The National Rifle Association on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging a new federal regulation requiring gun merchants along the border with Mexico to report bulk sales of certain semiautomatic rifles, contending that the Obama administration exceeded its powers by imposing the rule last month without Congressional permission.
The NRA opposes all restrictions on gun ownership, operating under the rubric that any restriction is the beginning of outright banning of gun ownership. Stupid and nonsensical, but that is their ideology.
“We will vigorously oppose that lawsuit,” Mr. Holder told reporters on Wednesday. “We think that the action we have taken is consistent with the law and that the measures that we are proposing are appropriate ones to stop the flow of guns from the United States into Mexico.”
Unless, of course, as with Operation Fast an Furious, it is the policy of the government to flood Mexico with guns.
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
A pot of money
Could something other than Rick Perry’s business-friendly policies be keeping the Texas economy buzzing?
Governor Perry and his spin machine, while not openly declaring his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, are extolling his record of jobs creation in Texas as proof of his economic acumen, one of the many purported qualities that make him presidential timber. Is he really that good?
Texas is a jobs monster. Over the past two years, 37 percent of the net new jobs in the country were created in the state, a track record that governor and maybe GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is quick to tout. He credits his conservative, pro-business policies; skeptics say it’s mainly owed to immigration and the high prices the state is getting for its oil. But there’s another possible contributor to Texas’s growth that no one is talking about: the drug trade.
How so? Well, money pours across the US-Mexico border, proceeds of drugs sales in the US going back to Mexican cartels. Does the money then stay in Mexico?
Jack Schumacher, a recently retired Texas-based DEA agent, says that at least half the drug shipments coming from Mexico stop and offload in Texas. The product is repackaged in small units and resold at a considerable markup, with a share of the gross staying in the state. Even some of the money that gets expatriated to Mexico winds up back in Texas, laundered through Mexican currency exchanges. The state’s relative security is the draw. “If you have a few million,” says Schumacher, “would you invest in a war zone or a bank in San Antonio?” The DEA warns that traffickers are cleaning up their proceeds by buying businesses in South Texas. They also spend on guns, warehouses, security guards—and on luxury cars and houses.
Yet there is more, and the rest is not as intuitive as this example.
Mexicans in Texas are hardly new, but in recent years it’s middle- and upper-class families in Mexico’s north who have also made the exodus, bringing their savings and businesses with them. While most seem to be fleeing the kidnapping and extortion back home, one observer has a different take: “Some people, including me, suspect that some of these people come with funds from the drug trade,” says Michael Lauderdale, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Texas.
Governor Perry and his spin machine, while not openly declaring his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, are extolling his record of jobs creation in Texas as proof of his economic acumen, one of the many purported qualities that make him presidential timber. Is he really that good?
Texas is a jobs monster. Over the past two years, 37 percent of the net new jobs in the country were created in the state, a track record that governor and maybe GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is quick to tout. He credits his conservative, pro-business policies; skeptics say it’s mainly owed to immigration and the high prices the state is getting for its oil. But there’s another possible contributor to Texas’s growth that no one is talking about: the drug trade.
How so? Well, money pours across the US-Mexico border, proceeds of drugs sales in the US going back to Mexican cartels. Does the money then stay in Mexico?
Jack Schumacher, a recently retired Texas-based DEA agent, says that at least half the drug shipments coming from Mexico stop and offload in Texas. The product is repackaged in small units and resold at a considerable markup, with a share of the gross staying in the state. Even some of the money that gets expatriated to Mexico winds up back in Texas, laundered through Mexican currency exchanges. The state’s relative security is the draw. “If you have a few million,” says Schumacher, “would you invest in a war zone or a bank in San Antonio?” The DEA warns that traffickers are cleaning up their proceeds by buying businesses in South Texas. They also spend on guns, warehouses, security guards—and on luxury cars and houses.
Yet there is more, and the rest is not as intuitive as this example.
Mexicans in Texas are hardly new, but in recent years it’s middle- and upper-class families in Mexico’s north who have also made the exodus, bringing their savings and businesses with them. While most seem to be fleeing the kidnapping and extortion back home, one observer has a different take: “Some people, including me, suspect that some of these people come with funds from the drug trade,” says Michael Lauderdale, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Texas.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Narco-state?
Despite being a federal fugitive, accused of laundering millions of dollars for one of Mexico’s most ruthless drug cartels, Julio César Godoy says he simply walked into the national legislature here unnoticed in September, right past the cordon of federal police officers watching the building. He then raised his right arm, swore allegiance to the Mexican Constitution and, 15 months after disappearing from public view, finally claimed the congressional seat he won last year. It was too late for prosecutors to do much about it. Mr. Godoy’s newly conferred status came with a special perk: immunity from prosecution.
