International party crashing

Friday night in Querétaro. From the rooftop of our hotel we could hear a rock band playing a couple blocks away. They sounded good. My companion Margaret decided it was a club and she wanted to go. I hate clubs but they were playing old American stuff and sounded good, so off we went to follow the sound. Two blocks away we heard the music coming from a rooftop but there was no club here.  Margaret went to ask at a restaurant across the street. Y’all know me though; I tried the door at the house it was coming from. It was open. Margaret came back and told me that this was an Air B&B that was rented out for a private party. She was disappointed because she’d wanted. Drink or two and a dance. I told her that we’d been invited and I pulled her through the door into a beautiful courtyard and pushed the door shut again. A couple of people at the far end of the courtyard glanced at us without apparent concern. I decided that we were dressed appropriately compared to them and pulled Margaret towards the stairs where the music was coming from. Margaret is not yet wise to my ways but should by now. “Someone invited you?” She asked. “Who? When?” “Just walk like you belong here,”, I told her. The light dawned on her then but she followed me. 

Upstairs on the roof was a gathering of about thirty people. Dangerously small for a crash but we were here. I walked over to the bar, got a tequila from one of the white-costed servers, And noticed that it was quality, not crappy well alcohol. Then i sat and scoped the crowd: all looked European and younger than us but I decided to play this out. Margaret was panicking already so I sat her down by the edge off the rooftop and told her that they’d probably throw us out shortly but meantime she had a drink and there was dancing. I began to mingle and got another drink from a passing waiter. Eventually I noticed one guy there dancing on a table towards the back of the party. I’d heard him speaking English and I figured I needed to be seen talking to someone who belonged here He looked safe so when the song ended I helped him down. “Nice party, eh?” I asked by way of introduction. “Thank you." He replied.  "This is my company. It’s a ‘get to know each other’ weekend for all my new employees.’

Aw, damn. 

“Who are you?”, he asked. “”You do not work for me.”

Fuck it. At least I’d gotten two free drinks. I introduced myself and ‘fessed up. “Nick Stone,” I said, smiling and offering my hand. I do not work for you. I hope you can forgive me but the music sounded so good from the street and the door was open. 

“Where are you from, Nick?”

“Estados Unidos”, I replied. “New Orleans.”

“You came from New Orleans and just walked in here?”

“Yeah, we do that,” I said, looking for Margaret and the door. 

But he just grinned. “I am Antonio. Welcome to my party, Nick! Have a drink!” 

So I did. 

Turns out Antonio runs a company that’s working to provide a new way to transfer money online without going through third parties like PayPal, making it quicker, safer and cheaper. He introduced me around as his new friend from New Orleans, I met Ingrid, a tall girl from the Netherlands, and Stella, an oriental-looking girl, originally from Hong Kong, who has been traveling the world for a while. She thought that Americans were “stupid” because they never travel to other countries. I almost said that we never did unless there was a problem somewhere and then we showed up to fix it, but I was

still a couple drinks short of that level of truth talk so I just smiled and said “we’ll how can that be? I’m here.”this got a smile back from her. 

We danced and drank until the band finished and then the owner of the house, Hermie, insisted that Margaret and I enjoy a late dinner with them downstairs where his servers had set up a taco grill. We had some, and talked for a while, then finally we thanked them and left. Total win, and a great night in Mexico. Arriba!

Mexico...character and culture.

  So when I was traveling last week, I popped across the Mexican border with Merida to Naco, Sonora to grab breakfast and spend some time relaxing in a park. On the way back to the US, I stopped into a little family-run store to buy some Mezcal to take home. The woman running the store has to call her husband on the phone to get the price because none of the bottles were marked, and the price she recited to me seemed expensive, kind of like I was buying it back in the US, but I still thought it a bargain so I paid it.

I left and headed for the border crossing three blocks away. Just as I got there the owner’s son ran up and asked me to please go back to the store as there was “a problem”. He didn’t know what it was. I checked my wallet and saw that she gave me the correct change. What was this, some new sort of scam? Why did they want me back in their store? I was literally fifteen feet from the border walkway and the turnstile that I could go through but he could not. What should I do? Tell the kid no and just cross? Go back and see what the angle was?

I thought about it for a second. I really didn’t have a bad feeling in that store and didn't get the idea that the senora was trying to pull anything so I went back to see what the problem was. As it turned out. she’d mistakenly charged me double on the bottle that I bought and she wanted to apologize and return the overage.

She could have kept it and I’d never have known.

I was so impressed that I bought a second bottle in lieu of a refund.

There are scams aplenty in Mexico like everywhere else but time and again I get reminders like this that the average Mexican is damned honest. That's why I'm really getting to be fond of these people and their country.

Power's back and so am I

I came back from two weeks in Mexico to a city hit by Hurricane Zeta and no electricity. Fortunately a month before I left, I bought a used generator "as-is"/non-running for $50, and it probably cost me another $50 in parts and several hours of my rime before I had it running again. It paid for itself this past week-end because I just had to run a couple of cords into my kitchen and suddenly I had a fridge/freezer, coffeemaker and microwave running plus phone chargers. But now the power is back and the generator is back offline, the cords are stowed, and I'm sitting in a bar watching election returns and regretting coming back from Mexico. 

