Usa Thread

[Flashermac]

U.S. deserter in Sweden steps forward after 28 years

 

(Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force deserter who has lived secretly in Sweden since 1984 has revealed his identity and contacted his family in the United States who were overwhelmed to hear he was still alive, a Swedish newspaper reported at the weekend.

 

Dagens Nyheter said David Hemler had deserted aged 21 while serving at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany, after getting involved with a pacifist church and becoming disillusioned with the policies of former President Ronald Reagan.

 

He hitchhiked via Denmark to Sweden where he settled down, living under an assumed name for the last 28 years and not revealing his true identity to anyone.

 

"I never planned on not telling the truth in the beginning. I intended to come to Sweden until I felt better (after his experience in the airforce), I expected a week or so," Hemler told the newspaper in a video on its website.

Now aged 49, he is married to a woman from Thailand, has three children and works for a Swedish government agency, but would not let the newspaper print his assumed name.

 

After his desertion, he became one of the U.S. Air Force's eight most wanted fugitives, according to the newspaper, and had expected at any time to be arrested by military police with both Interpol and Europol looking for him.

 

Hemler told the newspaper he had missed his parents after he deserted but went on to have a child and had not wanted to be separated from her.

 

He had decided to come forward after his third daughter turned two and could go to day care, so his wife would be better able to cope if he was arrested.

 

He first contacted his U.S. family four weeks ago, speaking to his brother Thomas who was in Massachusetts at the time on a business trip.

 

"DREAM SCENARIO"

 

"I heard immediately it was David, even if he had a strange European accent after all these years," Thomas Hemler, who lives in New Jersey, was quoted on Sunday as saying.

 

He said he had asked questions to confirm the man was indeed his brother David. Members of his family in the United States are now planning to visit him in Sweden.

 

The website of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations lists Hemler, who was born in Pennsylvania, as having deserted on February 10, 1984 from the 6913th Electronic Security Squadron in Augsburg, Germany.

 

Its Air Force Fugitives page shows a photo of Hemler as a young man, and a photo digitally enhanced to show how he might look aged 47.

 

The newspaper said Hemler was registered in Sweden as a citizen of an unknown country who was born in Zurich.

 

His lawyer, Emma Persson, told Reuters he had approached her firm for legal advice about a month ago.

 

"My opinion is that he will not lose his permanent residence permit in Sweden, it is very unlikely," she said. She also thought it unlikely he would be extradited to the United States.

 

A U.S. embassy spokesman declined to comment on the case.

 

"My dream scenario is that the responsible authorities realize I have already been punished quite severely for my actions ... I have been living 28 years in lies," Hemler said.

 

My link

[Flashermac]

 

It shows the helplessness of the conservatives in regard to Obama's immigration decision.

 

It also shows his contempt for the Democrats in Congress. I wonder how they feel being made irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kamui]

It also shows his contempt for the Democrats in Congress. I wonder how they feel being made irrelevant.

 

 

Good question. I wonder if it does matter to them that they did their bidding. I guess the GOP pols feel worse.

 

Anyway, until the election the Dems will keep their mouth shut.

[Flashermac]

Obama is coming across as very different than the likeable guy he was four years ago. He is deliberately pissing off a lot of people with his arrogance and "imperial" presidential style. I hope he knows what he is doing. There are a lot of nutters running around in the USA.

 

 

 

 

 

[allistar]

That's why he showed the utmost support for the secret service after their escapade in Columbia.

[Steve]

Obama is coming across as very different than the likeable guy he was four years ago. He is deliberately pissing off a lot of people with his arrogance and "imperial" presidential style. I hope he knows what he is doing. There are a lot of nutters running around in the USA.

 

I am suprised and saddened by some of Obama's action. He's acting like a Republican. He is continuing the Cheney-Bush imperialistic attitudes.

What is the solution? Its certainly not Romney. Obama has solidified my resolve to vote for Johnson as a 3rd party candidate. As I said, the articles Flash has posted (thanks, I've not seen them) are basically things the Republicans would do anyway with regards to abusing Presidential power. As I said, all the Republican presidents offered some sort of amnesty or fast track to citizenship for illegals but when a Dem does it its wrong. Reagan was one of the biggest amnesty granters. Bush the elder had a program for illegals as well with guest worker status for many instead of sending them back. His son: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3887721/ns/politics/t/bush-seeks-legal-status-illegal-immigrants/

 

President Bush called for a major overhaul of America’s immigration system Wednesday to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers in the United States, saying the current program was not working.

 

“Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling,†the president said in an address in the East Room to members of Congress, his Cabinet and immigrant advocacy groups.

 

Critics of the plan said it amounted to an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

 

Bush’s election-year proposal is designed to help meet the needs of U.S. employers and to woo Latino voters.

 

Anyway, as usual, I digress. Both parties are so much closers than we realize. There is not much difference in actual action. Rhetoric is diferent but they both end up doing the same things because their policies are both bought and paid for by various groups that are affected by them.

[Flashermac]

I was outside the USA for almost all of Reagan's presidency. One thing I noted though was that Reagan usually did very well in popularity polls, but did poorly in polls on approval of his policies and actions. People generally liked Reagan, even if they disagreed with him. But Obama right now is losing popularity rapidly. He has turned into Obushma.

 

I have long thought that the two major parties were almost clones of each other. But the system does its best to stop third parties from growing. Ross Perot really shook things up, and the big boys went right after him. American politics is very disappointing.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flashermac]

<< Obama’s golfing takes about five hours, including the motorcades back and forth from the fairways. If one thinks of this as taking up much of the day – include getting ready to go and cooling off afterward – its fair to say that Obama has spent more than three months of his presidency golfing.

