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Showing posts with label Gun Control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gun Control. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2013

If Samantha Power Is Confirmed As Ambassador To The UN, Prepare For The Loss Of US Sovereignty

Samantha Power would be one of the most dangerous nominees as Ambassador of the United Nations.  That is, if you are concerned about the United States Constitution and it sovereignty. 

You have to know by now, the Obama administration is trying to complete his 'fundamental transformation' of our country.  He has a history of surrounding himself with the MOST radical anti-American's to assist him in the facilitation of the destruction of our founding documents and sovereignty.
Samantha Powers controversial comments | Samantha Power UN Ambassador confirmation hearing
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 05: U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd L), former aide Samantha Power (R), U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (2nd R) and incumbent National Security Adviser Tom Donilon (L) return to the Oval Office after a personnel announcement at the Rose Garden of the White House June 5, 2013 in Washington, DC. President Obama has nominated Rice to succeed Donilon to become the next National Security Adviser. Obama has also nominated Power to succeed Rice for her position to UN. Credit: Getty Images

UN Ambassador Nominee Samantha Power Wants Sovereignty Redistribution


At a Rose Garden ceremony on Wednesday, June 5, President Obama announced his nomination of Samantha Power (shown) to replace Susan Rice as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. At the same event, the president tapped Rice to be his new national security advisor.

Within hours of the announcement, opposition to Power’s nomination began to surface.
Constitutionally consistent Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released the following statement on his Senate website:

The nomination of Samantha Power is deeply troubling. No nation has spilled more blood or sacrificed more for the freedom of others than ours, and yet Ms. Power has publicly embraced the need for America to continue apologizing to the world for perceived transgressions, going so far as to explicitly urge "instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa." She is yet another Obama nominee who has been sharply critical of our nation's strong support of Israel. She's an aggressive interventionist, supporting sending our men and women into harm's way for "humanitarian" causes. And she has strongly supported the expansion of international institutions and international law — including the International Criminal Court, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Kyoto Protocol — at the expense of U.S. sovereignty. Indeed, Ms. Power has publicly stated, "We have to believe in international law and binding ourselves to international standards in the interest of getting others bound to those standards." America needs a UN Ambassador to be an advocate for our own interests at the UN — not an advocate of elevating UN interests over U.S. sovereignty and the rights of the American people.

While Cruz makes several good points in his criticism of Power’s unconstitutional policy positions, the senator misses the mark with regard to the need for an advocate for the United States at the United Nations.

As The New American and The John Birch Society have chronicled for decades, the only way to protect U.S. sovereignty from the globalist government-in-waiting and to advance America’s best interests is to get the U.S. out of the UN and the UN out of the U.S.

Given Power’s professed preference for using the U.S. military as the UN’s armed force in global conflicts, it is little wonder that the Senate’s chief warmonger, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), has come out in support of her nomination. McCain wrote, “I support President Obama’s nomination of Samantha Power to become the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. I believe she is well-qualified for this important position and hope the Senate will move forward on her nomination as soon as possible.”

Some critics see things a little differently. Many members of the Jewish community point to comments made by Power in 2002 as evidence of a desire to use military force to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The story as told by Fox News:

Critics point to a 2002 interview where Power seemed to suggest the possibility of military intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.  

During the interview with Harry Kreisler, host of Conversations with History, a program produced by the University of California Berkeley Institute of International Studies, Power said America needs “a willingness to actually put something on the line in sort of helping the situation.

“Not of the old, you know, Srebrenica kind or the Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence, because it seems to me at this stage — and this is true of actual genocides as well and not just, you know, major human rights abuses, which we're seeing there. But — is that you have to go in as if you're serious, you have to put something on the line,” she said. 

Although Power reportedly later described those comments as “weird,” an examination of her participation in the creation of a UN doctrine calling for military intervention reveals that those comments are consistent with her philosophy — a philosophy that, if her nomination to head the U.S. delegation to the UN is confirmed, she will undeniably bring to the ambassadorial position at UN headquarters.

Samantha Power rose to prominence in government circles as part of her campaign to promote a doctrine known as the Responsibility to Protect. Notably, this philosophy was also espoused by Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian lawmaker who has publicly questioned the reality of the Holocaust and who was a dedicated lictor of the late leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization — Yasser Arafat.

Responsibility to Protect (also known as Responsibility to Act) is a doctrine advanced by the United Nations and is predicated on the proposition that sovereignty is a privilege, not a right, and that if any regime in any nation violates the prevailing precepts of acceptable governance, then the international community is morally obligated to revoke that nation’s sovereignty and assume command and control of the offending country.

The three pillars of the United Nations’-backed Responsibility to Protect are:

*A state has a responsibility to protect its population from mass atrocities.

*The international community has a responsibility to assist the state if it is unable to protect its population on its own.

*If the state fails to protect its citizens from mass atrocities and peaceful measures have failed, the international community has the responsibility to intervene through coercive measures such as economic sanctions.

Read more: The New American

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American Sovereignty and Its Enemies

A group of powerful legal scholars are trying to make an end run around the Constitution.

The George Zimmerman saga came to an end last weekend when a jury of six Florida women found the neighborhood-watch captain not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. But even before the 15-month legal process had begun last year, the United Nations' top human-rights official had rendered a guilty verdict—against Mr. Zimmerman and the entire U.S. judicial system.

"Justice must be done for the victim," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay at an April 2012 press conference. "It's not just this individual case. It calls into question the delivery of justice in all situations like this. . . . I will be awaiting an investigation and prosecution and trial and of course reparations for the victims concerned."

Americans who ran across her statement may have dismissed Ms. Pillay as another U.N. busybody pestering the world's leading democracy. But former Sen. Jon Kyl thinks there is something more pernicious at work: Such comments express the desire, and growing power, of a global progressive elite to pierce the shield of U.S. sovereignty and influence the outcomes of the country's domestic debates.

Proponents call this movement "legal transnationalism," and as Mr. Kyl writes in a recent Foreign Affairs magazine article (co-authored with Douglas Feith and John Fonte of the Hudson Institute), "the idea that a U.N. official can sit in judgment of the U.S." is one of its main innovations.

