Just Watch the Right Distort Obama’s Guantanamo/al-Qaeda Remarks

Warning – This is long (for me), meandering, and quite possibly incoherent. Please do not mistake this for an official White House briefing or proposed legislation.

It is amazing to me, although I thought I was finished being shocked by the left.  I Googled the phrase “Obama’s Guantanamo/al-Qaeda remarks” and it took me 10 minutes to find the actual remarks.  I had to search Whitehouse.gov to find the text of the speech.  All that came up on Google (at least the first 2 pages – which is all my attention span will allow me to look through) was the same silly blog being reposted all over the place.  The blog was “Just Watch the Right Distort Obama’s Guantanamo/al-Qaeda Remarks”.  They claim the President was saying Guantanamo was a propaganda and recruiting tool, and that the right has begun to twist his words.  The same way the head of Homeland Security had her words twisted by being quoted?  Maybe the same way Supreme Court nominees have their words twisted, by repeating them in their entirety with contextual explanation?   Now I’ll grant them that President Obama said:

“For over seven years, we have detained hundreds of people at Guantanamo…. There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world.  Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law.  …. Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause.  Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.”

The problem is he said that in May, 2009.  What he said in January of 2010 was:

“But make no mistake:  We will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al Qaeda.  In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  And, as I’ve always said, we will do so — we will close the prison in a manner that keeps the American people safe and secure.”

Now the phrase “explicit rationale for the formation of al Qaeda” seems to my untrained ears to mean the reason they are there.  If he wanted to say Guantanamo helped them recruit or helped raise sympathy in the Islamic world, I think he would have said it like that.  You know, the way he did in May.  Both speeches do a lot to tell you his mind set in dealing with this threat.  Following the “explicit rationale” comments, he went into detail on how he will address security.  The President warns us that al Qaeda is “constantly evolving and adapting their efforts to strike us”.  The White House site also says what I hope is a typo: “As they refine our tactics, we’ll enhance our defenses”.  People tell me I am overly critical of the President on this issue, so here I am going to rush to his side.  He did not mean that al Qaeda is refining our tactics! They are not wondering into the White House, uninvited, and offering their opinions.  I mean, no one gets in there like that!  The President promises us “smarter screening and security at airports, and investing in the technologies that might have detected the kind of explosives used on Christmas”.  Well, I am willing to help my country.  I have an old laptop that is kind of slow, a little buggy, and needs an external keyboard attached to it, but it can run e-mail, a web browser, and word.  I will happily provide this 21^st Century anti-terror technology to the TSA so they can see if someone on multiple watch lists, buying a one way ticket in cash the day of the flight without a valid passport should be searched as thoroughly as I was the 3^rd time I flew round trip from Philly to Colorado Springs in the same month.

In May, he really laid down the gauntlet.  In that speech he stated “We are indeed at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates”.  Hoo-rah! (Can’t you just hear R. Lee screaming that out maggot?) He followed it up with the caution on how to prosecute this war.  “But we must do so with an abiding confidence in the rule of law and due process; in checks and balances and accountability.”  Hoo-hah!

I don’t recall FDR demanding lawyers and checks and balances to combat the Nazi threat.  I do not recall a stirring speech to Congress promising to bring Admiral Yamamoto to justice.  I have spoken to many WWII vets, none of whom have ever issued a Miranda warning on the battlefield. But wait, he leans on some quasi historical precedent.  “…the decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable — a framework that failed to rely on our legal traditions and time-tested institutions…” .  Can anyone tell me what war the US waged with a reliance on “our legal traditions and time-tested institutions”?  The American Revoloution? No.  Civil War? Hmmmm, nope.  Either World War?  Don’t think so.  Wait!  I have it.  The closest we came was in Vietnam.  That’s the model we want to follow, right?

Well, if that didn’t strike fear in the hearts of our enemies, they did it today.  They revoked the Visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man who tried to blow up 300 people on Christmas day.  12 days later, they revoked his visa.  The Administration is sending a STRONG Clear statement!  If you are a failed terrorist, we don’t want you here!  And Gitmo, which of course is the main reason that al-Qaeda flourishes on the Arabian Peninsula, will ABSOLUTELY be closed!  Sometime.  Soon.  Probably. We think, just don’t send them to Yemen.  Or to Illinois because we can’t afford to buy lights and a new fence at the vacant state prison – fiscal responsibility is part of the new change in Washington remember!

