Canales News Briefs

August 30, 2004

"...Canadians For Kerry..."

- Text on a protest sign carried

in yesterday's march in the

streets of New York City

To All,

It would seem that the Donkey Party is going to resort to drastic measures in the upcoming Presidential Election, given that Senator Kerry is now discovering that it is hardly effective to have denigrated so many of the registered voters needed for an Electoral College victory:

Driver's License Loophole Update:

Kate Folmar and Ann E. Marimow reported in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News about the latest little "gift" presented to Governor Schwarzennegger for action.

It seems that a new version of Gil Cedillo's bill, authorizing driver's licenses for illegal/undocumented immigrants, has landed on the Governator's desk. Now resurrected as AB 2895, with the concurrence of

a host of Assembly and State Senate Democrats, it would provide those requirements that would allow individuals currently prohibited from obtaining a California Driver's License or a California State Identification card.

Unfortunately for AB 2895's sponsors, a certain inattention to detail has only expanded the loophole that could possibly allow illegal/undocumented immigrants to obtain firearms and fixed ammunition in the Fool's Golden State.

For example, it would amend Section 1653.5 of the Vehicle Code as follows:

"...(d) (1) The [Motor Vehicle] department shall

not complete an application for the issuance

or renewal by the department of a driver's

license or identification card pursuant to

Division 6 (commencing with Section 12500)

that does not include one of the following:

(A) The applicant's social security account

number.

(B) The affidavit described in paragraph (2)

of subdivision (a) of Section 12801.

(2) The department shall not complete an

application for the issuance or transfer

of the registration or certificate of title to

a vehicle that does not include one of the

following:

(A) The applicant driver's license number.

(B) The applicant's identification card

number......

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law,

information regarding an applicant's social

security account number, lack of social

security account number, or any other

information collected under Section

12801 or 12801.2, obtained by the

department pursuant to this section, is not

a public record and shall not be disclosed

except for any of the following purposes...

(4) Responding to information requests from

the Department of Justice that are

submitted for the sole purpose of

determining an individual's eligibility to

lawfully own, purchase, receive, or

possess, or have custody or control

of a firearm, dangerous weapon, or

explosive..."

AB 2895 would also modify Section 1808.10 of the Vehicle Code, as follows:

"...1808.10 (a) If a person submits the affidavit

described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a)

of Section 12801 to the department, the

department may disclose that fact to the

Department of Justice to determine whether

the person may lawfully own, purchase,

receive, possess, or have custody or control

of a firearm, dangerous weapon, or explosive.

(b) The information provided to the Department

of Justice under subdivision (a) is confi-

dential. The Department of Justice shall not

provide that information to the federal govern-

ment or to any other law enforcement agency,

except for the purpose of prosecuting the

person for a crime relating to the purchase,

receipt, possession, or custody or control of

a firearm, dangerous weapon, or explosive..."

Firearms activists are thus confronted with a proposed bill, passed by the Legislature, that would be in serious conflict with Federal regulations pertaining to the possession by prohibited persons of fixed ammunition (That is because fixed ammunition is not specifically mentioned in the bill, and that smokeless gun powder is not an explosive.).

In addition, firearms activists are confronted with a bill that makes it discretionary for the Department of Motor Vehicles to release important information to the DOJ about a prospective firearms purchaser who may be a prohibited person under Federal Law. This would, in itself, be possibly discriminatory and constitute a less stringent treatment of illegal/undocumented immigrants than lawful citizens where firearms backround checks are concerned.

And finally, firearms activists are confronted with a bill that studiously avoids the provision that would put an easily recognizable mark on the face of the license or identification card so that firearms licensees can readily identify illegal/undocumented immigrants as prohibited persons.

It is plain to see that the Democrats remain the Masters of Unintended Consequences, when it comes to their legislative work product. That such immigration reform activists as John and Ken of KFI-640 AM radio fame continue to ignore the culpability of the Democrat Party (and that 800 kilo gorilla, the Los Angeles Times) on the issue, while openly inviting certain Republicans to commit political seppuku, does not relieve the Democrats of their complicity in the current immigration policy crisis. But it is clear that the best course for any Governor concerned with security issues, as well as equal treatment of lawful gunowners, is to veto AB 2895 post haste.

Story may be found at:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/politics/9521863.htm

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2851-2900/
ab_2895_bill_20040827_amended_sen.html

With Friends Like These...:

Joe Klein wrote yesterday for Time.com about the effects of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their impact to date on Kerry's standings with the voters.

But in an quintessentially Lamestream attempt to salvage something for the Junior Brahman of Beacon Hill, Klein lays waste to several different potential voter blocks that can surely not endear him at this key moment in the campaign.

Klein starts off with a kind of parody coverage of Kerry dealing with the "sad plight" of one Elba Nieves. Through Klein what is finally discovered is that Nieves is not a "victim" of globalization and the $ 85.00 per month wages paid to top workers in Guang Shou. Rather, she is a union worker in the middle of a re-tooling and benefits dispute with her employer who is also receiving "advice" from union leadership. What is more, Klein's attempt to equate a union leadership bent on "deceit" with a group of Swift Boat signatories "bent on deceiving the voter" can surely not be considered laudatory of the intentions of organized labor, from the Donkey's-eye-view of things. And the revelation that unions may be making unreasonable demands as a condition of employment is not as efficacious as Klein would have us believe, given the results of the Southern California supermarket strike of October 2003 (The short version- The unions got skinned, except that they retain the ability to represent the remaining workers.).

