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Congressman Reyes: Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

What? Silvestre Reyes takes a stand? Well, the year is over half over. Reyes, a consummate slimy politician well-practiced in the art of graft and handouts, wants President Bush to commute the sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. They were convicted of unlawfully chasing a Mary Jane smuggler and shooting his punk-ass in the ass and then hiding evidence. The U.S. got 750 pounds of dope out of the deal and they got the shaft.

Sounds good, eh? A former Border Patrol agent and sympatico to the genuine hardships they endure — rockings, gunfire, assaults — standing up for one of his own.

Not so fast, amigo.

First of all, it’s a far cry from his August 22, 2006 position, saying, “A jury found them guilty. I will refer to (U.S. Attorney) Johnny Sutton.”

Reyes must have been dismayed when Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Cornyn, R-Texas asked President Bush to commute the agents’ sentences. Nothing sucks like being late out of the starting gate, especially when you get owned in a bilateral way by outsiders mucking up your home turf.

Or perhaps Reyes was motivated by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s lame attempt to play both sides of the aisle, that of USBP friend and US Attorney “escort.”

Or perhaps Reyes has had an attack of conscience since his daughter got implicated in that scandal back in 2005.

Some politicians will chew up anything and everything to rise as high as they can. You can’t blame anyone for trying to rise above their humble roots along the Rio Grande, but you can blame them for trying to forget them.

In between his pining over/forgetting his past and his longing for his so-called future, Reyes was junketing his way through the Western Hemisphere like a conquistador high on wine. Humorously, his web site notes how quickly he departed spaces, as if to reassure the public that its money was well-spent.

Too little, too late, for this small-time hood to resurrect anything resembling a reputation that bodes well for his political future. He’s become as stupid as his Democratic peers.

UPDATE: Nervous US Attorney Johnny Sutton sucks spit and defends himself.

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Posted in Border Patrol, Democrat, Drugs, El Paso, Law Enforcement, Mexico | Comments Off

Your Saturday RSS Feed – 07 July 2007

Friday, July 6th, 2007

EL PASO FBI CORRUPTION CASE UPDATE:
County Commissioner Dan Haggerty ponders the meaning of his existence and how said existence may have triggered the ongoing investigation. Haggerty recalls his contacts with the FBI back in the day, which seemingly started out as chit-chat sessions initiated by the FBI. Yeah, the FBI routinely calls up politicos to chit-chat because, you know, that’s how they like to spend taxpayers’ money. I wonder if any politician is so naive anymore and, after wondering, I doubt it.

Frank Apodaca, president and CEO of Access HealthSource Inc., got put on paid leave, likely due to the ongoing investigation. The parent company of Access HealthSource, Inc., Access Plans USA is reportedly conducting its own independent investigation.

Newspaper Tree notes that business goes on as usual inside the El Paso County Courthouse. NT seems like a decent enough online rag but, honestly, “spending the morning walking the halls and riding the elevators of the courthouse” isn’t exactly working towards establishing one’s superior journalistic bona fides.

Newspaper Tree also reports on the government’s attempt to disqualify El Paso attorney Mary Stillinger from representing three clients related to the ongoing corruption case.

Keeping the story hot, I guess, El Paso Times reports that County Commissioner Miguel Terán will not resign. Because, you know, he’s not been charged or convicted of anything. OK.

CONTENTION IN EL PASO NOT ALL RELATED TO THE FBI CORRUPTION CASE: On 03 July, a Border Patrol agent was investigating a report of illegal migrants in the vicinity of Hill and Ninth Streets. Something happened down a manhole and the BP agent fired in self-defense, wounding one. The contention is the result of the involvement of the Border Network for Human Rights, a leftist group with an office down at 1101 E. Yandell in El Paso. A few first- and second-hand accounts by Barrio Segundo residents make an El Paso Times article, with Louie Gilot’s byline. To his credit, Gilot notes the number of attacks on BP agents in the area this year: 59. Generally, according to their website, Border Network for Human Rights agitates for “basic human rights” — which sounds good to college kids — like legalization, healthy communities and human mobility. But BNHR doesn’t talk about who funds the bill. Right now the bill is paid by Americans. BNHR does not agitate for reduced attacks on Border Patrol agents, for the fiscal responsibility of educating Mexican kids in El Paso public schools by the citizens of Juarez, for equal access to Juarez schools and health care by El Pasoans, or for that matter, the right to drive around Juarez shopping without fear of murder, kidnap or robbery, as happens right across the border. I guess that’s a POE Bridge Too Far for BNHR, and it telegraphs its Leftist agenda. I’d watch my wallet if a BNHR Guevarista walked up to me.

