LAREDO, Texas - For residents of this border city, it was a terrifying yet familiar tale: Three more Texans vanished in the dangerous Mexican countryside across the Rio Grande, abducted amid reports of escalating violence between warring drug cartels. The weekend kidnapping of a prominent Laredo businessman and two other Texans was the latest of dozens of abductions in recent years that have more people here steering clear of the once-accessible border.
Authorities said 30 to 40 armed men stormed Pina's remote deer-hunting ranch, located on dry scrubland and low rolling hills about 40 miles northwest of Nuevo Laredo. The men abducted Pina; his 25-year-old son, Librado Pina III; David Mueller, 45, of the Sweetwater area; Mexican businessman Fidel Rodriguez Cerdan; and Marcos Ortiz, a Mexican national who works as a cook at the ranch. Mueller and Cerdan were freed Wednesday.
"Well, everyone is scared," said Antonia Ramirez, a 68-year-old Nuevo Laredo resident who was shopping in downtown Laredo on Thursday. "You hear about it on the news all the time. It's worse than a few years ago."
The Mexican authorities have lost control on their side of the border. Drug runners and other assorted banditos wield the upper hand as they gun down police chiefs as quickly as they are appointed, heavily armed para-military groups escorting drug smugglers have "shot it out" with out-gunned US law enforcement authorities. The violence has begun to spill over into the United States; 27 Americans have been kidnapped since Aug 15. Residents of Laredo live in fear and why this border violence isn't of more concern nationally is a mystery. Instead of enforcing the border, our government is prosecuting its own Border Patrol Agents for shooting an escaping drug smuggler in the butt. Border Patrol agents are demoralized because the government will not prosecute cases. What will it take to make the US Government act responsibly?
The Constitution doesn't not prescribe many duties and responsibilities for the Federal Government but repelling invasions and maintaining a Navy for defense are among the more important roles. The Federal neglect of the southern border is now approaching the level of "dereliction of duty". Someone should be impeached.
Whit,
ReplyDeleteI concur that what is going on borders on dereliction of duty.
It is amazing that we are unable to protect our southern border from 400,000 illegals that came into this country last year alone.
That would be on George W. Bush's watch if I'm clear on whose in charge.
But then it is all part of the grand NORTH AMERICAN UNION that is well underway and also well under the radar screen of 99% of the US population.
Nobody knew where he came from
ReplyDeleteThey only knew he came in
Slowly he walked to the end of the bar
And he ordered up one slug of gin
Well, I could see that he wasn't a large man
I could tell that he wasn't too tall
I judged him to be 'bout five-foot three
And his voice was a soft texas drawl
Said he was needin' some wages
'Fore he could ride for the west
Said he could do most all kind of work
Said he could ride with the best
There in his blue eyes was sadness
That comes from the need of a friend
And tho' he tried, he still couldn't hide
The loneliness there, deep within
Said he would work thru the winter
For thirty a month and his board
I started to say where he might land a job
When a fellow came in thru the door
And I could tell he was lookin' for trouble
By the way that he came stompin' in
He told me to leave shorty there by himself
Come down and wait on a man
The eyes of the little man narrowed
The smile disappeared from his face
Gone was the friendliness that I had seen
And a wild look of hate, took its' place
But the big one continued to mock him
And he told me that I'd better go
Find him a couple of glasses of milk
Then maybe shorty would grow
When the little man spoke, there was stillness
He made sure that everyone heard
Slowly he stepped, away from the bar
And I still remember these words
Oh! it's plain that you're lookin' for trouble
Trouble's what I try to shun
If that's what you want, then that's what you'll get
'Cause cowboy, we're both packin' guns
His hand was already positioned
His feet wide apart on the floor
I hadn't noticed, but there on his hip
Was a short-barreled bad forty-four
It was plain he was ready and waitin'
He leaned a bit forward and said
When you call me shorty, say mister, my friend
Or maybe you'd rather be dead
In the room was a terrible silence
As the big one stepped out on the floor
All drinkin' stopped and the tick of the clock
Said death would wait ten seconds more
He cursed once or twice in a whisper
And he said with a snarl on his lips
Nobody's mister to me, little man!
