Obama heads to Disney World to push looser visa policies

The White House is sending President Obama to a familiar place: the land of make-believe. He’ll be at Disney World on Thursday to push for relaxing tourist visa requirements in the name of boosting the economy.
From the Orlando Sentinel via William Amos:
President Barack Obama will visit Walt Disney World during a planned trip to Orlando on Thursday, according to a White House aide. There, he will “unveil a strategy that will significantly help boost tourism and travel,” the aide added.
Details on that strategy were not disclosed. But it would be hard for Obama to pick a locale that’s better known than Disney for a tourism announcement. The resort giant in Orlando has four theme parks that collectively draw more than 45 million visitors a year.
It doesn’t appear, however, that he’ll get much love from local politicians. Aides to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said the Florida Democrat was unlikely to attend because the office “got word too late” of the visit and had meetings planned in other parts of the state. And Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is scheduled to be in Washington that day for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
While the details of the announcement are still unknown, there’s one topic at the top of the political wish list for Central Florida’s tourism industry: Visa reform. The tourism industry has been pushing Congress and Obama to make it easier for visitors from emerging nations such as Brazil, India and China to come to the U.S. as tourists.
In Brazil, where citizens have a reputation for loving Orlando’s theme parks, there are four consulate offices to conduct the required in-person interviews for people who want a visa to visit the U.S. That means families could have to travel several hundred miles before they are even approved to travel to the U.S.
In case anyone needs reminding, it was the relentless drive of the tourism industry and kowtowing State Department bureaucrats that led to the Bush-era Visa Express program — which relaxed visa policies, eliminated in-person consulate interviews, and opened the door to the 9/11 hijackers.
Brazil, may I remind you, is just the latest base for al Qaeda and other Islamic jihadi groups; it “does not recognize Hizbollah or Hamas as terrorist groups and disbanded the Federal Police’s anti-terrorism service in 2009.”
We never learn, do we?
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well, he does seem to help keep walt disney’s name alive, having run the first mickey mouse administration.
Well if it is like any other place bho has gone to, look out disney world, you are about to crater faster than a speeding bullet!
L
Florida’s governor won’t make it either, because he has to get his hair cut. Priorities…
Come on! That’s an insult to my buddy, Mickey Mouse.
The employees of Disneyworld better hurry up and learn Spanish!!
No biggiee. There are already 101 easy ways for terrorists to get in here anyway. The best defense is still to kill them in the Mideast.
Also, they will have to hire extra security and have them check all the rides, nooks and crannies in that enormous place every night for stowaways!!
I live in central Florida and I really don’t see why we need this. The last time I was at Disney about a year ago, the full length of Magic Kingdom Main St. was lined with students all in yellow t-shirts, waving flags and screaming Brasil! at the top of their lungs. As far as I could see, the foreigners outnumbered the natives 2 to 1.
Looks like the key members were here before the program was implemented. That, of course, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a stupid policy.
Orlando and the surrounding area is a hotbed of Arab Muslim terrorist residents. Orlando mosques are openly supporting terrorist organizations abroad.
This isn’t about Disney-loving Brazilians, but more like Brazilian-cheap labor loving hotel chains. Guaranteed. The Brazilians have been flocking to South Florida the past ten years and have occupied whole strip malls near where I live. I have nothing against them though, they are hard-working and entrepreneurial, but I think the whole Brazilians are finding it too hard to get a visitors visa thing is disingenuous.
And a free box cutter with every visa.
i really wanted to mention goofy, but i might have been seen as a racist, goofy did have big black droopy ears.
Ditto, that.
As far as WDW….talk about a soft target….
Well, there sure have been a lot of stories coming out of the Disney parks of Goofy, Pluto and Mickey groping women and children so in a way, they are already TSA-trained.
this always reminds me of a great divorce joke.
mickey was sitting on the stand, trying to divorce minnie.
the judge tells him, sorry but we cannot let you get a divorce because,
your wife is crazy.
mickey then says, i never said she was crazy, i said she was #$%@ing goofy!
“I’ve got a Golden Ticket…….”
Pretty bad when the President throws a photo op and even politicians won’t show up.
***
Disney will have to update the theme song a little bit. The old “M I C K E Y M O U S E- – -” won’t cut it any more.
***
Possibly “M U S L I M- – -” or “M U S H R O O M C L O U D- – -” would do better.
***
Same catchy tune. Same mouse ears. Same dancing girls and cartoon characters. With a lot more BOOM at the end. What could possibly go wrong? Worng! Wrrungg&
***
John Bibb
***
Is Grumpy going with him, or is she busy with winter gardening?
Nah.
Star Wars convention in Vegas.
*loser
Fixed it for ya.