It's a beautiful country, but not without it's problems. Nothing made this more clear than when we first crossed the borfer into Nuevo Laredo at 6am. We cleared the bridge and headed down to get our travel documents and pay the car deposit (A fee to make sure I bring the car back instead of selling it in Mexico) and we were approached at the first traffic light by two guys in a car who began shouting that we were lost and should follow them because "dangerous".  Well I'd done my homework and knew where I was going and it wasn't that way. We told them we'd follow them and then when they pulled out to guide us, I turned the other way and dove down the ramp to the banjercito where I needed to be. As we passed behind the car I noticed it had no tags. Nope, not suspicious at all. Later on we watched on a travel page for people driving in Mexico and heard how several other people had been roadblocked and stopped by these guys and others, even in broad daylight. One person posted a video that showed three cars blocking him in--two in front and one behind--and pretty sure that the car we dodged was one of them. I'm guessing we crossed over before the bad guys had their shit together and we got through otherwise unmolested. Still, I was missing my trusty sidearm and thinking about how had we been armed and similarly waylaid, we could likely have broken that ambush by unassing the car and taking the fight to them instead of sitting there waiting to be robbed. High alert down to Monterrey, but once past there, we were pretty safe save for the odd rogue cop.

Southern and Central Mexico are beautiful but Northern Mexico within a day's drive of the US is pretty featureless and dull. We drove all day and crashed for the night in Queretaro, which is an old colonial city that's doing quite well today as a tech hub. Beautiful city center, great restaurants and music, and a hotel room overlooking the square definitely impressed Beth, who had never been to Mexico before.

 c

Why I like Mexico

The other night we were walking the Playa Norte in Ciudad del Carmen and we saw this small outdoor restaurant out towards the beach. All the others in the area were closed and this one was closed too but still had some people at one table even though the lights were off. We walked up and asked where we could get two beers because we just wanted a drink and the waitress went in the darkened kitchen and brought us two, telling us that we could not leave with them. She let us sit at a table there, at which point, Guadeloupe, a wonderful woman at the occupied table, came over and began talking to us in broken English, which was about as bad as our Spanish. She wanted to try to converse with us and we obliged. Next thing we know, she asks us if we want food and summoned the waitress over take our order. “Shrimp or fish?” She asks. “Yes!” We reply. So she goes over to a cooler, pulls out a whole fish, and takes it into the kitchen, returning shortly with two plates, one having probably the best shrimp I’ve ever had in my life, and the other holding that same fish, still whole but now wonderfully seasoned and fried. 

We thought Guadeloupe owned the place or the waitress was her daughter by the way she was calling the shots but when I asked her it turned out that she’s just a regular customer who has pull enough to get this girl to open up the kitchen again and prepare a huge meal past closing time. She and her husband talked with us while we waited on the food, and we were almost family by the time the dinner came. And we sat there and ate this incredible food under the stars, the only two customers on this beach patio. And this is why I’m loving Mexico. These people, policia notwithstanding, are often wonderful. 

And yes, we tipped very well indeed.

Merida at night

I did enjoy my night-time walkabouts in Merida, an area with serious poverty but very low incidences of violent crime. I felt safe walking these deserted streets...and they were only deserted until you get to one of the many parks or outdoor restaurants, at which time you saw everyone sitting out enjoying the night breezes.

But the streets...

Veracruz

Traveling into Veracruz, I spied this ship and my liberal friend knew there was no way to avoid letting me have my moment with it. So she took her dog for a walk and I paid a visit to ex-Guanajuato, former Gunboat C07 of the Mexican Navy.

Laid down in a Spanish shipyard in 1934 and accepted by Mexico 1936, this 80m long ship could accommodate 230 soldiers and up to 40 horses in a special stable in the aft superstructure. She served with US forces during WW2 and was modernized and refitted in a US Navy shipyard when Mexico joined the war. She served for several decades until she was finally struck in 2001 and turned into a museum.

But typical of so many things in Mexico, she was neglected into ruin and though she looks good from the bow, she's actually sunk at her berth and sitting on the bottom, a stern view shows that her machinery spaces are now all underwater and she's no longer open to the public, travel websites notwithstanding.

The Veracruz nightlife is another matter. Both the waterfront and city center come alive at night and we were staying right between them so we sampled both.

Of course being Mexico, you need to get used to seeing the Mexican Marines patrolling, because the narco gangs are never far away and no one else with a uniform and badge is trustworthy enough to police important public spaces like this one.

Traveling through Mexico with my liberal friend

So a couple weeks ago I returned to Mexico to drive my liberal friend back home. The flight into Cancun was uneventful, but I did spot a Grumman Albatross sitting on the airport's "derelict row". It was apparently abandoned there in 2006 and I'm thinking of taking a run at it.

Spent the day snorkeling the reef in Cancun and then it was off for the five hour drive back to Merida, where we lounged for a few days before hitting the road northward again.

Now I love my friend. Really I do. She means well, and she takes care of me at the bar. And to some extent she understands that the world is all sweetness and light, which is why I'm shepherding her and her goofy-assed Pit Bull on these road trips. She plans the general route and I go over it to keep us out of the trouble spots as much as possible. I also handle the common sense, like "no driving at night", which is something we argued about every single night on the road even though we agreed to it before starting out. But every night, she wanted to run long after dark and I insisted on shutting down.
"I'm used to driving at night," she says. I like night driving."
"That's good," I say. "When we get home you can drive all night. Just not here."
"But there's no traffic at night," she observes.
"Yeah, and there's a reason for that," I patiently explain. "They know better."
Every night though. She just doesn't get it.

Lots of driving. Saw a lot of Mexico. Three thousand road miles covered south of the border in the two trips, much of it on bad roads through the mountains and jungles surrounded by drivers who definitely follow their own rules in regards to passing and speed limits and intersections.

And the last driving day in Mexico, we wound up on a sparely-traveled road in Tamipulas state, a US State Dept. "Level 4" designated area. (Do not travel. Danger.) When I realized that we'd made a navigational error and missed the main toll highway, I was about to turn us around despite her protestations that it was a nice road and a shortcut on the map when we ran across a two-truck patrol of Mexican Marines, the elite anti-Narco police. I made sure that they got a good look at us--and they definitely eyeballed us hard--and then I followed them at a distance for a couple of hours, figuring that we'd likely not get ambushed by a pop-up gang checkpoint if we were rolling with these guys.

It did not escape me though that these guys were definitely switched on. Good spacing, full armor in the sun, HK-21 LMG with a belt locked and loaded, and constant vigilance and scanning the surroundings--these guys were looking for something and clearly on the alert. I noticed this but she couldn't see it, even when I tried to explain. She just decided that I'm "gun obsessed" because I paid attention to the types of weapons that the various police, soldiers and guarda types around us carried. And I was focused, if only because if stuff breaks bad, the only gun I'm going to get to defend us with is one that I pick up or snatch from someone else and I need to make sure I remember the manual of arms. (I'm smooth with the M-16 and Uzi. the H&K products, not so much.) Yep. We definitely weren't in Kansas any more, Dorothy.

But we made it back safe, hitting the US border crossing at Brownsville, TX on the fifth day after leaving Merida. We saw a lot of beautiful country, some of which I'd like to see again.

Good times.

Hey, here's a question...

So now we see in the news that the Mexican government is "dismayed" because a federal judge here in the US put the brakes on Obama's efforts to do an end-run around our legal system and unilaterally grant millions of illegal aliens, most of whem are Mexican, the right to stay and work in our country regardless of the fact that their mere presence here is both a crime and a slap in the face of every American and legal immigrant.

Mexico, others dismayed by delay for Obama immigration measures

Going farther, now mexico says that it actully hurts the US to not grant the Mexicans who are illegally here the same rights and privileges that Americans and lawful immigrants here.

Mexico said derailing the legalization of immigrants ultimately hurts the United States too.

"We reiterate that [Obama’s executive-action] programs mean just migratory relief for millions of families and could make possible contributions by Mexican migrants to the U.S. economy and society," the Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement.

So my question is, if millions of poorly-educated Mexicans--many of whom have criminal records there and/or here--are such a boon to the economy, why doesn't the Mexican government just keep them all in Mexico and reap the benefits for their own collapsing economy?

Anyone?
Bueller?
Anyone?

How do you say "Hypocrisy" in spanish?

I was just perusing this story about Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, A U.S. Marine who inadvertently crossed into Mexico with three of his registered firearms. He was immediately imprisoned and has been held for over two months before even being allowed to see a judge.

One sidebit to the story caught my attention:

Philip Holloway, former U.S. Navy JAG and current criminal defense attorney told Foxnews.com arrests like Tahmooressi happen frequently in San Diego and in Texas, where active-duty service members cross the border without knowing they are actually in Mexico...

Holloway says on a recent trip to Mexico, he was told about the difficulties Americans can face dealing with the country’s law enforcement.

“We were told that if we found ourselves inside a Mexican jail that we might be there for a very long time,” Holloway said. “Mexico tends to want to remind the United States that it is a sovereign entity and it’s very willing to enforce its own laws.”

Uh, isn't this the same country that protests every time we try to enforce our laws in regards to their citizens here illegally?

La Cucaracha is back.

What does it take to get rid of this woman?

Deported Mexican migrant activist asks for refuge in the US

A brief history:

In 1997, Elvira Arellano snuck into our country illegally from Mexico. She was discovered and deported. Almost immediately, she came back again, and this time she dodged authorities for about three years, during which time she "dropped anchor" and had a kid out of wedlock. She's never revealed the identity of the father. She then went to Chicago and got a job cleaning at O'Hare International Airport, but in the wake of 9/11, a security check on the airport employees revealed that she was using someone else's social security number. She was arrested, charged and convicted for that crime and ordered deported again, but she instead hid in a church in Chicago known for sheltering illegals. From there, she launched media attack after media attack on the US Government and everyone who wanted her gone, claiming that the fact that she has a child gave her the right to stay in America forever. The Mexican government also used her case to attack our policy of deporting illegal Mexicans back to Mexico, all while deporting citizens from Central and South America in accordance with their own harsh (and effective) immigration laws. A year later, in 2007, she was finally arrested and sent back to her home country. She was given the opportunity to bring her son with her after years of wailing about how it would be inhumane to separate her from him, but when that argument didn't result in her being allowed to stay here, she just shrugged and left the kid behind, presumably for our welfare agencies to support. But now just a few year later, she apparently decided that he once again has value as a prop, and somehow she got the money to fly him down to Mexico just so that they could appear together at one of our border crossings where she's now demanding asylum, claiming that neither her or the kid should have to live in Mexico.

Now we taxpayers will wind up housing and feeding her again as she waits for yet another hearing, hoping that maybe this time, a judge will ignore her three previous deportation orders and just give her a gold green card. And knowing Obama and his desire to score points with hispanics, she'll probably prevail and get his personal permission to stay in our country which she seems to prefer over her own despite the years of criticism and abuse that she's heaped on the US. She is like a burglar who breaks into your house repeatedly and then publicly castigates you for locking the door to keep her out as she files a change-of-address with the post office listing your address as her new permanent residence.

All I can say is that if the Obamaites let her stay this time after all of this, than the rule of law is truly and irrevocably dead in America.

John Kerry sides with illegal alien cop killer against Texas and the United States

Lurch shows us all once again how he's wrong for America.

Planned execution in Texas draws high-profile protests
Secretary of State John Kerry is among those who say Edgar Tamayo Arias, who killed policeman Guy Gaddis, was denied due process.

Yep. Come into our country illegally, rob people, kill a police officer, and Obama's cabana boy John Kerry rushes to your defense. Is this a great country, or what?

Well Kerry can go to hell. I'm siding with Texas. And if they put his execution on Pay-per-view, I'll subscribe and watch.

Bad day at Juarez as ammo truck makes wrong turn into Mexico.

So a truck driver makes a wrong turn, and Howie over at UNAC takes the hit for 268,000 rounds of ammunition, some of which might well have wound up here as I order from him from time to time.
Costly wrong turn as truckload of ammunition winds up at Mexican border crossing.

Of course all of the usual suspects on both sides of the border are touting this as some sort of "success" in the battle to keep American guns and ammunition ouit of Mexico. And as of this writing, the driver and truck are still being held in Mexico.

Apparently it's not convenient to focus on the simple facts related to how illegal guns and ammo really get to Mexico.

Clearly, it's not US shippers that are responsible.

Now to be fair, corrupt US agents contribute to the problem somewhat. And do I really need to reference Eric Holder's Fast and Furious criminal enterprise again?

Mexico blames US for high Mexican crime rate

And if that isn't ridiculous enough, their reason takes the cake.

According to a coalition of Mexican mayors, Mexico's crime rate is so high because the United States...

wait for it...

is deporting too many criminal Mexicans back to Mexico!

So just as everything else bad about Mexico is supposedly our fault, now they claim that their crime rate is too high because we send too many of their own criminally-inclined citizens back to them.

And predictably, their solution is to demand that we stop deporting Mexicans convicted of serious crimes in our country. All we in America need to do to make Mexico nice again (as if it ever was) is just accept and keep all of their scum.

Bear in mind that ten percent of Mexico's population is already here in our country, most all of them illegally. And now Mexico is insisting that the worst of them should become our problem forever, not theirs.

I'll give the Mexicans credit for one thing: their chutzpah is unrivaled.

Border security now. Create a DMZ. Clear a 100 mile wide buffer zone. Place land mines. Establish free-fire zones. And deport every illegal who is presently here instead of giving them and their anchor babies American citizenship. How do we do this? It's simple.
1. Make it illegal to hire or rent to illegals and penalize those who knowingly do it.
2. Aggressively pursue those who fraudulently use someone else's identity or false social security numbers.
3. Don't allow illegals to open bank accounts, get drivers licenses, or wire money.
4. Streamline the deportation process. Remove the illegals immediately and schedule their hearings in US embassies in their country instead of letting them languish here.
5. Deport every illegal who is arrested for any criminal offense.
6. Require proof of citizenship for all students in our schools.
7. Deport any illegal who goes to an American hospital seeking free medical treatment.
8. Punish those who are deported and return by incarcerating them in Joe-Arpaio-style prison camps in the desert. Make re-entry after deportation a felony with mandatory prison sentences.
9. No automatic citizenship for baby illegals. Birthright citizenship only for children of actual US citizens.
10. Make English the law of the land. No government documents, television shows, radio broadcasts, or newspapers printed in Spanish.

Good fences make good neighbors, and if we had a good fence on our southern border, it would go a long ways towards keeping illegals and drugs out, and American guns and money in.

But lest you think that I'm just mean, allow me to be the first one to call for compassionate relief measures to aid Mexico after the devastating mudslides that have reportedly killed numerous Mexicans. I propose that we send them a thousand replacement Mexicans immediately. ICE should be able to find that many before lunch.

So Mexico is angry...

because some of their delinquents attempted to invade our country and attacked our law-enforcement officers with rocks and one of them got shot.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 15-year-old Mexican boy after a group trying to illegally enter Texas threw rocks at officers near downtown El Paso, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

The shooting, which happened Monday evening beneath a railroad bridge linking the two nations, drew sharp criticism from Mexico, where the government said Tuesday that "the use of firearms to repel attacks with stones represents disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who have received specialized training."

It was the second death of a Mexican at the hands of Border Patrol officers in less than two weeks, and the case threatened to swell into a full-blown international incident when U.S. and Mexican officials traded suggestions of misconduct.

Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua Attorney General's office, said a spent 40-mm shell was found near the body — raising the question of whether the fatal shot was fired inside Mexico, although he did not explicitly make that suggestion. That would violate the rules for Border Patrol agents, who are supposed to stay on the U.S. side of the border.

A U.S. official, meanwhile, said video shows the Border Patrol agent did not enter Mexico.

The official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name, said the video also shows what seem to be four Mexican law enforcement officers driving to the edge of the dry but muddy bed of the Rio Grande, walking across to the U.S. side, picking up an undetermined object and returning to Mexico near the area where the boy's body was. Like their U.S. counterparts, Mexican law officers are not authorized to cross the border without permission.

According to the FBI, Border Patrol agents were responding to a group of suspected illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S. near the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juarez around 6:30 p.m. Monday.

One suspected illegal immigrant was detained on the levee on the U.S. side, the FBI said in a statement. Another Border Patrol agent arrived on the concrete bank where the now-dry, 33-feet (10-meter) wide Rio Grande is, and detained a second suspect. Other suspects ran back into Mexico and began throwing rocks, the FBI said.

At least one rock came from behind the agent, who was kneeling beside the suspected illegal immigrant who he had prone on the ground, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said.

The agent told the rock throwers to stop and back off, but they continued. The agent fired his weapon several times, hitting one who later died, said the FBI, which is leading the investigation because it involved an assault on a federal officer. The agent was not injured, Simmons said.

Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Ramiro Cordero said preliminary reports showed Border Patrol agents on bicycle patrol "were assaulted with rocks by an unknown number of people."

The article then goes on to quote outraged relatives of the dead rock-thrower who naturally accuse our Border Patrol officers of murdering the rock-thrower and wailing that they've now been "left with nothing". I guess that they meant that now there will be no one left to smuggle dope into America or sneak over and steal American cars or commit other crimes before scurrying back to sanctuary south of the border. And predictably, Mexican officials demand that American officials do their bidding.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said it "energetically condemns" the shooting and demanded "an expeditious and transparent investigation of the facts and, if applicable, punishment of the guilty."

"Mexico is aware of the existing risks in the region, but, according to international standards, lethal force must be used only when the lives of people are in immediate danger and not as a dissuasive measure," it said.

The department said its records indicated the number of Mexicans killed or wounded by immigration authorities rose from five in 2008 to 12 in 2009 to 17 so far this year, which is not half over.

T.J. Bonner, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents, said rock throwing aimed at Border Patrol agents are common and capable of causing serious injury.

"It is a deadly force encounter, one that justifies the use of deadly force," Bonner said.

The violence in Mexico combined with assaults on Border Patrol agents in the U.S. has increased the level of apprehension agents have about their safety, Bonner said.

As far as I'm concerned, the only guilty parties left unpunished here are the other rock-throwers who didn't get shot. Not a single Mexican has anything to be angry over, since none of this would have happened had not the deceased and his pals set out to attack American law-enforcement officers on American soil. Frankly, it's precisely because of stuff like this than most of us want our border secured--Americans want protection against this sort of thuggery from Mexico's criminals. And if Mexicans don't want to be shot by our Border Patrol Agents, all they need to do is stay away from our border unless they're coming in legally with honest intent and everyone's problem will be solved.

Oh--and a "40mm casing"? I think not. .40 caliber, perhaps, but not 40mm.

Edited to add: Seems as if this little angel was a known smuggler and on a "most wanted" list. It hardly appears likely that he was just "hanging out" as his relatives claim, or taking a short-cut to choir practice.

Obama the insult comic and his America-bashing pal Flippy.

First of all, it's bad enough that Barack Obama has been, since his coronation, the least patriotic president that America has ever seen. I mean, all he does is go around the world apologizing for our country's greatness, our culture that influences the world, and our history, which includes freeing more people from the yoke of oppressive governments than any other nation on the planet has ever even tried to free. The arrogant jerk has never, as far as I know, stood up and told the world what a fantastic country that America is or spoken of our liberties and freedoms and the opportunities that all are afforded here. Rather than defend our record on human rights and liberty--a record which is second to no other--he constantly beats his chest and apologizes to anyone who will listen, including third-world tyrants and the Communist Chinese. And sitting here listening to his hand-picked emissaries telling the Red Chinese that our record on human rights is shameful--and directly citing the people of Arizona and their new immigration law (a law which I believe that Obama still has not read) is nothing less than a malfeasance worthy of impeachment, IMHO. The guy was given the job of President of the United States, and that includes Arizona, last I looked. His job, quite frankly, is to stand up for the people of Arizona, not to castigate them on the world stage and insult them, and when they're disparaged, he should be the first one to defend them.

But alas, Barky doesn't have that sort of worldview. He's shown us over and over again that his preferred role is one of a critic, or an insult comic, and if America-bashing gets him in better with the other world leaders--especially the ones that are only respected by leftist college kids--well then he's on that like Rosie O'Donnell on a taco. Hell, he can't even dignify the office of the President by wearing a tie while conducting official business. I saw him on the news last night getting off of Marine One, and I noticed two things. First, he didn't even bother to acknowledge the Marine guards. Unlike Presidents Bush and Reagan, who almost always returned their salutes with at least a wave or a nod, B.O. just brushed right past these men--men who are undoubtedly a hundred times the men that he could even hope to be. And second--his collar was unbuttoned and he wasn't wearing a tie as he waved to the media cameras. Wow, but we've come a long ways since the days when President Reagan refused to even take his jacket off in the Oval Office.

Of course President Reagan would never have derided and mocked the citizens of a U.S. state like Obama has done to the people of Arizona. (Or Pennsylvania...remember his crack about bitter people clinging to their guns and religion?) And President Reagan would never have let a tinpot ruler like Felipe (henceforth pronounced "Flippy") Calderon come into our country and stand up not only at our White House but before a joint session of our Congress and rip into us for Arizona's laws which are intended to remove those illegally in that state--criminals who enter almost entirely from Mexico. And then as the Democrats give him standing ovation after standing ovation--and as Republicans refuse to stand up and walk out on him--he goes further and blames us for his country's crime, saying that our drug users and our gun laws are the big problem.

Well screw you, Flippy--while it's true that we do have a fair number of losers in our country who care more about getting high than they do about all of the people murdered or maimed by the drug dealers, the last I checked, we have TWO borders that drugs come over and CANADA has yet to produce these massive, violent drug cartels...no, Flippy--it's just your nation that's chosen that path. And our guns? Well if you really don't want our guns in yours country, then you should support a serious border fence just like most real Americans do. With a serious border betwen our countries, your drugs and citizens stay in your country, and our guns stay in our country. Sounds like a win/win, eh? I mean, the only way that you could oppose that idea would be if you received a greater benefit from the drugs and illegal aliens coming into our country than you do from our guns entering yours.

What's that?

cue crickets chirping.

Anyway, back on topic--only in an Obama-led America do we get people like Flippy Calderon coming here and telling us how badly we as a nation and a people suck while our President stands next to him, grinning like a fool. I wish Andrew Jackson was still president...Old Hickory would have likely busted Flippy in the mouth on the spot and then declared war on his sorry excuse for a country and taken it over. But Obama...no worries there. When he hears an America-basher winding up, he'd rather shuck and jive and scream "Right on!"

Two and a half more years of this moron... Sheesh. I can only hope that the fools who voted for him--or didn't show up to vote against him--have wised up by them. I also hope that we still have a country by then.

Texas. Gov. Rick Perry is a...

Well you fill in the blank. Words honestly fail me after reading this story.

DALLAS (AP) — More than 12,000 illegal immigrants, non-permanent residents or non-U.S. citizens paid in-state tuition or received other such financial aid at public colleges and universities across Texas during late 2009, the Dallas Morning News reported Monday.

The figures from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board show about 1 percent of all Texas college students, in the fall semester, benefited from a 2001 law granting such in-state tuition.

