Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Update On Last Post

Here's a link to the travel alert to Mexico by the State Department
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html

Here are a few excerpts from the article supporting the reasoning I feel border security is an issue that can't be ignored.

"The greatest increase in violence has occurred near the U.S. border. However, U.S. citizens traveling throughout Mexico should exercise caution in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times. Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country, demonstrating the heightened risk of violence in public places. In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico. Many of these cases remain unresolved. U.S. citizens who believe they are being targeted for kidnapping or other crimes should notify Mexican officials and the nearest American consulate or the Embassy as soon as possible, and should consider returning to the United States. "
....
"Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent conflict - both among themselves and with Mexican security services - for control of narcotics trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border. In order to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed troops in various parts of the country. U.S. citizens should cooperate fully with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways."

"Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades. Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez. During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area. The U.S. Mission in Mexico currently restricts non-essential travel to the state of Durango and all parts of the state of Coahuila south of Mexican Highways 25 and 22 and the Alamos River for U.S. government employees assigned to Mexico. This restriction was implemented in light of the recent increase in assaults, murders, and kidnappings in those two states. The situation in northern Mexico remains fluid; the location and timing of future armed engagements cannot be predicted."

"A number of areas along the border are experiencing rapid growth in the rates of many types of crime. Robberies, homicides, petty thefts, and carjackings have all increased over the last year across Mexico generally, with notable spikes in Tijuana and northern Baja California. Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales are among the cities which have recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues. Criminals have followed and harassed U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana."

"The situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern. Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008. U.S. citizens should pay close attention to their surroundings while traveling in Ciudad Juarez, avoid isolated locations during late night and early morning hours, and remain alert to news reports. A recent series of muggings near the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez targeted applicants for U.S. visas. Visa and other service seekers visiting the Consulate are encouraged to make arrangements to pay for those services using a non-cash method."

Just when I thought the federal government didn't care about this situation on the border, today there was news that there was a big bust of one of the most violent Mexican drug cartels.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr091708.html

"The Gulf Cartel is responsible for the transportation of multi-ton quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico to the United States, as well as the distribution of those narcotics within the United States. The Gulf Cartel is also believed to be responsible for laundering multiple millions of dollars in criminal proceeds. Individuals indicted in the cases are charged with a variety of crimes, including: drug trafficking charges related to cocaine and marijuana; solicitation and conspiracy to kidnap; attempted murder; conspiracy to use a firearm in a violent crime; conspiracy to kill and kidnap in a foreign country; interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering; money laundering; and other related crimes."

"To date, Project Reckoning has resulted in the arrest of 507 individuals and the seizure of approximately $60.1 million in U.S. currency, 16,711 kilograms of cocaine, 1,039 pounds of methamphetamine, 19 pounds of heroin, 51,258 pounds of marijuana, 176 vehicles and 167 weapons. Project Reckoning, a 15-month investigation, combined into one centrally coordinated effort several multi-district enforcement operations that all involved individuals with close ties to the Gulf Cartel. Operation Dos Equis , Operation Vertigo, Operation Stinger and Operation The Family as well as numerous local operations combined to form Project Reckoning."

These are just 2 paragraphs from the news release, you should really go read the whole article.

This is progress, but it also sheds light on the importance of the problem there. Not only is Mexico's economy unstable, but depending on who you ask, they are on the verge of civil war or already fighting one. We need to secure our border.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Does Anyone Care About Border Security?

So this issue has been slipping out the forefront of a lot of people's minds, probably because of the dramatics as of late about just how terrible the economy is and how much we need to spend our way out of this recession to fix it. Since that's what 90% normal people do when things get tight at home, they go on a spending spree!!! so that should definitely work on the macro level too!!! (if you don't know my sarcasm yet, insert sarcasm here).

So I heard somewhere that last week Rick Perry put the state on high alert for the situation on the Texas Mexico border, which is what inspired me to write about this issue this week. So all weekend I went looking for his statement and found nothing. Neither could the person that told me. That doesn't mean it's not an important issue though. So I will share what I did find.

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/83729 Has a posting that the Texas National Guard has been put on Red Alert and that Texas State Senator Dan Patrick went on Fox news the morning of Feb 20 to discuss this. Look at the article (which is identically posted on many blogs) to see what he supposedly said. Did any of you see this appearance? I did not so until I find definate proof of this appearance, I remain skeptical that the Texas National Guard is on red alert etc etc etc.

