OLBERMANN: CBP ARE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD!

Are buddies at CBP have caught the attention of Cable news host Keith Olbermann who gives a daily award to the world's worst person. Usually it's just an individual, but today the award goes to a whole government agency - perhaps a first for the show. Well done CBP! Olbermann was talking about the story I covered yesterday on the detaining of British MP Malik. Watch the video here.

Comments

[Greg Siskind]

"What is the best way to go when you're faced with a situation like this? What are your rights? Can you verbally abuse the officers who are calling you a liar and shouting at you? Can you simply keep quiet and not answer any of the questions when they are behaving like this?"

You don't have a lot of options except that you should not lose your cool, try and remember as many details as possible about the specifics of what you're going through and remember the names of any people dealing with you. These will come in handy later when you file a complaint. I do know that there are people also collecting information on incidents of abuse and you're welcome to contact me to help in that regard.

Definitely don't yell back unless you want to ensure a fast trip home.

[Another voice]

"Dobbs actually said that this idea is in fact allowing the undocumented to register to vote in the State of NY. Maybe I was right all along and this guy is so blinded by his hate of non-white people that he cannot read anymore.....did he miss the fact that these licenses would specifically state "not valid for federal identification?"

The worst part is that his little audience actually believes anything this guy spitts out over the airwaves withoput actually thinking it through. I am sure that O'Rilley will second him on the attacks towards the DL.

[TX]

Greg, in your outrage of the day, you should include what Lou Dobbs said on his show yesterday regarding the NY Governors decision to issue non-federal Licenses to undocumented. Is CNN deaf and blind to the lies spewed by this guy? Dobbs actually said that this idea is in fact allowing the undocumented to register to vote in the State of NY. Maybe I was right all along and this guy is so blinded by his hate of non-white people that he cannot read anymore.....did he miss the fact that these licenses would specifically state "not valid for federal identification?"

Kudos to the Governor for stating this morning, on CNN, that it his beneath him and his office to respond to the likes of Lou Dobbs and his lies.

Lou Dobbs will probably have a heart attack the day the first license is issued.

[Sid]

I think the rudeness is a long term problem. 911 has simply given them the license to do WTF they want.

[ImmOrNot]

I was wondering if the CBP rudeness issue is a long time problem or a problem emerged after 911. If it's post 911, does the rudeness make America safer? The other thing is The British MP was not alone. I believe there are hundreds or thousands people who had similar experience including you and I. I don't see nay actions that the goverment has taken to improve the situation.

[Sid]

Greg,

What is the best way to go when you're faced with a situation like this? What are your rights? Can you verbally abuse the officers who are calling you a liar and shouting at you? Can you simply keep quiet and not answer any of the questions when they are behaving like this?

[Sid]

ImmOrNot,

next time you crave for cheap Chinese goods, prepare to fly to China.

[ImmOrNot]

CBP should be awarded as the World Best Guard. With CBP, America is becoming the safest country in the world since nobody including terorist would bother to visit. If you really really want to listen live Finnish music, book a flight to Finland ...

[USC]

This is a very timely blog, Greg.

I arrived this evening in Beijing. At immigration we handed our passports (my parents are accompanying us) over to the immigration officer. Each time the immigration officer would process one passport, four buttons at the front of the immigration counter (so that he couldn't see my selection) would light up and start flashing. The officers badge number was displayed above the buttons. The choices were satisfied, somewhat satisfied, took too long and another choice which I don't remember/didn't see. I pressed satisfied on the last three passports. The earlier ones I didn't make a choice because I didn't realize what was going on!

What a great idea this is. It could be implemented by DHS at very little cost to identify those CBP officers who are rude and give their fellow officers and our country a bad name.

There are many uses the data gathered could be put to. The CBP personnel could be made to take training classes and in the case of really bad scores the involved officer could be canned. Or DHS could really hit them in the pocket book. Their base salary could be augmented/de-augmented as follows:

Satisfied response: +$0.10
Somewhat satisfied: +$0.05
Took too long: +$0.00
Rude: -$1.00

If this works you might see a sea change in the attitudes of CBP personnel. I like this idea and when I get back I intend to do my bit by lobbying for this. Perhaps, organizations like Discover America should also look into it.

[guyfromsg]

Greg, it's linking to some other video

[Legal Immi]

Fox noise channel regularly gets this award too :)