Usually you don’t see this type of news story until the fall during harvest season. It sounds like the problem of park destruction by Mexican mobster marijuana growers is becoming even worse.

AP photo caption: In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010, Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Rick Ko walks through a camp site at an abandoned marijuana growing site in the Sequioa National Forest near Fresno, Calif. With billions of dollars in drug profits on the line, Mexican traffickers are expanding their foothold in the domestic marijuana market taking over vast swaths of public lands.

Drug gangs taking over US public lands, San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2010

SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. (AP) — Not far from Yosemite’s waterfalls and in the middle of California’s redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.

Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year.

“Just like the Mexicans took over the methamphetamine trade, they’ve gone to mega, monster gardens,” said Brent Wood, a supervisor for the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. He said Mexican traffickers have “supersized” the marijuana trade.

Interviews conducted by The Associated Press with law enforcement officials across the country showed that Mexican gangs are largely responsible for a spike in large-scale marijuana farms over the last several years.

Local, state and federal agents found about a million more pot plants each year between 2004 and 2008, and authorities say an estimated 75 percent to 90 percent of the new marijuana farms can be linked to Mexican gangs.

In 2008 alone, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, police across the country confiscated or destroyed 7.6 million plants from about 20,000 outdoor plots. […]

The Sequoia National Forest in central California is covered in a patchwork of pot fields, most of which are hidden along mountain creeks and streams, far from hiking trails. It’s the same situation in the nearby Yosemite, Sequoia and Redwood national parks.

Even if they had the manpower to police the vast wilderness, authorities say terrain and weather conditions often keep them from finding the farms, except accidentally.

Many of the plots are encircled with crude explosives and are patrolled by guards armed with AK-47s who survey the perimeter from the ground and from perches high in the trees.

The farms are growing in sophistication and are increasingly cultivated by illegal immigrants, many of whom have been brought to the U.S. from Michoacan.

The trend toward worsening plunder is no surprise, since influential environmental groups (like the corrupt Sierra Club) have been silent on this issue. The Sierra Club touted itself as an “outreach partner” when Ken Burns’ PBS doc about the national parks was shown, but doesn’t lift a finger to help when Sequoia and Yosemite have been despoiled by Mexican drug gangs for years.

The faux greenies apparently consider it politically dangerous to speak ill of criminal Mexicans, which might displease Hispanic Congressional allies of convenience on environmental matters.

With no politically active supporters, the future of the great parks is doubtful. A popular area in Sequoia was closed to visitors last summer because of a nearby Mexican crime patch, which is an escalation on the part of increasingly bold growers. It would be tragic if no-go zones were to expand to encompass entire national parks (with perhaps the exception of postcard spots like Yosemite Valley), but that possibility is now imaginable because of invading Mexicans and useless elite “environmentalists.”

Despite dubious statistics to the contrary, you don’t have to look far to see that illegal Mexicans are still piling into this country by any means available. (For background, see “They Keep Coming” Update.)

Today’s lesson in Mexo-scamology comes from Juarez residents “relocating” to safer El Paso with clever gimmicks. Of course the American border city won’t keep its low number of murders for long with so many Mexican moochers filling up the place with their culture of crime. There goes the neighborhood!

Drug war: Laser, investors’ visas allow many to live, work in El Paso, El Paso Times, February 28, 2010

They are not your typical undocumented immigrants.

Thousands of middle-class Mexican citizens, under the guise of being commuters or visitors, may be manipulating the U.S. immigration system to escape the violence of Juarez.

Note the informative statistics showing the degree of social breakdown that can result when violent crime runs amok…

More than 4,600 murders occurred in Juarez in 2008 and 2009, and the fallout is apparent in the city’s decay. More than 110,000 houses have been abandoned, 75,000 people have lost their jobs and more than 10,000 businesses have closed.

Now a white-collar segment of Juarez’s population may be streaming to El Paso by misusing tourist visas, then renting houses or apartments or even opening businesses.

Living in the United States may be illegal for these immigrants who flee the epicenter of Mexico’s drug war by moving right across the border to one of the safest cities in the country.

El Paso had 12 murders last year compared to 2,643 in Juarez. New York City, with eight times the population of Juarez, had 466 homicides in 2009.

America’s stock is up in Mexico, despite the tanking economy. A Pew poll from last fall of Mexicans found that “Close to six-in-ten (57%) say that people who move from Mexico enjoy a better life in the U.S., up from 51% in 2007.”

