and be comfortable, and play with my grandkid and blog...or I can keep banging my head against this reinforced concrete wall. What to do?"

Patients who have used medical marijuana are being turned away by transplant programs for taking the still-unorthodox advice of their physicians and using marijuana to treat symptoms of their illness - and this is happening in states where the voters have decided that medical use of the plant is legal!

This month, Timothy Garon, 56, a Seattle musician, died after being turned down for a liver transplant. He was rejected partly because he had used medical marijuana.

Now, a second critically ill patient in Washington state says he has been denied a spot in two organ transplant programs because he uses doctor-prescribed marijuana.

Jonathon Simchen, 33, of Fife, a town south of Seattle, is a diabetic whose kidneys and pancreas have failed.

He said he was removed from the transplant program at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle because he admitted using medical marijuana. Later, he said, University of Washington Medical Center transplant officials refused to accept him because of the medical marijuana issue.

"I'm just so discouraged," said the community college student, who wants to be a teacher. "I've lost all remnants of hope. I look at my life right now as if it is a prison term. I just have to serve each day."

Transplant programs have a stringent set of guidelines set up years ago when transplantation was new that were put in place to assure the best possible outcomes for the radical surgery. Because there are far more people needing organs than there are organs available for transplant, the guidelines are very specific about behavioral risks that might compromise the success of the transplant or the patients post-transplant health. Smoking and drug-use are dealbreakers.

This isn't on the article, but I have worked in the healthcare delivery system and I know what kind of stupid is enshrined in the U.S. code, and I am going to share some of it with you.

In fairness, hospitals are caught on the horns of a dilemma. States might legalize for medical reasons, but the federal law prohibiting marijuana use still supercedes.

This is no different than anything else...follow the money.

If any hospital were to take a bold stand and admit a patient to their transplant program that is using medical marijuana, they would lose their federal funding in a heartbeat. Under this petty and sanctimonious administration, it would likely be for all programs, not just the transplant program. I have no doubt that that has been made clear, and that is where the "federal law" petticoat comes into play without further elaboration. Threaten the significant source of a hospitals funding and get compliance with all kinds of fucked-up regulations. Duh.

Nobody on those transplant committees wants to see these people die - but they know the reality they are working in right now, and a hell of a lot more people will die because they won't be delivering any of their services.

And it's a two-fer. Doctors will be reluctant to advise marijuana use for patients who might benefit from the therapeutic and palliative effects if that advice might doom their patients to eventual painful deaths should, they need a transplant in the future.

If you are pissed off about this, contact your congressperson and senators, rather than the hospitals in Washington state that are named in the article.

Tell them that they need to protect the doctors and hospitals that serve these patients. Especially if your congressperson is a "states rights" republican. They really ought to have a problem with this...

This is going to do wonders for tourism

Two years ago, a Virginia girl met an Italian gentleman in a supermarket in Rome and a romance blossomed. He was prosperous and in a position to make frequent visits to see her, and so he did. His visits were always without incidence until he landed at Dulles last month, and was denied entry.

Normally, persons denied entry are put on the next plane home, but this gentleman was not so fortunate. He was held in a county jail for ten days, and even intervention by Senator John Warner could not gain him his freedom. The case of Domenico Salerno might be extreme, but it highlights a very real danger that travelers to this country face.

Each year, thousands of would-be visitors from 27 so-called visa waiver countries are turned away when they present their passports, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, who said she could not discuss any individual case. In the last seven months, 3,300 people have been rejected and more than 8 million admitted, she said.

Though citizens of those nations do not need visas to enter the United States for as long as 90 days, their admission is up to the discretion of border agents. There are more than 60 grounds for finding someone inadmissible, including a hunch that the person plans to work or immigrate, or evidence of an overstay, however brief, on an earlier visit.

While those turned away are generally sent home on the next flight, “there are occasional circumstances which require further detention to review their cases,” Ms. De Cima said. And because such “arriving aliens” are not considered to be in the United States at all, even if they are in custody, they have none of the legal rights that even illegal immigrants can claim. [emphasis added]

Government officials have acknowledged that intensified security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has sometimes led to the heavy-handed treatment of foreigners caught in a bureaucratic tangle or paperwork errors. But despite encouraging officers to resolve such cases quickly, excesses continue to come to light.

One recent case involved an Icelandic woman who was refused entry at Kennedy Airport because, a dozen years earlier, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, was deported Dec. 10 after what she described as 24 hours of interrogation and humiliating treatment — locked in a cell and barred from making phone calls. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a letter of regret.

In questioning Mr. Salerno, customs agents seemed to suspect that he intended to work here. Ms. Cooper, a copy editor for an educational publication, said she was in the airport lobby when an agent called to ask about Mr. Salerno’s income and why he visited so often.