Now there are some who will point to the cooperation of the Yemen government as evidence that Obama is gaining support around the world.  It might seem like the approach to this as a legal issue and closure of Gitmo has garnered support in the Middle East.  However, let’s take a deeper look.  Since 2001, US military, not prosecutors, have driven the Taliban into the mountains.  They have ripped Saddam from power and wrought havoc on the terror organizations that attempted to move into Iraq.  The war was pushed away from our shores and towards the heart of Islamofascism.  But why the sudden support of Yemen?  There has also been support of the Saudis, who have launched air strikes against al-Qaeda on the Saudi/Yemeni border.  In August of 2009, for the first time in decades, there was an attempted assassination of a member of the Saudi Royal Family.  Al-Qaeda sent a suicide bomber tried to kill Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, assistant interior minister for security affairs, in his palace in Jeddah.  Somehow I think this is far more likely to cause Saudi and Yemeni cooperation than a guarantee that someday Gitmo will close and the threat to deport every failed terrorist.

BTW – if anyone is still reading this, I feel sorry for you but wanted you to know one more thing.  The reason I gave it the title I did was to hopefully get it in the mix of those other brain dead blogs that made me go on this rant.  Have a nice day and go J-E-T-S-Jets Jets JETS!!!!

Request For Info

Ok, I found a small bit of information about what is called NLE 09, a FEMA mock exercise and anti-terrorist practice.( Hat tip to AXxiom for Liberty, and Red Dirt Report, with another from PrisonPlanet) You can follow this link and read the actual FEMA press release.

Does anyone out there have connections to someone actually participating? Is this for real? In the context of the last seven months, I can only wonder just exactly what it is that FEMA is preparing for? Could it be Janet Napolitano’s ‘ Right wing crazies? Are they practicing for all the pro life protesters ?

Let me know what you find, what you think.

I’ll follow up with what I can find also.

Keep the Faith

The Rev

If these were “civilians”

Here is the whole article. 

 Here is the excerpt: 

“A statewide SWAT team exercise at a firing range on the secured grounds of a nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland was halted this month after stray bullets shattered glass and struck a command center near the plant’s reactors, officials said yesterday.

Reactor safety at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby was never compromised, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Constellation Energy Group, which operates the facility. But Constellation closed the range, a popular training site for local law enforcement agencies, pending investigations by plant security and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, which hosted the exercise.

 

At least five bullets escaped the firing range and traveled more than a half-mile before striking buildings and a vehicle near the reactors, according to the NRC, Constellation and the sheriff’s office.”

 

My thoughts:

 “Reactor safety at the Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby was never compromised”

The real reason to be upset (to me) is the employees, there, were in serious danger. Shooting without P R O P E R backstop is ridiculous. The folks in the line of fire are what concern me. I mean it hit a car? What if a fellow was having lunch or just parking? Hit Windows too, what about employees at the windows? If they have P R O P E R backstops then why are we getting stray volleys? Uncontrolled bursts from either inept or irresponsible shooters?

Someone’s rump should be in a sling for this one. Bet nothing happens though. Had this been a private range (what I mean is individual owned) and “civilians”, we’d have heard calls for gun control, range closure, lawsuits, “only professionals should have firearms”, and the Brady crew would have been on scene with picket signs and body bagged adults doing die-ins.

Speaking of which… You know I gotta say it.

“I am the only one professional enough to…” (watch the linked video to that, if you haven’t seen it, it’s a classic)

Guns, Mexico and the DHS report

Again and again we hear the representatives of our government, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the President apologizing to Mexico for causing the problems south of the border. It is ‘our fault’ with our boundless appetites for drugs, and of course for providing “90% of all weapons” used by the narco-terrorists in Mexico. If only we could stop our be-knighted citizens from wanting these death dealing weapons,  they would not be available at ‘gun shops along the border’ and the drug lords would be disarmed. See, it’s not the fault of the weak and corrupt Mexican government, nor of the hundreds of Mexicans who desert their posts in the army and join the well armed gangs. It’s the fault of the American Second Amendment and those of us who still cling bitterly to our guns and bibles.

This week, in a short visit to Mexico, President Obama found one more foreign stop to denigrate America, and to grovel to a foreign leader to beg forgiveness for America’s transgressions. 