MORE CONTENTION: Illegals are getting uppity with more than hapless Border Patrol “rocking” victims these days. Michelle Malkin links to Elvira Arellano’s announcement of a “campaign of resistance” against the US government. Who is Elvira Arellano? She’s a Mexican activist, an illegal, and a sanctuary seeker since she’s been hiding out in a church in Chicago for who knows how long. I’d think that a threat to “bring the government to a halt” warrants a raid of that church by any law enforcement entity whose members swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Happy Fourth of July, Elvira “FOB” Arellano.

CHURCH LADY REPORTS: On a happier, errr, more sacreligious note, seems the Roman Cathloic Mass has gotten a bit more enlightened recently. What’s next, a smoking lamp, a Tiki statue and retro-cool Members Only jackets worn by parishoners?

SHE’S NOT GOING TO BE ELECTED ANYWAY: Hillary a felon? Say it ain’t so.

IN MEXICO: Was it a flying witch? Or merely a promo for the new Harry Potter movie?

ISLAMADMINISTRIVIA: A macho, woman-hating Muslim cleric tries to flee in a burka. He didn’t want to meet 72 virgins in Paradise, apparently: he wanted to be one. How fine it is to lay the smackdown on women in Islam, and then use their identity to escape justice. I’d ask BNHR about Muslim treatment of women, because I think Pakistan has borders, I’m sure I’d only hear crickets in response.

“OFFICER’S KID”: That was a slur among military kids back in the day, and maybe today, too. Military officers had the worst-behaved kids on any base or post, or so it seemed. It was a stereotype: the successful, well-paid, college-educated servicemember and his/her crap, sluggish, juvenile delinquent spawn. These days, I guess that stereotype transmogrifies nicely to politicians.

ABOUT THAT DINING OUT EXPERIENCE: Gotta love it. Not. Not when waiters and waitresses are morons. The most hit-or-miss part of a dining experience, besides whether you’re paying $50 for a burned filleted scallop with a stale chive on top because the chef is drunk, is the wait staff. They set the tone of the meal. Or don’t. They get tipped, or don’t, depending on your perception of how they perform. So there is Bitter Waitress, a site that argues for good tips for good service, and tells great tales along the way.

And then there’s this attitude. Rule #1: Never leave less than a 20% tip. It’s “tipping poorly” if you have a problem with anything, according to 86 Bad Tips. Including sluggish, forgetful, annoying, stumbling, snot-dripping, angry, failed, besotted wait staff. Well, I guess the red, black and yellow colors of the web page tip you to the militant attitude of its host.

Here’s another waiter blog.

And another.

Here’s an article that will make you end your dining-out experience and just cook at home.

LOL THIS: You’ve heard of LOL Cats. Now get ready for LOL terrorists. My entries are here.

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Posted in Border Insecurity, Border Patrol, Border Security, Border Violence, CBP, Democrat, El Paso, FBI, Food, Juarez, Law Enforcement, Media, Mexico, MSM, Politics, Restaurants, Southwest Border, Terrorists | Comments Off

Your Weekend RSS Roundup!

Saturday, May 12th, 2007

Outside the Beltway wants to know why members of the press aren’t knowledgeable about their subjects. In this case, it’s about commissioned officers “re-enlisting.” I don’t know, OTB, but lack of basic understanding about the military certainly is a problem. For mainstream media, it seems every servicemember is a “soldier,” and every officer above O-3 is described as “senior.” I wonder how many times Wesley Clark re-enlisted.

GOG IS BACK: One of the original members of our Gang of Generals has lost his job at CBS. MG (Retired) John Batiste was removed from his “military analyst” job for political activism. Nonetheless, Batiste remains on radar for his buffoonery. GoG member Paul Eaton has a cameo in the offending activism: a TV ad.

MAN BITES DOG O’ THE DAY: Michelle Malkin notes an SFGate article on a legal immigrant suing San Francisco’s police commissioner for failing to deal with illegal migrants. That ought to end well. The City, of course, is a “sanctuary” for illegals, as well as the homeless, the mentally ill, wasteful and clueless politicians, and bay windows.

REYNOLDS ALUMINIUM UPDATE: If it’s kooky, it’s Kucinich! Impish Dem climbs aboard Bush impeachment train, surprised to find only three other passengers.

ABC BLOG APPARENTLY RUN BY SNARKY TEENAGER: An ABC blog is deleting comments. That’s nothing new. Most of my readers’ comments are deleted out of hand. I must say, I sure do have a large fanbase in the pharmaceutical industry.

