Checking In With Mexico: Still Violent, Still Lawless, Still Cartel Infested

Some of the most popular posts from this blog over the past few years have had to do with the Mexican drug cartels and the dangers  and potential violence they hold for America. I have no concrete data or information that would tell me why these types of posts draw a significantly higher readership than other topics. It could be that American citizens realize how dangerous this Mexican drug cartel situation is becoming much more accurately than the political class in Washington, whose members more often than not seem to be oblivious to the world around them.

Nixon declared "war on drugs" in the late 1960s, taking the rather simpleton approach that the Federal government could stamp out the desires of millions of citizens to get high using a militarized, criminalized, and bureaucratic approach. Forty years later, that war has been lost, so much so that we are seeing that not only Mexico but many Central and South American governments are beginning to be threatened and overrun with drug cartel and drug gang money, weapons, violence, and threats.

We have not reviewed what is going on in this area for a little while so I thought it might be a good idea to check in, given the topic's popularity. Unfortunately, the latest news is not much better than the past news:

- The Week magazine reported in its July 1, 2011 issue that drug cartel gunmen executed a well know Mexican journalist, along with his wife and son, in Veracruz, Mexico. The gunmen brazenly broke into the journalist's home and gunned down his family on the spot. The journalist, Angel Lopez Velasco, wrote a regularly occurring newspaper column on drug trafficking and security issues. His son was a photographer at the same newspaper.

In the past month, a newspaper editor was kidnapped and believed to have been killed in Acapulco, a reporter was shot to death in Sonora, and another Veracruz reporter was kidnapped in March and his bullet riddled body was recently recovered.

- A July 13, 2011 Associated Press article reported that Mexican authorities had captured the top hitman for the Mexican drug cartel that goes by the name of the Knights Templar. The police believe that the captive oversaw murders for one of the top meth-trafficking gangs in Mexico.

However, the more distressing news in the article is the report that police recently seized 44 metric tons of chemicals that are used to produce illegal methamphetamine at a Mexican seaport. The 44 tons had been shipped to the seaport from Shanghai, China. I know nothing about making methamphetamine but I have to assume that 44 metric tons of chemicals would make a heck of a lot of illegal meth. 44 tons of anything would make a lot of something.

From the same article, police in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez, which sits right on the border with the U.S., updated the kill totals from a gun fight last Tuesday. Apparently 21 people died from that one gun fight, not the 18 that had previously been reported. That made it the bloodiest drug cartel murder day in all of 2011, exceeding the 20 dead headcount from February 18, 2011.

Metric tons of illegal, drug related chemicals, and dozens of murders on a regular basis. Mexico and the American political class, we have a problem.

- An Associated Press article from July 15, 2011, summarized some of the latest drug cartel violence from Monterrey, Mexico, one of Mexico's most developed cities:

• The city's drug related murder rate is on a pace to double last year's murder pace.
• In recent weeks a teenager was hung until death over a bridge and two of the local governor's bodyguards were killed, dismembered, and dumped with messages that threatened their ex-boss, the governor.
• Last week, gunmen killed 20 people in a local bar.
• 22 more local people were killed in the two days leading up to the article's release.
• Local security officials admit that they do not know how much worse it will get but are openly not optimistic about the situation turning better anytime soon.
• The increase in violence and fear has resulted in fewer students coming to the Technology Institute of Monterrey, one of the nation's top universities.
• Local businesses secretly explained how some have to pay extortion money to the drug gangs.

Looks like the situation is not getting any better. That should not be unexpected since the American political class has done nothing to change the tide of violence and lawlessness that is sweeping across some countries that are obviously very close to the United States. This is the standard mode of operation for our politicians if you look at their history:

• Despite numerous threats and terror attacks in the 1990s on American interests, the political class did nothing until after the devastating 9-11 attacks.
• Despite the impending fiscal/debt ceiling crisis that has been brewing for well over a year, the political class has done nothing as the deadline for default draws nearer and nearer.
• Despite the oil embargo shocks of the 1970s, the political class has done nothing to give us a national, coherent energy strategy and plan.
• Despite over ten million illegal aliens in the country, the political class has done nothing to establish a sane, compassionate, and economically advantageous immigration strategy.

As you can see, we probably can expect no pre-emptive political class action on the drug cartel violence issue until it becomes either fatal or an emergency in some dramatic way. One of my new favorite sayings, from Andrew Glasow, goes as follows: "One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a  problem before it becomes an emergency." Under this definition, it has been a long time since we have had any leaders in this country.

Several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," would be a good start in addressing this up and coming emergency. Step 26 provides a process to take a ground up look at the root causes of the drug cartel violence, namely the drug abuse and usage situation within the United States, and provide options of what should be done to attack those root causes.

