Steve's Soapbox

Thursday, December 15, 2005

* Blameit, Texas ?

Dallas Morning News Editorial

'It's Our Problem': Border doesn't keep out drug corruption

07:18 AM CST on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Texas and the nation needed a waker- upper.
The pathetic case of former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu fits the bill.
His sentencing to 24 years in a federal penitentiary this week is a strong antidote for anyone starting to feel superior after months of dire reports of Mexican corruption and chaos.
Those problems clearly don't stop at the border.
Awash in money from the illegal drug trade, our southern neighbor shows signs of accelerating social and institutional decay, most prominently near the Rio Grande. It's been an alarmingly bloody year, with more than 1,100 drug-related slayings. Federal troops moved into Nuevo Laredo after the entire police force was suspended on suspicion of corruption.
Now a prominent lawman on the U.S. side stands in court and apologizes for his own sickening level of corruption – drug trafficking, extorting money from drug dealers, bribery, etc.
The saving grace was the ongoing federal anti-corruption effort, now responsible for sending a string of four Texas sheriffs, including the brazen Cantu, to prison in recent years.
This fall, top U.S. and Mexican officials announced cooperative efforts against drug lords, whose open warfare has claimed casualties in both countries. We would still like to see the FBI list top traffickers on its Most Wanted list, a tactic that has previously delivered key Mexicans into federal custody and prisons.
The harder task for Americans is recognizing the real enemy – this country's insatiable need for a high, the source of the corrupting money.
State Rep. Aaron Peña, of Edinburg, took up the fight against drugs after his 16-year-old son's drug-related death. He told this newspaper recently: "It's a problem we can't blame on the Mexicans. At its root, it's our problem. It is the demand for drugs that causes this to happen."
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-cantu_15edi.ART.State.Edition1.186d96a9.html
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* Note From Steve,

When you visit Brownwood Texas be sure to listen for all the residents of Blameit Texas who care calling in to "the most talked about radio station in Central Texas" ! You'll know them by their attitudes ! They've got to be citizens of Blameit Texas because they're continously blaming their problems on someone else. You know it's the Mexican's fault, it's the Queer's fault, it's the Democrat's fault, it's the Liberal's fault, it's the Media's fault, it's Hollywood's fault, it's the Politician's fault, it's the ACLU's fault, it's the "outsider's" fault, it's the Enviromentalist's fault, it's Austin's fault, it's France's fault, it's the Food's Fault, it's the Union's fault, it's the NorthEast Republican's fault, and finally, it's everybody elses fault ! Blameit, Texas - Population - Too many to count !