The law says students who are not U.S. citizens and want to seek the assistance must have attended school in the state for at least three years before they graduate from a Texas high school. Students also must file an affidavit saying they plan to seek permanent residency.

During the fall semester, 12,138 students benefited from the law. Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students between fall 2004 and summer 2008, according to the newspaper.

$33.6 million that did not benefit American citizens, although they were all taxed to raise it.

Gov. Rick Perry, who earlier this month won the GOP primary, supports the law aiding illegal immigrant students. Perry, in a recent debate, said the students are on the path to citizenship.

Huh? Back the truck up, Bubba. They aren't "law-abiding". Our laws say that people need to stay OUT of America unless they apply properly and are granted permission to enter. If they are in our country in defiance of our laws, the only path that they need to be on is a path back across the border, either on their own or in an ICE bus with barred windows.

The Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas filed a challenge to the law in December.

"It's not like we're swimming in budget surpluses," said coalition attorney David Rogers, who maintains that taxpayers suffer because of the law. "It's the responsibility of the government of Mexico to educate Mexican citizens."

Wow--someone gets it. Let's hear that line again:

"It's the responsibility of the government of Mexico to educate Mexican citizens."

Fantastic! HE should be Governor of Texas.

University of Houston law professor Michael A. Olivas said federal law allows states to draft their own policies. "It is a matter for states to determine," said Olivas. "In-state status is a state issue."

Former legislator Rick Noriega, who sponsored the in-state tuition law, said that educating the students is an economic development issue.

"This is about access to higher education," said Noriega, now the president of Avance, a nonprofit organization that educates Hispanic parents on preparing children for school.

"The alternative is to slam the door on any hopes and dreams. How are they going to perform in high school if they don't even have a chance at higher education?" he said.

Again, the question isn't "how are they going to perform in [American] high schools...it's "why are they even in American high schools? Every kid there illegally and improperly dilutes the quality of education that our kids get...especially when the schools have to start repeating half of the lesson in Spanish every day. And someone please tell me why we should spend dollar one on giving Mexican or OTM kids any sort of advanced degree when they cannot even legally get jobs in America? And it's especially ludicrous when you consider that 17% of American workers today are unemployed or under employed, and here we are, trying to make outsiders competitive with those Americans in our own tight labor market!!!
Rick Perry is contemptible and a sell-out. WHY did Rick Perry's primary opponent have to be one of those nut-job 9/11 truther types?

Screw it--I'm moving to Texas and running for Governor. Then I plan to invade Mexico and set up a 100-mile wide buffer zone south of the Rio Grande which will separate my state and the rest of Mexico.

Maybe then at least, we'll have education money and classroom space sufficient for our own kids, and we won't have to put up with this or this on a continual basis.

Oh--and Mexico? Fly one more of those Mexican military helicopters over my border and see if you get it back.

It's times like this that I really miss President Eisenhower.

Mexico and media lie about guns again.

So the big news on the headlines now is that an "anti-aircraft machine gun" has just been captured from a Mexican drug cartel, supposedly the first of it's kind discovered by anti-drug forces. ABC News has it, so does the Associated Press. According to the story, the weapon is a "confiscated .50-caliber, anti-aircraft machine gun can fire 800 rounds per minute and is capable of penetrating armor from more than 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). Police on a routine patrol Monday found the gun fitted atop an SUV at a house in northern Sonora state."

They go on to show pictures of the alleged ".50 caliber anti-aircraft weapon", and lo and behold, it's not even close!







That's right--those of you who know guns should easily recognize this gem--it's a World War two-era Browning model 1919A4 .30 machine gun. Not a .50, but just a little .30. And for those of you unfamiliar with such firearms, that's a big difference. It's like mistaking a Ford ranger 1/4 ton pick-up for a semi tractor rig. And this gun's not even set up for anti-aircraft use--it's on a ground tripod, not one suited at all for engaging aircraft, and the traverse and Elevation mechanism is missing, making it a pretty crummy ground gun too.
basically it's a 60+ year old weapon that serves primarily to intimidate peasants just by making a lot of noise.

And lest ye question my credentials or my weapons identification expertise, you only have to go to the search box in the upper left corner of this blog and use "Browning 1919A4" as a search term and you'll see several articles concerning the one that I personally own. Trust me--it's a nice historical item, but long obsolete and hardly as dangerous as the .50 caliber gun that they claimed it is. And again, this one's not even particularly useful either as an anti-aircraft weapon or in any other role without that T&E mechanism.

Authorities did not release any other details about the gun, including its make, where it was manufactured, or where it was sold.

Lemme help you out there, "authorities". It's a Browning 1919A4, caliber .30. It was most likely manufactured here in the good old US of A in during World War Two and subsequently given to some Central or South American country as military foreign aid in the 1960's...probably Mexico. It definitely didn't come from an American civilian gun shop, even though the Mexican government and Hillary Clinton like to claim that 90% of the weapons seized in that country do.

The problem here is that lies like this, if allowed to stand, will eventually become the basis for stricter gun control laws here in our country. Hillary's said that we need more restrictions on our gun ownership to help Mexico, and Eric Holder, Obama's radically anti-gun Attorney General has made the same claim. excuses are being made right now to slam the lid on your gun-buying ability and mine, and deliberate misinformation like this propaganda piece are part and parcel to those efforts even though that claim is just not true. The truth is that the drug cartels in Mexico arm themselves with military-grade weapons from other countries, including many that were originally given or sold to the Mexican government and diverted to the criminal gangs via corrupt Mexican officials. But American gun owners are poised to take the rap for Mexico's corruption and out-of-control crime problem, and our own gun-haters like Clinton and Holder and Obama himself are more than willing to play along with the lie and pretend that the only way to stop Mexico's violent crime is to close US gun shops and shows and ban many types of guns that Americans like to own. This is going to happen unless we stand up and tell our elected servants that we're not going to go along with it and that we'll replace every one of them that wants to go down that road.