Transnationalists want to rewrite the laws of war, do away with the death penalty, restrict gun rights and much more—all without having to win popular majorities or heed American constitutional limits. And these advocates are making major strides under an Obama administration that is itself a hotbed of transnational legal thinking.

"Transnationalists are a group of people who are convinced they are right about important issues," Mr. Kyl says as we sit down for a chat at the plush Washington office of the law firm Covington & Burling, where the 71-year-old Arizona Republican has served as an adviser since leaving the Senate in January. "But they are in too much of a hurry to mess with the difficulties of representative government to get their agenda adopted into law—or they know they can't win democratically. So they look for a way around representative government."

Mr. Kyl knows something about representative government. After a four-term stint in the House, he entered the Senate in 1995 and quickly emerged as a serious thinker on defense matters. In 1999, armed with his collegial, unassuming personality and substantive knowledge, he led Senate GOP opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The treaty's ultimate goal, he charged at the time, was "total nuclear disarmament," an effort by U.S. adversaries and global arms-controllers to defang America's nuclear deterrent.

Now he has taken it as his mission to defeat the transnationalist efforts to steer American law. And he finds himself once again contemplating treaties that don't bode well for the U.S. A favorite transnationalist tactic is pushing the U.S. to ratify treaties like the three-decades-old U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or Cedaw, and the more recent Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Such treaties, Mr. Kyl says, "have a lot of loose language that in the hands of the wrong people can demand far more than was ever intended by the American people."

Take Cedaw. If the Senate ever ratifies this piece of "1970s feminism preserved in diplomatic amber," as one commentator described the treaty, the U.S. would become subject to oversight by a Geneva-based committee that requires signatory states to, among other things, "achieve a balance between men and women holding publicly elected positions"; "ensure that media respect women and promote respect for women"; and "modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of . . . stereotyped roles for men and women."

Would cooking TV shows hosted by female chefs survive Cedaw? How about Philip Roth novels?

Wiping out undesirable patterns of thought may be an easy proposition for liberal regimes, but not for a constitutional republic. Says Mr. Kyl: "Once you have ceded authority to an external body to make decisions, our theory of government—accountability in officials, consent of the governed—is very difficult to uphold. So you want to give up sovereignty sparingly and only when there is a clear benefit to doing so. I'm not saying the Senate should never ratify a treaty on behalf of the people, but I'm saying it should take the responsibility very seriously."

To be clear, transnationalism isn't a conspiratorial enterprise. In the legal academy, its advocates have openly stated their aims and means. "International law now seeks to influence political outcomes within sovereign States," Anne-Marie Slaughter, then dean of Princeton's public-affairs school, wrote in an influential 2007 essay. International law, she went on, must expand to include "domestic choices previously left to the determination of national political processes" and be able to "alter domestic politics."

The preferred entry point for importing foreign norms into American law is the U.S. court system. The Yale Law School scholar Howard Koh, a transnationalist advocate, has written that "domestic courts must play a key role in coordinating U.S. domestic constitutional rules with rules of foreign and international law." Over the past two decades, activist judges have increasingly cited "evolving" international standards to overturn state laws, and Mr. Koh has suggested that foreign norms can be "downloaded" into American law in this manner.

READ MORE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Some of the Most Controversial Criticisms of America from the Woman Who Could Become Our Next U.N. Ambassador

 As the Senate prepares for confirmation hearings Wednesday to decide whether Samantha Power will be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, there are some controversial criticisms of America from her past that may be called into question.

Power, a former journalist turned political activist, once connected some of the tactics in the U.S. war on terror to French military support for the Hutu militia, which killed 800,000 people in the Rwandan genocide. She also has called Americans “stingy on foreign aid,” declared that the U.S. should apologize for slavery, and even made indirect references comparing U.S. involvement in the world to that of Nazi Germany.

At a 2002 discussion of her book at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Power questioned the U.S. cooperation with other countries in the war on terror, saying “we’re about to partner with regimes that if they’re not committing genocide they are certainly committing systematic atrocities against their people.”

“Will somebody else write a book about that and say that we abetted the Russian genocide against the Chechens because we were fighting a war on terror and needed Putin on our side? Maybe. But we now because we’re living in the time understand our mindset and why we’re doing it. I don’t think we should excuse it. I think we should change our policy.”

Power has repeatedly called what had been going on in Russia “a near genocide” or a “genocide,” statements which may make difficult the rapprochement that has existed between Moscow and Washington. In the aftermath of the Boston bombing by Chechen-born terrorists, the United States has partnered with Russia on intelligence gathering. Russian cooperation also is needed to advance most issues on the U.N. Security Council.

Power has already come under fire for a New Republic article in which she called for Americans to follow the lead of German leaders post-Holocaust and apologize for  their war crimes:
“U.S. foreign policy has to be rethought. It needs not tweaking but overhauling. We need: a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States. This would entail restoring FOIA to its pre- Bush stature, opening the files, and acknowledging the force of a mantra we have spent the last decade promoting in Guatemala, South Africa, and Yugoslavia: A country has to look back before it can move forward. Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the sins of their predecessors. When Willie Brandt went down on one knee in the Warsaw ghetto, his gesture was gratifying to World War II survivors, but it was also ennobling and cathartic for Germany.”
She has also gotten into trouble about supporting a multilateral occupation of “Palestine-Israel.”

READ MORE: THE BLAZE







Thursday, June 6, 2013

Colorado Gun Owners Fight Back… Deliver Twice as Many Signatures as Needed to Recall Senator

Colorado Gun Owners Fight Back…
Deliver Twice as Many Signatures as Needed to Recall Senator

In this photo taken May 24, 2013, Paradise Firearms owner Paul Paradis holds a flyer depicting Colorado's State Senate President, Democrat John Morse, together with a petition to recall him, right, at his gun shop in Colorado Springs. (AP | Ed Andrieski)
Yesterday 16,000 signatures were delivered to recall Colorado State Senator John Morse. Morse has been a huge backer of the sweeping and numerous gun control bills that were passed in Colorado earlier in the year and signed into law by Governor John Hickenlooper. 

