May 17, 2010

A striking lack of shame

From CNN:
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama's aunt from Kenya can stay in the United States, a U.S. immigration judge has ruled, ending a six-year-plus legal battle over her status. Judge Leonard Shapiro made the decision Friday, court officials said. Two government sources confirmed Monday that the ruling will give legal status to Zeituni Onyango, 57, allowing her to remain in the country.

Onyango's attorneys held a press conference on the matter Monday afternoon in Ohio. Onyango, who is the half-sister of the president's late father, applied for political asylum in 2002 due to violence in her native Kenya. She was a legal resident of the United States at the time and had received a Social Security card a year earlier.

Onyango's asylum request was turned down in 2004. She appealed the rejection of her request twice but was denied each time and ordered to leave the country.

Onyango remained in the country illegally until April 2009 when Shapiro gave her permission to stay in the United States while he considered her case. 

Obviously, the President of the United States' aunt would be in imminent danger of political violence the moment she landed in a country where her nephew is wildly popular.
In February, Onyango arrived at an immigration court in a wheelchair and testified before the judge for more than two hours, her representative, Amy Cohn, told CNN at the time.
Two doctors, including her personal physician, also testified on her behalf. Onyango's medical condition was part of her legal defense against expulsion.

White House officials said during the appeals that Obama was staying out of the matter. "The president believes that the case should run its ordinary course," an official said.
Onyango's immigration status came to light in the final days of the 2008 presidential race.

Which, of course, John McCain decided not to make an issue of.

Obama has always rejected, in sharp contrast to his father, the Big Man's sense of personal financial responsibility for the members of his extended family. Instead, his role, as expressed in Dreams from My Father is to win large scale political change for them: i.e., have the taxpayers foot the bill. Of course, as this incident suggests, he's kind of late to the party: the taxpayers already have been footing the bill for the housing and health care of his illegal immigrant aunt, and will continue to do so.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but will "the government" appeal, as it has the right to do?

Since Obama said he would wash his hands of the matter, the DOJ/INS/SG should appeal. The trial court obviously erred.

Anonymous said...

this is very weak, Mr. Sailer: what responsibility does Obama have for a woman that he arguably does not know.

May you have some losers in your family tree too, maybe you should be responsible for them too.

Anonymous said...

you're revealing yourself more everyday, or rather I am discovering, that you are quite the partisan Republican--that, and being a White tribalist.

Anonymous said...

The American culture is deeply ingrained with the concept of "fairness." Almost everyone agrees things ought to be fair.

I don't think this applies in other countries. I think particularly in Third World countries there is a great deal of resignation. The powerful will do what they do, and you can't do anything about it, and that is the way it is.

The New Deal state has always worked off the fairness principle, but I think starting with Clinton, and accelerating under Obama, they are starting to use the resignation principle. They want people to understand they are going to do as they will, the rules don't apply to them, so get used to it. Immigration in general is an example of this, and this case is a strong particular.

Spearchucker McGee said...

'Partisan Republican....and White Tribalist'

While not one to approve of innacurate namecalling, there has undoubtedly been a change in tone and content of Steve's stuff. The optimistic, sunny, citizenist Steve is dying. I wonder why. Lets examine the social construction of national destruction, shall we?

Jim O said...

Obama has a lot of "half" relatives, or so it seems.

Anonymous said...

"you're revealing yourself more everyday, or rather I am discovering, that you are quite the partisan Republican--that, and being a White tribalist."

Steve is way to liberal/progressive for me. He goes close to the truth, but then veers off to political correctness. He is not obvious but stealthy settles back into the comfort of conventional views.

adfadadfasdf said...

"this is very weak, Mr. Sailer: what responsibility does Obama have for a woman that he arguably does not know."

For one thing, this is an ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION issue and is relevant to Obama since he wants to grant amnesty to 20 million illegals.

Also, the shamelessness of this aunt and Obama is similar. Both have an entitlementality, as if they are owed everything just because they are black.
Obama thinks he deserves to be famous, rich, powerful, and president because, well, he's a historic black guy.
This aunt thinks she deserves to stay in this country cuz... she just wants to and wants freebies paid for by white folks. We see the same mentality, same pattern.
Indeed, this country is full of people like her, legal and illegal.

Also, Obama is the guy who said one should be 'his brother's keeper'. Well, well, he sure hasn't done shit for his real brother or real aunt--though he forces the rest of us to pay for freebies of total strangers, a good many of them being 'people of color'. Why not give her some money, build her a house in Kenya, and send her back?