However, until we implement the many steps in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" that clean up our political processes to a point that these processes start generating real political leaders,  the drug abuse and other major issues of our times will continue to be addressed only after they become emergencies.




Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/

Unrelenting Drug Cartel Violence and Untenable Solutions From the Political Class

It never seems to end - continuing and increasing violence in Mexico as a result of drug cartel violence and operations. Consider the latest from this unending violence:


- The Associated Press (AP) reported on February 18, 2011 that four men, who had their hands and feet tied together and their heads covered in duct tape, were thrown over a bridge and plunged to their death 600 feet below. Reports at the scene indicated that the four were alive when they were tossed over the side of the bridge. Authorities believe that this was just another escalation in the drug cartel wars in Mexico. These four were just some of the 13 people that had been killed that same day in the same area.


The same article also reported that Mexican soldiers killed eight suspected drug cartel members in two fights outside of Monterrey when the soldiers encountered people with high powered rifles and a grenade launcher. In yet another incident, when gunmen fired on soldiers in Juarez, a firefight erupted that resulted in three of the gunmen being killed. In total, 35,000 people have been killed in Mexico since the President of Mexico deployed troops and federal police four years ago to fight the cartels.

- The AP reported on February 20, 2011 that twelve taxi drivers or their fares had been killed in drug cartel related violence in Acapulco. Police announced that four suspects had been taken into custody and were believed involved with the attacks. They were armed with guns, a grenade, and machete that they may have used to decapitate some of the victims.

- A U.S. Federal agent was killed and another was wounded when they encountered a roadblock in Mexico and were mistakenly ambushed by members of the Zeta drug cartel. The gunmen thought they were executing members of a rival drug gang. The most amazing fact from the story is that the Mexican government does not allow U.S. anti-drug agents operating in Mexico to carry weapons for self defense.

- The AP reported on February 24, 2011 that gunmen opened fire on six children playing in the backyard of a house in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Some of the children were as young as eight years old. Police believe that the gunmen were targeting the father of two of the kids in a drug related dispute.

In the same article, the AP reported that three teenagers in another town were wounded in a shooting attack on a car but that three adults in the same car were killed. Gunmen also killed the head of a police organization in charge of prosecuting car thieves. Over one hundred shell casings were found at the site of that shooting.

Further reporting in the same article reported that in Acapulco, police found a man's hacked-to pieces body in five plastic bags. And finally, also in Acapulco, police arrested two young men were arrested with four assault rifles and five hand grenades.

What a horrible situation. Kids getting killed, kids doing the killing, thousands of people killed every year over the drug trade, unspeakable violence and torture. So what is the political class on both sides of the border doing about the situation?  According to an AP article on March 3, 2011, that reported on a face-to-face meeting between President Obama and the Mexican President (Felipe Calderon), not much:

• Obama wants an exemption to Mexican law that allows U.S. agents in Mexico to carry weapons but Calderon is against it.
• The U.S. is seeking extradition of several suspects in the killing of the Federal agent discussed above but the article gave no indication that the request would be granted.
• Obama declared that his administration would continue to send aid to fight the drug cartels to the tune of about $1.4 billion, probably a very small fraction of the financial resources available to the drug cartels.
• The two leaders also discussed how they would make truck traffic easier to cross the border

Kind of underwhelming, isn't it? Lots of talk, more violence but no solution while our leaders talk about truck traffic procedures. And who knows if the two leaders would ever have the imagination and creativity to stop the violence given the report in another AP article, this one from March 6, 2011:

• Despite a concentrated effort to stop the flow of illegal guns and weapons from the United States over the past two years, the effort has only intercepted 386 guns, less than one gun a day.
• The article states that experts believe over 2,000 guns pass over the border EVERY DAY.
• In a recent 11 month period, the Mexican authorities seized 32,000 illegal weapons, just over 1% of the total number of weapons that U.S. agents intercepted in a two year period.
• This negligible result has happened even though Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated in 2009 that: "You've got to interdict the arms. You've got to stop them from going into Mexico." Thus, even with top government support, we intercept less than one gun a day.
• The government seized about $64 million in drug cartel cash in the past two years at the border, which is probably a very, very small fraction of the tens of billions of dollars involved in the drug trade.
• 90% of guns that Mexican authorities have obtained at crime and killing scenes have been traced back to the United States.
• The Federal agent killed in Mexico was killed with a gun purchased in Joshua, Texas by an American who sold it to the Mexican drug cartel that used it to kill another American.

Very depressing situation. Despite interest by the highest levels of both governments, the violence continues, the violence gets worst and more gruesome, guns flow over the border into Mexico to feed the violence, government actions are virtually useless. Maybe it is time to take a completely new view of what we are doing. The war on drugs, started over forty years ago under the Nixon administration, has gotten us to this near hopeless point.