Below is just a reminder of Mr. Morse’s thinking, or lack of thinking, as he spoke about massive gun control laws as though they would “stop bullets piercing children’s bodies.”

According to opponents of the Democrat Senate President, they turned in twice as many signatures as needed on Monday.

Bill Adaska, a retired engineer from Denver who volunteered to gather the signatures for Morse’s signature in his district, said “This shot will be heard around the world. This is the race, right here, that’s going to show Washington and Chicago that when you come after our guns, we’re going to take you out.”

The Washington Post reports on Morse and his response to the recall:

Morse backed the gun control measures, and sponsored an even stricter measure to gun owners liable in some cases for damage caused by their weapons. Morse scuttled that liability measure when it appeared it didn’t have enough support to clear the Senate.

A defiant Morse responded Monday to the recall petition by insisting he won’t resign and that national gun groups have targeted him in an effort to scare politicians nationwide away from addressing gun control.

“This turns into a national race,” Morse predicted.

Even if he loses his seat, Morse said, the gun measures were too important not to adopt after a bloody 2012. He insisted that he’s never aspired to another office and wouldn’t mind losing his political career over the gun bills.

“Keeping Coloradans safe from gun violence is very worth your political career,” Morse told reporters.

Perhaps Morse should be concerned with protecting Coloradans from politicians who don’t uphold their oath and are tyrannical while at the same time respond emotionally to an issue rather than intellectually.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) sent out political mailers in support of Morse’s recall, but the effort was a result of grassroots efforts, not the NRA.

Rob Harris, organizer of the recall effort, said “I ran this campaign. The NRA did not run this campaign. We the people are making a stand against the people who refused to represent their constituents."

No state lawmaker has ever faced a recall vote in Colorado history. Accordingly, voters would determine whether he should be recalled and who would replace him.

Any proposed candidate to take Morse’s place would only need 1,000 signatures.

There are more efforts to oust Democrat lawmakers. Senator Angela Giron of Pueblo has signatures for her recall due next week.

Two other Democrat lawmakers who were targeted for recall appear to be safe as the efforts to recall them seem to not have enough support to bring their recall to a vote.

The next step in the Morse case is that the Colorado Secretary of State has 15 business days to verify the signatures. Morse could challenge the signatures before a recall election is set. The latest date that for a recall vote of Morse would be early October.

Way to go Colorado! If lawmakers aren’t obeying the law, start kicking them out. That, my friends is a means to a peaceful revolution. 

Tim Brown is the Editor of Freedom Outpost and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline. 
Source
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Gun control supporters facing recall bids in Colo. 
In Colorado, gun control votes followed by increasingly popular political tool: the recall
Associated Press -
In this photo taken May 24, 2013, a large sign posted at the entrance of Paradise Firearms in Colorado Springs, Colo., invites customers to sign a recall petition against Colorado Democratic State Senate President John Morse. In gun-friendly Colorado, gun-rights activists with support of the National Rifle Association are seeking Morse's ouster for his support of
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- A Democratic campaign office here usually would be quiet this time of year, a few weeks after the state's legislature wrapped up work and lawmakers headed off to summer vacations. 

But even though it's not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning — the recall phase. 


A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights. In an era in which recall efforts are booming, from governor's offices down to town councils and school boards, the Colorado efforts will serve as the first test of gun-rights groups' ability to punish elected officials who expanded gun control laws after last year's Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., shooting massacres. 


In Colorado, gun-rights activists wasted no time seeking recalls to oust state Senate President John Morse and three other Democratic lawmakers. The targeted lawmakers weren't necessarily the main advocates for ratcheting back gun rights, but all come from districts with enough Republicans to give opponents hope they can boot out the Democrats and replace them with lawmakers friendlier to guns. Colorado is the only state outside the East Coast to have adopted significant statewide gun controls this year. 

"Colorado seems to be the testing ground for some of the gun measures, so this has national implications," said Victor Head, a plumber from Pueblo who is organizing a recall attempt against a Democratic senator. 


Two of four recall efforts in Colorado already have evaporated from lack of support. But in Colorado Springs, Morse opponents are piling up signatures in gun shops and outside libraries and grocery stores. The National Rifle Association sent a political mailer saying it was coordinating the recall effort with local groups, though the local recall petitioners have denied that. The NRA did not return calls for comment on their involvement in the Colorado Springs effort. 

Morse has mounted a campaign to urge voters not to sign petitions. In an indication of the national stakes, that push is largely funded by a $20,000 contribution from a national progressive group called America Votes. The Morse campaign said the donation came through the group's local Colorado office. 

The recall group's main funding comes from a $14,000 contribution from a nonprofit run by a local conservative consultant, Laura Carno. She said that contribution was made possible by some out-of-state donors. 

"People in other states that are further down this road, like New York and Massachusetts, are calling up and saying 'What can we do to help?'" Carno said. "This isn't what Colorado stands for." 


In an interview, Morse seemed resigned to facing a recall vote after signatures are verified. He believes national gun-rights supporters are using his district to make a national statement about the political peril officials face if they take on gun control

"That's what's going on here. They want to take out the Senate president," Morse said. 


The organizer of the Morse recall effort, Anthony Garcia, didn't disagree. Garcia doesn't live in Morse's district but in the northern Colorado town of Brighton. Garcia said Morse was targeted not just because of his votes for gun control but because he is a prominent Democrat from a competitive district. 

"It's as much about saying Colorado is angry as it is about getting one guy out," Garcia said. 

"Legislators need to know when citizens are outraged that they can't ignore the people." 


Immediate accountability seems to be a common thread in recall attempts, said Joshua Spivak, who tracks recall elections nationwide at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York. Technology makes it easier to organize, Spivak said, and modern-day voters watching political activity in real time on Twitter and TV aren't content to wait until another election to show their displeasure when they feel ignored. 

Spivak said at least 169 officials at all levels of government faced recalls last year, up from 151 the year before. The number this year could go even higher, he said. 

