re: #40 Buck

I assume ‘from these countries’ means either that they’re citizens of that country, or claiming to be, or have a point of origin there.

The thing is, I don’t even disagree that this is a dumb policy, like a lot of our homeland security stuff is. The watchlists are bloated and not updated well. The list of countries is easy to get around. It’s all highly criticizable.

But you chose to criticize it like this:

Even if that means treating Israel (and Israelis) as if they are the same as Hamas.

The way Hamas is treated: It’s listed as a terrorist organization, and members of Hamas are automatically on the terrorist watch list. It’s also not treated as a country, because it’s not.

The way members of Hamas are treated: They would not be granted Visas to the US, if it were known that they were Hamas members.

The way Israel is treated: It’s an ally that Obama staunchly defended in a recent speech.

The way Israelis are treated: Nothing special, except that if they’re arrested or detained by ICE, they have another check run to see if any other agency is interested in them.

You take a nugget of reality— that this is a stupid policy— and turn it into Obama treating Israel the same as Hamas, which is a ludicrous, stupid, obvious, and pathetic lie.