Four GITMO Uighurs Now Enjoying Life In Bermuda!

This is unreal. See my earlier post of today here: China Called. They Want Their Terrorists Back...

WASHINGTON -- Four Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Bermuda, officials said Thursday. - Fox News

Given the statement noting that they have been 'resettled' tells me that these guys are now free to roam about the island. Nice for them. Maybe these guys can find work servicing the cruise ships as they call the port or maybe even find work at the island's airport. It should not be a problem given that the US has declared them harmless, right.

I wonder how long before one of these guys gets himself into trouble...

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China Called. They Want Their Terrorists Back...

I have previously advocated that the US send the Chinese Uighurs that it holds in GITMO back to China. Now that the Government has found a home for them on Fantasy Island, the Chinese are demanding that they be sent back to China.

China has demanded the return of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighur detainees held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay.

America should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

Palau, a former US Pacific territory which does not recognise China, has agreed to accept the ethnic Uighurs. - BBC

As I mentioned before (here), the last time I checked, China is a Full Member of the United Nations right up to holding a permanent Seat on the UN's Security Council. What happens to the Chinese Uighurs upon their return to China by the US is not our problem. If the Chinese decide to torture the hell out of them, then they would surely be in violation of their commitments to the UN. The issue should be taken up there if the Uighurs end up being mistreated upon their return. Sure it sucks to be them, but if China is really a problem, then they should be confronted about this at the UN. That is why it exists.

The news likes to point out that these Chinese detainees are not 'enemy combatants' and are not dangerous to the US. Problem is, they were not in Afghanistan attending a wedding. They were there getting terrorist training. Just because their target is not the US does not make them harmless. What if they were training to strike France? Would the US still call them not dangerous? China has declared them terrorists. Don't they have a right to get them back? They surely think so.

Beijing says Uighur insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement.

China says the 17 due to be sent from Guantanamo to Palau are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is on the United Nations list of terrorist groups.

"China urges the US to implement the UN Security Council's relevant resolutions and its international obligations on counter-terrorism," Mr Qin said. - BBC

If the US does anything with the Uighurs, they should use them as bargining chips, trading them to get the Chinese to turn the screws on North Korea. At any rate, they should go back to China. If China tortures them, it is only our and the UN's fault for not pushing human rights reform more strongly in the past.

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Update: The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying)

In the past I have advocated that we should not be talking to the North Koreans because no good can come from it. (See The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying) for one example.)

Now comes an article in today's Wall Street Journal which basically says the same thing:

When there is no diplomatic recognition to be traded in exchange for concessions, diplomats assume that talking is always a good idea because words cost nothing but can produce tangible results.

This time that is the wrong assumption. For years, the U.S., China, the Russian Federation, Japan and South Korea have been patiently negotiating with North Korea, offering economic aid, security guarantees, and the benefits of "normalization" in exchange for it abandoning its nuclear programs. South Korea provided advance payments in the form of investments, food aid and large cash gifts.

Thus over a period of years, while the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il continued to starve its own population as it accumulated more military equipment and repeatedly sold nuclear and missile technology to Iran and Syria, it was greatly rewarded diplomatically. Kim Jong Il's delegates sat alongside those of the U.S., China, Russia and Japan -- a huge concession in itself that added to the prestige of the regime. Every time the North Koreans committed a new outrage, from launching ballistic missiles over Japan to selling ballistic missiles to Iran, the response was to resume the talks, with no reduction in the concessions on offer and even some more gifts from South Korea.

This must now stop. The North Korean regime never yielded anything of significance in past negotiations, which have served nobody but them. This time, provocation must not be rewarded. Evidently, the North Korean aim is to evoke more attention, more offers of concessions, more gifts. They must receive nothing at all. Talking has failed utterly. Silence might yet persuade the North Koreans to improve their behavior. - WSJ

Not only should we not be talking to them, but the UN and other aid organizations should be pulled out of there as well.

After all, extortion through threats, 'resolved' through negotiation, have only brought bigger threats. The current reward for decades of talk is a country whose citizens are held hostage and the keeper of the hostages is now armed with a nuclear weapon, and is even threatening to use it. This is why unconditional surrender should have been the final solution to the North Korea problem. At the moment, that would involve collapsing the Government of the North. I think it can be done. It has not, because nobody wants to deal with the mess that would be left in it's wake. Well the mess is not going to get any smaller by waiting.


Video - Direct Link

Here is an ad noting the stupidity of appeasing the world's tyrants.

