Arizona border reality check ...

Homeland Security: “A Victim of Our Own Success”

I expect the Homeland Security Department to engage in paranoid fantasies; it’s good for budgets, great for morale, and delineates a nice, clear boundary between friend and foe. That’s the game.

[...]

... But this we do know; the last time shooting incident involving a Border Patrol agent in Tucson Sector was January 2008; the agent opened fire on the driver after the guy tried driving off with the agent trapped by the door. The last time someone hunted a Border Patrol agent in Tucson Sector was summer 2005 when Los Numeros took down two agents with high-powered rifles near Nogales. Of course, there was that minor incident a few weeks ago when one Border Patrol agent shot another in the back here in Tucson, but apparently nobody wants to talk about that …

"Whatever the military’s plans are for Mexico, brace yourself, we’re in for a whole new adventure."

Posse Comitatus Revisited

Border Reportery conversations ...

The Job Risks

Prediction from the Border Reporter?

It’s a new day but it’s an old border. Watch the U.S.’s next maneuver toward placing soldiers on the border. It’ll be interesting to see how it manifests itself. Will someone (Napolitano) directly propose it? Or will it begin with an incident; training exercises along Cabeza Prieta, maybe.

Ain't politics a crock ...

Irony of ironies: McCain, Kyl back Napolitano for Cabinet

Kyl said he doesn't expect Napolitano to start "bringing home the bacon" in her new role but said Arizona stands to benefit from a Homeland Security secretary well-versed in the state's concerns.

That's quite a compliment from one of the corruption crowd.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

So while Matthews certainly deserves credit for upending such a duplicitous political narrative, it's not enough for him to bask in this all-too-rare instance and then allow a roster of other guests - most notably, bigger fish in the pond than Kevin James - to reappear on his show and push similar false frames without recourse.

Matthews can't have it both ways: he can't claim to be "tough" while only stomping on the occasional lightweight.

And to see Borger and Brazile—sitting there trying to have a rational discussion after he says the things that he does is just as ludicrous. Borger’s retort is to say that a lot of voters don’t feel that way and Donna mildly says Alex has a problem with her. I mean, really. What does he have to do to offend them?

... Shades of the 1910 Mexican Revolution in which many times the citizens of El Paso Texas had to take cover from the flying bullets while differing Mexican Armies fought it out amongst themselves on “the other side”.

... The United States is home to a mere five percent of the world’s total population, and 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population: 2.3 million people, most of whom are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. ...

I could take this to mean that indeed there is no crisis in civil-military relations, that the "professionals" will do whatever it is that a new president will want to do and that ultimately the military will salute and follow orders as the Constitution intends. Instead, though, I get the stinking feeling that the attitude, though it is unspoken and would be denied by these ultimately partisan competitors, is that what the president wants is ultimately secondary to what the national security professionals think is reasonable and doable. There is a crisis: God help the new president

... Do you happen to notice, say, that we never read someone writing that maybe boys just self-select away from education? Maybe they are not just interested in staying at school or in going to college? I don't recall ever reading a single article like that. Nope, all the articles I've read about the topic have as their goal a greater success rate for boys. Boys must be educated! Nobody suggests that they might choose not be educated and that we should honor that free and democratic choice.

But when it comes to girls and science, the story immediately changes. Perhaps it's girls themselves who choose not to become scientists? Perhaps that's Just How Things Are?

The kind of reporting this country needs ...

The Border Reporter (Michel Marizco) educates us about the 'U.S.-Mexico Pipeline'

After reading this narco-analysis I was sent the other day, I’m starting to think we should dump the noun “border.” Border implies boundary, a line, a control. What we have, this federal report shows, is a conduit.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

... Posing, posturing, pretend progressives prevent progress...

... This is simply the way the American elite have always functioned. Ideology, morality, patriotism, law – all must give way to the relentless and ruthless pursuit of wealth, and the power and privilege and dominance wealth brings. Prescott Bush traded with the Nazis, even when they were killing Americans, because there was money in it. For the same reason, his son, Prescott Jr., has long been a leading figure in trading with the repressive communist regime in China (as have Dubya's brother Neil -- and Don Rumsfeld too, for that matter.). For the same reason, Prescott Senior's other son, George Herbert Walker Bush, and his son, George Walker Bush, have long had extensive and intimate business ties with the violent religious extremists in Saudi Arabia, and with a number of other tyrants throughout the Middle East and around the world.

... you told them that American Democrats are Nazi sympathizers and in an act of sheer indecency, the right wing Likud party orchestrated the greatest applause you ever got. For shame!

What this blind adoration finally proves to me is that the right-wing regime that has overtaken Israel cares nothing for its people, its heritage, and the tragic history that they now honor by applauding a man whose family-fortune was built on the bodies of their loved ones. Like their Republican (and Lieberman) counterparts in the United States, Likud does not represent its people, rather, it represents its owners. Likud has traded Israel, its Jews, their heritage and history for the same golden calf purchased and sold by the far-right wing in the United States.

I am ashamed of you Mr. Bush. I am ashamed of those who applauded your political porn played out against the hallowed backdrop of the Holocaust. I am ashamed of those reporters with you, who between them could not muster the moral courage to call you out on your ugly rhetoric and ask you about your own family Nazi ties. You are, sir, the most abhorrent human being of my lifetime. I dare say, in the lifetime of this nation.

Working together with the State, the U.S.-bound media will distort the reality themselves. The American government will tell them the fight has happened because the smugglers are growing frustrated with the outstanding control of the U.S.’s border with Mexico. The correspondents of the American papers working in Mexico will know better but their shouts will go unheeded for the faster, easier story. Some truths are more comfortable than others.

More about paintball guns on the Arizona border ...

Yesterday I linked to this post by the Border Reporter. A most informative comments has been posted about the subject:

Here are some practical arguments as to why I disagree with the US government spending $3 million bucks on a terrible idea.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Bates found that I had not demonstrated that “irreparable harm” would befall Al-Ghizzawi if the government did not provide the medical care or records. How Bates could expect me to demonstrate that my client would suffer irreparable harm without my first having access to those very records is beyond me. I queried whether I would have to wait for my client to die before the necessary “irreparable harm” could be shown, but Bates refused to reconsider his Kafkaesque decision and I filed an appeal with the D.C. Circuit Court. Unfortunately for my client, that court has been too busy unraveling our Constitution and the appeal has sat untouched since late 2006.

Unless of course, we’re just not supposed to have a system that works too well. It’s a bit of a tinfoil argument, I know, but what else are we expected to believe when a solution is developed over the course of a year-and-a-half and, when nearing success, is quietly shut down? [...] I also find the timing of the scrapping of this plan somewhat … convenient. The springtime rush of illegal immigrants should already be starting up.

It has been 20 months since Siegelman’s trial ended and no trial transcript has been produced by Fuller's court. This is in violation of the rules of criminal procedure which require a transcript within 30 days of sentencing. Siegelman can't appeal his conviction with out an official trial transcript ... Setting up this kind of injustice is what the Republican Torture Party would find enjoyable. I suppose some would call it (un)Christian? Not to mention criminal.

Is it possible that corporations are placing "swallows" inside the offices of our elected officials? If someone would have suggested this to me a few years ago, I would have laughed it off.

But given the almost lock-step approach of Congress to consistently voting against the citizens of this nation in favor of corporations, this possibility becomes that much stronger. If my theory on Ms. Iseman holds, then her past will reveal some interesting connections. My guess is that she got her sudden rise to stardom much the same way Susan Ralston did.

Cuantos son muertos por mentiras ...

And they can’t get their video cameras to work?

The Border Reporter is at it again: I’ITOI AT WORK?

Michel Marizco entwines legends, history, personal experiences and more around his facts thus making factual news (as apposed to Faux News) as interesting and as enjoyable as fiction (if it only some of the facts about how our government works, not to mention smugglers and such, were fiction!).

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

... as we saw over the last few weeks, the Pentagon correspondents laundered propaganda, which was then used by the White House to launder rhetoric through the White House press corps.
And the beat goes on ...
EMINENT DOMAIN LAWSUITS, WASTE OF TIME? ... Republican governing at it's best!
FEDS BEGIN SEIZING BORDER LAND IN ARIZONA ...
This sentencing was particularly interesting:

” …. and to access adjacent lands; including the right to trim or remove any vegetative or structural obstacles that interfere with said work; … “

For you people out east and west of Nogales, you had better hope your home is not interfering with the government’s project.
...it demonstrated that, at least regarding Clinton, [Obama's] knee-jerk reaction was not to work with her and "transcend differences."
I'm starting to worry about the danger of McCain, who many people who ought to know better still don't realize is just a war-mongering right-wing crackpot. (whose "objections" to torture don't extend to actually voting against it.)
Blindly protecting the border ... But this situation really goes a long way to demonstrating my strongest criticism of border enforcement. You can hire all the U.S. Border Patrol agents you want but if you don’t have the intelligence agencies to bring in valid information, it’s a complete waste of taxpayer dollars.

The DEA, the FBI and ATF are all in the middle of a hiring freeze. ...

[...] The result is something like a blind giant – heavy on the muscle, manpower, and weapons, but little idea what’s happening south of the line, and sometimes little idea what’s happening to the north.
The meanings of 'change' ... Democrats are being asked whether they believe in party, in which case they should be for Hillary, if they believe in power they should be for Edwards and if they believe in personality, they should vote for Obama.
As Bill Buckley admits, it's not just the "stupid" buyer that regulations are supposed to watch out for -- it's all the rest of us since we live in the town where the kids are playing with matches. ... The Robber Barons made their money and increased their power. The rest, including the giant globe we live on, is expendable.
Media Mess ... It's as if a pack of hyenas were crossbred with the characters in Mean Girls and then sent out to play at journalism.

Immigration, migration and mankind's borders ...

Couple comments to Michael Tomasky's post in the Guardian:

Scare tactics on the border --Most Americans back citizenship for illegal migrants, but are eclipsed by a fevered minority

Only a few of the 'fevered' sorts have found the site yet but give them time. For now there's a reasonably polite and rational debated going on.

