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Parsley Joins Protest of Refugee Ban at Noem SF Office

On the bright side, losing the Senate race means I have time to teach and judge debate. For Scott Parsley, losing his Senate race means having more time to visit Congresswoman Kristi Noem… and give her hell for Trumpism:

Scott Parsley, expecting a modicum of humanitarianism from our elected officials.
Scott Parsley, expecting a modicum of humanitarianism from our elected officials. (Screen cap from KSFY, 2017.01.31.)

Dozens of people gathered together outside Rep. Kristi Noem’s office to share their opinion regarding her support of President Trump’s refugee ban.

“We just felt like it was important for us to come out and say we disagree with that,” said former State Senator Scott Parsley.

…”She has been very supportive of the president, I just happen to disagree on her position on this,” said Parsley [Carlos O. Gonzalez, “Protesters Crowd Rep. Noem’s Sioux Falls Office for Support on Refugee Ban,” KSFY, 2017.01.31].

Joining Parsley in his ongoing civic engagement was Muslim Community Center president Hesham Elgouhari:

Just another South Dakota family, out to visit their Congresswoman. (Screen cap from KSFY, 2017.01.31.)
Just another South Dakota family, out to visit their Congresswoman. (Screen cap from KSFY, 2017.01.31.)

“This [protest] is very normal, it’s expected. If you do something that is not with human morals and character and values, people need to stand up and say, no, this is not what mankind is looking for….

“It just makes people more scared of Muslims, more scared of Islam, which is absolutely wrong. You are giving the wrong message, in the wrong time and the wrong place and the wrong way. We have to change that,” stated Elgouhari [Gonzalez, 2017.01.31].

Meanwhile, the man who took Parsley’s Senate seat, District 8 Republican Senator Jordan Youngberg, is sponsoring  an illegal power grab by the Legislature to assert state supremacy over federal immigration decisions. Youngberg’s party is also pushing peddling a resolution condemning a national Muslim civil rights organization that is suing to overturn the President’s immigration ban.

16 Comments

  1. Troy 2017-02-01 06:55

    CH,

    I notice how you don’t assert Youngberg Supports those proposals but instead attempt to tar him with proposals made by others in his party.

    I wonder how appropriate you would think it if one were to tar Democrats with similar innuendo. I guess I don’t wonder too much since you praise Yates but would chastise Yackley for not pursuing matters he disagreed with on policy grounds. See liberal legal beagle Alan Dershowitz’s admonishment of Yates. http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/317081-shes-no-hero-sally-yates-should-have-resigned

  2. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-02-01 08:27

    Troy, I didn’t assert that because the LRC server was broken. Now that it’s up again, I find Youngberg is indeed sponsoring SB 124, the Legislature’s effort to veto refugee resettlement. I have revised my above remarks to reflect Youngberg’s sponsorship of baseless refugee paranoia.

    We get that tar all the time. I look forward to seeing Youngberg develop a conscience and commitment to fact over party hyperbole and vote against both SB 124 and the anti-CAIR resolution. I didn’t have to wonder about such conscience and principle with Senator Parsley.

  3. Troy 2017-02-01 08:38

    CH,

    Thanks for the update on SB124. Defending one’s position is fair game. Innuendo based on one’s fellow party members is not unless there is additional links.

    Regarding CAIR, whether they are a “civil rights organization” or a “instrument of supporting terror” is a matter of debate. While President Obama stopped short of declaring them a terrorist group (which was done by at least one Muslim Middle East country (UAE), his administration had denied some foreign board members and staff from entering the country (some of whom were convicted or pled guilty to terrorist charges) and restricted their flow of funds under Treasury authority to stanch the flow of funds to terrorist groups.