Now, a political saga that underscores the persistent fears of political infiltration by drug cartels and the many frustrations of rooting it out continues to swirl around him. Mexico’s attorney general has been incensed at Mr. Godoy’s ability to hide in plain sight, while others debate intriguing details in local news reports, like accounts that Mr. Godoy had actually been spirited into the building’s basement garage in another lawmaker’s car.
What about those standing around him?
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Not a spill, a gusher
In the early 1990s, thousands of desperate Cuban balseros cast themselves adrift on rafts, tires and any other makeshift craft that could float. They shoved off even from the island's far shore, entrusting their lives to the powerful Loop Current that pushes north from the Yucatán, rounds Cuba, rushes through the Florida Straits, and spills into the Atlantic, seeding the Gulf Stream. Many drowned or perished from thirst. But others survived to wash up on Florida's east coast.
Now the Loop Current is in the news once again. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon gusher—please don't call it a "spill"—has begun trickling into the current, prompting anxious speculation as to how much will be swept up and where it will be borne. Only a small quantity of surface oil has been seen entering the current, but much more swirls below. Given the complex natures of both petroleum and marine waters, these underwater plumes will be extremely difficult to measure and track.
Language used belies prejudices and lack of information. To call what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico a spill is erroneous. A spill is to cause or allow (a liquid substance) to run or flow from a container.The Exxon Valdez disaster was a spill, for petroleum spilled out of the ship. This current disaster is not a spill.
Oil is far from a homogenous substance, even before it gets emulsified by waves, currents and sun. It's a complex mixture of liquids, gases and waxy solids that vary widely in weight and solubility. Ocean waters are likewise not uniform; they are made up of distinct water slabs differentiated by temperature and salinity, and propelled by wind and currents. When I first began using monitoring equipment—newly available in 1967—I tracked these water bodies-within-bodies and dubbed them "snarks" because of their elusiveness.
Expertise has not been brought to bear; BP has been allowed to run the show. More than a month ago an academic ascertained that much more than 5,000 barrells a day were gushing out into the Gulf; no one made much of that. Even the media let it go, too busy with finding the sensational.
Some eddies veer west, bouncing along the continental shelf at about three miles per day toward Texas. By late last month, according to mapping by Mitchell A. Roffer's highly regarded ocean forecasting service, this process had already begun: Tentacles of oil were extending west past the Loop Current. One eddy appears to have broken off and begun crawling to Texas. It may entrain escaping oil deep underwater for several months, relieving the Florida, Alabama and Mississippi coasts and the upper water column where most marine life lies.
Now the Loop Current is in the news once again. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon gusher—please don't call it a "spill"—has begun trickling into the current, prompting anxious speculation as to how much will be swept up and where it will be borne. Only a small quantity of surface oil has been seen entering the current, but much more swirls below. Given the complex natures of both petroleum and marine waters, these underwater plumes will be extremely difficult to measure and track.
Language used belies prejudices and lack of information. To call what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico a spill is erroneous. A spill is to cause or allow (a liquid substance) to run or flow from a container.The Exxon Valdez disaster was a spill, for petroleum spilled out of the ship. This current disaster is not a spill.
Oil is far from a homogenous substance, even before it gets emulsified by waves, currents and sun. It's a complex mixture of liquids, gases and waxy solids that vary widely in weight and solubility. Ocean waters are likewise not uniform; they are made up of distinct water slabs differentiated by temperature and salinity, and propelled by wind and currents. When I first began using monitoring equipment—newly available in 1967—I tracked these water bodies-within-bodies and dubbed them "snarks" because of their elusiveness.
Expertise has not been brought to bear; BP has been allowed to run the show. More than a month ago an academic ascertained that much more than 5,000 barrells a day were gushing out into the Gulf; no one made much of that. Even the media let it go, too busy with finding the sensational.
Some eddies veer west, bouncing along the continental shelf at about three miles per day toward Texas. By late last month, according to mapping by Mitchell A. Roffer's highly regarded ocean forecasting service, this process had already begun: Tentacles of oil were extending west past the Loop Current. One eddy appears to have broken off and begun crawling to Texas. It may entrain escaping oil deep underwater for several months, relieving the Florida, Alabama and Mississippi coasts and the upper water column where most marine life lies.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Los Suns
Suns protest Arizona law (from Politico.com)
The Phoenix Suns on Tuesday announced that they will be wearing an alternative jersey identifying them as "Los Suns" during Wednesday's playoff game to voice the team's disapproval for Arizona's tough new immigration law.