From the NY Times:

The Obama administration had already pledged to send more agents to patrol the border with Mexico and more helicopters to Mexico. But on Thursday the president went a step further, announcing that he would press the Senate to ratify the long-stalled inter-American arms treaty, which the United States had a major hand in negotiating through the Organization of American States.

The Mexican President discussed the problem, claiming the US as the source of all his country’s trouble:

But while the two pledged their “shared responsibility” in the drug wars during a news conference here, they seemed to diverge on the issue of the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. Mr. Calderón said nearly 90 percent of the weapons seized in Mexico could be traced to the United States, adding that organized crime increased after the ban expired.

Now, in recent weeks, Pres Obama has repeated over and over to US media that he will not seek a reintroduction of the assault ban. However in reply to President Calderon:

Mr. Obama campaigned on a platform of renewing it, but he suggested Thursday that reviving the ban was politically impossible because of opposition from gun enthusiasts. “None of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy,” Mr. Obama said, while insisting he was “not backing off at all” from his conviction that renewing the ban made sense.

(italics mine)

So, with the government of Mexico in a state of collapse, much of the country controlled by drug gangs, armed with weapons, equipment and even the soldiers of the Mexican Army, the president of the United States goes to Mexico and says it’s all the fault of American Citizens. Curious isn’t it?

Meanwhile Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary released a report advising US law enforcement to be on the lookout for American citizens who think taxes are too high, abortion is wrong, visit gun ranges or have just left the military. They are the real danger, according to the report.

Despite criticism from both outside and inside government, Ms. Napolitano has stood firmly behind her report, stating that she remembers Timothy McVeigh, and so the report is justified. I guess she forgets the Saudi Islamoterrorists from 9/11 as her memory skips back to 1994. One deranged American is a source of law enforcement attention, but an entire ideology bent on our destruction is now to be called ‘Man caused destruction’ instead of Terrorism.

Take a step back, and look at all of this. Obama has consistently been a ‘blame America First’ politician. When pressed he has moderated his rhetoric, but never deviated from his path.  He has joined with his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to condemn us intelligence and military interrogators as torturers, even while saying they should not be prosecuted. The left wing of the Democrat party has always been about self perpetuation and maintaining power.  While the focus of attention is on external threats, Americans tend to draw together to unite to oppose a common enemy. Such was the case in the aftermath of 9/11. However as soon as some distance  made it possible, the left began to push for a return to a pre 9/11 mentality.

That focus is now inward. As President Obama and his international representatives scurry around the globe, condemning not those who have commited such acts, but America for somehow causing others to WANT to do so, they create a certainty that America is no longer prepared to stop our adversaries. As they blame the US, they must then, logically take steps to prevent a repeat. So,we skip over 9/11, and focus on McVeigh, and such events as Columbine high school, the attention of the bovine media will shift. Instead of being forced to call Americans ‘Heroes’ as they fight and die to save  us, they will be able once more find fault with Americans.

Law enforcement can be twisted, as Homeland Security now controlled by ‘open borders’ advocates will focus on creating domestic demons to fight. More and more we will see criminals conjured from the ranks of the law abiding. Those who maintain that the Constitution is the Law of the Land will be ridiculed and attacked. Free speech will be redefined as hate speech. We are seeing the opening salvo of a fundamental attack. The fact that even in the face of outright criticism Ms. Napolitano has stood firm shows that this is not a mistaken policy paper. They are moving. Concerned patriotic Americans need to stand firm, and speak out against this.

Keep the Faith!

The Rev

******UPDATE***********

Over at the Conservative Examiner, they must be reading similar tea leaves.

Check out his most recent post: HERE

Have We ‘Tipped’?

I will admit that I am late to this, and facts and events passed me on quite a bit of this. Last month, the State of Missouri released the ” MIAC Report” ( Missouri Information Analysis Center) The most sensational part was a classification of those to be considered potential criminals. Included in this  category are supporters of Ron Paul, Libertarians, supporters of Chuck Baldwin, and others:

The report’s most controversial passage states that militia “most commonly associate with third-party political groups” and support presidential candidates such as Ron Paul, former Constitutional Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate last year.

as described by JD Tuccile, in the Columbia Examiner, TSA security appear to have acted on this information. A political activist was detained in St Louis, carrying cash proceeds from a Campaign For Liberty event.  He was detained and questioned by apparently over zealous TSA security, who were angered by his calm refusal to answer questions from them without advising him of his legal rights.  As you listen to this, keep in mind, this gentleman knew that in his baggage were pamphlets and stickers supporting the Campaign for Liberty. Knowing the MIAC had indicated this as an organization which could be suspected of generating ‘militias’ he rightly refused to provide information without proper cause. Judge Andrew Napolitano had appeared there, had the story of the detention and questioning on his program

We must be cognizant of the vast interlocking network of law enforcement agencies and their tendency to react in a protective manner without consideration for constitutional restrictions.  We must acknowledge that we are indeed living in perilous times, but we are bound to prevent the destruction of the Constitution in order to ‘save the country’. Surely there is a better way to cure someone of an infection short of killing them. Shredding the Constitution to save the nation produces the same result.

Another site, AxXiom for Liberty has covered this extensively.  While the State of Missouri appears to have backed away from this, we need to continue to be watchful. This one was caught because even some law enforcement people decided this was too much to keep quiet.  The tone of our current administration and the climate in the nation now say this will probably return, but more carefully cloaked. The liberals have loved for years to speak of the ‘chilling of free speech’ any time a pornographic magazine was called trash.  This, my friends, is the real chilling of speech.  We must stay alert, and we must be prepared to respond again and again to prevent this from taking root. We speak of tipping points, those moments in history when events reach a critical juncture. Once past these spots and events begin to take an inevitable direction, toward a destination from which they cannot be deflected.  The MIAC, no matter that it has been ‘retracted’ combined with such events as this detention, provide evidence that we may in fact be near a tipping point in our history.

Keep the Faith.

The Rev

Good Bye to W

At the end of High Noon, Gary Cooper’s character, Will Kane has just completed his sworn duty, and Frank Miller and his gang lie dead after a gun blazing shoot out in town. Kane puts his wife into his wagon, and takes his sheriff badge, looks at it and tosses it into the dirt. He climbs onto the wagon,and rides out of the town. You can see this film off and on on any of several cable channels. Some of the parallels are striking. A dangerous criminal, one everyone thought was gone for good is returning, sworn to avenge himself against the town that punished him. The sheriff asks for help, and at first many say they will. Others are skeptical, eventually not only refusing to help, but blaming Kane for the problems.  They mock him and tell him he’s stupid to even think of doing this. If he would just go away, they say, Miller and his gang would ignore the town, and everyone would be safe. Kane saw the danger, and with the small help he could muster takes on and defeats the Miller gang. There are many similarities to the last eight years, and certainly many glaring differences.

Mr. Bush chose the difficult path of law and order, deciding to stop the ‘bad guys’  rather than surrender to chaos. He accepted the derision and contempt of the towns residents, and fought the battle despite others unwillingness to help.  President Bush similarly made a choice, and saw it through. Despite setbacks, resistance and outright hatred by erstwhile allies, Baghdad is now closer to freedom than any other middle east country, with the exception of Israel. Afghanistan, while still in peril, is not gripped by the fanatics of the Taliban. Al Qaida, while still present, is a shadow of it’s former malevolent shadow government.

The signal achievement of the Bush years has been security. We have NOT been attacked since then, and have rolled back some of the danger. Certainly not all is clear. We are safer, but we are not safe.

All that aside, G.W. Bush’s presidency has seen an unprecedented expansion of the government, and greater and more powerful intrusion than just about anyone since FDR.  His response to an economic downturn would make a New Dealer blush. His classic and underreported quote: ‘I abandoned free market principles to save the free market” displays his disatrous reliance on Big Government instead of liberty. GW’s early cries of ” I’m a compassionate Conservative” should have been a signal.  That term has proven to mean a government believer who uses HIS philosophy instead of a humanist philosophy. Any justification to expand the reach and scope of government is a wrong headed one. Under his stewardship our deficits have grown, our debt has exploded, and rather than look to trust the people, he has given more and more power to commissions, cabinet departments and federal agencies.

Mr. Bush has justified much of his security policies,[rightly so] on the foundation of preventing another major attack. Unfortunately, he has sought to make these permanant. Such powers should be fleeting, used only during emergencies. Mr. Bush has shown good intent, and sound judgement. We cannot be certain his replacements in the Oval Office will have the same character.