Be sure to check out my earlier posts on North Korea here, including:

Draft UN Resolution Condemns North Korea (Again) - Text
Total BS: "North Korea not an imminent threat to the US"
There is no Place in this World for North Korea
*** The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying) ***
NY Times: "South Korea Says U.S. Killed Hundreds of Civilians" - Total BS Story
Forgotten Korean War POW Escapes - 55 Years After Being Captured!

North Korean Snipers Killing Refugees Along the Chinese Border - 24 May 08
Most Disturbing Part of North Korea-Syria Connection - 29 Apr 08
Anchor Countries - 27 Sept 07

Unconditional surrender – The only way to end Military Operations - 1 May 05
Seeing things in Black and white instead of in shades of gray. - 19 Dec 04

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San Francisco Illegal Alien ID Card has Cost $400 Each!

So far, the San Francisco Illegal Alien 'Resident' card has cost the City of San Francisco about $850,000. Having issued around 2,135 cards, the cost comes out to just under $400 each.

Sure, they had to lay out money to purchase expensive machinery for making the cards which is distorting the numbers above as they have yet to issue their targeted amount of cards and the cost would be spread out over all the cards. The City is planning on issuing about 15,000 cards. That brings the estimated cost per card down to around $57 each.

Small problem, in that at most, the city is charging only $15 for adults.

Children, seniors and low income adults pay only $5. This means that the city is subsidizing each illegal alien resident card between $42 to $52. In a best case scenario where they charge $15 for all issued IDs, this results in a loss of $625,000. The actual loss will be much greater since every applicant is going to want to pay only $5. No wonder California is in such financial trouble where one of their biggest cities can't even design an ID program that does not lose money. (A State of California ID card costs $24.)

The real loss is much higher, given that one reason to issue these IDs to illegal aliens is to enable them to be able to obtain Government assistance from the City and probably the State as well, which surely will cost many millions/billions more. Estimates of the cost of illegal aliens statewide range from $4 billion to over $10 billion. That is a sizable chunk of the state's current budget deficit.

P.S.

San Francisco's Illegal Alien ID Card program is also amusing in how its purpose is to provide documents to illegal aliens resident in San Francisco only. So what do they plan to do when illegal aliens from outside San Francisco use fake documentation to obtain the card? Really, these people have broken the law coming into the US, and again in working in the US and not paying taxes, not to mention that many are also using fake and stolen identification in order to obtain employment. What makes the city think that they will all of a sudden start obeying their laws concerning the issuance of these cards? Illegal Aliens who are not resident in San Francisco will want to get them, especially if they become useful as a breeder document. (Breeder documents establish who you are and enable the issuance of other documents.) I would think they expect this document to become a wanted item as they spent so much for the card issuance machine when there were many more much cheaper options out there. If you look at the list of accepted documents that can be presented in order to get a City ID, one is the 'Matricula Consular'(Consular Identification, CID)

So, if a person has a CID with fraudulent information, he would made that document all the more believable when he pulls out his San Francisco ID that contains the same information, leading anyone presented with the cards to more likely accept the information.

And yes, the Matricular Consular IDs are so questionable that the National Notary Association advises that they do not meet the requirements for notary purposes, and until recently they were not even valid for entry into Mexico! (I think that law was changed to correct the hypocrisy that a document issued by Mexico confirming Mexican citizenship was being rejected by Mexican Officials at the border as evidence of Citizenship)

There is one benefit of properly registering people and by properly I mean registration that includes the collection of biometric information. By having biometric details, it does not matter if a person registering claims to be 'Donald Duck'. Because when they come back and try to register again, the system recognizes them as their last registration.

Bonus:
You know, it is real amusing how the jerks in Congress keep making our problems worse. Take these inaccurate statements made in 2003 from the lady now Speaker of the House:

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today released the following statement on the Republican amendment to the Foreign Relations Reauthorization Act, which would restrict the use of the Mexican Consulate’s identification card, the Matrícula Consular. The measure, introduced by Republican Reps. John Hostettler (R-IN), Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and Thomas Tancredo (R-CO), passed by a vote of 226 to 198.

"I am outraged that the Republican majority has again brought an anti-Hispanic measure to the House floor.

"The Matrícula Consular is internationally recognized as a valid form of identification, much like the consular registration issued by the U.S. State Department to our citizens living abroad. It allows many Mexican immigrants to open bank accounts and participate in other activities for which they pay taxes and contribute to the American economy. And the Mexican government has demonstrated to Congress that the Matrícula is secure.

"We in San Francisco know that the Matrícula Consular works. The pilot program in the San Francisco Federal Building was a success until the Republicans stopped it.