I think that at some point in time, we have to consider either drug decriminalization, drug legalization or a shift from drug law enforcement to drug usage reduction or a combination of all three. Whatever we are doing now and however we are doing it is not working. Not when kids get killed and live humans are thrown over 600 foot bridges.

Step 26 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" might be a good first step. Step 26 would impanel a commission of smart American experts from a variety of disciplines, drug treatment, law enforcement, sociology, economics, etc., and have them come up with a viable set of alternatives that consider the problem from all perspectives, including a detailed review of successes and failures that other governments have had with drug problems in their societies. This work would be done without political class interference since their efforts over the past forty years have just made a bad situation far worse, despite untold billions of dollars being spent and wasted.

Unless we fix this soon, these horrors will eventually jump over the border and, heaven forbid, we also end up using troops in our cities to combat the drug cartels and start burying our own kids who get caught in the crossfire. Unfortunately, we are in a vicious cycle of unrelenting drug cartel violence and political class untenable solutions. 





Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.


Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment

I"m Tired... And That Is Why I Voted Republican For The First Time In My Life

Earlier this week I submitted my mail-in ballot for the pertinent Florida political races that affect me. Up until that time, I took pride in truthfully stating that I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life (I am 57 years old). However, that all changed this time around, it was Republican straight down the line from U.S. Senator down to county offices. Why the change. One reason: I'm tired:

• I'm tired of looking at the almost $5 TRILLION that the Federal government has run up in national debt since Democrat Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House.
• I'm tired of looking at the almost $44,000 per U.S. household in national debt that the Federal government has run up since Harry Reid was Senate Majority Leader.
• I'm tired at looking at the 10% unemployment rate that we have faced for much of the time that the Democrats controlled Congress over the past few years and the White House for the past two years.
• I'm tired of being called a racist by Democratic politicians like Charles Rangel and Shelia Lee Jackson simply because I had serious and legitimate concerns and disagreements with the health care reform bill that the Democrats forced through the back door of reconciliation.
• I'm tired of being called un-American by Democrats like Nancy Pelosi for having legitimate concerns and opposition to the Democrats' ill conceived health care reform legislation.
• I'm tired of being called names like knuckle dragging Neanderthal, Ku Klux Klan member, terrorist, and ass#!$* by people like Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson and Democratic czar Van Jones simply because as a United States citizen I dare to have valid and legitimate differences of opinion with politicians' ideas and plans.
• I'm tired of President Obama as he stands mute and allows U.S. citizens that legitimately and honestly disagree with his policies and to be called racists, Neanderthals, terrorists, ass#!$*s, and Klan members
• I'm tired of Democratic President Obama not standing up against some of the disgusting names that have been used to describe female Republican candidates, names that I will not repeat here, but include what a member of Jerry Brown's staff called his opponent, Meg Whitman, in the California governor's race, the name of a concert a rapper held to fight Republican Michele Bachman's Minnesota Senate campaign, what Joy Behar called Nevada Republican Candidate Sharron Angle, and what an online Playboy article said should be done to ten Republican political candidates; disgusting and debasing and the President did nothing to civilize the discussion.
• I'm tired of Joy Behar.
• I'm tired of Democrats telling me that they saved the economy from going into a ditch while they controlled both houses of Congress for the past four years and the White House for the past two years or so, i.e. they are just as responsible, if not more so, for driving the car into the ditch as the Republicans.
• I'm tired of President Obama still refusing to man up to his responsibilities and failures, still trying to blame the Bush administration for things that go wrong.
• I'm tired of Democrat Bill Clinton and other high powered national Democratic leaders going into local election processes and trying to usurp the will and decisions of the people for the good of the Democratic national party, re: Sestak in Pennsylvania and Meeks in Florida.
• I'm tired of the broken promises of Democratic candidate Barack Obama, from not getting ALL U.S. troops out of Iraq to not closing down Guantanamo to not dumping the Don't Ask/Don't Tell military policy (it took a law suit from a Republican organization to get a ruling against the policy) to rubber stamping the renewal the Patriot Act and continuing other Bush administration secrecy policies to not getting wasteful earmarks under control to facilitating the further divisions within the country.
• I'm tired of the condescending attitudes of Democratic politicians with the best example being Harry Reid's contempt for American tourists visiting D.C. in the summer since, in his opinion, those that pay the taxes that support his life style, physically smell.
• I'm tired of President Obama not acting for the good of all Americans and for the uniting of America but rather stooping to the lowest and basest of political tactics, including the latest where he addressed a Hispanic audience and slandered those citizens that honestly disagree with his policies, calling  them the "enemy." Very, very un-Presidential.
• I'm tired of Democratic economic programs that have been a total failure including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, Cash For Caulkers, mortgage relief, economic stimulus and TARP.
• I'm tired of Democrats telling me that their economic programs were a success including Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, Cash For Caulkers, mortgage, economic stimulus and TARP despite the fact that second grade math can prove them all failures.
• I'm tired of Democrats telling me that the recently passed financial regulation reform act is a great bill when a third grader knows that if you do not include car loans, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac in any kind of financial reform you have reformed nothing of consequence.
• I'm tired of Democratic President Obama circumventing the Constitutional checks and balance system via Congressional review of major government appointments by establishing his own politburo of czars.
• I'm still tired of Joy Behar.
• I'm tired of the campaign costs being expended to execute this latest election cycle with the most current estimates calculating that approximately $4 million will be spent per open Congressional seat.
• I'm tired of election campaigns dedicated to  childish personal attacks and not issue debate and analysis.
• I'm tired of having to decide what "side" each news outlet is on and then try to filter their prejudices appropriately in order to get to two things I like to call the truth and reality.
• I'm already tired of the talk about the President's plans and positioning for the next Presidential election in 2012, as if we do not have enough problems to address in this country today and tomorrow, why would any true leader and statesman be already worried about his or her political future two years down the road?
• I'm tired of this Democratic run administration and Democratic Congress being as incompetent as all other administrations and Congresses with this one unable to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf for months, unable to fix the economy, allowing government program fraud and corruption to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every year, and running up record spending deficits while critical issues like failing public schools, rising health care costs, illegal immigration, the rapidly insolvency of Social Security and Medicare, the lost war on drugs, and the lack of a national energy strategy go unaddressed and unsolved.
• I'm tired of Democratic President Obama being nothing more than a typical Chicago/Cook County/Illinois politician and not the great hope and national unifier he originally presented himself as.