***
HI ALOHA_GUY–#18. Seems like smart politicians of the democrat stripe don’t want to stand too close to the upcoming Nov. 6 2012 TSUNAMI II. Or too close to skunks, porcupines, loose grenades, land mines, etc.
***
Political survival trumps Hope and Change. Sorry, Comrade–can’t make it for your photo-op. Fido needs a bath.
***
John Bibb
***
The reason Bill Nelson won’t get re-elected is because he rubber stamped anything Harry Reid gave him, not because of being seen with Dumbo.
It’s OK…Obama usually does the exact opposite of what he says.
Ummm….
Michelle, I think that it’s debatable whether B. Hussein Obama actually needs the Mickey Mouse hat.
There I go, with comments on personal appearance, again….
Bad!
Bad!
Right in concert w/ Chuckie’s “Buy a McMansion, Get a Free Visa!” program… Which of course has no mechanism in place to a) see to it you actually buy said McChateaux, b) you’re not over extending your stay and c) not on the Friends & Terrorists List?
Most insulting though is the inference that our economy is in such a state only foreign investment/input can possibly bring us out of it?
Obama = President 10-289
I’m not getting this. What am I missing?
In a nutshell Happy:
“For the uninitiated, Directive 10-289 is ratified roughly halfway through Atlas Shrugged as an emergency measure. It locks the economy in place.”
“As they learned the hard way in the subsequent pages, economy, like an education, is motion, not a status, position or level. To lock it in place is to kill it.“
I thought they already did on the overnight shift…
What’s next? A luxury cruise to Europe as a “show of respect” to the victims of the Costa Concordia?
Oh! Thanks!! I haven’t read Atlas Shrugged since I was 16. But I do have it and have been trying to read it again. However, it is hard to get back into!
And by the way, happy will be absent when dopey visits!
Southpaw,
OT but finally had a chance to catch your album on last.fm! Good stuff. Keep at it. Very original treatment to an older, est. medium.
In the vernacular of the Interwebs, “What a looser!(sic)”
luau on Kashyykk
On January 17th, 2012 at 3:50 pm,
I recommend reading it right now. It is more relevant today than it was 50 years ago.
I’ve heard politicians make comments recently, that were, unknowingly, direct quotes from the book.
It really is quite astonishing.
We’ve all seen what happens with The Obama visits a place: His security and escorts tie up traffic for miles around, making life miserable for everybody else in the vicinity.
Can you imagine being a family, who may or may not care what The Obama says or does, but you’d made plans to spend the day at DisneyWorld months and months ago, only to discover that your plans had been preempted by a self-important blowhard who wanted a political backdrop for a speech?
What’s with the Mickey Mouse ears? What, no love for Dumbo because he’s been co-opted by the weak-kneed GOP?
The Jackass-In-Chief is probably going to give Mickey, Goofy, et al, a serious tax break by executive fiat. Talk about crony capitalism!?!
So nice that the sock puppet can revisit Geppetto.
Thanks. I recommend listening on a good pair of headphones, for best quality. If you play it on Windows Media player, set the visualization to battery, randomization. Thats how I listen.
I have sixteeen songs on two albums ready to go, & am starting on a third.
(Don’t think I’ll quit my day job though.)
What? Another useless baseless strategyless strategy? Where have I heard this kind of c-rap before?
And he’s not making us wait 2 weeks, either.
Personally, I think the ears make Odumbo look better. Since Disney and company have decided to support Obama, I’ve added them to my boycott list. No need to aid and abet them in their destruction of the country. There are other, and better, places to go.
In Obama world, the Captain didn’t run aground and overturn the ship – he was simply saving them from the previous Captain who had sailed shallow waters before. The fact that you can see the hull is evidence of ships saved – not lost.
And anywhere else you find them.
That told me all I need to know! Thanks Michelle! ROFLMBO!
That was us at Ko-Olina Hawaii in November when Obama and CPAC took over the resort. We could not go anywhere for 3 days.
Terrible. But at least you weren’t trapped on Guam or in Wisconsin.
There are worse places to be held hostage to Barry’s ego.
AlohaGuy said:
Nautically speaking.., I’m adrift. Right, it’s important to capsize a vessel in order to see what’s underneath it!
Ahem, unless we’re in dry dock ( no Hangfire, not NASAP ) dry dock the presence of a ship’s hull is something I’m perfectly willing to take at face value by the absence of wet socks.
Hruh!!!??
No Antabuse for his bubblehead. I have power-puked in some of the finest resorts and clubs in the Pacific.
Not if Michelle is with him
OT: It looks like the Walker recall petitions are in. If Wisconsin voters vote the UNION party back in they deserve to have their taxes go through the roof and all employers flee the state.
This president is so…. presidential.