The youngest son of a prosperous contractor in Calabria, Mr. Salerno helps out in his brother’s law firm in Rome and is able to visit the United States several times a year. Neighbors said he joined volunteers in refurbishing the Wessynton recreation center in 2006, then became one of its summer attractions, kicking a soccer ball with the kids and playing tennis with the adults.

“He just is a very open, fun and helpful guy,” said Christopher M. Porter, a resident of Wessynton.

Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Another agent eventually told her to go home because Mr. Salerno was being detained as an asylum-seeker.

“The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” she recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought. “Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”

Twelve hours later, when Mr. Salerno was granted a five-minute phone call, he called Ms. Cooper and denied saying anything of the kind. Instead, he said, the asylum story seemed to be retaliation for his insisting on speaking to his embassy.

After being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was taken to the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va., where he ended up in a barracks with 75 other men, including asylum-seekers who told him they had been waiting a year.

Ten days after he landed in Washington, Mr. Salerno was still incarcerated, despite efforts by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and two former immigration prosecutors hired by the Coopers.

“He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Luis Paoli, a lawyer hired by the Coopers, said there was no limit on detention while waiting for an asylum interview. But even after officials agreed the asylum issue had been a mistake, Mr. Salerno was not released.

“Now an innocent European, who has never broken any laws, committed any crimes, or overstayed his visa, is being held in a county jail,” Ms. Cooper wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times last Wednesday, prompting a reporter’s inquiries.

Less than 24 hours after the New York Times started probing the case, immigration officials intervened and Mr. Salerno was released from custody and expelled from the country. Ms. Cooper was with him when he departed for Rome, and is considering moving to Italy to be with him there and spare him the possibility of such degrading and humiliating treatment at the hands of overzealous nitwits with too much power and too little accountability.

Dick Cheney needs a muzzle, a sturdy chain...and a tranquilizer dart

[Crossposted from WTWC, and linked at Informed Comment by Juan Cole & The Des Moines Register.]

Remember how a couple of weeks ago, the story was that the Bush administration does not trust any future administration to 'deal with' Iran? Maybe you have forgotten, because the M$M – good little cocktail-weenie-wagging lackeys that they are - promptly moved along as if there was nothing to see there.

They certainly haven’t bothered to report on the hostilities we have been engaging in with Iran "below the CNN line" practically since the first days of the invasion, so what do we expect? But rest assured, Saddam had barely been toppled when the first American commandos were sent across the border into Iran, snooping for nukes.

On two borders, the US has combat troops, and in addition the U.S. encourages terrorism inside Iran. The U.S. materially supports Jundallah, and offshoot of al Qaeda, to commit terrorist acts inside Iran, staged from Pakistan. The Kurdish areas of Iraq are a nest of terrorists. They don’t just attack Turks. The Kurdish areas have been a staging ground for Kurdish paramilitaries to train; then they cross the border into the Kurdish areas of Iran and ambush Republican Guard troops. In addition, Iran has accused the United States of shooting down two of their military aircraft that were in Iranian airspace.

And now we have Dick Cheney, lunging for the end of the chain, snarling, foaming at the mouth and demanding more war.

Cheney, who's long been skeptical of diplomacy with Iran, argued for military action if hard new evidence emerges of Iran's complicity in supporting anti-American forces in Iraq; for example, catching a truckload of fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from Iran, one official said.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about internal government deliberations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly that "we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq."

Lea Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman, said only that "the vice president is right where the president is" on Iran policy.

Bush left no doubt at his news conference that he intended to get tough with Iran.

"One of the main reasons that I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq was to send the message that there will be consequences for . . . people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs (improvised explosive devices), that kill Americans in Iraq," he said.

He also appeared to call on the Iranian people to change their government.

"My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this current government," he said. "You don't have to be isolated. You don't have to be in a position where you can't realize your full economic potential."

The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq's security troubles on Iran.

Those who are frothing at the mouth, all hot and bothered to get their war on with Iran need to sit down and listen up.

I am going to explain a few things in simple enough terms for even a conservative to understand, like why Iran would never fall like Iraq did. Put that notion down before it blows up and hurts someone, and consider some facts:

• Iranians have a strong national identity that is founded in common history; unlike Iraq, which was cobbled together from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, and occupied by Britain from 1917 to 1958. Iraq has existed for 90 years, and been occupied by “liberators” for 45 of them.
• Iran is four times the size of Iraq, with terrain that ranges from placid coastline to rugged mountains.
• The average male Iranian is just under 25 years of age.
• Iran has as many males between 15-64 as Iraq has total population
• Iran will not fall simply because a figurehead might be deposed. Iran will not fall so long as one Mullah remains alive anywhere in the country.
• Iran has a relatively modern military that has not been decimated by two decades of war and sanctions.
• Iran has the ability to shut down the passage of oil tankers, and send the price of oil to triple-digit per barrel prices.

