U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible

[Jeff]

 

Pro-Pot Rally Outside State Capitol to Decriminalize Marijuana

By Christopher Keating

April 20, 2009 8:10 PM

 

The Hartford Courant's Christine Dempsey reports:

 

Holding signs that said "Honk if you love pot" and "No cuffs for cannabis," dozens of spirited demonstrators on the lawn of the state Capitol rallied Monday for a bill seeking to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

 

The demonstration was organized by the Connecticut chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It was timed to correspond with other events the national group sponsored across the country. April 20 has been a day of pro-pot parties and rallies since the 1970s, when a group of California teens smoked marijuana at 4:20 p.m. each day.

 

Organizer Dominic Vita of Enfield said he supports the legalization of marijuana. An Iraqi war veteran, Vita has suffered from abdominal and joint pain and food allergies since he returned, he said, and smoking marijuana gives him relief.

 

A bill being considered by the legislature -- which Gov. M. Jodi Rell opposes -- would make possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana an infraction that could be paid like a speeding ticket. The bill's backers, including its sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney of New Haven, say if the bill becomes a law, it could save the state more than $11 million.

 

An adolescent on a school bus gave the group the thumbs up, and a Hartford police cruiser briefly blared its siren.

 

"Everybody smokes pot," Vita said after the transit bus driver beeped.

 

A few people gave the demonstrators the thumbs down, including a woman driving a car with assistant minority leader legislative plates.

 

The rally got off to a slow start, with only six demonstrators and a dog at 2:30 p.m. It was supposed to start at 2 p.m.

 

Vita had sympathy for an unmotivated acquaintance he talked to on his cellphone.

 

"I know, Dude," he said. "Everybody's probably baked by now and too stoned to stand in the rain."

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/200...-state-cap.html

[Sami Jumppanen]

Now, personaly i wouldn't mind if drug dealers lost their income from pot. But is it true that pot can cause certain mental ilnesses or make worse any already existing ones? Well, perhaps those mental difficulties could be addressed easier if there wasn't any legalities involved.

[Kurt L]

Support grows for Guard deployment along Mexican border

AIA dailyLead | 04/17/2009

 

Arizona's two U.S. senators are calling for National Guard troops to reinforce Homeland Security efforts along the border with Mexico. GOP Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl added their support to the Guard plan following similar pleas from the governors of Arizona and Texas. However, Alan Bersin, the Department of Homeland Security's newly appointed "border czar," rejected such a move, noting that laws prohibiting the use of military personnel for law enforcement duties "have served this country well." Arizona Republic (Phoenix), The (04/16)

 

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen!

 

How does the border czar determine that defending our national border from incursions by heavily armed foreign paramilitary organizations is a law enforcement job, as opposed to a legitimate use of the military? I guess I'm just cynical, but I think this (and the prior) administration are simply unwilling to take any action that will interfere with their "open borders" ideology.

[beans4]

Now, personaly i wouldn't mind if drug dealers lost their income from pot. But is it true that pot can cause certain mental ilnesses or make worse any already existing ones? Well, perhaps those mental difficulties could be addressed easier if there wasn't any legalities involved.

 

Friend of mine who's an EMT and has some basic drug knowledge has a relative that got into pot in high school. Relative became bipolar, and is now bad enough that he can't hold a job. Said friend blames the pot, claims it's a trigger for some people.

[Simon Tan]

Open borders my ass. More like protecting their illegal hispanic voter base.

[Old Tanker]

It ought to be interesting here on May Day.

 

The Reverend Al " Mouthpiece" Sharpton is coming to Phoenix to protest our Sicilian Sheriff.

 

BTW, recents reports show all segments of crime down in Az. including auto thefts by 1/3rd over 2005.

Only kidknapping is at record levels but if you don't speak Spanish don't worry about it.

[Old Tanker]

Interesting events.

 

* Big shoot out in Alcapulco in hotel row. Two dead Mex. mil and 16 bad guys. This isn't border area but the heart of the big buck Mex. tourist trade. Elvis and Ann Margaret won't be filming soon again there if this keeps up .

 

* Van carrying 22 illegals rolls near Tucson ... 10 dead.

 

I don't think they have recovered from the Swine Flu scare and here is more bad news.

[X-Files]

An F.B.I. agent in El Paso has been arrested and charged with dealing guns, some of which ended up being used in gunfights between the authorities and drug dealers in Mexico, law enforcement officials said.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/us/10brf...E_BRF.html?_r=1

 

The agent, John T. Shipley, was indicted Wednesday on charges he dealt firearms without a license for more than two years, buying the weapons from dealers on the Internet and then reselling them to unidentified buyers. Mr. Shipley sold more than 50 weapons, the indictment said. Some were recovered after shootouts between the Mexican Army and drug dealers in Chihuahua on March 8 last year that left seven dead, officials said. Mr. Shipley, who was released on bond this week, has been suspended without pay since March 2009, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

[X-Files]

Oh?

 

Ms Napolitano said she had not ruled out sending National Guard troops to the border region, and said she would meet Texas Governor Rick Perry to discuss the possible deployment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7961670.stm

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military's counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

 

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...0GzrTwD994KCN00

[Rod]

That Wall/Barrier is beginning to look more interesting.....Of course, if Bush proposed it, is bad/evil, if Obama suggests it then it becomes and unfortunate need.

[Rubberneck]

There is a ton of interest in the NORTHCOM AOR at the moment from way on above.

[Old Tanker]

In todays Az Republic newpaper an article stated that remittances via wire transfers are down 20% over last year and some villages with 50% of the men up here ( USA ) are really hurting. So the Mex boiling point is a rising.

 

However I've also read that a new type of debit card is also in use that the Feds cannot do anything about , this card is the new preferred way to move drug and people movement money.

 

The idea to put unarmed NG on the border but have them in uniform is too PC as to be rediculous . The Mex army isn't unarmed so why should ours be ? Plus using border states NG types skirts the Posse Comitatus law.

Armed NG have been posted at airports off and on since 9-11.

[Corinthian]

This seems appropriate:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me7rvV2kcBU (up to 0.20)

 

And

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCaTlHrkGNU 5:59 to 6:26.

[X-Files]

Fawk.

 

Reporting from Mexico City -- Marking a gruesome new setback in the war on drug gangs, Mexican authorities said Tuesday that 12 people found tortured and fatally shot in the western state of Michoacan a night earlier were federal police officers.

 

Officials said the slayings were the work of La Familia, a Michoacan-based trafficking group that has carried out at least 10 attacks against federal police in the state since Saturday, when authorities captured an alleged leader of the group.

 

Monte Alejandro Rubido, a senior federal security official, said the 11 men and one woman were off duty when they were ambushed.

 

He said the killers left a message with the heap of bodies that threatened federal police.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...0,6105278.story

[T19]

Well you at least cant blame Canada

 

Our pot trade to the USA is very peaceful and polite

 

We did not become the number one source of recreational drugs by hurting our economy or peace...

[Rod]

Coming back to my reference of a border wall, what is the current status of that under President Obama?

[Old Tanker]

I believe the real wall as in construction of barricades and fencing is near completion . Supposedly about 700 miles worth.

The other 1300 miles of virtual wall is just waiting for the technology to be designed and tested so I guess it's in the shovel ready project catergory. I think about $7B is allocated for the virtual wall per budget Obama.

 

Estimates are 200,000 illegals have left Az. in the last 2 years as numerous stores that catered to them are closing.

One small grocer claims his biz is down 45% from '06 and a major grocery chain is closing 3 Mexican orientated supermarkets.

I think the experts are estimating illegal population now at 300,000 down from 500,000.

[X-Files]

De La Rosa's flight complicates a shorthand version of Mexico's drug war, which began in December 2006 after Calderón dispatched the army to try to break the cartels' power and end smuggling to the US – a war that has since cost about 15,000 lives. The simple account is that a federation of narco cartels, each with its own plaza, or turf, along the border, broke up into rival syndicates, which violently contested and divided up the frontier region bordering Texas and Arizona.

 

But in Juárez, the murderous kernel of the war, the city has imploded into a state of what one of the few journalists left working seriously here, Julian Cardona, has for some time reported as "criminal anarchy" rather than a neatly mapped cartel war; what De La Rosa calls "martial law, without the law".

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/0...h-squads-juarez

 

As the fight with the Mexican drug cartels heats up, they're arming themselves for war.

 

More and more, cartels are acquiring grenades and powerful .50 caliber rifles, which can pierce lightly armored vehicles, officials said during a session at the police chiefs convention in Denver.

 

They said as law enforcement pushes the cartels out of their comfort zones, the violence on both sides of the border likely will get worse before it gets better.

 

One of the officials pointed out that "Chapo" Guzman, heads the Sinaloa cartel, put the word out to his lieutenants that they should use deadly force against competitors, and American and Mexican law enforcement if necessary to protect drug loads.

 

"We're seeing more violence as they are not able to operate as they always have," Elizabeth Kempshall, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Phoenix office. "You're going to see that violence increase."

 

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2...t-with-the.html

[Paul in Qatar]

How the heck can a mere wall be an engineering challenge? We asked for a wall, Boeing sold us an advanced sensor-centric intrusion detection deterrence and apprehension system based on C-5 technology.