Kirly (not a bald stooge)

Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas and nothing else

2011-12-22T08:21:00.003-07:00

It's been quite a while since I posted anything due to life intruding on what I'd rather be doing. But, I'm hoping to get back to blogging first thing next year. Meanwhile, I wish all a Happy Hanukah and a Merry Christmas - yes, both since my adopted mother was Jewish and I am Christian and do my best to show respect and appreciation for the Jewish people who are, after all, the Jewish people are the Apple of G-d's eye who preserved the Scriptures for all the world, and who gave us the Messiah (no, not the pres).

If you're wondering why I didn't wish anyone happy "kwaanzaa" or however you spell that, I don't participate in fake, made-up-to-foster-separatism celebrations.

If you're wondering why I haven't wished moslems well on one of their days, well that would be due to my not embracing evil, the devil himself, nor idol worship - that's right, they worship a stupid piece of black meterorite which they've enshrined in a replica of what they fear most - a vagina (look it up!). Weirdos. They must not fear it too much though since they are replicating like cockroaches (yeah, i said it - not like you'd expect me to use an analogy to something sweet, soft, cudly, and relatively harmless like a bunny, did ya?).

53 Mexicans Murdered in Monterrey

2011-08-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

I wonder if any of those guns are of the Fast and Furious variety?

Obama, Holder, et al, I hope you're happy with overt act of war in arming the internal enemies of our neighbor, Mexico. You should all be extradicted for your crimes.

53 dead in attack on casino in northern Mexico

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Two dozen gunmen burst into a casino in northern Mexico on Thursday, doused it with gasoline and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside, killing 53 people and injuring a dozen more, authorities said.

The fire at the Casino Royale in Monterrey, a city that has seen a surge in drug cartel-related violence, represented one of the deadliest attacks on an entertainment center in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

"This is a night of sadness for Mexico," federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said in a televised address. "These unspeakable acts of terror will not go unpunished."

Calderon tweeted that the attack was "an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism" that requires "all of us to persevere in the fight against these unscrupulous criminal bands."

Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina told the Televisa network that 53 people had been confirmed dead in the attack.

"But we could find more," said state Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza, adding that a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay.

Did Justice Department Know About Fast and Fuirous?

2011-08-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, there is no doubt that Holder knew. Watch this video and watch him say that he learned of it a few weeks before the scandal broke and yet he bragged about it in Mexico long before.

Mexico wants to indict those responsible for letting the guns walk and I don't blame them. This was an act of war arming the internal forces aligning against the Mexican people and the government of Mexico.

Click the picture below to watch the video (not embedded).

And those in charge are being promoted and moved to other parts of the country, some in positions invented just for them. While the whistleblowers are being retaliated against which is against Federal law. Of course, we already know from the voter intimidation charges against the black panthers stemming from the '08 PA billy club swinging incidents that Holder won't enforce Federal law if the accused / guilty are "his people".

All of MiddleEarth Angry at McCain

2011-08-09T17:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday the Tea Party Hobbits (you know, US, the good guys who save the entire world!) politely asked Senator John McCain for an apology for turning the word Hobbit into an epithet. Today, the Morder Orcs (Democrats) expressed their anger at him too. In typical John McCain fashion, the venue was way too small and the doors locked 45 minutes before the event began.

I heard a clip of it on the radio where McCain said "...everyone wants to be rich..." and the crowd howled that no, they did not want to be rich! LOL

Anger greets McCain at Tucson town hall

If U.S. Sen. John McCain's town hall on Tuesday had a theme, it's that Greater Tucson has been dipped in a big vat of angry.

And the heat isn't just the domain of the tea party anymore, with progressives showing up in force, just as torqued as their conservative counterparts.

It didn't help the tenor that there were far too many people for the 150-seat venue at St. Marks United Methodist Church on the far Northwest Side. The doors were locked and people turned away 45 minutes before the event even started.

As McCain entered, waving, he was greeted by the standard applause, as well as the not-so-standard chant of "Where are the jobs?"

Although the crowd by applause agreed to some ground rules - no yelling, no shouting, respecting one another - they didn't mean it.

The catcalls and interruptions started early into his introductory comments, which McCain largely used to make his case that the economic situation has deteriorated under the Obama administration. Using a chart with the title, "He's making it worse," McCain said there are fewer jobs, higher gas prices, more regulations and lower housing values since the inauguration.

McCain Apologizes if The Hobbits Misunderstood

2011-08-08T17:29:00.002-07:00

But he's not sorry he said it...why should I, he said, when it's the facts. Do you understand that? He's sorry that you hobbits are too stupid to understand what his highness said.

And, obviously, he fails to understand that the Hobbits save the entire world. The Hobbits win!

I think John McCain might be Saruman.

John McCain & WSJ - The Hobbits Win!

2011-07-30T08:03:00.001-07:00

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows I already can't stand John McCain, his recent years border enforcement posturing with Pinal County Sheriff Babeu notwithstanding. Every six years McCain runs to the right and then spends his six year Senate term sliding to the left and insulting the right, reaching across the aisle to those whose policies are, at best, Socialistic, and, at worst, Communisitic (yeah, I said it).

Anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes knows that I have been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien since I was a child. I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings more times than I can count. I have watched the movies at least 20 times. I even went on a Lord of the Rings Movie Location Tour of New Zealand and intend to go on another after The Hobbit movies are released. Seriously, I love the story which is, at it's core, a story of Good vs. Evil. On the side of Good are the Hobbits. The Hobbits represent innocence and purity and all that is Good in the world.

For the WSJ to attempt to turn "Hobbits" into an epithet is outrageous. How dare they mock The Tea Party as "Hobbits". To be called a Hobbit is not an insult. It is a compliment of the highest order. It is saying you are Good and Righteous. For John McCain to agree with the statements from the WSJ so much that he chose to read the statement on the floor of the Senate thus preserving the sarcastic insult for all posterity is infurirating!

Clearly, the idiots at the WSJ editorial board and John McCain either didn't read the Lord of the Rings, or didn't watch the movies, or don't believe in Good and Evil, or are just too stupid to comprehend the point (that must be it since they don't even seem to understand that Mordor is actually part of Middle Earth). The Hobbits win in the end. Sure, it's a long hard road and they are mocked along the way and given little help by the elites, but they win in the end. HotAir did a great job of pointing out that inconvenient fact.

What the WSJ said

But what none of these critics have is an alternative strategy for achieving anything nearly as fiscally or politically beneficial as Mr. Boehner's plan. The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

John McCain reading the idiocy on the floor of the Senate

RedState has a very funny piece titled One Does Not Simply Mock Into Mordor

Another Dust Storm for Phoenix

2011-07-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

Another dust storm blew through Phoenix yesterday.

This is what I normally see looking south from my home.

And this is what I saw yesterday looking south from my home.

Illegal Immigrant Arrested Inside Arizona Nuclear Facility

2011-07-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

This country is a hair's width away from a terrorist attack. Things are out of control. Unless, of course, you're an ordinary American who has to travel for work or chooses to travel for pleasure. Then, the TSA is all over your grandmas adult diaper.

Illegal Immigrant Arrested Inside Palo Verde

Sheriff: Security allowed him in with fake ID

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says his deputies arrested an illegal immigrant working inside the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station, the nation's largest nuclear plant.

According to Arpaio, 32-year-old Cruz Loya Alvares was denied entrance at the facility's security checkpoint on Monday, when he was the driver of a work truck belonging to a private contractor doing work at Palo Verde. Security guards noticed the man's Mexican driver's license was expired. On Tuesday, Alvares was admitted to the plant as a passenger in a work truck, using an Arizona ID card. However, at a secondary checkpoint, Arpaio says further examination by authorities determined that the Arizona ID was falsified.

The sheriff says he doesn't know how long Alvares had been working inside Palo Verde, and whether Monday was the first time he had attempted to get in.

"To some extent," Arpaio says, "security at this nuclear power plant worked. But still, an illegal immigrant was permitted to gain access. This raises the question: how safe is Palo Verde really if an illegal alien can gain access to this nation's largest nuclear power facility?"

The sheriff says the incident brings into question the effectiveness of the security at other government facilities.

Arpaio says his deputies have been made aware of other incidents of illegal immigrants working in buildings containing various federal, state, and local government workplaces.

AZ Dust Storm

2011-07-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

Click the picture to see it all since my blog format cuts off nearly half of it. It's incredible. Looks like The Mummy That Devoured Phoenix. I heard reports that this storm was 2 miles high and up to 100 miles around / wide.

Head Of Homeland Security To Sheriff Babeu: You're Never Going To Seal The Border.

2011-07-07T19:31:00.002-07:00

I'm just quoting this verbatim from Mike Broomheads page at KFYI but you can hear Sheriff Babeu say the below and much, much more (including "we don't need alligators") yourself ...

Head Of Homeland Security To Sheriff Babeu: You're Never Going To Seal The Border.

Sheriff Paul Babeu came on the Mike Broomhead Show Thursday to talk about a meeting he, among others, had with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in Arizona.

As soon and the secretary opened for questions, Sheriff Babeu jumped on the opportunity to tell her how our border is ACTUALLY doing.

Babeu also thinks that this sudden interest in increased boarder security is just an “election stunt.”

“Poll data should not run national security, and be at the forefront of decision making when it comes to protecting families here in America,” said the Sheriff. “And Oh! The third year into our four year term, we think this is a real issue now? You got to be kidding me!”

According to Babeu, he said that he needed at least 6,000 men and women on our border, now.

How did our Secretary of Homeland Security respond to that?

“You’re never going to seal it…you’re never going to seal the border.”

Well no, you can't seal the border if the HEAD of Homeland Security believes you can't! If she believes you cannot seal the border, then why would she even try? This is what you get with Napolitano, America! And Babeu is right, this is just an election stunt by a government which committed an act of war against Mexico and her people by arming the terrorists inside Mexico via "Fast and Furious" aka "GunRunner".

Arizona Boycott - FAIL!

2011-06-06T17:48:00.002-07:00

Last year about this time there were calls across the land to boycott my beloved state of Arizona. Just look at my own blogging on the topic from May, June, and July of 2010 for a sampling. Well, well, well, here we are a year later and we find that pretty much no boycott happened. Few contracts were cancelled in the face of city councils being ordered to review contracts with firms in Arizona. Typical leftsts counting on the ignorance of their constituents.

What happened to L.A.'s boycott of Arizona?

A year after the City Council approved the sanction, little has changed. There's not even an ordinance specifying how the boycott should work.

In May 2010, Los Angeles was a part of wave of cities that voted to boycott Arizona after lawmakers in that state passed a controversial law targeting illegal immigrants.

City Hall staffers were ordered to review contracts with Arizona companies for possible termination, and official travel to Arizona was supposed to be suspended.

But a year later, little has changed in the way Los Angeles does business with the state next door.

The city still buys street sweeper parts from one Arizona firm and has a contract for emergency sewer repairs with another, officials say. The Harbor Department alone has four contracts with Arizona companies that total nearly $26 million.

A similar pattern can be seen across California. Boycotts in Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles County made headlines last year but have since delivered little punch.

None of those jurisdictions has canceled a contract with an Arizona-based company because of the boycott — leading some immigrant-rights activists to dismiss the high-profile calls for economic sanctions as empty symbolism.

The disappointment is especially felt in Los Angeles, where Latino elected leaders strongly backed the sanctions.

"This is a moment of hypocrisy if the city of Los Angeles says one thing and does another," said Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. Klein was speaking to a crowd of protesters gathered at City Hall to demand follow-through on the business ban.

Protesters have complained about several exemptions the City Council has granted in the last year, including approvals of contracts for made-in-Arizona Taser guns and red-light traffic cameras, as well as a contract with a Los Angeles International Airport shuttle provider that has offices in the state.

Councilman Ed Reyes, who wrote the boycott, voted to approve those exceptions. He said the deals were in the best interest of the city. Reyes said he, too, was disappointed with the boycott's slow progress, but he blamed City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office for taking more than a year to draw up an ordinance specifying the terms of the ban. A spokesman for Trutanich said an ordinance is still in the works. (Kirly - what a hypocrit Reyes is! He WROTE the boycott and then voted to approve exceptions!)

Despite the lack of clear guidelines, Reyes said there had been at least one boycott victory: Last year the Los Angeles Police Department opted not to send a team of helicopter pilots to a training conference in Phoenix.

Reyes also pointed to a March letter sent to the president of the Arizona state Senate by several dozen leaders of companies with headquarters or major subsidiaries in Arizona. The letter urged rejection of five proposed anti-illegal-immigration laws, saying that when controversial laws are passed, "unintended consequences inevitably occur."

Dozens of local governments across the country imposed boycotts on Arizona after the state passed SB 1070, which required police to check the status of those they suspected of being in the country illegally. Critics said the law would promote discrimination; state officials disagreed.

In their letter, the Arizona business leaders wrote that the boycotts cost the state jobs and hurt its economy, and that further anti-immigration legislation could do more harm. None of the five laws passed.

Lawrence Glickman, a boycott expert at the University of South Carolina, said boycott organizers should count that as a success. Most boycotts end more ambiguously than the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott of the 1950s, which ended segregation on buses, or the grape campaign of the 1960s, which won fieldworkers contracts with growers, he said. (Kirly - a letter should be counted as a success??? uhm, ok, lefties, you got your letter so you're "winning".)

In the case of the Arizona boycotts, he said the target — an entire state — is less clear than a company or industry. "As an entity, a state is pretty amorphous," Glickman said.

Los Angeles city officials have struggled to define what it means for a company to be "headquartered in Arizona," the language used in the council's boycott motion.

The issue came up recently when the Board of Public Works considered a $100-million contract for a wastewater treatment plant with Honeywell, a multinational corporation that has divisions and employees based in Arizona. The board approved the contract. (Kirly - typical leftist idiots. Honeywell is not headquarted in Arizona.)

The boycott movement lost some urgency last year when one of the law's most controversial provisions was struck down in federal court. That ruling, which halted the requirement that police check the status of suspected illegal immigrants, was upheld in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said she plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Several California entities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles County, voted to suspend their boycotts until the court case is decided.

More than 20 Los Angeles County contracts were approved while the boycott was active because they met certain exemptions, records show.

In one report to the Board of Supervisors, the county's chief executive said a contract with an Arizona company that makes undershirts for jail inmates was exempted because "additional cost, time and resources are required to resolicit the services or supplies." (Kirly - so they were basically too lazy to do the work to support their own boycott!)

Ellen Sandt, an L.A. County deputy chief executive, said the boycott was important even if it had produced few tangible results in the way the county spends its money. For the supervisors who passed it, "it was important for them to take a stand," she said. (Kirly - yep, all symbolixm and no substance with leftists.)

The boycott has been more than symbolic for at least one city. Last year, Santa Monica officials chose not to award a $3-million contract to an Arizona-based firm to replace 20 mobile homes in a city-owned park, according to Kate Vernez in the city manager's office.

They gave the business to a California company instead.

The Idiocy in Pinal County: Pete Rios

2011-05-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of idiot that Sheriff Babeu has to deal with.

Pinal County Supervisor Pete Rios lost control when a citizen called him out for ignoring the citizens of Pinal County.

Supervisor Pete Rios’ Popularity Death Spiral

At the close of the Board Meeting last week, a Pinal County citizen stood to address the Board of Supervisors. As usual, Supervisor Rios told the citizen that he had only three minutes.

The Pinal County citizen began by mentioning that over a year ago, State budget cuts and cost shifts could be anticipated. The citizen continued to respectfully address the Board of Supervisors. Suddenly, Pete Rios and fellow Supervisor David Snider started laughing and smiling at some inside joke, totally ignoring the citizen speaker. It was a display of utter contempt to and for a citizen of Pinal County.

Finally, the Pinal County citizen addressed Supervisor Rios directly: “Supervisor Rios, do you want to share with us what is so funny?”

Pete Rios immediately grabbed the gavel, pounding it furiously on the desk, yelling,” You’re out of order,” repeatedly. Spittle could be seen on Supervisor Rios’ quivering lips. Rios lost control. His behavior was bizarre and reflected badly on himself, the Board of Supervisors and Pinal County.

The Pinal County citizen stood his ground proudly. He had not disrespected the Mr. Rios or the Board. It was Pete Rios who brought disgrace upon himself and his fellow Board Supervisors.

Almost immediately, the Board of Supervisors meeting degenerated to a close and fellow citizens rush to congratulate not Pete Rios but Vince Leach, the honest citizen who called Pete Rios on his disrespectful behavior.

Leaving the Supervisors’ meeting room, I overheard a disgruntled citizen commenting about Pete Rios and his behavior, ‘These guys think they walk on water . . . until you flush it.”

What an arrogant ass.

Pima County Sheriff Dupnik, Why is Jose Guerena Dead?

2011-05-27T19:55:00.001-07:00

Sheriff Dupnik, of Pima County, Arizona has gone from unavoidable for offensive unfounded hateful comments against Conservatives when Jared Loughner murdered 6 and shot several including Arizona Congressional Representative Gabrille Giffords to unavailable for comment in the case of a SWAT raid on a Tucson home which resulted in more than 70 shots fired in 7 seconds with 60 hitting and killing Jose Guerena. Dupnik has hid behind a spokesman and issued as many as 5 different versions of the incident.

I don't know if Jose Guerena was a good guy or a bad guy. I do know that he was a Marine and served our country in Iraq. I know that he was in bed asleep in his home with his wife and 4 year old son in a neighborhood alleged to have a problem with home invasion attacks. And the video below seems to indicate that this was a "no knock" and no announcement can be heard that it was the police. I know that the safety was on Guerenas weapon and he never fired a single shot. And I know that nothing illegal was found in his home. And that medical attention, which arrived within 2 minutes of being called, was kept on hold for more than an hour and then sent away. I don't know if anyone could have survived 60 gunshot wounds, but some effort should have been made to help the poor man whose wife said he was still alive. Allegedly, Guerena lay there dying for an hour and fourteen minutes.

Dupnik. You're done. Resign in disgrace. Go home. Go away. And take the officers who denied medical treatment to a dying man wtih you.

The family has hired an attorney. No amount of money will replace this young man, husband, father. But, they deserve to know the truth of why their home was raided. They are going to sue Pima County, Arizona for all it's worth - probably for all it'll be worth for the next 100 years.

Update: Blackfive has a lot of information and links to even more.

Sheriff Babeu: Mr. President - Protect America First

2011-05-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

If you wish, you can download a copy here.

Here is the text, but definitely go and download a copy to see the seal and the picture at the bottom.

May 26, 2011

President Obama says the border is more secure than ever, declared the border fence complete and said, “these people will never be satisfied, until we build a moat and put alligators in the moat.” We don’t need a moat or alligators in Arizona – we simply need the federal government to do their job and secure the border!

Last year, 219,300 illegal immigrants were apprehended in just one sector of Arizona and many with violent felony criminal records. The US Border Patrol estimates another 400,000 made it safely past them in Arizona and now reside in your community.

If the majority of regular illegal immigrants can sneak into America, what does this say about the ability of terrorist sleeper cells? The porous US/Mexican border is the gravest national security threat facing America. This is no longer just a political fight to stop Barak Obama from giving amnesty to over 12 million illegals, it’s also about protecting our nation from terrorist threats. Thousands of illegal entrants hail from State Department countries of interest--Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and others. In some cases, we have confirmed their troubling ties to terrorism. Yet for those we apprehend, how many today live amongst us?

If the border is secure, why did the feds post 15 Billboard signs in Pinal County warning American citizens; Danger – Public Warning – Travel Not Recommended, due to armed drug cartel smuggling? This is 70 miles into Arizona, where Homeland Security confirms that no fewer than 100 of our beautiful mountains have been repurposed as lookouts for the Mexican Drug lords.

America can secure the border if we replicate the success of what was accomplished in the Yuma Sector. The Yuma Sector has now attained a 96% reduction of illegal border crossings. The Senator McCain/Kyl 10-Point Border Security Plan is developed largely from the learned successes of the Yuma Sector during Operation Jump Start.

This plan calls for immediate deployment of 6,000 armed soldiers for a period of two years. While soldiers are deployed, the double barrier fence is completed with video surveillance, lighting, sensors and roads to support rapid deployment of US Border Patrol. Thirdly, fully enforce the law without any diversion option.

We need focus on the solution to secure our border, not on a path to citizenship or amnesty for 12 million. If President Obama were sincere, why did he not pass immigration reform in his first two years, when he had supermajorities in the House and Senate? Instead, in a purely politically and racially divisive manner, he says he’ll fight now when there is little hope of passage. The President has failed to fulfill his core constitutional duty to protect America.

President Obama led us to believe he would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re no closer to leaving than when he made these false promises. He bombs Libya for humanitarian reasons and yet ignores the outcry of neighboring Mexico in their war against the drug cartels, which have claimed over 35,000 lives and nearly toppled their government. Mexico is America’s second largest trading partner and we share nearly 2,000 miles of porous border, which presents a far graver national security threat than anything we face in the middle east.

