I’m very saddened to bring you news of the death of Joey Vento, the founder, owner, and operator of Geno’s Steaks, a Philadelphia landmark for over four decades. Yesterday he suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Shamong at the age of 71. 

The sign you see above was placed in Geno’s in 2006 because of an increasing number of customers who were unable to communicate to Joey and his employees in English, the lingua franca of the United States, and increasingly, the world. Of course, for standing up for his principles-and supporting the seemingly common sense notion that someone living in America should be able to utter a coherent sentence in its primary language-he was vilified by those who despise the conceptual framework of this nation as a melting pot. He was subjected to an Orwellian investigation by the politically correct inquisitors at the The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, which would ultimately exonerate him of the  thought crime he had allegedly committed. 

That battle  exemplified the courage and determination of Mr. Vento, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants who wanted to provide a better life and more dynamic future for their own children. He truly exemplified the American dream, and was an affront to the ethos of entitlement that has so suffused contemporary American society. I never had the pleasure of meeting Joey or sampling one of his legendary cheesesteaks, but several members of New York ICE made the trip south in order to demonstrate their agreement with Geno’s steadfast support for American citizenship and the English language. That devotion to country is what separated this restaurant from an ordinary, successful steak shop, and what made Joey such a remarkably distinctive personality.

For a brief but fitting tribute to Joey Vento, check out Michelle Malkin’s website. American Rattlesnake sends out its thoughts and prayers to Joey’s family, as well as to the people of Philadelphia who enjoyed his trademark cheesesteaks. He was one of a kind, and the legacy he bequeathed to patriotic Americans of all races, colors, and creeds will not soon be forgotten. 

Rest in Peace, Joey Vento. You will be missed.

A meet, greet, and eat summertime picnic event (byo food and drink) to celebrate the first battle in the Revolutionary War, whereby the American troops proved that they could stand up to the British regulars without the advantage of surprise.

Bring the whole family. Let your children and grandchildren know that the early battles of the War of Independence were fought right here in New Jersey.

Members, followers and supporters of all these organizations are invited.
(Listed in alphabetical order)

Act for America

Americans For Prosperity 

Campaign for Liberty

Among others.  The gathering will take place on Saturday, July 23 from 11 AM to 3 PM at Monmouth Battlefield State Park. 16 State route 33, Malapan, New Jersey. You can find the instructions on how to get there at the park’s official website.

Yesterday the President delivered his much-anticipated address on immigration at the Chamizal National Memorial Park, a landmark that commemorates the settlement of  a century-long border dispute centered around the Rio Grande, which has traditionally served as the demarcation line between what is Mexico and what is the United States.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama used the occasion to yet again smear honest opponents of his administration’s immigration policies, obfuscate what the White House has actually done to secure the border, ignore the catalog of horrors occurring in Ciudad Juarez-El Paso’s neighboring city across the border-and engage in boilerplate rhetoric intended to stoke one of the Democratic Party’s key constituencies in the upcoming 2012 presidential election.

National Review has published a pretty devastating refutation of almost every word uttered by the President, which takes the form of an NRO symposium that includes luminaries on this subject such as Heather Mac Donald and Victor Davis Hanson. Although not much can be added to the thorough dissection submitted by NR, I will address one issue raised by President Obama’s speech that is of particular importance. That subject being the subservience he once again showed towards our southern neighbor.

In an incisive article about the President’s speech, The Washington Times described the symbolic representation of this genuflection, which takes the form of a 300 foot-tall Mexican flag that spans half a regulation-sized football field and dominated the optics of Barack Obama’s highly-publicized speech. Perhaps the choice of this venue-along with the unsettling visual of a Mexico figuratively dominating an American state that had obtained its independence from a military dictatorship over a century and a half ago-was unintentional. However, you have to bear in mind that this is the same president who allowed the Mexican head of state, Felipe Calderon, to lecture Congress about its responsibilities to Mexico. The same speech that, need I remind you, was lustily applauded by Mr. Obama’s friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, as well as the two cabinet members charged with enforcing American immigration law, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Yes, Mexicans do have the right to take pride in their country in any manner they see fit, even if others might deem it a gauche display of jingoism and a figurative thumb in the eye to American yanquis. Yet, just as the former Mexican president believes that his country is a “sovereign nation,” so too do the vast majority of American citizens, even if their president and his cabinet officers do not share that view. That’s why President Obama’s speech was so disappointing on such a fundamental level. Beyond the lies, beyond the refusal to admit that his administration is not doing all it can to enforce the law-which would include punishing states and localities that refuse to abide by federal immigration law-there was a disconcerting willingness on the President’s part to cede a vital part of our American heritage in order to placate domestic political constituencies and foreign countries which do not feel any reciprocal obligations to the United States or American citizens.

The words of Rick Melendrez, a Texan who is both Hispanic and a Democratic activist-presumably, someone whose opinions President Obama would at least entertain, if not value-are instructive in this regard. His work to construct an American flag to rival that of the garish Mexican standard shadowing the border is not simply a fit of pique, or chest-beating American bravado. It is a reflection of a deep and abiding patriotism that many Americans-even those Americans whom President Obama condescendingly believes do not value their citizenship-share and want to express publicly.

The men who stood up to defend the Alamo, and who fought and died in order to obtain independence for Texas from a brutal, military autocracy-many Tejanos among them-shared Mr. Melendrez’s sense of pride. Barack Obama might not realize this, but his speech yesterday was not only an insult to those Americans who listened to it-with the exception of the shills and cronies that were his intended audience-but an insult to the memory of those who sacrificed everything in order to achieve a Texas which is wholly independent of Mexico. That perhaps, is the most galling aspect of the President’s speech.

Update: My good friend was also at at the May Day events and has some fantastic video footage, which you can find at The Silent Majority No More. The rest of her coverage can be found at her website as well. More video from the day’s festivities can be found on Youtube.

As promised, today I will present the conclusion to American Rattlesnake’s May Day coverage, including the robust, sustained-and to our country’s enemies, deeply irritating-counter-protest staged by this website’s editor-in-chief in collaboration with New York Ice.

As you can see by the photo above, our critics-in this case, the feral, reflexively violent antifa thugs who met us at Foley Square-were not eager to be photographed. Whether that was out of concern for being identified by NYPD officers the next time they attempt to assault a peaceful assembly of dissident voices, or out of respect for the hundreds of visitors who would be forced to look at their faces in the following days is something I’ll  let you decide.

Fortunately, there were a few “anti-fascists” who I was able to detain for a brief snapshot. This young woman, for example, evokes memories of a young Faye Dunaway, perhaps after being hit with a tire iron. An arresting image, nonetheless.

This zaftig Mexican girl below was particularly aggrieved by my unobtrusive photography that day, although I can’t for the life of me discern why. After bombarding me with some choice expletives for several minutes, she was gently escorted beyond police barricades by some NYPD officers and asked to remove her  jaunty black bandana/face-mask.

At this point, the street theater they were attempting-by ripping signs from the hands of counter-protesters, showering us with abuse, and generally acting like ignoramuses-descended into farce, as the well-fed IA began to weep like a  young child whose favorite plaything has been ripped from her arms.

Even though these photos might lead you to  believe there was a sarin or mustard gas attack upon Foley Square, the truth is that the nose-holding and face-covering is merely part of the theatrical element antifa crybabies brought to the fore during their ridiculous posturing that day. I think you can judge its effectiveness by the look on the face of the Muslim man pictured below.

As entertaining as the black-clad anarchists were, there was also much amusement to be found throughout the rally, including on stage. The African-American gentleman in the background is, ironically enough, named Clarence Thomas. Leader of the radical International Longshore & Warehouse Union-Local 10, he was joined on stage by the afternoon’s emcee, who spent the better part of two hours explaining why her organization had decided to hold two separate rallies which were both ended prematurely.

I AM ASKED WHY WE DECIDED TO HOLD TWO RALLIES, AND MY ANSWER IS…BECAUSE…!

The last declamation was followed in short order by a tangent having absolutely no bearing on the ostensible reason for staging this rally. In other words, even the people who organized this event had absolutely no clue why they were there in the first place. I wish I could say I was surprised by this revelation.

There were also some festive people in Indian, or as the politically correct stewards of speech would say “indigenous,” dress doing a rain dress which was strangely ineffective.

And of course, what illegal alien friendly event would be complete without someone spouting completely inaccurate, misleading statistics that are easily debunked?

Thankfully, on this day the masses of pro-amnesty, anti-American, revanchist reds were confronted by a group of Americans, some of them immigrants themselves, who saw the need to assert their views amidst the cacophony of stridently anti-American voices. Although initially outnumbered, we stood our ground and endured to the end, even outlasting the loud, obnoxious, but morally bankrupt forces that had tried to colonize Foley Square that afternoon.

My favorite part of the day, bar none, was when a group of hostile illegal aliens and socialists attempted to heckle us into submission but were silenced once we withdrew our driver’s licenses and photo identification. When we asked them where their papers were, accompanied by the chorus to the great 1980s Genesis tune, Illegal Alien, we were greeted with shame-faced silence and dumb stares. A small victory, it was nevertheless an  extremely gratifying moment.

Joanna Marzullo, president of New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement, expresses her point of view. You can find video coverage of her part in the counter-demonstration on Youtube.

Even in the Big Apple, there are people who stand with Arizona, as this past May Day demonstrated.

The lesson to be drawn from this event, IMO, is that no matter how outnumbered you might feel when fighting the hordes of radical, open borders crusaders, there are always people willing to stand by your side when you defend basic American values.