"America has been blessed by the beauty of our diverse immigrant community. From that beauty flows our strength, our boundless creativity, and our versatility. As a nation of immigrants, we need to ensure that newcomers have basic access to our government. We won’t give up until the Matrícula Consular is recognized.” - House.Gov 15 July 2003

Legal Immigrants to the US do not need consular IDs as they have a valid passport and visa. With legal entry into the US they can obtain drivers licenses and Green Cards. There is no need for foreign-issued alternatives. There is no need for city-issued IDs either. Where does this all end? How many illegal aliens is California willing to accept? Would they take all of them? If not, then they are a bunch of hypocrites.

As for Mrs. Pelosi's claim that these ID's are acceptable, the FBI thinks otherwise:

The U.S. Government has done an extensive amount of research on the Matricula Consular, to assess its viability as a reliable means of identification. The Department of Justice and the FBI have concluded that the Matricula Consular is not a reliable form of identification, due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder. The following are the primary problems with the Matricula Consular that allow criminals to fraudulently obtain the cards:

First, the Government of Mexico has no centralized database to coordinate the issuance of consular ID cards. This allows multiple cards to be issued under the same name, the same address, or with the same photograph.

Second, the Government of Mexico has no interconnected databases to provide intra-consular communication to be able to verify who has or has not applied for or received a consular ID card.

Third, the Government of Mexico issues the card to anyone who can produce a Mexican birth certificate and one other form of identity, including documents of very low reliability. Mexican birth certificates are easy to forge and they are a major item on the product list of the fraudulent document trade currently flourishing across the country and around the world. A September 2002 bust of a document production operation in Washington state illustrated the size of this trade. A huge cache of fake Mexican birth certificates was discovered. It is our belief that the primary reason a market for these birth certificates exists is the demand for fraudulently-obtained Matricula Consular cards.

Fourth, in some locations, when an individual seeking a Matricula Consular is unable to produce any documents whatsoever, he will still be issued a Matricula Consular by the Mexican consular official, if he fills out a questionnaire and satisfies the official that he is who he purports to be. - FBI

Maybe the FBI is lying to her as well as the CIA.

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Maritime Monday 165 Posted at gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.

Maritime Monday 165

You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 115 here. (Published 16 June 2008).

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7th Wedding Anniversary

Today marked our 7th wedding anniversary.

We did have some plans for celebrating it but those kind of went down the tubes due to a broken fridge.

The fridge has been replaced (no small feat in this being a Sunday) and our anniversary dinner has been rescheduled for Tuesday when I shall be making shrimp pasta.

Here is a photo from the ceremony which took place in Helsinki's Temppeliaukio Church.

My wife asked if I had anything to say. I told her that I had no doubt that our marriage would last at least this long. Other than that, I have basically told her everything and anything I have not told her yet, I never will.

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Remember: 6 June 1944

D-Day was the start of the end of WWII.

When I was young, there were many WWII veterans around. Now, their numbers grow small.

Just yesterday I had a friend ask me why I have so many historical books on the Merchant Marine, War and Communism. My response, 'To remember'.

(Merchant Marine Memorial, NY)

(National WWII Memorial Flagpole)

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Polio - A Muslim Disease

During President Obama's speech in Cairo this week, he mentioned the following concerning polio:

Today I'm announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.

All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life. - White House

But wait, Polio was all but headed for complete eradication, until Muslims f*cked it up.

In 2006 only four countries in the world (Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) were reported to have endemic poliomyelitis. Cases in other countries are attributed to importation. - Wikipedia

AND:

A major factor in the failure of polio immunization programs is opposition by Muslim fundamentalists. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban have issues fatwas opposing vaccination as an attempt to avert Allah's will, and as an American plot to sterilize Muslims. The Taliban have kidnapped, beaten, and assassinated vaccination workers and officials. In February 2007, physician Abdul Ghani, who was in charge of polio immunizations in a key area of disease occurrence in northern Pakistan, was killed in a terrorist bombing. In July 2007, a student traveling from Pakistan imported the first polio case to Australia in over 20 years. - Wikipedia

To compare the US has been the driving force to eradicate polio, having its last natural case in 1979. The Western Hemisphere was declared Polio free in 1994. I am not sure how much more we are expected to do. After all, the extremists are not going to join any partnership with the US to eradicate polio. After all, if a child dies, regardless of receiving and medical aid, they use the death as an opportunity to blame the US for it. This is just one more reason to fight the Taliban. Modern society is simply not compatible with their beliefs.

What is needed is to force the Muslim world to educate their populations. And by education, I do not mean memorizing the Koran.