Mexico is not our enemy. The cartels are the enemy of Mexico and America. They have brought their violence here to America. Local Sheriffs can’t fight them alone. We can address this growing threat, or we can make jokes, laugh and believe the border is more secure than ever.

Respectfully,

Paul Babeu, Sheriff

Pinal County, Arizona

President, Arizona Sheriff’s Association

2011 National Sheriff of the Year

(Sheriff Babeu is also a retired Army Major and served as the Commanding Officer for Task Force Yuma)

AZ Employer Sanctions Law Upheld by US Supreme Court

2011-05-26T18:51:00.001-07:00

This is not directly related to SB1070 but theories abound that the 5 who voted to uphold Arizonas Employer Sanctions Law (all employers in the state of Arizona must use e-Verify or they could lose their business license) would also vote to uphold SB1070.

Supreme Court OKs Arizona’s business immigration law

(have to click the link and read it at the washington times or else they'll sue me for copyright infringement. heh.)

In a weighty case with far-reaching implications, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that requires all businesses to check to make sure new workers are in the country legally — and in the process signaled the states can have a greater say on immigration issues.

The 5-3 ruling did not directly address a second Arizona law that granted police broader powers to check immigrants’ status and set off nationwide protests by immigrant rights groups last year. But the decision does touch on many of the same issues of federal versus state authority, and seemed to show an openness by a majority of justices to action by the states.

Kris W. Kobach, a lawyer who helped write both laws and who last year won election to be Kansas’ secretary of state, said the decision signals the court majority could look favorably on the far more contentious 2010 Arizona law, known as SB 1070.

“The Supreme Court today said that as long as the state relies upon federal definitions of immigration status and relies upon federal determinations of any particular alien’s status, then that state is not in conflict with federal law. That is exactly what SB 1070 does,” he said.

He said the court also signaled it will set a high threshold before ruling that a state law conflicts with federal law.

At issue in Thursday’s ruling was whether Arizona can require businesses to use E-Verify, a voluntary program the federal government offers businesses to check whether their job applicants are work-eligible. The Obama administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the requirements went too far.

But Chief Justice John G. Roberts, writing the majority opinion, said that while federal law makes the checks voluntary, it does not specifically bar states from making them mandatory. Because Arizona’s law doesn’t impose criminal penalties and deals only with businesses’ licenses, it doesn’t impinge on federal authority.

“Arizona’s procedures simply implement the sanctions that Congress expressly allowed the states to pursue through licensing laws,” the chief justice wrote. “Given that Congress specifically preserved such authority for the states, it stands to reason that Congress did not intend to prevent the states from using appropriate tools to exercise that authority.”

Lindsey Graham(esty) cannot be trusted on immigration

2011-05-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Why I do not trust Lindsey Graham when it comes to immigration reform... because he called those of us who oppose amnesty "bigots".

51% say USA safer now than before 911 attacks

2011-05-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Buried in a report about Janet Incompetano being the most unpopular member of the Obama administration (at 23% favorable), is this little gem:

Still, 51% of voters nationwide now say the United States is safer today than it was before the 9/11 attacks. That’s up from 39% in April and is the highest level of confidence measured since April 2009.

With our borders more porous than ever, with more smuggling than ever - of people, drugs, terrorists and their supplies, 51% actually think we are safer than before 911. This is insanity. When the car bombs start, will these fools wake up? When the suicide bombs begin at crowded weekend eateries, will these fools wake up? When Beslan-style attacks on our public schools begin, will these fools wake up?

Or are these fools destined to be perpetual victims and beggars for government handouts on the backs of the tax payers? Most of whom are not rich!

S.C. gives voter ID bill final approval

2011-05-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Every voter should be verified as the real person on the voter rolls in every election. State or Military photo ID seems to be the only way. And the rolls need to be purged of the deceased as well but that's another topic.

South Carolina is the latest state to demand that you prove your identity when voting. All that is needed now is for Governor Haley to sign it. And look for the ACLU and other idiotic entities to say it's an "undue burden on the poor". Right, like a $10 state ID is too expensive. Most states will give them to you for free if you are truly destitute because they are required for so many benefits. Hell, I have to show photo ID every time I go to the doctor or the dentist!

S.C. gives voter ID bill final approval

COLUMBIA -- State or military photo identification will be required to vote in South Carolina under legislation heading to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk.

With a 26-16 vote, South Carolina's senators adopted a compromise version of the legislation that the House agreed to two weeks ago. The vote broke along party lines, with Republicans supporting it and Democrats voting against it.

To vote, people will have to show a state or military ID, a passport or new voter registration cards with pictures the state will issue. If they don't, they can cast a provisional ballot. They have to show a photo ID at their county voting office a couple of days later to have that vote counted.

Republican Haley has pushed the legislation for months, and it was a top priority for the GOP in the House and Senate. They say the bill is about voter integrity.

Democrats say it suppresses turnout by minority, disabled and elderly voters who lack a license, and they argued educating people on the measure and supplying a free photo ID will be expensive.

Sen. Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat, said the legislation is destined for court challenges.

"What this bill does is institutionalizes voter suppression," Hutto said.

He said a list of 178,000 voters that don't have photo identification will create problems because it is an invasion of privacy and creates the potential for identity theft.

Sen. Chip Campsen, an Isle of Palms Republican, said Democrats created that problem by insisting on the creation of the list to help identify people who don't have the credentials needed to vote.

Senate Democrats had gone along with the legislation because their version of the bill created early voting in South Carolina. The House refused to go along with that measure but is considering separate legislation to allow early voting.

Next Generation of Socialists Assert Themselves in Tucson

2011-04-27T18:10:00.002-07:00

The Tucson Unified (heh) School District has been out of control for years. Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who had the legal right and responsibility to review curriculum, was repeatedly denied access to the socalled Ethnic Studies program for years. And, of course and as usual, called a raaaacist for demanding it in the first place.

I haven't followed recent events involving the TUSD and the Ethnic Studies program since it's well over 100 miles from where I live and I believe in local control - ie, the parents of the students should be involved in the schools. It seems the TUSD board was to have a meeting on the Ethnic Studies program last night. And it also seems that these high school students were paying close attention to the recent events in Wisconsin (watch the video).

The article below says that the news organization is working to find out why the students weren't arrested. Good question. And why aren't these out of control anarchist teens punished by their parents? Because the parents are probably Democrats used to screaming and whining and pounding their fists and stomping their feet demanding more freebies from our tax dollars. Damn commies.

I think this article is incorrectly titled. It should be "Community reacts to out of control children with irresponsible parents".

Community reacts to ethnic studies protest

TUCSON - An unruly crowd of frustrated students at the Tucson Unified School District Headquarters last night forced the meeting on ethnic studies to be postponed.

Ten minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start last night, students barged into the meeting room and shackled themselves to board members' chairs.

So, what happens now? News 4 is still waiting to hear when and where the rescheduled meeting will be held.

Last night, in a brief note, the board said it will be rescheduled in a bigger venue to better accommodate so many people.

As for the students' actions last night, there are still a lot of questions, and even more reactions are coming in today.

News 4 is working to find out why the students weren't arrested, and why the meeting was ultimately cancelled. Students say their voices just weren't being heard, so they had to do something extreme to get the board's attention.

But critics say their actions were just wrong.

"They're being taught not to respect any other point of view. To respect the laws, to respect their elders, they are acting like a mob," said Pat Sexton, one Tucson resident against the student protect.

But one student who spoke to us thought he was well within his right.

"We're here to fight for an education, for human rights," the student said. "Human rights is ethnic studies, and we should be allowed to have a say in our education, because our education is our future."

Coming up tonight at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., you'll hear from former Arizona superintendent Tom Horne, who led the charge against these ethnic studies classes.

In the meantime, log on to the News 4 Tucson Facebook page and tell us what you think.

Pima Community College has released heavily redacted Jared Lee Loughner emails

2011-04-23T16:14:00.001-07:00

Pima Community College has released heavily redacted emails from/to Jared Lee Loughner, the Tuscon shooter of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The NYSlimes has 51 pages of related public safety reports and documents as well.

Pima Community College Redacts Jared Lee Loughner Emails (here but you may have to look for it on that page about in the previous entries)
Friday 04-22-2011 8:18pm MT

PHOENIX (AP) — The community college that the Tucson mass shooting suspect attended released hundreds of emails Friday but withheld dozens of others, leaving gaps about what was going on inside the school's administration during the hours and days after the shooting.

Pima Community College released a 900-page document that included completely or heavily redacted emails among school administrators, links to news stories about the shooting and previously released Internet postings from the suspect, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the Jan. 8 shooting that left six people dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Loughner began attending classes at the college in 2005 but was eventually kicked out because of behavior campus police considered disturbing. He was told to get a mental health evaluation or not return.

At 2:05 p.m., several hours after the shooting, campus police Cmdr. Manny Amado wrote to Executive Vice Chancellor David Bea, "Just heard on radio that gunman in custody is Jared Loughner."

After what appears to be an email exchange of news reports mentioning Loughner, there is a page listing an email from Jana Kooi, president of the school's northwest campus, at 2:18 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, more than 60 pages of emails that appear to be from Kooi are blacked out, though it's not clear what day or time they were sent because the text is blocked out.

Shortly after the shooting, The Associated Press requested all of the college's emails mentioning Loughner in 2010, prompting the school to hand over six emails from late December, most of them sent by campus police. Earlier this month, the AP expanded its request by asking for all emails mentioning Loughner that were received or sent by school employees from 2005 to 2011.

The emails show that school officials rapidly exchanged information about Loughner, including previously released police reports describing Loughner's bizarre behavior on campus.

In one report from Sept. 23, 2010, shortly before Loughner was banned from campus, an officer describes finding him confused after a classroom outburst, his head tilted and eyes bobbing.

Some emails documented the distress within the school community with the disclosures about the shooting.

In one email, nursing faculty member Ceanne Alvine writes to department chairwoman Patricia Murray, "Please tell me we don't have a student by the name of Loughner."

Another email from Harry Muir, the school's dean of instruction, was sent just hours after the shooting to college Chancellor Roy Flores and other administrators.

"I'm sure by now you are aware of the terrible tragedy that occurred at Gabrielle Gifford's 'Congress on the Corner' gathering here in the northwest part of Tucson," Muir wrote, adding that his son Brandon called him to say he found YouTube videos of Loughner online that mentioned he attended the community college.

"Just thought I would give you a heads-up," Muir wrote. "I don't know if he was in fact a student at PCC or if he was if he ever had any conduct issues, but I thought I would pass on the information," he wrote.

Charlotte Fugett, the college's east campus president, wrote back: "Good heads-up. Thanks."

He replied: "Thank you, Char. It's a terrible situation. I'll see you Monday."

Earlier this month, the school released nearly 3,000 pages of documents that showed how administrators struggled to keep up with a flood of media requests and protect its image just after the shooting rampage.

Those records also included many redactions.
Blood reported from Los Angeles.

Mexico Ambassador Equates Cartels to Capitalists

2011-04-14T08:02:00.001-07:00

Can you see what the Ambassador has done here? He has equated the Cartels with Capitalists.

Mexico ambassador: Our cartel leaders are businessmen, not terrorists

ByTod Robberson / Editorial Writer

trobberson@dallasnews.com | Bio

10:48 AM on Tue., Apr. 12, 2011 | Permalink

wanted so badly to include some other photos with this blog item. Our files are full of the most gruesome photos imaginable. There are dismembered corpses dumped on the sidewalk. There's one of a mother and her child dead on the floor, their bodies bloodied and pockmarked by bullets. This one is the least offensive I could find while still making the point that Mexico's drug cartels are terrorist organizations.

In a letter to the editor today, Mexico's ambassador, Arturo Sarukhan, comes to the defense of these mass murdering, torturing, dismembering, bombing, beheading, kidnapping and drug trafficking organizations, arguing that they are businessmen, not terrorists. Folks, we have a first here. You will not, until now, have seen any top Mexican official actually defending the cartels to this extent. But Sarukhan, taking issue with our editorial last week in defense of a bill before Congress to put Mexico's six biggest cartels on the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, strongly disagrees.

Yes, they are very violent criminal organizations, he says. But "they pursue a single goal. They want to maximize their profits and do what most business do: hostile takeovers and pursue mergers and acquisitions."

Again, in their defense, he says they have "no political motivation or agenda whatsoever beyond their attempt to defend their illegal business."

So, when they kill dozens of mayors, police chiefs, soldiers, journalists, newspaper editors, businessmen, mothers, children, American visitors, immigrants, farmers, truck drivers, musicians, dancers, teachers, etc., etc., etc., we are to believe this is just business? Part of a new mergers-and-acquisitions strategy? And when they hang signs from overpasses, along with a body to punctuate their point, warning that this is their territory, not the government's, there's no political message there?

Perhaps the ambassador should read up a bit on these entrepreneurial business groups to see what they're really up to. There's any number of articles, in English or Spanish, describing their political motives. Here's something I found from a 2009 piece by John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus, two guys who know the difference between terrorists and businessmen:

Unlike Pablo Escobar's Colombian reign of terror in the 1990s, the Mexican cartels are engaged in serious insurgent campaigns. Armed with military infantry weapons, their gunmen use complex small-unit tactics that differ from the usual "pray and spray" methods beloved by criminals. Cartels run training camps for assassins on the border. They attempt to agitate the populace against the Mexican military through political subversion. And they control towns and neighborhoods that the military tries to retake through force.

Mexico's cartels are evolving distinct political aims. La Familia is exemplary in this regard. Using social services and infrastructure protection as levers in rural areas and small towns, they are building a social base. In urban areas, they are funding political patron-client relationships to extend their reach. Reinforced by corruption, propaganda, political marches and demonstrations, as well as social media such as "narcocorridos," such activity helps to shape the future conflict.

This is no longer about drug policy. This is about fighting terrorists. And they are present right across the border in Mexico, and we need to call them what they are

Georgia About to Enforce Immigration Laws

2011-04-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

Georgians, don't let the "thousands" protesting disuade you! The millions of productive citizens are with you but had to show up at work instead of at a protest.

Georgia Senate Passes Arizona-Style Bill to Restrict Illegal Immigration
By NewsCore

ATLANTA - Despite thousands of residents expressing their opposition to the legislation, the Georgia Senate Monday approved an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration.

The Senate approved House Bill 87 after almost three hours of debate in a 39-17 vote, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

However, lawmakers eliminated a contentious piece of the bill which would have required businesses to register their workers on a federal program called E-Verify. The program determines if they are eligible to work in the US.

Because it was substantially amended the bill must now return to the House for its approval, before it can be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal.

Like the law enacted in Arizona, Georgia's bill would allow police to question suspects about their immigration status.

It would penalize people who transport or harbor illegal immigrants or use fake identification to get a job in the US.

It is estimated Georgia is home to about 425,000 illegal immigrants -- more than Arizona.

Thousands of residents of Georgia have protested the bill -- both in demonstrations outside the Capitol and in petitions.

TX Assistant DA found dead in Mexico

2011-03-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Seriously? Why the hell isn't this huge news?? An Assistant DA from Texas is found dead in Mexico and it's not all over the radio, tv, internet??

Texas prosecutor's death was suicide: Mexican official

(Reuters) - Autopsy results show a South Texas prosecutor killed himself by ingesting poison over the weekend in Mexico, according to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas attorney general's office.

Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Arturo Jose Iniguez was found dead Saturday in Matamoros, Mexico.

Tamaulipas officials said in a press release posted on the state website that they would share the results of the investigation into Iniguez's death with U.S. authorities.

Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos said in a written statement on Tuesday that he expects to receive case information from Tamaulipas officials early next week.

He added that a second autopsy would be performed by a pathologist in Texas, and it would not be possible to make a final determination on Iniguez's cause of death "until we conclude the review of all evidence" in the case.

Iniguez, 26, lived in Laguna Vista, Texas, with his wife and 2-year-old daughter. His funeral is set for Thursday.

Matamoros is a city of about 489,000 residents across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas.

UAW Breaks Godwins Law

2011-03-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

The commies who run today's United Auto Workers union have used Martin Niemollers famous saying "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out... " to denigrate anyone who doesn't agree with their version of workers holding the rest of us hostage to their demands along with a gratuitous slam on anyone who wishes to see our borders enforced. Of course, they have to support immigrant workers because normal (read Capitalist) Americans aren't interested in the marxism the UAW is selling. Well, except for the recent gathering of gimme-freaks in Wisconsin and one lunatic that I know who insists that she "has faith in the union" to which she doesn't even belong! How thick can you be?

Can you read that? If not, here is the text

At first they came for the steel workers, but what could I do, I wasn't a steel worker?
Then they came for the textile workers, but what could I do, I wasn't a textile worker?
Then they came for the auto workers, but what could I do, I wasn't an auto worker?
Then they came for the immigrant workers, but would could I do, I wasn't an immigrant?
Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no one left.

I took a screen cap of their vile page but definitely go look for yourself. While you're there, take a peek at the cover of their commie rag for March-April 2011 States of Denial. Watch for protests and riots on April 4 in your community - go to them, film them, post the pictures of their signs and the recordings of their hateful words on the internet.

US Ambassador to Mexico Resigns After Telling the Truth

2011-03-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

I read BorderLand Beat fairly regularly and if you're at all interested in the actual situation on our borders and inside Mexico, I suggest that you do as well. For example, while reading BorderLand Beat yesterday, I learned that the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico had resigned. Hadn't heard anything about this on any news. It seems he resigned after some wikileaks exposed his complaints about inefficiency and infighting among Mexican security forces - ie, he resigned after telling the truth.

Secretary of State Clinton said Pascual resigned "based upon his personal desire to ensure the strong relationship between our two countries and to avert issues" raised by President Felipe Calderon without identifying the issues or when they were raised. Perhaps Calderon raised these "issues" when he met with Obama two weeks ago.

Calderon is on record as complaining about US meddling in Mexican domestic policy! Meddling??? The wikileak quoted U.S officials describing "widespread corruption" in Mexican security agencies (TRUE) and "a dysfuntionally low level of collaboration" (TRUE), described the Mexican army as "slow" (TRUE) and "risk averse" (TRUE), and concluded that only 2% of people arrested in Cuidad Juarez (the most violent city in Mexico, wracked by drug-cartel-related killings) were charged with a crime.

Meddling?? Seriously, let's STOP all that nasty meddling, bring our surging numbers of law enforcement people operating inside Mexico home and use them to enforce our national border! And while we're at that, shut down all monetary transfers to Mexico - every last penny. Calderone can handle his internal problems on his own. Enforcing our border will keep his problems out of our country.

If you think I just said that Calderone and the Mexican people that they can go pound sand and deal with their own problems, you're right. I'm fed up with operating our own country as if it were the welfare agency for Mexico's browner population. That's right, I said it, the Mexicans of primarily European descent don't care at all about their browner citizens of obviously more tribal descent and are quite happy to export them here and rake in $20 Billion a year from them.

My Absence

2011-03-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit busy this year. Work, sick, work, sick - a vicious cycle of attack from a germ here, a virus there and never having enough of a break from work to get completely well. But, it looks like i'm going to have a lot more free time soon so I hope to return to blogging about the border situation here in the American South-West and various other topics of interest to me and, hopefully, to you. Starting... well, now.

Christchurch, New Zealand Earthquake

2011-02-22T09:03:00.002-07:00

You may have noticed the link in my side bar to Kirly in NZ. I went on a Lord of the Rings Movie Location Tour with Red Carpet Tours. It was the vacation of a lifetime. I made friends there and because of my trip, have made other friends with connections to NZ. I hope to go back some day. The Kiwi people were universally pleasant and friendly (like Texans!). Christchurch was one of my favorite stops on the tour. I was saddened to hear of the death and destruction which has taken place there. Pray for the Kiwis. And remember that they and Australia have been among our best friends.

Rose found a link to live streaming local television coverage here. I stayed up way too late watching that last night. 65 reported dead last I heard. From the looks of the devastation, that number will likely go up as more people are found over the next days.

The damage is much worse than last September. Look at this graph from GeoNet which is reporting 59 quakes. Some of those after-shocks rival the big jolt at the beginnning.

Pray for New Zealand! Remember the ANZAC spirit!

Propaganda Machine Rolls on Against Arizona

2011-02-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

What Would You Do hires an actor to play a racist cop demanding to see identification from fake illegal aliens in Arizona.

The Final RIP

2011-01-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

Squeakie, my third and last remaining kitty, has been returned to her maker. She began to grow a tumor on her back last year and she was too frail to remove it. Now, she awaits me in my Heavenly mansion along with Sockies and Hedi.

Squeak

Squeak slept most of her life... when she wasn't eating or engineering a "Squeak Attack" on Socks or Hedi.

Yes, that's a "Lion cut". A mane,and a poof on the end of her tail. So adorable.

And this was just too cute. She was actually asleep with her head stuck between the pillows.