 

While golf is played by millions of Americans and extends its reach well into the middle class, it is also perceived as a game of the idle rich and is generally unavailable to the poor, putting Obama’s frequent outings at odds with his image as a man of “hope†for the dispossessed. >>

 

Tiger would whup his ass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kamui]

As I said, Obama has cornered Romney in regard to the immigration problem:

 

 

 

Romney dodges immigration questions

 

By REID J. EPSTEIN |

6/17/12 10:28 AM EDT

Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he’d repeal the Obama administration’s decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants.

 

In an interview with Bob Schieffer aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,†the presumptive Republican presidential nominee five different times declined to answer whether he would conduct the same policy President Barack Obama on Friday announced his Department of Homeland Security will now pursue.

 

Instead of answering the question posed, Romney called for a permanent solution.

 

“With regards to these kids who were brought in by their parents through no fault of their own, there needs to be a long-term solution so they know what their status is,†Romney said. “This is something Congress has been working on, and I thought we were about to see some proposals brought forward by Sen. Marco Rubio and by Democrat senators, but the president jumped in and said I'm going to take this action, he called it a stop-gap measure. I don't know why he feels stop-gap measures are the right way to go.â€

 

After Schieffer asked, directly, four additional times if Romney would repeal the policy without receiving an answer, Romney called the move political.

 

“I think the timing is pretty clear, if he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with illegal immigration in America, than this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a half years, not in his last few months,†he said.

 

Romney has yet to offer an opinion on the merits of Obama’s immigration policy change. On Friday, he told reporters in New Hampshire that he supports Rubio’s proposal, which has yet to be introduced in the Senate.

 

On “Fox News Sunday,†Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Obama’s moved successfully undercut both Rubio and Romney.

 

“This was the anti-Marco Rubio initiative by the administration,†Kristol said. “They were scared. Sen. Rubio was about to introduce his version of the Dream Act, which would have been closer to what President Obama announced than the actual Democratic Dream Act. I wish Rubio had introduced it over the last month or two. He got stalled, not every Republican was on board, the Romney campaign’s been cautious about it.â€

 

And Kristol said Romney, who during the GOP primary staked out a more conservative position on immigration than his opponents, in particular Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is now in a tight spot.

 

“This is a big problem for Romney,†Kristol said. “He needs to take the lead on this, and in my view embrace Marco Rubio’s Dream Act if that’s what he wants and say, ‘Let’s pass this in Congress over the next few months, this is what I’m for.â€

 

Politico

 

[Flashermac]

Gee ... refusing to answer questions. He must be learning that from Obama.

 

 

Obama's Harvard law professor says 'President MUST be defeated in 2012'

 

A former professor of Barack Obama has turned against his one-time student and publicly urged voters not to re-elect him.

 

Roberto Unger posted a video on YouTube detailing the reasons why he believes the President does not deserve a second term in the White House.

 

Mr Unger, a prominent Brazilian politician and an adviser to Obama in 2008, said: 'President Obama must be defeated in the coming election. He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States.'

The 65-year-old academic was in frequent contact with Mr Obama on his Blackberry throughout the last election campaign but has since decided that he no longer agreed with the President's decisions.

 

His list of complaints against the President is a long one in the video entitled 'Beyond Obama'.

 

The esteemed philosopher is scathing of Mr Obama's plans to salvage America's ailing economy, saying that his policy solely consists of 'financial confidence and food stamps'.

 

He adds: 'He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.'

 

The politician admits that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the election 'there will be a cost... in judicial and administrative appointments'.

 

However, his most barbed remarks he reserves for the Democrat leader saying that Mr Obama has 'evoked a politics of handholding, but no one changes the world without a struggle'.

 

His summary of the past four years is equally scathing: 'Give the bond markets what they want, bail out the reckless so long as they are also rich, use fiscal and monetary stimulus to make up for the absence of any consequential broadening of economic and educational opportunity, sweeten the pill of disempowerment with a touch of tax fairness, even though the effect of any such tax reform is sure to be modest.'

 

Most of Mr Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Mr Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.

 

And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.

 

Mr Unger argues: 'He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.'

 

He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims 'to put a human face on the programme of its adversaries'.

 

The professor concludes his video by saying: 'Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.'

 

Mr Unger is a renowned politician in his native Brazil. He has twice has run for president of Brazil and has served as Minister of Strategic Affairs.

 

Unger was one of the founding members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and drafted its founding manifesto.

 

He has also advised on politics throughout Latin America.

 

The professor is a respected author having published dozens of books on economics, philosophy and politics.

 

In philosophy, his arguments are said to focus on some the greatest problems of the human existence.

 

The video, which was posted three weeks ago, has been viewed 22,000 times.

 

Mr Unger has taught at Harvard Law since 1976. Obama studied jurisprudence and reinventing democracy with the professor.

 

The President attended Harvard Law School in 1988 and was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year.

 

Last week Obama announced that young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally will no longer be deported.

 

The Obama administration said the policy change announced on Friday will affect as many as 800,000 qualified immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation.

 

The President also came in for sharp criticism last week after he combined fundraising events with an official event - and charged the bill to the taxpayer.

 

Obama raised a total of $4.5million at the fundraisers, one at Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker's house and the other at the five-star Plaza Hotel.

 

However, the President's re-election campaign will not have to pay the full cost of his jaunt to the Big Apple, because he scheduled a short visit to the World Trade Center site.

 

My link

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnf4k8EaL7M&feature=player_embedded