In Iran, the Islamic Revolution was a means to an end, with the Ayatollah filling the role of ‘charismatic leader’ that is required of any revolutionary movement. It was the perfect combination of opportunity, true-believers, and opportunists, all coming together to overthrow a feckless thug, installed by a CIA coup that deposed the democratically elected Iranian Nationalist Mohammed Mossadegh, because he nationalized the oil industry, and pissed off the Brits. They wanted their oil company back, and that wag that didn't know his place gone. John Foster Dulles was all to happy to lend a hand.

In post revolutionary Iran, the Mullahs decreed the age of majority to be 15. Iranians can enter into contracts, marry, join the military and enjoy universal suffrage at 15 years of age. This has been an interesting social experiment, - control through empowerment. That data, just now coming in will be interesting to analyze once available.

When the average citizen is younger than the revolution, the revolution is over. Maybe not officially, but de facto. Birth rates are down from a post-revolution high of over 5 per woman to just under 2. The pig is passing through the snake, but it will be a discernible bulge for the foreseeable future. The average Iranian is around 25, in a population of over 65 million, while the Islamic revolution was 28 years ago come November.

The United States needs to realize that when dealing with Iranians, we are not dealing with a purely Islamic culture. Persian culture predates Islam by at least 1500 years, and the Persian people have not been invaded, conquered and occupied in modern times. Hell, not since the Arabs Islamized them seven hundred years ago.

We need to be engaging in diplomacy, even if it takes six months to decide ‘what will be the design and color of the peace table?’ We should also be engaging the country economically. They have a monolithic, one-dimensional energy economy. The Mullahs control the population by controlling the economy. Economic engagement would be far more effective than military engagement. (And no, I don’t mean by wrecking it – I mean by encouraging prosperity.)

Iran would present a military challenge in the best of times. With an overstretched and worn out military, the mere notion is madness on an epic scale. If we engage in diplomacy and economic diversification, the Mullahs fade from power in another decade. Start a shooting war, cement their power for 50-100 more years.

[*Note: The population of Iran has been corrected. Thanks to astute commenter Ben Cronin at WTWC for pointing out my quite inexcusable error.]

Krauthhammer has officially gone off the rails

Charles Krauthhammer is increasingly unhinged from the realities of warfare on the ground in Iraq. He is so consumed with putting a positive spin on this clusterfuck that he will go to any lengths of linguistic gymnastics to carry water for George Bush and attempt to make his case.

The landscape is shifting in the two areas affected by the Splurge, Baghdad and Anbar. Of course, this shift is not for the better. Just yesterday a suicide bomber grabbed headlines by blowing himself up in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. But the more devastating suicide bomber was the one that took out the Sharafiya Bridge. Baghdad is a city divided by the Tigris. That bombing isn’t as sexy, but it was more strategically important and the effects realized will be farther reaching. The parliament bombing was a psychological coup. The Sharafiya bridge was a strategic one.

Krauthhammer jumps through a whole series of hoops to make the case that because tribal chieftains in Anbar have united against al Qaeda, that is a promising sign. Why, he even uses the phrase turned the corner! Of course, that corner we turned put us on the Sharafiya Bridge…

Come again? al Qaeda has never enjoyed wide support in Iraq, and nobody with a window to reality is pushing that meme. The Iraqi’s want all foreign forces out of their country, and that includes the interloper al Qaeda-Iraq fighters. Oh – and they are only a marginal force of about 4% of those fighting. (But they sure get a lot of credit for as small as their numbers are…Just sayin’)

Lets look at Krauthhammer's actual inanity:

How at this point -- with only about half of the additional surge troops yet deployed -- can Democrats be trying to force the United States to give up? The Democrats say they are carrying out their electoral mandate from the November election. But winning a single-vote Senate majority as a result of razor-thin victories in Montana and Virginia is hardly a landslide.

This from the guy who called Bush’s selection by the Supreme Court and the narrow victory in 2004 as a mandate? Please. Not a single Democrat lost a seat. Both houses of congress, 28 Governorships, and strength gained in statehouses throughout the land. You cant unthump the electoral results.

Second, if the electorate was sending an unconflicted message about withdrawal, how did the most uncompromising supporter of the war, Sen. Joe Lieberman, win handily in one of the most liberal states in the country?

Lot’s of us are asking that question. By the way – last I checked, Connecticut was one state of 50 and certainly not the epitome of Americana. Nice head-fake though. Half a point for that.

And third, where was the mandate for withdrawal? Almost no Democratic candidates campaigned on that. They campaigned for changing the course the administration was on last November.

You have to be kidding me. We voted to change back then, but it isn’t fair to carry that over and say we disapprove of this new-and-improved strategy? The unmitigated audacity of that statement just floors me. The election was a referendum on the war, and Americans want it over. 70% of us aren’t barking fucking mad. We recognize futility when we see it. Sorry reality isn’t working the way you would like, but, well, reality and facts have a well known liberal bias. Oh – and clocks turn forward. As soon as the conservatives get their minds around that, we’ll all be a lot better off.