Also, the ruling by Judge Shapiro--Jewish--tells us what we are up against. Jews and blacks are ganging up on us from the top and from the bottom. This woman broke the law and should be kicked out, yet Shapiro the liberal Jewish judge let her stay... and Obama has nominated Kagan, another leftits Jew for the SC.

Obama also wants US to dole out 90 billion in aid to Africa, and his aunt his a test case of what's up ahead.

And why shouldn't Obama weigh in on this? He sure weighed in on the Henry Louis Gates and Officer Crowley case though Gates wasn't related to him. Without knowing the full details, Obama called the cop 'stupid' and didn't even apologize. SHAMELESS is right.

Anonymous said...

What does Aunt Zeituni do for a living?

How does she pay her rent?

How does she pay for her food?

How does she pay her utilities?

How does she pay for her transportation?

How does she pay for her medical care?

Does anyone want to make a wager as to who is really paying for her to live here?

SF said...

All I have seen are summaries of his books, but I think Auntie Zeituni was the family member most hospitable to Barack when he visited Kenya the first time to look for his roots.
The CNN story mentions Judge Leonard Shapiro who issued the decision. The Huffington Post mentions asst. press secretary Nick Shapiro, denying any white house involvement. Neither story mentions the other Shapiro. Wonder if there is any connection?

Anonymous said...

you're revealing yourself more everyday......being a White tribalist.

Amen to that.

And what, pray, are your tribal affiliations sir?

Or do you regard the US as an aracial toy to be played with by whichever gang of kids can grab control of it for long enough?

Luke Lea said...

I say give Aunt Zeituni a break! Get a grip.

Kylie said...

Anonymous said..."this is very weak, Mr. Sailer: what responsibility does Obama have for a woman that he arguably does not know."

Certainly Obama, who is related by blood to this woman, bears more responsibility for her than, say, the millions of American taxpayers who are not related to her by blood and who inarguably do not know her yet are nevertheless forced to subsidize her through their taxes.

Obama has benefitted from the generous opportunities America affords even more than his aunt has. Under the circumstances, it would be seemly of him to contribute voluntarily to his aunt's upkeep in order that we, the American people do not have to do so involuntarily. He is, after all, a multi-millionaire who gave his Nobel Peace Prize money of $1.4 million to charity. It would have been nice if, when making such a grand gesture, he paused to think that charity begins at home, or at least with one's own kin.

"May you have some losers in your family tree too, maybe you should be responsible for them too."

Only you, by your use of the word "too", have implied that the Obama family has losers in it.

Fred said...

"Certainly Obama, who is related by blood to this woman, bears more responsibility for her than, say, the millions of American taxpayers who are not related to her by blood and who inarguably do not know her yet are nevertheless forced to subsidize her through their taxes."

It takes a village to subsidize Aunt Zeituni (because her extended family won't).

Obama should invite her to live with him in the White House, as he did with his mother-in-law. It would be a powerful statement in support of his stance on immigration.

headache said...

Onyango, who is the half-sister of the president's late father, applied for political asylum in 2002 due to violence in her native Kenya.

I guess then its OK for white Zimbabweans and white South Africans to apply for asylum due to violence in those countries, perpetrated by ...er ... her and Obama's racial kin. WTF.

tusk said...

Thrasymachus, I can only second your remark. Africa is a harsh place, there is no grace for the weak and no concept of fairness. Mugabe is very poopular down there, even though he has already directly and indirectly murdered almost half his people. Its the African strong man syndrome and Obama is the PC version of that mentality. It also seems to appeal to white women and the SWPL crowd, strangely enough if you factor in their continuos indignation at the slightest display of manliness in the West.

Anonymous said...

"Does anyone want to make a wager as to who is really paying for her to live here?"

A wager? It's been known for years that she's completely supported by the taxpayer.

Curvaceous Carbon-based Life Form said...

"Onyango, who is the half-sister of the president's late father, applied for political asylum in 2002 due to violence in her native Kenya"

That's not fair! Think of all the other Kenyans in Kenya suffering from the violence who want asylum, too. How come Onyango gets to come and stay here but they don't?

I say we let ALL the Kenyans in Kenya come here to get away from the violence the Kenyans do.
Oh. Wait a minute....

Anonymous said...

Obama should invite her to live with him in the White House, as he did with his mother-in-law. It would be a powerful statement in support of his stance on immigration.