Internationally, while he started well, rejecting the Kyoto Protocols, GWB continued to embrace an internationalist, globalist policy that will only continue to degrade American independance.

On the whole I think George W. Bush is a good and decent man. He took office during a time of great turmoil, and faced strains and attacks from foreign enemies, and domestic idiots. He fared well, but failed  in many ways. In a sense, George W. Bush is the quintessential American Tragic Hero. He succeded greatly and failed greatly at the same time

Mr. Bush has earned a well deserved retirement.

With all that in mind, I salute him

GW, Thank you for keeping us safer. Thank you for the good you did. thank you for enduring the assaults from the lunatic left without losing your sense of dignity and your decency.

Now go home.

Good Riddance!

 

As Always,

Keep the Faith

The Rev.

Storm’s coming

Deacon Kharma says:

So here I sit, contemplating this country and its direction these days. It’s a country that seems less and less the way the founders planned it. I see a storm that’s coming; will it destroy all that we’ve worked for? Possibly, it could. The country was built to weather storms but it has been weakened by poor stewardship. Most would say “look, we have it better than anyone else”. Yeah we have it better than any other country out there, as far as freedoms. Just because we use other countries as a litmus test, is that a true assessment? Shouldn’t we be comparing our rights to those we had, rather than those remaining rights of other countries farther along the primrose path to all the different “isms”, fascism, socialism, communism, and Marxism? There is an ominous cloud here in the United States that has been brewing for some time since, in my opinion Lincoln. Much like a storm cloud, it starts off small in the distance and grows until you have to turn in the completely opposite direction to avoid seeing it. Here I sit writing about the one that is hanging over our country also half covering the sky. We have kept ignoring that cloud but it is so big now you almost can’t ignore it. I find myself contemplating how we will turn to avoid seeing it. It’s getting harder because it’s almost, if not already, overhead.

I contemplate recent words that have been played over and over from the wife of our current Democratic Party candidate. She hasn’t been proud of her country in her adult life. On the surface, I immediately recoil from that statement but in retrospect, how far off is she? Of course what she meant was not relevant to my thought process. She means to refer to ridiculous accusations and assumptions of race and her skewed judgment of fairness and our lack of sufficient socialism. Wait though, is her basic statement of lack of pride in our country valid? Unfortunately, as much as I hate to agree with her, yes. The core statement is valid. We have drifted, no, violently swung toward socialistic and fascist viewpoints.

Starting with borderline unconstitutional removal of States’ rights of secession, to the worst offender in my opinion, FDR. We have given our rights away with thunderous applause, all to gain some little glimmer of security. Either the illusion of financial security to physical security, we have signed it away with glee. FDR and his government administrators gave us the illustrious Social Security System that is in perpetual distress and various throes of death. It is still kept on the life support of increasing funding from those who have been taxed without representation: us and our children! Further, he illegally confiscated gold and based the dollar on nothing, thus violating the Constitution. They also unjustly altered legal contracts that mentioned alternate payment in legal tender of gold. Such alteration of legal contracts is expressly forbidden in the same Constitution. Even the internment of Japanese citizens of the United States in “camps” happened under this much vaunted president, violating the Fifth Amendment. In my opinion the beginning of the end was under this criminal.

We have presidents using federal dollars to blackmail States into giving up their rights and those of their citizenry, like under Reagan, and a democratic congress, who elevated the drinking age to twenty one years old. No federal dollars for your state unless you deny adults their adult choices. Well, at least some of them. You can still vote and join the military! Whew, what a terrible thing that would have been to follow your own logic on adulthood and decisions by elevating voting and military decisions! Great communicator my rump! More like the great obfuscator and his complicit pals Congress.

We have removed rights to redress for grievances and even have found citizenry hit with “SLAPP” (Strategic Lawsuit Against Private Participation) lawsuits when they sue for grievances. What about those who are ruined financially or had reputations ruined in legal battles for non-crimes just to have the government prove a point. The government can out spend anyone legally. Funny thing is if you look at it, is that our tax payer dollars are funding the government to sue us into submission. I think that Thomas Jefferson addressed this when he said “To compel a man to furnish money or goods to propagate that which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical”. We have Congress conducting hearings (court) on things that have no bearing on legislation. Barry Bonds, in congress and charged with perjury on something that is a local legal law enforcement matter (See much earlier post on Bonds on the Church Site)? All because they say he lied about something that wasn’t in their purview to judge? Wow!

