Spoke to Charles Bowden, author, Murder City, re the madness of murder in Ciudad Juárez along the Texas border at El Paso. The mass murder of six Federal police and one child is not exceptional violence for a city that is depopulated and abandoned by Mexican law and order. President Calderon deployed thousands of Mexican army soldiers into the city starting 2008, and the violence and body count have climbed ever since. The cartels fight over drugs and turf, but the Mexican army may be fighting over a cut of the profits. Mrs. Clinton's visit to Mexico City at the end of March, in the company of the full house of secretaries Gates, Napolitano and DNI Blair, was capped by a press conference in which the US restated its position of guns and cash to fight drugs, no possibility of legalizing even marijuana. The Calderon policy is widely understood as in failure. The Mexican army and police are part of the problem. Bowden makes more than an economic analysis. Bowden presents a case that the murder in Juárez is now without utility. It is a murder pandemic. They way to do business, to act in public, is to commit murder. A currency in murder. There is a phenomenon of a death house. Abandoned houses are used to bury the murdered, thousands of bodies still to be discovered. Sadism and suicide and slaughter are routine daily conduct. The Mexican border is anarchic. Mexico may be defeated by a spontaneous gang war. The Arizona legislature law to deport illegals is fueled by a perception that the border is not secure. POTUS and the Democrats hope to make political capital out of the immigration confusion. Lindsey Graham quits the immigration legislation in the Senate when he sees that Harry Reid will move immigration in front of cap and trade (below Graham with Kerry and Lieberman on cap and trade) in order to manufacture a controversy for the mid-terms. The politics of the border are in play. Juárez is a warrant that POTUS cannot answer.
Absolutely terrifying. If Mexico collapses into anarchy will we shoot at fleeing families? No.
We need a fence, but the US Government refuses to follow the law. Some states and cities proclaim sanctuary, while others attempt to enforce the law. Mixed message not effective.
California's de-criminalization of Marijuana is a wrong signal, IMHO. More young people will use MJ and other stronger drugs as they get older. USA drug use is driving the gang wars in Mexico.
Tobacco use is dropping substantially, we need to discourage the use of Drugs just as effectively.
If you have read some of my most recent postings, you may have come to recognize that one of the tenets of modern pop-ideology – of which both Bush and Obama are adherents – is that borders no longer matter. This goes along with the trend marked by an erosion of property rights. Hence, we do not defend our borders and we hold the hapless owner - whose home may have been violated by an uninvited intruder - responsible for any harm that may have accrued to the interloper. The condemnation of Israel for attempting to protect its borders is nearly universal.
In truth, it has become impractical to protect one’s borders as nationalism has faded in importance and ideology has taken its place. Ideology knows no borders. It eddies and pools wherever the like-minded happen to reside. For them, borders represent an anachronism that is no longer worth defending.
Trouble along the border has assumed the status of a pernicious video game challenge to which we routinely sacrifice half-measures – as has war in general. Anyway, this is how it reads in the academic texts carefully studied in our colleges and universities. Unfortunately (for us), the rest of the world is not quite so advanced. They are still inclined to play by the old rules. They see our border travails as a breach by which to infiltrate and capture territory. They have plenty of useful idiot help from inside.
Europe has long ago succumbed to this one-world pop-ideology. The Eurozone was the result. Europe now finds itself threatened by economic collapse in Greece [as well as in several other countries (PIIGS)]. The disaster could have been easily predicted. Submarines and oil tankers are built in a series of chambers. Should one chamber rupture, it can be sealed off to prevent catastrophic damage to the rest of the ship.
But, never mind. Chaos along our border areas has become yet another tool in our rogue government’s hands. It represents yet another fuse lit that could ignite the whole nation - giving the government cause to crack down on all of us. Totalitarianism is on the march. No wonder, this administration is so eager to stir the pot where and whenever it can. Elections are approaching.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
Salmon Chase correctly observed that state's rights died at Appomattox. Rest assured that a McCain-controlled White House would have moved just as swiftly to quash any attempt by Arizonans to protect themselves from foreign invasion as the Obama-controlled White House no doubt will.
I lived on a boat in Mexico for 2 and a half years in the 90's...if I pulled up anchor and moved to the next port (as little as 5 miles away), I was required to "bring my papers" to the Port Captain's office and then the Immigration Department immediately. If I arrived on the weekend, I was usually greeted by an official in a dinghy with an outboard who checked my papers with a reminder to be in town by 9 am on Monday morning. After 2 years of this, I had a file of officially stamped "papers" thicker than a NY telephone book.
Yes, the Mexican government knew where I was at ALL times...
Suggest you read http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/lillpop022707.htm to see how Mexico controls its borders, visitors and immigrants. The last paragraph suggests that all NAFTA nations adopt Mexico's stringent immigration laws...which would effectively plug the relief valve that Mexico counts on in it's one-way immigration relationship with the U.S.
I can't believe that in my lifetime America has lost control of her southern border. Screaming about regaining our lost sovereignty is not what I expected to be doing in my sunset years. But, if necessary, I will do it with my dying breath. CLOSE THE BORDER!
I don't care why Graham abandoned the assinine climate legislation, just so long as he did before he committed us to economic suicide in the cause of mythical comity.
"I can't believe that in my lifetime America has lost control of her southern border. Screaming about regaining our lost sovereignty is not what I expected to be doing in my sunset years. But, if necessary, I will do it with my dying breath. CLOSE THE BORDER!'
You are not alone in this.
Immigration will soon move front-and-center as the main issue in American politics. Too bad Mr. Batchelor, who speaks of "news about events that haven't happened yet," has dealt with this matter only twice on his website. But why should he, though, when there is so much to say about Tibet?
Basic Economics. There is huge demand for drugs in the US, and there is scarcity created by criminalization. Huge demand + scarcity == sky high prices and profits. The illegal drug business is actually a living case study of how we should revive our economy. Because there is no government regulation or taxation of illegal drugs (just occasional confiscation, which creates more scarcity), the business runs in a purely capitalistic fashion. Businesses start, grow, and sometimes die in a Schumpeterian way. The way to fix the violence is to decriminalize drugs... allow supply to meet demand and bring down prices. Allow the government to regulate and tax drugs... treat them exactly like cigarettes and alcohol. People who want to be puttyheads will always find a way; criminalizing them does nothing but fill up the prisons. The way to fix our economy is to reduce regulation and taxation to nil. Watch the auto industry revive as they start responding to consumer demands rather than government demands. Like the great President Reagan said, if you want less of something, tax it, and if you want to kill something, regulate it.
There is one problem with decriminalization: the war on drugs has a huge law enforcement industry built around it... decriminalize drugs and what will all those people do to justify their existence?
As for the counter argument to decriminalization, I have a simple solution: if you show up at the emergency room and test positive for drugs, you wait until everyone else is served. If your heart explodes or you choke on your own vomit while you wait, not only did you know the risks, but also demand for drugs is reduced.