A MINUTE FOR PELOSI: If it’s a day of the week ending in “day,” then Pelosi must have done something wrong. This time she’s working a deal that would purportedly help hubby’s rental property a scant mile away. A mile’s a long way for Pelosi, who denies any link — but then again, it would be a long way away for a Speaker who’s still crawling.

FORGOTTEN RECENT NEWS: Read somewhere that one in two Mexicans have family members in the US. Where did I read that, and why don’t I care?

The ace reporters at the El Paso Times have sussed out something important. Undocumented immigrants in the border town are poor because they lack, you know citizenship, naturalization papers, or visas that would get them a better education. But what EPT doesn’t realize is that plenty of Americans are still stuck on stupid even with a sheepskin between their paws. All that said, “thousands of Mexican children” are attending US public schools, the paper screamed back on April 29th. Well, OK, it didn’t scream. No one would care if the “brown ones” (that’s Bush the First talking, not me) were taking up desk space learning (or more likely, not learning, the three Rs, but the rub comes when the city is trying to float a $230 million education bond to, believe it or not, build new schools to handle growth. We’re such a magnanimous country. “Give me your tired, your poor, your coyotes and drug runners, and your illiterate kids who are evidence of a failed/nonexistent Mexican education system.”

OUT OF TIME: I’m not even beginning to get ready to deal with Al Sharpton right now. I have to unstop a toilet, which is preferable to thinking about that ugly little bigot.

ANOTHER USA VS. BORDER PATROL AGENT STORY: How far back in time do you need to go to start seeing a pattern? One gets weary of reading of yet another agent crucified to satisfy the political and financial agendas of NGOs, bureaucrats and lawyers. If you believe the agent and not the federal lawyer, that is. Either one could be the crumb bum.

WEEKEND AT CASTRO’s: Like a resurrected corpse, Michael Moore made it back into the light of day. He jetted off to Cuba to check out their world-class medical system, which is free for everyone, as everyone who is free knows. Sadly, the unfilmed truth is more painful. It ain’t free and it’s not available to everyone. I hear there’s a new show coming out: “Who Wants to Correct a Millionaire?”

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Posted in Border Patrol, Democrat, Gang of Generals, Law Enforcement, Liberal, Media, Mexico, Migration, Politics | Comments Off

Iowa Guv’mint and Wrestling — Huh?

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

Jeez. What would the Iowa legislature think of lucha libre that’s so popular in border towns? They’d probably want them to wear helmets. Or send ICE to check their passports.

Here are a couple of pictures that will send the Iowa Legislature into a shizzle-fit.

The first one is a ladder that was “procured” from somewhere in the arena. Skybird launched off the top of it to achieve a match-winning pin on unsuspecting luchador. In the second, an “extreme” match that is rare these days, a couple of locals used an ironing board, drywall, trash can lids and two-by-fours to pound each other into bloody submission.

Where did they get that ladder?

The guy on the left used to do my ironing until he went pro.

The horror. The horror. In the more liberal, progressive and culturally-advanced city of El Paso (worth a drive on the weekend, for entertainment), Iowa politicians wouldn’t stand a chance. They’d be gunned down faster than John Wesley Hardin.

Wimps.

More at Lucha Wiki.

Hat tip: State 29.

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The Southwest Border Fence and Frontpagemag

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

Paul Kengor is a little bit late to the game, but accurate nonetheless. Mexico’s condemnation of fencing the Southwest Border by calling it a new Berlin Wall is inaccurate.

Bonus points: Mexico continues to struggle with illegal immigration on its southern border. It is attempting to construct its own fence of sorts, by sending military forces, technical equipment and police officers south, all the while attempting to network with (primarily) Guatemalan military forces, all in order to stop migrants moving into Mexico and taking the jobs that, well, Mexicans won’t do.

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Video Game Defames Peaceful, Pretty Image of Juarez, Mexico, says Peacekeeping, Handsome Mayor

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Hector Murguia, mayor of Juarez, Mexico, has condemned the new video game, “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2,” because of its setting in Juarez. Murguia thinks the game promotes violence and instills values which are “upside down.” The game “attempts to divide the good will of the residents of American and Mexican cities,” he said.

