Rush On Crime: More!

"I come not to bury Caesar but to praise him."
- Brutus, in William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar"

I come not to buy Rush Limbaugh but to praise him.

Rush is no hypocrite, at least not on the matter of drugs. America's favorite, or at least most famous, former drug addict is no fan of the War on Drugs. Here he is on the first day of July:

They are rounding up guns in Houston. Have you seen this? Now, the guys here, they are rounding up guns in Houston, the feds are going door-to-door in Houston because they say they're trying to round up guns that are being used in drug deals. Some woman had just bought four brand-new weapons and they found out about it and they went to take them away. Look, folks, what's the big deal about this now? I mean elections have consequences. Well, I'll tell you what, elections have consequences. It's about time people started facing up with what they did here. This is just the first-ever census for guns. You know, ACORN, AmeriCorps, going to be joining the feds soon, they'll sweep the country, they'll do an inventory, they'll get one or two more liberals on the bench, Supreme Court, they'll find a way to get rid of the Second Amendment, then they can confiscate guns like FDR confiscated gold in 1933.

The incident to which Rush referred at the beginning of his rambling (is he capable of any other?) complaint was chronicled (pun intended) in the June 30 Houston Chronicle, in which agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms approached a house

worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.

On June 29 the ATF and Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a memorandum in which the two agencies agreed to cooperate in investigating firearms, most of which orginate in Texas, Arizona, or California, smuggled to Mexican drug cartels. The Chronicle reports that in 2008 more than 12,000 weapons, over 7500 found at the scene of a crime, were traced to the ATF for tracing.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of WashingtonJeffrey C. Sullivan notes that the violence pepetrated by rival drug cartels in Mexico has not been contained, threatening the U.S.A. by having

spilled over ... somewhat to the (U.S.) communities on the border. Our concern is that, with these kinds of weapons and with traffickers beginning to carry weapons on a more regular basis, we unfortunately could see the same kinds of things here.

U.S. and Mexican authorities have increasingly collaborated on itelligence, agents have been working the streets of neighborhoods in border states to ask about suspicious purchases, and the ATF is advising legitimate gun dealers on how to detect individuals who may be making purchases for criminals legally prohibited from buying firearms.

Rush's apparent paranoia is ironic. These measures are especially critical because federal law prohibits the government from compiling databases on gun owners, a restriction Limbaugh would applaud. Unfortunately, that would run counter to his theme of a socialist federal government run amok, determined to confiscate firearms and force every American to worship Barack Obama.

Wednesday's rant was highly entertaining, with Limbaugh in one pargraph deftly slamming gun control, law enforcement, ACORN, AmeriCorps, and the Supreme Court. And he does it very cleverly, without actually blaming anyone, instead claiming "It's about time people started facing up with what they did here." It brings to mind the tactic of those whites who, before these more enlightened days, would always blame "them"- and then deny racist intent, having failed to specify who "they" or "them" were.

Rush Limbaugh is not always negative. Drug trafficking, it seems, is one activity he can support.