Technology isn't the only explanation. 

"The other reason," Spivak said, "is that they succeed." 

Most recalls actually fail, as in the case last year of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who survived a recall election after attacking collective bargaining rights for state employees. But compared with re-election campaigns, when incumbents face up to 75 percent likelihood of winning, Spivak said recall elections have a much lower rate of success for incumbents. 

In Colorado last year, seven recall efforts made it to ballots, all local races, Spivak said. Of those seven, two officials were ousted and two more resigned. 

Nationwide, 108 recalled officials last year lost or left office after a recall. That makes the recall a powerful tool — and one likely to be used more often, Spivak said. 

Back in Colorado Springs, a couple of Morse opponents defended the recall attempt as the best way for citizens to keep their representatives accountable. 

"I believe in gun rights. And he didn't listen. He's supposed to represent the people, and when he doesn't do that, what are supposed to do? Nothing?" asked Bianca McCarl, a 40-year-old merchandiser who is supporting Morse's recall.

Assuming the Morse recall goes to ballots, with an election to be held by late summer, the incumbent holds a slight party registration advantage in the district. He believes most voters liked his gun votes. 
Read More 
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Pro-gun camp submits petitions to recall Colorado legislator 
Have more signatures than he got votes in 2010

DENVER — A recall campaign submitted stacks of petitions Monday to oust Colorado Senate President John Morse in what could become a national referendum on gun rights.

Organizers said they turned in more than 16,000 signatures, well in excess of the 7,178 valid signatures needed to force the recall and even more than the 13,866 votes received by Mr. Morse in the 2010 election.

“It just goes to show how interested people are in making sure Morse is recalled,” said recall organizer Rob Harris.

Mr. Morse, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, became a recall target for his role in pushing three gun-control measures signed by the governor in March. Another recall effort against Democratic state Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo is scheduled to submit petitions June 10.

The Secretary of State’s office has 15 business days to verify the signatures. If the recall effort meets the threshold, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper will be charged with calling a special election or placing the recall on the November ballot.

Any recall election is expected to draw national interest from groups on both sides of the firearms debate.

The Washington-based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee fired off a statement Monday describing organizers as “extremists in Colorado who want to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.”


Additional articles:
Read more: Gun control supporters facing recall bids in Colorado - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/election2012/ci_23334943/gun-control-supporters-facing-recall-bids-colo#ixzz2VPPbYB4f
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook

 


Thursday, April 4, 2013

A Colorado Sheriff Responds To President Obama

A Colorado Sheriff Responds To President Obama

Published on Apr 3, 2013
President Obama visited Denver on April 3, 2013 to push his excessive gun legislation. Not one sheriff in the state of Colorado was included in the event. The sheriffs of Colorado representing 62 counties were kept out of the event because their legislative needs were not useful to the president. Obama's purposeful shunning of the state sheriffs could not silence them. Listen as Sheriff Shayne Heap from Elbert County Colorado responds to the president's comments.
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/16-colorado-sheriffs-to-speak-against-more-gun-control-as-obama-promotes-federal-legislation/2013/04/03/1ccbe312-9c60-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html

Related Stories:

CO Sheriff Speaks Out Against Democrats Threats, For Speaking Against Gun Control

Published on Mar 12, 2013
Sheriffs pay, raises and pensions held above there heads if they speak out against gun control? What is America coming to? 


225 Sheriffs Stand Up For The Second Amendment

Below is a list of 225 Sheriffs that are saying NO to Obama's Gun Control as compiled by CSPOA whose founder and President is Former Arizona Sheriff Mack.

Sheriffs have risen up all over our great nation to stand up against the unconstitutional gun control measures being taken.

The following is a list of sheriffs and state sheriff’s associations from who have vowed to uphold and defend the Constitution against Obama’s unlawful gun control measures.  I applaud these public servants for their courage and conviction.

I call on sheriffs all over this nation to add their voices to the growing numbers of faithful protectors of our freedom. -Richard Mack

To see the list of the 225 Sheriffs standing up against this tyrannical dictatorship:

National Liberty Foundation  

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Missouri State Rep, Eric Burlison, takes gun control bill to the gun range and uses it for target practice



Published on Feb 20, 2013
Rep Eric Burlison takes a gun control bill to a gun range to ask citizens what they think about the bill and to use the bill for a little target practice. HR 545 makes it a class C felony to manufacture, import, possess, purchase, sell, or transfer any assault weapon or large capacity magazine.
Full bill - http://www.house.mo.gov/billtracking/...

Friday, February 8, 2013

Former Secret Service Agent: “It’s Not About Gun Control… There’s Only People Control”

There’s no such thing as gun control….there’s only people control.


Maryland Senate Candidate Danny Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, gave a speech at the protest of Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s new attack on the Second Amendment. 

Dan Bongino @ Guns Across America Rally in Annapolis, MD

Source: Freedom Outpost

 

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Compelling Case FOR the 2nd Amendment-Must See Testimony (Video)

 "The 2nd Amendment is not about duck hunting.....but it's about all of our rights to protect ourselves from all of you guys up there."
Dr. Susan Gratia's testimony before Congress on Gun Control after her parents were murdered and she survived the Killeen, Texas Luby's Cafeteria massacre in 1991.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed...."- Noah Webster,

On October 16, 1991, Hennard drove his 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck through the front window of a Luby's Cafeteria at 1705 East Central Texas Expressway in Killeen, yelled "This is what Bell County has done to me!", then opened fire on the restaurant's patrons and staff with a Glock 17 pistol and later a Ruger P89.

About 80 people were in the restaurant at the time. He stalked, shot, and killed 23 people and wounded another 20 before committing suicide.

During the shooting, he approached Suzanna Gratia Hupp and her parents. Hupp had actually brought a handgun to the Luby's Cafeteria that day, but had left it in her vehicle due to the laws in force at the time, forbidding citizens from carrying firearms.

