Shoot yourself in the leg, get two years.  To add a prison term to injury, quite literally, Plaxico Burress, one time New York Giants wide receiver was sentenced to 2 years in prison for carrying a concealed firearm into a New York club.  Granted, Plaxico did not have a gun license in New York at the time, nor was the license he did have current, as his Florida license had just expired 6 months before the whole long drawn nightmare took place.  So let’s analyze the benefits of jailing the one time Superbowl great.

Plaxico Burress soon to be #. . .

No doubt, he broke the law by bringing a concealed firearm where he wasn’t supposed to.  However, he did not injure anyone except himself.  But let’s put this crime in perspective.  A high earning tax payer is prosecuted, subsequently let go from his high paying occupation all because of a concealed weapon gone awry.  Our country is in a recession, services that depend on tax payer funding are being cut left and right, and the state of New York which also depends on taxes, is encouraging tax paying citizens to downgrade into non-tax paying individuals due to a gun going off in a club at the wrong time.

Glad that scenario was cleared up, it makes even less sense now.  Probation plus a fine plus community service might have reasonable, but 2 years.  Let’s compare:  J. R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets, get less than 90 days for an auto accident killing his friend, and Plaxico get 2 years for hurting himself.  2nd ammendment rights 0, vehicular manslaughter 10.

If an alien were to land on our United States’ shores, and exclusively watch the leftist fundamentalist, liberal mainstream media, such as CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC, and then take a test about violence and guns, that alien would probably blame guns for all of the violence that United States citizens suffer under.  In reality, those of us who know that banning does not make things any safer know that the media is just doing it’s job, and do it quite well.

Villify anything that opposes their collective beliefs, such as 2nd ammendment obsolete and single payer health care good.  Luckily people are catching on about the lies about the President’s health care reform, or single payer health care as it should really be known.  Unfortunately, defending the 2nd ammendment has not been as lucky because it’s attacked constantly.  Case in point, Hardball host Chris Matthews would not stop talking about the quote carried by New Hampshire Town Hall protester, William Kostric.  Chris Matthews constantly yelled at Mr. Kostric about the sign he carried, and just about accused him of trying to assassinate the President.  Luckily the authorities are not as “unbiased” as Hardball host Chris Matthews, because he wasn’t arrested.

Aliens vs. unbiased news

Luckily aliens are just Hollywood creations that bring in lots of box office dollars, but the left wing liberal mainstream media is real.  Though it very well may have been created by Hollywood, the left really believes that the mere presence or thought of even owning a gun implies evil.

While the liberal, left wing mainstream media likes to pride itself on being tolerant of everyone’s view, the liberal mainstream media is as bigoted as all of the organizations and people that they accuse of being bigots.  Let’s take the new administration of President Obama, and the mainstream media who hang on his every word.  While going on his “health care reform” tour, the President cherry picked those who were allowed to be in the audience, and discouraged, for lack of a better word, those who did not agree with his view that government run health care is what would serve the country best.

Turned away from the Town Hall

This same administration, along with the Clinton adminstration of old, depended on the Center for Disease control to collect, gather and report on gun related data.  When the National Rifle Association called the CDC out for being in charge of the data, which they should never have been, the CDC accused the NRA of  “skewing” the data.  The NRA was correct that the CDC really should not be in charge of disseminating the data, but because of it’s astute observation, they are villified, of course, by every card carrying liberal Democrat journalist.  How’s that for tolerance?

If the Democrats truly wanted to fix our “broken” system, that’s liberal speak for abolishing the 2nd ammendment, they would offer solutions that preserve 2nd ammendment rights, and regulate those who would ruin it for those who abide by the rules.  Since that’s not happening, or won’t happen in the near future, the NRA is all that the folks who believe in the 2nd ammendment have.

While those who interpret the 2nd ammendment right to bear arms, as a right, there are those who believe that the part about “right to bear arms” is up for interpretation.  One of those people who believes that the 2nd ammendment is not as plain and clear as everyone else believes is newly confirmed Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor.

newly confirmed Scotus Judge Sonia Sotomayor

Having called questions regarding the 2nd ammendment abstract, and quoting cases from over 2 centuries ago, newly confirmed Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor is a liberal voter’s dream.  After all, how many times have we heard the liberals, and their voice, the mainstream media, decry access to guns to curtail ensuing gun violence?  In fact, 2nd ammendment supporters even were accused of being closed minded and “clinging” to guns by President Obama, during his campaign.

It should be no surprise then that his first confirmation choice emphasize the fact that the 2nd ammendment is “abstract” and not a right in fact.  The mainstream media, and the liberals who hang onto every word they say now has a hero in newly confirmed Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor.  But since she is one of many judges now, hopefully her decisions, mostly based on her experience as a “wise latina” will be diluted by those who use reason and the facts at hand to make decisions.  Of course that kind of commentary rarely makes its ways into the reports from the mainstream media, who has showered her with kindness, and painted her as the underdog.