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Rangel's Military Draft and Congressional Term Limits

At the beginning of the year, Congressman Rangel (in an attempt to deflect attention from his own indiscretions) announced that he was going to introduce legislation to bring back the draft.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) likely will introduce his controversial legislation to reinstate the draft again this year, but he will wait until after the economic stimulus package is passed.

Asked if he plans to introduce the legislation again in 2009, Rangel last week said, “Probably … yes. I don’t want to do anything this early to distract from the issue of the economic stimulus.” - The Hill

Part of his gripe with voluntary military service is his inaccurate claim that the burden of military service falls unfairly upon the poor and minorities. This has been proven as false, but like a good Democrat, does not stop him from spouting it again anyway, especially since his followers believe it to be true.

A decorated Korean War veteran and a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Rangel argues that the burden of fighting wars falls disproportionately on low-income people and that cost should be borne more broadly.

If a draft had been in place in 2002 when members were making the decision on whether to support the war in Iraq, Rangel has said, Congress never would have approved the war resolution, because the pressure from constituents would have been too great. - The Hill

If Mr. Rangel is really interested in proportionality, then he should look at Congress itself. Long-term seat-warmers like himself should accept term-limit rules for Congress. This way no one person gets a disproportionate amount of time representing the people of this country. This will result in Congress being better linked to the communities they represent.

Here is the problem with a lack of proportionality in America.

His enthusiasm for having more Americans experience military life should also extend to public office. And since each district, including his, has only one congressional seat, holding onto it for decades (Since 1971 in his case) is just plain selfish and dare I say it, even un-American. President Washington knew that. Too bad these public servant's skulls are too thick (or greedy) to realize this.

P.S.

This bastard of a public servant should be encouraging his poorer constituents to join the Armed Services. It is a great way for the poor to obtain a valuable education and escape the poverty that they were born into.

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Iran is Only One Flight Away From Getting Nuclear Weapons

In the wake of North Korea's latest nuclear blast, I pointed out that if North Korea has nuclear weapons, then so too does Iran. If not now, then soon:

Of course, if they want to strike Seoul, Korea, they could just fly it there in a plane. No missile required. The Capital is not far from the border.

Speaking of planes, all it takes is one flight to Iran, and then they too would have a nuclear bomb. - 28 May 09

The Wall Street Journal confirmed this threat today:

Now the North seems to be gearing up for yet another test of its long-range Taepodong missile, and it's a safe bet Iranians will again be on the receiving end of the flight data. Nothing prevents them from sharing nuclear-weapons material or data, either, and the thought occurs that the North's second bomb test last week might also have been Iran's first. If so, the only thing between Iran and a bomb is a long-range cargo plane. - WSJ

Our Government seems to think that there is no immediate threat in this case. Considering that most of them work in the middle of one of the terrorists biggest targets, it makes you wonder just what the hell are these people thinking.

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Smoking Trumps Global Warming! (At Killing Humans)

The media was recently pushing forward the news of an estimate on how many deaths can be blamed on global warming.

Global Humanitarian Forum — an organization headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan — announced last Friday that climate change is responsible for 300,000 deaths per year throughout the world. The group's report, "The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis," alleges that 90 percent of these deaths are caused by a “gradual environmental degradation caused by a warming climate that exacerbates the threats of malnutrition, diarrhoea (sic), and malaria.” - New American

300,000 sure sounds like a lot. But wait.

Now take this following estimate on smoking:

Supporters of the FDA legislation, such as the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, say controls over tobacco products would be a good place to start: they say tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans every year, resulting in $96 billion in health care costs. - AP

Smoking kills more Americans each year than Global Warming kills around the globe. If smoking kills that many Americans, the global total much be much higher. How high? Over 5 million people a year die due to smoking.

"I think it's important not to get into competitive deaths, but there's about 3 million TB deaths a year, whereas there are 5 million deaths a year from tobacco and these are going up," Mackay told Reuters in an interview.

"By 2030 that 5 million will be closer to 10 million, they'll be doubling ... and the major burden is on developing countries," she said on the sidelines of an international lung health conference. - Reuters

For every person who is going to die this year because of Global Warming, over 16 people will die due to tobacco smoking. And not for anything, wouldn't all those lit cigarettes also contribute to global warming? Not only the cigarettes but also all the fires careless smoking sets...

So where does the real threat to humans lie?

P.S.

Here is a little clarification on the Global warming death estimate:

Kofi Annan and the Global Humanitarian Forum have released a new report predicting 300,000 excess deaths each year due to global warming. Back in 2003, the Milan conference on global warming estimated that 150,000 people died a year from global warming. But they didn't include heat deaths. Why? Because then they would have had to include deaths from cold. As warming would reduce deaths from cold by so much, it would have turned the whole number negative, so they just focused on deaths from malaria, diarrhea and such like. But those are diseases of poverty, not of climate. If the victims of those diseases in the developing world had access to clean water, electricity, micronutrients and education, those 150,000 people would not die.

