The Foundation

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.” –George Washington

Upright

“President Obama called the Arizona [immigration] law misguided. What’s misguided, Mr. President, is the federal government’s ongoing refusal to enforce the laws that are already on the books. Read the Arizona law. Parts of it are word-for-word the same as the federal statutes which continue to be all but ignored.” –CNN’s Jack Cafferty

“It is passing strange for federal officials, including the president, to accuse Arizona of irresponsibility while the federal government is refusing to fulfill its responsibility to control the nation’s borders. Such control is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government’s refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform.” –columnist George Will

“In terms of resources and in terms of political will, it has become abundantly clear that the federal government refuses to make the right decisions in terms of enforcing the law and making the critical reforms necessary to drive down illegal immigration. Sadly, efforts in Congress have been more about gaining political votes through an unnecessary amnesty than on honest and effective reforms.” –columnist Jena McNeill, Heritage Foundation

“If a state, or nation, has laws it will not enforce for political reasons, it mocks both the law and politics, to say nothing of the cultural order.” –columnist Cal Thomas

“The election we need so desperately is coming. There’s an intermediate need as well: namely, to balk or slow down the administration’s initiatives until the debate – if there ever is a debate – can commence and the people, knowing what they now know, can say how they truly would like things to be. The establishment, if this happens, will prate about ‘obstructionism.’ Fine. We’re traveling about 150 miles an hour right now as we weave down the political superhighway. Flashing red and blue lights behind us would be a sight for sore eyes.” –columnist William Murchison

Editorial Exegesis

“Arizona’s new immigration law shows what happens when a state on the front lines of a failed immigration policy reaches the bursting point. What you get is a blunt instrument that produces lawsuits, more political polarization (if that’s possible) and the risk of hostility between the local police and the public. The law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documents. It allows the police to stop anyone on ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they may be in the country unlawfully and arrest them on the spot if they can’t produce identity papers. The police aren’t required to have a search warrant or even to suspect some illegal action has occurred before questioning a person. Traditionally the federal government has enforced immigration laws, so this is an extraordinary state criminalization of a heretofore federal authority. … The loud voices denouncing ‘Arizona’ should understand that the results of the nation’s failed immigration policies have come down on this state. … Congressional Democrats have no intention of enacting serious immigration reform before November. President Obama is surely playing politics with the situation in Arizona for gain in the fall. He’d like to pick a fight and define Republicans as anti-Hispanic going into the election, without having to propose anything substantive. We’d support a national immigration reform that was realistic about the fact that most of these are economic migrants who will find a way to come here in any case if this is where the jobs are. The most effective way to reduce illegal entries and defuse these tensions is to expand legal channels, including guest worker programs. This would reduce illegal immigration and free up security resources to threats from drug gangs and the like. But so long as Republicans, Democrats and Mr. Obama mainly view immigration as an electoral weapon, the nation can expect more desperate laws like Arizona’s.” –The Wall Street Journal

Insight

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” –theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“The greater the power the more dangerous the abuse.” –British statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Dezinformatsia

Stirring the melting pot: “Now to the growing national backlash against the state of Arizona over its tough new immigration law that says police can stop people just on the suspicion they might be there illegally.” –NBC’s Brian Williams

“It’s now gone beyond protest to threats of a boycott, as Arizona becomes a laughing stock to some.” –NBC’s Andrea Mitchell

“Critics are having a field day with this, Sheriff Arpaio, as you know. Some are calling for a business boycott of the state of Arizona. The Homeland Security Secretary, used to be the governor of Arizona, says she doesn’t like this, this bill. Editorial cartoons are making fun of it. Here’s one where a guy goes up to a fast food counter and orders nachos and is immediately surrounded by police for probable cause. Are you worried that it affects the image of your state?” –NBC’s Matt Lauer to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

“Let me talk about the politics of this. It’s forcing the president to address immigration policy. It’s forcing Republicans and Democrats to wrangle with it. But what really is driving voters and emotion right now are jobs and the economy. Is this a bad issue politically at this time?” –MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer

“Law Makes it a Crime to be Illegal Immigrant.” –MSNBC on-screen caption – begging the question, “What part of ‘illegal’ doesn’t MSNBC understand?”