And if they really want to keep US guns out of Mexico so badly, you'd think that both our government and the Mexicans would be rushing to build a border wall between the two countries. Such a wall would serve to keep our guns here and Mexico's drugs and citizens in their country, thus solving a lot of problems.

But apparently neither country wants to do anything that drastic. They just want to stop law-abiding Americans from buying and owning guns, particularly the guns that may someday protect them from the well-armed Mexican criminals who decide that it's safer and more lucrative to come here in search of easy prey.

Liberal 9th Circuit bones America again on Illegal Alien issues

So let's see..

Two Mexicans are illegally in our country. The male Mexican gets deported back to their home country after racking up three criminal convictions here and the female Mexican follows him back. A child is born to both of them IN MEXICO and then they break up and the female sneaks back into the US again. The child is smuggled back here when she is five year old to be with the female Mexican, supposedly for a visit, but the female Mexican keeps the child. The male Mexican sues and the child is ordered returned, but on appeal, the 9th Circuit--the most-liberal and most-overturned Circuit Court in America--reversed the repatriation order, claiming that since she's spent so much time in America, she should be allowed to stay, even though both she and her mother are here illegally.

A Mexican girl residing illegally with her mother in Huntington Beach has the right to stay here while her father wages a custody battle from abroad because she is "settled" in her new country despite her lack of legal status, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The decision overturned a District Court judgment that would have sent the 11-year-old to live with her father in Acapulco. It was the first to address whether a child should be allowed to remain in the United States during an international custody dispute, to prevent further "distress."

The ruling by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to be a new interpretation of the Hague Conventions on the protection of children in cross-border disputes, establishing that a right of stability be considered, along with each parent's compliance with the law.

Ivan Nemecio Salmeron brought the action under the international conventions protecting abducted children. Salmeron alleged that the girl's mother, Geremias Brito, had kept their daughter in Orange County years beyond the few months' visit to which he had agreed in 2002.

Although Brito has lived most of her life in the United States and Salmeron spent eight years here before being deported for three criminal infractions, neither parent has legal U.S. residency. Their daughter was born in 1996 in Acapulco, after Salmeron's deportation.

Alleging domestic violence and infidelity, Brito left Salmeron and took her daughter back to Orange County in 2001. The child spent the summer of 2002 with her father in Mexico, but later remained in the U.S. during the five-plus years when Salmeron petitioned U.S. and Mexican authorities to intervene.

A U.S. District Court in Santa Ana ruled to repatriate the child in late 2007, and Brito appealed.

In reversing the decision, the 9th Circuit panel pointed to the Hague Convention provision opposing a child's repatriation if "a forced return might only serve to cause him or her further distress and accentuate the harm caused by the wrongful relocation."

Writing for the unanimous panel, Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, an appointee of President Carter, observed that "It is never an easy nor a joyous task to resolve a dispute between parents that may determine the custody of their child, nor is the outcome ever fully satisfactory."

The judges, including appointees of Presidents Reagan and Clinton, noted the girl's good grades, bilingual skills, friendships and after-school activities such as serving as captain of her soccer team as evidence that she was settled despite her lack of legal status.

"I think it is a good precedent," Brito's pro bono attorney, Mark T. Cramer, said of the decision focusing on the best interests of the child.

"One of the things about this case that is key and important is that the mere fact that a child is not a legal immigrant in itself . . . [shouldn't] prevent the finding that the child is now settled."

Ira Mehlman, national media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said it was his organization's view that "they should all be sent back to Mexico and let the Mexican authorities sort it out."

"The fact that someone brings a child to this country doesn't entitle that child to stay automatically, and whatever harm comes to the child occurs because the parents knowingly violated the law," Mehlman said.

And now we get to support both the illegal adult Mexican female and her illegal Mexican daughter instead of just sending them back to their home country and letting the Mexican courts decide the custody issue.

Anyone remember a kid named Elian Gonzales? He'd spent most of his life here too--and legally--but he was ordered returned to a Communist country by the Clinton Administration, and Janet Reno sent armed officers to go snatch him away from his home and send him off to a life of poverty and oppression. Poor kid. If he'd only been an illegal alien in California, he'd undoubtedly still be here and probably have a pretty nice taxpayer-financed college education and a taxpayer-backed mortgage right now.

Betcha he's pissed...


Meanwhile back at the Lair...

Extra security precautions are now in effect as intelligence indicates that a sophisticatedly-charming and at times delightfully risque redhead has threatened to abscond with Lagniappe, who appears unable to resist her attentions and her offerings of doggie treats.

Got bolt cutters?

It's so hard to be an illegal alien trespasser sometimes...

Now if this don't make you madder than a Democrat watching Sarah Palin...

A Mexican woman broke her ankles early Tuesday scaling the border fence in Douglas.
At 2 a.m., a Border Patrol agent working near the international line east of the Douglas port of entry on Jefferson Avenue heard faint yelling for help, said Mike Scioli, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
The agent found a woman who appeared to have injured her ankles. She was alone, he said.
The agent stabilized her and called for paramedics. When paramedics arrived, the 35-year-old woman from Guanajuato, Mexico, lost a pulse below her left ankle, prompting officials to call for a medical helicopter, Scioli said.
She was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson for treatment on the two broken ankles. Her condition is unknown.

So we, the taxpayers and citizens of this country, pay money to build a border fence to keep foreign nationals, including drug runners and terrorists, from crossing into our country from Mexico. Maria the illegal alien thumbs her nose at our laws and our national sovereignty then climbs over the fence that we put up to keep her out and injures herself, and now we, the taxpayers, have to pay for her to get a helicopter ride and first-rate treatment at an American hospital. It just never ends.