Petulant Political Propagandist Dupnik Finally Shuts Up

2011-01-20T09:37:00.001-07:00

The Petulant Leftwing Political Propagandist Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County has finally shut the hell up. Or has he? I bet he hasn't. I bet he has just put a stop to all actual facts being discussed and his political pontificating will continue. This essentially means that nothing will come out of the Pima County Sheriffs office except through Dupniks pie hole which, as we have all seen for over a week now, is pure propaganda.

From HumanEvents

What’s the “controversy” between the County Attorney’s office and Sheriff Buford T. Dupnik? There are no official details yet, but it’s not hard to imagine a roomful of prosecutors watching Dupnik shoot the breeze with media outlets he likes, about media outlets he hates, and screaming in frustration. Every defense attorney goes to sleep at night dreaming of a loudmouth official who uses global press coverage to float his pet theories about who might really be responsible for the crime. If Jared Loughner accepts a little coaching from his defense team, prosecutors will be thinking about tossing the ends of their neckties into the ceiling fans by the end of this trial.

In a development that absolutely infuriates the Left, targets of the Tucson blood libel have been responding to the scurrilous accusations against them. Dupnik made a point of selecting one Rush Hudson Limbaugh III, of West Palm Beach, Florida, as one of those targets. According to complaints Dupnik made to the Washington Post, a tidal wave of Limbaugh listeners have been calling him to suggest he give up his career in media criticism and get back to something resembling law enforcement. This might have contributed to the sense of frustration over at the County Attorney’s office.

He's mad because he's been vigorously criticized. This is the typical response of leftists - if they don't like what you are saying, they want to silence you. Well, over my dead body Sheriff Dumbass. You can ignore us all you want, but you're way past your sell-by date

Tucson, you need to get rid of this idiot.

From KGUN9

"Until further notice, due to a controversy between the Sheriff's Department and the County Attorney's office, no further information reference the January 8, 2011 shooting will be released."
...
The word "controversy" contained in the statement would seem to imply some sort of disagreement or discord between the Sheriff's Department and LaWall's office. But the statement did not elaborate about the nature of the controversy. When contacted by KGUN9 News, LaWall's office declined to comment.
...
Kastigar (Pima Count Sherrif Bureau Chief) has said recently that the security tapes from the morning of the shooting are crystal clear and show exactly what happened and in what order.

Well, that's it then. They don't want us to know what is crystal clear, i guess. Well, that's ok Dupnik, the FBI has desribed the surveillance video themselves.

From KVOA

Loughner entered Safeway and headed to the restroom. At some point, putting in ear plugs.

"He had the frame of mind to protect his hearing before he went and shot 20 people and to me that's very telling," said Pima County Sheriff's Office bureau chief Rick Kastigar.

He watched the surveillance video that captured the deadly shooting.

"He very deliberately with purpose walks up to a figure that is on the very edge of the frame of the video and fires one shot. You can see the little wisps of hair of that person," he said.

That person was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

In an animation the shooter turns to Ron Barber and hits him in the shoulder.

Judge John Roll is standing next to him and pushes him to the ground.

Dupnik Whines and Pontificates

2011-01-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Listen to Pima County, Arizona Sheriff Dupnik blather on about how the evil Republicans wanted to give "tax cuts to the rich" and then whine about the reaction to his stupidity (article here). It's all despicable but listen to him whine and then pontificate at 1 minute in. Apparently, the shooting is all about Ethel Kennedy who has to "go through this" again when it happens to someone else and it brings back painful memories. So, that's why the rest of us should give up all our weapons. Well, screw you Dupnik. You can pry my weapons from my cold dead fingers.

He gets calls from Kennedys and all over the country in support and vile messages and threats from those who disagree with him. Nothing reasonable in opposition. Sure, Dupnik. I called Sunday after the shooting and said "As the sheriff, a law enforcement official, you are out of line". That's so vile.

Donnie Deusch and Al Sharpton lie about Arizona's 18 year old MLK Holiday

2011-01-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, I said lie. Arizona has an MLK day and has had since 1992. Talk about blood libel!

I took the following screen cap at approximately 2:15pm MST today on the Arizona state government website. I can personally attest that everything is closed - banks, schools, state offices, county offices, city offices, and post offices.

Praising Arizona

2011-01-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

From Big Journalism. Nothing to add. Read it all. Go over there and add your voice.

Praising Arizona

Posted by Stephen Kruiser Jan 13th 2011 at 9:00 am in Huffington Post, Mainstream Media, New York Times, media bias

For the past nine months, the great state of Arizona has been the subject of withering media attacks by an insulated chattering class whose lack of perspective may one day be studied in graduate psychology programs (because journalism school will be indistinguishable from clown school by then). The horrific attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by a lone, obviously deeply disturbed gunman has opened the state and my hometown of Tucson up to more irresponsible derision from the echo-chamber MSM.

Note to HuffPo and the New York Times: one psycho does not a culture make.

I won’t even bother linking to the various hit pieces in the above-mentioned publications, they’re so prevalent right now one doesn’t have to search hard to find them.

Let us begin, rather, with the notion of a “culture” in Arizona, which implies some sort of static population that’s developed its ideals over time. The state had 1,775,399 residents in 1970. The most recent census puts that figure at around 6.4 million. That kind of growth is a bit too rapid to attribute to the friskiness and fertility of the natives. The fact is that Arizona is a melting pot within a melting pot, quickly adding people from all over the United States for the past forty years. People have been flocking there for the weather and the jobs, by the way, not to join a militia. If anyone wants to attribute certain attitudes to “the people of Arizona” those same attitudes should be applied nationally, as most of the state’s population has streamed in from elsewhere.

My next point is purely anecdotal but important for context. A lot is being said about the availability of guns in Arizona. My grandfather owned a gun store. I got my first real rifle when I was six (a Savage bolt-action .22). I grew up around a lot of guns, as did almost all my friends. To this day, we all remain remarkably free of homicides and accidental shootings.

I mention that because I get the sense when reading anti-gun articles that those writing them assume gun owners default to grabbing a weapon for conflict resolution. Most probably wouldn’t admit that but the implication is there.

The simple truth is that Arizona has always been home to people who own guns legally and don’t go on shooting sprees. The tendency by anti-gun people to assume that possibility is always lurking is not only irresponsible, but also unsupported by facts.

The same media that wants you to think Arizona is ready for OK Corral v. 2.0 were only too eager to point out during the SB1070 debate that violent crime rates have been dropping there.

So, remember, when the Left is talking about illegal immigration, Arizona is a safe place. As for the rest of the time, all hell is breaking loose. (Particularly ridiculous in this HuffPo piece is this contention: : “Arizona may not be uniquely conservative, but it has become far more so in recent years.” Both Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva survived close elections in a year that didn’t exactly favor incumbent House Democrats.)

The debate over SB1070 is far too complex to revisit here but it was responsible for kicking off the nationwide Arizona bashing. The range of idiocy from a group of people who either had never been to the state or spent very little time there was also too wide to deal with fully at the moment. The majority of the knee-jerk criticism sought to portray the legal citizens of Arizona as racist and anti-immigrant.

In truth, Arizonans, particularly in the two largest population centers, are tired of the decades-long fallout from the very real drug traffic that emanates from Mexico.

The Phoenix metropolitan area is a regional- and national-level transportation and distribution center for methamphetamine and marijuana and a regional distribution center for other illicit drugs, primarily cocaine and Mexican black tar heroin. The area’s transportation infrastructure facilitates the shipment of illicit drugs from Mexico to Phoenix for local distribution and transshipment to drug markets throughout the country,

The same DOJ publication noted a couple points long known by Tucson residents but completely ignored by critics intent on portraying them as a bunch of crazed rednecks who were manufacturing a problem out of whole cloth.

Drug production within Tucson is generally limited; most drugs are smuggled into the area from Mexico.

And …

In fact, GIITEM and the Arizona Counter Narcotics Alliance report an increased level of violence, particularly homicides, in Tucson that is attributed to increased drug trafficking activities and the rising number of gang members who operate in the area.

Per the Dept. of Justice, it would seem that there is a correlation between increased drug traffic and violent crime. And where is that traffic coming from? You got it.

This same piece notes that the porous border is indeed the problem. And that’s what residents of Southern Arizona have been saying all along, this really is about the dangerous people who have been availing themselves of an almost previously unmanned border, not a hatred for the people who have come across to work on farms.

While the violent crime rate may have gone down recently, it was doing so off the spikes mentioned in this 2007 report. Again … context.

This problem isn’t something that just sprung up out of the blue in the past few years. I lived a dozen or so blocks from the border in Douglas, AZ for a very brief time when I was a kid. I awoke one morning to find out some drug traffickers had been taken down in our front yard in the middle of the night.

SB1070 was simply a reaction by people who had grown too frustrated with a decades-long abandonment of responsibility by the federal government. Nothing more. No hidden bigotry. No crazy cowboys looking to go off on “brown skinned” people (can’t remember how many times I read that last summer).

Arizona faces the same economic problems that most other states have been facing in recent years. It also faces problems that are unique to it, such as how to accommodate the rapid population growth and deal with a drug traffic problem from Mexico that is far worse than in the other border states.

A problem it does not face, however, is the specter of a seething, hostile populace that’s going to have the streets flowing with blood any day now.

The people of Arizona are by and large good and deserve better than what they’ve gotten from the press, the president, the attorney general and others in the past nine months. The vile human being who killed all those people last Saturday is not representative of anything but his own wretched mental health circumstances.

The unhinged, uninformed demonization by the MSM out one side of its collective mouth while it’s calling for civility out the other is especially galling.

But, sadly, not terribly surprising.

And, the opposite from a victim who blames pretty much everyone except the shooter.

A wounded survivor of the Tucson shooting that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is blaming Sarah Palin, House Speaker John Boehner, Fox TV host Glenn Beck, and former Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle for the tragedy.

“It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,” Eric Fuller said in an interview with Democracy NOW.

“Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled — senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even 9-year-old girls,” he added, referring to the death of Christina Taylor Green.

Fuller, a 63-year-old veteran, had campaigned for Giffords during her re-election and was at the supermarket for her “Congress on Your Corner” event.

Yeah, that’s right, that’swhat the second amendment is all about… hatred and murder and lunatics and anarchy. While I'm sorry Mr. Fuller was shot and I wish him a very speedy and full recovery, when he is recovered, I do hope he remains so angry at everyone and especially Arizona that he leaves the state.

Idiots Run Amok in AZ: Pima County Sheriff Dupnik and State Senator Linda Lopez

2011-01-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to Pima County Sheriff Dupnik since yesterday insert his radical left wing ideology into every press conference and media interview that he has done since the shooting. He is out of line. Let him know by using the contract form here or by calling (520) 351-4700.

Arizona State Senator Linda Lopez, before it was even possible for her to have a single fact in her brain, said ”the shooter is likely, from what I’ve heard, an Afghan vet.” Let this left wing nut know how you feel too:

Phone Number: (602) 926-4089 or 1-800-352-8404

14 decapitated bodies found in Acapulco

2011-01-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

We've all heard about the attack on Representative Giffords (D-AZ 8), her staff, and her constituents. I specifically point out her constituents because there appears to be little focus on them and, from all reports the shooter specifically targeted them after shooting the Representative. The 9 year old little girl who was murdered was one of 50 children born in the United States of America on September 11, 2001.

In other news, the grisly murders continue in Mexico. A dozen mayors across Mexico were murdered in 2010.

14 decapitated bodies found in Mexico resort city

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) - Police found the bodies of 15 slain men, 14 of them headless, on a street outside a shopping center in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Saturday.
The victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 20s, were discovered in an area not frequented by tourists.

Handwritten signs left with the bodies were signed by "El Chapo's People"—a reference to the Sinaloa cartel, headed by drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman—said Fernando Monreal Leyva, director of investigative police for Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.

The narco-messages indicated the Sinaloa cartel killed them for trying to intrude on the gang's turf and extort residents.

Mexico's drug cartels have increasingly taken to beheading their victims in a grisly show of force, but Saturday's discovery was the largest single group of decapitation victims found in recent years.

In 2008, a group of 12 decapitated bodies were piled outside the Yucatan state capital of Merida. The same year, 9 headless men were discovered in the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo.

Acapulco has been the site of fierce battles between drug gangs, and this weekend got off to a bloody start with 27 people killed there from Friday evening to early Saturday, Leyva said.

The dead included two police officers cut down on a main bayside avenue in front of tourists and locals; six people who were shot dead and stuffed in a taxi, their hands and feet bound; and four others elsewhere in the city.

"We are coordinating with federal forces and local police to reinforce security in Acapulco and investigating to try to establish the motive and perpetrators of these incidents," Monreal said.

At least 30,196 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against cartels in late 2006.

Also Saturday, authorities said a small-town mayor was found dead in northern Mexico.

Saul Vara Rivera, mayor of the municipality of Zaragoza, was reported missing by family members Wednesday, Coahuila state prosecutors said in a statement. His bullet-ridden body was discovered Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state.

There were no immediate arrests.

At least a dozen mayors were killed nationwide last year in acts of intimidation attributed to drug gangs.

Cartel Killing Clowns in Mexico

2011-01-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

The cartels are now killing clowns. No one is safe.

Clowns Killed in Alleged Drug Gang Hit in Mexico

(AFP) - Two street clowns were found dead in southeastern Mexico along with messages allegedly from a drug gang accusing them of working as army informers, their families said Tuesday.

Another 15 people were reported killed in the northern border state of Chihuahua overnight, including a woman who was beheaded, amid rampant drug violence across Mexico which killed more than 12,000 people last year alone.

The clowns were found in bright costumes and makeup on a roadside Sunday in the city of Villahermosa, bearing signs of torture and a message accusing them of being army informers, their families said.

The Tabasco state attorney general's office said they were found with a message attributing the crime to the Zetas drug gang, which is known to be active in the area.

Police meanwhile found a female head wrapped in a jacket in a park in the Chihuahua town of Jimenez, in the most gruesome of 15 murders uncovered overnight, the state attorney general's office said.

Eleven of the deaths occurred in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, which has Mexico's highest murder rate.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in violence related to the drug trade across Mexico since December 2006, when the government launched a major military offensive against organized crime.

AZ Senate Speaker Russell Pearce vs. arrogant CNN-ite

2011-01-03T12:56:00.002-07:00

Unbelievable but typical. Watch as Arizona Senate Speaker Russell Pearce explains to the arrogant CCN-ite who cannot refrain from expressing her disbelief and ignorance. (Trouble with the vid? It's here.)

Homeland Security - for Afghanistan!

2010-12-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

Director of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano is in Afghanistan to discuss border security to help protect that nation from militants and drug smugglers. I say, the Afghan border better never be more secure than our own borders here in the United States of America while our troops are there. Otherwise, we have a situation where we will bbe securing the border of another country better than our own. Just another incredible outrage from the administration. Imagine, HOMELAND security actually working, for years, to secure the Afghan border while leaving our own wide border open.

Secretary Napolitano Arrives in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan today at approximately 7:42 a.m. AFT along with six additional DHS customs and border security officials who will join DHS personnel already deployed in the region to provide civilian assistance to local security officials.

While in Afghanistan, Secretary Napolitano will meet with senior U.S. and Afghan officials—including Afghan ministers as well as border security experts from DHS and other civilians from across the U.S. government—to discuss progress being made in securing the region. She will also spend New Year’s Eve with the military men and women serving their country on the front lines to combat terrorism and bring peace and stability to the region.

“For several years, the Department of Homeland Security has been contributing personnel to help bolster security in Afghanistan,” said Secretary Napolitano. “In the last twelve months, DHS has expanded its effort here in support of President Obama’s policy of civilian engagement. Today, I arrived in Kabul with six additional border security and customs officers who will join our ongoing efforts to advise and assist our Afghan counterparts on customs and border control. It is an honor to meet with our dedicated military and civilian men and women who are helping to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, and I thank them for their continued efforts and sacrifices here to make the American homeland safer and more secure.”

Following her departure from Afghanistan, Secretary Napolitano will continue to Qatar on Jan. 2; Israel on Jan. 3-5; and Belgium on Jan. 5-6 to meet with her counterparts and discuss international efforts to ensure the security of our global aviation and supply chain systems against threats of terrorism and transnational crime, while facilitating the flow of legitimate travel and commerce. More details will be provided once they are finalized.

Federal Govt Employs Illegal Aliens

2010-12-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

One more reason they refuse to enforce our border and our immigration laws and do everything they can to ensure no state or local law enforcement entities can either.

Illegal aliens caught on their way to work at a federal housing project

On Monday morning, state troopers pulled over a van with a broken windshield on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and discovered 10 illegal aliens inside the vehicle. According to Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Anthony Deluca, three of the illegal aliens escaped during the traffic stop but were captured a short time later.

The nine Salvadoran nationals and one Honduran were all turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The illegal aliens were on their way from Maryland to work on a taxpayer-funded housing project in Jeannette, PA.

The federal project is being built by Homes Build Hope, a subsidiary of AdelphoiUSA.

Chad Ruffner, executive director of Homes Build Hope, told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the workers were hired by a subcontractor, in this case, O.C. Cluss of Uniontown.

Ruffner said: “That's their crew. They check their papers every day. I've seen them checking in. They do that every day. I've seen them check them off.”

Ruffner then shifted the responsibility to the general contractor, Steve Catranel Construction of Wilkins, which is supposed to check workers’ driver's licenses and other documents to verify their identities.

But, Catranel claims that he does not know the identities of the illegal aliens who were detained, and therefore cannot verify whether or not they were working on the Jeannette project.

Catranel did say: “We thought we had addressed the issue so it wouldn't be an issue. I don't know what else we can do. We have names, photos and sign-in sheets."

The contractor continued: “The guys on the job are very good carpenters. They work.”

O.C. Cluss officials have not commented on this matter.

As we have seen so many times, those who hire illegal aliens simply pass the buck of responsibility to everyone, but themselves.

With 1 in 5 Americans out of work, we simply cannot afford to allow one job go to an illegal alien. The issue of illegal immigration is now a fight for the survival of the American family.

As I always say…For every illegal alien with a job, there is an American without one.

Last month, 14 illegal aliens were arrested in Panama City, Florida, all of whom had been working on a federally-funded construction project, where U.S. workers had actually been turned away. Read that story here.

It gets alot worse. Not only are they hiring illegals for Federal projects, but they are turning Americans away for the jobs while unemployment reaches to levels not seen in decades.

Illegal aliens caught building public housing project in Florida...U.S. workers turned away

On Tuesday, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen announced that his deputies arrested 14 illegal aliens who had been working at a taxpayer-funded construction site on the corner of 11tth Street and Sherman Avenue in Panama City.

Deputies stopped a truck being driven erratically just after it left the construction site, when they discovered the driver had a suspended license, he admitted to being in the country illegally. The driver also told the deputies that he lived with 16 other illegal aliens in two nearby homes.

When Bay County deputies arrived at the houses, five people crawled out of a window, but were caught a short time later. The rest surrendered without incident and were processed into the ICE 287g program. Fourteen illegal aliens were arrested, six of whom were charged with criminal use of personal information for using stolen Social Security numbers.

Those charged with identity fraud are: Felix Martinez Ramos of Mexico, Enrique Gomez Mejia of Guatemala, Modesto Najera Gonzalez of Mexico, Alejandro Gonzalez Cruz of Mexico, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Gonzalez of Mexico and Mario Mansillo Martinez of Mexico.

All fourteen illegal aliens were brought in from Atlanta by a contractor, specifically to work on the Panama Commons public housing project being built at the corner of 11th Street and Sherman Avenue.

Sheriff McKeithen told reporters: “I have received information that within the last 24 hours local construction workers have been to this particular construction site seeking work and were denied employment. It is a shame that a multi-million dollar site is being constructed in Bay County where they are not only hiring out of state contractors but are hiring illegal aliens. The local economy will only improve when locals start getting jobs. We are continuing this investigation to determine if any other charges are applicable.”

Harden Contracting, the firm building the housing project, has blamed a sub-contractor called "Spurs" out of Atlanta for employing the illegal aliens.

Fed up with excuses, Sheriff McKeithen said: “Someone needs to take responsibility here that’s in charge of these major jobs like this. I just think that there are some steps that need to be taken here to make sure that we hire locals.”

All of the illegal aliens have been turned over the ICE for deportation.

As I always say…For every illegal alien with a job, there is an American without one.

With U.S. unemployment now at depression levels, we simply can no longer tolerate an illegal alien population numbering in the tens of millions.

So, tell me. If they were trying to destroy us, what exactly would they be doing differently? For the record, "they" are Obama, Napolitano (who I think is just too stupid, greedy, and ambitious to be at the top to get what's going on), the Clintons... the whole lot of them.

Mexican Drug War interrupted and delayed Voyage of The Dawn Treader

2010-12-18T11:31:00.004-07:00

It may be obvious by the links to my photo albums that I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan - seriously, it's a real geek who goes on a Lord of the Rings Movie Location Tour (with Red Carpet Tours). Before my elementary school teacher introduced The Lord of the Rings, he introduced The Hobbit. Before that, The Chronicles of Narnia. And I discovered Harry Potter in the last couple of years. The most recent movie for these stories is The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. Being the geeky fangirl that I am, I like to watch the extra stuff and the interviews and such. In doing so, I came across something very interesting. Very interesting indeed here.

The filming of The Voyage of The Dawn Treader was delayed and moved due to the Mexican Drug War. They were to film at Rosarita Studios (built for Titanic and used for Master and Commander). Unfortunately, the drug war interfered and they moved to safer havens in Australia. The violence of the drug war damages more than just the border areas or limited locales within Mexico. Mexico is our neighbor and I want them to be prosperous, secure, and happy - a state of being which would naturally make Mexico a desirable neighbor.

Listen to what the director, Mr. Apted, and the star, Ben Barnes say. in the video below.. "Worse than Bahgdad" ... "Thousands of dead every weekend" .... "Headless bodies in the street" ... "terrrifying" ... They would have had to stay in military style compounds for their own safety. There were gun emplacements on the streets. They would have needed 24 hour body guards. Two of the three stars of this film are underage children!

He is wrong when he says that people didn't know much about it, even in America. We know here in the Southwestern United States of America, Mr. Apted. We've been screaming it from the rooftops! It's our government which denies the carnage and the danger. And the Mexican government, of course.

If the vid won't play, you can watch it here.

It's a strange intersection of my interests. You won't find that everywhere!

Napolitano says illegals could be excellent citizens

2010-12-11T11:34:00.001-07:00

Watch Department of Homeland Security head and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano from 1:00 to 2:00 in this video lecture us about how wrong we are to enforce our own laws because "these young people" ... "show by the actions" ... that they have "the potential to be excellent citizens of our country".

No, they don't. The only way to demonstrate that they could indeed be excellent citizens of our country is if they go to their country of citizenship and enter legally. There is no acceptable compromise. Not if they were brought here before the age of 16 nor 16 minutes. No compromise. If we compromise on this, the flood will just become larger and large due to the violence in Mexico and the lure of a possibly better life north of the border. Mexico needs to clean up itself, secure its interior and borders, eliminate corruption, establish the rule of law. That is the only way.

You can also see the moronic statements of Dick Durbin and Luis Gutierrez. Both traitors in my estimation.

Chaos in Michoacan, Mexico

2010-12-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

I found this video posted at the bottom of this posting at Borderland Beat. Watch it. All of it. It's a bit confusing unless you can understand what the 2 fellows doing the filming are saying. But, from the explanation provided in the comments at Borderland Beat, it seems that the undamaged vehicles you see at the beginning of the video, the trucks and buses, are clustering together in an effort to achieve safety in numbers. Later in the video you see vehicles which have been wrecked both accidentally and deliberately and then just abandoned. Other vechicles are destroyed and burned to block the roads.

It seems that the Government of Mexico is going after these repugnant murderers very hard. And, allegations are that the USA is helping them. Good.

Michoacan is not a border state. Rather, it is an illustration of what is happening inside Mexico. The place is falling apart. If this is not stopped, it will spread to all of Mexico and it will further impact our borders. You American pot heads and coke heads and other idiotic users of various other substances need to understand that this is the fruit of your drug use unless you are growing / making your own. Not that I approve of the use regardless of the source, but that's another issue entirely.

What makes no sense in the normal adult world is why Americans tolerate the drug use. Have we no shame?

Tennessee Considers Arizona-style Law

2010-12-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

From Fox News Latino

Tennessee’s legislators plan to consider a bill next year styled after Arizona’s SB 1070, even though the state already has strict laws targeting illegal immigrants.

State Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Joe Carr, both Republicans, are preparing a bill that criminalizes illegal immigrants and authorizes local law enforcement authorities to detain “any person” suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

“You can’t deny how [illegal immigration] is affecting us, from education to healthcare to the judicial system to incarceration, and more importantly the number of jobs it’s taken away,” Ketron said.

Like Tennessee, other nearby states, including North Carolina and South Carolina, have expressed an interest in starting out the new legislative session in 2011 reviewing measures similar to the law in Arizona, the first in the nation to criminalize being in the country unlawfully.

Tennessee, where foreign-born people account for roughly four percent of the total population, already has restrictive measures that will take effect on Jan. 1.

The most controversial is SB 1141/HB 670, which requires local jails -- despite no training, funds, supervision or access to federal immigration databases -- to verify the immigration status of all those detained. There is also a measure that allows businesses to insist that employees speak only English for “security and efficiency.”

During the vehement debate over the implementation of SB 1070 in Arizona, a group of Tennessee legislators sent a letter to that state’s governor, Jan Brewer, praising her for signing the bill into law.

Recently, another Tennessee legislator, Republican Curry Todd, who supports strict immigration measures, gained notoriety when he said that illegal immigrants “multiply like rats.”

Todd later apologized for the comment, but maintains his opposition to illegal immigration.

Translated by Fox News Latino.

Yes, saying a population mutiplies like rats isn't very nice - unless it's true like the once-Christian country of Lebanon which is now a moslem country. Anyway, maybe "like bunnies" would have been less rude. Or, how about no analogy at all and just describing it literally. Why be insulting when the bare truth is ugly enough? The illegal immigrant population has far more children than the native born population and thus, like the once-Christian country of Lebanon which is now a moslem country, the native culture and / or population can be overwhelmed in the space of 40 years.

WikiLeaks on Mexicos Drug Cartel Violence

2010-12-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

While President Obama, DHS Secretary Napalitano, and Secretary of State Clinton have said all this year that our border was more secure than ever, they knew that Mexico was less secure and more in danger of literally falling apart than ever. All the while they, and the administrations and previous Congress(es), have refused to build a fence.

Mexico is on the brink and our government has known it all along including while they were demonizing and suing Arizona for attempting to enforce federal law. Immigration is the only category of federal law which states, counties, cities, etc are not allowed to enforce - or is it that only Arizona is not allowed to enforce because we are the only ones trying to do so?

US has lost faith in Mexico's ability to win drugs war, WikiLeaks cables show
American diplomats paint scathing picture of Mexican army, branding it as unfit to combat drug traffickers

The US has lost confidence in the Mexican army's ability to win the country's drugs war, branding it slow, clumsy and no match for "sophisticated" narco-traffickers.

Classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks also reveal a growing sense of alarm within Mexico's government that time is running out in the battle against organised crime and that it could "lose" entire regions.

The memos detail blunders in the fight against drug cartels and a desperate search for a new strategy to save President Felipe Calderón's administration from a bloodsoaked fiasco.

The assessments, made in a cable to Washington earlier this year, are bleak contrast to Mexican insistence that the state is prevailing in a war declared by Calderón in 2006. Four years later drug-related violence has killed more than 28,000 people and brought cities such as Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana to the brink of anarchy, with mayors, police chiefs and ordinary people gunned down with impunity and beheadings shockingly common.

Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez, the undersecretary for governance, told US diplomats that "pervasive, debilitating fear" had infected even relatively safe parts of the country. "He expressed a real concern with 'losing' certain regions."

US diplomats painted a scathing picture of Mexico's armed forces, singling out the army as bureaucratic, parochial, outdated and unfit to combat drug trafficking organisations (DTOs).

"Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of. Official corruption is widespread, leading to a compartmentalized siege mentality among 'clean' law enforcement leaders and their lieutenants."

The cable laments that only 2% of those detained for organised crime-related offences were brought to trial and said the army was "incapable" of processing information and evidence for judicial cases. "It has taken a serious beating on human rights issues from international and domestic human rights organizations, who argue with considerable basis, in fact that the military is ill-equipped for a domestic policing role."

It was a stinging verdict on the decision of Calderón, a White House ally, to deploy tens of thousands of troops, especially in Ciudad Juárez where narcos ran rings around them.

"The DTOs are sophisticated players: they can wait out a military deployment; they have an almost unlimited human resource pool to draw from in the marginalised neighborhoods; and they can fan complaints about human rights violations to undermine any progress the military might make with hearts and minds."

The diplomats also criticised the "dysfunctionally low level of collaboration" between Mexican military and civilian authorities along the border.

They praised Mexico's navy as a nimbler force which took down the drug lord Arturo Beltrán Leyva but even that risked a downside of making the army, the navy's institutional rival, more defensive and risk-averse.

The classified cables reveal the depth of US concern about its neighbour and partly explain why in September Hillary Clinton compared Mexico to insurgency-plagued 1980s Colombia and floated the possibility of US troops intervening. Mexican officials indignantly rejected the secretary of state's comments.

Privately, Gutierrez Fernandez admitted to US officials that Mexico bungled the early phase of the Mérida Initiative, a security pact between the US, Mexico and central America, by focusing too much on equipment rather than competent personnel and institutions.

"Gutierrez went on to say, however, that he now realizes there is not even time for the institution building to take hold in the remaining years of the Calderon administration." If there was no tangible success within 18 months the next government would have difficulty sustaining the drugs war, said the minister.

Gutierrez and Jorge Tello Péon, the national security system coordinator, said despite setbacks Mexico would "stay the course" and asked the Americans to aid a new strategy focusing on the most violent cities.

"If we could turn around Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and one other city such as Culiacán, it would solve 60% of the violence, and send a signal to the Mexican people that the war can be won," reported the cable. It urged Washington to back the strategy.

The US diplomats noted that Mexico's president had recognised the failure of army deployments and replaced troops with federal police. "Calderón has openly admitted to having a tough year … and contacts have told (political officers) that he has seemed 'down' in meetings."

Last month, in an interview with the BBC, Calderón insisted that as long as the US remained the biggest consumer of drugs in the world, the terror wrought by the drug cartels in Mexico would continue.

"They [the Americans] have a clear responsibility in this because they are providing the market for the drug dealers and the criminals," President Calderón said. "They need to do a lot more in terms of reducing the consumption of drugs and to stop the flow of weapons towards Mexico.

It's called a fence. A fence! You put up a fence and restrict the flow of everything in both directions. Anyone, like the former Governor of Arizona and current head of DHS, Napolitano, who says well, they'll just get a bigger ladder is either an idiot or something who wants the chaos here. I wonder if, in the face of a leak in the Hoover Dam, if she would say, well, it'll just spring a bigger leak someplace else.

I firmly believe that no fence will ever be built by this country unless we begin to endure a murder rate close to that of Mexico. That is an extremely high price to pay. Those of us with weaspons have a slight chance of protecting ourselves but many of these murders are random and from a distance since they are just letting the locals know that their government cannot protect them.

Happy Hanukah

2010-12-01T07:14:00.001-07:00

Happy Hanukah once again from me to all my Jewish friends and to my Christian friends who know their spiritual history. Last year I posted pictures of some menorahs I found interesting. I liked that so I found some more this year. I'm obviously partial to the more modern metal ones.

The season did sneak up on me and I have neglected to appeal for donations to the International Federation of Christians and Jews.

A very interesting modern Menorah from the 50s.

Taken from here.

I think this might be one of my all-time favorites!

Taken from here where there are a number of wonderful images.

This is so cute!

Taken from here.

War Stories on the Border: The Third Front

2010-11-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

I got home from the annual Thanksgiving trip to visit the last remaining members of the generation preceding mine on the paternal side of the family yesterday. Back pain keeps me awake now so sometime during the night I woke and turned on FNC and was able to watch a bit of Oliver North's War Stories (which isn't on often enough, if you ask me!). This episode was all about our Southern Border. It was quite good and well worth your time. There was a bit about the border patrol telling the crew to get out of a certain area and they seemed rather threatening to me. So, there you have it - the border patrol throwing American citizens out of American territory. I don't think that is their mandate.

'War Stories on the Border: The Third Front'

With an onslaught of gruesome images and a death toll that rises daily, our 2,000-mile long southwest border truly has become a third front.

More than 29,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006. Our southern neighbors are living in a bloodbath created by vicious drug cartels battling to dominate smuggling routes into America worth upwards of $50 billion. Beheadings and mass murders are now an everyday, grim reality. Narco-terrorists have already infiltrated over 230 U.S. cities.

Oliver North and his "War Stories" team traveled to the states bordering this frontline to bring you the real story behind the war for the border.

From California's Pacific coast to the deserts of Arizona and the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas, we met with everyday Americans who say they're under siege and a Mexican journalist who was kidnapped and tortured by brutal drug lords vowing to kill him.

We joined federal agents as they hunted down cartel operatives living deep inside America. And, unbelievable as it may seem, visited parts of our country that are so dangerous, they're off limits to American citizens.

Photo Essay, part 1 and part 2

Video Preview here and here.

Later, I found this article about it:

BorderSheriffs.com’s Larry Dever and Paul Babeu featured on “War Stories with Oliver North”
Sunday, November 28th, 2010
NEWS RELEASE

When Fox News special correspondent Lt. Col. Oliver North set his sights on covering the border security crisis, he turned to Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu for perspective.

A documentary entitled “War Stories on the Border: The Third Front” outlines the dangers of drug violence in Mexico and the threat it poses in the United States.

This is how the producers of the show describe the situation in Mexico: “More than 29,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006. Our southern neighbors are living in a bloodbath created by vicious drug cartels battling to dominate smuggling routes into America worth upwards of $50 billion.”

The documentary featured Dever, who has been sheriff of the border county since 1996, and Babeu, who has made it a priority to address the illegal immigration problem.

Sheriff Dever said, “So much of the coverage we see on illegal immigration is tarnished by the open borders crowd who fail to understand this is about national security not politics. This documentary has given the nation a vivid picture of the dangers we face.”

Babeu’s Pinal County county lies between the border and the urban areas that are attractive to drug and human smugglers. As a result, the citizens he serves are threatened by the perils of living in an area that serves as a corridor for dangerous smugglers.

Sheriff Babeu said, “It was a pleasure to assist in the making of this documentary and bring the dangers we face in Arizona to a national audience.”

BorderSheriffs.com was formed to defend law enforcement against lawsuits attempting to prevent enforcement of Arizona’s SB1070. The organization was also formed to give law enforcement a much-needed voice on the issue.

What Happens When The Cartels Take Over A Modern City

2010-11-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

From Bordland Beat...

A glimpse of the future of San Diego, Tucson, El Paso... ?

Monterrey, Mexico's Wealthiest City, Succumbs To Drug War

...drug violence has painted Monterrey with the look and feel of the gritty border 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north as two former allies, the Gulf and Zetas gangs, fight for control of Mexico's third-largest – and wealthiest – city.

The deterioration happened nearly overnight, laying bare issues that plague the entire country: a lack of credible policing and the Mexican habit of looking the other way at the drug trade as long as it was orderly and peaceful. (This is what so-called legalization advocates fail to recognize, imo - Kirls)

"To a certain extent, we saw ourselves as a privileged city and very isolated from Mexico's problems," said Blanca Trevino, Monterrey-based president and CEO of Softtek, the largest information technology consulting firm in Latin America. "The violence hit us because we were not accustomed to having it and therefore to handling it. Now we live in a sort of psychosis."

The Mexican government announced Wednesday it is ordering a significant boost in military troops and federal police in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon, home to Monterrey.

The two states are under the heaviest attack since the cartel split earlier this year. Both have witnessed increasingly horrific violence spilling into daily life and claiming civilians, while politicians and journalists are either silenced or killed.

Earlier this month, residents fleeing gunbattles in Tamaulipas' once-picturesque town of Ciudad Mier ended up in Mexico's first drug-war refugee shelter in a nearby town, only to duck bullets from a gunbattle there.

Monterrey was used to being Mexico's definition of opportunity. The city of 4 million "regios" – a nickname for Monterrey residents that means "people of the regal mountains" – represented the future as money poured into northern Mexico from free trade and the opening of scores of assembly plants.

The city's many CEOs drove their own luxury cars unaccompanied to the trendiest Japanese restaurant or the top spot for roasted goat, the state's specialty, in the wealthy enclave of San Pedro Garza Garcia.

Some drug lords and their families retreated to the safety of Monterrey as well. In the home of the country's industrial heavyweights, including the world's third-largest cement maker, Cemex, and bottling giant Femsa, they could easily blend in with executives showing off their wealth.

Then-leader of the Gulf cartel, Juan Garcia Abrego, was arrested in the nearby town of Juarez in 1996. Two years later, a U.S. sting led to criminal charges of money laundering against employees at three Monterrey-based Mexican banks.

Despite sporadic violence and the known presence of drug traffickers, the city enjoyed a tranquility that gave it a provincial feel.

That started to change four years ago, when the Sinaloa cartel began battling the Gulf cartel for a piece of Monterrey's lucrative domestic drug market. The violence subsided after the cartels reportedly agreed to share the turf.

With the Gulf-Zeta split, the downfall was swift – "extremely so," in the words of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual – for a city with huge American interests that in some ways identifies more closely with the U.S. than Mexico.

"It's part of the risk of accommodating or allowing criminal groups to be able to live and operate quote `safely' in an area for the sake of peace," Pascual told The Associated Press. "But then this rupture occurs and turns into a massive battle."

As in much of Mexico, there was no viable law enforcement to counter the onslaught. The Zetas control the local police, Pascual said. Other police forces aligned with the Gulf cartel in the fight against them.

About half of the 750 police officers in Monterrey have been fired on suspicion of links to organized crime.

"Rather than becoming part of the solution, they become part of the problem," Pascual said. "When criminal groups want to contest one another for territory, if you don't have strong local law enforcement capable of immediately reacting and putting that down, then the violence has the capacity to continue."

More than 500 people have died in drug violence in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 56 slayings for all of 2009, according to tallies kept by the city's El Norte newspaper.

Residents are used to having their daily routines interrupted by carjackings and "narcobloqueos" – roadblocks with stolen vehicles designed to keep police and soldiers at bay as the cartels do their business.

They drive simple cars and avoid night clubs and bars and go to parties with their pajamas, ready to spend the night in case it's too dangerous to venture home.

In March, two students at the prestigious Monterrey Tech University, Mexico's equivalent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died when they were caught in a gunfight between soldiers and gunmen outside the campus.

Five months later, the U.S. State Department ordered diplomats to remove their children from the area after a shooting outside the American Foundation School, a private school attended by many Americans and the children of some of Monterrey's wealthiest families. Two security guards working for the Femsa bottling company died in the gunbattle.

The city's businesspeople are now becoming the targets of extortion and kidnappings as drug traffickers look for other ways to make money. Common criminals also take advantage of the chaos. Now almost everyone knows someone who has been a victim of a crime.

The traditional weekend shopping trips to McAllen or Laredo, Texas, have stopped – it's too risky to drive along highways patrolled by gunmen. Those who still travel to South Padre Island, where the rich own weekend condos, do it by airplane.

The business community published a letter in national newspapers as far back as August demanding President Felipe Calderon and Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina send more troops. Now it will get its wish, though the government didn't detail how many would be sent, citing security.

But Aldo Fasci Zuazua thinks regios can make the difference. The former state public safety secretary and assistant attorney general is helping to lead a peace movement to galvanize people to stand up to the cartels.

"In Italy, in Colombia, things calmed down among the cartels, among the mafia, when people took to the streets and said, `Enough!'" he said.

Computer Troubles Resolved

2010-11-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

My computer troubles are resolved! While it took more than 4 days for the laptop to reach Dell for the warranty service, they fixed it and shipped it back the same day! Awesome! I'd say that extra $$ for the warranty against accidental damage was worth it. The laptop fell and smacked on the floor. While it only fell about a foot, the keyboard was damaged. Dell replaced it with a very nice keyboard indeed (no crumbs! LOL). Seriously, this keyboard is better than the original.

I hope to be back to posting about the holey sponge that is our southern border this weekend.

Computer Troubles May Disrupt Posting

2010-11-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

As I said the other day, I'm having computer troubles. Fortunately, it's still under warranty. Unfortunately, I have to ship it off to be serviced. So, I'll be without my own laptop for a while. Possibly through Thanksgiving. I'll try to keep posting from the work laptop during off hours but I'm not sure how that will go. Anyway, do your best to stay informed and remember that we are being invaded and it's just a matter of time before the violence south of the border is more common north of the border.

Happy Birthday United States Marines

2010-11-10T09:28:00.004-07:00

Today is the 235th Birthdy of the United States Marines. Many members of my family have been Marines including my Pops, an Uncle who was one of the "Chosin Few", another uncle who was AWOL and up there looking for his brother, and my young nephews right now.

Cake tradition to mark Marines' 235th birthday

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Two Marines, 25-year-old Theodore Pernal from West Palm Beach and 80-year-old Dalton Shirah of Lake Worth will be celebrating the Marines' 235th birthday today.

Following U.S. Marine tradition, the oldest Marine takes the first bite of birthday cake decorated with the U.S. Marine logo and then passes it on to the youngest Marine, which denotes carrying on the tradition of the Marine Corps from the old corps to the new.

According to the U.S. Marine website, this celebration is taking place in many other places worldwide.