Things get worse for Klein and the Dems in that Klein pitches the standard leftist version of Kerry's service as well as what the entire Viet Nam period was about. Klein notes the following:

"...Now that the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth have

turned out to be anything but--the only "lies"

they've turned up are a mistaken date or a

mild Kerry exaggeration about operating in

Cambodia and a Purple Heart received for a

minor wound-- we are told their real gripe is

that Kerry protested the war after he came

home and sullied their service by testifying

to atrocities committed by American troops

in Vietnam.

These are heartfelt gripes, perhaps, but wrong

on the merits. Kerry's protest was not only

honorable, it was accurate. The war in Vietnam

was an unnecessary disaster, entered into

under false pretenses--the fabricated Gulf of

Tonkin incident--and fought because of a

mistaken intellectual theory: that the

Vietnamese national liberation movement

was part of an international communist

conspiracy to overwhelm Asia (The subsequent

war between Vietnam and China put a crimp in

that one.). And, yes, there were atrocities

aplenty. I spent three years in the 1980's

writing about a platoon of former Marines,

men I consider heroes, and several unburdened

themselves of awful memories before we were

done: tossing a Vietnamese prisoner out of a

helicopter, shooting an obviously innocent

woman civilian in the back, collecting the

ears of enemy dead. It was a meaningless,

despicable war, and insane brutality was not

an uncommon reaction...".

To date, effective "Swiftee" observations include:

1) The now-confirmed aspect of a "self- inflicted" (though inadvertent) wound during

a Cam Ranh Bay patrol, which may not merit

the first Purple Heart;

2) Questions as to total credit for the operations of

February 28, 1969 and to whether others were

responsible for the successful conclusion of

the mission;

3) Questions as to whether the assembled boats

were facing intense enemy fire during rescue

operations on the Bay Hap River on March 13,

1969.

But what is more, the Swiftees were able to establish that Kerry's activities with the group Viet Nam Veterans Against the War went beyond "heartfelt gripes" and the recounting of atrocities (The Naval Criminal Investigative Service seems to have debunked much of the Fullbright/Wintersoldier "testimony" introduced by Kerry's witnesses).. The Swiftees also established that the VVAW had two separate meetings, where Kerry was present and where the "plan" proposed by Scott Camil to assassinate members of the US Congress was discussed. Klein's point that Kerry's protest was "honorable and accurate" surely cannot stand in the face of these two points, while the maintenance that atrocities were widely committed surely cannot sit well with Vietnam Veterans-cum-voters.

There are two additional points that argue against Klein's take on history and what constitute war atrocities. While the prisoner-tossed-from-the-helicopter and ear-mutilation stories would have to be independently substantiated (After all, they both sound so much like movie scenes, though it has been documented on the History Channel that some WWII Pacific veterans collected gold fillings from Japanese dead.), the idea of inadvertent friendly fire casualties being considered as intentional atrocities might be a stretch.

What is more, Vietnamese expansionism in South-east Asia was stopped by Chinese military action, but only after the Vietnamese had invaded Cambodia subsequent to the fall of the South in 1975. Klein's omission as to whether the Vietnamese were primarily Soviet clients, rather than Communist Chinese clients, belies a possible preference by Klein that Communism was "monolithic" after all, despite his arguments against the domino theory to the contrary.

Of course, what goes unmentioned as against the efficacy of the Vietnamese national liberation movement are the million or so Vietnamese casualties after the fall of South Viet Nam, and the pain and suffering of the refugees that were somehow able to swim, dog-paddle, walk, crawl, or bribe their way out of Uncle Ho's Worker's Paradise. Additional anecdotes of Vietnamese gulags, "re-education" methods comparable to the carnage of Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution also have a bearing for skeptics of Klein, whose seeming acceptance of 60's Communism should be taken with reservation.

One thus comes to the key element on Klein's piece, which is not the "politics of misdirection" as he states later in the article. It is not misdirection for Kerry's war-time resume to be reviewed by those veterans (and their survivors) who veracity and honor are of import. Rather, review is part and parcel of the necessary vetting of a first-time national candidate otherwise known for an intensely liberal New England parochialism.

It is also of import to firearms owners as to whether Kerry can be trusted to hold to his word once given. This last can be deduced only by as thorough a vetting of his record as the Democrats have attempted to subject President Bush to. Given that, to this day, Kerry reverses policy as frequently as he breathes, it is not an unimportant aspect to stay focused on.

Given recent events, one can only surmise that Kerry, Klein, and the rest of the Whack-jobs of the Democrat Left will continue to insult certain voters to their face while, at the same time, asking for their votes on Election Day. Whether it is veterans over their service (and Kerry seems to forget that there were large numbers of Vietnam-era veterans who served just as honorably in places like the Fulda Gap, in the silt of the Barents Sea, and in the Strategic Air Command), or small business persons who have the Kerry "red-dot-of-tax-increase-policy" lighting up their foreheads, or even sportsmen who will have to wonder whether Kerry thinks .30-.30 ammunition is "armor-piercing", it is clear that it is Kerry and his media shills who are practicing the politics of misdirection. Fortunately for firearms activists, and other informed voters, such actions are as plain as the nose on Kerry's face. All that remains is that the "famous" common sense of the American voter show up for duty on November 2, and let the disaffected holdouts of 60's radicalism know that they have joined Marx and Mao in that circular file of History.

Story basis may be found at:

http://www.time.com/time/election2004/
printout/0,8816,689402,00.html

Respectfully,

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA