Home-grown terrorism with a twist.
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But, Seattle, He Was Such a Sweet Lad: You Said So Yourselves
Monday, December 15th, 2008Juarez Schools Under Violence Threat
Saturday, December 13th, 2008The pressures exerted by the Government of Mexico take their toll on schoolchildren in Juarez.
Not much reporting on this, but it seems to have been going on for a few months.
It was the case in TJ that, when the Tijuana Cartel was being dismantled by government pressure and rival drug trafficking operations, that cartel members took to kidnappings-for-ransom and other “petty” crimes, in order to raise cash.
The Juarez school threats would seem to be a corollary. Perhaps the Juarez Cartel is under threat in the same way: by government pressure and rival drug trafficking organizations.
Nothing Like Self-Promotion as the Best Promotion
Monday, December 1st, 2008Diana Washington Valdez blogs about some writer named Diana Washington Valdez’ new book. The topic is intriguing, at least until the next book on Mexican drug traffickers is written and self log-rolled.
BBC on Border Violence: Killings Up In Spite of Mexican Army
Sunday, August 17th, 2008The BBC tried to weigh in on the increased violence in Mexico. They incorrectly implied one thing. In actuality, the surge in army deployments didn’t cause the upswing in killings; their deployment was a result of the upswing in killings.
“Silver” Brings Home Some Homeland Security Bacon, Pork-Style
Thursday, August 7th, 2008Maybe some of it will go to diminish flooding in 79932. DHS owns FEMA, too. Rep. Reyes announces nearly $6 million in security grants for El Paso.
Border Invaded Again and Again? Say It Ain’t So!
Saturday, January 12th, 2008Michelle Malkin notes a recent recent Judicial Watch FOIA request on the number of Mexican military and police incursions into the US.
Noted. Still, it’s a fact that Mexican organized criminal enterprises routinely adopt the uniforms, weapons and vehicles of federal, state and local enforcement entities (including the Mexican military, which has an internal security role and targets drug traffickers). I doubt all of these incursions were by military or law enforcement members. The notorious Hudspeth County, TX, incident in 2006, which was widely reported, was likely such a situation, as corrupt Mexican soldiers are really a bit more sophisticated (yes, sophisticated) and wouldn’t so easily allow themselves to be so exposed. Some other incursions were by mistake — losing one’s bearings happens more than you might think along remote parts of the Southwest Border, and US law enforcement entities have done it as well (though certainly not as often as Mexican LE). The rest of the incursions? That’s the problem not sufficiently addressed by either the US or the government of Mexico.
Here’s the incursion report, courtesy of Judicial Watch.
Malkin notes that this candidate has a lot to say on immigration, little of it good or, well, even consistent. You might say it’s enough to make you cry. And that guacamole reference? Please, patronize Latinos some more, will ya?
One Malkin commenter argues for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to patrol the border. That’s a slow interagency process, held up by the public servants at the FAA. If Katrina can’t make the FAA move faster, what makes you think a little thing like national sovereignty will?
Border security is serious business, and government policies on immigration are complex, convoluted and sometimes out-of-date (think citizenship by birth), which is why this satire, and this one, hit home.
Drug Smuggler Aldrete-Davila Takes it in the Hiney Again
Friday, November 23rd, 2007Remember Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, the drug smuggler who was paid by the U.S. to help convict USBP agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean for shooting him in the ass when he was smuggling marijuana into the US in 2005?
He’s about as dumb as we thought he was back then.
El Paso Times notes his tearful family letting that Aldrete crossed into the US because he thought he was getting more money from the feds — for Christmas gifts.
You can’t make this stuff up. One hundred and twenty-nine other dummies just got rounded up in El Paso in the same way. High IQ is not highly-regarded among the criminal set along the border.
Aldrete, who lives in Juarez, from where he gazed lovingly at the William Beaumont Army Hospital in El Paso where he received ace medical attention, had said he’d never cross back into the US — with or without a load of dope, presumably.
I expect Aldrete will have a lot more worries about his backside in prison than the bullet lodged there a couple of years ago. While Ramos and Compean have suffered from inmates’ abuse, this celebrity trafficker will be (in)famous enough to learn about new ways to make his butt-ocks hurt. They really ought to get TVs out of prisons.
Patterico links to the news, and Johnny Sutton’s name turns up in the comments, like a chow chip under your boot.
Diggers Realm has more.
Congressman Reyes: Stupid Is as Stupid Does
Thursday, July 19th, 2007What? 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.
Your Saturday RSS Feed – 07 July 2007
Friday, July 6th, 2007EL 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.
Black Alliance for Just Immigration Just Rode Into Town; Excuse Me While I Whip This (Post) Out
Sunday, April 29th, 2007It should be easy to spot the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) when they arrive on the border soon to “investigate the human rights violations against documented and undocumented immigrants crossing the border into the United States as well as the violations against U.S. citizens.”
I like that last bit. Gotta throw that in to be PC.
Why is it easy to spot African-Americans on the border? Because not many live here. El Paso County, for example, is 3.1% black.
None of the African-American invaders, who have stolen native land alongside the white devils, have said to date, as BAJI reps state, “”We are appalled by the increasing militarization of the border areas and the reports of rising migrant deaths, detentions of immigrants without due process, and violence against people attempting to cross the Mexican desert into the United States.” So said Phil Lawson, co-founder of BAJI said.
For those who don’t know, BAJI is a progressive, Berkeley-based organization of, by and for African Americans and Black immigrants (whatever that latter means). It’s been around since April 2006, and Berkeley isn’t big enough for its aspirations.
I’d have hoped BAJI would agitate, as we all know the NAACP does, for more conservative, white migrants to Berkeley, Alameda County and the East Bay. But so it goes.
Welcome to the Southwest Border, BAJI friends, I guess. It’s a big place — there’s room for us, and you and all the koo-koo leftist donkeys you rode in on.
Will be interesting to see the outcome of this visit. The IntarWebs doesn’t give an agenda, which suggests BAJI hasn’t got enough clout to have scheduled one. Maybe it’s a big secret. Maybe it’s play as you go. Maybe it’s pay as you go.
Now, hold your nose and read this statement by an outfit calling itself the national network for immigrant and refugee rights [sic]. That’s right, they are too shy to capitalize their name. NNIRR is in bed with BAJI.
And here’s a puff piece on BAJI. Most interesting is BAJI’s stated aim to forge relationships with immigrant groups. Meaning those immigrant groups who’d rather not face the letter of the law.
Hey, avoiding the law in Mexico works just fine. Why not adapt that here?
BAJI would no doubt agree, as those East Bay crime rates unfairly target Blacks.
Over at the loathsome IndyMedia, BAJI “Gestapo” turned up denouncing “Gestapo” dententions of illegal aliens in the Bay Area. Gestapo. SS. What’s the dif, to a group for whom the Constitution is now an emotional issue rather than a guiding light and an ideal for personal behavior?
For what amounts to yet another shitbird Berkeley activist group, BAJI sure gets a lot of publicity. Maybe everyone’s afraid to call a rock a rock, on account of the rock being black African-American a nappy-headed ho stupid yet politically-correct.
Stupid this:
