The New Patriotism: Si se puede?

(Note: This is a corrected post. My original had some incorrect dates. Apologies.)

You may have honorably defended your country in a theater of war, but if you want to be considered a real patriot these days, you'd better be able to say "Yes we can" in Spanish.

Fox News followed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she addressed a "cheering crowd . . . chanting, "Si se puede," who were gathered at St. Anthony's Church in San Francisco to stop immigration raids and deportations:

You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic.

Not just patriotic, not very patriotic, but very, very patriotic.

Maybe she should nominate them for the Congressional Gold Medal.

Hmmm. . . If the U.S. is their country, does that make, say, Mexico, our country?

Pelosi was a guest of Chicago Representative Luis Gutierrez, who toured the U.S., speaking and collecting petitions that ask President Obama to "stop the immigration raids and deportations that", he says, "are tearing our marriages, families and children apart." Gutierrez delivered the petitions on Wednesday.

What makes me think that, at that meeting, President Obama didn't "refuse to hear" Hispanic arguments about morality and government obligations, as he did so callously during his Monday meeting with American veterans, who, incidentally, also have "marriages, families and children" who suffer post-combat (and before and during) when their veteran loved ones suffer.

I expected the President to be all smiles for his fellow Chicago politician and the Hispanic Democrats. I also expected photos.

So far, no photos of smiles that I've tracked down. Today Congressman Gutierrez will be giving a press conference at Rebano Companerismo Cristiano Church in Chicago to report on his meeting with the President. We'll see.