There’s more bad news from the crackhouse country next door: Presidente Calderon’s military offensive against Mexico’s drug cartels is losing ground rather than gaining it. The possibility of a failed state is becoming more likely. (And American taxpayers’ $1.4 billion in military aid, aka the Merida Initiative, has been flushed down a rathole.)

What’s interesting in this thorough report is how it describes a real war scenario in which territory is surrendered by local officials to the gangsters, with the cartels taking over some of the functions of government as it suits them.

Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico becoming ‘narco-state’, Arizona Republic, February 7, 2010

MEXICO CITY - For months, the leaders of Tancitaro had held firm against the drug lords battling for control of this central Mexican town.

Then one morning, after months of threats and violence from the traffickers, they finally surrendered.

Before dawn, gunmen kidnapped the elderly fathers of the town administrator and the secretary of the City Council. Within hours, both officials resigned along with the mayor, the entire seven-member City Council, two department heads, the police chief and all 60 police officers. Tancitaro had fallen to the enemy.

Across Mexico, the continuing ability of traffickers to topple governments like Tancitaro’s, intimidate police and keep drug shipments flowing is raising doubts about the Mexican government’s 3-year-old, U.S.-backed war on the drug cartels.

Far from eliminating the gangs, the battle has exposed criminal networks more ingrained than most Americans could imagine: Hidden economies that employ up to one-fifth of the people in some Mexican states. Business empires that include holdings as everyday as gyms and a day-care center. [...]

In many towns, smugglers pay for playgrounds and other things the government cannot afford. Bank loans are expensive and hard to get in Mexico, a lingering effect of the country’s bank crises during the 1990s, so traffickers have stepped in to provide small-business loans.

“What people did not recognize in Mexico was how deeply ingrained in both the economy and society the drug trade was,” [Milken Institute fellow Joel] Kurtzman said. “So it’s not as if the drug traders are unpopular - they’re looked at in many cities like Robin Hoods.” [...]

In March, the financial magazine Forbes included Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman in its list of the world’s billionaires for the first time. Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, was listed at No. 701 with a net worth of about $1 billion.

In fact, Guzman’s cartel and other gangs probably bring in $3.8 billion just to Sinaloa state alone, said Guillermo Ibarra, an economist who used bank and government statistics to compile an estimate this year.

That is 20 percent of the state’s economy, twice as much as all of its factories put together. The drug trade employs about a fifth of the state’s 2.6 million population, either directly or indirectly, he said.

Of course, Mexican organized crime is well implanted in this country due to decades of immigration anarchy. The criminals swim in a sea of Mexican nationals, immigrants and illegal aliens who reside here in the tens of millions.

As noted in the article, cartel gangsters have invaded America’s premier national parks and turned vast areas of protected lands into toxic marijuana plantations. But Washington has never seen the assault on the parks by Mexican organized crime as a priority for serious law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the Obama budget has taken money from border protection, reducing the number of agents by 180 and redirected the funds into the window dressing that masquerades as airport security.

So while the President is busy spending the country into oblivion and extending state power wherever possible, he is also actively weakening our southern border and enabling Mexicanization. Who says BHO can’t multitask?

But he does not appear interested in the sort of tough border enforcement that would upset his Mexican base.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there was shock and revulsion about the Wednesday shooting of an ice cream truck driver, single mother Amarjit Kaur, in Vallejo. She was shot in the chest, but it looks like she will recover.

This being California, the heinous crime unsurprisingly includes fascinating diversity aspects.

Teen sought in Vallejo ice-cream truck shooting, San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 2010

Police say Montenegro and possibly a second person tried to rob Kaur, an immigrant from India who speaks little English. Montenegro shot her, apparently because she didn’t understand their demands or react quickly enough, investigators said.

“She is a very nice lady,” said Raj Kumar, priest at the Vallejo Hindu Temple where Kaur worships. “She helps with cooking in the kitchen and cleans the church.”

Kaur is raising two daughters and a son and has lived in Vallejo for about six years after arriving from India, Kumar said. She has been driving the ice cream truck for five years to help support her family, he said.

Attention, immigrants: it’s to your benefit to speak English so you can respond to the commands of criminals.

Speaking of perps, police are seeking a 15-year-old runaway from his foster home, Peter Montenegro, who is a school expellee and a Norteno gang member. He is described as “Latino, with short, dark hair, between 5 feet 6 inches tall and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 200 pounds” (indicating a well-fed Mexican gang member).

So it’s a double-dip diversity story!

Oh, what a surprise. Nobody wants to kick Obie’s freeloader aunt out of the country, so Judge Leonard Shapiro kicked the can down the road in a secret hearing until May. He is probably hoping for a wide-ranging illegal alien amnesty to solve his problem.

Asylum hearing for Obama aunt ends with no ruling, AP, February 4, 2010

An immigration hearing for President Barack Obama’s African aunt ended Thursday without an immediate decision in her second bid for asylum in the United States.

Kenya native Zeituni Onyango did not comment after testifying for about 2 1/2 hours Thursday at the closed proceedings in U.S. Immigration Court.

“The hearing went well. She was very honest. She was very to the point,” her lawyer, Margaret Wong, said afterward.

Wong said Onyango is hopeful the judge will rule in her favor because “she really wants to stay in America.”

You bet she does! Auntie Mooch knows a good scam when she’s found one, namely preying on the unprotected American taxpayer for goodies like a stipend from the city and subsidized housing, benefits supposedly not available to lawbreaking illegal aliens.

It’s getting hard to pretend we are a nation of laws.

The headline says “Texas couple guilty of enslaving Nigerian widow” [The Associated Press ,Tuesday, February 2, 2010]

Of course the “Texas couple” are Nigerians as well.

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Justice Department says a federal jury has found a couple guilty of enslaving a Nigerian widow at their Texas home for nine years.

The department says in a statement that Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji each face up to 55 years in prison after their convictions Tuesday on conspiracy, forced labor and other charges.

The statement says the Nigerian-born couple [Emphasis added]seized the woman’s passport and made her work long hours as their servant with no days off and little pay. They provided no support for her six children in Nigeria and limited contact with her family.

The statement says Emmanuel Nnaji sexually assaulted the widow.

She escaped in February 2006 with the help of a Nigerian priest who lived in Texas.

The word “racism” continues to morph like a deadly cancer beyond its meaning of prejudice based upon skin color. The misuse in this case centers on cabbies speaking English, though a language can be learned by anyone (even immigrants), while a person cannot change their race.

Obviously it is not racism to advertise the skill set of the driver. Prospective customers want to know that the cabbie will understand when they explain where they want to go. Communication is a central part of the job.

Taxi drivers accused of racism for displaying sign saying they are ‘English speaking’, Daily Mail, February 2, 2010

A racism row has broken out after a city’s taxi drivers started displaying stickers in their cars saying they are ‘English speaking’.

Up to a dozen drivers have been showing off the notices bearing the St George’s Cross on the back windows of their cars in Southampton, Hampshire.

The small red and white sticker declares the cab is being driven by an ‘English speaking driver.’ [...]

Taxi driver Peter Ford, 48, said: ‘It’s just about letting customers know that the driver will actually be able to speak English, which isn’t always the case.’ 

Fellow driver Chris Head, 49, added: ‘I have no problem with the stickers.

‘Lots of customers will wait at ranks until an English driver comes along because they want someone they can talk to.’ 

The aim of the complainers is to remove any responsibility of immigrants that they learn English adequately and assimilate to the society to which they have moved. The squawk squad objects to the social contract by which immigrants are admitted and given the rights of citizens on the condition that they assimilate at least partially to the majority community. Speaking the nation’s language is the minimum requirement, but hostile foreigners won’t even do that.

The signs also include the English flag, but in today’s invaded Britain, no patriotic deed goes unchallenged.

This California item represents a small skirmish in the ongoing diversity wars, specifically the sub-topic of territory. Humans are tribal beings, and immigrants would prefer to define their ethnic space rather than assimilate with the values to the national American community.

Seoul searching for new name in Oakland, San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2010

Oakland’s losing its Seoul.

Under pressure from Koreatown’s thousands of non-Koreans, the neighborhood’s new “Oakland’s Got Seoul” welcome banners will soon come down.

In their place will be something that better reflects an area that some say is hardly Korean at all. The 14-block stretch of Telegraph Avenue is also home to Ethiopians, Afghans, African Americans, artists and others who don’t identify as Korean.

“When people saw the Koreatown banners, they said, ‘Where did that come from?’ ” said Mohsin Sharif, co-owner of the Oasis Market, a Middle Eastern grocery in the heart of Koreatown. “The fact is, there’s a lot more than Koreans here.”

Naturally, there is a price tag the taxpayers must bear.

The cost to install the original banners: $12,000, covered by a city redevelopment grant. The cost to take them down: $5,000, also paid by the city.

Over the next few weeks, the Koreatown merchants association will hold a series of neighborhood meetings to decide how to better define the nebulous area sandwiched between Uptown and Temescal.

“I think we need to be more inclusive,” said Darlene Drapkin, director of the Koreatown Northgate community benefit district. “If we want to attract business, we have to be more open about the different nodes here.”

The glorious promises of diversity haven’t worked out, as we see here in the Once-Golden State. Instead of a kumbaya rainbow of happy people, the reality is one squabble after another over turf.

Increasing immigration has been accumulating diversity in the far north.

Fifth of Swedish population foreign, The Local, January 29, 2010

Latest figures from Statistics Sweden reveal that in the last 50 years the number of foreigners living in Sweden or those with two foreign-born parents has risen from four to nearly 20 percent.

A new report from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån, SCB) reveals there are around 1.6 million foreigners currently residing in the country from a total population of 9.3 million.

Annika Klinterfeldt, SCB population analyst told The Local the numbers are not surprising, with the total now surpassing 17 percent and edging ever closer to the 20 percent mark.

“If we look at the trend over the last 50 years we can see growth in number of between 0.1-0.2 percent every year.

“Back in 1960, foreigners or those with two foreign-born parents made up four percent of the population. It’s been quite high for the last few years and we expect it to continue,” she added. [...]

Included in the Asian category, but not subdivided in the yearly report, are 142,053 Iraqis, 75,175 Iranians, 44,415 Lebanese, 35,886 Syrians, 27,552 Thais, 21,322 Chinese, 20,111 Vietnamese, 18 534 Indians, 14,292 Afghans, 9,818 Filipinos, 10,831 Koreans (North and South), and 10,823 Pakistanis.

The Tube below is an old Fox News segment, but it encapsulates the difficulty well. The problem is not just the growing percentage of foreign-born people, but the hostile Muslim ideology of many.

Nearly bankrupt California just figured out that it is a waste of money to give job training to illegal aliens who will be deported at the conclusion of their sentences, and who were never legal to work in the US in the first place.

A board that oversees vocational training and work programs at California prisons has voted to discontinue allowing undocumented immigrant inmates set for deportation to participate in the California Prisons Industry Authority certification program.

Authority spokesman Tom Collins said the aim of the Prison Industry Board action Thursday is to “ensure that the effective vocational training that CalPIA provides is first applied to inmates who will return to California’s communities following their parole, rather than training individuals who will not.”

The program, established in its current form in 1982, provides training and jobs in the manufacturing and agricultural industries for inmates in 22 prisons across the state.

Approximately 427 of the 5,700 inmates now participating are under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold and will be deported once their sentence is completed. Fifty-two of the 727 inmate workers enrolled in certification programs are also under an ICE hold, according to a staff report recommending the change.

Collins said he did not know why inmates with ICE holds were not previously deemed ineligible for the program, but that the recommendation for the change came up as the board was exploring options for lowering costs and improving the effectiveness of the program.

Recidivism rates for inmates who participated in the program are significantly lower than inmates who do not — 12 percent of certification program participants paroled in fiscal year 2007-2008 re-offend, compared to 42 percent of the general prison population paroled during that time, according to the report. The report also estimated that limiting the program to inmates eligible for parole in California could translate to fewer inmates re-offending and a savings of $784,000 a year in corrections costs. [Illegal-immigrant inmates no longer allowed in work program, January 30, 2010 ]

In a world where capricious characters seem to acquire more dangerous armaments all the time, consider this: President Zardari of Pakistan, a man who has control over nuclear weapons, sacrifices a goat daily to protect himself from witchcraft. Not only do dozens of nukes exist in a country that could go taliban, but its national leader has a bent toward sorcery.

To ward off evil, Zardari kills one black goat a day, Indian Express, January 28, 2010

A black goat is slaughtered almost daily to ward off ‘evil eyes’ and protect President Asif Ali Zardari from ‘black magic’. Does this, and the use of camel and goat milk, make the beleaguered president appear to be a superstitious man?

Well, not to his spokesman. “It has been an old practice of Mr Zardari to offer sadqa (animal sacrifice). He has been doing this for a long time,” spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn on Tuesday.

Oh, he has been performing animal sacrifice for a long time, so that makes the behavior a non-superstition.

But his detractors would see in his new-found religiosity a sign of nervousness in the wake of the scrapping of the NRO.

One thing is certain: Hundreds of black goats have been sacrificed since Zardari moved into the President’s House in September 2008. His trusted personal servant Bai Khan buys goats from Saidpur village. The animal is touched by Zardari before it is sent to his private house in F-8/2 to be sacrificed.

Insiders say that when Zardari moved into the President’s House, a flock of black partridges were introduced there for their supposedly magical effects.

Unfortunately, the whole flock was electrocuted when a live wire fell on their cage.

A camel, a cow and a few goats kept on the grounds of the presidency, however, survive and provide milk for its worthy resident.

It should be noted that animal sacrifice plays a big part in Islam (see The Virtue of Animal Sacrifice from an Islamic blog).

However the Pakistani newspaper (Dawn) which reported the original item emphasized the superstition aspect: Goats sacrificed ‘to ward off evil eyes’. Apparently it’s okay to slaughter large numbers of animals to celebrate Eid, a major Islo-holiday, but the black magic thing is a no-no.

No wonder India is nervous about the nukes held by its unfriendly neighbor. Although Indians are not strangers to superstition, at least there’s no indication that India’s Prime Minister Singh uses animal sacrifice to fend off evil sorcery.

In Egypt (and elsewhere in dar al-Islam), the Religion of Peace never sleeps whenever apostates are available to be murdered, as the Koran and other Islamic texts demand.

Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’, Fox News, January 26, 2010

Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment. They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country.

Maher and Dina nervously agreed to meet us at a Church in Cairo. The priest at the Church said he feared problems from the Egyptian authorities and while he agreed to have us watch his Sunday mass, the Priest declined to speak to us about what is happening in Egypt and to the El-Gowhary’s.

They tell their story out of fear and desperation. Born Muslims they chose to convert to the Christian Church after both claim they had religious visions.

Now Maher says “Muslims try to kill us, and will kill us if they find us.” [...]

In recent days the two  met with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Cairo. They asked for refugee status to get out of Egypt.

A source at the Commission says its a complicated matter because Dina has a Muslim mother and there are legal issues, but their request is being considered.

It’s hard to be kindly disposed toward the Refugee Industrial Complex, since many of the refugee claims are fraudulent, and the program has been key to admitting criminally diverse people into this country, whose cultural cluelessness guarantees permanent employment for resettlement workers.

But if America must have an official immigration-based rescue program at all, then people like the father and daughter are the sort who should be given safe haven, because their lives are at risk. Instead, the professional refugee enablers continue to import potentially dangerous characters like the 6000 Somalis recently added to the pipeline. Nobody wants more of them, after their gangster behavior and support for Islamic jihad.

Seriously, how many more hostile immigrants do we need who believe that America is “the land of the devil.” Washington could choose more wisely in these matters.

Back to the situation of the father and daughter, perhaps the State Department fears the anger of famously homocidal Muslims over giving shelter to apostates. It is far simpler for the suits to import refugees by the planeload from camps.