Shall I continue further into this and not only look into the growing cloud that is here but step into it? Let us consider the wisdom of some of the decisions on “Eminent Domain” made by the Supreme Court, I.E. Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469. It looks like another great pearl of wisdom from the great defender of the Constitution. I thought you could take my property for “public use” with just compensation. Well now you can take my land and redistribute it for private use to generate a little more revenue for government use? Yeah, that’s what the Founding Fathers meant. (See also Berman v Parker (1954) “urban Blight” Public use is not Public purpose. Hawaii v Midkiff (1984), Penn Central Transport Co v New York (1978, )Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council,Inc v Tahoe Regional Planning Agency ( 2002))

We have free speech zones now enjoyed by both President Clinton and George W. Bush. Zones where you may exercise a right? Wow how gracious of the fatherland. So now freedom of speech is protected for offensive “art” and offensive musical lyrics but what the founders originally meant it for, we can only do where we are told to? The right to peaceably assemble, means only here and there? OR perhaps the latest push for federal ID? Super! Papiere gefallen?! We also have free speech lessened by to whom and when we can give to a campaign. (see Mcconnell v Federal Election Commission (2003) I.E. Mccain-Feingold) Not that I’m a fan of how much money is thrown at elections that could be used for more urgent needs, but it is a right.

Shall I continue on to the abuse and outright ridiculous application of the Interstate Commerce clause? Perhaps how it has been used as a bypass around the second amendment and allows a non-elected-unaccountable-to-the-people entity to abuse the citizens that dare take the second amendment at face value? Or perhaps it’s application of the second amendment in the Miller case without the defendants present or represented? Or even the other portion of the Second Amendment with regards to militia, being trashed. Now if you want to have a gun you cannot be a member of a militia, which was the other half of keeping and bearing arms in defense of or nation. So half of the Second Amendment is cut out?

Perhaps it is even foreign entanglements and alliances that were warned about by the founding fathers and our UN membership? What wonderful things have we seen come from this? We have seen our taxpayer dollars go to embezzlement, backdoor deals to countries we have embargoes against, and hosting those who hate us and allowing them on our soil. Speaking of allowing on our soil, what about the storage of dangerous phosgene without our consent or knowledge?

What about the recent disastrous use of public safety as a ruse to erode rights? From no knock raids and resultant deaths of innocents when the wrong house is attacked, to the shameless use of law enforcement as alternative revenue generation for the government. Instead of citizens who volunteer to arbitrate and help keep the peace we have professional ticket writers and professional thugs who are less concerned with the Constitution and more about that next ticket or that adrenalin rush as they kick in that door to grandma’s house.

On that public safety point, we find ridiculous things like seatbelt violations which should be a personal choice made by an adult, but instead is a revenue item? Let me get to that item here too. Instead of a competent adult’s personal decision on his own body and property and life, an impersonal lawmaker’s decision is substituted. Perhaps we’d like them to decide what foods we eat too? Or since those terrible tobacco and alcohol products are health hazards, we should get those folks and tax them too? We have lawmakers who continually make more laws until we are all criminals at some point or another. We have too many ways to be taxed, fined or have to pay a fee for everything we do. I won’t dwell on this too much because real public safety such as border enforcement has run completely amok.

Our borders have been open to the foulest of criminals yet nothing is done. We get tickets and jail for the slightest infractions yet a significant portion of Mexico and South Americans are here breaking laws, murdering and enjoy sanctuary in cities such as San Francisco and New York. Our citizens are kidnapped in places like Laredo Texas and nothing is done. We have incursions of Mexican military escorting drug lords and caught on film wearing the very night vision equipment we gave the Mexican Government and we do nothing. Yet when we have people, even legitimate police and border agents of the U.S. defend themselves the Mexican Government demands and receives their prosecution.

