The Patriot Post Chronicle 5-26-2010

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 5-26-2010
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic." --Joseph Story

Editorial Exegesis
Palladium of liberties or source of Mexico's troubles?

"Felipe Calderon received liberal plaudits for falsely claiming Arizona's new immigration law uses racial profiling, but that wasn't the only baloney the Mexican president peddled during his state visit. Over four minutes of his Thursday address to Congress was spent lecturing Americans to renew the federal Assault Weapons Ban that sunset in September 2004. His justifications for the ban were all garbage. Mr. Calderon claimed that guns covered by the federal ban were particularly 'powerful weapons.' While the term 'assault weapons' may conjure up visions of military hardware, the inside guts of these feared guns are essentially the same as deer hunting rifles. The firing mechanisms in semiautomatics and machine guns are completely different. ... 'If you look carefully, you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006,' Mr. Calderon said. 'This coincides, at least, with the lifting of the [U.S.] assault weapons ban in 2004.' ... Mr. Calderon's claim that 80 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes come from the United States is completely false. Most weapons seized in Mexico have traceable serial numbers that show they come from countries other than the United States. The 80 percent number reflects how many guns sent to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing end up being from America. Most weapons seized in Mexico aren't transferred to U.S. authorities, so that figure is meaningless for calculating overall totals. It is offensive for Mr. Calderon to come here as our guest and make up facts to blame America for Mexico's many problems. But it was more frightening to witness Democratic House and Senate members jump up and give a standing ovation when the foreigner called for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. That's a warning all American gun owners should heed." --The Washington Times

Upright

"Memo to Republican National Committee: this is the branding opportunity of a lifetime. Mr. Calderon whacking decent Americans and being cheered by leftist Democrats is an election-year dream come true. What could be better than a thirty-second commercial showing the power center of a bankrupt political party taking the side of a shamelessly hypocritical foreigner over their fellow Americans? One could even envision a voice-over announcer asking the ultimate brand-reinforcing question: Are Democrats the political party you want representing American interests in Washington, D.C. after the November election?" --columnist Arnold Ahlert

"The fact is, Mexico has two big exports: Oil, and their second biggest export is poverty to the United States -- from which, in remittances sent back to Mexico, they get $21 billion a year. Mr. Calderon has a stake in illegal immigration to our country." --columnist George Will

"Washington keeps pushing the envelope on craven. For his part, President Obama is a virtuoso at talking out of both sides of his mouth on immigration. He calls the immigration system broken, then proposes to fix the system by paving a path to citizenship for those who broke the law. He has called SB1070 misguided in order to appeal to the lathered-up pro-illegal immigration corner. Then he appeals to 'misguided' voters by assuring them that he is gung-ho when it comes to enforcing the immigration laws." --columnist Debra Saunders

"When President Obama discussed the new Arizona immigration law with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the White House Wednesday, he was doing something he has never done with the governor of Arizona. Although Obama has repeatedly criticized the law, he has not once talked about it with Gov. Jan Brewer, nor is any such discussion in the works. ... The bottom line is that Obama, the Justice Department, and the entire executive branch are on Mexico's side in this dispute. On the other hand, the majority of the American people are with Arizona." --columnist Byron York

"Voters said: 'It's not the incumbents, stupid. It's how they voted. It's what they stand for.' No incumbent who voted against the Bush/Obama bank bailouts, the 'stimulus' package and ObamaCare lost his or her job. Voters hate the bank bailouts. They hate the government takeover of car companies. They do not believe that the $800 billion stimulus package stimulated anything but bigger government. They reject ObamaCare and think it's costly and likely to worsen health care. Incumbents who voted for these things now face the music." --columnist Larry Elder

Insight

"It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement." --French judge, writer, philosopher Estienne de la Boétie (1530-1563)

"Justice, like liberty and coercion, is a concept which, for the sake of clarity, ought to be confined to the deliberate treatment of men by other men." --economist Fredrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)

"A judicial activist is a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it." --former senator Sam Erving (1896-1985)

Dezinformatsia

Blame America: "Why do so many Mexicans risk their lives to pick our fruit and cut our lawns? They are fleeing a country where life is cheap and honest jobs are getting harder to find. And that, without question, is partly our fault. We have a right to enforce our own laws. Every country does. But we have an obligation not to arm the gangsters who are destroying the quality of life in Mexico, scaring away tourists (and in turn taking away decent jobs) and gunning down innocents -- all in the hopes of making money from our insatiable demand for illegal drugs. ... I understand that some folks, especially in Arizona, will take offense at the criticism of a foreign leader. But before we throw too many stones, we should take a look at just what we're doing to destroy their country and foster the very migration about which we legitimately complain." --Fox News commentator Susan Estrich

What goes around comes around? "President Bill Clinton went to the Great Hall of the People and when Jiang Zemin was President of China. I heard President Clinton say, 'what you did in Tiananmen Square was wrong.' He lectured. We all said, that's terrific because it was the ox being gored on the other side. President Calderon represents Mexico. And he said what a lot of Americans are also saying, that that Arizona law is discriminatory and it ought not to have been on the books." --ABC's Sam Donaldson ("That law is actually supported by a majority of Americans, according to polling. And I can't believe that you're actually comparing it to Tiananmen Square, right? I mean, you're not?" --ABC's Jake Tapper)

Watching the watchers: "We think the [New York] Times should investigate some of its investigative reporting." --MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan chastising the Times for its report that Connecticut Attorney General and Democrat Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal has been lying about his military record

Heaven forbid: "Textbooks must now include mention of the conservative resurgence of the '80s and '90s, the National Rifle Association, the Moral Majority, and include the idea that our Founding Fathers may not have intended a separation of church and state. Even some vocabulary would change. The world 'imperialism' would be replaced with 'expansionism' in describing America's land acquisitions. ... Critics say the board is whitewashing history." --NBC's Rehema Ellis on the "new" social studies curriculum guidelines passed by the Texas State Board of Education