Texas Does It Right- The Feds Do Not Know How
Sep 12, 2009 Political
Here we go- the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the 1800s, groups of Texas Rangers roamed the borders of Texas, seeking to stem the flow of Mexican cattle rustlers and renegade indians, trying to ensure that the communities in Texas could have the safety and security that they needed to thrive and grow. Even as a part of the United States, as a border state, Texas was beset by unlawful incursions by Mexicans looking to get rich off the “gringos” to the north.
Now it has come full circle, with the drug cartels seeking routes and safe houses within Texas’ borders. There have been appeals to the Federal government, but these appeals are falling on deaf ears, so Governor Rick Perry has given the Texas Rangers the task of cleaning up the border.
Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.
“It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they’ve ever played before,” Perry said of the Department of Public Safety’s elite investigative unit.
The forces, dubbed “Ranger recon” teams, are the latest effort “to fill the gap that’s been left by the federal government’s ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico,” he said.
msnbc.msn.com
Yes, it is true, and it has been intentional, this “gap” that the Feds have left in our security net, but that’s par for the course when you are talking about the spineless Democrats in office today- they are afraid of offending anyone except conservatives. Witness how they bow and scrape to the Islamo- fascists, as well as anyone without a valid visa.
The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed.
Perry’s announcement Thursday comes amid increasing border violence, particularly in El Paso, mostly involving people with ties to Mexican drug gangs.
“They’ll be deployed to high-traffic, high-crime areas along the border,” he said. “They’ll give us boots on the ground, put people in these hot spots no matter what or where they may exist.”Perry said the effort also would focus on remote areas where farmers and ranchers have complained of being overrun by smugglers and gangs from Mexico in numbers that also overwhelm local law enforcement and border patrol officers.
“Washington is shortchanging them, not giving them the support they need,” Perry said. “As a result, we’re having to dedicate our resources to deal with the challenges we have along the Texas-Mexico border and ensuing issues that porous border has created all across state of Texas.”
msnbc.com
You bet Washington is short- changing us, and you know what? We are used to being treated like the red- headed stepchild here. We don’t like it, especially when we give more than our share in Blood and Treasure to the Feds and get so little in return- It is OK to sell natural gas that is pumped from Texas wells for less than we pay in Texas- we are used to that- it isn’t right, but the Federal government has always screwed Texas, and I am sure it won’t stop now.
He said the state would pick up the tab of $110 million, allocated by the Legislature in the past two sessions.
Perry’s announcement drew immediate criticism from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is running against the two-term incumbent in the March GOP primary.
“Today’s announcement is yet another empty election-year promise from Rick Perry on border security,” Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder said.
Perry fired back that it was the “height of hypocrisy for someone who’s been in Washington, D.C., for 16 years, who’s had the opportunity to help Texas on our border security, and they’ve been no more successful in delivering the resources and help.”
“So please do that job up there first before you come down here and start criticizing about the state of Texas,” he said.
msnbc.com
Now, I don’t agree with Rick Perry about everything, but on this, I think he is right, and Sen. Hutchison needs to stay in Washington and demonstrate how well (or not) she can fight for Texas. So far, I would rate her performance as lukewarm. And that is a shame, because we need all the intelligent people we can get in order to beat back this onslaught against our liberties that the Democrats in Washington are determined to shove down our throats.
“I happen to think we’ve taken advantage of every program that’s been effective,” responded Perry, who has been branding his opponent as someone from Washington out of touch with her home state. “Pointing out one program that has been funded and leaving the 800-pound gorilla — which is 1,000 National Guard troops that we need — I am stunned someone from Washington, D.C., would say they’ve done enough to secure our border.”
Brig. Gen. Joyce Stevens, commander of the Texas Army National Guard, said about 200 soldiers and airmen already have started integrated operations with the Rangers.
msnbc.com
The first thing we need to do is secure our borders, doing whatever it takes- the Mexicans used to fear the Texas Rangers, and with good reason- few prisoners were taken, and justice was administered on the spot. We need more of that, in lieu of the soft, squishy, feel- good liberalism our courts have been subjected to for years.
When a Drug Cartel gang tries to set up shop, we need to do a curettage, scooping out the cancer before it spreads, with extreme prejudice- this is something the Texas Rangers used to know how to do right.
I hope they still have the will to do so again, because nothing else will make an impression on these people.