  4. Stace Nelson 2017-02-01 09:17

    Let’s discuss the facts. What part of the factual information within the resolution do you contest?

    http://www.sdlegislature.gov/docs/legsession/2017/Bills/SCR7P.htm

    A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, To urge and request law enforcement and governmental agencies in South Dakota to avoid and suspend all contacts and outreach activities with the Council on American Islamic Relations.
    WHEREAS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all formal contacts with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) due to evidence indicating a relationship between CAIR and Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization; and
    WHEREAS, one of CAIR’s directors was sentenced to a year in federal prison for violating United States sanctions against Iraq; and
    WHEREAS, a CAIR director in Virginia pled guilty to terrorism-related financial and conspiracy charges, which resulted in a federal prison sentence; and
    WHEREAS, a communications specialist and civil rights coordinator for CAIR trained with an al Qaeda-tied Kashmir organization that is listed on the United States Department of State’s international terror list and was also indicted on charges of conspiring to help al Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan and was sentenced to twenty years in prison; and
    WHEREAS, CAIR’s former community affairs director pled guilty to three federal counts
    of bank and visa fraud and agreed to be deported to Egypt after he had funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and had published material advocating suicide attacks against the United States; these illegal activities took place while he was employed by CAIR; and
    WHEREAS, a CAIR fund raiser was arrested on terrorism-related charges and was deported from the United States due to his work as executive director of the Global Relief Foundation, which was designated as a fund raising front organization for a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of the Treasury for financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; and
    WHEREAS, CAIR opened its first office in Washington, D.C., with the help of a grant from the Holy Land Foundation; and
    WHEREAS, the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, a charitable organization that was shut down by the United States Department of the Treasury for funding Jihadist terrorist organizations, was the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in United States history, and the case identified CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood front group, and CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial; and
    WHEREAS, the cofounder of CAIR’s parent organization, Islamic Association for Palestine, was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges for financing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization; and
    WHEREAS, CAIR is heavily involved in the Syrian refugee resettlement efforts; and
    WHEREAS, the federal government and private social organizations are resettling thousands of Syrian refugees throughout South Dakota; and
    WHEREAS, recent Islamic terrorist acts across the world are a constant reminder that Islamic terrorist organizations continue to actively target innocent citizens of our country:
    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Ninety-Second Legislature
    of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the Legislature of South Dakota urges and requests law enforcement and governmental agencies in South Dakota to avoid and suspend all contacts and outreach activities with the Council on American Islamic Relations, and to increase interstate efforts to protect the citizens of South Dakota from the real threats of Islamic terrorism.

  5. Troy 2017-02-01 09:35

    Senator Nelson,

    I am with you, especially on the “whereas” but I don’t know what “suspend all contacts” means as I expect law enforcement to have rather regular “contacts and outreach” with people and groups suspected of terrorism.

  6. moses6 2017-02-01 10:07

    If this was about farm subsidies you can bet she would be all over this,

  7. Craig 2017-02-01 10:58

    If we are to “avoid and suspend all contacts and outreach activities” relating to organizations based upon acts committed by their leadership or supporters… what organizations (or individuals) would be excluded from this?

    I could find at least a few dozen statements related to Donald Trump that would fit the bill. For example:

    WHEREAS, a Trump supporters in Kansas were arrested for plotting to kill Muslim immigrants and;
    WHEREAS, Donald Trump has bragged about sexually assaulting women and;
    WHEREAS, a Trump supporter in California had threatened to kill Muslims and was found with explosives in his home and;
    WHEREAS, Donald Trump has called for a national ban on Muslims and;
    WHEREAS, a Trump supporter in Florida burned down a Mosque and;
    WHEREAS, a Trump supporter in Oregon was arrested and charged for threatening to kill President Obama and for possession of illegal explosives and;
    WHEREAS, Donald Trump has knowingly hired illegal immigrants to work on his real estate development projects and;
    WHEREAS, Donald Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution of the United States of America and;
    WHEREAS, a Trump supporter has committed acts of terror by murdering innocent civilians within a Quebec City Mosque and;
    WHEREAS Donald Trump was found to have illegally banned black patrons from his Casino floor and;
    WHEREAS Donald Trump was found to have committed fraud via his creation of the for-profit Trump University and;
    WHEREAS Donald Trump’s companies were found guilty on at least two separate occasions of racial discrimination and forced to pay fines to the Department of Justice and;
    WHEREAS Donald Trump’s chief of staff Steve Bannon was charged with charged with three misdemeanor counts relating to domestic violence and;
    WHEREAS Bannon has publicly proclaimed his goal is to “destroy the state” and “bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment” and;
    WHEREAS Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump was arrested at a KKK riot in Queens New York