So declining America looks good from the crime-hole of the hemisphere. Isn’t that heartwarming?

The big cheese American Conservative Union (CPAC) recently hosted its annual conference, attended by enthusiastic thousands. Its main immigration panel was titled Saving Freedom from Obama’s Immigration Plan, even though the Obie amnesty is not much different from the Bush model.

The CPAC panel was “diverse” in that speakers included both friends of borders (Dino Teppara, Congress candidate Ed Lynch, Robert Rector) and supporters of comprehensive amnesty (John Fund, Linda Chavez). Rector at 21 minutes is the most worthwhile.

I thought it rude that John Fund used his position as moderator to dismiss the remarks of Robert Rector, but politics ain’t beanbag, as they say.

CPAC’s list of foundational beliefs bravely states “…we will be free only so long as the national sovereignty of the United States is secure,” but its institutional attitudes toward hostile Islam and immigration show a different mindset altogether.

Even Spain’s socialist government is cutting back on immigration to protect its people. Why can’t Washington be as sensible as Spanish socialists?

[The mounting cost of Spain's new illegal underclass, Reuters, February 22, 2010]

The Socialist government held an amnesty for 600,000 illegal immigrants in 2005, granting them visas if they could show proof of employment. And like left-of-center politicians elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero welcomed immigration as a way to both to make Spain more tolerant and diverse, and to ensure an aging population would be able to continue to afford its social security system.

The government once spoke of how immigration could increase Spain’s population by 50 percent to 66 million.

Now unemployment is around 18 percent — and 10 percentage points higher among foreign workers — it is changing its tune.

It has drastically cut back on working visas, tightened rules on family reunification and offered money to migrants wanting to leave Spain. In a stark departure from its previous talk of diversity, the government put up billboards featuring dark-skinned people and the question “Thinking of going home?”

Remember there are seven to eight million jobs held by illegal aliens, the liberation of which would free up that employment for citizens. Plus, Washington’s legal immigration on auto-pilot continues to welcome more than one million additional workers annually. Why?

It took jurors only four hours to determine the guilt of the much-arrested Guatemalan man who killed three-year-old Marten Kudlis (shown) and two adult women. The jury apparently rejected the crude defense that blamed one of the victims and tried to suggest that the illegal alien driver might actually have been a passenger, even though his DNA was found on the driver side of the speeding vehicle.

Man convicted in 3 deaths at Colo. ice cream shop, San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 2010

An illegal immigrant was convicted Tuesday in a crash that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy inside an ice cream shop.

Jurors found Francis Hernandez, 25, of Guatemala guilty of vehicular homicide and other charges.

Prosecutors said Hernandez was driving an SUV at twice the speed limit when it crashed into a pickup truck, which in turn crashed into an ice cream store in the east Denver suburb of Aurora in September 2008.

The case sparked calls for immigration reform after Hernandez avoided deportation despite a dozen prior arrests in Colorado. Authorities said he used 12 aliases and two dates of birth to slip under the radar of immigration officials.

Any normal person would think that an illegal alien with at least a dozen arrests in five years was big trouble, and should have been deported long ago.

Another article focused on the family of little Marten: Francis Hernandez guilty on all charges, Denver Post.

Even though the man accused of killing his little boy was found guilty and may face more than 100 years in prison, Marat Kudlis was not a happy man on Tuesday.

“This guy is a baby killer,” said Kudlis, the father of Marten Kudlis, who was killed in a crash at an Aurora ice cream shop in 2008 along with two others. The boy was 3 years old.

“I’m not going to be happy, because I’m not going to get Marten back,” Kudlis said.

Francis Hernandez, 25, was convicted on 19 criminal counts related to the crash, including vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, and child abuse resulting in death.

The Kudlis family is also pursuing a lawsuit against government agencies that failed to follow the law and protect public safety. They may not have heard the bad news that the Bologna family lawsuit in San Francisco was rejected today: Judge tosses sanctuary suit in S.F. killings.

So forcing the government to follow its own laws remains a tough slog, and the courts are not friendly venues.

Here’s the deal: Afghans sink their own boats so European police will rescue them and they will get EU refugee status rather than arrest. Eventually the surviving Afghans will be eligible for big refrigerator of welfare benefits in Britain, known worldwide for providing very generous housing and cash. But along the way, many of the Afghans’ own children drown during their refugee antics.