According to her later testimony in favor of Missouri's HB-1720 bill[1] and in general, after she realized that her firearm was not in her purse, but "a hundred feet away in [her] car", her father charged at Hennard in an attempt to subdue him, only to be gunned down; a short time later, her mother was also shot and killed. (Hupp later expressed regret for abiding by the law in question by leaving her firearm in her car, rather than keeping it on her person.

One patron, Tommy Vaughn, threw himself through a plate-glass window to allow others to escape. Hennard allowed a mother and her four-year-old child to leave. He reloaded several times and still had ammunition remaining when he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after being cornered and wounded by police.

Reacting to the massacre, in 1995 the Texas Legislature passed a shall-issue gun law allowing Texas citizens with the required permit to carry concealed weapons. The law had been campaigned for by Suzanna Hupp, who was present at the Luby's massacre and both of whose parents were shot and killed. Hupp testified across the country in support of concealed-handgun laws, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1996.

The law was signed by then-Governor George W. Bush and became part of a broad movement to allow U.S. citizens to easily obtain permits to carry concealed weapons.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Warning to the Gun Owners of the World (VIDEO)

~EXCELLENT VIDEO WITH A POWERFUL MESSAGE ABOUT STANDING UP FOR THE 2ND AMENDMENT~

"SILENCE WILL LEAD TO SUBMISSION"


"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."~Edmund Burke 
A look into disarming a country:

"States should work toward the introduction of appropriate national legislation, administrative regulations and licensing requirements that define conditions under which firearms can be acquired, used and traded by private persons. In particular, they should consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons." -- The United Nations' Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms, August 19, 1999

Links to informative news articles, essays and videos exposing the "gun control" (i.e. civilian disarmament) agenda:

Civilian Disarmament: Prelude to Tyranny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t9nfq6zyzA

The Rise of the Robber State
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhO0QkVp5Qk

Innocents Betrayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAU9AJfttls

The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4

More Than A Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFpEbDNPeTE

Enemy Public Number One: The Government, The People and The Militia Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnUfykk731c

No Guns for Jews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjl2-ydZO9o

Are Guns To Blame?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjuLz_C0o54

Is The USA Next? Gun Control in Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKE0NI-Djxs

2A Today for the USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsnGcJoNIXg

Operation Fast and Furious Exposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONvmVcHlpP0

Does the National Rifle Association Support Gun Owners?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEVm6iyXaqM

More Guns, Less Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXTwAvE23ec

Guns versus Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2yhn80mR5k

Firearms and Personal Defense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGYttXa0d1k

The Why of Gun Ownership
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvR3Vt80b-s

Right to Bear Arms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsY76EWmbWg

Robert Williams and the 2nd Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXbNis6lAE

The UN: A Case for US Withdrawal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTyvwUThKgY

The UN's War on Firearms
Taking advantage of Black Tuesday and the ongoing "war on terrorism," the United Nations is intensifying its own campaign against civilian ownership of firearms.
http://tinyurl.com/7wx3xp9

Disarmament and Destruction
Under the guise of "peace and safety" the United Nations seeks to disarm entire populations. Never mind that disarmed populations invariably invite tyranny and genocide!
http://tinyurl.com/8yxzz

Dangerous Disarmament
The drive to deprive Americans of privately owned firearms is part of a larger plan to render the U.S. helpless before a Russian-Chinese axis or a nuclear-armed UN.
http://tinyurl.com/cvw45dd

With UN Support, Socialist Chavez Disarms Civilians in Venezuela
http://tinyurl.com/7f7h4ry

Deadly Disarmament: U.N. Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/6wtjp2t

UN-sponsored Civilian Disarmament in Brazil
http://tinyurl.com/86jvqqq

Bush Backs UN Global Disarmament Drive
http://tinyurl.com/7jqarwl

Gun Control Leads to Militarized Law Enforcement
http://tinyurl.com/6s8dl5t

Toward a Global Police State
http://tinyurl.com/7tu8mjp

Former UN Ambassador: Obama Will Target Gun Ownership in Second Term
http://tinyurl.com/77wmcuw

Obama's Anti-gun Agenda Shelved - for Now
http://tinyurl.com/6u76s6r

Second Amendment Rights Once Again at Risk
http://tinyurl.com/85q82q3

Gun Controllers Don't Want to Waste Tucson Tragedy
http://tinyurl.com/6mrcw47

The Shameful Manipulation of Murder: Gun Control and Tyranny
http://tinyurl.com/83yv8n4

Obama Planning Gun-control Legislation
http://tinyurl.com/6n57ddb

"Fast and Furious" Was Plot Against U.S. Gun Rights, NRA Chief Says
http://tinyurl.com/cnw972p

Gun Grab Revival
http://tinyurl.com/6uxzvsr

Gun Rights on Trial
http://tinyurl.com/d43pnvb

Second Amendment Solidified
http://tinyurl.com/7c8e6bk

Firearms and Freedom
http://tinyurl.com/7pnxh24

Defending the Home
http://tinyurl.com/87apqcm

Gun Ownership Up, Crime Down
http://tinyurl.com/77glhoz

The Darker Side of Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/857jkyz

I Am Alive, No Thanks to Gun Control
http://tinyurl.com/77yd729

Shooting Down Faulty Arguments
Collectivists cling to their worn-out gun control clichƩs, even though each one can be shot full of holes.
http://tinyurl.com/6rlttl9

Moms' Masquerade
The Million Mom March was a carefully crafted revolutionary mobilization led by a political veteran.
http://tinyurl.com/6ssnrak

Citizen Soldiers: The Militia
http://tinyurl.com/7tt6h3j

Bearing Arms: A Right ... and a Duty?
http://tinyurl.com/7dx58tg

The American Rifleman in the Revolutionary War
http://tinyurl.com/cyxoqtz

No Compromise Against Gun Control: Aaron Zelman Interviewed
http://tinyurl.com/c8g5dea

The Impact of the Swiss Civilian Militia On Hitler's War Plans
http://tinyurl.com/5lbjf4

National Security, Swiss-Style
http://tinyurl.com/2fnfm5

Guns, Crime, and the Swiss
http://tinyurl.com/crk6gl8

Citizens in Arms: The Swiss Experience
http://tinyurl.com/bq9z8oe


SOURCE: LIBERTY IN OUR TIME

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

ATF Whistleblowers:'Fast and Furious was to pad the gun statistics in Mexico'

The following information is more proof of this administrations mission to attack American's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.  

