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Tag: green card

  • Sean Penn Says ‘F- You’ to Green Card Joke Haters

    Sean Penn is still dodging the ruffled feathers flying over his joke at the Oscars last month. When Sean Penn presented the Oscar for Best Picture to Alejandro Irritu for Birdman, he announced the winner with a question:

    “Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?”

    People were quick to decry the comment. Huffington Post ran the headline: Sean Penn’s ‘Green Card’ Comment May Have Ruined The Entire Oscars

    The logic was that the whole ceremony had seemed to celebrate civil rights, with music from and recognition for Selma, particularly. For Sean Penn, who is otherwise known for championing causes of disenfranchised and voiceless minorities, to joke about a “green card” was just beyond the pale.

    There was even the assumption that Penn may have been trying to make a point about racism and xenophobia, which some felt was not his place to do at the time.

    But no, it was just a joke. And Irritu didn’t mind at all.

    “I found it hilarious,” Irritu said after the Oscars. “Sean and I have that kind of brutal (relationship) where only true friendship can survive.”

    Alejandro Irritu directed Sean Penn in 21 Grams back in 2003. Irritu insists that they are friends and that Sean Penn takes as much and as well as he dishes out.

    “I make on him a lot of very tough jokes that I will not tell you,” Irritu said.

    Sean Penn insists that his “green card” remark that Irritu would have gotten right away, even before his name was announced as winner.

    “There’s a little inside humor with he and I … (I knew) that he would be the first person in that room to know that his film won,” Sean Penn said.

    “I’m always surprised by flagrant stupidity. I keep having more hope,” Sean Penn said about those who took offense over his remarks. “I have absolutely no apologies. In fact, I have a big ‘fuck you’ for anybody who is so stupid not to have gotten the irony when you’ve got a country that is so xenophobic … if they had their way, you wouldn’t have great filmmakers like Alejandro working in this country. Thank God we do.”

  • Obama’s Uncle Gets OK’d; Not All “Illegals” Get Deported.

    President Obama’s uncle got the OK to stay in the U.S. Tuesday by an immigration judge in Boston. Onyango Obama ignored his deportation orders more than two decades ago but was given permanent resident status after he testified that he has lived in the U.S. for more than half a century. “He has earned his privilege to stay in the United States. He has been here for 50 years,” said Onyango’s Attorney, Margaret Wong, Tuesday before the hearing.

    Onyango is the half-brother of President Obama’s late father. He had come to the U.S. in 1963 from Kenya on a student visa that expired in 1970. That means that he has been living in the country illegally for more than 4 decades. “He’s so happy to stay here because he loves this country,” Ms. Wong said. Onyango described America as the “Land of Opportunities.”

    When asked during the hearing whether he had any relatives in the U.S, Onyango said he had two nieces, a nephew and a sister. Asked who the nephew was, Onyango Obama replied: “Barack Obama. He’s the President of the United States.”

    Onyango’s immigration status became public in 2011 when he was arrested in Framingham, Massachusetts for driving under the influence. After the arrest, he is alleged to have told the police, “I think I will call the White House.” When asked by the prosecutor to clarify whether he actually said those words, he said he might have said those words.

    However, his attorney called him a wonderful older gentleman. While reading the ruling, judge Leonard Shapiro said that Onyango qualified for legal permanent residency since he has a good moral character and that the provision in federal immigration allows immigrants who have lived in America since 1972 to apply for a “green card”.

    Is Obama’s Uncle Getting Special Treatment?

    Watch the Video

    http://youtu.be/cBDdK0QX4CM

    (main photo via YouTube)