    I think you get the idea. I’m sure Republicans would be easily able to produce a similar (albeit less colorful) list for President Obama, Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, or the ACLU. If you dig deep enough I’m sure you can find skeletons related in some fashion to almost anyone or any group. I don’t know anything about CAIR’s history and thus cannot comment on the statements made here, but the point is such resolutions are generally petty, self-serving, and designed for political purposes. Meanwhile our legislature avoids discussions surrounding poverty on our reservations, stagnant wages, energy production, or a regressive sales tax system which unfairly targets seniors and low income residents.

    But hey – priorities. Because brown people.

  8. mikeyc, that's me! 2017-02-01 11:34

    Craig-
    Well said.

  9. David Newquist 2017-02-01 11:55

    Facts cannot be contested in South Dakota. This a Trump state. There are only alternative facts, which are incontestable.

    However, it may be useful in the legislative quest to lead the nation in corruption, malice, and deception to note the techniques for promoting those virtues for future use.

    WHEREAS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all formal contacts with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

    The FBI did formulate a policy against formal relationships but for the purpose of fighting terrorism found that policy counterproductive in carrying out its duties.
    “F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said that the bureau had no “formal relationship” with CAIR, but that the organization’s officials and chapters regularly worked with F.B.I. officials on investigations and related matters. This included a news conference held on Thursday [March 10, 2011] in Sacramento to announce an arrest in a mosque vandalism case.” [New York Times 3/11/11]

    WHEREAS, the federal government and private social organizations are resettling thousands of Syrian refugees throughout South Dakota

    Lutheran Social Services is the only organization involved in refugee resettlement in South Dakota. They have repeatedly stated they are limiting the number of refugees coming to the state to 420 a year. During 2016, the U.S. allowed 12,500 refugees from Syria, mostly women and children. There is no quick data on how many refugees of the 420 in South Dakota were or are scheduled to be Syrian, but mathematically that would not be thousands. Of course, there is the alternative South Dakota math.

  10. Roger Cornelius 2017-02-01 12:48

    Stace Nelson’s racism is once again on display and his imagination is running rampant.
    The KELOland reports states there are NO CAIR chapters in South Dakota, the closest being in Minneapolis.
    Further more, the U.S State Department does not list CAIR as a terrorist organization.
    Nelson’s resolution, not law, is hollow if not shallow without supporting documentation.
    As others here have said, this is more of Stace’s fear mongering and attempting to start a war with an organization that doesn’t exist in South Dakota.

  11. Dana P 2017-02-01 14:03

    How does that happen, Roger? Nelson hits the bullseye when it comes to hanky panky and legislators covering up Wollmann et all……but then, relies on “alternative facts” when it comes to this, gun safety(stats), abortion, etc.

    He finally gave me a little bit of hope…..and then SPLAT. The hope disappeared and the real Stace came through again.

  12. Roger Cornelius 2017-02-01 14:53

    Dana P.
    Stace and I have had a contentious history here on Dakota Free Press, going back a couple years.
    The Wollman case is the only time I supported Nelson, his morals only last so long, I guess.
    If Stace wants to fights ISIS I suggest he go to places where they are located.

  13. Billy Baroo 2017-02-01 17:15

    Reading the comments from the lefties here, its no wonder you democrats are being told to pound sand.

  14. jerry 2017-02-01 17:20

    We love to pound sand, what is your point?

Comments are closed.