United Nation Monitors not Welcome in Texas

The United States has a Republican form of Government. We vote for our Representatives. We been doing that for a long time.

UN Affiliate Will Monitor U.S. Elections

The upcoming presidential elections will be observed by election monitors from countries that have their own issues with democracy.


The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a group that has observed U.S. elections since 2002, is sending dozens of monitors from around the world to monitor the presidential and congressional elections in the United States this November.

As CNS News reports, 12 of those monitors come from countries that Freedom House ranks "not free," specifically Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and six come from countries ranked "partly free."

FULL STORY

Can't say our electoral history has been all pure and simple. That is a fact. But then I am talking history, something we learned here as we strive  to fulfill the preamble to our Constitution,

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union

Well, some of us just don't like foreigners poking their noses in our business.  A great thing here is we have Texas.

Texas sparks international row with election observers

Texas authorities have threatened to arrest international election observers, prompting a furious response from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).


“The threat of criminal sanctions against [international] observers is unacceptable,” Janez Lenarčič, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said in a statement. “The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections.”

FULL STORY

Texan gunboats patrol Rio Grande

The failure of the federal government to uphold its responsibility to protect American citizens from the violence in Mexico, spreading over the boarder has prompted states to fill the void.

Till now, most notably, the Great State of Arizona. Well it should not come as any surprise that the Lone State State, Texas is not to be out done.


Texas rolls out gunboats to combat violence spilling over river border with Mexico

Law enforcement officers working along the U.S.-Mexico border are stepping up efforts to respond to what is in effect a war going on south of the border, where drug cartel violence has spun out of control.


In Texas, where the two countries are separated only by the Rio Grande River, stopping the violence from spilling into the United States means taking to the water -- with 34-foot-long gunboats that pack some serious firepower.

The stakes are high. Since 2007, roughly 56,000 people in Mexico have been killed in the escalating drug cartel violence. The U.S. government and local police agencies are working around the clock, 365 days a year to try and stop the flow of drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants into America from our southern neighbor.

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the Texas Department of Public Safety has rolled out the big guns: Four new “shallow water interceptors” are now patrolling the river, and two others will be commissioned soon.

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These gunboats are outfitted with bullet-proof panels, fully automatic machine guns and 900-horsepower engines. Their ability to cruise through the water at fast speeds is designed to not only serve as an intimidating force on the water, but also to fight back.

FOX News

The Telegraph shils for Iran

Whenever I read the BBC, my BS sensor is on high alert.

Here I have a warning about The Telegraph. Seems they are not above creative editing themselves. Doing a little checking on the story where the Iranian navy "saves" a US flagged vessel from pirates I found this discrepancy between two news sources.



Both Google News and The Telegraph used an AFP (Agence France-Press) story, but The Telegraph forgot something (highlighted in red).

Iran navy saves US freighter from pirates: report


TEHRAN — Iran's navy said Thursday it saved an American-flagged cargo ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.



An Iranian warship responded to a distress signal from the US-flagged Maersk Texas, a cargo ship of 150 metres (500 feet) and 14,000 tonnes, which was besieged by "several pirate boats," the navy said in a statement reported by the official IRNA news agency.

The cargo vessel "was saved by the navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran" on Wednesday, IRNA added.


The pirates "fled the scene as soon as they spotted the presence" of the warship. Maersk Texas "thanked the Iranian navy and sailed towards its destination safely," it added.


It was the first time the Iranian navy protected a US ship from pirates.


Maersk Line told AFP that its vessel, Maersk Texas, had "thwarted an attack by multiple pirate skiffs at noon local while transiting the Gulf of Oman, northeast of Fujairah" but denied it had been helped by the Iranian navy.


"Maersk Texas heard from the Iranian navy over radio to the initial distress call, but our vessel received no assistance from the Iranian navy," spokesman Kevin Steers said in an email sent to AFP in Washington.

"All hands onboard are safe and unharmed, and the vessel is proceeding on its voyage," he added.


Iran's navy keeps a presence in Gulf of Oman to protect cargo ships and transiting oil tankers and also defend the country against potential threats.


According to Iranian commanders, Iran's navy have carried out hundreds of anti-piracy operations, engaging in hundreds of armed clashes with pirates in the past three years.


The US navy patrolling the area have on a number of occasions rescued Iranian ships. The latest incident was in January when a US warship secured the release of 13 Iranian fishermen near the entrance to the Gulf who had been held captive by pirates for 45 days.


Google News

 The Telegraph

Get 'em Boys

How I hate to think it


Texas coming to the rescue.

God bless them.


It ain't enough but:

The federal government has zero interest in protecting our citizens, at least Texas is a shining example what what needs to be done.

America's Third War: Texas Strikes Back

“I never thought that we’d be in this paramilitary type of engagement. It's a war on the border," said Captain Stacy Holland with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Holland leads a fleet of 16 state-of-the-art helicopters that make up the aviation assets used by the Texas DPS to fight Mexican drug cartels.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In recent years, the cartels have become bolder and more ruthless.


They cross the border with AK-47s on their backs, wearing military camouflage. They recruit in prisons and schools on the American side. Spotters sit in duck blinds along the Rio Grande and call out the positions of the U.S. Border Patrol.

To combat the cartels, the Texas Department of Public Safety is launching a counterinsurgency.

Tactical strike teams send field intelligence they gather to Austin to a joint operation intelligence center, or JOIC in military terminology.

“It certainly is a war in a sense that we’re doing what we can to protect Texans and the rest of the nation from clearly a threat that has emerged over the last several years,” said Former FBI prosecutor Steve McCraw, who runs the undeclared "war."

And now that there is added pressure on the cartels, the drug runners are employing new techniques, known as a splash down. When the heat is on, they attempt to return to Mexico with the drugs, often times in broad daylight. And because the Texas law enforcement’s authority ends at the border -- in this case the river -- they even have time to put on their life jackets.

“The cartels may be ruthless, they may be vicious, they may be cowardly ... but they’re not stupid,” said McCraw. “They’ll adapt their tactics and recently they’ve adapted their tactics to utilize smaller loads, cross with rafts, stolen vehicles on our side.”

President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have recently said the Mexican border is more secure now than it has been in 20 years, but some along this border strongly disagree.

"To suggest the southwest border is secure is ridiculous," said Holland.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/18/americas-war-texas-mounts-counterinsurgency-effort/