My God, I could drone on and on but the hour is late and the storm is indeed overhead. I leave you with the corruption in politics and the favors that our congress receives for all they do for those with money. Or perhaps we could consider a president that was impeached for perjury about fornicating in the sacred office that our forefathers held dear. Or perhaps we could consider the current refusal and excuses about the ten years it would take to get oil prices down if we drilled now despite the fact it is exactly ten years since the last time we heard that. Maybe we could consider the bathroom Bing Crosby, Larry Craig, tap dancing his way into the bathroom hall of fame. Wait, even funnier is the story of William Jefferson and the FBI catching him “cold”, bribe money in the freezer. Another example of corruption is the recent Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and his undocumented gifts for votes that we have recently been made aware of. I might even have you remember the death and the subsequent attempts to hide that death of Mary Jo Kopechne. I would also invite you to remember Patrick Kennedy slamming into a police barricade after a night of hard drinking and blaming it on Ambien. Then he further refused to comply with the arresting officer stating he was a US congressman. Further, since he was on official congressional business, they couldn’t detain him.

We have a storm upon us and maybe we too should consider exactly what to do because we can ignore it no longer. The time is at hand and what will we do? The founding fathers lay their very lives property and sacred honor they held dear, at the altar of freedom and liberty. They suffered and died to build what we have in answer to the last storm. This time, I see an “everyman for themselves” mentality instead of a consideration of good for the people and the republic. I fear we’ll get what we can and let everyone else get their own God-damned goodies. Wonder what it’ll look like after this storm? Maybe it’ll resemble the looting in New Orleans, just maybe?

Reading Between the Lines- Hidden Cost of Illegal Immigration

This weekend, while returning from a high school prom, a high school student was involved in a collision. His car was hit by another, driven by a drunk. The drunk continued on to his home where he was later arrested. The young man is still hospitalized, seriously injured.

Now, this is, all alone a tragic occurrence, one which is unfortunately repeated many times around the country during this time of year. There is a twist to this however, which makes this many times more serious and much more of concern. Let’s examine the details of this particular incident.

The driver of the car, the drunk, who continued on after seriously injuring a young man from Bluffton HIgh School was eventually cited for the following offenses:

…”felony drunken-driving, leaving an accident with great bodily injury, driving without a license, operating an uninsured vehicle and disregarding a traffic signal. His bond had not been set as of Sunday evening.” according to the Island Packet

Ok, why the concern? Why should this be of more interest than any other similar collision. Well, also stated in the report is the following information about Mr. Juan Rodriguez. According to Lt. Bryan Norberg, of the Bluffton Police,”Norberg said he wasn’t sure of Rodriquez’ immigration status.” Well, I wonder why he is unaware. The current wave of political correctness makes it ‘uncomfortable’ for most departments to inquire about the immigration status of criminals. Once the status is determined, then there is the messy question of why this person is still in our country. Note that he has no license, and no other required documents. In the current parlance, it makes him an ‘undocumented driver’ doesn’t it? After all if someone is in the country illegally he is merely an ‘undocumented immigrant’. Let’s put away the pejorative words, the harsh judgementalism which puts those who have invaded our country into nasty ‘categories’ and makes them feel badly.

If our national authorities were properly doing their job, I am willing to wager we would see a great reduction on crime simply by stopping the criminals from entering in the first place. ‘What? you ask ” how do I know they’re criminals?” Well, let’s start at the beginning. In order to get here in the first place they have broken the law to get here!!!.

We probably will not see any follow up stories regarding the ‘uncertain immigration status’ of the driver who fled the scene. There’s no payoff. If the local paper reports that lo and behold, the gentleman in question is here illegally they will have to discuss the immigration issue in a circumstance that puts the ‘undocumented migrants’ in a bad light.

If there is a report that the individual is an ‘undocumented migrant’ then the authorities, from local police, to the state, to the Homeland Security will have to answer why they have permitted invaders to roam unfettered in our country. We have surrendered our borders, and we will continue to pay the price until someone, anyone decides to take steps to take it back. It seems to me that all the various things our Washington Government keeps trying to do such as stealing power, over regulating our lives, and invading our privacy, could be eliminated and replaced with a logical, secure border. The government is NOT doing what the constitution requires, yet it continues to make up non-constitutional things to tax us for and spend our money on. More and more, the obvious conclusion can not be avoided. It’s time to shake things up. It’s time to replace whoever is in power and start again. How, when? Once again, I’m not offering solutions, but at least, I’m not afraid to ask the questions!

As always,

Keep the Faith!

The Rev.