/sarc
He’s giving a policy speech at an AMUSEMENT PARK??
And, as DonkeyHoatie pointed out, screwing over anyone who might have been going there to, you know, spend some money!
Mister P,
At an estimated cost of $9 mil. to the taxpayers of WI. Oh well, when it comes to PEU bennies, no amount is too great…
Sure, what for? It’s designed to sink!
When you wish upon a star……. I can’t think of a better place for the fantasy land POTUS to be. He’s just going from one artificial reality to another. What better place to make a speech. May he get trapped on the Small World ride till the election.
Michael Jackson’s Neverland pales in comparison to the White House. Same concept.
The Louse heads to House of Mouse…
Every time I read of Dems deliberately avoiding Obama, I get the chorus of this song stuck in my head:
Everywhere he goes Obama is releasing mind-boggling, revolutionary solutions to “create new jobs” or “increase efficiency” or “decrease debt” or “solve this problem or that problem” but, alas, at the end of the day, here we are with the same old problems. And where is Obama? Why, he left to go somewhere else to unveil more inept, ineffective solutions to more problems. Blah, blah, blah. Talk is cheap, and easy, and he is soooo good at talking lofty nonsense.
If memory serves me, there is a Barack Obama Boulevard right near WDW. Probably just checking to see if it is still there. Ugh.
But..but…but, if they over stay long enough, they can show their appreciation to this country for its hospitality by voting for Obama. Where’s ACORN?
/sarc
Happened to notice Andrew “The Conservative” Sullivan’s “Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb” covered on Hannity and according to Leslie Neilsen, it must have been a brilliant approach as “all the Conservative Bloggers will be talking about it!”
Great work Leslie. By that standard the more factually challenged an article or position, the greater the buzz/site hits! Um… isn’t that the brand of thinking that brought us Obatopia?
I have some experience with this.
My wife is a Brasileira. Before we were married, she applied for a tourist visa to visit for my daughter’s wedding. She was denied the visa by consular officials in Rio. She had to pay over US$140 in cash and travel to Rio with documents and proof of her income. She also had to stay in a hotel because she had an early appointment at the consulate.
She was a schoolteacher that only made about $600 per month – that was the stated reason for her visa denial (she had just spent half of a month’s pay to find out that she couldn’t visit). I contacted the consulate and offered to post a bond guaranteeing her return, but they aren’t allowed to do that. BTW, there is no appeal of a consular official’s decision. Thousands of people a month are denied tourist visas from the Rio consulate – all of them are out over $140 in consular fees and their travel expenses – even if their visas are denied.
In short, the tourist visa process from Brasil is abusive and produces a lot of ill will. The fees generated by visa applications are used for consular expenses – the law states that they are required to be self-sufficient (I’ll bet that Rio makes a profit)
Because of this, Brazil also makes sure that I have to pay over $140 in fees and apply for a visa before I’m allowed to visit the home we own in Brazil – at least I’m not treated as badly by the Brasilian consulate as the US consulate treats Brasilians that want to come here and spend their money.
The present visa process abuses those that apply and treats them badly. It does need to be changed.
Prendad, regarding Obama’s ineffectiveness in problem solving for our country: Note he and his administration have used up most of their time and our money manufacturing problems to be solved. It is a common strategy employed by people who are promoted beyond their ability and aptitude for a job. Make a lot of noise, write a lot of memos, create a lot of dissension and discord so that you always look busy and important. Fools a lot of the people some of the time, but when a real crisis hits, the stalling and excuses are all worn out, grandiose rhetoric and hiding are all that’s left.
Sad so many folks failed to recognize this in his character before 2008.
underdog: That’s not just Brazil. It’s common for many countries.
It’s not just a matter of coming here and spending their money. A lot would come here and just decide to stay.
The same thing happens with Jamaicans.
Paratus:
My wife paid a half-month’s salary so our consular officials could call her a liar and a potential illegal alien. She missed my daughter’s wedding and to this day harbors a desire to slow roast a certain consular official’s private parts in our churrasqueira.
I understand that some people overstay their visas. There’s an easy non-government solution for that problem. Post an immigration bond (purchased from some no-neck bail bondsman type) and let some private party be responsible if they don’t show up for their return flight.
I had to Google ‘churrasqueira’ to to verify it was what I thought it was.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma we say Hasty-Bake.
BTW, I like the screen name you have chosen.
disneyland in anaheim requires the employees to learn english.
In the words of some world-famous mega-journalist…
Boo-freakin’-hoo.
If I travel to Florida, it won’t be to spend thousands of dollars on hotels, meals and a theme park. So, as an American who can’t afford to visit an American theme park in my own country, a piece of Americana, I have negative sympathy for rich Brazilians who have to travel hundreds of miles to get permission to come into the greatest nation on Earth.