Memo to the mayor: there isn’t that much good will between El Paso and Juarez. Americans, in particular Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants, don’t want any part of what Juarez is, except for keeping up family ties with relatives on the other side of the river. Murguia can sniff all he wants, but he presides over a remarkably inept, uncaring local government, riddled like Swiss cheese with corruption and violence. Once a decent destination for thousands of day-tripping American tourists and the occasional overnighter, Juarez is descended into a killing field where incorruptible cops, judges, attorneys and public servants are targeted by criminal groups or corrupted cops, judges, attorneys and public servants. Corrupted public officials attend BBQs on the ranches of local traffickers; they tip off cartel members of impending federal police raids; they extort businesses; they build themselves fancy homes in the few safe neighborhoods of the city, a la Aldrich Ames and well above what their incomes allow.

Figure on about five murders a week in Juarez, and that’s conservative. If the Juarez Cartel didn’t have the place well-locked down, imagine Nuevo Laredo times a thousand.

Hell, most Mexicans you see in El Paso are day-tripping tourists doing shopping, not illegal migrants heading to fields and factories. That’s because it’s cheaper to buy Mexican products in El Paso, not to mention luxuries like diapers, toiletries and appliances from China. Smart Chihuahuans put their money in Wells Fargo, and buy second homes here — for safety, security and the fact that they can smuggle their kids into good (by Mexican standards) education and health care system.

Tinted glass on the mayor’s company car must block his view of the “for lease” signs seen on office buildings all over town; of the numbers of native Indians selling chewing gum and bracelets at red lights; of the potholes; of the decaying infrastructure; of the lack of building code enforcement; of the drunkenness and random gunfire; of the slavery of Central American women in prostitution and factory work; of the corrupt public transport and taxicab industry; of the bodies discovered — nearly daily — in neighborhoods, victims of targeted assassinations and usually new (and often teenaged) members of drug gangs “given up” deliberately by traffickers in deals with local law enforcement. He doesn’t see the drowning victims in the Rio Grande; doesn’t look at the anti-gringo xenophobia that pervades border towns; and doesn’t worry about terrorists crossing the Southwest Border (or of the Government of Mexico’s stated intent to stop it) because they’re moving out of his turf.

They sell a T-shirt or two there. One says, “Souvenir of Juarez” and is a picture of an AK-47. The other is an international symbol-like graphic of a body being stuff into the trunk of a car underneath the word, “Juarez.” Now that’s entrepreneurship by somebody, but Hector ain’t complaining about that.

I can see a mod to the game already: a dam in Juarez is in danger of bursting and endangering thousands and thousands of residents who were allowed to build below it. The danger comes from a terrorist bomb. Or a 500-year flood. Take your pick, although the latter really happened last year.

UPDATE: Luis Carrasco of the El Paso Times takes the right approach to Hizonner and video games.

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Mexico: Addressing Illegal Migration at Last

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

Mexico is going to crack down on migrants crossing the border, create a guest worker program and improve conditions for migrants on the move. Sounds like a Minuteman’s dream, right? Except it’s happening on Mexico’s southern border.

For some time, Mexico has engaged in a remarkable political hypocrisy — it complains about the US stance on illegal immigration, yet it is a felony to be in Mexico without papers, punishable by two years in prison. Now that’s a hard stance. Mexicans are upset about Central Americans taking their jobs (!), and those migrants are treated quite poorly while in Mexico.

When you think about it, it’s no wonder Central Americans are trying to get to the US — illegals get better treatment here than they do from brutish Mexican policies and Mexican attitudes.

Calderon is smarter than Fox, and he knows that he can’t make any headway with the US over the border fence or new immigration policies while his own house is not in order.

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Posted in Aliens, Mexico, Migration, Smuggling | Comments Off

Not the Bordertown I Know

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

In the movie Bordertown, Jennifer Lopez is cast as the intrepid reporter covering the infamous killings of women in Juarez.

“It wants to be a thriller, a piece of investigative journalism, a political soapbox and a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez,” intrepid reviewer Kirk Honeycutt writes for Hollywood Reporter.

Sounds like the newsroom at The El Paso Times.

Naturally, Amnesty International has pinned a Valentine rose on Lopez for her participation in this bomb. Seems you can do good, bad and ugly and AI will weigh in with its awesome, college-age denizens possessed of talent and dedication (until they graduate and spend their money on mortgages and diapers)

Artists for Amnesty, indeed. Amnesty from what — careers drooping faster than an aging singer’s famous curvy butt?

Don’t watch this film for any exploration of the Juarez killings.

Watch this one instead.

Bonus points: the apperance of Antonio Banderas, who never heard about a dumb movie about Mexico he wouldn’t cast for.

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San Diego Rube: Ruben Navarette Junior

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

San Diego Union-Tribune editor and CNN columnist Ruben Navarrette asserts that healthy local Mexican economies near the US border curb illegal immigration. Of course they do, Rube! Thank NAFTA for that.

