Drug Cartel Control on the Increase in the United States.

The US shares nearly 2,000 miles of border with Mexico, a country that has witnessed over 100,000 drug-related murders in the last six years alone. The "war on drugs" continues to fuel this violence, and it is America's silence on the matter that allows cartel activity to cross the border into at least 1,300 of our cities. To be sure, drug cartels are now a dangerous presence on the U.S. side of the border.

Despite our political leaders constant reminders of the dangers lurking around every corner from terrorists in countries--Iran, China, Pakistan-- half a world away, they never mention the very real danger that is literally in our own backyard. American citizens--especially in rural areas-- along the border from California to Texas are experiencing a slow but steady rise in drug-related violence and intimidation.

The obvious answer is to legalize drugs and de-fund the cartels, thereby reducing their enormous power, however, that will never happen, because it will also de-fund our ruling class.



Links:

Drug cartels laundering money with construction equipment

Cartels flood US with cheap meth

Mexican drug cartels’ US stake: $1 trillion

Zetas' next boss may be worse than the one just killed

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The Civics Paradox

Immigration has long been a matter of concern to US citizens, however, recently, between rising level of illegal immigrants, state of our economy, and issues of national security, this topic has taken on an intensity that rivals that of previous times.

The United States is one of few countries in the world that grants birthright citizenship - citizenship based on where a person is born.  Many in their crusade against immigration, have zeroed in on restricting this "birthright", especially However, so it's no surprise that Dan Burton (R-IL) introduced H.R. 5002, The No Sanctuary for Illegals Act which would limit birthright citizenship to three conditions, illegal immigrant parents not being one of them.

They are called "anchor babies" -- the children born in the United Citizenship States of illegal immigrant parents -- and pressure is growing to change the meaning of the *14th Amendment so as to deny them automatic citizenship.

At the same time, we're raising the bar on immigration; American citizens are more ignorant than ever.  Barely 1/3 of all Americans can name the three branches of American government, much less tell you how each branch works, 2/3 of all Americans can't pass the citizenship test and less than half the states require courses in civics/government to graduate high school. When No Child Left Behind was implemented due to America's bottom of the barrel test scores in math and science amongst developed countries, many more school boards across the country cut civics/government out completely.  Which raises the question, if American citizens, increasingly, don't have a clue, and it's becoming tougher for immigrants to become citizens, where does that leave us?  

Of course, you can be certain that GOP politics is a key factor behind the focus on immigration. "Wedge issue" strategy -  essentially exploiting specific hostilities to mobilize their base - is many times the Republican central plan for achieving their agenda. And the more ignorant Americans are, the easier it is to skew public understanding and feed them misinformation.

The frightening aspect, in an atmosphere of public ignorance and apathy, is that liars go unchecked; glitzy superficial, sensationalized 24/7 news streams replace real journalism; truth is replaced with propaganda; and ultimately, the unenlightened masses ring the death knell of democracy.

So,  is the decline of civic learning in American schools a coincidence or a conspiracy, or a combination of the two?  Is it reasonable to deduct that if the outcome benefits a certain group of people, that that outcome was planned, or is it more complicated?

* The 14th Amendment to the Constitution affirms that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Following the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves, the 14th Amendment restated the longstanding principle of birthright citizenship. This right was temporarily erased by the Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" (1857) decision that denied birthright citizenship to American born children of slaves, essentially overruled by the 14th amendment in 1868.

Links: 
American Immigration Council - The American Immigration Council (formerly the American Immigration Law Foundation) was established in 1987 as an IRS designated 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, not-for-profit educational, charitable organization. The mission of the American Immigration Council is to strengthen America by honoring our immigrant history and shaping how Americans think and act towards immigration now and in the future. [...] Their motto is: Honoring our immigrant past; shaping our immigrant future.

Center For Civic Education

icivics  - Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor web site and interactive civics curriculum in hopes of "fostering a deeper understanding of American government among schoolchildren".

Tea Party Jesus "The words of Christians in the mouth of Christ." The "words" are quotes from conservatives who has Jesus saying things like: "I cannot believe that a bunch of lacy-drawered, limp-wristed people could do what those men have done in the past" regarding gays in the military. And "We could put landmines along the border. I know it sounds crazy" regarding how to deter illegals.

Texas Republicans Join Arizona's Hard-line Anti-Immigrant Stance

"They also approved a slate of legislative priorities that calls for bringing Arizona-like immigration laws to Texas, specifically making it a Class A misdemeanor for an undocumented worker to be in the state and requiring law enforcement to verify citizenship when a person is arrested."

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Meet the Exonerated: Arizona Death Row

Prison privatization, just like every other kind of privatization taking place in our nation, is becoming is becoming commonplace in the United States, and Arizona leads the way with nearly 30 percent of its prisoners housed in private facilities. The local prison industry is booming! In addition, Arizona can brag about being one of the states in the U.S. with the most death row exonerations.

Ray Krone is one of those eight men exonerated from death row in the state of Arizona. Twice convicted for a murder he did not commit, he spent more than a decade in prison before DNA testing cleared his name. He is the 100th former death row inmate freed because of innocence since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976. He was the twelfth death row inmate whose innocence has been proven through post conviction DNA testing.

“I have the ability to be angry, but I’ve tried to avoid the anger. I sat in prison all that time, and I watched people who were so bitter and angry that they became victims. At some point you’ve got to take control of your life and rise above things. I hope I won’t ever get to the point where I am so overwhelmed with grief and tragedy that I would actually give in.

[...]I would not trust the state to execute a person for committing a crime against another person. I know how the system works. I know what prison is like, I know what the judges are like, and I know what the prosecutors are like. It’s not about justice or fairness or equality. It’s absolutely wrong. Any chance I can, whether I start with one or two people or a whole auditorium filled with people, I’ll tell them what happened to me. Because if it happened to me, it can happen to anyone.” -- Roy Krone

The eight freed individuals are: Jonathan Treadway, Jimmy Lee Mathers, James Robison, Robert Charles Cruz, David Wayne Grannis, Christopher McCrimmon, Ray Krone, and Lemuel Prion.

Here are two more examples:

Jonathan Treadway (Arizona, Conviction: 1975) is another man exonerated from Arizona's death row. Convicted of sodomy and first degree murder of a six-year-old and sentenced to death. He was acquitted of all charges at retrial by the jury after five pathologists testified that the victim probably died of natural causes and that there was no evidence of sodomy.

Jimmy Lee Mathers and two co-defendants were convicted and sentenced to death in the murder of Sterleen Hill. The Arizona Supreme Court reviewed Matthers case in 1990, and in reviewing the evidence; the Court found that there was a complete absence of probative facts to support Matthers conviction. The court stated that most of the evidence presented at trial had nothing to do with Mattthers conviction. The Court set aside Matters conviction and sentence and entered a judgment of acquittal.

Links:

Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty (CAADP) is a statewide organization that works to end the death penalty in Arizona.

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