While I didn't find that appearance, I did find a link to an appearance he made on the Glen Beck show on Feb 16. But it appears to be different than what is referenced above since the points they say he laid out weren't in the Glen Beck discussion.
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3624924&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494984,00.html
Or a link to the transcript of the discussion.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494984,00.html
Take a look at one of them.


This is the link to the Texas Border Security Council Report to Governor Rick Perry in September 2008. Since it's kind of lengthy, you'll want to pay particular attention to the executive summary and the Recommendations.
http://governor.state.tx.us/files/homeland/Border-Security-Report.pdf

Here's the deal, this is the federal government's responsibility to take care of and they aren't doing anything about it. One reason for this is referenced in my last post relating to the census. Illegals flood our country and somehow gain the right to vote, and let the party promising a bunch of free stuff with the tax money of the "wealthy" buy their votes.

But you should all be concerned. http://www.cfirusa.org/facts.htm Look at California. They also share a border with Mexico and look where they are today. They are a notorious welfare state and probably have more illegals than Texas. And yet with all the filthy rich people that live their, they can't stay within their budget.

There is a huge problem with illegal births taking place here. As anyone who works in a hospital in Texas or any other border state. That is because the constitution has been improperly misinterpreted to give legal citizenship based on illegal acts. So that has been going on for years and who can blame them when we seem to be allowing it. A hospital is in no position to enforce this, especially when they have been put in the position of not turning away anyone that comes into the emergency room. And labor is usually considered an emergency.

There is a book you should read or listen to on cd if you're not a reader. "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America" by Patrick J. Buchanan. It address this issue and just how badly it is out of hand and needs to be addressed immediately. He addresses how many have come over and not assimilated to our culture and the threat it creates as they are taught that we stole part of Mexico from them and they need to get it back.

I don't know about you all, but I love the United States of America. And I don't think this is an issue we should let go by the wayside. I think Rick Perry ought to take the Texas share of the stimulus spending bill and use it on the border since the feds won't take responsibility for it. It's supposed to create jobs right? He can hire a bunch of people immediately to patrol the border 24 hrs a day. Let's line up a militia all the way across the Texas/Mexico border and heavily arm them to discourage anyone that would enter illegally as long as the money lasts. When it runs out maybe the Federal Gov will feel bad about the jobs that are lost and see the results and send more funding down there. It would be nice if the other border states would do the same thing. Maybe they'll see how serious we are about things being done legally around here and revert to legal methods of entry into our country.

What's you're opinion of this issue??

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Commerce Secretary Nomination Withdrawal

http://www.wmur.com/politics/18702350/detail.html

This is as good of a link as any to the story about the nomination withdrawal by Judd Gregg. It covers his statement. For those of you that don't know this was Obama's Republican pick after Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination for the position over potential follow the money scandal. Some feel that a republican pick for this position was a flimsy attempt "reach across the aisle" and have both democrats and republicans in his cabinet.

If you aren't sure what the department of commerce does, here is a link to their mission and organization.
http://dms.osec.doc.gov/cgi-bin/doit.cgi?204:112:f23c40e440fd58af1c94886c8dafe2a0115c34e0e318d0b74b9aa67fc54ea5be:288

Here's the deal. One of the big responsibilities over for this department was to handle the census. However Obama decided to take this responsibility away from the department of commerce and create a Census Bureau with a separate director. This is apparently one of the triggers that contributed to Gregg's decision to withdraw his name from the nomination.

Here's where I see a problem with census policy. If you give it to someone you have fundamental policy differences with, charge over the census, you might not get the numbers you want. For example we have a big issue with illegals in this country or people that are here on work visas only, depending on your beliefs you might think they ought to count towards the census or you might not. If you start to count them in the census as citizens, then you are setting legal precedence to allow them full citizenship even if they broke the law to get here. Which leads to the right to vote in elections. Hence why you would take that responsibility away from someone you appointed that you generally disagree with for political cooperation and give it to someone who's on board with your policies. That's just one problem I see offhand. I might be way off base and welcome any correction from anyone. I'm no expert. But neither has any other president been on every subject, so don't hold that against me in the next election.

