The Down Range Forum

Member Section => Politics & RKBA => Topic started by: fightingquaker13 on March 25, 2009, 08:43:18 PM

Title: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: fightingquaker13 on March 25, 2009, 08:43:18 PM
This article was in he New York Times today. It seems Hillary :P has been given the Mexico portfolio and is still buying this US weapons crap. We haven't made automatic weapons since 1986, but its easier to blame us than make diplomatic waves with Mexico. Keep letting any pro-gun  Dem in your state or district know that we'll have their backs if they have ours because brothers and sisters, we're going to need them. Also if you're not hell bent on prohibition, ask yourseleves whether it might be worthwhile letting your neighbor smoke a joint if it means we get to keep our guns. Ending prohibition would end this whole issue.
fightingquaker13

NYT 3-25-09

Clinton Says U.S. Feeds Mexico Drug Trade
comments (357)
               E-Mail

MEXICO CITY — Seeking to ease a cross-border relationship strained by drug trafficking, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday and offered the clearest acknowledgment yet from an Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent narcotics trade in Mexico.

 
“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” Mrs. Clinton said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

Mrs. Clinton’s remarks were coupled with a pledge that the administration would seek $80 million from Congress to provide Mexican authorities with three Black Hawk helicopters to help the police track drug runners.

She also came bearing a new White House initiative, announced Tuesday, to deploy 450 more law enforcement officers at the border, and crack down on the smuggling of guns and drug money into Mexico.

The diplomatic offensive, which will include visits by several other senior American officials ahead of President Obama’s visit next month, was calculated to mollify Mexican officials, who have chafed in recent years at what they regard as Mexico-bashing in Washington. It seems to have worked.

Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s foreign secretary, said the new measures were “much along the line of cooperation that we have been trying to build upon.” But, she added, “there is always room for improvement in the U.S.”

Indeed, some of the Obama administration’s measures are likely to run squarely into American political realities. For example, early indications that Mr. Obama will push for stricter controls on the sale of assault rifles have already set off an outcry among gun-control opponents.

“Politically, this is a very big hurdle in our Congress,” Mrs. Clinton conceded.

Since last year, battles between law enforcement authorities and cartels, and other drug-related violence, have resulted in more than 7,200 deaths in Mexico, raising doubts about the government’s control over parts of its territory. The violence has also begun to spill across the border.

Mrs. Clinton met with the President Felipe Calderón and praised his campaign to root out corruption in the police force and the courts. She said Mr. Obama had not decided whether to post National Guard troops along the border, an issue that has aroused opposition in Mexico.

On Wednesday, the Mexican Army said it had arrested one of the country’s most-wanted drug smugglers, Héctor Huerta, near Monterrey, the northern city Mrs. Clinton will visit Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton said that in addition to sending the helicopters, the United States would help supply Mexican law enforcement officers with night-vision goggles, body armor and other equipment to battle the cartels, which are heavily armed.

“We’ve got to figure out how to stop these bad guys,” she said. “These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials.”

Drugs are not the only issue vexing relations between the United States and Mexico. Congress recently canceled funds for a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to haul cargo on American highways. Mexico retaliated by imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on 89 American exports.

Mexican officials complain about mixed signals from the United States, noting that even as the administration steps up law enforcement help on the border, Congress has cut back funds for a three-year, $1.4 billion drug countertrafficking campaign called the Merida Initiative.

Even small slights rankle. When Forbes magazine put the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, on its list of the world’s richest people, it elicited more attention, and offense, in Mexico than when Mr. Obama acknowledged that the drug trade was a two-way street.

“There have been lots of different voices from the Obama administration,” said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “Hillary Clinton’s mission is to make sure there is a single voice.”

Mrs. Clinton said the administration was retooling the truck program to get it through Congress, and she expressed optimism that lawmakers were receptive but did not give details.

She defended the decision of Congress to withhold funds for the Merida Initiative, saying the lawmakers were watching to see that the $700 million already spent was being used wisely. The administration, she said, was weighing whether to ask for more money for the program.

The agreement between the nations was most vivid in comments by Ms. Espinosa and Mrs. Clinton on the need to crack down on gun smuggling. In December, Ms. Espinosa stood by as Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, denied a link between the expiration of an assault weapons ban and drug violence.

“It is shocking to hear an American politician admit there is an issue,” said Denise Dresser, a prominent Mexican commentator and political scientist.

There were echoes of the presidential candidate in Mrs. Clinton’s discussion of America’s fitful war on drugs. She mentioned many failed efforts, going back to the “Just Say No” campaign.

“Clearly what we have been doing has not worked,” she said.

Marc Lacey contributed reporting
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: tombogan03884 on March 25, 2009, 10:46:21 PM
I've written here and on my blog about what a self defeating money pit the war on drugs has been for 60 years.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: fightingquaker13 on March 25, 2009, 10:54:53 PM
Quote from: tombogan03884 on March 25, 2009, 10:46:21 PM
I've written here and on my blog about what a self defeating money pit the war on drugs has been for 60 years.
Not sixty Tom. It started federally with the Harrison Act of 1914. If you look at local legislation, you can trace it back to San Fransisco (love the irony) and Denver, in 1874 and 1876 respectively. By the way, are we there yet? 'Cause I keep cutting and cutting and the boards still too short!
fightingquaker13 wishing he could light up fattie just to piss Sarah Brady off
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: tombogan03884 on March 25, 2009, 10:57:15 PM
 I was figuring it (roughly) from the end of Prohibition, which was also a total failure.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: jaybet on March 26, 2009, 06:03:38 AM
This illustrates the unmitigated GALL of these Democrats in power. The US government has armed the entire WORLD for decades, engaged in arms races with USSR and China in third world countries,literally filled south america with guns. Now they propose to fix a gun problem in Mexico by restricting the rights of Americans in their own home states? Idiots.

Also heard on the news how the Mexican Secretary of State was lecturing Hilary on the conditions that Mexican nationals must endure when working in the US. I've got a simple solution for that: GIVE UP being a Mexican national, become and American citizen, and you get it all. Otherwise, unless you are here legally you are a criminal and deserve any "unfavorable conditions" you may encounter.

They KNOW that it's easier to bribe the mexican army for grenades than to come into the US and find some. We have to expose the idiocy of this line of thought.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: Ping on March 26, 2009, 12:00:24 PM
CNN had this subject on a little bit ago. Saw a very nice Barrett .50 in the mix. Wow, that is really scary.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: blackwolfe on March 26, 2009, 05:48:23 PM
There was an article in local paper with a picture yesterday.  In the picture were a few handguns, some AKs,  some gernades, and some partially included in the picture unidentifiable weopons, including what may have been the business end of some type of gernade launcher or RPG.  I need to get to my local Wallyworld and pick up some of those easily obtainable gernades and RPGs.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: tombogan03884 on March 26, 2009, 11:26:12 PM
Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s foreign secretary, said the new measures were “much along the line of cooperation that we have been trying to build upon.” But, she added, “there is always room for improvement in the U.S.”

That may be, nobody is perfect. But there is a LOT more room in Mexico, (a much smaller country) for improvement. Afterall, it's not America that is coming apart at the seams, again. Course BO has only been in office 70 days.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: Ping on March 27, 2009, 12:20:22 PM
"Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s foreign secretary... there is always room for improvement in the U.S." Take a look at the source here. Rest assure that if she could live north of her border she would. Mexico would be worse off financially if all the illegal aliens weren't taking their money back to Mexico. Talk about biting the hand that feeds.  >:(
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: 1776 Rebel on March 28, 2009, 06:21:55 PM
Ran across this article today. Clearly I don't think the writer is a pro-gun advocate, but it seems to give more info on HOW BHO and Clinton are going to approach the Mexico gun running (if such a thing even exists !) problem...It wouldn't give me any warm fuzzies if I had a gun store in Houston !!!


Texas Guns Flood into Mexico       
by Tom McGregor     

Federal officials are making efforts to halt gunrunning into Mexico by putting a bulls-eye on Houston in the battle. The U.S. government has funded a $700 million initiative to strengthen the nation’s role in the war against Mexican drug cartels, which will place Houston at the central point of efforts to close down gunrunning to Mexico.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “the Obama administration this week announced a multi-agency effort to assist Mexico’s battle against warring drug cartels by hundreds of agents to gun-running units, drug-intelligence groups and task forces aimed at fighting kidnapping and public corruption.”

The initiative puts new agents into Houston to rapidly expand Project Gunrunner, a federal program to impede the illegal flow of guns into Mexico. A “large majority” of federal gun agents are being transferred to the border region in 45 days. They will be assigned to monitor the 1,500 gun stores in the Houston area, a federal agent revealed.