COMMENT POSTED BY amities
December 3, 2007 12:08 PM

My parents emigrated illegally to the United States back in the '80s and took up some of those jobs that WASP America seems not very keen on. I understand the argument that if they are legalized, it's saying it's OK to break the law (I don't hear opponents of the move to legalize illegals moaning and groaning about all the numerous times the current administration has violated our sacrosanct Constitution). However, I suspect that this is a superficial and vacuous rationalization; the true reason is xenophobia, pure and unadulterated racism.

I currently live in the UK (legally :P) and find myself constantly reading and hearing about the Polish blitzkrieg. They are flooding the country, driving wages down, sending their Polish-speaking children to already overcrowded schools, causing house prices to go up (how someone who is working for peanuts can afford the ludicrously expensive homes is beyond my comprehension!) and living off the dole, etc. Of course they are here legally yet these are the same things that are said about the illegals, i.e., Hispanics, in the United States.

Human beings are historically a species on the move. People have always emigrated in order to improve their lot. The Europeans that went to the Americas were doing just this. Can you imagine what America would be like had the Natives had stringent border control! ;)

COMMENT POSTED BY Ishouldapologise
December 3, 2007 11:34 AM

Isn't it strange that in an epoch where international corporations stroll around the world seting up branches of their companies at will. In an age where money flows electronically in waves from country to country unimpeded. In a time when for every gap year student the world is their oyster. In a time when Americans retire to Baja and British to Spain and France and Italy. In a time when everything is opening up.

Some people are blocked from bravely crossing one single frontier to fill an empty job vacancy, to find badly paid work and to geerously send money home to their needy family.

Talk about double standards.

"Talk about double standards." I think more manipulation than standards are involved. All 'standards' tend to dissolved in front of the neo-con (at one time called by the now almost outlawed word neo-fascist) wave that is transforming our country.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

No one's happy but the Department of Homeland (in)Security ... "The precedent is basically set that if there's a use that is incompatible with a refuge, then we'll just hand over our land to the Department of Homeland Security," Clark said. "I don't think that's any better precedent than waiving laws."
[Near-done border fence stirs critics, defenders --Land swap: best deal possible or bad precedent? by Brady McCombs, Arizona Daily Star] ... but then, nothing matters anymore than using threats and fear to scam the entire country.
The Beltway obsession with Social Security is a classic case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. People have picked up a few facts about demography, and think they understand the long run budget problem. They don’t. ... and neither does Obama, sorry to say.
The Bush/Cheney Legacy ... With the confirmation hearings for Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, one cannot but fear that we are descending into the hell that was the destination of those human societies that did not give sufficient weight to moral and ethical standards and the rule of law. Rather we have squandered morality and ethics in expedient actions that returned less than nothing: no security, no safety and no honor. That is the legacy of Bush and Cheney.

By the way: no one knows where al-Libi is today. He has been "disappeared" by Bush. Perhaps because his very testimony is such an indictment of Bush and his embrace of the Torture Regime.

I wonder if Chris Matthews realizes that every time he or one of his fellow gasbags blithely reveal their sexist lizard brains like this, another little feminist gets her (or his) wings.

"This border can be somewhat … magical … at times."

I'll say ... read this from the Border Reporter: ANOTHER MEXICAN MILITARY INCURSION?

The first aerial attack on US - 72 years before 9/11/2001

The Border Reporter investigates and reports:

Strange picture, isn’t it? I found it in the files of the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum Library. This bombed-out car marks the first aerial bombing on U.S. soil by a foreign power – 72 years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Read the entire post.

72 years later: We remember and we mourn by wiscmass

Border Saga at BorderReporter.com ...

MAY 30, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: HARSH LESSONS [for Giffords]

JUNE 1, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: CANANEA UPDATE

JUNE 2, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: ‘LOS SICARIOS ANDAN EN NACO’

JUNE 3, 2007 - THE BORDER REPORT: BREAKING NEWS

Just think, a few days ago Jon Kyl was a GOoPer 'fair-haired' boy ...

Now Jon Kyl is the target of the ire of some of the GOP's most rabid (according to Scarpy Scarpinato). Go figure ...

GOP says backlash in party due to Kyl by Daniel Scarpinato

"We have people coming in every day, tearing up their registration cards and throwing them on the floor, or coming in and changing their registration from Republican to independent," said party Chairman Randy Pullen during a press conference at the state headquarters in Phoenix.

Shadow Wolves or Romancing the Border ...

A western tale: Elite American Indian tracking unit targets drug smugglers, narcotics by Brady McCombs

In this tight-knit, 14-member unit of American Indian drug trackers, the success of one is the success of all. The Shadow Wolves moniker refers to the way, like a wolf pack, when one finds its prey — a load of marijuana or better yet, the drug runners themselves — he or she calls in the rest.

Border depression ...

Tucson Weekly writes about Arizona's border quandary: The Corridor of Killing --A rash of bloody violence is taking lives on both sides of the border by Michael Marizco

"I interpret this as belief by the bandidos that it's actually easier to hit on the U.S. side than on the Mexican side," said the official, who spoke to the Tucson Weekly on condition of anonymity.