What's it going to take to get to the point where illegals who get hurt trying to invade our country are just turned over to Mexican authorities or transported directly to a Mexican hospital? But hey--it's only money. OUR money. Maria won't ever get a bill, much less pay it. We'll pay it. Or the hospital will have to eat it. And this goes on every single day, all along our border.

Are you paying attention, John McCain?

And this one frosts me, too.
Illegals refused to evacuate before hurricane
Claim government didn't do enough to assure aliens they wouldn't be deported

Illegal aliens decided to stay in New Orleans and tough out the storm, rather than board buses and trains and risk arrest by immigration authorities.

Even though officials promised not to check their status if they evacuated, many illegals did not accept the offer before Gustav struck, the Associated Press reported.

Carlos Mendoza, a 21-year-old Honduran, stayed behind with seven other people in a small apartment.

"We know that people died during Katrina, but we had no choice but to stay here," he told reporters. "Many stayed because of fear. I would say at least 50 percent of us."

Mendoza said he and his illegal alien friends feared arrest and deportation.

There are an estimated 30,000 illegal aliens in New Orleans, according to the AP report. The city became a hot zone for illegal immigration after hurricane Katrina left parts of it in ruins in 2005. A massive reconstruction effort attracted men from Mexico and Central America.

Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, told reporters the recent crackdown on illegal immigration has made many aliens uneasy about the risks of traveling – even when offered free rides by authorities during an emergency evacuation.

"Moving around has become very difficult for undocumented workers," Alvarado said.

A day labor organizer with the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, Jacinta Gonzalez, said Hispanic communities have been scarred by increasing immigration raids and did not evacuate.

When they were told they would have to register to board the buses and trains, they grew more apprehensive. The procedure included ID wristbands to track evacuees by computer. Gonzalez said the officials didn't do enough to guarantee illegal aliens that they wouldn't be deported.

"The government didn't give people assurances that they would be returned to New Orleans," she said. "Just sending out press releases the day before the evacuation isn't going to work."

Honduran Santiago Gradiz, 61, accepted a ride to Houston with other illegal aliens. He told the AP they left early to avoid immigration checkpoints.

Gradiz and 10 friends have taken shelter in a one-bedroom apartment until they think it is safe to return. He said they are waiting for extra police and soldiers to leave New Orleans.

"Luckily I had some money from working the day before moving furniture," and was able to help pay costs of the trip, he told the AP.

Illegal alien Jose Gordillo, 50, said he and his sons braved the storm in their rental home.

"It's been a few weeks since we got work, so we didn't have the money to leave," Gordillo said. "I felt a little panicked during the storm, but with God's help we made it."

So they're now somehow "victims" because our government refused to pinky-swear not to send them back to their own countries as they sit around planning ways to evade our law enforcement officers. What do you want to bet that if one of these apartment buidlings full of illegals got flattened by the storm, we'd be sued by lawyers paid by the Mexican government who would argue that we breached some duty to these trespassers.

Hey Cucarachas! This is OUR country, not yours! We don't WANT you here. That's why we have laws against illegal entry and working without a taxpayer ID and a green card.

Don't mess with Texas...especially if you're a murderous illegal alien gang member.

In June of 1993, two young girls--16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman--were walking home when they stumbled into a gang initiation. Members of the gang--Mexican citizens illegally in our country--raped the girls for over two hours and then beat and kicked them to death. STORY HERE
Tomorrow, the State of Texas is going to execute Jose Medellin for his role in that unspeakable crime.

This has of course sparked outrage from the usual sob-sister "save-the-criminal-and-screw-the-victim" groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups made up of elitist liberals who think that it's chic and fashionable to bawl crocodile tears for the worst of the worst and who will almost certainly vote for Obama when they get a chance. It's also caused the United States to be criticized--and sued before the World Court--by the government of Mexico.

Mexico, you see, doesn't believe that we here in the United States should prohibit any of their citizens from crossing over into our country at will, nor do they believe that we should discriminate between Mexicans here in violation of our laws and American citizens...unless, of course, that Mexican illegally in our country commits a heinous crime that would result in a death sentence for an American. In that case, Mexico demands that we discriminate and not execute their citizens. Jose Medellin is one of 51 Mexican murders currently under sentence of death in this country. And Mexico has taken it's fight for him to the United Nations and the World Court, which ruled that Texas could not execute him.

Admirably, Texas told the World Court to pound sand. Medellin committed these murders in Texas, not in Mexico or any part of the world that the World Court has jurisdiction over. Texas only recognizes one court higher than it's own state courts, and that's the United States Supreme Court, which has already given Medellin's execution the go-ahead.

President Bush--ever the friend of Mexico--has also urged Texas to call the execution off. Texas respectfully declined, citing their right to enforce their own laws irregardless of race, creed or national origin. Medellin's going to die tomorrow and that's nothing more than Justice and deserved partial closure for the families of those two girls. (Several of Medellin's illegal alien co-conspirators received lesser sentences due to their age at the time. Another one is also on death row.) There may be protests in Mexico tomorrow, but they won't hold a candle to the protests that we in America have staged in response to the uncountable depredations against American citizens in our own country committed by Mexicans who have illegally entered our land and who all too often have not been removed by our government and who have even been sheltered by cities such as San Francisco.

Americans deserve justice when murderers prey on our kids, and that justice should be equally applied no matter if the killers are Americans or foreign nationals. And if Mexico objects to us executing their murdering citizens, perhaps they'd do well to stop protesting our border walls and start building their own walls designed to keep their criminal offenders from entering our country in the first place. After all, we can't execute them if they never come here and murder our citizens in the first place, can we?

Oh--and World Court? Screw you. This is OUR country and the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court hold sway here, not you. And besides, if it weren't for America and the sacrifice of over 400,000 Americans, you'd be conducting court business in German and/or Japanese today.


8-5-08 UPDATE It's ON!