And let's not forget why the Marines were created. Not one penny in tribute. We know what that tribute was...a form of jizya (or whatever the barbarian moslems call the it).

America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe

by Gerard W. Gawalt

Gerard W. Gawalt is the manuscript specialist for early American history in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.

Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. In fact, the Roman Catholic Religious Order of Mathurins had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates.

Before the United States obtained its independence in the American Revolution, 1775-83, American merchant ships and sailors had been protected from the ravages of the North African pirates by the naval and diplomatic power of Great Britain. British naval power and the tribute or subsidies Britain paid to the piratical states protected American vessels and crews. During the Revolution, the ships of the United States were protected by the 1778 alliance with France, which required the French nation to protect "American vessels and effects against all violence, insults, attacks, or depredations, on the part of the said Princes and States of Barbary or their subjects."

After the United States won its independence in the treaty of 1783, it had to protect its own commerce against dangers such as the Barbary pirates. As early as 1784 Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them. Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of twenty-one people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.

Thomas Jefferson, United States minister to France, opposed the payment of tribute, as he later testified in words that have a particular resonance today. In his autobiography Jefferson wrote that in 1785 and 1786 he unsuccessfully "endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, articles of a special confederation." Jefferson argued that "The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace." Jefferson prepared a detailed plan for the interested states. "Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association," Jefferson remembered, but there were "apprehensions" that England and France would follow their own paths, "and so it fell through."

Paying the ransom would only lead to further demands, Jefferson argued in letters to future presidents John Adams, then America's minister to Great Britain, and James Monroe, then a member of Congress. As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, "I acknolege [sic] I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro' the medium of war." Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates, Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: "The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . . Every national citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." "From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their tenaciousness of their money," Jefferson added in a December 26, 1786, letter to the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles, "it will be more easy to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to bribe them."

Jefferson's plan for an international coalition foundered on the shoals of indifference and a belief that it was cheaper to pay the tribute than fight a war. The United States's relations with the Barbary states continued to revolve around negotiations for ransom of American ships and sailors and the payment of annual tributes or gifts. Even though Secretary of State Jefferson declared to Thomas Barclay, American consul to Morocco, in a May 13, 1791, letter of instructions for a new treaty with Morocco that it is "lastly our determination to prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form, and to any people whatever," the United States continued to negotiate for cash settlements. In 1795 alone the United States was forced to pay nearly a million dollars in cash, naval stores, and a frigate to ransom 115 sailors from the dey of Algiers. Annual gifts were settled by treaty on Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli.

When Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli's demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. The pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States. Although as secretary of state and vice president he had opposed developing an American navy capable of anything more than coastal defense, President Jefferson dispatched a squadron of naval vessels to the Mediterranean. As he declared in his first annual message to Congress: "To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean. . . ."

The American show of force quickly awed Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. The humiliating loss of the frigate Philadelphia and the capture of her captain and crew in Tripoli in 1803, criticism from his political opponents, and even opposition within his own cabinet did not deter Jefferson from his chosen course during four years of war. The aggressive action of Commodore Edward Preble (1803-4) forced Morocco out of the fight and his five bombardments of Tripoli restored some order to the Mediterranean. However, it was not until 1805, when an American fleet under Commodore John Rogers and a land force raised by an American naval agent to the Barbary powers, Captain William Eaton, threatened to capture Tripoli and install the brother of Tripoli's pasha on the throne, that a treaty brought an end to the hostilities. Negotiated by Tobias Lear, former secretary to President Washington and now consul general in Algiers, the treaty of 1805 still required the United States to pay a ransom of $60,000 for each of the sailors held by the dey of Algiers, and so it went without Senatorial consent until April 1806. Nevertheless, Jefferson was able to report in his sixth annual message to Congress in December 1806 that in addition to the successful completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, "The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship."

In fact, it was not until the second war with Algiers, in 1815, that naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States. European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s. However, international piracy in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters declined during this time under pressure from the Euro-American nations, who no longer viewed pirate states as mere annoyances during peacetime and potential allies during war.

For anyone interested in the further pursuit of information about America's first unconventional, international war in the primary sources, the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress holds manuscript collections of many of the American participants, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (see the George Washington Papers), William Short, Edward Preble, Thomas Barclay, James Madison, James Simpson, James Leander Cathcart, William Bainbridge, James Barron, John Rodgers, Ralph Izard, and Albert Gallatin.

Computer troubles

2010-11-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Computer took a dive. I'll be back as quickly as possible.

2010-11-07T07:56:00.001-07:00

Borderland Beat has a very interesting article up describing the take-down of Gulf Cartel boss Tony Tormenta. Over 600 Mexican Navy Marines, 3 helicopters,and 17 armooured vehicles were needed to take this freak out of the gene pool. While this operation caused chaos and fear among the population of Matamoros including the disruption of cell phone service, it was necessary to take this nut out and to let the rest of these crazies know what their fate will be. This is a war and collatoral damage (civilian casualties) always occur in war. Mexico must continue to take control of its own territory. Mexicans must have a level of safety which will allow them to live normal lives with their families and friends, do business in a secure environment all governed by the rule of law. The corruption in all levels of the Mexican government better be rooted out too or this will all be for naught.

You potheads and supporters of legalizing pot share in the responsibility for all this bloodshed. If pot is legalized, it will flow across the border inamounts which will make that 130 tons (260,000 pounds) found recently look like a drop in the bucket. You think local growers will be able to stand against the cartels? Hell, the government of Mexico can barely stand.

More than 600 Soldiers Surrounded the Cartel Boss "Tony Tormenta"

A total of 660 members of the Navy of Mexico participated in the operation yesterday which resulted in the death of Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias "Tony Tormenta", a high ranking kingpin of the Gulf Drug Cartel.

The Secretary of the Navy said in a statement that a total of 660 military marines were deployed in the operation, and of these, 150 were in the first circle of action, supported by three helicopters and 17 armored vehicles.

In the gunfight four gunmen were killed that allegedly belonged to the inner circle of protection to "Tony Tormenta." Also killed were three marines while four others were wounded, said the Navy said in a statement.

A source explained that Mexican authorities had been following the trail of "Tony Tormenta" for the last six months and on Friday they received his location in a downtown neighborhood of Matamoros, a city bordering the United States, but when the first group of marines arrived, they were met with automatic gunfire and grenades.

This conflict unleashed a fierce gun battle which lasted for more than two hours, until the capo "Tony Tormenta", a native of Matamoros and at the age 48, finally fell.

Friday's daylong gunfights throughout Matamoros between cartel hit men and Mexican soldiers and marines plunged the city into chaos and panic, witnesses said, as armed men plowed through streets on the backs of pickup trucks.

Residents rushed in helter-skelter traffic to get home; many remained trapped in their offices. Cellphone service went down, further stoking fears as bursts of high-caliber weaponry could be heard for hours. International bridges into Texas were closed for a time.

Most of the fighting barely made a ripple in national news here in Mexico because local reporters in Tamaulipas, out of fear or corruption, have been trained to ignore cartel activities. Only when a journalist for a Matamoros newspaper was killed in the gun battle did the news begin to trickle out.

A source said that "Tony Tormenta" was one of the leaders to take control of the Gulf cartel in 2003, which has its influence on the east coast of Mexico, after his brother, Osiel Cardenas Guillen was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States.

The Mexican government considers the death of the Gulf cartel kingpin as a "significant" step in dismantling organized criminal groups "that have caused a lot of suffering to the people of our country," said the national security spokesman, Alejandro Poire.

In a press release read to the media, Poire congratulated the members of the Armed Forces who participated in the operation and expressed his deep condolences over the death of the soldiers "killed in the line of duty."

The Gulf cartel and the Zetas, once allies, have been disputing for the last couple of years in a bloody war for control of drug trafficking turf, which has left a bloodbath in its aftermath.

So far this year more than 10,000 people have been killed related to organized crime.

Mass Grave in Acapulco

2010-11-06T08:36:00.001-07:00

Americans who think they are safe vacationing in Mexico because they are just visitors / tourists and not connected to smuggling need to understand that mistakes happen. Akin to the random shooting of a child asleep in their bed in Compton in a gang hit but on a much larger, more hideous and ruthless scale. A month ago, 20 men were kidnapped in Acapulco and never heard from again. Investigators think they have located them - in a mass grave in Acapulco; possible victims of a case of mistaken identity. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. And, frankly, if you are an American of Mexican descent or look like you might be, I believe you are in far more danger of these mistaken identity murders in Mexico. There are plenty of other beautiful places to vacation in the USA and other areas of the world. How about Alaska or Hawaii? If you insist on a Latin inspired locale, then why not Puerto Rico? If you simply must leave the country, then Australia and New Zealand are far more preferable than the ever increasing death toll of Mexico which currently stands at 10,000 so far in 2010.

Mistake may have led to mass grave deaths in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Investigators finished removing 18 bodies from a mass grave near Acapulco on Thursday amid speculation that the victims may have been killed by mistake.

Prosecutors and police said forensic teams had not yet identified the bodies, but it was possible they had uncovered the remains of 20 men from the western state of Michoacan who were kidnapped a month ago in Acapulco and have not been seen since.

Authorities were led to the site by a video posted on YouTube by a drug-trafficking organization and by anonymous calls to police. The video shows two men answering questions from an off-camera interrogator and apparently being forced to confess that they killed the men from Michoacan and buried them near the village of Tunzingo south of Acapulco.

In the video, the two men on camera say the killing was over lucrative drug sales and trafficking routes in the area.

According to reporters at the scene, the bodies of two men resembling those on the video were found beside the mass grave near a sign reading: "The people they killed are buried here.''

A group calling itself CIDA, an acronym that officials say means Independent Cartel of Acapulco, claimed responsibility for the video and the information that led authorities to the grave site.

The families of the men say they were mechanics who had saved up for a weekend fling in the resort city and had nothing to do with drug trafficking. Investigations by police also suggest that the men had no criminal records or ties.

Mexican drug cartels and shadowy groups of narco-vigilantes have begun to post incriminating videos of forced confessions on the Internet, subsuming the role of the state - and sometimes judge, jury and executioner.

"This is a strategy they have learned from the Islamic terrorist organizations and brought to Mexico," said Martin Barron Cruz, a researcher at the National Institute of Criminal Science in Mexico City.

He said the Internet offers the criminal groups an anonymous tool, without rules, and a powerful medium for propaganda. It not only allows the warring groups to blame one another - rightly or wrongly - for crimes, but it also challenges the authority of the state by making the criminals the instruments of vigilante justice.

Barron suggested that the drug mafias are aping techniques used by the Mexican government, which scores public relations points by parading suspects before the cameras - even if many of those arrested are never formally charged and their cases fall apart.

In recent weeks, criminal gangs have posted videos of men being forced to say that an assassination squad is operating under the control of a prison warden - who was later fired - and posted accusations by the brother of the former attorney general in the northern state of Chihuahua. In that video, top prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez is accused, along with the governor and a military general, of working for the local cartel and orchestrating political murders.

The newspaper El Diario in Ciudad Juarez reported Thursday that Mario Gonzalez, the brother of the ex-prosecutor, was found dead and had been buried alongside three or four unidentified bodies north of Chihuahua City.

The bodies found near Acapulco were badly decomposed and in a shallow grave in a coconut grove, said Enrique Gil Mercado, a special state prosecutor. The families of the missing men are heading toward the city to help with the identifications.

Sources in the Mexican military told the Milenio news organization that evidence suggested the bodies were those of the missing men from Michoacan, though that could not be confirmed.

Mexico 2010 Drug War Casualties: 10,000 to date

2010-11-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

You read that right. Ten thousand people are dead just this year alone in Mexico as a result of the cartels ruthless murder and mayhem.

Mexico's 2010 Drug War Stats: 10,000 Deaths and Counting

According to Reforma’s report released on November 4, 2010:

- 45% of the registered deaths this year occurred in two states: Chihuahua registered 2,797 executions and Sinaloa 1,795.

- Following these two states are: Guerrero with 786, Durango with 700, and Tamaulipas with 700 drug related deaths.

- 52 soldiers and 637 police from different jurisdictions have been killed around the nation.

- 276 of the deceased were minors.

- 798 people were tortured prior to death and 326 were decapitated.

- Narco-messages were found in 674 of the total deaths.

Dozens Killed Just Over Border

2010-11-05T18:14:00.002-07:00

If nearly 50 people had been killed in a shootout just feet from the border causing all bridges over the Rio Grande to be closed, you'd think it would be breathlessly reported. 30 dead in a shootout at noon and 17 more in a second shootout near city hall! Among the dead is a reporter and a cartel murderer known as "Tony Tormenta". The reporter seems to have gotten in the way of the soldiers fighting the war against the murderers.

Update: Finally a report on ABCNews Radio Network but only about 5 reported dead - the criminal and some law enforcement. Not a word about the real number, that it was near Matamoros City Hall, nor that it was just over the border.

Dozens killed in Matamoros; bridges closed

Gunfire broke out in Matamoros Friday, leaving at least 47 people dead and causing the closure of all three bridges between Brownsville and Mexico.

The fighting reportedly involved members of the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas and Mexican federal police and military

University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College closed the Fort Brown campus and moved the soccer games scheduled for Friday night to the Brownsville Sports Park.

Gunfire was reported in Matamoros in a number of incidents beginning Friday morning, with at least 30 people dead by around noon, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition that his name not be used.

In the afternoon, a major confrontation near city hall killed at least 17 more people, the source said.

One of those killed around midday was identified as Carlos Alberto Guajardo, 37, a reporter for the newspaper El Expreso. Sources with knowledge of the incident said Guajardo apparently was killed by soldiers who were chasing narcotics traffickers.

Immigration hawk Pearce elected president of Arizona Senate

2010-11-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

From the Arizona Capitol Times, which once interviewed me after I spoke to the Arizona Legislative Memorial Mall Commission (against the hideous and lying AZ 911 Memorial), reported that Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce (author/sponsor of SB1070) was elected President of the Arizona Senate the day after Arizona Republicans literally swept statewide positions to get a supermajority in both our state House and Senate.

Immigration hawk Pearce elected president of Arizona Senate

Sen. Russell Pearce will lead the Arizona Senate next year after colleagues elected him to be president of the chamber during a closed-door meeting Nov. 3.

Pearce defeated Sen. Steve Pierce and Senators-elect Steve Yarbrough and John McComish. All four had been rounding up votes for months in anticipation of the leadership elections. Until now, it wasn’t clear which candidate had the edge, although many sources were saying Yarbrough appeared to have the most support prior to the Nov. 2 elections.

Republicans gained new seats in nearly every facet of Arizona government, sweeping the statewide positions and amassing what appears to be a veto-proof supermajority in the state House and Senate.

Many legislators have said they want fixing the budget and jumpstarting the economy to be the primary focus next year, and they have indicated that going through another contentious round of immigration legislation might be a distraction.

The incoming set of senators also chose Scott Bundgaard, a former legislator, as Majority Leader. Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Pierce remains as the Majority Whip.

Senate President Bob Burns presided over the meeting and left when the incoming president was chosen.

Burns said they went through three or four rounds of voting before a majority settled on Pearce.

Pearce and his leadership team will have their hands full next year.

They will have to fix a budget deficit that grew substantially after the Nov. 2 general election.

Voters rejected two ballot proposals that would have swept money from voter approved programs into the state’s general fund. The failure of the measures punched a $450 million hole in this year’s budget.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to fix that deficit this year or wait for the new set of lawmakers to take their oath next year before tackling the problem.

Another challenge will be to jumpstart a struggling economy, as revenue collections remain sluggish and economists warn of a slow recovery.

Lawmakers are considering passing a “jobs” bill or an “economic package.”

Pearce joined the Legislature in 2001. He was elected to the Senate two years ago.

He has served as chairman of the Appropriations committees in both chambers.

Pearce has a deep background in law enforcement. He was a chief deputy with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for nearly two decades. He also has served as director for Arizona’s Motor Vehicle Division as director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

ICE Escorts Criminal Illegal Alien Out on Bail Across Border

2010-11-05T10:27:00.002-07:00

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials helped an illegal immigrant thief escape across the border. They literally escorted him across the border after flying him to El Paso on your dime. All to escape the 12 years in prison he was facing.

And the Jefferson County District Attorney is fed up. And you should be too. If you're not furious, you're not paying attention or you don't support the rule of law. Like Progressives.

And the perps sister, who put up her house for the bond, won't even loose that house (even though it was used to circumvent justice) because stupid open-borders Colorado passed a law that prevents forfeiture when suspects leave the country. Gee, I wonder why they would do that? Nearly 100% of country skipping perps are illegal aliens so they just hop back across the border and their relatives don't have to forfeit the bond. This is outrageous. Coloradans, what the hell are you thinking??

Jeffco DA angry that ICE helped trailer-theft suspect return to Mexico

An illegal immigrant charged with stealing an 81-year-old Wheat Ridge man's trailer fled the country with unusual accomplices: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

"They are complicit in his escape from justice," Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey said Wednesday of the federal agency's role in helping Damacio Torres- Ochoa, 33, leave the country.

According to Storey, ICE flew the felony defendant to El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 19 and walked him across the border to freedom.

Storey didn't learn what had happened until Torres-Ochoa failed to appear at a Monday court hearing. He was facing up to 12 years in prison.

"I pretty much have had enough of this," Storey said. "This kind of sticks in our craw."

Other things that contributed to Torres-Ochoa's release included a judge dropping his bond — a loophole created for bail bond companies by the Colorado legislature when illegal immigrants skip bail — and bad communication between federal and state lawmen. Storey vowed to attack each problem.

After he "self-deported," Torres- Ochoa's bail was raised to $250,000 in cash, Storey said.

The case began Feb. 24 after Robert Joseph Wallace, 81, ran outside when he heard someone stealing his trailer. Torres-Ochoa allegedly was towing the trailer away when Wallace shot his alleged accomplice, Alvaro Cardona, 28, in the face, blinding him and causing a serious brain injury.

Wallace was charged in the shooting, and months later, Torres-Ochoa and Cardona were charged with theft from an at-risk victim.

Storey asked for a high bail because Torres-Ochoa was in the country illegally and was considered a flight risk. Bail was set at $100,000. Jefferson County Judge Thomas Vance later dropped the bail to $27,500, Storey said.

Torres-Ochoa's sister put up her house as collateral, and Rosalie Montoya of Reliable Bail Bonds put up the bond on Oct. 4, Storey said. But because ICE had a hold on Torres-Ochoa, ICE picked him up two days later and held him until he was transported to Texas.

ICE initiated deportation against Torres-Ochoa without notifying Jefferson County officials. ICE officials could not be reached for comment.

Wallace pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of attempted reckless manslaughter and illegal discharge of a firearm into an occupied motor vehicle.

Cardona has been deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Although Torres-Ochoa skipped bail, Reliable Bail Bonds likely won't forfeit the bond because the Colorado legislature passed a measure in 2007 in which bond companies were exempt from forfeiture when suspects flee the country.

Three years ago, when the legislature passed the exemption, Storey wrote a letter to county and district presiding judges asking them to make sure that bails were set high in such cases because of the flight risk with illegal immigrants.

Storey spokeswoman Pam Russell said ICE doesn't have enough space to hold offenders indefinitely and routinely deports offenders.

"There is a way around this thing," Storey said.

He said the Jefferson County jail could hold ICE detainees under contract. He has asked jailers to notify him when ICE takes custody of offenders in the future.

"I guarantee you, they don't stay across the border," he said. "They come back under a different identification."

Arizona Election 2010 Results

2010-11-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

OK, while I can't believe that Harry Reid didn't lose except by cheating, Arizona at least did fairly well. Ruth McClung and Jesse Kelly didn't win but they came very close and I expect them to be a force to be reckoned with in the future of Arizona.

Results are here.

I Voted Today - Now Sending Retirement Cards to Reid and Pelosi

2010-11-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

I was at the polling location 15 minutes before it opened. When it did open at 6am, there were at least 30 people waiting to vote. I hope that indicates a strong turnout.

When they handed me the "I voted today" sticker, I asked for a second one and ended up with 2 each of 2 different designs. So, I made good use of them...I used them to seal up retirement cards for Harry and Nancy. The fact that the postmark will say "Phoenix" is wonderful. The idea came from Mike Broomhead host of the weekday 4-7pm show on KFYI.

I just heard Rush on his morning update close with "Annoy the bastards today, folks". I'm doing my part!

Yep, that's my writing complete with mistakes and all.

And look! I cared enough to send the very best!

Chose a nice patriotic stamp.

I used both my "I Voted Today" stickers and added the little flag sticker in the center for good measure.

GO VOTE!

2010-11-02T05:23:00.000-07:00

If you don't vote, then don't complain!

Get out there and vote! I'll be going to the polls right when they open.

I posted how I intended to vote the other day. Read it here. Pretty much straight Republican but I'm writing in Ian Gilyeat for Senate and for the Deer Valley School Board, I'm voting for Mike Gregoire and Christy Agosta because Kelly Gorman must not be on the board due to his statement that Charter and private schools are "threat to district enrollment". Competition should be an incentive to make your school district better and not seen as a threat.

