I'm sure you know my oft-quoted favorite Persian proverb, "Dogs bark and the caravan passes." Perhaps one of these days, we'll finally learn to simply let the dogs bark themselves out, while we continue on our journey.

That seems to be what the president is doing on this matter. Hopefully, he's finally recognized that his opposition's specious arguments about homeland security are entirely opportunistic in motive, and therefore it should not be dignified with any attempt on his part to respond to their catcalls, save with contempt for their own displays of moral weakness and lack of character in the face of these refugees' trials and tribulations.

After all, it was FDR's Democratic administration which in 1939 refused entry of the MS St. Louis with its manifest of Jewish passengers seeking asylum from Nazi Germany, forcing that ship to eventually return to Europe with nearly everyone on board. Their story was immortalized 35 years later in the acclaimed book by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, "Voyage of the Damned." An estimated 25% of that ship's passengers subsequently perished in the Holocaust.

Our country has always had a very strong nativist component, comprised of people who for argument's sake conveniently choose to forget their own respective family histories. Because with the noted exception of indigenous Americans, Alaskans, Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, we are ALL descended from immigrant stock.

There's no sense in dancing around the painfully obvious here. The rationale being offered by Sen. Ted Cruz and other nativists against the entry of Syrian refugees is at once shortsighted, immoral, shameful and cowardly, and we shouldn't shy away from saying so. Those moronic 31 governors who presently seek to block the entry of those refugees into their respective states -- an act which is blatantly unconstitutional on its face -- are simply rendering their own constituents vulnerable to the inevitable federal anti-discrimination lawsuits which will surely follow.

I'm proud of our own Gov. David Ige, who immediately and publicly rejected this demented and bigoted argument yesterday for the fear-mongering foolishness that it is, and has once again reaffirmed Hawaii's willingness to welcome those 10,000 Syrian refugees accepted by INS for entry into the United States.

Gov. Ige has since been joined in that affirmation by Govs. Jerry Brown (CA), Jay Inslee (WA), John Hickenlooper (CO), Tom Wolf (PA), Peter Shumlin (VT), Dannel Malloy (CT) and Jack Markell (DE). If you happen to live in one of those states, please call or email your governor's office to thank him for his stand. I can assure you that such statements of support right now would be very much appreciated.

There is a risk that people currently here, many of them white Christians, have and will continue terrorists attacks right here.

It can still be done there, create a "safe space", with full military protection for these refugees.

jimakaPPJ: "As you write a van in Hanover, Germany has been found filled with explosives outside a sports arena. Now who has accepted the most so-called 'refugees?' G E R M A N Y"

... while listening to you and your fellow nativist crackpots, that I often start to wonder why we didn't just apply your special brand of broad-brushed logic to the entirely of America's white wingbat community back in 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and his friends did the same exact thing outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Had that been done, you'd likely still be cooling your heels in a concentration camp somewhere in the Arizona desert, and Jeralyn would be spared a whole lot of bandwidth.

But you know why nobody did that, as tempting as it might have been at the time to use the OKC tragedy as a pretext to round up all those nail-spitting neocons who were calling President Bill Clinton's election fraudulent and worse, and who were urging active resistance by their followers to federal laws and "jack-booted thugs"?

Because condemning an entire community and / or demographic for the horrific and cowardly acts of a few mindless individuals is both immoral and un-American. Because ours is a country that respects and protects the rights of the individual, which means that your mistakes and sins are entirely your own.

Think about it -- that is, if you even remember any more how to think for yourself.

"Refugees and asylum seekers are already being screened by an in-depth process that's currently taking an average of two years to complete, before final approval is granted. Exactly what additional steps are you proposing that our federal government take to vet these Syrian refugees, in addition to the ones which are already in place?"

Speaking for myself only, I'm tired of all the kabuki, in which people rush to condemn both the present immigration process for Syrian refugees and the Obama administration which is responsible for it, without ever bothering to note or itemize any specific concerns about that process -- except for "OMG! Syrians!" -- and while studiously avoiding any offer on their part of a viable alternative / addendum to it.

& who would see the burning of a Canadian mosque as "good PR for ISIS"? do you mean that the burning of the mosque will encourage new recruits to ISIS?

maybe we're touching here on a basic contrast between, on the one hand, those who believe that ISIS is a radical political movement with a basis in negotiable political demands &, on the other hand, those who see ISIS as driven by profoundly reactionary, imperialistic, totalitarian & apocalyptically theocratic demands that brook no negotation at all

count me firmly in the second camp

A certain amount of fear among the population is expected but the right is fanning the fear beyond all proportion, very often making mockeries of themselves. I mean denying "orphans under five" is just asking for it.

Drum is correct that the Democrats need to be careful, the campaign at least for now is all about National Security, and we all know how the fear mongering and war drum beating demagoguery can drown out any reasonable thought.

FDR once said "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself"

The Republicans now say "the only thing we have is fear itself"

An exceptional country never caves to fear, period.

 Accepting he refugees pose a vanishing small danger totally insignificant in the face of all the other threat vectors.

Refusing the refugees is bowing to the fear, a fear inspired by ISIS, in other words handing them a victory.

Whose side are you on?

From Bloomberg

On the call several Republican governors and two Democrats -- New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan and California's Jerry Brown -- repeatedly pressed administration officials to share more information about Syrian refugees entering the United States. The governors wanted notifications whenever refugees were resettled in their states, as well as access to classified information collected when the refugees were vetted.

"There was a real sense of frustration from all the governors that there is just a complete lack of transparency and communication coming from the federal government," said one GOP state official who was on the call.

Hassan, one of two Democrats to challenge the administration on the call, had already come out in favor of halting the flow of Syrian refugees to the United States. She expressed anger that state officials aren't notified when Syrian refugees are resettled in their territory.

Brown said he favored continuing to admit Syrian refugees but wanted the federal government to hand over information that would allow states to keep track of them, the GOP state official said.

This is how we interned so many Japanese Americans.....

Just because it is popular does not make it right.  I am glad Obama is not giving in to the demagogues.....