As you can see, I am plenty tired. I am also plenty ticked off and disappointed. The country has never been more divided and more in debt, two aspects of life that I put firmly at the feet of Democratic President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the rest of the Democrats. As I stated above, they have actually been driving the car for the past four years. If Bush had it going in the wrong direction, they certainly have turned it in a worse direction.

I know my Democratic friends that have not already seen the light and gotten tired of where this country is today will not be happy with my voting decision. To them, I ask them to carefully reread the points above and consider a professional Brazilian clown who recently got elected to the Brazilian National Congress. His platform: how much worse could it get if he was elected. Same principle applies here: how much worse could it get? Record national debt, a bitterly divided country, no issues addressed or solved, name calling that borders on disgusting and pornographic, respect for diversity of opinions and other ideas out the window.

Republicans, your turn, but I will tire very quickly of you also unless you heed the reasons for my malaise above.

P.S. I am still very tired of Joy Behar.



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/

Political Class Insanity - September, 2010 Edition

This week I received my monthly copy of Reason magazine. Reason is a great read for anyone concerned about the dwindling amount of freedom in this country and the mostly incompetent people we have elected to oversee the affairs of our nation. On a lighter note, every issue contains a set of instances which illustrate how large, cumbersome and non-effective government has become, not only in the United States but all over the world. These instances would be funny except for the fact that these situations usually show how our tax dollars are wasted by petty and often inane government actions and many times show how government and politicians actually make life more difficult for the citizens that should have an easier life because of government policies.

The following list is from the latest edition of Reason which is then followed by more political class insanity from some different sources:

• According to a June report from the Government Accounting Office, internal IRS computer systems which are supposed to track how much taxpayers owe the government cannot account for  a $5.1 billion difference between the money it thought it collected and the money it actually took in. The report and the associated audit found 41 different ways to clean up the IRS's internal accounting system, citing one instance where the IRS computers failed to correctly record a taxpayer's $3 million payment. The report concluded that the IRS may actually be breaking the law established in the annual government appropriations act because of their accounting problems. Makes you wonder whether these are simple computer glitches or we just found another source of government and taxpayer funds leaking out the door via fraud.
• Not to be outdone by the IRS, the Defense Department recently announced that it could not find $9.1 billion of taxpayer money that was supposed to be used for Iraq's reconstruction. This money was from the sale of Iraqi oil and was earmarked to be used for electricity and running water projects throughout Iraq. However, according to the article, no one agency or government entity was ever specifically tasked with the responsibility of tracking the oil sale proceeds and as a result, about 96% of these sales never made it to the designated Treasury Department bank accounts.  The audit also found that the Defense Department has no clue what happened to $2.6 billion that was supposed to belong to other Iraqi government entities. The audit concluded that " the breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss." You think?
• Town officials in Clearwater, Florida are being forced to expend taxpayer money to expand a two story structure that only life guards use. The reason? The state building commission ruled that they had to make the life guard stand handicap accessible. Remind me to not go swimming in Clearwater any time soon.
• In Michigan, a recent audit of the state's Medicaid accounting systems found that the state had made about $2 million in payments during the past two years for the care of people who were dead at the time they allegedly received medical treatment.
• The Oregon Liquor Control Commission has banned state residents from transporting their own home made beer to a friend's house to drink since the state law says you can only drink your home brewed beer in your own home.
• In Illinois, Jonathon Schoenakase decided to do something good for his home town after his friend was killed by a drunk driver. In 2008, he decided to offer free lifts home to people who may have had too much to drink and were not sober enough to drive themselves. Although his service was free, he began to receive donations as demand for this service, keeping drunks off of the road, expanded and he was able to add another car and a bus to this valuable service. Since the town where he offers this service does not allow taxis to operate after midnight, he was driving drunk people in the early morning hours when no taxis were available. Nevertheless, the taxi owners lobbied the local government to change some rules, forcing Schoenakase to get a taxi license. However, the Chief of Police refused to issue a license since Schoenakase is charged with leaving the scene of an accident and will go on trial in October. In the meantime, his Good Samaritan service for dunks has  been shut down and the drunks now have to get themselves home when the clubs and bars close, without taxi service and without Schoenakase. 
• Fifteen years ago, Washington state resident Dan Wheeler had his wallet stolen. The thief was eventually arrested of a sex offense but booked under Wheeler's name off of the stolen wallet ids. That oversight landed Wheeler on the state's sex offender list, from which he is unable to extradite himself. The reason: The state officials responsible for the list are worried that the offender who stole his wallet might continue to use his id as an alias sometime in the future. Huh?
• Whenever the state government of California is late passing its annual budget, which is about every year, the state, by law, is required to knock down every state employee's pay rate to the Federal minimum wage level until the state budget is passed. However, the state controller says that it impossible to do from a payroll system perspective because the software is too old, dating from 1970. However, independent observers report that while the controller claims the software cannot be adjusted to reduce pay rates, it has been adjusted since 1970 to handle pay raises, union dues, changes to tax withholding and other software changes. Thus, from a taxpayer perspective in California, it is impossible to reduce wages of state employees because the software is too old but it is possible to raise their wages. At this point, given that the state has not passed a budget and pay rates have not been dropped, every state employee is now being paid illegally under California law.

So let's review. Government wages can only go up, they cannot go down even if it breaks the law. Federal government accounting systems absolutely stink, resulting in billions of taxpayer dollars lost or unaccounted for every year. Do not lose your wallet or take your home made beer over to a friend's house to drink, you would become a person of criminal interest in the eyes of the political class and the governments that they run. And worse of all, do not try to be a good person and save people from themselves or the others they may hurt by driving drunk. This is what government is doing to us today and the worse part, we pay for this pettiness and incompetence.

Moving outside of the realm of Reason magazine, consider the following two instance of political class insanity:

• It has been reported this week in various news outlets that Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman has been named by the United Nations as the ambassador for extraterrestrial life forms. Thus, if aliens from outer space ever arrive, you should bring them directly to Ms. Othman. Talk about screwed up priorities at the UN, let's not worry right now about the sad shape of Haiti, many, many months after an earthquake ddevastated the country. those tents where many of the Haitians are living right now should hold up for at least another six months or so. Let's not worry about the genocide and suffering in Dafur and the Sudan. Those people are used to starving by now. Let's not worry about the nut cases in charge in Iran getting nuclear bomb capability, they're good guys. But, lets move immediately on this appointment in case those aliens from outer space arrive soon, we need a process to handle our relations with these unknown ETs.
• Earlier this week, four mayors from Mexican border towns met with the mayor of San Diego to discuss mutual problems their towns and cities face relative to illegal immigration and drugs. One of the outcomes from the conference was the observation from one of the Mexican mayors that the Untied States was responsible for a great deal of the violence going on in these border towns since this is where the U.S. deports illegal Mexican immigrants to. Let me get this straight: we round up violent Mexican criminals inside our borders, send them back to Mexico, and we are responsible for the violence and carnage that is currently going on in the Mexican drug cartel wars? Does he think it would be better to keep the violent and criminal illegal aliens in our cities? The statement did ask that the deportation of illegal criminals back to Mexico be done to send them to other places in Mexico, at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer, i.e. rather than busing the illegals across the border to Mexico, we should fly them back to wherever they originally came from in Mexico. It is unclear form the news reports whether we should use private planes or commercial flights to return the illegal criminals to their hometowns.

Further review: people starving and homeless have a lower priority at the United Nations than the potential for not being ready for ET's arrival. And, we are responsible for the actions of citizens in another country after we send them back for being in our country illegally? You have to love the insanity.

Unfortunately, screwed up priorities and bum accounting systems that always seem to shortchange the American taxpayer is truly the insanity that we deal with every day. Insanity that never gets around to solving real problems that real Americans face every day: unemployment, failing public schools, the failed war on drugs, high national debt, high taxes, etc.



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Screwed Up Government Priorities, Case #2 - "Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf.."

Yesterday we discussed the first in a series of posts regarding how screwed up our government's priorities are. We saw that while the political class spends almost $16 billion a year in local earmarks for their local states and districts and to generate campaign funds for their re-election, the same political class spends only about $2 billion a year on cancer research, a set of diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. How screwed up is that priority: better to get re-elected then save American lives.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Today we will look at a second set of screwed up priorities, namely the whole situation with the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico. As an upfront disclaimer, let me state that I find the actions of BP leading up to, during, and after the explosion on their oil rig to be shortsighted, despicable, and inadequate. They took short cuts and probably violated a number of Federal safety statues and laws. Over 60 days later they still have not plugged the leak and really have no other plan in place to stop it for at least another couple of months. They should be held accountable for the damage and safety violations to the fullest extent of current law.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Unfortunately, over the past week or so, the political class has gotten itself and their egos involved in the process. A White House meeting was held with Obama and his staff and the Chairman and CEO of BP. CEO Tony Hayward later went over to get beat up at Congressional hearings by Congress people that probably had no idea of what they were talking about except that it made them feel good in front of the cameras. And, there is no doubt that Hayward probably deserved some of the beat down since it is obvious that under his watch, BP was not prepared for what happened. However, rather than beat up the head of the cleanup, could we have not waited a little while to crucify him in public? Would not his time have been better spent working on the problem, the continuing spill, rather than jetting to DC? There is plenty of time to get a pound of flesh after the hole is plugged.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Anyway, Mr. Hayward is not the only one who should be crucified because of this disaster. What about Interior Secretary Salazar. I would like to get him on the stand and ask him the following questions:

• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered at least one of your employees responsible for oil rig safety has admitted that he used crystal meth and may have been under the influence the next day at work and that others have admitted to being users of illegal drugs. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your employees received hunting and fishing trips and other gifts from the same companies that your department was supposed to be regulating and inspecting. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation has uncovered numerous occurrences where your inspectors were actively inspecting oil company sites for safety at the same time they were negotiating for jobs at those very companies. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, an Associated Press report mentions a 2008 report by the Interior department's inspector general that "decried a culture of ethical failure" and conflicts of interest at the responsible Interior agency. Did this culture have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch and how have you addressed this problem?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that an internal investigation found that some local employees in your Lake Charles, La. office had a significant amount of pornography on their government computers. Did that have anything to do with safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that your department conducted sixteen fewer safety inspections at the BP oil rig than it should have. Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr.Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that safety regulation of the Gulf wells is so lax that "some key safety aspects on rigs are decided almost entirely by the companies doing the work." Did that have anything to do with the safety laxity on your watch?
• Mr. Secretary, the Associated Press has reported that the overall BP safety plan and the safety plan specifically for the rig that exploded never had a chance of being successful, even on paper, and was riddled with inaccuracies, falsehoods, and inadequate preparation for the disaster. Who is responsible for such a lousy plan and document and will there be repercussions for those responsible?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Secretary Salazar is not he only person I would want to grill as an American citizen. I would allow Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Jeff Bingaman, the chairman in Congress who chair committees on energy, to be put on the stand together for the following questions:

• Gentlemen, given the myriad of failures discussed with Mr. Salazar above, how come your committees were so lax in their oversight of the energy safety issues on Gulf drilling rigs?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, have either of you ever been on an oil rig?
• Gentlemen, given that your committees are responsible for Gulf drilling rigs, are either of you familiar with the Federal safety regulations? I particularly address this to you, Mr. Waxman, since you have already admitted you have not read the entire Cap And Trade legislation even though you are a co-sponsor. Have either of you read the safety regulations of oil rigs?
• Gentlemen, according to a recent Washington Post article that was summarized in the June 25, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, there are currently only 62 inspectors assigned to oversee 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, or about one inspector for every 64 wells or so while in 1985 there were 55 inspectors for about 400 oil rigs or about one inspector for every seven or eight rigs. Do you accept some of this responsibility for underfunding the need to have more inspectors?
• Gentlemen, Washington has been abuzz about energy and climate change legislation lately. Wouldn't it be wiser in the short term to worry about the continued leak than to focus on a long term energy/climate bill?

Meanwhile, oil continued to spill into the Gulf...