For the judicial nominees, see this website.

A quick recap of the propositions:

Propositions:

106 - YES = Can't be forced to purchase health insurance

107 - YES = End racial discrmination

109 - YES = Hunting, fishing, harvesting wildlife will be a Constitutional Right

110 - NO = More power to the state government and less to the people relating to state trust land deals

111 - YES = Changes name of Secretary of State to Lieutenant Governor and must run on same ticket as Governor

112 - NO = Initiative filing deadline stays at 4 months

113 - YES = Secret ballots in elections for employee representation (ie, this is the no union thug can demand to see your ballot and then demand an explanation on how you voted)

203 - NO = medical marijuana will not be legalized

301 - YES = transfers the balance of money in the land conservation fund to the state general fund

302 - YES = terminates programs which supplant the responsibilities of parents

Think You're Free? Try to Start a Business.

2010-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

From the Institute for Justice via BigGovernment

What's the Mood in Arizona? Fabulous!

2010-10-30T11:35:00.001-07:00

I've been asked a few times what I think the political mood is in Arizona. Well, as usual, it's quite Conservative.

Dems Stand to Lose Big in Arizona (be sure to read the comments there too. all but 1 or 2 are in support of Arizona as of 11:51AM MST)

Arizona's congressional seats are likely to swing heavily Republican this Tuesday, giving conservatives a possible seven-to-one edge over Democrats in the state if all four contested races there change parties.

At issue for Democrats is the controversial SB 1070, a law that allows the state to enforce federal illegal immigration statutes.

Poll numbers in the First and Fifth Congressional Districts show voters clearly leaning toward the Republican candidates. In AZ-1, incumbent Anne Kirkpatrick, a Nancy Pelosi loyalist, is down seven points to dentist and political newcomer Paul Gosar. In AZ-5, incumbent Harry Mitchell, Tempe's former mayor, is down four points to Republican David Schweikert. Mitchell defeated Schweikert two years ago.

Mitchell and Kirkpatrick have both been outspoken against SB 1070 and are now paying the price. Both also supported bills to legalize illegal immigrants in Arizona - in stark contrast to their opponents.

Arizona State University polling expert Bruce Merrill says the Republican 1070 stance is driving independent voters to their side. "The independents are breaking about 60-40 in terms of supporting a much tougher stand on illegal immigration," Merrill said.

Poll numbers show the other two districts are too close to predict, and could go either way. In the Seventh Congressional District, three-term incumbent Raul Grijalva could lose to a twenty-eight year old scientist with no political background. Ruth McClung, who's mother runs her campaign, could defeat Grijalva because he wanted businesses and tourists to boycott his own state.

The Eighth District has 114 miles of border with Mexico. Its incumbent Gabrielle Giffords also opposed SB1070 and favored legalization - the exact opposite of her opponent, former marine Jesse Kelly.

What will happen in Arizona may be a case of voters' revenge. While many Democrats, including President Barack Obama, criticized SB1070, a good number of Arizona voters appear to be for it - and many may be critical independents. "We have had a tremendous increase in independents [in the state]," Merrill said. "So they almost hold the balance of power in Arizona."

Worst Attack Ads Ever? Not Quite.

2010-10-30T11:02:00.002-07:00

From reason.tv. Taken from the candidates own words from the past.

"John Adams is a blind, bald, crippled, toothless man who wants to start a war with France. While he's not busy importing mistresses from Europe, he's trying to marry one of his sons to a daughter of King George. Haven't we had enough monarchy in America?"

Thomas Jefferson also said "John Adams is a hideous and hermaphroditical character with neither the force and firmness of a man nor the gentleness and sensitivity of a woman.

"If Thomas Jefferson wins murder, robbery, rape adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced. The air will be wrent with the cries of the distressed. The soil will be soaked with blood. And the nation black with crimes. Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames? Female chastity violated? Children writing on a pike?

John Adams also said "Jefferson is the son of a halfbreed Indian squaw raised on hocakes and Hamilton is a Creole bastard brat of a Scots peddler."

Damn! Now that's some campaigning right there! Come on Conservatives and Tea Partiers, hit the dem-socialists where it hurts. With the truth!

Embarrassed BLM Changes Signs in AZ Desert Spending Your Tax Dollars

2010-10-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Bureau of Land Management used Federal funds ($600 Million to increase border security measures was granted) to update their signs in the Arizona desert. You remember the signs. I posted about them a few times: Public Lands South of I-8 now a no-go area, Just How Far North Is This?, We Can't Protect You South of Interstate 8.

The new signs say

Active Federal Law Enforcement Patrol Area
Clean-up and restoration crews at work

Protect Citizens First

2010-10-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

From Wolff at Howling at the Moon

Immigration Counters

Vote 2010 Arizona

2010-10-27T14:08:00.002-07:00

How I plan to vote on November 2nd:

Federal

US Senator - Ian Gilyaet, a write in candidate. Because McCain needs to retire (and move to California). McCain is far too willing to reach across the aisle to Progressives. He was instrumental in the 2007 push for amnesty and I do not believe that he has really abandoned this stance. He says he's no longer convinced of human-caused global warming but I don't believe him on that either. The bottom line is that he is not conservative enough.

U.S. Representative in Congress District 3 - Ben Quayle not because he's a fantastic candidate and definitely not because of his father (I do not believe in political royalty) but because he will help get a majority in the House.

State

Governor - Jan Brewer not because she's ideal but because she's on the right side of 90% of the important issues. I did not appreciate the tax increase she wanted and campaigned for but it's the only thing I've been unhappy with.

State Senator District 4 - Scott Bundgaard

State Representative District 4 - Jack Harper, Judy Burgess

Secretary of State - Ken Bennet

Attorney General - Tom Horne

State Treasurer - Doug Ducey

Superintendent of Public Instruction - John Huppenthal

State Mine Inspector - Joe Hart

Corporation Commision - Brenda Burns, Gary Pierce

Maricopa County

County Attorney - Bill Montgomery even though I am personally acquainted with the libertarian candidate Michael Kielsky who is very decent fellow.

Clerk of the Superior Court - Michael J. Jeanes

Justice of the Peace North Valley - Gerald A. Williams

Constable North Valley - Philip W. Hazlett

Central Arizona Water Conservation District (see here and here - more tea party people at all levels of government is good for our future):

TC Bundy

Raymond Johnson

Mark Lewis

Cynthia M. Moulton

John A. Rosado

Deer Valley Unified School District Governing Board Member (short statements from each candidate)

Mike Gregoire

Definitely NOT Kelly Gorman who sees Charter and private schools as a threat to district enrollment

Christy Agosta just to ensure that Gorman doesn't get in

Judges

I haven't gone through all the judges yet but I will be reviewing the information here and will post soon.

Propositions:

106 - YES = Can't be forced to purchase health insurance

107 - YES = End racial discrmination

109 - YES = Hunting, fishing, harvesting wildlife will be a Constitutional Right

110 - NO = More power to the state government and less to the people relating to state trust land deals

111 - YES = Changes name of Secretary of State to Lieutenant Governor and must run on same ticket as Governor

112 - NO = Initiative filing deadline stays at 4 months

113 - YES = Secret ballots in elections for employee representation (ie, this is the no union thug can demand to see your ballot and then demand an explanation on how you voted)

203 - NO = medical marijuana will not be legalized

301 - YES = transfers the balance of money in the land conservation fund to the state general fund

302 - YES = terminates programs which supplant the responsibilities of parents

Donors Send Millions to Defend Arizona Law

2010-10-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mr. Mellon and the more than 42000 others who have sent donations to help Arizona defend itself against the federal government!

Donors Send Millions to Defend Arizona Law

Arizona has attracted more than $3.6 million of donations to help defend its law to crack down on illegal immigration, with one whopping contribution—and thousands of smaller ones—from out of state.

Timothy Mellon, an heir to a Pittsburgh steel and banking dynasty, has donated $1.5 million to a legal-defense fund established by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, according to the governor's office.

Mr. Mellon, who is identified on a donor list as a Wyoming resident, is among more than 42,000 people who have contributed to the border state's legal battle for the right to enforce the law, which Arizona's legislature passed earlier this year.

The law makes illegal immigration a state crime and requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect they are in the state unlawfully.

Mr. Mellon's contribution is an anomaly. Through Sept. 9, the latest date for which information is available, most of the donations have been small, many between $20 and $100. Sympathizers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have contributed to the fund. Most of the individual online contributions have come from Arizona, followed by California, Texas, Florida and New York.

Since Ms. Brewer signed Arizona Senate Bill 1070 in April, her popularity has soared, bolstering the Republican's chances in next Tuesday's gubernatorial election. Polls show her with a lead of more than 10 percentage points over state Attorney General Terry Goddard.

The law sparked a national debate and propelled illegal immigration to the forefront of the midterm election campaign. Candidates in more than 25 states have said they would draft similar laws if they were elected, according to ImmigrationWorks USA, a pro-business group that favors changing immigration policy.

Arizona is widely regarded as a testing ground for tackling illegal immigration. SB1070 could culminate in a U.S. Supreme Court clash over state versus federal power that backers of the measure hope will establish a new legal precedent that delegates more authority over immigration to the states.

In May, amid lawsuits from individuals and civil-rights groups, Ms. Brewer signed an executive order creating the Border Security and Illegal Immigration Defense Fund to raise money from private citizens to help pay the state's legal costs.

The state is represented by Snell & Wilmer, a big Phoenix law firm that is charging $225 to $450 an hour. Ms. Brewer tapped outside counsel after Mr. Goddard, her Democratic rival in the gubernatorial election, expressed reservations about defending the law against the suits, according to the governor's spokesman.

A spokesman for Mr. Goddard said he stepped aside after the Arizona legislature enacted a statute that deprived him of the authority to defend SB1070 in court and gave the governor the authority to hire outside counsel.

In early July, the Obama administration filed suit over the statute, saying the state had "crossed a constitutional line" and was interfering with federal authority over immigration. Most out-of-state donations began flowing to Arizona after that suit was filed.

On July 29, a federal judge temporarily stopped key provisions of the law from taking effect, saying it was unlikely Arizona would prevail in challenges to provisions such as requiring police to question and detain suspected illegal immigrants during routine stops. Arizona appealed the decision, setting in motion what is likely to be a protracted legal battle with Washington.

About 220 attorneys have taken part in the suits so far, and there have been more than 1,000 legal filings, the governor's spokesman said. The state has paid more than $441,000 in legal fees, according to invoices from Snell & Wilmer reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Those expenditures are for only two months and are likely to increase quickly.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the Obama administration's suit beginning Monday.

"Gov. Brewer has stated that she is prepared to take this case to the U.S. Supreme Court," said Paul Senseman, the governor's deputy chief of staff.

If the case were to reach the high court, attorneys fees could soar to $10 million, according to Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonpartisan research group in Los Angeles.

Mr. Mellon was unavailable for comment. "We believe the donation speaks for itself," said Robert Culliford, general counsel for Pan Am Systems Inc., a private shipping and freight concern of which Mr. Mellon is chairman.

Mr. Mellon has donated money to several GOP candidates during the current election cycle, including U.S. Senate hopefuls Carly Fiorina in California and Marco Rubio in Florida and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political contributions.

AZ DPS Patrol Vehicle Stolen by Presumed Illegal

2010-10-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

It's an AP article so I can't link and copy it here.

A Department of Public Safety officer made a traffic stop of a stolen pikcup truck suspected of carrying illegal immigrants north of Casa Grande this afternoon - near the Sacaton rest stop along west bound Interstate 10. Casa Grande is near where the Sheriff Deputy was shot earlier this year and near where two illegals used a cell phone to call for help but were dead by the time they were found - that was a likely case of one cartel attacking another.

A scuffle ensued and the patrol car was stolen. The driver later abandoned the patrol car 30 miles south of Phoenix. The driver was arrested. Strange. They don't report his immigration status.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals: No Proof of Citizenship Required to Register to Vote in Arizona

2010-10-26T17:20:00.001-07:00

Another attack on Arizona. 9th Circuis Court says no proof of citizenship is required to register to vote in Arizona. Unbelievable. These idiots will destroy this country. Arizonan and retired US Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O'Conner, who was sitting as an acting appellate judge, ruled against her own home state. Fine. Take John McCain and retire to California. Please.

Court throws out Arizona rule requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote

A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a state mandate for people to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote.

In a divided decision, the majority of the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the requirement, approved by Arizona voters in 2004, runs afoul of the federal National Voter Registration Act. That law spells out what states can and cannot require to vote in federal elections.

Judge Sandra Ikuta, writing the majority decision, specifically concluded that the requirement to produce one of a list of specified documents proving citizenship is on that list of what is not allowed.

That conclusion drew derision from Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who oversees elections and who said the proof is necessary to protect the integrity of elections.

"If you buy that argument, then I assume they are going to let us go through airports signing a certificate saying that 'I am not a terrorist, I promise I don't have any explosives in my underwear,' '' Bennett said. He vowed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who crafted the 2004 measure, said the ruling "flies in the face of common sense.''

"It should go without saying that states have the right to ensure that only citizens vote,'' he said.

While striking down the proof-of-citizenship requirement, the court let stand the other key provision of the law which require people to provide identification before being allowed to cast a ballot.

Potheads Have Blood on Their Hands

2010-10-25T22:18:00.001-07:00

These ridiculous so-called medical marijuana laws must be defeated.

Secure the Southern border

By: Rep. Lamar Smith

Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the southern U.S. border is “as secure as it has ever been.” This surprising statement came only a few weeks after an Arizona rancher was shot and killed on his own property by a suspected illegal immigrant.

Many citizens in Arizona and other border states thought the tragic death of an U.S. citizen on his own property would finally wake up the Obama administration to the growing violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Though Napolitano may not want to admit it, the southern U.S. border is far from secure. Illegal immigration, drug smuggling and drug-related violence continue to threaten Americans across the country. Since President Felipe Calderon took office three years ago, there have been more than 28,000 violent deaths on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexican border due to drug cartel violence.

More than 900 U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assaulted this year. This includes the murder of Robert Rosas, who was on patrol near San Diego, Calif..

Drug cartel violence is a serious problem in Mexico. An Investor’s Business Daily editorial noted last month, “Beheadings, stonings, car bombs and terrorist attacks speak to a lust for power every bit as implacable as that of the Afghanistan’s Taliban or insurgents in Iraq.”

Unfortunately, the Obama administration continues to promote policies that fund the violence along the border.

Marijuana, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, is the “top revenue generator for Mexican drug trafficking organizations, a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year.”

But rather than enforce federal drug laws that prohibit marijuana use, the Obama administration issued a directive to prosecutors not to investigate medical marijuana dispensaries in the 14 states that allow them. These dispensaries are often fronts for illegal marijuana distribution.
If the Obama administration really wants to address drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, it needs to cut off the cash crop for Mexican drug cartels. That means enforcing all federal drug laws—including those that outlaw marijuana.

Drug trafficking and drug-related violence isn’t the only problem along the U.S.-Mexico border. Lax border security is a serious national security risk.

So far in 2010, 447,731 immigrants have been apprehended trying to cross the Southwest border illegally. Of those, 50,912 are from countries other than Mexico -- including terrorist-sponsoring countries like Syria, Pakistan and Yemen.

We already know terrorists exploit weaknesses in the U.S. immigration system to come here. Several of the 9-11 hijackers had overstayed their visas and should have been deported. It is no surprise that terrorists are trying to exploit weak border security on the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the United States undetected.

In addition to national security concerns, illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border hurts U.S. citizen and legal immigrant workers. Last year, 556,041 individuals were apprehended while trying to enter the U.S.

According to T.J. Bonner, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol Council, for each illegal immigrant apprehended, two illegal immigrants enter successfully. That means an estimated one million people succeed in crossing into the United States illegally each year. That’s roughly the population of cities like Dallas; San Jose, Calif., or Detroit.

While millions of Americans are struggling to find work, there are an estimated seven million illegal immigrants in the U.S. workforce. Legal American workers should not have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs.

Worksite enforcement could help make those much-needed jobs available for U.S. citizen and legal immigrant workers. But under President Barack Obama, worksite enforcement administrative arrests are down 77 percent.
Real border security means stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the United States and putting an end to illegal immigration. The Obama administration can do much more to protect American lives and jobs.

Editorial: The High Cost of Border Insecurity

2010-10-25T21:17:00.001-07:00

There is a great editorial at copanews (that is Maricopa County News). I'm including it here in it's entirety. It has one flaw - it fails to note why the Yuma sector is so much more secure is that they have a fence and the border patrol quickly jails for two weeks you if you're caught once, 30 days the second time, and so forth.

Editorial: The high cost of border insecurity

E.M. Murray

With the controversy in the State of Arizona over illegal immigration -- particularly since the passage and signing into law of Senate Bill 1070 -- we have been inundated with news clips of angry people on both sides of the issue. We have also been lulled nearly to sleep by the talking heads on the evening news spouting figures about illegal immigration that have little or no meaning to us. Depending upon which television channel you watch, the numbers may even be different.

We hear one figure one day and a different figure another day. What is the real story behind the numbers? Does anyone have accurate figures? Are there any figures we can believe?

It is virtually impossible to obtain accurate figures, either for the number of undocumented aliens in the United States (for obvious reasons) or the cost to US citizens of having those undocumented aliens here. There are, however, credible sources who give numbers based on research instead of on emotion. This article will use those sources.

A publication from the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, “A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border,” (www.house.gov/sites/members/tx10_mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf), is a report that every concerned citizen should read. Don’t read it just before going to bed at night, though – it may give you nightmares.

The numbers

The United States shares nearly 6,000 miles of international border with Mexico and Canada. This article focuses on the US/Mexican border, since that is the area of interest to Arizonans. According to the report, during 2005, approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens were apprehended. Let’s see what that number actually looks like: 1,200,000. That is one of those numbers too large for most of us to really comprehend. Of those 1.2 million aliens, 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico (OTM). Of those 165,000, approximately 650 were from special interest countries (SIC).

Those special interest countries are a concern for both the United States and Arizona because they are “designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism” (quoted from a written statement of David Aguilar, Chief, Border Patrol, U.S. Department of Homeland Security).

The Tucson Sector of Border Patrol (the sector we reside in) is the busiest and biggest sector in the Border Patrol Service. It is so large and so busy that agents from other sectors are on loan to the Tucson Sector. According to Colleen Agle of the Tucson Sector, in the period of October 1, 2009 through July 31, 2010, there were 194,000 apprehensions in the sector. Border Patrol estimates (or guesstimates!) that for every one undocumented alien apprehended, 2.6 get away. Using that figure, 504,400 – over half a million -- entered the US through that one sector alone and were not caught. Those uncaught aliens could populate a city the size of Tucson. The Federal government estimates that only 10 to 30 percent of illegal aliens are apprehended, meaning that for the 194,000 caught in the Tucson sector, up to 1,746,000 came into the US illegally – and were not apprehended. That is a population the size of Phoenix!

Drugs, drugs, and more drugs

A large portion of illegal activity at the border has to do with illegal drug smuggling. In the fiscal year 2005, Federal drug seizures amounted to 222,714 kilograms (490,995 pounds or 245 and a half tons) of cocaine and 1,162,509 kilograms (over 2,562,867 pounds or more than 1,281 tons) of marijuana. So much for the “war on drugs.”

Pinal County numbers

What do the numbers have to do with us here in Maricopa? In 2009, the Pinal County Jail booked 325 illegal aliens. During much of the year, nation of origin was not recorded, but of those that were, there were 42 OTM undocumented aliens. Of those, two were from SICs – one from Cuba and one from Iran. Bear in mind that these people were not booked into the jail for being in the country illegally. They were booked for violations of law including DUI and extreme DUI, smuggling (people and/or drugs), assault with intent, child abuse, child molestation, aggravated assault on an officer, aggravated assault, theft, forgery, arson, identity theft, money laundering, kidnapping, unlawful flight from law enforcement, burglary, and just about any other crime one can think of.

From January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010, the Pinal County Jail booked 191 undocumented aliens. Of those, 30 were OTMs. Of those 30, seven were NOIs, including one from Brazil and one from Colombia.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) called the U.S. Border Patrol 249 times in 2009 and 237 times in 2010 (as of August 9th). Many of those calls were for multiple persons.

The Pinal County Adult Detention Facility has an agreement to house illegal aliens, who are turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.). In 2008, they housed 6,728 of these individuals. In 2009, that number was 6,549.

According to Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Tim Gaffney, the cost to house a prisoner is $59.64 per person per day. Multiply the inmate numbers by $60 and you begin to see the staggering amounts of money spent. Is it any wonder that it seems like Sheriff Paul Babeu is always asking the Board of Supervisors for more money?