It is not the climate. It is the poverty.

Well, they're back for more and they've doubled their numbers to 300,000 excess deaths annually due to 'climate change'. - Examiner

Yes, the real crime is not global warming. The real crime is the billions of uneducated people on this planet. How about the UN try and deal with that. That is one of the biggest crimes of this century.

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Kings Point Maritime Association Dinner Dance - 12 June

Those who are friends of the US Merchant Marine Academy (or want to be) and those who work in the maritime industry might want to consider joining the Kings Point Maritime Association.

You do not have to be Alumni of the Academy. (They have their Alumni Association.) You do not have to be a Parent of a student. (The Parents have the Parent Association.) You only need to like being around maritime-minded people and like having a good time.

The Kings Point Maritime Association is having a June Dinner Dance with open bar at the Officer's Club of the Merchant Marine Academy, Melville Hall.

The Dinner/Dance is June 12th, Friday Night, with the cocktail hour starting at 1900. The cost is only $65 per person. Please make your reservations by 5 June. Click on the image below for contact details or send me an email at: fredfryinternational@gmail.com

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Maritime Monday 164 Posted at gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.

Maritime Monday 164

You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 114 here. (Published 9 June 2008).

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As linked below or click on the label ‘MaritimeMonday’:

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Robert Gibbs: "I think she'd change that word" Yeah? which one?

Is this the best that the White House can come up with? The White House's response does nothing to address the problem because his answer does not fit her racist-sounding statement:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life. - Sotomayor, 2001

Here is the way that the White House tried to explain it away.

After three days of suggesting that reporters and critics should not dwell on one sentence from a speech, the White House had a different message Friday.

"I think if she had the speech to do all over again, I think she'd change that word," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs said he did not hear that from Sotomayor directly, but rather from people who had talked to her, and he did not identify who those people were. Sotomayor herself has made no public comments about the matter and was not available for comment. - Yahoo News

(We'll forget for now that he is guessing about her response.) The problem is not any word, but the statement itself. Which word was Mr. Gibbs referring to? Her whole damn sentence is a mess.

The real problem is not any word but instead the meaning of what was said. Really, imagine if a white person called her a 'stupid Latina'. Does changing a word fix the problem. Let replace 'stupid' with 'smart'. That fixes the statement, but completely fails to address the original statement, which probably better reflects what the person was thinking, just like Ms. Sotomayor's statement probably better reflects what she thinks than any clarification. It would be a different story if she said something and then made an immediate correction. After all, just because a person's spokesperson apologizes for a person calling someone a 'nigger' suggesting that "I think he'd change that word", does not clear them of being called a racist. Not in this country it doesn't

Lets take this White House comment as some sort of acknowledgment that she had a slip of the tongue. A mistake. So when are they going to address her membership in La Raza? Is this another error in judgment? If not, then perhaps she or the White House should defend or explain her membership in such an organization. And when are they going to address the quote she chose for her yearbook:

I am not the champion of lost causes, but the champion of causes not yet won. - Norman Thomas

Who was Norman Thomas?

Norman Mattoon Thomas (1884—1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. - Wikipedia

Is this just another unfortunate mistake? Might be, but the President is already having problems dealing with accusations that he is really a socialist. His choice of Supreme Court Justice certainly is going to do nothing to dispel that charge.

As a lawyer, her word, both written and spoken, is her tool, just like a gun is the tool of a policeman. Policemen do not get a free pass for the misuse of their gun. Should a nominee for the Supreme Court get a free pass for the misuse of her position? I don't think so, especially since her word can do a lot more damage than a bad policeman with a gun.

Update:

Apparently this morning the President used a similar line of defense as his press secretary:

Obama also defended his nominee, saying her message was on target even if her exact wording was not.

"I think that when she's appearing before the Senate committee, in her confirmation process, I think all this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is," Obama said in the broadcast interview, clearly aware of how ethnicity and gender issues are taking hold in the debate. - AP

Really? I really look forward to her trying to explain this. Actually, I think the President needs to clarify his statement above because it appears that he is defending the meaning of her statement, just not the way she said it.

Is he giving her a free pass because of her ethnicity? It seems to be happening all the time and that is a shame. Because if we are going to hold minorities to a lower standard, then minority communities will be less for it. Just look at how minorities get a free pass for all sorts of crime. It greatly benefits the criminals, but if punishes the communities they live in. There is no need to push this ideology to a national level. That has been done enough already.

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