Robert Sarver, the team's managing partner, said in a statement that the alternative uniforms will be worn during Wednesday's home playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs in order to voice opposition to the law that Sarver said is not the "right way" to handle immigration reform. The Suns won the first game of the series Monday night.
"The frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law," Sarver said. "However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona's already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them."
"Hopefully, it's all going to get worked out and the federal government will step in and there'll be a national solution. I realize that immigration is a problem and we have issues that need to be dealt with. I just don't think this bill accomplishes that," said the team executive. "I don't think it's the right way to handle the immigration problem."
Sarver was joined in his criticism of the law by Suns point guard Steve Nash, who called it "very misguided."
"I think it is unfortunately to the detriment to our society and our civil liberties and I think it is very important for us to stand up for things we believe in," the all-star point guard said. "I think the law obviously can target opportunities for racial profiling. Things we don't want to see and don't need to see in 2010."
The Suns are not the only Phoenix sports team to get pulled into the contentious debate over the new law that grants police officers the ability to request documentation proving citizenship of anyone they suspect to be illegal.
The Arizona Diamondbacks have been heckled during Major League Baseball games over the law, and on Tuesday MoveOn.org called on the league to move the 2011 All-Star game out of Phoenix.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Depends on your point of view
President Obama was interviewed by Bret Baier of Fox News; that is, he consented to be interviewed by the Fox guy. These days my sympathy for, and support of, the President flags, but these Fox people are quite a breed.
I saw some of the interview on Countdown (with Laurence O'Donneell; I can not abide Olbermann these days). Granted, MSNBC is biased on the liberal side, so the excerpts played dovetailed with their point of view. Nonetheless, in one exchange Baier kept interrupting the President and reading him excerpts from letters received by Fox complaining about the Democrats and the President. In turn, the President said that he receives hundreds and thousands of letters completely counter to the letters Baier quoted. So, it depends on your perspective.
Fox has its own way of looking at things. Here is one article appearing today: Obama's Presidency Is On the Line -- And It Shows by Andrea Tantaros - FOXNews.com. Bret Baier's questions for President Obama revealed the uncertainty of our leader and the direction of our country.
Say what? It is an opinion piece, but, where is this person coming from? The extreme right wing, surely.
El Universal, Mexico City, has this story on its website: EU debe ayudar más a México: WP
El periódico estadounidense The Washington Post asegura en su editorial de este jueves que la estabilidad del país es tan importante como la de Irak, Afganistán o Pakistán.
That editorial is Is the U.S. doing enough to help dying Juarez?
THE BRUTAL slaying of three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Juarez, Mexico, last weekend has called attention to a crisis that is getting too little attention and resources in Washington: Mexico's desperate battle against drug traffickers. For Juarez, and for the democratic government of Felipe Calderón, this has become a fight for survival -- a war as bloody and as important as those being fought in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. But though Mexican stability is a vital interest of the United States, the federal government's investment in the problem is far below what it should be, on both sides of the border.
I saw some of the interview on Countdown (with Laurence O'Donneell; I can not abide Olbermann these days). Granted, MSNBC is biased on the liberal side, so the excerpts played dovetailed with their point of view. Nonetheless, in one exchange Baier kept interrupting the President and reading him excerpts from letters received by Fox complaining about the Democrats and the President. In turn, the President said that he receives hundreds and thousands of letters completely counter to the letters Baier quoted. So, it depends on your perspective.
Fox has its own way of looking at things. Here is one article appearing today: Obama's Presidency Is On the Line -- And It Shows by Andrea Tantaros - FOXNews.com. Bret Baier's questions for President Obama revealed the uncertainty of our leader and the direction of our country.
Say what? It is an opinion piece, but, where is this person coming from? The extreme right wing, surely.
El Universal, Mexico City, has this story on its website: EU debe ayudar más a México: WP
El periódico estadounidense The Washington Post asegura en su editorial de este jueves que la estabilidad del país es tan importante como la de Irak, Afganistán o Pakistán.
That editorial is Is the U.S. doing enough to help dying Juarez?
THE BRUTAL slaying of three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Juarez, Mexico, last weekend has called attention to a crisis that is getting too little attention and resources in Washington: Mexico's desperate battle against drug traffickers. For Juarez, and for the democratic government of Felipe Calderón, this has become a fight for survival -- a war as bloody and as important as those being fought in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. But though Mexican stability is a vital interest of the United States, the federal government's investment in the problem is far below what it should be, on both sides of the border.
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