The small dinghy is so absurdly overcrowded, so unstable, it seems certain to capsize at any moment. The engine can’t cope either; it cuts in and out as it struggles to shift the weight of its cargo. Now the Greek coastguard patrol boat powers closer to the floundering craft. One of the officers on board points his machine gun into the air and fires a stream of bullets.

Around 20 young men, some in their early teens, and a woman and two young children cower lower and shoot their hands above their heads. One man holds a large knife. The armed officer knows exactly what will happen next.

The man repeatedly stabs the side of the dinghy. Within seconds it begins to deflate and fold inwards, forcing everyone on board into the water. What was a border-control operation has now turned into a rescue, which is exactly what the people on the boat want. They are mainly illegal Afghan immigrants, and know their safety is ensured if they’re being rescued rather than arrested.

The coastguards have to move quickly to save them. Panic sets in as those in the sea not wearing life jackets cling onto, and drag down, those who are. The five coastguards are outnumbered. All they can do is throw ropes into the water and try to drag people to safety.

‘It’s pulling the dead from the sea that’s the worst part of the job,’ says Commander Constantinos Moutzouvis.

‘We can never be sure we have saved them all. Most of the migrants can’t swim. They end up floating dead in the sea and wash up on the beaches.[From Kabul to an M1 service station via a dinghy: the Afghans dying to get into Britain, Daily Mail, February 23, 2010]

Meanwhile, young British soldiers are fighting and dying in Afghanistan to rid the place of the Taliban. But Afghan freeloaders (along with many other Muslims) live the good life on the backs of the British taxpayers.

Below, a dinghy full of invaders approach Greece from Turkey.

Urban pundit Joel Kotkin has a new book out, The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. As an enthusiastic academic cosmopolitan, he thinks diversity is a wonderful thing that benefits this country, rather than the twisted unrealistic ideology of radical utopians. He further believes that an American population of 400 million (a doubling since 1970) will be “challenging” yet he is brimming with “long-term optimism” despite a social engineering experiment that threatens the social fabric of the nation.

NPR interviewed Kotkin for some cheerful remarks about America’s crowded future on February 8: Imagining ‘The Next Hundred Million’ Americans. (It’s slightly less painful to read the transcript rather than listen via the NPR link.)

I think Americans do have an intrinsic sense that this amazing ability to bring in and assimilate immigrants - and at the same time, in a sense, be assimilated by them. In other words, their food, their words, their customs, their way of looking at the world, their business practices, their business connections become assets for us. And I think that this is something that I find, actually, that - there are always going to be nativists and people who are negative, but I find most people are really kind of excited about that.

Whatever happened to the traditional idea that it’s the immigrants who do the assimilating? It’s not an asset for Americans to accept criminal customs like honor killing, FGM and polygamy, but globalists are strangely positive about diverse cultures despite daily reports of disturbing brutality that are social norms in many places.

The paragraph below is taken from Kotkin’s new book, excerpted by NPR.

The United States of 2050 will look very different from the country that existed just a decade ago, at the dawn of the new millennium. Between 2000 and 2050 the vast majority of America’s net population growth will be in its racial minorities, particularly Asians and Hispanics, as well as in a growing mixed-race population. Our experiment with creating what Walt Whitman described as “the race of races” will continue to evolve. By midcentury the United States will be a “white country” no longer but rather a staggering amalgam of racial, ethnic, and religious groups, all participants in the construction of a new civilization whose roots lie not in any one country or continent but across the entirety of human cultures and racial types. No other advanced, populous country will enjoy such ethnic diversity.

Americans never voted to swamp the country with alien cultures; it is a project of globalist elites stuck on their preferred ideology of diversity uber alles. On the rare occasion that immigration or related issues have been put to the ballot, the majority of citizens consistently prefer limits rather than crazed liberalism. One example was 1994’s Prop 187 in California, the initiative passed by 59% of voters which would have ended taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens but for the back-room shenanigans which thwarted the will of the people.

Furthermore, the Census’ recent projections indicate that America will reach 400 million by 2039, so the diversity and overcrowding so esteemed by Kotkin will arrive much earlier than 2050. Therefore the title of his book is a fabrication, at least according to the Census Bureau.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich has been a sensible voice in some areas, such as naming the threat of radical Islam. But a semi-recent project (started last September and new to me) — a bilingual website called The Americano supposedly espousing conservative values for Hispanics — is a venture into the dark side.