Franceska Perot, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco and Explosives in Houston, said, “Houston is one of the major trafficking routes to Mexico and has the convenience of the number of firearms dealers in this large city. Probably a majority of the sources of firearms recovered in crimes in Mexico are through the straw purchases in Houston.”

According to the Chronicle, “straw purchases are seemingly legal sales of firearms to qualified customers who claim the weapons is for their use, but who bought the gun for a trafficker. The extent of the challenge also was highlighted in Brownsville this week, where a federal judge sentenced 13 residents who were recruited by a trafficking ring to buy 77 weapons that were transported to Mexico.”

The ATF is attempting to bring down at least 3 Houston cells it believes that supply weapons to the Gulf cartel, as mentioned by documents filed in local U.S. District Court.

Nonetheless, Donnie Durbin, president of the Texas Gun Dealers Association, claimed dealers have no control over what qualified customers do with firearms after they purchase them. He believes the ATF should bring more agents to target gun traffickers, not raise the number of compliance officers who audit gun dealers.

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

Tmcgregordallas@yahoo.com

http://www.dallasblog.com/200903281004564/dallas-blog/texas-guns-flood-into-mexico.html
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: atmiller on March 28, 2009, 06:48:29 PM
We've been trying to get a fence built for years along the border to protect us.  Since the Dems don't care about the US, maybe they will build one now to protect the poor Mexicans. 

Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: ismram on March 28, 2009, 08:04:04 PM
Probably a majority of the sources of firearms recovered in crimes in Mexico are through the straw purchases in Houston.”

What do these "JACKASSES" do just guess????????????
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: ccd on March 28, 2009, 09:00:55 PM
Houston is one of the major distribution points for several international crime groups into the US. IIRC more than 28% of Houston's population is foreign born( first generation.) There is a major presence in Houston of the Mexican, Latin American, Asian and Nigerian crime syndicates. Unfortunately the Feds seem slow to understand that the Cartels have been in the area for 20+ years, and the 'straw buyers' are invariably linked to the trafficking of narcotics as well.
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: ismram on March 28, 2009, 09:17:33 PM
Quote from: ccd on March 28, 2009, 09:00:55 PM
Houston is one of the major distribution points for several international crime groups into the US. IIRC more than 28% of Houston's population is foreign born( first generation.) There is a major presence in Houston of the Mexican, Latin American, Asian and Nigerian crime syndicates. Unfortunately the Feds seem slow to understand that the Cartels have been in the area for 20+ years, and the 'straw buyers' are invariably linked to the trafficking of narcotics as well.
Another reason to BUILD THE DAM FENCE!!!
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: 1776 Rebel on March 29, 2009, 11:09:09 AM
Here is the latest on the ATF Project Gunrunner from David Codrea...

http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m3d29-What-does-Operation-Southbound-Steel-tell-us-about-smuggling-US-guns-to-Mexico?cid=exrss-Gun-Rights-Examiner

http://www.atf.gov/gunrunner/gunrunner.htm
Title: Re: Mexico update, or give your blue dog another hug day
Post by: THE CORONER on March 29, 2009, 11:07:18 PM
Build the wall!  Put Americans to work.  Dig the foundation deep!  Guard towers every 1/4 mile.  Anyone wanna go into the "razor wire" manufacturing business?  I can't speak that pig-latin shit language to save my life.  Don't wanna learn either!  Maybe if we could get the rich and famous to send their illegals packing; we could give those housekeeping, gardening, and other jobs to Americans.  I know, we're lazy.  It's beneath us to clean someone else's house.  But I bet there's alot of people without jobs right now, that would apply for them!

Until we slam the door shut; they're gonna keep coming.  Drugs, gang violence, welfare, etc...  Oh!  And they all think this is their land too!.......

(http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/ELECTRAGLIDE42/220107mexicans2.jpg)


Severed Mexican Heads (Drug Gangs and Immigration)
June 8, 2008

(http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/ELECTRAGLIDE42/untitled.jpg)

Mexican Drug gang sends a message to people not to cooperate with police or US Border Agents


LIKE I SAID....BUILD THE WALL!
(http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg59/ELECTRAGLIDE42/border.jpg)
But build it 3 feet wider, and 3 times higher!