Eric Gay / Associated Press / August 13, 2009

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

June 24, 2011
Reporting from Washington—

The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.

Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.

Melson does not want to be "the fall guy" for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.

How long before this guy has an "accident"?

War On Drugs-winning-dah.

From Bloomberg.com.

Why can't we win the war on drugs?
Answer-because we can't afford to.  From Afganistan to Columbia to Mexico to the U.S. the government-bankster consortium is up to their noses (pun intended) in the action.
Wachovia Corp., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. admit that for years they have been laundering drug money from narcotics traffickers.  Wachovia admitting handling almost 4 billion dollars in drug money from 2004-2007 which is equal to 1/3 of Mexico's current gross domestic product.  These banks aren't the only ones involved in this, American Express, Western Union and others were also involved.

Well If Big Sister Says It's O.K.

From: The New York Daily News.com,/a>

The perception of Mexican drug cartel violence spilling into U.S. border towns is flat-out inaccurate, U.S. Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano insisted Friday.

Napolitano, speaking in El Paso, Texas, declared that security along the southern U.S. border is at an all-time high.

"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it has ever been," Napolitano said Friday in El Paso, Texas. "That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been."

As for crime, the image of Mexican drug violence contaminating U.S. border cities is "wrong again," she said.

Well some of the border may indeed be more secure because of recent increased security, it doesn't hurt to tag along with a couple of heavy armed dudes with body armor.

From the Dvorak Uncensored Blog:


The NY Daily News.

The entire police force in a small Mexican town abruptly resigned Tuesday after its new headquarters was viciously attacked by suspected drug cartel gunmen.

All 14 police officers in Los Ramones, a rural town in northern Mexico, fled the force in terror after gunmen fired more than 1,000 bullets and flung six grenades at their headquarters on Monday night.


The gunmen’s 20-minute shooting spree destroyed six police vehicles and left the white and orange police station pocked with bullet holes, the Financial Times reported.

The station had been inaugurated just three days earlier.

California Dreamin'

By Phillip Smith

In a little publicized action, California Governer Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The bill reduces simple possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction. This means that it will be treated like a traffic ticket and subject to a maximum of $100 fine with no drug arrest record. Not waiting until the Nov. 19th. vote on legalization he stated budget woes a leading factor in his decision.
The law goes into effect January 1. Even if Prop 19 passes in November, it leaves in place misdemeanor charges for smoking in public or in the presence of minors. Those misdemeanors would become infractions under the new law.

A Sign Of The Times

From Dvorak Blog

By Jerry Seper and Matthew Cella
The Washington Times

8:58 p.m., Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

The head of Homeland Security recently is quoted as saying the borders are safer now than ever before. These signs seem to say otherwise.

Just Doing Those Jobs....well you know the rest.

From The Portlander.

Oregon State Police (OSP) Drug Enforcement Section detectives are continuing the investigation following the arrest of a California man during a Tuesday morning, July 20th, traffic stop near Eugene in which 11 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 1 pound of cocaine was found concealed within a vehicle. Due to an ongoing investigation, these details were delayed for release until approved by detectives.

According to OSP Lieutenant Robert Edwards, on July 20, 2010 at approximately 8:45am an OSP trooper from the Springfield Area Command office stopped a Honda Accord displaying California license plates for a lane change violation northbound on Interstate 5 near Eugene. The car’s driver was identified as Ramon Juan Pulido from Visalia, California.

Subsequent investigation during the traffic stop with the assistance an OSP drug detection dog led to the discovery and seizure of approximately 11 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 1 pound of cocaine concealed within the vehicle. Combined estimated value of the seized methamphetamine and cocaine is nearly $250,000.

Pulido was arrested and lodged in the Lane County Jail for 2 counts of Unlawful Possession and Distribution of a Controlled Substance. Jail staff also advised there is Federal Offense hold on him.

Let's see what could that Federal Offense be?  Illegal alien perhaps?

The War In The Back Yard.

Just south of the border down Mexico way it appears that there is a war going on with violence to rival Afghanistan and Iraq.

July 19th. 2010
To cries of "Kill them all!" gunmen have opened fire at a Mexican fiesta, mowing down at least 17 people in an attack that laid bare the brutality of Mexico's long-running drug war.

A dozen people were also wounded today as the killers sprayed more than 200 bullets indiscriminately at the private party outside Torreon, an industrial city in the northern state of Coahuila.

Today's attack brought the number of victims across the country, which has been blighted by drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a 2006 crackdown on the cartels, to at least 57 just in the past weekend.

Ground zero for the violence is Ciudad Juarez on the US-Mexico border, which saw some 2660 murders in 2009 alone - more than seven a day on average.

Almost at the same time but in Torreon, in the northern state of Coahuila, 10 people were killed when gunmen rolled up in a trio of Hummers and opened fire on a crowd inside a bar.

The recent wave of violence includes a car bombing in Ciudad Juarez on Thursday that killed four and wounded 11.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes said that gang members set a trap using a wounded person dressed as a municipal police officer to lure federal police into a main intersection before the car bomb was detonated.

Nearly 25,000 people have been killed since December 2006, when right-wing president Calderon made shattering the drug cartels a national priority and launched a massive crackdown.


To further complicate the issue comes this shocking allegation:

By Katie Cassidy from Sky News

:MEXICAN prison guards allowed inmates to walk out of jail with borrowed guns and drive away in official cars so they could carry out drug-related killings.

Following the murders, which included a massacre at a private party last week, the criminals dutifully returned to their cells, Mexico's attorney general's office claimed.

Four staff - including a prison director - were placed under a form of house arrest while investigations continued, Sky News reported.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said.

"Unfortunately, the criminals also carried out cowardly killings of innocent civilians, only to return to their cells."

Have a Heart

What city in the world is number two in kidnapping crimes?
Number one is no surprise-Mexico City.

Number two (drum roll please).PHOENIX, ARIZONA. Yeah not Bhagdad, or Port of Prince Haiti, but Phoenix.

For all of you illegal alien apologists that insist that the Arizona law to check ID for those suspected of being here illegally is racist have a heart. The citizens of Arizona are under attack. They are finally rising up and saying were not going to take this any longer. The Federal government has left them alone to fend for themselves against the constant deluge of criminals flooding across the border.

Smoke 'Em If You Gottem.

Cannabis Cafe opens for medical marijuana patients in Northeast Portland

From OregonLive.com

I would like to say first that I believe that Marijuana may have legitimate uses in pain management and should be vigorously studied to determine it's effectiveness. I also believe the war on drugs is a massive waste of our law enforcement dollars and ruins the lives of many otherwise law abiding citizens. The government should not try to decide what other people put in their bodies.

That said, it is a little discouraging that Portland has opened the nation's first cafe for licensed residents to sit down, sip coffee, and smoke marijuana. Customers must bring their own weed or partake in the weed that was volunteered by donors as it is illegal to sell marijuana. Also customers must have a medical marijuana card and be a member of lobbying group NORML.

A number of things appear to wrong with this operation:
1. It is against the law to smoke in Oregon businesses. Cigar bars are a notable exception however they must offer only that. They must derive at least 75 percent of its gross revenue from tobacco sales every year.

2. Customers must get to and from this premises therefore it is logical to assume that some of them are going to be driving while under the influence.

While the use of medical marijuana may be a very legitimate topic, treating it as an excuse for a friendly little social club will only cause derision from those on the verge of seeing it as real medicine.. It will also cause current bar, tavern, bingo parlors and others establishments that are suffering from lost clientelle due to the no-smoking laws to feel cheated. Not to mention the thousands of cigarette users that are huddled outside in the rain using their drug of choice.