So how will the new Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor fit into the big picture of the United States Supreme Court?  Only time will tell if she will continue to color the decisions that make their way to the United States Supreme Court through the lenses of a “wise Latina” or as a judge that bases the decisions made on facts from the case at hand.

While former Supreme Court Judge David Souter was not a conservative, in the conservative sense of the word, he did not exactly vote against gun related issues just because the issues were remotely related to the 2nd ammendment.  Of the gun control issues that former Supreme Court Justice David Souter ruled on, he voted that felons had the right to bear arms and the United State Congress has the right to regulate guns in school zones across the nation.

"Wise Latina" or SCOTUS judge basing decisions on facts?

So, while the liberals of this country may tout former Supreme Court Justice David Souter as someone who had their best interests at heart, based on his decisions on gun control, he based the decisions he made as a judge based on the facts.  So the question still remains, will newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice base the decisions she makes as a judge on her pre existing notion that the 2nd ammendment is not a “fundamental right”? When posed with a simple yes or no question, during the preliminary hearings, newly confirmed Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor couldn’t answer the question, and actually called the question “abstract”.  Only time will tell how things will play out.

Although the newest United States Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor won the United States Senate by a veritable landslide, average Americans, even Hispanic Americans aren’t as impressed.  According to a Zogby poll, taken in late July 2009,  47% of Hispanic Americans were in favor of her, while the other 43% were opposed to her nomination and subsequent confirmation.  That same poll reported that there were more Small Business owners who were opposed to now United States Supreme Court justice 55% to be exact, than the 44% in favor of her nomination.  Independent voters results were also split 52% opposed versus 42% in favor of now United States Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Our new "wise" Supreme Court justice

Those voters who have the good sense to understand the “abstract” 2nd ammendment, were opposed to now Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination by a larger margin.  “Abstract” minded 2nd ammendment supporters opposed now Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor’s by 67% to 30% of 2nd ammendment supporters in favor of her nomination and subsequent confirmation.  And gun owners have a right to oppose her.  Before she became a Supreme Court judge, she ruled that the Federal government is actuallly who determines the right to bear arms, not individual states, as well as ruling that the 2nd ammendment is not a “fundamental” right.  And those are just the rulings related to the 2nd ammendment.  And we haven’t even discussed the case where she ruled that racial preferences in favor of non-white litigants were valid.  Thankfully the Supreme Court overturned her decision.  Only time will tell if she will prove herself a “wise Latina” on the United States Supreme Court.

The  Senate voted in favor of “wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor.  Clearly she won a majority of the votes to her side, as the majority Democrats obviously voted for her, in addition to 9 Republican senators, making the final tally 68 aye votes versus 31 nay votes.  The Senate even went so far as to actually physically assemble at their respective desks to give their winning votes of aye and the unfortunately lesser spoken nay votes.

Senator Robert Byrd

Even 91 year old veteran senator Robert Byrd of  West Virginia made the trip to the Senate, wheelchair and all.  The only senator not present for the vote was Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., due to his brain cancer condition.

The Republicans who voted in favor of Sotomayor’s confirmation were the self described moderate Republican members: Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Kit Bond, R-Mo., Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Mel Martinez, R-Flor., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio.  The remaining 31 Republican senators voted along the party line against Sotomayor’s confirmation.  Independent senators, Joseph Lieberman, ID-Conn and Bernard Sanders, I-Verm. also voted in favor of Sotomayor’s Supreme Court Justice confirmation.

So based on the 100 total U.S. senators, 58 of them are Democrat,  2 are Independents and 40 of them are Republican.  In other words, even if all 40 of the U.S. Republican Senators, plus the 2 Independent U.S. Senators voted against the confirmation, she would still have been confirmed because of the Democratic majority.  It is a bit disheartening though, that almost one-third of the U.S. Republican Senators voted against party lines.

A few months ago, when President Obama went to Mexico, he expressed his concerns to the Mexican government about how United States’ guns were responsible for the drug wars in Mexico.  Beyond the absurdity of the idea, the fact that President Obama quoted that “More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that lay in our shared border.” is not only funny math, but just plain lying.

Unfortunately, the liberal mainstream media hasn’t even tried to prove President Obama’s statistics wrong, but, instead, like the loyalists they are, continue to repeat his findings, just as disciples preaching a gospel.  Only Fox news did investigative research to verify his findings.  What they found was, when guns traced to the United States were sent to the United States, they were found to be from, guess what, the United States.

President Obama in Mexico

But all of the guns recovered from Mexico are not sent to the United States, since they aren’t traceable to the United States, yet are still part of the United States traced gun statistics.  Funny math indeed.  Fox News further reported that 17 per cent is a more accurate finding than the previously reported as gospel 90 per cent finding.  Too bad the other news agencies didn’t bother checking.  If you ask me, making 17 per cent equal 90 per cent is very deceptive, and proves an anti-gun agenda.  I guess math skills and transparency is not part of the hope and change that we can believe in.