Blame Rush Limbaugh: “I think it is fair [for Bill Clinton to blame Rush Limbaugh and other talk hosts for inciting violence]. There is a climate of violence on the right. Liberals are demonized in the most personal way. I mean, you know, Rush comes out and has this wonderful op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal at the end of the week and saying, you know, ‘conservatives are protesting because we love our country,’ and unfortunately the rhetoric of the right has all too often been they love their country and we on the left do not. We are traitors, we are un-American, we are unpatriotic. Obama is weakening our national defense on purpose.” –Salon’s Joan Walsh

Newspulper Headlines:

But Don’t Tell Anyone or You’ll Spoil the Surprise: “Surprise Photo-Enforcement Citations to Start Monday” –Arizona Republic

‘Noah’s Turkey’ Found in Ark. – Now That Would Be News: “‘Noah’s Ark’ Found in Turkey” –Sun (London)

Questions Nobody Is Asking: “CNN Poll: Will Obama Name a Liberal to the Supreme Court?” –CNN.com

Fridge to Nowhere: “Appliance Program Burns Through Rebate Money” –Boston Globe

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “The Next Obamacare Target: Your Bacon Sandwich” –The Washington Examiner

Breaking News From Job 1:6-2:10: “Satan Was Given One Too Many Chances” –Boston Globe

Bottom Stories of the Day: “‘Avatar’ Director James Cameron: Climate Change as Great as Any Threat Since World War II” –CNSNews.com

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

The Demo-gogues

Doing the job he won’t do: “Efforts in Arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe. In fact, I’ve instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at a federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country.” –Barack Obama on immigration

“Indeed, our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona.” –BO on the “irresponsibility” of enforcing laws

That’s racist: “We’re going to overturn this unjust and racist law, and then we’re going to overturn the power structure that created this unjust, racist law.” –Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

Divvying up constituencies: “[T]he health insurance companies, the Wall Street banks, and the special interests who have ruled Washington for too long are already focused on November’s congressional elections. They see these elections as a chance to put their allies back in power, and undo all that we have accomplished. … It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.” –Barack Obama in a video message to supporters

Blame Republicans: “For more than a decade, congressional Republicans failed to provide robust oversight of Wall Street, which crippled our financial system and resulted in eight million jobs lost for America’s workers. … Senate Democrats tried to begin debate on tough accountability and transparency for big banks and for Wall Street, but Republicans said no. Once again, they sided with Wall Street over Main Street.” –Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

If you mean to the country: “The most important thing we’ve done for the country and the world is health care.” –Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

“The new beginning we seek is not only possible, it has already begun.” –Barack Obama on Middle East peace (“The new beginning has already begun! Or, as Churchill might have put it: This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning of the new beginning that has already begun.” –Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Confessions: “I never had a real job.” –Treasury Secretary Timothy “Tax Cheat” Geithner, who speaks for most of the administration

Taxes cometh: “I think there are many good arguments that you can make for a value-added tax or consumption tax, as opposed to a tax on wages. But I think it’s just one of the things that ought to be on the table that we ought to discuss. I’m not for taking anything off the table.” –Democrat Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff in the Clinton White House and chair of Obama’s debt commission

Defining terms: “This is like a ‘Green Tea Party’ out there. People who care. People who care about clean water and fresh air for their children to breathe. Food that doesn’t kill you. A better planet. A safer planet. And it is a tea party movement.” –singer Sting on the Earth Day climate rally in DC

World’s Smallest Violin: “They’re being treated with a lot more respect than the anti-war movement was.” –anti-war yahoo Cindy Sheehan on the Tea Party

Bummer, dude: “I think what really is the problem with the two-party system is that it’s very difficult for people without power to make a difference unless they try very hard.” –artist Shepard Fairey, the guy responsible for those ubiquitous red and blue Obama “Hope” posters

Short Cuts

“So enough with all the punch-pulling about seditious, racist homophobes. It was time to go for broke and bring out Bill Clinton to explain why the tea parties are the new front in the war on terror. Don’t worry about Iran’s nuclear program, but if you meet a tea-party supporter waving some placard about the national debt, try not to catch his eye and back away slowly without making any sudden movements, lest he put down his placard and light up his suicide belt.” –columnist Mark Steyn

“Being deeply concerned about what your government might do to you or that your representatives in Washington are exercising power in a way that’s unmoored from the Constitution does not mean you’re ready to resort to violence. It does, however, suggest you’re more inclined to agree with George Washington than Bill Clinton.” –columnist Mark Hemingway

“Whenever I see Pelosi’s super-sized luxury jet, I’m reminded of those bumper-stickers one occasionally sees around town that announce My Other Car is a Motorcycle or, on a ‘94 Saturn, My Other Car is a Limousine. Her plane should have a large sticker on its tail that reads: My Other Plane is a Broomstick, and so, come to think of it, should she.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky

“To give you an idea how popular President Obama is around the world – he’s probably the most popular leader in the world – this is amazing. They opened a nightclub in China named after President Obama. It will be an Obama-themed nightclub. Here’s the amazing thing – it hasn’t even opened yet and is already $12 trillion in debt.” –comedian Jay Leno