Great question! I'm glad you asked. Let's try and put it into perspective:

 

For better or for worse, a nation is defined by it's military and it's ability to control same. Take for example Russia. Even when Russia was in the process of ceasing to be the Soviet Union, there was never any question that it's military was not only very powerful, but well controlled. The risk of a "rogue general" breaking off and starting his own empire was relatively small. Sure, some equipment "went missing", padding some senior officers' swiss bank accounts, but control over the military machine was solidly located in Moscow.

 

What about Mexico? Surely they are in full control of their own military, right? It doesn't look like it.

 

 

There are 2 possibilities, and neither of them are good:

 

1) They were not active members of the Mexican army. If this is the case, it's further evidence that the drug cartels have sufficient access to the Mexican army to be able to recruit members of the army away, and equip them with army equipment.

 

2) They really are active members of the Mexican army, illegally engaging in operations on foriegn soil. This is either at the unofficial behest of the Mexican government, or they are acting alone.

 

At this point, it appears as though the Mexican government has completely lost control over it's military. They are engaging in illegal cross-border assasinations. Whether or not they are on active duty is moot.

All the extra traffic lately is killing my photo galleries! Sorry for the lame performance, everyone.

Here's a picture of a bread line 2500 people long. Try and guess where it is:

 

 

Zimbabwe? Turkey? Argentina?

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

 

This was taken in Milwaukee yesterday, as people lined up for free FEMA food vouchers. Apparently, there was a little rain or something in the area and knocked out power for a few hours. Yup, a power failure. A few hours without electricity, and these people are without food.

Not any more, you're not.

 

Ever heard of the "Heroes Earning Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act"? God, I love those acronyms! Well apparently, there's a provision in the act that says "if you expatriate, you owe Uncle Sam some money".

 

Read about it here. You can also find the text of the law here.

 

My personal favorite provision of the bill is this one, found in Section 877(A), Subsection 'g':

 

(B) EXCEPTIONS- An individual shall not be treated as meeting the requirements of subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 877(a)(2) if--

(i) the individual--

    (I) became at birth a citizen of the United States and a citizen of another country and, as of the expatriation date, continues to be a citizen of, and is taxed as a resident of, such other country

I wonder which country a citizen might hold a dual citizenship in. I mean, the list of countries who are entitled to that right is so long...

Yesterday was a red-letter day in Quebec.

 

No, there was no miracle alternative energy breakthrough. And sadly no, Lucien Bouchard did not die of rectal cancer. But it was a great day nonetheless. Let me start at the beginning:

 

On March 5, 2007, Basil Parasiris of Lavalle, Quebec was awoken at 5 a.m. by the sound of his wife and two children screaming. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the hulking shadow of a man standing in the doorway to his bedroom. Normally, when someone's home is invaded in the pre-dawn hours, the residents are stricken with panic. Often, fear and hesitation will result in the victim's death. But not this time. Parasiris should be applauded for his composure. Instead of panicking, he calmly reached to his bedside table, picked up his loaded weapon, and fired at least twice at the intruder, fatally wounding him. By every measure, this man is a hero for defending his family. There's just one small problem:

 

The intruder was a police officer.

 

As it turns out, the police were attempting to execute a search warrant. It appears the police felt Parasiris was involved with drugs. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. The police lacked evidence to execute a "dynamic entry" search. In fact, there does not appear to be any evidence that Parasiris was involved in anything more severe than improper storage of a firearm. Of course, that didn't stop the officers from returning fire...120 times.

 

 

Anyway, fast forward to yesterday. Parasiris was on trial for the first-degree murder of a police officer as well as 8 weapons charges, resisting arrest and attempted murder (he wounded another officer). Well it turns out that the jury weren't overly impressed with the home invasion, either. While Parasiris will probably have to serve time for the weapons violations, he was aquitted of murder and attempted murder.

 

Now, before anyone goes climbing up my anus about cheering for a cop killer, that is not my intention here. If the police had actual evidence, my position might be a little different. My concern here is the seemingly non-existent standards for issuing these "dynamic entry" searches. The way things are these days, if someone sees you doing anything as innocent as buying a bottle of cough syrup, you too can have the goon squad busting down your front door. The police are given far too much latitude, and then when they do screw up (as they did in this case) and get themselves killed, they want to blame the victim. This is a problem.

 

The moral of the story? Next time, try knocking.

AOL Time Warner, that is.

 

You see, in between the hustle and bustle of chaos in Iraq, the "will they, won't they" dance with Iran, the fuel strikes all over Europe and the outright hunger riots everywhere else in the world, everyone has taken thier eyes off of a little landlocked dirtpile in the middle of Eurasia - Afghanistan.

 

It's really a shame too, because it's been a very eventful week. But rather than gorge ourselves on the real carnage right away, let's get warmed up with an aparatif first. Check this out. Oh, and big shock here, you won't find it on CNN:

 

 

Apparently, 2 dozen guys on motorcycles and 2 suicide bombers rolled up to one of the most heavily fortified prisons in all of Afghanistan, (right in the heart of the capital city, no less) and busted out 80% of the population - nearly 800 people, including some 350 members of the Taliban. Apparently, the only people who didn't escape were people who were either injured in the attack, or were too old to run. Who the hell is in charge of security over there, the Keystone Kops?

 

As if that wasn't bad enough, I present you with an appitizer:

 

 

It looks like the last horse, the RAND corporation, has finally crossed the finish line. And just think - these clowns hoover up millions of dollars per year at the federal trough to poop out reports like this, which basically say what we I have been saying for years...FOR FREE. Check out this little snippet:

 

Wow, it sure is a good thing those folks at RAND are on top of these things, or we might have a problem... Specifically, we might have a problem digesting the main course:

Pakistan: Pro-Taliban chief ready to fight Americans

That's right. Powerful tribal elders like Baitullah Mehsud are threatening to use nuclear weapons on UN forces in Afghanistan. This comes at a time when yet another of Musharraf's political enemies are literally calling for his head. And this isn't even some radical from outside Islamabad like Mehsud, either. Nawaz Sharif is a member of Musharraf's own party.

As predicted right here on this blog, Afghanistan (and more specifically, it's relationship with Pakistan) are the sleeper hit of the summer. It's like a dystopian "American Pie". Oh, and speaking of pie, here's your dessert:

Pakistan: Taliban Claims to Have Foiled NATO Attack

"Pakistani security forces were under siege and were almost forced to evacuate the military post by the NATO troops, when we opened fire on them from multiple positions," Mujahid told AKI. "Our attack was so unexpected for NATO that they had to retreat."

Yes you read that right. Our enemies are stepping up to defend our allies from attacks perpetrated by us.

Bon apitite.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, someone comes along and drops this cinder block on your head: