Peaceful Demonstrations are not welcome by Israel or the USA.

I would think as soon as a Palestinian filmmaker made it as far as LAX there would be safety and welcome for his magnificent accomplishment. But, nooooooooooooo....actually having a peaceful opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is too much to tolerate by Homeland Security.

Someone owes someone an apology in a very big way.

Palestinian director Emad Burnat, nominated for Academy Award, detained at LAX immigration, Michael Moore tweets (click here)

This is ethnic profiling. This is NOT national security. His papers were in order. He is a world renowned documentarian. He puts his life on the line everyday in Palestine to make films to bring the plight of his family and his neighbors face due to oppression. But, USA Homeland Security nearly sent him home rather than allowing him to participate in American rewards for such extraordinary bravery.

When he tried to make the trip to Amman he was stopped and detained along with his wife and child. When they finally were on their way to the USA little did they realize the USA was going to profile them for no valid reason as did Israel.

It seems to me if this is the methodology Homeland Security is using at LAX to determine dangers to the USA, it is not a good methodology. At all. Every Palestinian is suspect or did the family actually qualify for intense frisking because they didn't like the x-ray search for the fear of long term effect of their child?

...“Not every traveler (click here) or piece of cargo poses the same level of risk to our security,” Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, said Friday at her second annual “State of America’s Homeland Security” address at the National Press Club.

“Think of it this way: If we have to look for a needle in a haystack, it makes sense to use all of the information we have about the pieces of hay to make the haystack smaller,” Ms. Napolitano said....

I suppose this PRE-CLEARANCE is just for some class of privileged Americans. It doesn't matter that before this Palestinian family boarded their plane to the USA they were cleared to be there. That doesn't matter at LAX. At LAX, when a passenger arrives they are considered contaminated and have to be cleared all over again. Well, then what kind of companies are landing into LAX that have contaminated people arriving on USA soil?

Why would any airliner be allowed to land at LAX with terrorists on board? I want to know why these good people, albeit, controversial due to being a documentarian were DETAINED and THREATENED by Homeland Security at LAX. Yes, threatened. They were threatened to be returned from whence they came as dangerous people. I am sure that would be really well received in Israel. Here come three dangerous people being rejected by the USA from entry.

Emad Burnat was upset about missing his dinner and his friends. Lord knows the man seems to have far fewer friends than most Americans might expect. But, he was upset because he was going to miss his dinner and potential award for his magnificent film.

ME? 

I and I am quite confident everyone at the dinner was upset because Mr. Emad Burnat was profiled. I am worried he could be detained and worse. Worried? That is an understatement. His life was in danger the minute he stepped off the plane at LAX along with his wife. 

I know that wrath. It is not a good feeling. I was pulled aside in Boston when pumice rock from Iceland was found in my carry on. Four Homeland Security officers showed up out of the woodwork to state I would be arrested and detained for pumice rock from Iceland. Why? Because rocks were considered a potential threat to pilots and a weapon against pilots behind metal doors in the cockpit. Like. What?

It takes a real imagination to believe pumice would survive being thrown at the door yet alone be a weapon.

I had to return to the check in area to ask for my luggage being loaded on the plane to put my SCIENTIFIC material in the luggage (and pack it so it would survive gorilla baggage handlers). I nearly missed my flight. I had to go through this mess called screening under greater scrutiny this time to insure I wasn't being SNEAKY.

I can only imagine the wrath this family met with at LAX. Scary is not the word. I am appalled such a distinguished man and his family were treated like objects and not the decent people they are.

I apologize for the US Department of Homeland Security. They are ignorant people. Their only excuse is that in the USA they ain't paid as well as they should be to demand THEY THINK.

Last night, on my way from Turkey to Los Angeles, CA, my family and I were held at US immigration for about an hour and questioned about the purpose of my visit to the United States. Immigration officials asked for proof that I was nominated for an Academy Award® for the documentary 5 BROKEN CAMERAS and they told me that if I couldn't prove the reason for my visit, my wife Soraya, my son Gibreel and I would be sent back to Turkey on the same day.

After 40 minutes of questions and answers, Gibreel asked me why we were still waiting in that small room. I simply told him the truth: 'Maybe we'll have to go back.' I could see his heart sink.

Although this was an unpleasant experience, this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians, every single day, throughout the West Bank. There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience that my family and I experienced yesterday. Ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day."

Emad Burnat

He flew in from Turkey. Turkey is an ally. Is there any reason the USA should believe Turkey is sending terrorists through LAX?

The States are successful with Balance Budget Amendments.

There are reasons for that. A State understands its income and expenditures in a much smaller universe. States don't support a military or declare war. That is to begin with.

But, the entire issue of a federal balanced budget amendment can be answered very simply.

It.

Is.

Politics.

TITLE I--TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM (click here)

In 2008, the Republicans sure as heck didn't worry about any kind of balanced budget except for their cronies.

A federal budget also does many more diverse activities with it's monies. It supports state budgets. In realizing the federal government supports states with balanced budget amendments is also to realize that helps stabilize the demands on the USA Treasury. The USA federal government has to develop legislation that will provide for fifty states. So, while some states are donor states and some are recipient states every federal legislative act has to take into account the fifty states. The federal government has to provide for equitable interests for every state. The fact of the matter is the recipient states, while at the center of the rhetoric for a federal balanced budget amendment, would be the first to be adversely effected by such an amendment.

It is all nonsense. Most Americans have grown weary of the nonsense. 

It would be helpful if Speaker Boner would stop lying.

To begin this sequester thing resulted because Boner could not bring home the Grand Bargain. He stood on politics and not solid fiscal policy when the Grand Bargain was a reality. The Grand Bargain had everything the Republicans cry about all the time. It even had more cuts that Senator Rand Paul states is something he would want. So, there is no reason for Boner to point to President Obama as the author of the sequester. 

By JOHN BONER 

A week from now, (click here) a dramatic new federal policy is set to go into effect that threatens U.S. national security, thousands of jobs and more. In a bit of irony, President Obama stood Tuesday with first responders who could lose their jobs if the policy goes into effect. Most Americans are just hearing about this Washington creation for the first time: the sequester. What they might not realize from Mr. Obama's statements is that it is a product of the president's own failed leadership....

Additionally, Boner and Senators like Paul actually expected the sequester cuts not to matter. They expected the puppet president Romney to be in the White House right now. In that reality are several facts. The first fact is that Boner and his Republicans were using the sequester for politics. If they were waiting for it to go away that is politics. Foolish politics while playing with the lives of Americans, but, politics just the same.

One of the other facts is the REALITY the puppet president was not elected and therefore on that basis alone there is absolutely no fact in stating President Obama has failed leadership. Many in the nation, including Ohio, would dispute that statement. Boner is lying. He is still playing politics.

The other fact is that failed leadership belongs to Speaker Boner. He has not had a consensus with any of his House votes unless it was for Post Offices that under his leadership will disappear anyway since the US Post Office is disappearing from the PROMISE of the USA Constitution.

...The sequester is a wave of deep spending cuts scheduled to hit on March 1. Unless Congress acts, $85 billion in across-the-board cuts will occur this year, with another $1.1 trillion (110,000,000,000) coming over the next decade. There is nothing wrong with cutting spending that much—we should be cutting even more—but the sequester is an ugly and dangerous way to do it....

The cuts this year are far less than the cuts in subsequent years. About $25 billion less. Yet, this year is a horrendous experience for the USA. The argument could be made that the recovering economy is more demanding than any subsequent year, but, won't be the case. With every annual installment for the sequester cuts, there will be contraction in the USA economy.

Realizing there will be annual contraction in the USA economy, it is a perfect opportunity for Republicans to rant on and on about the failed leadership of President Obama. Doing so is more a political agenda to defeat Democrats and shoot for a win in 2016. So, why the complaints, Mr. Speaker? This after all is what the goal of the GOP has been for years now.

...By law, the sequester focuses on the narrow portion of the budget that funds the operating accounts for federal agencies and departments, including the Department of Defense. Exempt is most entitlement spending—the large portion of the budget that is driving the nation's looming debt crisis. Should the sequester take effect, America's military budget would be slashed nearly half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Border security, law enforcement, aviation safety and many other programs would all have diminished resources....

That is a lie, Mr. Boner. The entitlements are paid for and currently supported though USA Bonds. The Congress has borrowed against the entitlements and replaced the money with USA Bonds. So, I am curious how the entitlements are the biggest part of the national debt. Unless, of course, the USA Bonds are rapidly going to become worthless with any and all role back of the sequester cuts.

I think the real issue is the resistance of the GOP to restructure the sequester cuts to more appropriate areas of government spending so the impact on employment of Americans are minimized. See, if that happens and we actually support the USA economic spending through employment, the cronies might actually have to feel the pinch. Here again the politics override the nation.

To return for a minute to the USA Bonds. The bond rating is important, so to simply disregard the sequester cuts as irresponsible for an economic recovery is out of the question. The cuts go forward, it is a matter of how they go forward.

...During the summer of 2011, as Washington worked toward a plan to reduce the deficit to allow for an increase in the federal debt limit, President Obama and I very nearly came to a historic agreement. Unfortunately our deal fell apart at the last minute when the president demanded an extra $400 billion in new tax revenue—50% more than we had shaken hands on just days before....

The point is rather mute, isn't it? There have been revenue increases, so here again the failed leadership was the Speaker and his House and the Senate Minority Leader and his filibusters. The politics was completely dysfunctional to the best outcome of the nation and the complaining about how and why the Grand Bargain failed is all too mute. The revenues were accomplished anyway. So, the failure is not President Obama's but the short sighted and draconian politics of the GOP. A tax by any other name....

The fact of the matter is the Grand Bargain should have gone forward with the increased revenues and we would not be at this juncture. This juncture and the ones in the future are about politics, not the nation. It is about the slippery political slope the GOP finds itself. It is about the FAUX knowledge base the GOP claims in their politics. The truth by any other name...

...the Budget Control Act.

The plan called for immediate caps on discretionary spending (to save $917 billion) and the creation of a special House-Senate "super committee" to find an additional $1.2 trillion in savings....

The House version of the Budget Control Act demanded a Balanced Budget Amendment. It was stuck in the bill without regard to the needs of the nation today or in the future. A budget amendment at the state level works due to population demographics, but, as a federal directive it limits the powers of the federal government and is unrealistic. To ask for it in the first place was politics and had nothing to do with governing. 

The Budget Control Act is where the $1.2 Trillion and the Super Committee was written. and you proudly admit it was written by "...I immediately got together with Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell...". So, where is the President's role in that? The fact the Executive Branch was protecting the federal government from political directives? Gee, wasn't that too bad. I suppose President Obama's demand to end the brinkmanship of the House was too much of a political cost.

Speaker Boner needs to stop playing politics with the nation's treasury and the rating of our bonds. We are tired of it. The nation has many, many issues other than MONEY ISSUES to face. The list is enormous of which the House's calender rarely lends time to address.

If President Obama is demanding to end the hassle of debt ceiling increases and budget battles it is because we don't have time for it and need to move on. Just because the House and the GOP blew the chance to make MEANINGFUL reform to the federal spending is the problem. It is so much a problem it needs to be a re-election and election issue of 2014. You want to play politics, heck, let's do that. The facts are very, very clear. If the Grand Bargain was struck this disaster that the Speaker, the Senate Minority Leader and Senate Majority Leader authored would not exist. If that is not a reason to throw the bumbs out in 2014, don't ask me what is.

I think the press protest too much. I sincerely believe the complaints of the media regarding President Obama's holiday weekend is about a lost opportunity to exploit Tiger Woods personal life. Neither he nor the President need to have scandal sheets seeking to ruin their enjoyment.