The elites don't want to live with low class, uneducated immigrants. Their goal is to make us live with low class, uneducated immigrants.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that Obama gives a rat's ass about Aunt Zeituni. Should that shock me? Nope. It just proves what we always believed about him. If Obama were smart though, he'd send a little money her way and keep the cancelled checks, just in case the issue ever comes up in his re-election campaign. That he probably hasn't even done it for politicking's sake is even more revealing.

Anonymous said...

A wager? It's been known for years that she's completely supported by the taxpayer.

Yeah, The Derb mentioned that this morning.

I don't know how you pose the question [on a board like this] without sounding completely facetious, but what in Hades could be the thought process which results in the idea that it's a good thing to PAY these third-world cretins to come here and infest our country?

I mean, it's bad enough if they can somehow find an honest means of supporting themselves [mowing lawns or ironing shirts or cleaning toilets], but to pay them to sit around on their posteriors for 364 days a year just so that they can go out and pull the DEM lever each November?

That's insanity.

Grumpy Old Man said...

"Irrational loathing of the French"? Nothing irrational about it. Sod the frogs!

Anonymous said...

Welfare used to mean primarily AFDC (Aid for Families with Dependent Children). This was a descendant of ADC and ultimately from the depression era concern for the children of widows and women whose husbands had fled.

AFDC was a federal program with state participation. In most jurisdictions there was no local participation. That is to say local taxpayers did not pay to supplement AFDC.

Most of the concern about welfare fraud have been around AFDC because it is the largest and the most black. There is also a great deal of fraud in AFDC. Always has been. In the late sixties it was estimated after the Reagan welfare fraud task force results that 50% of San Francisco AFDC-U cases were fraudulent.

There were other welfare programs too. Aid to the Blind was one such program. It was less black and had less fraud and was never politically important. There were however cases of "blind" people driving down to the welfare office to apply for AB.

Old Age Assistance was another welfare program. This was a locally funded program - not to be confused with federally funded Social Security. Not all localities had this program. In most jurisdictions the racial makeup of the recipients reflected that of the general population. So in most places the recipients were the white poor. There was never much fraud and if there was the public was seldom concerned.

Finally there was General Assistance (GA) a wholly locally funded program that followed local eligibility rules. In San Francisco most of the GA recipients were white skid row alcoholics - what we came to call "the homeless".

There were a couple other benefits available too. There was Food Stamps - an Agriculture Department program to benefit farmers first and the poor second. There was also Public Housing which in San Francisco had separate facilities for the aged (OAA) and the young families (AFDC). In many jurisdictions in the US the local Housing Authority was the locus for local government graft and corruption.

I can't quite figure out which of these welfare programs Zeituni Onyango has been receiving. The news stories don't address this issue. Presumably she was getting some form of Boston GA for which the eligibility criteria would be whatever the good people of Boston wishes them to be. In most parts of the country she would not be eligible for any sort of welfare. Or maybe I'm wrong.

Even as late as the sixties welfare applicants had to attest that they had no relatives who could support them. I think all such requirements have been struck down by courts by now. I doubt if any Boston eligibility worker ever asked Obama if he could support his aunt.

Currently in California Schwarzenegger is proposing cuts in all discretionary welfare programs. Most localities will soon cut all GA if they haven't already. The case of Obama's aunt on welfare in Boston is probably not applicable in most of the US. I don't really know about welfare eligibility in Boston but I suspect that she wouldn't have been eligible for public funds or housing most places in America.

Kylie said...

Fred said..."It takes a village to subsidize Aunt Zeituni (because her extended family won't)."

There are no villages in Kenya?

asfasdfasdf said...

"It takes a village to subsidize Aunt Zeituni (because her extended family won't)."

ROTFL. A classic line. Great!

Toadal said...

Steve said: "Obama has always rejected, in sharp contrast to his father, the Big Man's sense of personal financial responsibility for the members of his extended family."

How very different African American male personal financial responsibility is from African males. Of all the weaknesses the average African American male is plagued, the most puzzling is his lack of patience with the opposite sex, the mother of his children. If intelligence can be seen as a mastery of a series of life’s compromises, then African American males... crimestop.

The Economist provides statistics regarding black women and men that Steve Sailer described years ago in Sex and the single black woman .

Some 70% of black babies are born out of wedlock. The collapse of the traditional family has made black Americans far poorer and lonelier than they would otherwise have been. The least-educated black women suffer the most. In 2007 only 11% of US-born black women aged 30-44 without a high school diploma had a working spouse, according to the Pew Research Center. Their college-educated sisters fare better, but are still affected by the sex imbalance. Because most seek husbands of the same race—96% of married black women are married to black men—they are ultimately fishing in the same pool.