The cause of the loss of the Costa Concordia…
Is Rearden Metal good?
Maybe this will make it easier…
Buy Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 on DVD
Lamest excuse ever to take another taxpayer financed vacation/campaign tour.
Point of order: The visas that were issued to the terrorists should not have been issued according to the laws in effect at that time. It was a failure of the bureaucracy, not the relaxed requirements legislation. From
According to expert analyses of the visa-application forms of 15 of the 9/11 terrorists (the other four applications could not be obtained), all the applicants among the 15 reviewed should have been denied visas under then-existing law. Six separate experts who analyzed the simple, two-page forms came to the same conclusion: All of the visa applications they reviewed should have been denied on their face.
It’s just as ridiculous to believe that a big government will protect us as it is to believe that a big government will feed us, pay us, and keep us warm.
Well, I mucked my quote tags up and accidently hit Submit instead of Preview. Sorry ’bout that.
Yeah, it’s 1.5 miles long now and when complete it will be 9 miles long and run from NW Orlando (Apopka) to W Orlando. Right now it runs between some apartment complexes near an industrial park.
BTW, our Florida Turnpike is named the Ronald Reagan Turnpike. It was named for Reagan in 1998 and runs 312 miles down the state from I-75 in Wildwood to US 1 in Florida City. And President Reagan never even lived here. Tells you something, eh?
Can you image the lines and security checks anyone who wanted to go to Disney World on this day is going to have to go through? This shows again how Obama does not care about the everyday person when they get in the way of where he wants to have a speech or when he wants to play golf.
http://melissablogs.com/2011/12/26/president-selfish-obama-spends-christmas-golfing-marines-cant-be-home-with-family/
“Soros’s Apprentice” making a mess of things again.
A few more Federal brooms and buckets should do it.
OK, I missed something here…
RUSSIAN OFFICIAL: “OBAMA IS A COMMUNIST KGB AGENT”
Sounds very credible to me given all the scuttlebutt about his numerous aliases, missing birth certificate, social security numbers and hidden travel and educational records. This guy may be a real manchurian candidate.
Rumor has it that Obozo will be singing a variation of a Disney song to help get his point across. TOTUS is being loaded up for a kareoke number. Here is the sneak preview of Obozo’s song:
When you wish upon a star
ICE doesn’t care who you are
History with al-Qaeda?
We simply don’t care
Your visa will be approved
Even after you have moved
Just go to the Dem website
To donate your fare
Fate is kind
She brought leftists power
The sweet fulfillment of
is our finest hour
Edicts from states we call blue
Liberals will see it through
Destroying America
We are almost through
Ahhh…the classics….
On January 17th, 2012 at 1:25 pm, happyscrapper said:
Portugese.
(If they work in Florida, odds are they already speak Spanish.)
So, The One has an idea to solve the downturn in the tourism industry. Don’t take steps to decrease the financial burdens on domestic business and industry. Rather, make it easier for foreigners to come into the country spend their money.
Didn’t Castro come up with that idea about forty years ago?
Having just lost the election for President, what do you plan to do next?
Obama: “I’m going to Disney World!”
Disney World is a socialist paradise. Yes, you have to wait in line to do anything, even to go to the bathroom. But everyone from pirates to princesses and from dwarfs to witches gets along. And every whim is catered to – until the money runs out. Then the fairy tale ends.
Don’t forget all the little kids who had only that day to go to Disneyland…now they will never meet Mickey
That was my first thought when I heard this! Obdumbo doesn’t care. When will his lemmings get that??
We took our (then) five year old grandson to Disney World. He was SO excited!! And we had a blast. If he had been prevented from going because of some political idiot? He would have been CRUSHED. And we would have spent a LOT of money for a very sad grandson. Obama is so wrapped up in his re-election, he is forgetting who is voting. He is going to be very unpleasantly surprised when We The People speak up loud and clear and throw his arse out of Our House.
We need a large group of people to gather at the gates of DisneyWorld today with their crying children and scream about Obama ruining their vacation!!
You should have seen them when WDW first had “Gay Days”…all those families came to Disney World and, boy, did THEY see some sights.
Yawn. So now we don’t like legal immigrants either? Shocking. Just because they are legal immigrants, doesn’t automatically make them jihadists in training. I guess conservatives cherry pick when they want “limited government” based on personal whim.
…as MSD continues his shining quest to out-dense ILMC…
I think MSD and ILMC are related due to their cousins marrying each other.
Actually, I think this visit to Disneyland is made-up campaign spin in a high profile place. Since when does this psuedo-pResident care about tourism…since never. This is about his reelection, nothing more. I saw the pics and looked at the poor saps listening to him and I thought of “Night of the Living Dead.”