As for the commerce department, other than the census, this might be one of the departments that I would dissolve when I get in office. I don't see much of a point of it and at this point think it is likely a bloated government bureaucracy that is not serving much purpose to the tax payers. I will have to do some more research over the next few years to determine if my initial assessment is a good one.

I'd like to know your opinion of Judd Gregg's action. Do you agree or disagree with it? Is it more complicated than that? do you care? I suppose if you don't care you didn't bother to read this far.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Emergency Post!!! A Compromise Stimulus???

Word is that republican Senators Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe will cross over to vote with the democrats in a compromise bill that is still at $780 Billion!!!(update may actually be more like $830 Billion give or take) Ohh what a compromise...that was a VERY Generous compromise. 42% Tax cuts and 58% new spending. But we don't know what what the cuts are and what the spending is. If you still oppose this stimulus contact these senators and let them know. They are announcing this on Friday night since America isn't paying attention over the weekend. They will likely vote on it before the weekend is up.

This is the link to the congressional budget office's assessment of the bill that passed the house.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9968/hr1.pdf
To sum it up, it basically says that the money that goes to the states for programs and infrastructure will not be realized immediately due to the time it takes to plan, solicit bids, enter into contracts, and conduct regulatory review. Also some business/work is seasonal in nature ie schools do repairs in the summer when school is out, and road work is generally not done in winter in many parts of the country. Brand new programs require planning, developing procedures, criteria, regulations, etc. "Throughout the federal government, spending for new programs has frequently been slower than expected and rarely been faster."

"CBO expects that many of the larger projects initiated with funds provided by H.R. 1 would take up to five to seven years to complete." If it's not spent immediately, how is this stimulating the economy?

One final thing to note, but you should go check it out.

"CBO estimates that the costs to the private sector of complying with H.R. 1's new
requirements and conditions would likely exceed the annual threshold established in
UMRA for private-sector mandates ($139 million in 2009, adjusted annually for
inflation)."

Just because they don't represent your state, doesn't mean you can't write them and let them know your opinion.

http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorCollins.EmailIssue&CFID=5075464&CFTOKEN=11385212

http://specter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorSnowe.Email

For a list of any other senators you might want to contact
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

It's a shame that we have let our senators and representative get away with not representing us. It's time to get involved and take action and contact them in some way shape or form. Next time they are up for reelection, VOTE THEM OUT!!!!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Economic Stimulus Plan

Link to the House bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.00001:

$819 billion which is almost equal to the cost of an entire year of federal spending according to Wall Street Journal.
The Senate bill version is almost $900 billion at the time of that article.

We know that the no Republicans voted for it in the house version. My question is where were they on the bailout? Are they suddenly supporting fiscal restraint since their guy didn't win? Don't get me wrong, they need to oppose this to the grave and they need to oppose it in the senate. But that's from my perspective. Democrats should also be opposing this and taking into considerating the effects of such excessive spending.

Let me tell you what happens when the government's goal is to "create more jobs." Big fat bureaucracy that grows and grows and grows. How is that being fiscally responsible with the tax payers dollars? I'd rather leave it to the private sector to create more jobs by cutting corporate taxes. At least that doesn't cost the taxpayers anything. Right I know "big evil corporations" we have to "stick it to them." The US has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. I think we could afford to put this theory to the test.

It's important for us as Americans to know what's in the bill. I know what you're thinking, "it's really long!!!! How am I supposed to get through that?" Find summaries of it. The above link to the bill will bring up a table of contents that you can go through and look for sections of interest. Also the above link as the letter from the Congressional Budget Office that discusses the estimates of how much it will cost. Let's remember that's just an estimate. Leave it to the government to reserve the right to let spending get out of control.

I am of the view point that the government needs to stay out of the economy to let it recover and instead work towards paying off the national debt and encourage policies of personal responsibility and minimal debt, thereby setting an example to the general public.

Just remember if the strong middle class becomes dependent on the government, they are no longer strong. The government has succeeded at making them weak, ignorant, and oblivious. If we want to maintain a strong middle class, we must take personal responsiblity to stay educated and to fight government intrusion in our lives.

I know this is not eloquently written today, but I wanted to bring up the topic to encourage discussion and to encourage you all to write your Senators to let them know your opinion. Even if you don't agree with mine.

Please take the time to vote in the poll on the left as well. Previous poll results can be seen below.

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