In addition to the obvious dangers to the citizens of the county due to crimes committed by undocumented aliens, there is another major issue. The majority of vehicle pursuits by the PCSO involve drug and human trafficking. These pursuits put everyone on the road at risk, both unsuspecting citizens and the deputies. In 2007, there were 142 vehicle pursuits in the county. In 2008, there were 140. In 2009, the number of vehicle pursuits was up to 289. Through (only!) July 31st of this year, there have been 246 pursuits. In some cases, the deputies have dropped pursuits when the risk to citizens was too high to warrant further pursuit. However, even ending a pursuit does not guarantee safety. (See http://www.copanews.com/Article.aspx?ID=1616 for an example.)

The human costs

In addition to threats, risks, and losses to the public due to crimes committed by illegal aliens, there are also human costs. Deaths in the desert are all too common. (Actually, even one death is too many.) The slow or infirm are often left behind by the “coyotes” (human traffickers) to make their own way – or die – in the desert. Through July 15, 2010, the Pima County Medical Examiner handled 134 deceased illegal immigrants (an increase from 93 last year). On October 6, 2010, The Washington Independent reported 252 bodies were recovered in Pima County. The office was so overloaded with bodies that the medical examiner had to get a refrigerated truck to store some of them. It is estimated that 2/3 of the deceased are never identified, leaving hundreds of families to worry and wonder about their loved one.

In Pinal County this year, through August 12, 2010, 12 bodies were recovered from the desert. While many of those people died of exposure, either to cold nights in the winter or heat in the summer, two were officially ruled as homicides. Five of the deceased have not been identified; their families will never know what became of them.

In addition, the television news has a story about a “drop house” nearly every week. Houses where men – and women -- and children – are held against their will, starved, and abused, while their families in Mexico are extorted to obtain their release.

Yuma Sector: doing the job

The Yuma Sector of Border Patrol, on the other hand, was bragging in September that they have had no border-crossing fatalities this fiscal year (www.YumaSun.com). In recent years, enforcement was stepped up in that sector. (Now-Sheriff Babeu was a participant in the increased Yuma Sector enforcement.) Border enforcement in the sector is so tight that word has gone out not to try to cross there. If you are caught, you will be summarily jailed and then deported. “Catch and release” is no longer the way things are done in Yuma Sector.

No money for enforcement

One problem Pinal County has in relation to being a “smuggling corridor” is that we are not technically a “border county.” Although trafficking, both human and drugs, is a serious problem in our county, and related violence is escalating (see http://www.copanews.com/Article.aspx?ID=1158), we are not included in funds for enforcement because we are not a “border county.” Washington cannot conceive that we would need enforcement funds – after all, we’re miles away from the US/Mexican border!

Arizona dollars

While the “FAIR Report” has been termed unfair by some, it offers a conservative estimate of the cost of Arizona’s illegal immigrant population. The organization’s estimate comes to about $1.3 billion per year – ONLY for education, medical care, and incarceration (http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters5e3f). In case that figure doesn’t impress you, it’s $1,300,000,000 of your tax money. This does not include a lot of other costs: displacement of legal workers by illegal immigrants willing to accept lower wages, law enforcement costs for prevention and enforcement and judicial process (court) costs, the need for bi-lingual employees in numerous industries, bi-lingual printing costs for documents (including voting materials), higher insurance rates associated with illegal immigration related crimes such as property loss and auto theft, US money sent to Mexico -- and on and on it goes.

The education costs do not include things such as ESL instruction and school nutrition programs. Look at the cost of supporting illegal aliens and then look at the Arizona State budget deficit; you may see a connection there.

Your family is paying (the figure may be considerably higher now) about $717 per year just to support illegal immigrants. If you don’t like the large class sizes at your child’s school, consider this: 15 to 20% of the students in his or her class are illegal immigrants. If you have ever been forced to wait for hours at the Emergency Room, be aware that the preferred medical provider of illegal immigrants (who will never pay the bill, by the way) is the Emergency Room. In addition, your medical bills are high in order to cover the cost of those who are uninsured and never pay.

Governor Brewer has taken a solid stand against illegal immigration in signing Senate Bill 1070. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County is still doing his raids to arrest illegal immigrants. Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County has become a vocal opponent of illegal immigration due to recent crimes in our county. More and more states have passed or are passing laws similar to our SB 1070.

What you can do

When you go to the polling place on November 2 to exercise your right – and your responsibility – to vote, consider the platforms and the promises of the candidates. If you see illegal immigration as a problem for Pinal County and for Arizona, vote for those who see it the same way and say they will do something about it.

If you see people you suspect of being illegal aliens, call 9-1-1. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office has authorization to apprehend undocumented aliens, who are then turned over to I.C.E.

Note: The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office was very cooperative and willing to help with research for this article and provided numerous facts, figures, and interviews. The local media has carried articles about illegal trafficking in Maricopa but when asked for data regarding stops of undocumented aliens by the Maricopa Police Department, we received the following communication from the Public Information Officer of the Department: “Per our Departmental policy we do not ask people whether they are undocumented aliens. Subsequently, we do not have stats surrounding those circumstances.” For this reason, there is no information specific to Maricopa in this article

SB1070 Hearing To Be Broadcast on CSPAN

2010-10-25T19:39:00.002-07:00

I've been hearing all day on local radio that the November 1 appeasl court hearing in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will be broadcast on CSPAN. I don't know which CSPAN channel yet but will post it if I find out. But, the CSPAN website streams quite well so look for it there!

Viewing rooms will also be set up at the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, Phoenix, Tucson, and in Seattle, Portland (OR), and Pasadena (CA).

I'll be watching it and I hope you will as well!

Walter Oberstar?

2010-10-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is just weird. Is Jeff Dunhams puppet Walter a congressman running for re-election??

I just saw the congressmen croaking "I read the bill" on the news and immediately thought he looked like Walter. That's just too funny.

DHS Now Says Their Memo Was a False Alarm

2010-10-15T21:42:00.002-07:00

ou puhlease! we live in a a freaking banana republic already!

DHS Memo Proves Cartel Involved in Officer Shooting April 2010

2010-10-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Remember the Pinal County Sheriffs Deupty who was shot in out in the desert while tracking smugglers? And how he was maligned by local idiots? Well, well, well. A DHS memo was sent to several law enforcement entities around Arizona in May which corroborates his story. So, the Federal Government never said a word to defend this fine officer, Sheriff Babeu, or the people of Arizona who have been crying out for help in protecting their homes and property and their own lives from the invasion force of the drug cartels.

Jim Sharpe of KFYI started off his show this morning with this topic, comes back to it at about 12:00 minutes into the recording, and Sheriff Babeu joined him at about 20:35 minutes into the recording. Sheriff Babeu confirms that he received the memo and that it's real. Of course, it was "law enforcement sensitive" so Sheriff Babeu was restricted from using it to defend his officer. Babeu also points out that the 911 commission said that the government should share information as quickly as they can even if it's not 100% accurate. Clearly, the Obama regime is not cooperating; but we knew that. Listen to Sheriff Babeu from 20:35 through the end of the recording. Babeu is going after them with snipers.

250000 illegals have been apprehended using this area as an illegal alien and drug smuggler superhighway; 400000 roaming around free. The memo says there are 23 hilltops with scouts. In some cases, these scouts have radios with rolling encryption - ie, they cannot be tracked.

In the memo, the intel shows that the cartel was involved in the ambush of the officer. All the while the federal government and DHS sat on this information. If you weren't convinced before, you should be now... DHS is lead by a liar, President Obama is a liar.

So, the Director of DHS, also the former Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano sits there and lies saying the border is as secure as it has ever been all the while knowing that it actually far less secure than it has ever been and parts of Arizona are now under the control of the cartels and they are actually at war with each other fighting over our American land. And they put up signs facing north to tell us to keep out!!!!!

Note that Puerto Penasco is the quaint little beach community where a large number of Zonies own condos and drive down every weekend. I repeat that if you set foot in Mexico, you're insane.

DHS Memo: Drug Cartels Plot To Send Asssassins To AZ

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. -- Mexican drug cartels have plotted to send assassins into Arizona to murder bandits who are stealing drugs from the cartels, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by CBS 5 News.

A CBS 5 News law enforcement source said the memo was sent to several law enforcement agencies in May.

The memo said, "We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilizes the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel."

The Guzman cartel is one of the most powerful and dangerous cartels in Mexico.

The Vekol Valley is a known drug smuggling corridor in Pinal County and is also where Pinal Deputy Louie Puroll claims to have been ambushed by armed smugglers on April 30, according to Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

"It was decided to send a group of 15, very well equipped and armed sicarios (hired assassins) complete with bullet proof vests, into the Vekol Valley," according to the memo.

The cartels would then "send groups of 'simulated backpackers' carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits." Once identified, according to the memo, "the sicarios will take out the bandits."

After CBS 5 News told Babeu that it knew about the memo, he confirmed his agency was one of several Arizona law enforcement agencies that received the memo in May.

"We need to be plain and clear with the American people about this information. You've already confirmed it. I'm not going to lie about it," Babeu said during an interview Thursday afternoon.

"This is no longer a law enforcement matter. This is literally a national security threat to our country," Babeu said.

"These drug cartels are working in tandem to now bring this violence here to America. And this is alarming because to this point, we haven't seen this, a coordinated response from drug cartels who nearly have toppled the Mexican government," he said.

Babeu did not give details, but said he has received several similar memos from federal law enforcement agencies about Mexican cartel activity taking place within Arizona's borders.

"All of these things are proof and evidence that we need help here," Babeu said. "That it's not just local law enforcement that needs to fight this. That we do need armed soldiers to the border to stop this. This threat is real."

DHS Alerted AZ Sheriffs That Mexican Drug Cartel Was Sending Assassins Into Arizona Valley, Then Did No More Than Set Up Signs To Warn Travelers Away

(CNSNews.com) – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned Arizona law enforcement officials in May that Mexican drug cartels were deploying assassins to kill bandits highjacking their drug loads in the Vekol Valley, 70 miles inside Arizona. Then the federal government set up signs in the region to warn American citizens away from this area of U.S. sovereign territory.

That local law enforcement would be left to confront agents of a foreign cartel coming across the international border of the United States to carry out a deadly drug war on U.S. soil is further evidence that the federal government is not doing its duty to secure the border, said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

“This is confirmed intelligence that Mexican drug cartels are now working in concert to protect their drug loads in the United States, literally, to send well-armed, military trained--even with ballistic vests--up to my county,” Babeu told CNSNews.com.

“This clearly is no longer a public safety issue,” he said. “This is a national security issue. The violence is bleeding into America and we must stop it.”

The DHS sent an e-mail on May 13, 2010 to several law enforcement agencies warning that Mexican drug cartels were deploying “sicarios” (assassins) into the western part of Pinal County, Ariz., to “take out” bandits that were robbing drug smugglers who had entered the United States from Mexico through the Arizona desert.

The e-mail was sent on May 13, 2010, and made public this Friday, Oct. 15, after local media in Arizona obtained the e-mail and questioned local law enforcement about it.

Babeu said that until now the e-mail was kept private because it was considered “law enforcement sensitive.” But Babeu, a critic of the Obama administration’s handling of immigration and border security issues, said he released it today because it constitutes further evidence that the government is not protecting Americans from the threats posed by a porous border.

“This is unacceptable for our federal government not to secure the border and not to respond to these threats,” Babeu told CNSNews.com. “How has it become in America [that] local sheriffs and law enforcement have to go up onto hillsides and pull people out of caves and take lookouts and scouts, who have binoculars, and night vision, and communication devices which are encrypted and rolling – they said so, right in the memo.”

The May 13 e-mail reads, in part: “We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that last weekend, a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilized the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel.

“It was decided that the cartel would send a group of fifteen, very well equipped and armed sicarios complete with bullet proof vests, into the Vekol Valley” the e-mail continues. “The Cartel has a map of where the most bandit activity has been occurring. The group will walk into the valley taking four days to get into LPOP positions and communicate back to Penasco. Penasco will then send groups of simulated backpackers carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits. Once the bandits have been identified, the sicarios will take out the bandits.”

“Incidentally” the e-mail continues,” the night of the Vekol Valley shooting, we received information from a source who reported that the scouts in the valley (the Cartel has 23 scout locations with rolling encryption) were reporting that bandits had shot two sheriff’s deputies and the area was covered with cops.”

The last portion of the e-mail apparently refers to the reported ambush of Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll, who was shot while scouting the Vekol Valley area on April 30, two weeks before DHS sent the e-mail warning of drug cartel operations in the small location.

While Vekol Valley in southwest Arizona is about 70 miles north from the U.S.-Mexico border, Puerto Penasco – the site where DHS said the drug cartels were meeting to discuss the assassination plot – is a resort town on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, a little more than 60 miles south from the border.

Babeu said despite the federal government’s intelligence, it failed to respond to its own warning, except to install 15 billboard-sized warning notices in the Vekol Valley area cited in the DHS e-mail. (See story.)

“It is right in that exact location,” Babeu said of the signs that were erected shortly after the e-mail was sent. “That’s why they put up these signs. They knew of this and the only thing they did was put up signs warning our citizens to stay out.”

Babeu said the federal government’s border security policy has failed and action should be taken immediately to stem further violence by Mexican drug cartels on U.S. soil.

DHS did not respond to phone or e-mail requests from CNSNews.com for comment on this story and the May 13 e-mail.

Falcon Lake Murder Update

2010-10-14T08:33:00.002-07:00

An update on the Falcon Lake murder.

The Mexican investigator, Armando Flores Villegas, was decapitated and his head delivered in a suitcase to the Mexican military’s Eight Zone headquarters in Reynosa on Oct. 12. Remind yourself who else decapitates people on a regular basis. The sick jihadi influence is in northern Mexico.

StratFor does indeed have a story on it's front page, but it's subscription only so no quoting. But, it does say that the truck the Hartley's drove to Falcon Lake had license plates from the Mexican stae of Tamaulipas and, of course, they drove their jet skiis straight into a known drug cartel war zone. It goes on to state that the cartel scouts saw this as the Hartleys arrived on the American side of the lake. So, they were marked for death at first sight.

Los Zetas No. 2 Miguel “Z-40” Trevino Morales is apparently attempting a damage control effort by identifyting and eliminating the lower level criminals who attacked the Hartleys.

I still say the Hartleys were fools to be there in the first place but they were obviously lulled into a sense of safety by the fact that they had lived in Tamaulipas, Mexico for 2 years and had just recently moved back to the American side of the border.

Stand With Arizona says

STRATFOR says captured intelligence shows that David Hartley was targeted for death once the Zetas thought he was a spy for a rival cartel. Doesn't make it any less tragic, but does back up Mrs. Hartley's story. One thing is for sure, this lake is a zone of lawlessness, and the Feds need to shut it down. There is nothi...ng to stop anyone or any materials from moving into the U.S. via this lake.

and then links to this story in the San Antonio News

Lake killing blamed on blunder

By Lynn Brezosky - Express-News

BROWNSVILLE — A global intelligence company Wednesday said the death of U.S. citizen David Michael Hartley on Falcon Lake was a case of mistaken identity in a turf war between rival drug cartels.
Hartley, who was shot during a Sept. 30 sightseeing trip to the Mexican side of the binational reservoir, was shot by Zeta cartel enforcers because he was mistaken for a spy of the rival Gulf Cartel, according to the report by STRATFOR, and Austin-based think tank specializing in intelligence and international issues.

The report goes on to say Hartley's body likely was destroyed as Los Zetas went into “damage control” mode and that the lower-level operatives responsible for the unauthorized strike against him now are on the Zetas' hit list.

“The cartel boss — Miguel Treviño — is highly upset over the fact that these individuals shot and killed Mr. Hartley and it's our understanding that the cartel boss is hunting for the killers of Mr. Hartley so he can take care of them himself,” said Fred Burton, STRATFOR's vice president of intelligence.

Burton, who doesn't cite his sources, goes on to say the beheading Tuesday of Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, the lead Mexican investigator in the case, was a stern signal to both the United States and Mexico that no body will be produced and to leave the situation alone.

Hartley's wife, Tiffany, has said the two were ambushed while taking pictures of a submerged Mexican town.

She said she raced to U.S. shores without her husband after a futile attempt to lift his body, the gunfire trailing her well across the U.S. line.

The case has drawn international attention, with Tiffany Hartley and her family appearing on various news shows defending her story of lake pirates and pleading for action amid a drug war that has Mexican officials paralyzed by fear.

Her mother, Cynthia Young, said the family had seen the STRATFOR report but had no comment yet on its findings.

“It hasn't been confirmed through the investigative officers here,” she said. “But we're still standing and believing for a miracle that we will get David back in some fashion and that's the way God wants it. But he's in charge.”

October 12, 2010 - Tenth anniversary of the USS Cole Attack

2010-10-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Please go to The Jawa Report and read the whole thing in honor of the murdered.

The 10th Anniversary of the USS Cole Bombing

In remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the USS Cole bombing, I am reprinting my article from 2007. And little has changed since it was written. Primary plotters Al Quso and al Badawi were both released in Yemen. Al Quso, added to the FBI's most wanted list in 2009, made an al Qaeda video in 2010. Al Quso may be in Pakistan or Shabwa, but he certainly hooked up with his clansman Anwar al Awlaki along the way. Jamal Al Badawi was released upon surrender in 2007, about a week after this article was written. After US objections, he may have in and out of jail. Supposedly he's on a hunger strike now because he was supposed to have been released again during Ramadan 2010. In US custody, al Nashiri's trial was going forward but now is "on hold." Tawfiq bin Attash won't see the inside of a court room any time soon.

The thing that's new this year is the emergence of AQAP as an entity that has the ambition to strike the United States homeland. Consequently, the US is putting its security in the hands of the supposedly reformed Yemeni President Saleh, which is quite scary considering his history. Apparently Saleh's brutality toward his own people is not an issue, nor his incompetence, nor his criminality. Here in the US, the political fall-out from allying with an al Qaeda appeaser and a security apparatus seriously compromised by al Qaeda is minimal. In Yemen, Saleh's broad and bloody methods of counter-insurgency have created new civil unrest. Saleh's propensity for duplicity means that much of it is a dog and pony show targeting his domestic opposition.

And the question screaming for an answer on this day of all days is to what extent was President Saleh and the upper echelon of his administration involved in the USS Cole bombing? We know there was some mid-level facilitation both before and after the attack which killed 17 US service members, and badly injured 49 others. But current indications are that Saleh had foreknowledge. And we can all shuffle that knowledge from page to page and post to post, but if AQAP -- God forbid -- succeeds in hitting the US, then the prevailing assessment of Saleh as trustworthy, irreplaceable or mailable will seem ludicrous. Those sailors and their families have given their lives to this country, but they have more to give--truth about Yemen and Saleh, a rare commodity. By whitewashing the facts of their deaths and by forgiving Yemen's "failures" in this case, the current administration (like the prior two) is endangering not only their mates who are serving today but all American citizens.

Update on condition of Sue Krentz

2010-10-12T20:07:00.002-07:00

Susan Krentz is not just "a Douglas woman". Rather, Susan Krentz is the widow of the murdered Arizona Rancher Rob Krentz. Stupid news 4.

Update on condition of Sue Krentz

TUCSON - News 4 has an update today on the condition of a Douglas woman hit last month while crossing the street with a friend.

The Arizona Cattle Growers Association, acting on behalf of the family, says that Sue Krentz is stable condition and still in the ICU at the University Medical Center. She has had several surgeries to repair damage to her pelvis and leg. At this time she is heavily sedated to keep her still so she can recover. Her head is still very swollen, but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

Sue is the widow of Robert Krentz, who was killed earlier this year on his Douglas-area ranch. No arrests have ever been made in his killing.

Sue and her friend were crossing a street when police say they were hit by Ramon Saucedo, now facing charges of aggravated assault and D-U-I.

Her friend is expected to make a full recovery.

The ACGA has established the an account to help the family with medical expenses. If you would like to help, you can go to any Wells Fargo Bank and ask for the Sue Krentz Recovery Fund, Account #5206283169.

Illegal alien rape suspect has been deported nine times

2010-10-12T19:58:00.001-07:00

Why we need a fence and some serious border enforcement and far more stringent immigration law. Here's a guy who has been deported nine (9) times for various weapons, assault, and sexual crimes. This is insanity. But then what would you expect when the Director of Homeland Security admits she doesn't know what to do with an illegal alien?

Oh, and because most of these crimes were repeated in California I have to ask, yet again, what is wrong with that state? Come on people! You must flip your legislature!

Illegal alien rape suspect has been deported nine times

On the evening of May 16, a police officer responding to a woman’s cries for help, caught Madrigal, 46, on top of a woman, raping her. Madrigal had forced the woman into the bushes behind a Safeway in Edmonds, Washington.

According to the arrest affidavit, Madrigal approached the woman, offering her $35 for sex. When she said no, the illegal alien dragged her behind the store and raped her.