Unfortunately, the scribe — who spends two paragraphs establishing his American bona fides (although he still calls himself Mexican-American), is as off-base as a Guatemalan without papers in Oaxaca (being an undocumented migrant in Mexico is a felony offense that gets one up to two years in prison).

Well, that “I’m blood and so I know” crap puts a chill on Ruben’s transnational flag-waving. On account of you can’t tell which flag he’s waving right now. Perhaps a Stars and Stripes but with red and green stripes. Maybe the Flag of Mexico with a bald eagle with the sustentation plumage downwards touching the tail whose feathers are arranged in the natural fan indicating migration routes north. I don’t know.

Or maybe I do:

Navarette doesn’t write like he’s sophisticated enough to understand how his US experience influenced his “Mexican-American” thought processes.

Hey, Rube, if you’re going to pay into Social Security, maybe you ought to identify yourself as American. Helps a lot when you turn 62. Although I understand it keeps doors open when you need them: affirmative action lawsuits, political positioning, speaking engagements at universities, and taking advantage of offered tokenist positions at regional newspapers.

Tokenista Junior argues that illegal immigration can be slowed by “rooting for the economies of Mexican border cities.” That’s hogwash. The overwhelming majority of illegals don’t come from the border states. They come from Central America and the Mexican interior where, in the case of the latter, Mexican politics, corruption, poor infrastructure, and damning agricultural policies drive able-bodied persons north. Why till the rich soil of Michoacan when working the rich soil of America pays so much better? Why are the rich fields of Michoacan fallow, anyway? That’s a problem Navarette hasn’t wrapped his Mexican-American noggin around, perhaps because he can’t or won’t travel much further south than TJ.

Navarrette compares illegal immigrants to drugs when he describes American labor requirements as an “addiction.” Equating drugs and labor is illogical, dumb and useless, because it won’t flow in the halls of Congress. Migration and drugs remain two separate (and unequal) topics. He ought to know better.

The SDUT editor really screws the pooch in his final paragraph: “It also shows why Americans will never be able to find the solution — because we’re the problem.” This is a dumb summation, possibly (but not bloody likely) wrapped up by some CNN editor. It is trite and disappointing. The Rube is without hope that “we” will every find “the” solution — whatever that is (he didn’t propose one) — to whatever the issue is (he muddled that by talking about his roots, illegal immigration, Congress, Governor Perry, border fences, en el otro lado, Bush, political honesty, high-speed rail lines and labor, in 500 words. I won’t even comment on his “people are hurting me” opening paragraph.

Who at CNN decides what bleeds and leads, anyway? College interns? Hispanics? They populate the best kitchens, you know. Perhaps their influence is far greater than Tipsy and George ever imagined.

4 Borders Pundit really didn’t know magical realism appeared in anything other than fiction. So I’m throwing away all those years of grad school in favor of CNN columns. There is far more magical realism here than in any college course.

So we are the problem, eh? Us in the US — you and me? Not the corruption in Mexico the Rube dared mention? Not failed Mexican economic policies? Not the all-but-implemented “safety valve” of migration Mexican politicians understand and plan for? Not the economic benefits of remittances? Not the automatic US citizenship granted to the children of illegal migrants? Not the fact that life in Mexico is shit for most Mexicans? Surely a “Mexican-American” would show some heart for the problems in the land of his ancestors, or at least more than a two words: corruption and desperation.

Rest assured Navarette, benefitting from his ancestors’ foresight, is not desperate.

Too bad he’s too busy asserting his Mexican-American identity, all the while sucking at the teat of an America that white immigrants largely produced, and he sucks as hard as his illegal cultural brethren do.

Good luck with the SDUT and CNN gigs, Rube. I hear they pay well.

Addendum: Heh. Note the caution from CNN on his latest piece, CNN being better at minding its bottom line than the Rube: The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. I don’t agree: they are approved by some convention of CNN editors, and they are their responsibility as well.

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Posted in Border Insecurity, Humor, Mexico, Parody, Satire, Southwest Border | Comments Off

Mexican Drug Traffickers Welcomed to Bendover Prison, USA

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

DEA announced last night that several high-profile Mexican drug traffickers were extradited to face charges in the US. This continues new President Calderon’s anti-drug operations in Mexico, which include the deployment of thousands of military personnel and federal agents to several hotspots.

Such extraditions (there were over 60 last year) have been problematic for Mexico because the US has the death penalty (Mexico doesn’t), there is political sensitivity about Mexico’s relations with the US, and politicians, lawyers and cops can be paid to express opposition.

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