Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
As previously reported here Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama both claimed ignorance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives programs called Project Gunrunner and Fast and Furious that walked guns across the Mexican border. Some of those guns were found at the scene of a shootout where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.
Democrats, who held an unofficial hearing on Thursday on the now-defunct operation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have focused on what they see as a lapse in American laws involving firearms purchases.
Let’s put this to a common sense test. The Mexican drug cartels are an enormous business, raking in billions upon billions of dollars. Their business is so lucrative that they can afford to ship drugs into a particular remote area by plane and because it may be too difficult to fly out of, just burn the plane. Imagine, having so much money that you can destroy a plane as a routine cost of doing business.
Mexico has two long coasts and besides the border with the U.S. has a southern border that is equally porous. So let’s recap, billions of dollars in money, countless routes over which to bring in guns, some cartels have what could be called their own fleet of planes. The Democrats want us to believe that these cartels send people into the United States to to buy guns at retail from the local gun dealer. These cartels would go into a gun shop in Nogales, Arizona to buy a semi-automatic AK-47, paying full retail price, instead of buying a case of fully automatic AK-47s from Yemen at wholesale. We’re supposed to believe that? Why would they do that?
The “Fast and Furious” program was designed to allow illegal purchases of guns from U.S. gun dealers and follow those guns as they are transported into Mexico to find the heads of the drug cartels. One problem was that no one in government on the Mexican side of the border was aware of the program and so the ability to keep track of the weapons was a myth. Some gun dealers reported the suspicious sales to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and said they were dangerous. The government told them to play along. A border patrol agent Brian Terry ended up dead with some of these guns found at the scene.
So what is the point of the sting? Here is an alternate theory. Create these sales to send guns to Mexico. After a while publicize the amount of guns that are involved. Blame the U.S. gun dealers for the problem. Pass more gun control laws to further infringe on the rights of American citizens.
Almost as if on cue, Elijah Cummings (D-MD) released a report calling for more gun control
The report is an attempt by Cummings and other Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to raise the issue of gun control in the investigation of “Operation Fast and Furious,” the ATF program that focused on following people who legally bought weapons that were then transferred to criminals and destined for Mexico.
Let’s see, we have a Democrat president who is strongly anti-gun (“cling to their religion and guns”) whose administration creates this program. When uncovered a group of Democrats launch into a campaign to pass more gun control laws. Coincidence? Ask the family of Agent Brian Terry.
That’s my opinion; I’d lilke to know yours. Please comment below.
Gabrielle Giffords’ shooter won’t be going to trial anytime soon. I have a question for Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ). In the wake of the Tucson shooting, what are you doing about getting mentally impaired people off the street, instead of rendering citizens defenseless?
Have we tired sufficiently of the ruling class on Mount Olympus, er, Capitol Hill? Instead of citizen legislators who go to Washington as a public service, they go to wrap themselves in power and dictate to the rest of us what is good for us, but that we are too dim to know better. Their key objective every two, four, or six years is to get reelected so that they don’t have to return to dwell among the unwashed mortals. Had enough?
You almost have to wonder, why in the world did he run for president? Was he swept up in the ego trip? Was he reading too much into his own press clippings? Did the historic opportunity of being the first real black president, sorry Bill Clinton, in U.S. history overwhelm a careful consideration of what the job entailed?
The corrupt main stream media, the unions, and President Barack Obama are fighting their Waterloo. The voters have had enough of bloated out of control government. The private sector struggles with unemployment and a stagnant economy, while the public sector grows and out earns them while they have to pay for it. The union thugs take to the streets, shut down schools, take students out of the classroom to protest with their union teachers, while Democrat lawmakers flee the state instead of doing their job. Is this Greece? No, it is Madison, Wisconsin.
I suppose we knew it wouldn’t take long before this turned into another “opportunity not to be wasted” to curtail our Second Amendment liberties further. On Slate.com William Saletan, wrote a piece called, “Friendly Firearms: Gabrielle Giffords and the Perils of Guns: How an Armed Hero Nearly Shot the Wrong Man.”
“Now, I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly.” – President Obama commenting on a police incident in Cambridge, Mass. involving Sgt. Crowley and Professor Gates
“We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions,” – President Obama speaking about Major Nidal Hasan after he killed 13 at Fort Hood.
“There is no credible evidence so far that this attack was more than at least one person, the driver,” said Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “After that there is no evidence that anyone else was involved. It may be, but we can’t say that it is.”…“If I had to guess, twenty five cents, this would be exactly that,” Bloomberg said. “Homegrown maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.” – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commenting on the Times Square bomber
“You know, at this point I have no information that it’s anything other than a one-off,” – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano commenting on the Times Square bomber
“The odds are quite high that this was a lone wolf.” – New York Senator Charles Schumer commenting on the Times Square bomber
“Rep. Andre Carson said he and Rep. John Lewis had racial slurs yelled at them as they left the Cannon House Office Building, with protesters chanting what he referred to as “the N-word” fifteen times.” – CBS News report on the Health Care Vote. Andrew Breitbart put up $100,000 to anyone who came forward with video or audio proof of Carson’s accusations. To date, no one has come forward.
