ShareThisFormer Colorado representative Tom Tancredo fired up 600 Tea Party movement conventioneers in Nashville by lambasting "the cult of multiculturalism."
He also called President Obama "a socialist ideologue" elected because of "people who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English."
The six-term Colorado congressman who did not stand for re-election after his also-ran campaign in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries is a one-note politician with simplistic, intemperate measures to regulate migration.
Until he said "people," I had to wonder whether Tancredo was talking about corporations and pandas. Ever since the Supreme Court majority declared that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as "individuals" -- which is who "people" are -- it's somewhat confusing.
I thought at first he was talking about the real socialist encroachment, the freeloaders on our generosity, the ones who don't respect our borders or appreciate citizenship, but use our facilities and medical care.
Until "people" came up, I thought Tancredo was talking about Tai Shan, the panda, who was deported Feb. 4 and that band of pandas.
Before he was removed, the panda was held in zoological detention in Washington, D.C. His parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, are Chinese communist pandas. Although Tai Shan was born in the United States, Chinese authorities claim that all pandas are Chinese.
The move is similar to the Elian Gonzalez caper, during the Clinton administration, when the child was snatched by U.S. authorities from his U.S. family to be repatriate to his Cuban father, and the boy became a member of a communist youth group.
As a harbinger of things to come, in 2009 Tai Shan was presented with a Chinese passport by Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Some zoo circles interpreted this as a strong-arm move against the Panda-American, who was born in the United States.
Arriving in Chengdu, China, on Feb. 5 after a 15-hour Fed Ex-crated flight, Sheng was greeted by a hundred well wishers. Automaker Sichuan announced it was privatizing Tai Shan by "adopting" him for life. He is to be housed in a bordello where he will table dance as a sex slave at Wolong's Bifengxia Panda Base. Sichuan will pay for the stud's food, medical care and other expenses to the tune of about $90,000 a year.
There has been no indication that China intends to compensate the U.S. public for the welfare support of their pandas for more than 10 years. The U.S. paid $10 million to China over ten years for Shan's parents.
The panda family clearly got socialist care in the United States and is getting free enterprise in China. And who got soaked for the bill? The overburdened taxpayer, that's who, including those who never saw Tai Shan at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park or received benefit of any cheap, off-the-books panda labor.
Although there is no report of a panda ever voting in an election, it is possible to incorporate one as a company and campaign for its "individual" rights under the Constitution so they eventually get "people" rights, like you and me.
Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who resigned as Alaska governor in the middle of her term, was the only major conservative headliner in Nashville. She commended a $100,000 speaking fee at the "grassroots" $549 dinner event. Although heavy-hitting on her allusions to President Obama, she made no reference to pandas.
However, Palin said, "America is ready for another revolution," adding "this movement is about people." The reference to humans suggests she opposes the recent Supreme Court decision that makes corporations into "individuals" and the panda power challenge.
Stay tuned to find out how Tea Party followers manage their contradictory ideals, like one expressed by Palin's saying she wants "another revolution," and Tancredo's calling for a "counter-revolution" and how they all plan to take back the country from encroaching Panda power.
(Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail him at joseisla3(at)yahoo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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