Our borders need to be secure, or like Rome, the Gauls, Visigoths, and Huns of the present day will get past the gate, and tear us apart. And here is something the liberals haven’t thought out-
The Huns will tear apart the Liberals too.
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Tags: border security, cartels, ILLEGAL immigration, justice, Texas Rangers
No Bogartin’ Allowed
May 15, 2009 Political
I’ll probably hear differences with some of my more conservative colleagues about this, but I feel that it’s time to revamp our drug laws, especially with regard to marijuana and the laws relating to its possession.
First, as a disclaimer, I grew up in the sixties, and I inhaled- repeatedly. Many people did in that time, and I don’t judge one way or another, but for purposes of this discussion, we will keep this in the present day.
There is a problem here, in that many of the laws regarding the drug marijuana are rooted in yesterday’s culture, where marijuana was lumped in with heroin and cocaine as to it’s relative toxicity and addictive qualities, and the truth is that it is nowhere near these other two in terms of addiction. I can’t speak to the mindset for putting marijuana in with the other drugs, but it is time to reclassify this drug, and eliminate many of the offenses that put people in jail for simple possession. Possession is a victimless crime, and simple possession should be either legalized or made a fine- able offense.
The problem as I see it, is that we have several groups who want to make money off of this drug if it is legalized- the “Medical Marijuana” group, the Federal government, with taxes, the various state governments, with taxes, the Big Tobacco growers, since tobacco is such a reviled crop, not to mention the cartels, who have no interest in legalization, because that loses them a chunk of their profits, unless they partnered with Big Tobacco.
Everybody wants a taste of all the money, and thus nothing gets done, because everyone’s interests are counter to everyone else’s interest, and status quo rules. Meanwhile, people get thrown in jail who have no place or real reason to be there. That said, they DID break the law, and as is said, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
So the law needs to be changed, and this needs to be changed at the most basic level, because the profit motive needs to be lessened, if not eliminated from the equation. The only way this could possibly work is to eliminate the profit motive from the illegal networks that have profited over the years to the tune of millions of dollars, and thousands of people killed.
There is only one way to do this, I believe. The Government must legalize marijuana for private individual consumption, and allow the growth of up to ten plants per year for this personal consumption. Driving while smoking marijuana should have a penalty the same as that of alcohol, with a legal threshhold of allowable blood cannabis level.
I know the government dearly wants to have a part of taxable income from this, but I believe that they should refrain, for the simple reason that to do so will encourage smuggling of marijuana, and keep the cartels in business, and that would not be a good thing- the idea is to eliminate the profit motive.
Now as to the cartels and the dealers- while I would press for legalizing the personal consumption of marijuana, I would also have the Death Penalty for anyone caught dealing any drug- period. This would, through attrition, if nothing else, lessen demand for all other drugs. Heroin, cocaine, oxycontin, any drug, including the sale of marijuana, would be punished by death. I say that this is justified because heroin, cocaine, and other drugs destroy not just individuals, but whole families, and the dealers who sell these drugs, have no morals in doing so, and can and will try to sell to someone trying to kick the habit.
Now, as to the people hooked on these drugs, heroin, cocaine, etc., I would give them three strikes,so to speak- sending them to re-hab clinics three times before criminal charges kick in, providing they did not do additional criminal acts that would warrant imprisonment. The idea, after all, is to get these people off the addictive drugs, and back into society, and I feel this could do this.
I know some people will object to my idea for the Death Penalty for the dealers- heck, we have had spirited debate over murder, so I expect that some will object to this as well, but I feel that if the penalty is onerous, perhaps some, if not all of these people might choose a different line of work post haste. The rest of them would not bother the addicts anymore, and the addicts, without a source, would begin to heal.
Only if we take the profit motive out of the marijuana trade will we begin to be able to form a rational policy around the legalization of this contentious weed. The Chinese have chewed the seeds of marijuana for headaches for oh, about three thousand years, and we know that smoking marijuana decreases nausea in chemo patients, and eases the discomfort and pressure of Glaucoma. What else could it do?
We just do not know, because of the “narcotic” stigma that has been unfairly slapped on this plant, and it is time for the laws to come into the twenty- first century regarding this plant and the other drugs. A legal overhaul is badly needed, and I believe only the most calcified in their thinking could believe that the current laws work.
We need this discussion, and we need this ASAP.
There is too much at stake for society as a whole, to stand pat.
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Tags: cartels, death penalty, marijuana, rehab