ATF Whistleblowers have confirmed that the reason for Operation Fast and Furious was to pad the statistics to support the lie that 90% of the guns used in crimes in Mexico are coming from the US as reported in this article from the Examiner.  

Within 2 months of this President taking office, He, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano and several others had met with President Calderon in Mexico to discuss their plans to secure the border and implement policies/procedures that would 'stem the flow of guns into Mexico'.  

In reality, they implemented policies that allowed thousands of guns to 'walk' into Mexico. This was done intentionally and with malice towards the 2nd Amendment.  The end result they were envisioning it to use the statistics against gun ownership.

Because of their rush to impose their ideology on us, they have now allowed these guns to be used against innocent Americans, including Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry. These guns have also been traced to crimes against Mexican citizens as well.  

This insane act will haunt America for decades and those in this administration that have any involvement must be held to the highest standard of the law. They have blood on their hands and must face the consequences of their illegal actions.
*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

President Obama News Conference With President Calderon

President Obama and Mexico President Felipe Calderon held a joint news  conference in Mexico City. In their remarks and answers to questions  they focused on the need to crack down on smuggling of assault weapons  used in Mexican drug violence, cooperation on global climate change and  emissions control, and U.S. policy toward Cuba.
April 16, 2009

The reference to the bogus claim that 90% of the guns come from the US starts at 10:40
6:33-23:09

President Obama:
"A demand for these drugs in the US is what is keeping these cartels in business.  This war is being waged with guns being purchased not here but in the US. "More than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico are from the US, many from gun shops that line our shared border." So we have responsibilities as well.  We have to do our part. We have to crack down on our cities and towns.  We have to stem the south bound flow of guns and cash. And we are absolutely committed to working in a partnership with Mexico to make sure we are dealing with this scourge on both sides of the border.


That is why we are ramping up the number of law enforcement personnel on our border. That's why, for the first time, we are expecting trains leaving our country not just those entering. That's why our Department of Homeland Security is making up to $59M available to defend our common border from this threat to both of our countries. ......................................


11:29-13:31
OBAMA:"Now as we discussed in our meeting, destroying and disrupting the cartels will require more than aggressive efforts from each of our nations and that's why the US is taking the following steps:
  • We've begun to accellerate efforts to implement the MERIDA Initiative initiative so we can supply Mexico with the military aircraft and inspection equipment they need when they need it. 
  • Yesterday I designated 3 cartels as significant foreign drug traffickers under US law clearing the way for our treasury department, working together with Mexico to freeze their assets and subject them to sanctions. 
  • My National Homeland Security adviser, who is here, Gen. Jim Jones, as well as my Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, and my top adviser on my homeland security and counter terrorism, John Brennan, are all meeting with their Mexican counterparts to develop new ways to cooperate and coordinate their efforts more effectively.   
  • In addition, as President Calderon and I discussed, I am urging the Senate in the US to ratify InterAmerican Treaty known as The Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms (CIFTA) to curb small arms trafficking that is a source of so many weapons used in this drug war. 
Now there are some of the common challenges that President Calderon and I discussed in our meeting and they we are going to be working to overcome in the months and years ahead. It will not be easy, but I am confident that if we continue to act, as we have today, in the spirit of mutual responsibility and friendship, we will prevail on behalf of our common security and our common prosperity.


So I think that this is building on previous meetings we've had and in each interaction the bond between our governments is growing stronger.  I'm confident that we are going to make tremendous progress in the future."


13:31-17:26 
Question: AP Reporter Ben Feller
"Thank you Mr. President. Thank you Mr. President as well. President Obama, as a candidate for office, you said that you would want to see the ban on assault weapons reinstated.  Your Attorney General has spoken in favor of this, Mexican officials have also spoken in favor of this, but we haven't heard you say that since you took office.  Do you plan to keep your promise and if not, how do you explain that to the American people?  And President Calderon, if I may, would you like to see this ban reinstated and have you raised that today with President Obama?" 

Answer: Obama
"Well, first of all, we did discuss this extensively in our meetings. I have not backed off at all from my belief that the gun ban, uh, the assault weapons ban made sense and I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the 2nd Amendment rights in our Constitution. 

The rights of sportsman and hunters and homeowners who want to keep their families safe to lawfully bear arms while dealing with assault weapons as we know here in Mexico are helping to fuel extraordinary violence. Violence in our own country as well. 
 

Now having said that, I think none of us are under any illusion that repealing that ban would be easy and so what we focused on is how we can improve our enforcement of existing laws because even under current law, trafficking illegal firearms, sending them across the border, is illegal. That's something that we can stop and so our focus is to work with Secretary Napolitano, Attorney General Holder and their Homeland Security team, ATF, Border Security, everyone who is involved in this to coordinate with our counterparts in Mexico to significantly ramp up our enforcement of existing laws.


And In fact I have asked Eric Holder to do a complete review of how law, how enforcement operations are currently working and make sure that we're cutting down on the loopholes that are resulting in some of these drug trafficking problems. Last point I would make is that there are going to be some opportunities where I think we can build a strong concensus.  I'll give you one example and that is 'gun tracing'.  The tracing of bullets and ballistics gun information that have been used in major crimes.  That's information that we are still not giving to law enforcement as a consequence of provisions that have been blocked in the US Congress and those are the areas where I think we can make some significant progress early. That doesn't mean that we are steering away from the issue of the assault guns ban but it does mean that we want to act with urgency...promptly...now. And I think that we can make significant progress."


17:26-23:09
President Calderon went on to say that they have had an open, frank and trusting conversation and Obama is well aware of Mexico's problems. He said they have seized over 16,000 assault weapons and in tracking them, 90% came from the US. (Which has been debunked)


He goes on to say that he appreciates the fact that Americans believe in their Constitution and the 2nd Amendment but............................