And he grabbed for the gun on his hip
But the little man's hand was like lightning
The bad forty-four was the same
The forty-four spoke and it sent lead and smoke seventeen inches of flame
For the big one had never cleared leather
Beaten before he could start
A little round hole had appeared on his shirt
The bullet went clear thru his heart
The little man stood there a moment
Then holstered the bad forty-four
It's always this way so I never stay
Then slowly he walked out the door
Nobody knew where he came from
They won't forget he came by
They won't forget how a forty-four gun
One night made the difference in size
As for me, I'll remember the sadness
Shown in the eyes of the man
If we meet someday, you can bet I would say
That it's me, mr. shorty, your friend
M Robbins
Some background on the North American Union
ReplyDeleteNorth American Union
To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
ReplyDeleteHardly spoke to folks around him didn't have too much to say
No one dared to ask his business no one dared to make a slip
For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
It was early in the morning when he rode into the town
He came riding from the south side slowly lookin' all around
He's an outlaw loose and running came the whisper from each lip
And he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red
Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead
He was vicious and a killer though a youth of twenty four
And the notches on his pistol numbered one an nineteen more
One and nineteen more
Now the stranger started talking made it plain to folks around
Was an Arizona Ranger wouldn't be too long in town
He came here to take an outlaw back alive or maybe dead
And he said it didn't matter he was after Texas Red
After Texas Red
Wasn't long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn't worry men that tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him twenty men had made a slip
Twenty one would be the Ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
The morning passed so quickly it was time for them to meet
It was twenty past eleven when they walked out in the street
Folks were watching from the windows every-body held their breath
They knew this handsome Ranger was about to meet his death
About to meet his death
There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their play
And the swiftness of the Ranger is still talked about today
Texas Red had not cleared leather fore a bullet fairly ripped
And the Ranger's aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Oh he might have went on living but he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
Big iron big iron
When he tried to match the Ranger with the big iron on his hip
The Law Of The Yukon
ReplyDeleteRobert Service
This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain:
"Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane --
Strong for the red rage of battle; sane for I harry them sore;
Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core;
Swift as the panther in triumph, fierce as the bear in defeat,
Sired of a bulldog parent, steeled in the furnace heat.
Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones;
Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons;
Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat;
But the others -- the misfits, the failures -- I trample under my feet.
Dissolute, damned and despairful, crippled and palsied and slain,
Ye would send me the spawn of your gutters -- Go! take back your spawn again.
Law of the Yukon, entire poem
Marty Robbins "Gunfighter Ballads"
ReplyDeleteowned it for 30-40 years. Great songs
Habu said, "It is amazing that we are unable to protect our southern border from 400,000 illegals that came into this country last year alone."
ReplyDeleteQ. Why doesnt Mexico have a Olympic team?
A. Because every mexican that can run, jump, and swim is already across the border!
Back to Iraq. For your reading pleasure a little paste:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061208.wsimpson08/BNStory/International/home
"JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Friday's Globe and Mail
E-mail Jeffrey Simpson | Read Bio | Latest Columns
The United States lost many more men in Vietnam than in Iraq, yet the Iraq invasion and its aftermath will rank as the greatest self-inflicted foreign policy disaster in American history.
The ghastly Vietnam War was limited to one country, although it reverberated in two others, Cambodia and Laos.
The Iraq fiasco, President George W. Bush's gift to the world, has enveloped Iraq in a civil war, inflamed the Muslim world, strengthened Iran, deepened Sunni-Shia tensions, heartened and recruited terrorists, and diminished the reputation of the United States almost everywhere.
As Robert Gates, the incoming secretary of defence, told Congress this week: The U.S. is not winning the war and there are no new ideas for winning it, but failure could ignite a “regional conflagration” in the Middle East.
After years of Orwellian misrepresentations from Mr. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and the outgoing Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, it was at least refreshing to hear an administration official talk sense.
Asked whether Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden had posed a greater threat to the U.S. after 9/11, Mr. Gates gave the answer that ought to have guided U.S. foreign policy: Osama bin Laden. Had the Bush administration focused on al-Qaeda instead of invading Iraq, the world would be a safer place today.
The intractability of the Iraq mess was then underscored by the much-anticipated report from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group under Republican (and Bush family friend) James Baker and Democrat Lee Hamilton.
A certain eager desperation had preceded this report. Obviously, the Bush administration had no idea for improving the Iraq situation. So the great and good in Washington hoped that maybe the study group's eminent persons could find a way to make progress.
Predictably, the report dashed such hopes, not because it was bad or thoughtless — the panel's members were far too intelligent for that outcome — but because all the good options for calming Iraq are unlikely to happen.
The report emphasized engaging neighbouring countries in a common search for stability in Iraq, without offering any convincing evidence why Syria and Iran would not want the U.S. to continue to stew in the juice of its own incompetence.
Iran is obviously the most important player in the region. But, you'll recall, the Bush administration had demonized Iran as part of the “axis of evil,” one of the most nefarious and maladroit conceptualizations in U.S. foreign policy history.
“Regime change” in Iran had been a staple of neo-conservative thinking, notwithstanding the help Iran gave the U.S. in Afghanistan. Why, under the circumstances of Iran's growing strength in Iraq, Lebanon and the Shia world, would Tehran sit down with Washington to help extricate the Americans from the consequences of their own mistakes?
Obviously, the study group is right: Diplomacy should be tried. But diplomacy has severe limitations, given the existing circumstances and the Bush administration's track record.
In addition to engaging Iran and Syria, the Bush administration should re-engage in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. But the administration has refused to do this since it was elected. Its political capital, meanwhile, has run out at home and abroad, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has worsened.
Read correctly, the study group's report represents an utter indictment of the Bush administration's policies.
Sadly, its recommendations for diplomacy and a phased withdrawal, coupled with a strengthened Iraqi military and government, are likely the stuff of false hopes. Iraq has degenerated too far for these ambitions to be realized.
A civil war is under way in Iraq. The government is weak. Corruption is endemic. Basic services do not work. The military remains poorly trained, and the police are largely incompetent. The ethnic groups hate each other. All these observations are supported in the study group's report. None of them are new.
Nearly 2,900 Americans have died. So have tens of thousands of Iraqis. Another 21,000 Americans have been wounded. As the study group notes, the U.S. has already spent $400-billion in Iraq and is spending $8-billion a month. When the costs of caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment are calculated, the U.S. invasion of Iraq — a discretionary war — might be around $2-trillion.
And for what? Says the study group: “Stability in Iraq remains elusive and the situation is deteriorating. ... The ability of the United States to shape outcomes is diminishing. Time is running out.”
Actually, time has run out"
And?
ReplyDeleteThe real problem for the Administration is that their Goal of a "Free" Iraq has been achieved, but they do not want to admit it.
ReplyDeleteThe UN Resolutions have been complied with and the democratic government has emerged.
It is just a little disappointing, the work product does not look like what the architects described nor the artist's rendering.
Thanks, WC, I needed that.
ReplyDeleteIt is just a little disappointing, the work product does not look like what the architects described nor the artist's rendering.
ReplyDeleteAnd, with that, my Friend, you have said it all.
Rat, I reposted your most insightful comment over at Kudlows.
ReplyDeleteWith full attribution, of course.
Given my druthers, I'll put Marty Robbins and not Ash on the turntable.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to trivialize the encroaching global chaos, but as rat can tell you, the Laredo area has been a doper gang hellhole since the 70s at least. I worked the Sanchez-O'Brian Field down there in the late 70s, and it was a midnite free-fire zone even then, once out in sticks a ways. Doesn't, of course, mean that we should not try to clean it up--just, as a context tip.
ReplyDeleteNow, This is Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis could put Asshole Putin in a Really Bad Mood.
last few verses of Johnny Cash's "Streets of Laredo":
ReplyDelete"Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowly.
"Play the dead march as you carry me along.
"Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
"I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong."
"Then go write a letter to my grey-haired mother,
"An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone.
"But please not one word of the man who had killed me.
"Don't mention his name and his name will pass on."
When thus he had spoken, the hot sun was setting.
The streets of Laredo grew cold as the clay.
We took the young cowboy down to the green valley,
And there stands his marker, we made, to this day.
We beat the drum slowly and played the Fife lowly,
Played the dead march as we carried him along.
Down in the green valley, laid the sod o'er him.
He was a young cowboy and he said he'd done wrong.
Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC
ReplyDeleteDidn't get to bed last night
Oh, the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the USSR
You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the USSR, yeah
Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee, it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I'm back in the USSR
You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the US
Back in the US
Back in the USSR
(Beatles partial, dedicated to Vlad)
Vlad is Bad; but, his bunch have the kind of problems coming at them that they deserve.
ReplyDeleteI've learned just lately that the Russian Orthodox Church does not share the same history or reputation as the Greek Orthodox Church.
ReplyDeletebetter read An Ominous Herald
ReplyDeleteRufus said, "This could put Asshole Putin in a Really Bad Mood."
ReplyDeleteIt could even poison relations, so to speak.
Merry Christmas, BITCH!
ReplyDelete"Iran is obviously the most important player in the region. But, you'll recall, the Bush administration had demonized Iran as part of the “axis of evil,” one of the most nefarious and maladroit conceptualizations in U.S. foreign policy history."
ReplyDeleteWhaddya wanna bet, ash, the we have been and are talking to Teheran and Damascus?
Just don't tell Mr. Ledeen.
Was it "Peter the Great" who decided the Russians "Needed Religion," and decided that the Russians loved Vodka too much to become Muslims, and who ruled out Judaeism on the grounds that if "God" loved Jews he woul have given them a Country, and, as a result, decided to make Russia Christian?
ReplyDeleteNo biggie, Bud:
ReplyDeleteThe Feminist Wymin of Santa Cruz CA will not let this go unanswered.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteAin't this place a hoot.
Your answer back one post.
Their oil production has declined a million barrels/day since he came to power.
ReplyDeleteWithin 90 days they're probably going to have a cataclysmic devaluation of their Peso, or real, or imaginario, or what the hell ever it is.
Publius has a link about Clinton basking in the red victories of South America. Wonder WTF is going on? I smell a Kooty ToT.
ReplyDeletehey, i still have a bunch o them Imaginarios--they call 'em "Bolivares", or, for short, "Bolos".
ReplyDeleteI smell loose oil money. And Hillary's fiery, red, burning ass.
ReplyDeletePssst,hey, psssss Iknow , i know
ReplyDeletewe have Embassies or Interst Sections in both contries....huhu...
"I'll take the fuzzy dice."
"Can't have the dice son"
"I said I'll take the dice or my pet P-Tater gonna put some razor type torque on your scrotum, comprende senor?"
"OK here's the dice Mr Habu"
"fiery, red, burning ass" LOL. I can hardly wait.
ReplyDelete"Cubazeula" h/t publius.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the Sowell bit, about civil rights coming on its own, and in much better form, before the gonmint stepped in. The same with the poor of South America. RR frees 'em up enough to start climbing up via trade and markets, and first thing ya know, the loosened reins get grabbed by Same Boss, different color shirt. Too damn bad--bad, bad, bad.
ReplyDeleteRemember that post I made yesterday(?) about the little power project down in florida where an acre of weeds produced enough electricity for four houses?
ReplyDeleteI think the number of homes they were electrifying was 70,000 or so.
Well, Look at This.
Could save the sub-sahara, this alt fuels revolution. $70 oil sure won't.
ReplyDeleteCall me "Crazy," But . . .
ReplyDeleteBuddy.910 Group
ReplyDeleteDid you mention, Sub-Saharan Africa? You have to scroll down a couple of articles until you get to South Africa.
ReplyDeleteLove to ram some $40 oil up hugo's fat ass--
ReplyDeleteYou know, if you can electrify 4 homes In Florida off of an acre of grass, that acre of grass has got to be yielding $6,000.00 to $8,000.00/acre. Not bad for an acre of grass, eh?
ReplyDeleteHim and the Mullahs would be fucking TOAST! So would pooty poot.
ReplyDeletegot it, habu--910 site.
ReplyDeleteDid you look at the one Dick Morris touts?
divestterror.org
Buddy, I was thinking today about Deuce's covered calls question.
ReplyDeleteIt's above my pay grade (I'm a dollar cost-averaging indexer, myself,) but I might think about Drillers, and infrastructure plays.
If you got something nasty out of Saudi Arabia they could jump nicely, but if ethanol eats into your price you could exercise your options.
What do you think?
rufus, i'm holding a half dozen of 'em--got gutted last May but rthe suckers are back--I decided to hold 'em as cores since trading is too subject to getting caught 'out' on one of these lightning fast up moves. Chevron, Baker/Hughes, Diamond Offshore, Chesapeake, Nabors, OIH. plus some little dabs of a few others. Looking at Haliburton, tryingh to find a re-enter. Oughtta just do it now. I don't know about the options play--it's a sure bet to be a one-off. I'd rather just hold and hold.
ReplyDeletewriting calls on your holdings is a bear play--unless you don't mind getting 'exersized' out. I just think, with the soft landing more apparant, with SP @ 15xE stocks have a way to go yet.
ReplyDeleteWell, like I said, I'm strictly an indexer - the absolute worst trader in the world. I get antsy and want to start moving money. I just get plumb silly. I'm fifty, thirty, twenty, large, mid, small.
ReplyDeleteWhen I feel like moving chips I just go over to Doyle's Room and play a little poker. It works out better that way.
I mean, it's a good income play, if you're liquid enough to maintain inventory and the bull doesn't sh*t on you at the wrong time. If, if, if.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I think I'm going to go play a few hands, now, before bed-time.
ReplyDeleteNite all; and P'tater too, wherever you are.
:)
I think you're good--you're playing the economy long, and getting your thrill and chills at the table? Sounds right to me.
ReplyDeleteCourse, I may be a contrary indicator--doing ok at the moment but so could a monkey in this mkt.
'Druthers' is a good word,Buddy, but it don't stand up to 'doots' as in I have my 'doots' bout that, which is what my Swedish aunt always used to say.
