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Baker moves a bit apart from the no-refugees crowd

WBUR reports the governor declined to sign a letter with other governors calling on President Obama to immediately suspend plans to allow up to 10,000 Syrian refugees into the US.

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Its the new "I voted for it before I voted against it".

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He can hear the sound of the branch when it creaks underneath him.

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Not surprising, he was able to have no position on the Olympics until it was withdrawn. This is why lobbyists don't make good governors, they don't have any values except what they are told to believe.

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He's also currently the highest approved gov in the country.

At least he hasn't wasted $1b to replace a functioning health care web site with one which looks to be run by helper monkeys.

Can't please everyone I guess.

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IMAGE(http://www.cartoonbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Animated-Image-Of-Bugs-Bunny.gif)

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He didn't want refugees, as I recall he wanted a clear and defined screening process.

Maybe I'm crazy or racist like most progressives like to say when someone doesn't agree, but knowing who were letting into the country isn't unreasonable.

And to get somewhat off topic. This administration needs to streamline the admittance of Iraqi and Afghan translators who worked with us troops. These guys and their families are targeted for their work. Not to mention US citizenship was promised for their assistance.

But I guess they're not the "in" topic.

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I recall he wanted a clear and defined screening process.

That's exactly what we have now.

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He wanted a good seat on the bandwagon to the point where he seemingly forgot what state he is governor of.

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Someone want to tell me how the gov't is going to vet these people? Syria has fallen apart. We can't ask the gov't of Syria for a records check because we are at odds with Assad. So how do you know who you are vetting? Anybody remember how the vetting process worked out when Castro opened his prisons and let them come here and President Carter took them in?

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Are not the poor and the destitute. They are the ones with the means to escape. They have credit cards, cellphones, passports and other forms of documents. Most likely they are professionals. With a work history and school history. While Syria is at war, it has not shut down completely. The information can be verified in a majority of cases.

But it is not so much about how much can be verified. It is about IDing these people and getting them into OUR system. Once they come here, get finger printed, get a SSN and develop a history, we are better able to track them.

I would much rather have a Syrian who came thru legal channels, than an unknown one slipping in over the Canadian border.

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The majority are middle class individuals who are no longer in Syria. In fact most have been in Turkey for well over a year, and frankly are safe and don't need to seek asylum in the US, it more of an opportunist move.

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Turkey doesn't currently give work permits to refugees. I suppose if you don't mind keeping people in crowded, "itinerant" camps for years, or even decades, that embitter people and make them ripe for being riled by extremists, then not accepting refugees is just fine. http://odihpn.org/magazine/refugee-camps-and-the-problem-of-ethnic-extre...

How would you feel if you were displaced through no fault of your own, not allowed to seek work, and your children had no foreseeable future except living in a camp? Being given only the biological basics of life is surviving, but it's not truly living, not in any meaningful, comparable way. My parents lived in refugee camps as adults for a year. Other people I know basically grew up in a camp. So please don't say anything foolish about refugee camps that you don't actually know.

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The worst terrorist attack in New England in our lives was the Marathon bombing which was committed by two US Citizens, one of whom seemed like a promising bright kid at an elite Cambridge school. Absolutely no one thought he was a terrorist until his picture was broadcast everywhere. Even his brother didn't fit the normal profile.

So you can't screen or catch everyone. Live with it. The likelihood of a terrorist being a US Citizen or citizen of a friendly country (Australia, Canada, etc) is far higher then anyone sneaking in from Syria.

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How's you typewriter working?

It's 2015 bub. If a bunch of nerds can take down 20k Twitter accounts of ISIS in their moms basement I hope we could screen half the amount of people (already safe in surround countries) coming to The US.

Technology is crazy bro, not really you can't be as old as dirt.

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Give the dads some credit/blame!

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on how you measure worst (loss of life vs loss of life + injuries) or whether or not you consider connecticut to be part of new england

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Not for a rapid resettlement of refugees. They're not one in the same.

One is a long process the other is basically overnight. We're not talking about taking in Syrian refugees in 5 years, we're talking about within a few months.

And what is in place now wasn't developed to handle the current ideological issue surrounding many countries in the Middle East. And no, I am not saying all Muslims are terrorist so please don't accuse me up such.

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Read what an immigration lawyer says about the US refugee process. It takes years, and it is more thorough than immigration screening: https://www.facebook.com/BryanScottHicks/posts/1187326084630475?fref=nf

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... when people's hearts are full of anger and contempt.

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Michael, do you have a suggestion on how to argue otherwise? Serious inquiry. I feel like the empathetic nudging I engage those I know in the real world has no analog on the internet.

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I can't explain how to get around it, but this infographic sort of sums up why people are so often resistant to accepting new information. The best you can do is try to preserve your own sense of empathy, try to explain why you think the way you do, and hope it somehow sinks in.

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... that for seriously bigoted/biased individuals, presentation of facts that contradict their view actually strengthens their already-established convictions. Not clear that there is any way to get through to such people.

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Legal immigration is an incredibly lengthy, expensive process, even for asylum seekers. Those in other countries who have aided US military action with promises of US citizenship later have been screwed over for decades; for example, WWII Filipino vets. It's wrong and unfair.

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That's why Carson's f'ed-up map shows MA as red.

https://twitter.com/RealBenCarson/status/667015392250982402

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My Facebook feed is full of dumb lists like "Steve Jobs and Teri Hatcher are part Syrian! Stop being racist."

No one (rational) is saying Syrians are all bad people by nature of their blood! They are however concerned because there is evidence terrorists (of any background) could pretend to be refugees to gain admission go the US. There is a clear and distinct difference between the two, but it doesn't make a cute meme so let's ignore it.

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The paris attacks, from what's been gathered thus far, have been committed by mostly or nearly all, EU citizens, and planned in Belgium by a Belgian ring leader. ISIS's tack as far as western targets seems to be the path of least resistence, more resourceful. It's easier to recruit citizens of the countries they wish to attack as they can more readily travel back and forth over borders. So, perhaps we should consider disallowing Belgian and French citizens coming to this country on a tourist or student visa, then? I'd be all for it if it kept my crazy Belgian brother-in-law from visiting (jk).

With this talk of having a "pause" on processing those 10K syrian refugees into this country, it begs the question, what sort of post-9-11 system has been in place.

If the system has failed, why haven't we seen more foreign-born terrorists gaining citizenship in the last 14 years & committing more heinous acts on US soil? We're focusing on ISIS, but needlesstosay and lest we forget, Al-Qaeda is still nothing to shake a stick at (see: Mali hotel hostage/attacks just this morning; and remember 9-11).

Syrians are fleeing exactly what the parisians endured this past week and are still enduring. It's fundamentally unamerican to reject these people. And it's exactly what ISIS wants: for us to change who we are as a people.

"we are a shelter of the weak and haven to the oppressed"

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