Let the games begin. The Republicans now control the House of Representatives and have pledged to cut $100 billion from the budget in short order. About half a beat later came the howls from the transportation lobby that they can’t possibly mean highway and mass-transit projects. Why is this even a matter for debate?
Steven Slater tells off a plane load of Jet Blue customers, grabs a couple of beers, pulls the emergency chute and dramatically exits the plane, his job, and his career. He is soon hailed across the Internet as a hero. People walk away from home equity loans saying, “I’m not going to be a slave to the bank.” Challenge after challenge to any reference to God in the public square as part of an effort to drive faith underground. Our is government telling us that the only way we can survive is by a government handout. We cannot make it on our own. If you wonder why we are heading in the wrong direction as to 70% of your fellow Americans believe, perhaps we should give morality a closer look.
The story on Mr. Slater is unclear. He says one thing, witnesses say another. It will eventually get sorted out, but let’s assume for a moment that Mr. Slater is correct in that a passenger’s behavior set him off. In a more moral society, Mr. Slater could have done one of two things. One, he could have taken a deep breath, held his tongue and just written it off to that passenger having a bad day. He would have won the admiration of those who watched him behave with self-control and dignity. Or, two, he could have asked the pilot to inform the authorities to meet the plane on the ground because an unruly passenger defied the instructions of the flight crew. That passenger would have been arrested on the ground and would be facing federal charges. But instead Mr. Slater took the route of immediate gratification. He got on the intercom and told off the whole plane, grabbed a couple of beers from the beverage cart, triggered the emergency escape chute and then like a giddy child went down the slide and ran home. A moment’s thrill of control followed a world of grief. Was his moral compass broken or pointing in the wrong direction?
Shawn Schlegalis a real estate agent in Arizona. Since moving there in 2005 he bought several houses with each one financing the next. He is currently in default for $94,873 and is basically saying tough luck, I’m not paying. The lender got a court order garnishing his salary, but that was eighteen months ago and he hasn’t heard anything since. “The case is sitting stagnant,” he said. “Maybe it will just go away.” While I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for any bank that would approve this chain of financing, I don’t know if the lender was aware of what the home equity loan was for, but it is Mr. Schlegal’s attitude that disturbs me. He made the decision to do this and he feels it is not his fault. True he will be impacted if he tries to borrow again in the near future, but he doesn’t seem to care. This is reinforced by the commercials flooding the airwaves advising consumers how they can walk away from their credit card debt. How about selling the flat screen TVs and sports cars you purchased on the plastic, and pay it back? Meanwhile our government continues to use your taxes to help people who are over their head pay their mortgages. Why do you have to pay your mortgage and theirs? You were responsible, they were not. The very concept of such a program would have been baffling to the Founding Fathers.
Our current government reinforces the idea of Americans as imbeciles. The mortgage companies took advantage of you, they were predatory lenders, while it was government programs that told the predators to get busy. We have to have more home ownership, we have to help people achieve the American Dream, so Andrew Cuomo at HUD, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the good folks at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who made millions on pushing these products, all pushed these government programs on more people, encouraging them to buy houses they couldn’t afford and when the bubble burst they pointed the finger at everyone but themselves. They believe the American people are helpless idiots who cannot fend for themselves and if by some accident someone does succeed, it is the government’s responsibility to take as much of what they earned by the sweat of their brow and give it to the simpletons they claim to be responsible for. That is a racist, sexist, class warfare point of view that unless our Ivy League educated elites give us our daily instruction, we will shrivel up and die. It is anything but the American Dream.
We see efforts to ban the Pledge of Allegiance because it contains the phrase “under God”; to ban the display of the Ten Commandments in court houses; the ban of religious displays on publicly owned land; and to ban prayer in any form at school graduations, football games or other gatherings. While atheists, a small percentage of the population, do not believe in God, why is another person who believes in God so offensive to them that they can’t bear hearing it? But as faith is driven further and further from the public square, boorish behavior becomes more and more acceptable. There is something to be said about eternal damnation curbing one’s baser appetites than responding to the statement, “You want me to stop it? Make me.” There is something to be said for fulfilling one’s obligations because it is the right thing to do, but the right thing to do does not come from living in the here and now. That is self-gratification. Doing the right thing comes from a set of morals that say, “Character is what we do when no one is watching.” Those who believe in a God believe someone is always watching. Perhaps John Adams said it best:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