ReplyDeleteyeh--getting late. I et three chili dogs early afternoon and had to sleep it off. now i'm wide-eyed and it's midnite. damn.
ReplyDeleteLOL--'doots'. Those swedes have that way, ya betcha.
ReplyDeleterent "Fargo" sometinme, bobal--the swedes'll kill ya--great movie.
ReplyDeleteRat was wondering about this.
ReplyDeletePat Lang:
Joe Klein of Time magazine said today on the Chris Matthews show that Cheney was "summoned" to Riyadh. There has been a lot of talk about the vice president's trip to Saudi Arabia. The White House has wanted it to be believed that Cheney went about the Middle East "lining up" the Sunni leaders to support the Zelikow plan for further empowerment of the Shia Arabs against the Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq. Klein, who is generally well informed about such matters, says that the opposite is true, that in fact King Abdullah summoned Cheney to Riyadh to tell him in person that such a policy "might" force the Saudi government to give all possible assistance to the Sunni Arab population in defending itself. That means the insurgents. Now, that sounds like the truth. The Saudi ambassador denies this scenario, but, he would, wouldn't he? He also says the Obeid op/ed last week which threatened covert Saudi intervention had nothing to do with the Saudi government. Anyone who is familiar with the way the Saudis "operate" knows how unlikely that is.
The great untruth on which the Bush project in Iraq was founded was the notion that Iraq and its people were a "nation." As I have said many times before, the "Bush Iraq Project" interrupted the fitful progress of the "Historic Iraq Project." That project had sought for most of a century to weld the disparate peoples of Iraq into a nation. The "Historic Iraq Project" had been partially successful in that some Iraqis had come to think of themselves as primarily Iraqi. Many had not. The Iraqi nationalists were primarily secular and concentrated in the functions of government. We got rid of them in the CPA period. We shoved them out the door of the new government and its organs. What is left in the Iraqi political process is predominately sectarian or ethnic in self-identification. The present government is a Shia sectarian government with Kurds and Sunni Arabs added to the melange as "symbolic" tokens. The same thing is true of the "Iraqi" police and army. Everyone in Iraq knows that. We have now spent a great deal of money and time in building those forces. In spite of that effort we and the "Iraqis" have not been able to defeat the Sunni insurgent forces in their many varieties.
Our response to that failure seems to be that we will now drop any real effort to mediate among the peoples of Iraq and will back the Shia Arabs "to the knife." What will that mean exactly? We are already giving full support to the Maliki government. Does it mean that we will "green light" what some are calling the "Salvador" model? If it does, then we should expect that the Sunni Islamic World will rise up against us with a ferocity that we have not yet seen. pl
Pakis just tested a long range nuke-capable ballistic missile today, trish.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, the "Salvador model" proceeds apace.
ReplyDeletea good thing to watch is gold. it's such a tight mkt, and so trouble-sensitive, there'll be a run up if anything big is in the wind. as is, price has been range-bound for about 8 months now. so it's still just saber-rattling going on.
ReplyDeleteI wish Musharraf long life.
ReplyDeleteReally, really long.
no kidding--
ReplyDeleteWould just be too damned easy to seize the Saudi Fields, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteImagine!
A Superpower acting like a Real Country!
Yet at BC, the last 3 years have been spent bemoaning our possible inhumanity re: "torture."
ReplyDeleteRight on!
Cool, Dude!
Pass the Crack.
Must not crack the paint in the Holy Mosque.
ReplyDelete(filled with Explosives and Human Debris.)
Better to sacrifice US Marines.
Right on Dude!
Catch and Release.
ReplyDeleteFallujah I.
Protect Sadr.
...all part of the master plan.
Wish I knew the Harvard Fight Song.
Can ANY of you imagine looking your family members in the eye while informing them that you would risk their deaths rather than lower yourself to allowing the torture of a worthless, subhuman piece of shit?
ReplyDelete"Predictably, the report dashed such hopes, not because it was bad or thoughtless — the panel's members were far too intelligent for that outcome — but because all the good options for calming Iraq are unlikely to happen."
ReplyDelete---
The panels intelligence or lack of it is of no consequence:
The members are far too corrupt, bought out, and lacking in character for anything else to matter.
Baker has spent a lifetime selling out humanity for his personal aggrandizement, often starting with this country.
ISG 1775 "We Must Fish The Tea Out Of The Harbor And Talk To George III"
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect to Marty Robbins, perhaps a "Gringo Pistolero" is needed...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livefromtexas.com/Artists/damron/Gringo%20Pistolero.htm