And finally, I would like to sit with President Obama and ask him a few questions:

• Mr. President, you have proclaimed that you and your administration are on top of the situation but since the spill began it has been reported that you traveled to California three times for political fundraisers, played at least seven rounds of golf, took two vacations, participated in several photo ops with athletic teams, and did not meet with Hayward until about the eighth week of the crisis. Is that your definition of being on top of the situation?
• Mr. President, Tony Hayward has taken a lot of heat this weekend because he took time off to attend a yacht race back in Europe. Should you have taken the same amount of heat for taking time off to go to a baseball game Friday night even though the oil leak continues?
• Mr. President, will you prosecute, fine, fire, or take an disciplinary action against government employees who failed in their assigned duties to oversee and regulate the drilling activities in the Gulf?
• Mr. President, why is it taking so long for local governments to get help and permission to stem the tide of oil that is washing over their shores? Why didn't the Army Corp. of Engineers have a contingency plan ready rather than deny permission for sand berms and other actions until they "studied" the implications? Shouldn't that study have been done prior to the disaster?
• Mr. President, why have you not asked for a waiver of the Jones Act so that willing countries can donate their equipment to help with the clean up? Could it be you want to delay the clean up and prolong the problem in order to get the legislation passed that you want?
• Rather than publicly browbeat the very people technically and logistically responsible for stopping the leak last week, would it have not been a better approach to lay off for just a little while and let them focus on stopping the leak and then bring them to Washington for your photo op and thrashing of BP, after the leak was stopped?

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

Let's face, this is a disaster of epic proportions. From BP's shortcuts to save a little money and time and flaunting of standard safety protocols to the inadequate Federal oversight and focus on not stopping the leak the leak at all costs, we have never seen anything so disgusting in our lives. And where are the government's priorities? Congressmen and women anxious to show their indignation on television when it was obvious most of them did not know what they a were talking about. Other politicians trying to get their favorite energy and environmental legislation passed while losing focus on the core problem: stop the darn leak. That should be the only priority right now. The TV grandstanding, the press conferences, the feigned indignation, working for passage of legislation, that can all wait under we stop the leak.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...

This is just another reason why term limits (Step 39 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government") and ousting the incumbents in November is so important. Long time politicians get to comfortable in their positions and allow laxity to enter into their administering and governing. Regulations are passed but not enforced. Employees are hired but no trained or supervised properly. A crisis occurs and the political class looks at a way to leverage the disaster rather than fixing the disaster. Not only should the top management at BP be replaced but Salazar, Waxman, Bingaman, and all politicians sitting on the committees responsible for oversight of the Gulf drilling need to be removed from their committee and subcommittee posts (Step 34). In real life, if you screw up, there are consequences. Should be the same way in government. Allow an epic environmental disaster to occur on your watch, a disaster that was totally preventable, get removed from your committee post.

Meanwhile, oil continues to spew into the Gulf...



Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

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"I Love It When A Plan Comes Together" - Words You Will Never Hear From BP or The Obama Adminstration

Given that a new movie about the television show "The A-Team" is coming out this summer, I thought it might be appropriate to recall this famous line ("I love it when a plan comes together.") from the TV show and apply it to the oil spill in the Gulf, which is now more than 50 days old. According to an Associated Press report from June 9, 2010 by Holdbrook Mohr, the BP contingency plan for dealing with a runaway well and oil spill did not quite come together:

• The contingency plan listed Professor Peter Lutz, a national wildlife expert, as a person to contact in case of a well disaster but..... he died in 2005.
• The contingency plan listed Professor Lutz's university as the University of Miami but.. the professor left the University of Miami almost 20 years ago.
• The contingency plan listed several names of Texas A&M professors who were marine life experts but.... their names and phone numbers were wrong.
• The contingency plan listed "sensitive biological resources" in the Gulf including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals but.... none of these species exist in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan stated that BP had the "capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst case discharge but.... that is obviously not the case as we are now in the eighth week and oil is still discharging and hitting the beaches in the Gulf.
• The contingency plan assumed that fish, animals, and birds would escape damage in a spill but.... that is obviously not the case if you follow the images from the Gulf.
• The contingency plan listed a company that BP uses for spill cleanups but.... the listed website for that company in the plan links to a defunct Japanese language website page.
• The contingency plan made no mention of the Gulf's Loop Current but... that current is expected, by all experts, to carry the remnants for the spill out into the Atlantic and possibly over to Europe.
• The contingency plan assumed that BP would be able to put together enough resources to block off the beaches but... within a few weeks of the spill, beaches were being fouled from Louisiana to Florida.
• The contingency plan and its underlying model estimated only a 21% chance that a spill would reach the Louisiana beaches within a month but.... those beaches were hit hard within nine days.
• The contingency plan did consider different orders of magnitude of the spill since they said they were planning for the worst case scenario but.... they could not handle this worst case scenario.
• The contingency plan states there would be no shortage of resources to fight a spill but.... there were not enough booms (floating lines of plastic to hold in oil on the surface); Alabama claims its beaches were fouled because of the limited number of booms that were deployed elsewhere.
• The contingency plan assumed that the booms would be properly deployed but.... out-of-state contractors hired by BP deployed the booms in the wrong places, relative to currents and tides, and those that were installed were not installed correctly.

It is obvious, that unlike the A-Team, BP had a contingency plan that did not come together and apparently had no chance of ever coming together, given how bad it was and how little it was thought through. One has to assume they never did a test run or a complete shakedown of the plan. Such a drill, if conducted properly, would have easily uncovered the above shortcomings.

The Obama administration, and the Washington political class, are no better than BP since they obviously did not have a plan either:

• according to the Associated Press report, this 582-page BP contingency plan was approved by the Federal government last year before BP started drilling this well.
• BP had a 52 page sub-contingency plan just for this specific well that was also approved in 2009. Note that both of these plans were approved on Obama's watch, Bush was no longer President.
• In a previous post and in other Associated Press reports, it was uncovered that those Federal employees responsible for regulating and oversight of the wells were very often provided hunting and fishing trips, parties, gifts, and employment which may account for the lax oversight and regulation that resulted in a 582-page contingency plan abomination.
• Given that the head of the Federal agency responsible for regulation and oversight in this area has already been removed from her job as has a high ranking Coast Guard officer in charge of the mission indicates a lack of planning and competence on the Federal government's part.
• It was reported today that President Obama has not even met the Chairman of BP face-to-face since the disaster started over 50 days ago. How can you say you have a plan and are on top of the situation, like Obama has said, if you have not met with your counterpart at BP?
• Following along that theme, since the disaster began, Obama has played six rounds of golf, has taken two vacations, has made three fund raising trips to California (he has only visited the Gulf three times which logically would say that fund raising is just as critical as the Gulf situation), has hosted a photo session with the New York Yankees, has hosted a photo session with the Duke University basketball team, has hosted a photo session with the United States' World Cup Team, and has played at least several games of basketball besides being interviewed about basketball by Marv Albert. While I understand that he has other concerns and priorities as President in addition to the Gulf oil spill, he cannot claim that he is ticked off and has been on top of the situation since day one when he allows his time to be taken up by these superficial other activities. Could he have at least canceled one round of golf to work out a plan with the chairman of BP?
• Congress is no better in being out in front of this situation. Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) and Senator Barbara Boxer (California) have asked that a criminal investigation be launched. The source of Nelson's information? The AP report listed above. Thus, Senators Nelson and Boxer, are you telling me that you get the big bucks as U.S Senators to sit back and react only after you read an AP report? Does not look like very good planning to me.
• While Obama has been to the Gulf only three times (Bush went to New Orleans four times within 18 days of Katrina), I have seen no reports of other Congressional members from outside of the Gulf states going on scene. I am assuming there are politicians, from outside the Gulf states, sitting on Congressional committees that are responsible for the whole situation, including drilling, energy, Department of The Interior, wildlife, etc. How can you plan for the clean up when you have not visited the disaster site?

Thus, both entities, the Federal government and BP, did not have any semblance of a plan that could have come together to prevent or mitigate the situation. Disgusting. This is a perfect example of why should no longer believe in the fallacy, and fund that fallacy with taxpayer dollars, that government is here to help you. The SEC (and a myriad of other Federal agencies) did not protect us from the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression, the Interior Department and the Minerals Management Services did not protect us from this oil spill disaster, the Federal consumer safety organizations did not protect our kids from lead laced products and toys several years ago or cadmium laced products this year, the Federal automotive agencies did not protect us from fatal Toyota auto designs (89 dead Americans so far and counting), and no Federal agency has protected us from the flood of illicit drugs that comes across our unprotected borders.

Step 1 in "love My Country, Loathe My Government" would start the process of redefining government, downsizing it so that it finally gets something right by focusing on a much smaller set of higher priorities. Now, the Federal government focuses on nothing but gets involved in everything. As a result, it fails at everything while wasting TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars. Step 34 would immediately eject all of those politicians sitting on any committee that was responsible for keeping us safe from drilling, they have failed miserably at that task. Step 39 would get rid of all of the current members of Washington since it would institute term limits. Given the above list of grievances and failures to protect us from disaster, it is apparent that long term politicians cannot do the job they are supposed to do. Lets get rid of them after one term, how much worse could it be?

I hope the A-Team movie has a happier ending than what we are experiencing today, both in the Gulf and in Washington. For once this summer and during this administration, I would like to see at least see one plan come together, even if it is only in the movie theater.

One last note: while I have referred to Bush above, I am not endorsing his reaction and effectiveness in the face of Katrina. It also was a disaster. For the most part, it is a waste of time to compare the two, Bush/Katrina and Obama/Oil Spill. Both were failures and saying one was better than another is no better than being queen of the pigs. You may be a queen but you are still a pig. Continuing to bring up the Bush presidency does nothing to solve our current problems.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.