Deporting Our Best, Keeping Our Worst

And the representation in the population of privileged white conservatard men rises every day that working, patriotic Americans are railroaded out of the country.

With every lost immigrant, America gains more gun-crazed, racist and misogynistic assholes just panting for the chance to kill more ni**ers and cunts.

We are eating our seed corn.

From Wonkette:

Another turn of the New Cruelty screw: Miguel Perez, Jr., 39, a green card holder who has been in the USA since he was eight years old, is facing deportation because he’s one of those criminal aliens we’re all supposed to be terrified of. Perez joined the Army in 2001 and served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, and he mistakenly thought taking his oath to defend the nation made him a citizen, but it didn’t. He could have applied for expedited citizenship, but didn’t since he didn’t look into the details. He also says his superiors in the military never offered him any help with becoming a citizen.

After three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down his request to stay in the US last week, he announced Wednesday that he would begin a hunger strike. He believes that if he were sent back to Mexico, he’d be targeted by drug cartels, who seek out combat veterans to join them. If he were to refuse, he believes he’d be killed. That argument didn’t convince the three-judge appeals panel, which decided he needs to be deported.

“If it comes down to me being deported, I would rather leave this world in the country I gave my heart for,” Perez said in an interview from the detention center where he has been in custody for the last year.

Shame on those judges.  Shame on the U.S.Army for not defending one of their own.  Shame on the fucking fascists of ICE.   Shame on every piece-of-shit trump voter.

 

After the Applause, They're Still There

The time of the year when food banks most need your help providing food to hungry families is not Thanksgiving or even Christmas.  It's January through October, when the poor aren't making the front page and people think the bag of canned goods they donated at Kroger in November is enough.

So, too, with wounded and disabled veterans after Veterans Day. Rachel Maddow has stayed on this beat for years and shows no sign of letting up.   From her Friday night show:

Easing the Path for Veterans with PTSD

It's a huge step forward, but the benefit of the doubt should be given to all veterans's claims, pending final documentation.

In this week’s address, President Barack Obama announced that on Monday the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Shinseki, will begin to make it easier for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to receive the benefits they need. For many years, veterans with PTSD have been stymied in receiving benefits by requirements they produce evidence proving a specific event caused the PTSD. Streamlining this process will help not just the veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, but generations of veterans who have served and sacrificed for the country.

Full transcript here.

CNN Uses Up Last Great Reporter, Throws Him Away

It doesn't take anything away from veterans of military combat to acknowledge that you don't have to be firing a weapon on the front lines, or even wearing a uniform, to suffer the effects of working in a combat zone.

Nor to be exploited then discarded by a heartless employer, as we learn via Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars.

All things CNN:

We won't be seeing any more of Michael on CNN...

In addition to having taken a break recently in order to work on his book, it is no secret that he has been grappling with PTSD, brought on from the hellish years he worked in Baghdad. I was told that, unfortunately, when he needed more time off in order to deal with things, his request was denied. So he will not be returning.

While it is a huge loss for us (and for CNN) I am extremely relieved that he chose to take care of his own needs first. And while I sincerely hope that he will return to US television someday on another network, it is far more important that he gets the care he needs.

His work for CNN over the past four years has been an astonishing and brutally honest look at the causes and results of war. Not easy subject matter to watch… but he made us care. His urgency and passion burst through our television sets and made us pay attention, made us want to understand.[..]

And exactly how does a news organization justify (to themselves, even!) not giving their war correspondents whatever they need in order to deal with their wounds, whether they are visible ones or not? If ABC had treated Bob Woodruff so callously, there would have been hell to pay. I don’t doubt they wanted him back in the field ASAP — doubly so after losing Christiane Amanpour — but don’t force him to make a choice between getting better and getting paid. That just sucks. Surely it would be better to have him off the air but still yours once he is ready to come back than to have him off the air and someone else’s upon his return? So not only has CNN made a callous move here, they have made a stupid one, as well.

What a tremendous asset he has been to CNN. And how foolish they are to lose him.

Michael Ware was a breath of fresh air with his reporting in the Gulf. Look at how he blew past the empty rhetoric of Bush and generals, Petraeus, Condi Rice, Lieberman and McCain with brutal and unflinching honesty about the conditions there. I can only imagine the nightmares he still endures. And CNN's response to his pain (which Men's Journal covered in Dec. 2008 in a powerful interview with Ware) was to tell him he wasn't allowed any more time to come to terms with the death and destruction he saw daily for years for their benefit. Instead, they hire one of the great armchair soldiers, Erick Erickson.

See videos of Michael Ware's war coverage here.