The 28-year-old rape victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Madrigal reportedly told police: “Sometimes we have control in our brains, but we make mistakes.” (Is that an admission that he knows he's a violent lunatic who can't control himself? - Kirls)

Madrigal has been charged with rape, and is also being held on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. Police report that the illegal alien has a total of 35 different aliases.

Due to his numerous aliases, police had to rely on fingerprint records to identify Madrigal.

Madrigal has a lengthy crimial record in this country, dating back to 1989, when he was convicted of theft with a firearm in California. After that, he was deported twice, before his next arrest on this side of the border.

In 1999, he was arrested for drug distribution in San Diego and San Francisco. He was deported three times that year alone, between April and August.

In 2000, Madrigal was arrested again for drug distribution in Stockton, Ca.

In 2002, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in Denver, and deported again.

In 2003, he was deported three more times.

Mexican President Calderone on Drug Trafficking and CA Ballot Measure to Legalize Pot

2010-10-10T11:07:00.002-07:00

In an article about the success of the Drug War in Tijuana, Mexico, Mexican President Calderone blames American pot heads and other drug users for the increase in drug trafficking and slams California idiotic ballot measure which would legalize pot making the problems worse. The Cartels will defend their market share increasing the violence on the American side of the border.

I don't agree with Calderon on many things and I don't agree 100% with him on this. But, he's right that you idiot pot heads and drug users, share the blame for a lot of this. You have the blood of thousands on your hands. You are at least partially responsible.

A fence supported by both governments would go a very long way to severely restricting the flow of everything in both directions. Why isn't it done?

"The reality is that while the United States continues to consume drugs, drug trafficking will not go away," he said. "The surveys on drug use in the United States are truly disappointing. Instead of a reduction, there is an increase."

He was sharply critical of a Nov. 2 ballot measure in California that would legalize possession of small quantities of marijuana and pave the way for local governments to allow retail sales of the drug, saying it reflects a "terrible inconsistency" in U.S. drug policy.

"They have exerted pressure and demanded for decades that Mexico and other countries control, reduce and fight drug trafficking, and there is no discernible effort to reduce the consumption of drugs in the United States," he said.

Jaurez Officer Murdered, Another Shot, a Civilian Shot

2010-10-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

A Jaurez traffic cop is shot and killed for no apparent reason, another Jaurez traffic cop shot and in critical condition, and a civilian shot. These were traffic cops. The first was escorting a vehicle in the course of a traffic violation task. The shooting appears to have come out of nowhere.

Other facts noted in the article, Juárez officer gunned down: Assisting officer, civilian are wounded

Ramiro Cordero, a Border Patrol spokesman, said the agents had responded to the sound of gunfire in the area.

"Immediately, as always, we took positions in order to ensure that nothing came across that might harm or injure our citizens, and we immediately contacted the other law enforcement agencies to let them know what was going on," Cordero said.

On June 29, a gunfight between Mexican police and a group of gunmen that erupted near an S-Mart parking lot killed one Mexican federal police officer and probably caused seven bullet pockmarks in the walls of El Paso City Hall, according to the El Paso Police Department.

On Aug. 6, Irvin High School teacher James Patrick Barnes was shot in the back on the balcony of his girlfriend's house in colonia Cazadores Juarenses, which is across the border from UTEP.

On Aug. 21, another gunfight involving Mexican police broke out in the same area.

Paisano Drive was shut down from Executive Center Boulevard to Santa Fe Street for about 30 minutes that day to prevent people and vehicles from being struck by stray bullets.

During the battle, an alleged gunman was killed and three Juárez police officers were wounded.

Thirty-three transit and city police officers have been killed in Juárez this year, Torres said.

More than 2,300 people have been slain in Juárez this year, according to an El Paso Times tally.

By Thursday evening, at least six more people were killed in the city, including two unidentified men found tied up and shot to death.

The men's heads had been covered with plastic bags wrapped with tape, Chihuahua state police said. One man wore only boxer shorts while the other wore a green jersey, possibly of the Mexican national soccer team, and a pink mini-skirt.

In some drug-related murders, victims have been dressed in women's clothing after death as a form of humiliation.

Note that the El Paso, TX, USA police have to immediately respond to shootings in Mexico with a defensive stance. It's as if they are at war with us.

Who else in the world do we know that cares so much about humiliation? Come on, you all know the answer as well as I do. The moslems. The influence is obvious and growing. It's on our border. It's coming to your town. Don't think you're safe because you're 100 miles away from the border. I'm 150 miles from the border and it's here. It's creeping.

Real Forensics Experts Debunk Lies From Phoenix New Times

2010-10-10T10:17:00.001-07:00

The Phoenix New Times wasn't always good only for birdcage liner but this is the final nail in the coffin of any possibility that I will ever pick up that piece of crap again. Not that I have in years.

Pinal County Sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll was shot April 30th in the desert about 50 miles south of Phoenix and at least 80 miles north of the border. Puroll was tracking drug smugglers at the time. He did not intend to get close to the smugglers. Puroll is an experienced desert tracker; that's what he does for a living; he's had as many as 40 illegals surrender to him simultaneously.

On September 23, the Phoenix New Times wrote an article clearly indicating that they believed the story was fake.

But the "smugglers" escaped apprehension, and the packs that supposedly were filled with dope also vanished with them.

They blather on about how 100 officers and a few helicopters couldn't find these "smugglers" or their "packs" but conveniently don't mention that these officers and assets weren't on the scene until 2 and 1/2 hours after the incident. This was quite close to roads and highways. The smugglers could have walked to one of the roads and arranged a pickup within 10 minutes or so. No doubt they were long gone before any other official was on the scene. But the New Times didn't care about that. And that is just on page 1. You can read the whole thing at the link above if you like. I'm not wasting my time any further.

On October 7th, the Phoenix New Times doubled down on their slander of Sheriff Babue and Deputy Puroll with an article entitled Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu Goes on the Defensive in a Desperate Attempt to Save His and Deputy Louie Puroll's Reputations. In reality, that article was a desparate attempt to deny that the Phoenix New Times is indeed a "conspiracy theory publication", did indeed go "expert shopping", that Sheriff Babeu had indeed reopened the investigation, and that the statements of the DPS were indeed bizarre.

And now, Sheriff Babue and Deputy Puroll are, of course, vindicated.

Sheriff's office: Evidence backs up deputy's story

FLORENCE, AZ - Independent testing of a bloodied shirt backs up the story of a deputy who contends he was shot by drug smugglers in the remote desert, officials said Thursday. The deputy dismissed speculation that he staged the incident to publicize drug and human smuggling.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office said the Arizona Department of Public Safety concluded that a bullet passed through the shirt, but that no gunpowder was found on it. The sheriff's office said that confirms the bullet was fired from far away, as Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll said it was.

"This case is now closed, and we're going to move on," Sheriff Paul Babeu said.

Puroll told investigators he was following a group of smugglers carrying bales of marijuana when he was ambushed by men firing AK-47 rifles about 50 miles south of Phoenix on April 30.

In what Puroll described as a running gunbattle, he was grazed by a bullet in the small of the back.

The shooting immediately raised questions about why a deputy would be looking for armed drug smugglers in the remote desert without backup. A dragnet involving more than 100 officers in the rugged mountainous area found no suspects and no bales of marijuana.

In his first public comments since the shooting, Puroll said he didn't plan on confronting the smugglers.

"I never intended to get close to them," a blunt-talking Puroll told a news conference. "They just stopped sooner than I thought they would. If I'd have known I was going to get in a gunfight, I'd have taken five or six guys with me. I can't imagine anybody shooting themself, let alone me."

He said he believes he believes he hit one of the men during the firefight but wasn't surprised that the dragnet didn't find any sign of the men or their cargo.

"It's a big desert," Puroll said. "A motivated individual who carries drug packs for a living and knows the cops are coming can cover a lot of distance in 2 1/2 hours. If you gave me 2 1/2 hours head start in the desert, you would not find me, no matter how many helicopters you used."

Puroll said he was an experienced deputy who made his living working alone in the desert.

"I've had as many as 40 (illegal immigrants) at a time surrender to me, surrounding my truck and begging for water and to call the Border Patrol," he said.

The sheriff's office reopened the investigation into Puroll's shooting on Sept. 27 and sent the shirt for testing following comments from two forensic pathologists that the bullet was fired from inches away, not from at least 25 yards as Puroll said.

Babeu said he reopened the investigation to maintain transparency and that his office has nothing to hide.

The shirt wasn't sent to the Department of Public Safety originally because there was no indication that Puroll wasn't telling the truth, and all the evidence backed up his story, Babeu said.

Americans Murdered in Mexico on Track to Set Record

2010-10-10T09:43:00.001-07:00

I still hear about Zonies running down to Puerto Penasco (aka Rocky Point) or vacationers going to the big resorts in Cancun and Acapulco. Those going to the northern areas are either ignorant or stupid. In general, people should not spend their time or money in Mexico until that country gets it's drug and human smuggling problems under control. Of course, my own country could help more in that situation by building a damn fence!

48 die in first 6 months, a pace that will probably exceed any previous year

American killings in Mexico may set record pace

Forty-eight Americans were murdered in Mexico during the first six months of 2010 - a deadly pace that appears likely to exceed any previous year of homicides on record, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry.

The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas, where the terrorist group known as the Zetas has been warring with their Gulf Cartel rivals in communities all along the southeast Texas border.

A college freshman from Brownsville, Jonathon William Torres Cazares, was shot and killed after authorities say his public bus got hijacked on a highway in Tamaulipas.

"He was 18 years old and traveling in Mexico visiting his family," according to a statement issued by Leticia "Letty" Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. "Our thoughts go out to his family and friends."

Meanwhile, David Michael Hartley, 30, of McAllen, was reported to have been shot in the head by a boatload of armed men while jet skiing on the Mexican side of the binational Falcon Reservoir, shared by Texas and Tamaulipas. His body has not yet been recovered.

State Department data shows at least three other Americans were slain this year in Tamaulipas. But no details were available. In much of Tamaulipas, the news media are no longer reporting on crime because of threats and violence against journalists carried out by drug traffickers.

slayings rise steadily

American killings in Mexico have risen steadily since 2007, when drug violence began to rage out of control in border cities including Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana and later spread to Ciudad Juarez, now ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Most homicides this year occurred in border states, like Chihuahua and Baja California, the analysis of State Department data from mid-2002 to mid-2010 shows.

Last year, 80 homicides of U.S. citizens were reported in Mexico, compared to 57 in 2008 and 35 in 2007.

13 Americans die in juarez

At least 13 Americans have been slain in Ciudad Juarez in 2010, including an employee of the U.S. Consulate, Lesley Enriquez, 35, and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, 34. Jorge Salcido, the Mexican husband of another consulate employee, was killed minutes before the others in a coordinated attack on their two cars.

Enriquez worked in the citizen services, the section of the busy Juarez consulate that provides assistance to U.S. crime victims and their families and generally "offers assistance to Americans in need," said a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

State Department homicide statistics tell only part of the story: Many killings abroad never get reported.

Three U.S. citizens - a bridegroom, his brother and his uncle, all from New Mexico - were reported by Mexican authorities to have been abducted during a May wedding at the El Señor de la Misericordia Catholic Church in Juarez. Their bodies were later found dumped in a pickup truck, but those three homicides do not appear to be included in the registry.

The State Department refuses to reveal the names of the victims. Nor does the department usually comment on the status of the homicide investigations, though consular officials are required to monitor investigations abroad that involve U.S. citizen victims and communicate with families.

The policy can lead to ambiguous and even conflicting information.

In a warning issued earlier in 2010, for example, the State Department specifically instructed Americans to avoid Gomez Palacio and other cities in the state of Durango because of "sharp increases in violence."

The warning said four U.S. citizens had been murdered in Gomez Palacio in 2009-2010. However, the State Department's own registry shows only three homicides there.

One of the three victims was a California school board member, Roberto Salcedo, shot by gunmen who stormed a restaurant after Salcedo went to visit his wife's family during the Christmas holidays in Mexico last year.

other american killings

Many more killings of Americans have been reported in Chihuahua state, which includes Ciudad Juarez and borders El Paso.

Sixteen U.S. citizens have been reported slain there so far in 2010 - 13 died in Juarez where an armed conflict between warring cartels has resulted in the loss of nearly 7,000 lives since 2008.

American Hero Carlos Partida

2010-10-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

New American Hero, Carlos Partida, had the courage to make a split second decision to run to to his truck and run down the school shooter! Way to go Carlos! You are an American Hero. God Bless you Carlos!

Honorable mention also goes to Terry Lynn who raced to the school to help. He didn't get there in time but his reactions and motives are the same as Carlos. You are an American Hero too. God Bless you Terry!

Further honorable mention goes to little Shaylyn Foley. A second grader who seemed to have a gut reaction of suspsicion to the shooter and warned her friend Phoebe that he might not be a good man. Bless you too Shaylyn. Don't ever ignore your instincts. They were spot on. Who knows how that can serve you in your future. God Bless you too Shaylyn.

From the Del Mar Times

Two Carlsbad second-graders wounded by a seemingly deranged gunman were hospitalized Friday, and the suspect was in custody.

Brendan L. O'Rourke, 41, of Oceanside, who was carrying a can of gasoline, opened fire into a crowd of students outside at Kelly Elementary School Friday, grazing two girls before being chased down by a witness, police said.

Construction worker Carlos Partida, 30, of Chula Vista, saw what was happening and used his pickup truck to knock him down. He and co-workers Steven Kane and Mario Contreras subdued O'Rourke.

"We kind of got him down, and we all ended up getting out bodies, fists and feet, and kicking the - of him, you know," he told a television news crew.

Several classrooms of students were at recess when the shooting happened. Second-grader Shaylyn Foley, was watching the gunman, who jumped a fence and started shooting as he walked across the school yard. She warned her friend to run.

"Phoebe, he might not be a good man," she said, "so, and then he put his hand out, and then I heard the shot. And then, I'm like, Phoebe, come on! This isn't OK."

Police said O'Rourke apparently emptied a .357-caliber Magnum revolver at the children and had more bullets in a pocket. The wounded girls, 6 and 7 years old, were taken to Rady Children's Hospital "with through-and-through wounds to each of the their right arms," Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain said.

The school was locked down, and the children were released to their parents about 2 p.m.

The gunman, booked on six counts of attempted murder, may be a local transient. Cain said he "probably has mental health issues."

A propane tank that O'Rouke is believed to have brought to the school was found near a tan Ford Crown Victoria that he apparently drove. Authorities discredited initial reports that he muttered something about President Barack Obama, as he was being held.

Partida said the experience left him a little dazed.

"I can't really explain it, man,'' he said. "It's a crazy, crazy feeling, man. Like, you know, it happened, it's real."

Terry Lynn saw the gunman through a window from his home next to the school.

"I saw a guy walking across the field with a handgun, shooting randomly into the crowd of children," he said.

He ran outside, got into his van and sped to the school, arriving about the time Partida and his buddies tackled O'Rourke.

The gunman's pockets were "full of" extra cartridges, along with a flashlight and other "electronic devices," Lynn said.

O'Rourke was initially taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla for an evaluation.

Trauma counselors are expected to be at the school next week.

Obama Ignorant of American History

2010-10-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Ignorant or a liar? You decide.

For Obama, Mexico Comes First

By John Bennett

President Obama did more than just botch American history in his recent speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; he advanced a racial separatist agenda which undermines our cultural solidarity and insults our sovereignty.

In a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the president recently came very close to endorsing a radical, race-based agenda. That agenda is best described as geographic reparations -- a misguided effort to correct past wrongs against the ostensible original Americans by committing present wrongs against real Americans today. In his ethnocentric speech, the president had this incredible factual error to share:

Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples. To British and French, to Dutch and Spanish, to Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land. [Emphasis added.]

That statement is a falsehood. America was definitely an idea by 1776, if not sooner. There could not have been a single "Mexican" here "before America was even an idea" because Mexico was not a country until 1821. There was no Mexican nation, therefore no "Mexicans" on our land "before America was even an idea."

So what accounts for Obama's eagerness to semantically superimpose Mexican people onto our early territory? There are convincing reasons to believe that Obama meant that today's Mexicans are descended from the rightful owners of part of this country. Allowing them to return via illegal immigration and lax enforcement is simple fairness -- geographic reparations.

The president here is demonstrating a commitment to the precepts of leftist open borders advocates, even La Raza ideology. According to a Tucson teacher who blew the whistle on La Raza ethnic studies courses, La Raza classes cause racial hostility. La Raza literally teaches children that "white teachers" do not want Hispanics to get ahead in life and "that the Southwestern United States was taken from Mexicans because of the insatiable greed of the Yankee, who acquired his values from the corrupted ethos of Western civilization." Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. warned against this "cult of ethnicity" in his classic, The Disuniting of America. La Raza ideology espouses racial resentment and condemns our national sovereignty. Such is the ideological core of geographic reparations.

If the president meant what he said about "Mexicans" being here "[l]ong before America was an idea," then the president shares with La Raza the belief "that the Southwestern United States was taken from Mexicans." This historical fairy tale is no doubt intended to reinforce the notion that someone else was here first and therefore they deserve a measure of compensation. Factually, there were other peoples here first, but the conclusion that we owe Mexicans a debt does not logically follow. Truly open-minded people would compare our tolerant treatment of illegal immigrants to the frequent bloody intolerance of some the North American natives. After all, our Declaration of Independence points to "the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." King George III's support for those tribes was one of the charges listed against him in the Declaration. Warfare and ritual violence were, as scholars have noted, an integral part of pre-Columbian indigenous life.

We don't owe a blanket apology to the descendants of the "original" inhabitants in any region of the country. Instead, perhaps the descendants of the more -- to use Thomas Jefferson's word -- "merciless" tribes owe us an apology for butchering our early settlers. At the very least, we don't need to pretend that "Mexicans" were here before America was founded.

The problem with that theory is that the people who were here first were not Mexican. There were warring tribes with no Mexican national identity whatsoever, who had themselves been fighting and displacing each other. The brutal territorial conquests of the Iroquois and Osage long predated Columbus. For the president to say that "Mexicans" were here "[l]ong before America was an idea" is a historical fable. He is trying to delegitimize our claims to sovereignty and to make us ashamed of our territorial boundary. From these absurd premises the left builds an entire house of cards, including an open-borders immigration policy.

But that's not what the president, La Raza, and the Hispanic Caucus would lead us to believe. This was "a land of plenty," as the president said, and there were people here before us. "We all shared the same land" then. Because they were here first, then we are not supposed to be so jealous of our borders. In a "land of plenty," there is enough to go around. We can't criticize their return (illegal immigration) too harshly, because the "Mexicans" were here first, as the president reminded us. Since they were here before us, the "Mexicans" have a legitimate claim to return. Once upon a time, "[w]e all shared" this land, and we should share now. Does anyone really think that the president meant something else when he said, "We all shared the same land"? That attitude amounts to geographic reparations.

In the same speech, the president went on to make a comment so self-refuting that it would raise Orwell's eyebrows. The president noted that "what eventually bound us together ... was faith and fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear." If we have such splendid shared values, then why does a race-based voting caucus like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus exist? It is disingenuous for the president to sound themes of unity while speaking to a race-based voting group.

Anyone who paid attention to the president's explicit call for race-based voting knows that Obama is uniquely comfortable making racial appeals. The president is steeped in either Kenyan anti-colonial ideology, as Dinesh D'Souza argues, or garden-variety leftism, as Jack Cashill insists. Either way, the president's latest act of racial pandering is an indication of his ideology.

The president's remarks to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were an attempt to use history as therapy-placing ethnic pride above historical accuracy or national unity. This was fundamentally race-based pandering. It stigmatizes our national sovereignty. Worst of all, it feeds into the racially-charged philosophy of La Raza.

The president's remarks reflect a troubling disdain for our national sovereignty and our cultural self respect. He is saying we have something to be ashamed of. We should be ashamed of removing those early peoples, and ashamed for not letting as many return as would like to. We need to make up for our original sin by allowing illegal immigration and celebrating the historical distortions of the Hispanic Caucus, as the president did.

Thankfully, we live in a time when more and more people are interested in maintaining their cultural and national heritage...with pride.

Two Thirds of Iowans Favor SB1070 for Iowa

2010-10-07T21:44:00.002-07:00

Iowa Poll: Attitudes shift on immigration

Sixty-six percent of Iowans also favor passing an illegal-immigration law like the one enacted this year in Arizona, requiring local law enforcement to check the legal residency status of people stopped for other offenses. The feeling is strongest — more than 80 percent — among tea party supporters, Republicans, born-again Christians and people who say they intend to vote for former Gov. Terry Branstad as he seeks the office again.

And the general support for immigrants in Iowa has dropped from 2/3 in 2007 to 50% now.

Another Ambush on Falcon Lake

2010-10-07T21:31:00.001-07:00

The Hartley's weren't the first to be ambushed on Falcon Lake. Still, I can't imagine why they went there in the first place. This Doctor was at least not 5 miles deep in Mexico!