"as long as we are able to explain clearly what our problems here in Mexico are then we might also be able to seek a solution that, respecting the Constitutional rights of the Americans that at the same time will prevent, or rather, avoid that organized crime becomes better armed in our country.

But we have to work on it, but we fully respect the opinion of the US Congress and we know that there is a great deal of sensitivity regarding this topic but there are many things that we can definitely move forward and, for example in armament, it is not only a matter of seeing if we can change the legislation on assault weapons, we have already what our position is but we may also be able to see whether they can apply existing legislation in Mexico and the US on armament.  For example in Mexico, it is a matter of enforcement with the Export Control Act, I'm sorry, this is in the US prohibits the exports of weapons to those countries where those weapons are prohibited. This is the case in Mexico.


If we or rather if everybody complies with the US law that prohibits the sale of these weapons and their export to Mexico, we can move a great deal forward.


President Obama has made recent decisions in the last few weeks and we value them and appreciate them.  For example, to reinforce the operation of capability of US Border agents to comply with this legislation and with other laws in order to review the flows of entry not only into the US but also the out outgoing flow the outgoing flow of the US to make sure that there is no illicit money in strict compliance with US legislation. 

I think these are very important steps but there is a problem and as long as only as long as we build on this trust and we clearly explain to citizens of both countries how we must find a solution we will be able to achieve when we do so respectfully presenting our position knowing full well how the US people feel about this and being fully respectful of the sovereign decisions that the US may make or that any other country might make.  

One more thing...one more thing...I forgot to mention. One other thing we can do is to track the weapons that we have in Mexico.  If we manage to detect weapons sold illegally in the US, in violation of the this law on the control of weapons export or if, in the US they could probably move forward on a good registry of armament or of the prohibition of certain massive sellers of weapons of, for example to a hunter or a common citizen.  We know that these people usually do not buy hundreds of rifles or assault weapons or grenades. 

If we can move forward in those areas, I do believe that security for both of Mexico and the US will improve because those weapons are pointing against Mexican people and Mexican officials today but crime is not only acting in Mexico, it is also acting in the US.  Organized crime is acting in both countries and I do hope that those weapons that are sold today in the US and are being used in Mexico I hope the day will never come in which they will also be used against the North American society or US officials just like they are now being used in Mexico."

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****
Obama's position on Gun Control: Source Wikipedia
Shortly after the November 4, 2008 election, Change.gov, the website of the office of then President-Elect Barack Obama,  listed a detailed agenda for the forthcoming administration. This  includes "making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent." This statement was originally published on Barack Obama's campaign website, BarackObama.com. When President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the agenda statement was moved to the administration's website, WhiteHouse.gov, with its wording intact.


On February 25, 2009, the newly sworn-in Attorney General, Eric Holder, repeated the Obama Administration's desire to reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.The mention came in response to a question, about 20 minutes into to a joint press conference with DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, discussing efforts to crack down on Mexican drug cartels.  Attorney General Holder said: "[...] there are just a few gun-related  changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons."


However on April 16, 2009, President Obama stated that he will not  push for the reinstatement of the Assault Weapons Ban in the United  States even though he still believes that it "made sense". Obama has  proposed instead to ratify an inter-American treaty known as CIFTA  (Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and  Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related  Materials) to curb international small arms trafficking. The treaty  makes the unauthorized manufacture and export of firearms illegal and  calls for nations in this hemisphere to establish a process for  information-sharing among different countries' law enforcement divisions  to stop the smuggling of arms, to adopt strict licensing requirements,  and to make firearms easier to trace. 

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****
Related Links: 
For a more thorough investigative story on Fast and Furious, check out these articles.  They lay out a very detailed timeline and list of those involved.  It is an excellent source for this story.  What it shows is that, from the moment Obama was on the campaign trail, he made gun control one of his number one missions.  It also shows the meme of the bogus claim that 90% of the guns found in Mexico that were being used by the cartels came from the US.  The ATF agents that have come forward have said that the real reason for letting guns walk into Mexico via Fast and Furious was to pad the number of guns showing up in the cartels hands so Obama's administration could crack down on gun ownership and firearm vendors.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal. Part 1. "To take the fight to the Mexican drug cartels."

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal. Part 2. The 90% Myth. "I have not backed off" an AWB.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "In at the beginning." The State Department & the Gunwalker Scandal. Part 3. "Caesar's Wife" and the "Mexican hat dance."

The Tom Diaz-Eric Holder 90% Two-Step

Sen Feinstein: "Lax Gun Control Is Real 'Problem' With Fast And Furious

Obama's Quiet Gun Crackdown

Armed and Safe

Clean Up ATF.org

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano met with the President of Mexico and their counterparts in Mexico several weeks ahead of President Obama.  The following will show that the meme about 90% of guns confiscated in Mexico are from the US and their focus on controlling the guns getting into Mexico being one of their top priorities.

Press Briefing by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden on U.S.-Mexico Border Security Policy

Release Date: March 24, 2009
Secretary Napolitano: Thank you. Good morning. There are a number of issues involved, a number of actions being undertaken by DHS in conjunction with the Department of State, the Department of Justice, with respect to Mexico. And I'm just going to go through a whole inventory of actions that are underway. Some we have already undertaken in the last several weeks; others are being taken either today or in the immediate future.
First we are doubling the number of law enforcement personnel that are working in border-enforcement teams along the border. These are called BEST teams. These are teams that combine state and local with ICE and CBP personnel. Every state along the border will now have BEST teams. New Mexico previously had not had one. But just to give you a sense of how effective they are, they have already made more than 2,000 criminal arrests and seized nearly 8,000 pounds of cocaine.
We are also strengthening Operation Armas Cruzadas. This is our operation where we work to seize arms that are going south to be used in this violent war in Mexico. Just this past week, March 7-13, we seized 997 firearms in one week that were going into Mexico, along with $4.5 million in conjunction with those firearms. So that is underway.

We are tripling the number of Department of Homeland Security Intelligence Analysts located on the Southwest border.
We are increasing the ICE -- that's Immigration and Custom Enforcement -- AttachƩ personnel in Mexico by 50 percent. These will primarily be located in Mexico City, working alongside the Attorney General of Mexico.
We will be increasing our efforts on what's called Operation Firewall; this is a Treasury-directed initiative that's designed to interdict money laundering that is going back and forth between the drug cartels in Mexico and where they get the cash, which is in the United States.
We are doubling the number of agents in our violent crime alien sections along the border. This is designed to prosecute violent recidivist aliens.
We're quadrupling the number of border liaison officers. This is designed to make sure -- these officers work between us on the border and Mexican law enforcement on the border -- make sure that things are properly coordinated and goes smoothly.
We are bolstering technology and resources with a significant increase in our biometric identification deployment. What does that mean? What that means is the capacity of state and local law enforcement on the border to run fingerprints on people they've apprehended, that are in the jails and so forth, to make sure they've been run through the ICE databases among other things to identify whether they are criminal aliens.
We are embarking on increased screening of rail that goes south from the United States into Mexico. There are in reality only eight rail lines that actually transverse that border, so we are working to have 100 percent screening on those rail crossings into Mexico.
We are moving mobile X-ray units to the border. These will be used to help identify anomalies in passenger vehicles. Well, what does that mean? That means we're trying to identify vehicles that are carrying arms into Mexico that are being used in the drug war in Mexico.
We are moving today 100 more CBP personnel to the border to do outbound inspections. We are moving 12 teams of cross-trained dogs. They can be used to detect both weapons and currency to the Southwest border. We are moving three mobile response teams of Border Patrol agents to deploy to the border. And we're increasing the number of license plate readers on -- to look for the plates of suspected smugglers. They will be deployed, again, to the outgoing lanes and ports of entry.
In terms of grant funding, Operation Stonegarden, we are changing the grant guidance for our remaining balances in that grant pool. It will be immediately modified to focus $59 million to enhance current state, local, and tribal law enforcement operations and assets along the border. And we will expand the scope of Operation Stonegarden funds to pay for additional law enforcement personnel, overtime, travel, and the like for deployment of state and local tribal officials to the border.
In addition, we are engaging state and local law enforcement in a way I don't think has been done previously with regular calls and conferences with state and local law enforcement in those border areas, in those border counties. So we really get a better sense of what's happening on a real-time basis in this issue with -- in this battle, actually, that is ongoing in Mexico.
Let me just say there are a number of other actions being undertaken, and you'll hear DOJ and Department of State here in a minute.
One question I anticipate you'll ask is where are we with the National Guard. And we are still considering and looking at that. One of the things I wanted to be able to do is to meet with the Governor of Texas, to ask specifically what he is thinking about with respect to Guard along the Texas-Mexico border. I will see him on Thursday; I'll be in Texas to meet with him. And as you just heard, both the Attorney General and I will be in Mexico next week to consult with the Minister of the Interior there and the Attorney General about what other actions can be taken.
Our goal is twofold. One is to provide assistance to the government of Mexico, to break up these huge cartels which are funneling tonnage quantities of illegal drugs into our country on a regular basis, and are conducting this war of violence within Mexico that has resulted in over 6,000 homicides, over 550 of which were assassinations of law enforcement and public official personnel.
The second is to guard against an increase in violence in the United States as a result of the actions undertaken in Mexico.
We've seen some increase in violence between -- primarily between cartels, themselves -- kidnappings, for example, in the Phoenix area and the Houston area. But what we want to do is to better secure the border area against further violence and make it a safe and secure area where, of course, the rule of law is upheld and enforced. So that gives you an inventory of all the things that are happening right now with respect to homeland security and the border in this very, very important initiative.


Mexican and U.S. Attorneys General Confer to Strengthen Cooperation on Drug Violence
Published: April 3, 2009
MEXICO CITY — At the end of two days of meetings with Mexican officials, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that cooperation between the United States and Mexico was stronger and “fundamentally different than that which existed in the past.”
In an interview on Friday before meeting with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Mr. Holder and his Mexican counterpart, Eduardo Medina-Mora, said the stakes of their new efforts to stem the drug violence wreaking havoc in Mexico were high for both countries. Both men dismissed assertions in a Pentagon report in December that the crisis had pushed Mexico to the verge of becoming a failed state.
Mr. Medina-Mora, however, raised images of Colombia, where corruption and insecurity were so rampant that the leader of the powerful MedellĆ­n cartel, Pablo Escobar, was elected to Congress. And Mr. Holder recalled the years when the crack epidemic caused a crisis of crime and corruption in the United States.
“Mexico has never been a weak state,” Mr. Medina-Mora said. “It is not today. It will never be in the future. We have faced even more difficult problems than this one. And it is relevant to put this in perspective.”
But he added: “What is at stake is the ability of Mexico to keep peace and tranquillity for its citizens. That is why our objective is not ending drug trafficking. It is to remove power from these groups and remove their ability to seize and to kidnap our right to live in peace.”
Talking about the efforts of Mexican law enforcement officials to end the drug trade, Mr. Holder pounded his hand on the table and said, “People have to understand this, people really have to get this: they are putting their lives on the line in a fundamental way.”
In their meetings with Mr. Calderón, Mr. Holder and the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, discussed plans to provide training to Mexican canine teams, and to increase cooperation between the United States Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy to stop the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers using the Pacific Ocean as a result of increased enforcement along the land border.
“We are going to operate almost like a vise,” Ms. Napolitano said of the United States and Mexico, after the meeting with Mr. Calderón. “We’re going to take out the cartels that have been plaguing our communities for far too long.”
In the interview, Mr. Holder said he was sending an additional 100 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the southern border to crack down on the so-called straw gun purchases — in which one person submits to the federal background checks to obtain guns for someone else — that fuel much of the southbound smuggling. And with marijuana sales central to the drug trade, Mr. Holder said he was exploring ways to lower the minimum amount required for the federal prosecution of possession cases.
Read More: NY Times


Mexico_US Relations_ Issues for Congress