St. Louis CofCC Blog

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Question:  Do you think the Saudi government would even allow a private Christian school to open in the suburbs of Riyadh?

Here’s why I ask.

Because the “War on Drugs” has been so successful domestically, the next logical step is to extend it to Mexico and Central America.  The failed and disastrous Monroe Doctrine marches on.

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON — An ambitious U.S.- Mexico counter-drug plan would involve several countries in Central America and more than $8 billion , with Mexico providing the bulk of the money, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

If Mexico is so poor, then how can it afford to fund most of this plan?

This is the first time that U.S. officials have shed some light on one of the Bush administration’s signature initiatives for Latin America , a program somewhat similar to the multibillion-dollar effort known as Plan Colombia in that South American nation.

Johnson said the program, which he called a “historic” effort to bring the United States closer to its neighbor, includes Washington supplying helicopters and other equipment but not deploying U.S. military personnel in Mexico, in deference to nationalistic sentiments there.

Anything that involves any gringo interference in Mexico will inflame nationalist sentiments there (and rightfully so).

“With some 2,000 execution-style murders this year on the part of drug mafias, Mexico is under siege,” Johnson told the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank. “This is a historic opportunity for the United States to cement closer ties with its closest Latin American neighbor and encourage a sea change in law enforcement capabilities.”

(snip)

Johnson called the new program a “regional security cooperation partnership.”

The fundamental premise of this counter-drug plan is not that drug trafficking between countries should be dealt with unilaterally by each country’s government, but that each country in this pact should harmonize their policy for a common transnational purpose, as if sovereign nations are merely provinces within a more encompassing institution.  NAU trial run, anyone?

But Johnson also appeared to hedge his comments, saying the Pentagon didn’t contemplate working with the Mexican military “directly and certainly not on things that would be considered law enforcement roles”— leaving open a possible role for private U.S. contractors.

Oh, I get it now.  Another Halliburton hustle.

Johnson said the Bush administration plans to include “big-ticket items,” such as helicopters, in an unspecified defense appropriation fund. There’s talk of including the package in an Iraq spending bill.

Hmm, we see how well helicopters worked in Somalia.  Get ready for Black Hawk Down II.

The Mexicans wanted to know when the proposal could be taken up in Congress and its level of support, said Rep. Ed Pastor , D-Ariz. He said the delegation was told that Mexican political parties are “pretty much in agreement” in supporting the initiative.

“They’re very sensitive about sovereignty. They don’t want this to be another Plan Colombia,” Pastor said, noting that the Mexicans said this wasn’t an assistance package but a mutually beneficial arrangement to keep drugs out of the United States

Both sides also want to set this issue apart from the immigration debate, he added.

This coming from an open-borders fanatic like Mr. Pastor.  Politicians and authorities may try “to set this issue apart from the immigration debate,” but every foreign intrusion by American assets of any kind inevitably lead to more immigration in the other direction.  Invade the world, invite the world.

Congressman Bob Young worked closely with, and participated in many functions with, the St. Louis Metro Area Council of Conservative Citizens.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Robert A. Young III, a bricks-and-mortar congressman from St. Louis County and namesake of a federal office building downtown, died Wednesday of liver disease at The Hallmark of Creve Coeur nursing home. He was 83 and lived in Maryland Heights.

Mr. Young, a Democrat, represented the 2nd Congressional District from 1977 to 1987. He worked to help bring home federal money for Lambert Field, Interstate 170, the Mel Price Locks and Dam, the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse and $64 million to renovate the former Mart Building, 1222 Spruce Street, which Congress renamed in his honor after he lost his bid for re-election in 1986.

(snip)

Mr. Young grew up in Normandy, the oldest in a family of nine children. He graduated from Normandy High School and joined the Army in 1943. He took part in the landing at Utah Beach on D-Day and was in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in the Battle of the Bulge; he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Returning home, he joined Pipefitters Local 562, the union of his father and future father-in-law. Then and now, Local 562 was influential in local Democratic politics. He married the former Irene Slawson in 1947 and moved to St. Ann about 1950.

He was elected Democratic committeeman of Airport Township in 1952 and, four years later, was elected state representative for the St. Ann area. In 1962, he was elected to the Missouri Senate.

In Jefferson City, his close allies included two fellow fitters who also had married sisters of his wife — former representatives Patrick Hickey and the late Patrick O’Connor. The three men were known in the Capitol as the fitter triumvirate.

As a state lawmaker, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the St. Louis Community College system and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Mr. Young served in the state Senate until 1976, when he was elected congressman by his North County base. He was a blue-collar Democrat of the old school — 100 percent pro-labor, a strong opponent of abortion and generally conservative on other social issues. Never much of a floor debater, he worked his key positions on House committees to become a point man for regional products, including the building named after him, which is in the 1st Congressional District.

He co-founded the Congressional Blue Collar Caucus and, in 1981, was honored as “Construction Industry Man of the Year” by Pride of St. Louis, an organization of contractors and trade unions.

Bob Young was the most conservative member of the Congressional delegation from St. Louis for the balance of his time in the House.  And how did the Democrats in Missouri reward him, after all the work he did for them?  They redistricted the 2nd district into Republican hands in order to protect Bill Clay’s 1st district.  It was a testament to Bob Young’s conservatism that he was able to hang on to win re-election in an overwhelmingly Republican district in 1982 and 1984.  That district went through the decidedly less conservative Republicans Jack Buechner and Jim Talent,  and the liberal Democrat Joan Kelly Horn for one term in between those two, before they finally got Todd Akin.

As you can see in this article, Buechner made an issue of Young’s “pork barrels” in 1986, but four years later, when Joan Kelly Horn beat him and held the seat for one term, Buechner’s TV ads mostly touted his ability to pork barrel for his district.

Fox News:

MINNEAPOLIS  —  A noted Somali writer, whose role in Somali literature has been compared to Shakespeare’s place in English, has been added to Hennepin County’s “Ten Most Wanted” list for the rape of a 10-year-old girl a decade ago, authorities said.

Mahamud A. Isse, 72, of Minneapolis, is wanted on a felony bench warrant for criminal sexual conduct stemming from the alleged rape.

A phone number for Isse was not listed. Defense attorney Richard Cohen said he hasn’t seen or heard from Isse in a few months.

“I have no idea where he is,” Cohen said.

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged victim told police she came to the United States from Somalia in 1995 and lived with a woman who acted as her mother in Minneapolis. She said Isse, whom she then called “uncle,” would bring her candy and treats when he visited her guardian.

The woman told police that when she was 10, Isse got into her bed and raped her, the complaint said. The woman, now in her 20s, moved to Washington state in 1997 and was back in Minneapolis for a visit in 2005 when she ran into Isse at the Somali Mall shopping center.

I was reading this story at about the same time I was surfing Netflix, and stumbled across Black Hawk Down.  You see what comes of empire building, even under the guise of humanitarianism?  Everywhere in the world our military goes, we have a moral obligation to admit their people as immigrants (”invade the world, invite the world” goes hand-in-hand for a reason).  I bet the white people who used to live in Minneapolis and St. Paul are sorry now.