Condi dings the Minutemen?
(Grumble)
Okay, I like her a lot, and it’s her job to be diplomatic and keeps things copacetic with our neighbor to the south. And it’s also her job to be loyal to her boss’s (irresponsible) border control policies. And she was speaking on the fly here. And it sounds like she delivered an otherwise great speech that the paper said impressed even some of the Democrats listening to her, and it’s not like I don’t feel like a schmoe picking out one off-the-cuff answer and harping about it.
And foidermore, it’s not like I was always the hugest fan of the Minuteman Project, at least until the ridiculous, sanctimonious, obnoxious MSM-ACLU opposition to them (“They’re carrying legal firearms! They’re flying American flags! Some of them are pasty and wear rayon! They must be racists, or at least nutballs!”) has radicalized me to the point that now I’m ready to pick a fight just to support them and their right to peacefully assemble.
Anyway, Condi spoke at Frisco’s Commonwealth Club and, according to a Mercury News article that’s really not worth going through the long, intrusive registration process , she was asked about the Minutemen:
Most of the audience questions selected by club CEO Gloria Duffy centered on war and global diplomatic efforts, but Rice was asked for her opinion about the role of armed volunteers guarding the border with Mexico.
“As to enforcement, that is a role for the United States government and the United States government alone,” she said bluntly.
This is, of course, blatantly misrepresenting what the Minutemen were trying to do, and actually did, without any reports of civil rights violations during their one-month patrol–which is to notify legitimate law enforcement of border violations so the proper authorities could deal with the problem. You know, like a Neighborhood Watch program. Or Crimestoppers. Or the Guardian Angels in NYC.
Is Secretary of State Rice against Neighborhood Watch Programs? Of course she’s not. She knows better. Law enforcement depends on cooperation and information from citizens.
Also, and this is a quibble, but the United States Government alone? Even local and state law enforcement agencies don’t have a part to play?
Let’s be honest: I greatly admire the stalwart agents of the Border Patrol, the US Park Rangers service, Customs, INS, all the enforcement agencies monitoring the border, which is thankless and sometimes dangerous work. They do the best they can. That said, “the United States Government and The United States Government Alone” hasn’t been doing a particularly overwhelming job of securing the south end of the country.
Any politician that supports The Minutemen is going way out on a limb, and I think Condi is just covering her butt by distancing herself from them. There is the very real possibility that people looking for an excuse to cause trouble with guns will join their effort. It was smart of them to limit their 1st operation to 27 days.
What is lame is The Minutemen are the only people showing any leadership on the 3,000,000-a-year-running-in-through-the-desert issue. If you care about the huge influx of criminal migrants into our schools and hospitals, you sort of have to defend that corny group. On the bright side, I don’t think we will hear “Jobs America Won’t Do” anymore after Presidente Fox’s insanely stupid comments.
Ladainian (91b3b2) — 5/28/2005 @ 5:30 amThe libs in CA are all in a twitter over the minutemen exposing the libs ‘illegal voter’ scam — maybe an intrepid reporter should have asked what Rice thinks of the new Mexican mayor of LA saying foreign policy with Mexico will guide his administration. That would be a city mayor playing in her backyard, right? But that would probably not result in a Bush bashing sound bite from the press — but it might alarm those who didn’t hear it, or missed the media coverage of the speech, which was virtually non-existent.
Back to the minutemen — they weren’t armed volunteers, that was just the way the question was worded. Citizens shouldn’t make border arrests. But you are allowed to carry guns in AZ, openly and concealed, that’s the law — even while on the border. This is a concept alien to CA, citizens protecting themselves. Why would anyone be stupid enough to NOT have a gun when out in remote areas, hmmm. I always carry a legal semi-auto assault rifle and a pistol :-), it’s your life, do with it what you want.
It is also true that violent attacks on the border patrol agents in the sector the minutemen were at have increased this year — by a lot. The border patrol needs backup, like from the military.
I really don’t think Bush appreciates the help, but it’s looking like he is going to get more of it — shortly.
bill (26027c) — 5/28/2005 @ 5:56 amPerhaps you could provide another post containing a handy chart of people and groups whose actions you find distasteful, along with the rough amount of MSM-ACLU opposition that it would take to change your mind.
Lance McCord (305ef9) — 5/28/2005 @ 6:57 amFederal law says they do. No one’s ever used it before, but if Ray Haines’s initiative passes, we’ll have our own border police.
Xrlq (717f9d) — 5/28/2005 @ 8:07 amWe should train Mexicans to go back and take their country away from the 400 families. Teach them to hate a government that forces them out of their homeland to get a job. Perhaps we should even arm revolutionaries?
Walter E. Wallis (d3ba2c) — 5/28/2005 @ 11:36 amLance–I never said I found the Minutemen distasteful. I just thought going in to this that the potential for an accident or of a single overly gung-ho encounter was going to set back the cause of border protection by a dozen years.
I find the ACLU pretty distasteful, and the more irrelevant angst I hear from them, the worse it gets.
See Dubya (6574c2) — 5/28/2005 @ 11:49 amEh, not to be nitpicky, but it seems likely that there might have been more to Condi’s answer than was reported. Having both the text of the question and her full answer would have been nice.
Christopher Cross (df2a0d) — 5/28/2005 @ 12:14 pm“This is, of course, blatantly misrepresenting what the Minutemen were trying to do, and actually did, without any reports of civil rights violations during their one-month patrol”
Wasn’t someone forced to be photographed with one of the minute men?
actus (3be069) — 5/28/2005 @ 1:44 pmA small point. The Minutemen restricted their service to approximately one month, because they did fear “the potential for an accident or of a single overly gung-ho encounter” – from the Left which has insidiously tried to infiltrate their ranks.
MaDr (d28110) — 5/28/2005 @ 2:05 pmActus, that story was complete fraud. What did
joe (f8f994) — 5/28/2005 @ 2:34 pmhappen was one minuteman found a hungry dehydrated
mexican in the brush and was given food and water.
The Boader Patroll was called along with other Minutemen. As the mexican was being taken away by the B.P. the guy who found him gave him a hug, 20 dollars and a T-shirt.(don’t remember what it read) When B.P. upper management heard this, they went with the “forced to wear shirt” route to discredit
the Minutemen with a press conference. One problem,
the entire event was video taped. Once upper management heard this, they knew they would be caught in lie. So they did a one-two shuffle and
quickly canceled the press conference.
The Guardian angels are also trying to insert themselves into Dallas, making a lot of police and merchants very jittery.
Ruth (15262a) — 5/28/2005 @ 3:35 pminfo on becoming involve who to contact etc.
ronald williams (9ec798) — 5/13/2006 @ 6:27 pm