Black women tend to stay in school longer than black men. Looking only at the non-incarcerated population, black women are 40% more likely to go to college. They are also more likely than white women to seek work. One reason why so many black women strive so hard is because they do not expect to split the household bills with a male provider. And the educational disparity creates its own tensions. If you are a college-educated black woman with a good job and you wish to marry a black man who is your socioeconomic equal, the odds are not good.

Anonymous said...

She can stay but she has to anglicize that stupid name.

Dan in Dc

Whiskey said...

Black women are perfectly happy with how Black men are. They would not trade, steady, decent employment, careful demeanor, controlled expressions, for the exciting, stimulating, dominant men they find in the Ghetto and without. Whenever you see a "senseless" killing or beating, rest assured the man behind it will be having sex that night, with women competing for him.

Which is precisely why the feminized SWPL men and White women love Obama so much. He is the "lite" version of that strong beer served in the ghetto (and amongst White British Chavs). Indeed, charting Black American women and White British Lowerclass Women from 1950-2010, you find an almost exact correspondence. Driven EXACTLY by the sexual stimulation violent, dominant, sexy bad boy men provide, and the willingness of women to assume more of the workload in order to get it.

Abortion too, is driven by the same dynamic. No woman ever aborted a kid by a sexy bad boy lover. He might abuse her, be violent towards her, and her children, or other family members. She will never abort his child. But that of Caspar Milquetoast Beat, of course.

Bill Clinton's niece is on welfare. So that dynamic is not limited to Obama. It would have been a simple matter for Clinton to have his niece on his Presidential Library payroll, or his private foundation, at a mere 35,000 per year. Obama could have done the same btw for Zeitani.

Which means neither really cares about even appearances. Suggesting IMHO an "auto-coup" ala Fujimori is at least planned.

C. Van Carter said...

Steve, didn't Obama say in Dreams that Zeituni was a computer programmer?

Anonymous said...

Whenever you see a "senseless" killing or beating, rest assured the man behind it will be having sex that night, with women competing for him...

Abortion too, is driven by the same dynamic. No woman ever aborted a kid by a sexy bad boy lover...

Bill Clinton's niece is on welfare...

Which means neither really cares about even appearances. Suggesting IMHO an "auto-coup" ala Fujimori is at least planned.


I hate to say it, but Whiskey might finally have refined this meta-theory of his to the point where it's actually starting to make some sense.

And it's not a very pretty picture he's painting.

Anonymous said...

"which results in the idea that it's a good thing to PAY these third-world cretins to come here and infest our country?"

Yep, Why do we need these people from the like of Somalia,Haiti etc.. Heck, refugees go to England and they put them up in nice semidetached housing, but I am sure these same people will call the real Brits racist any chance they get.

What with that stupid Green Card Lottery? Stupidity.

headache said...

I kinda liked Whiskey's post this time. Makes a lot of sense and reveals the darkside which women so much like to hide, but which obviously drives them. It's so much better than when he rants about Israel.

Jack Aubrey said...

I hate to say it, but Whiskey might finally have refined this meta-theory of his to the point where it's actually starting to make some sense.

I have to second the compliments on Whiskey's post. In this context it actually makes sense. It does to me anecdotally, as well.

A few months back there was a murder by a couple of black college students in Connecticut who murdered athlete Jasper Howard. Their names were unique enough that I found their Facebook pages and managed to track their friend count for a couple of days. Even after all the media attention, after the open-and-shut nature of the case, they didn't lose many, if any, friends.

not a hacker said...

The plaudits for Whiskey (who I enjoy reading) are in this case premature and undeserved. His unqualified claim that black women are content with violent or criminally-inclined black strangely contradicts his own broader, oft-stated outlook, which is that women are out to rule in the workplace. Black women are untroubled by the unreconstructed hyper-masculinity of black males, and the systemic failure it causes, because that is the necessary condition for white guilt, which in turn is what drives the affirmative action sensibility in the corporate world which creates well-paying positions for black women. Black women in the private sector do not perform at a high level, and we know about public sector jobs. The reform of black men would obviously endanger this infrastructure of compassion. Whiskey's post was essentially self-cancelling of everything he said before. For women of any color, self-interest is all.

Hittite said...

This guy says it like it is:

Obama's aunt is a thief.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSY_a7vgfzI