The whole concept violates one of the basic building blocks of our law and culture, namely the unifying power of English; plus it serves to normalize the gradual creation of a bilingual country, which wouldn’t be America at all. At least two-language Canada has the historical excuse, unlike America’s disgusting slide into Mexifornication anarchy via open borders.

The intent of the message appears to be purely political: Just vote for Republicans (like Newt??) and you can keep the language and objectionable customs of your homeland. However, the American people still support traditional assimilation, as indicated in a 2005 Rasmussen poll which found more than two-thirds of respondents believe immigrants should “adopt America’s culture, language, and heritage.”

Gingrich has long had a tendency to mistake his creativity with political shenanigans for wisdom and gravitas. He apparently still believes the unfortunate GOP delusion that Mexicans’ alleged “family values” make them natural conservatives who just don’t understand their true political calling. He supported statehood for Puerto Rico, believing that Hispanics would be grateful enough to vote for the R-party long term. It was no problema for Newt that Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking island and its addition to the American union would be the mother of all noses under the tent for universal bilingualism.

Here’s a video (Spanish in American Politics) from the front page of The Americano. In it, Newt says he supports English as the official language of the United States but “I’m also for campaigning in Spanish.” Only a well-practiced pandering politician could present two such contradictory ideas as a fine strategy. Every instance of “welcoming” by the use of Spanish tells newbie Mexicans that learning English is no longer required in America.

There’s more on Americano’s explanatory page:

About The Americano:

The Americano is a bilingual site that offers a different take on news and opinion.  It looks to offer a more balanced view on all the issues that concern American Hispanics today, while celebrating the richness of Hispanic Heritage.  It is a place where people can express themselves and read about similar traditional principles.

We have gathered a fantastic group of journalists and experts to offer you smart information on all the important aspects of Hispanic life.

Why the name, The Americano?

Our site is inclusive of all americanos that have come to live to the United States. Whether you are first, second, third or fourth generation Hispanic- or whether you speak English or Spanish or both- our content is catered to what unites us all which is our American Hispanic Heritage.

What’s more, the name of the website certainly plays into the handy Mexican fable that Mexes are actually North Americans exploring more of their rightful real estate.

Memo to Gingrich — Americans don’t want their country Mexicanized, bilingualized or further culturally altered for anyone’s political benefit. We don’t want to Press One for English and are tired of cheap hired help who cannot communicate with us. We treasure our national sovereignty and don’t want it nibbled away by cultural and demographic means. And if you imagine you can Hispander your way back into political leadership, think again.

Posting this item makes me feel a little grinchy, but it’s certainly a sign of the times that schools have become food distribution points for immigrants, illegal aliens and poor Americans.

It wasn’t always that way. School lunches weren’t subsidized or even provided — parents were expected to pack some decent chow in a bag for kiddies to carry in. Certainly a whole wheat sandwich with sprouts and turkey is a lot more nutritious than a “hot meal” of greasy fries and pizza.

In addition, a parent-provided bag lunch would avoid problems like demands for halal food by annoying Muslims. For example, the Detroit school system caved to Islamic insistence on halal lunches for their special, diverse children.

Plus, it’s not just lunches that are subsidized by taxpayers. Many kids get breakfast, lunch and a snack every day. In addition, there is a “Seamless Summer” program so kiddies get free food with no break.

The upshot is that millions of children are fed by the government, not their parents. The USDA reports that its program feeds 2.9 million children. The National School Lunch Program cost $9.3 billion in FY 2008.

TAKOMA PARK, Md. — As back-to-back snowstorms shuttered schools for the week across the mid-Atlantic states, parents fretted about lost learning time, administrators scheduled makeup days and teachers posted assignments online. But Marla Caplon worried about a more fundamental problem: How would students eat?

The two snowstorms that pummeled the region, leaving more than 3 feet of snow in some areas, deprived tens of thousands of children from Virginia to Pennsylvania of the free or reduced-price school lunch that may be their only nutritious meal of the day. The nonprofits that try to meet the need when school is not in session also closed their doors for much of the week, leaving many families looking at bare cupboards. And many parents working hourly jobs were unable to earn any money during the week, as the snow forced businesses to close.

Caplon is a food services supervisor for Montgomery County Public Schools, where about 43,000 children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Some also get breakfast, dinner and bags of staple foods to take home for the weekend. The snow days meant children would get none of that until Tuesday, because schools are closed Monday for Presidents Day.

“We’ve been bothered by this all week,” Caplon said.

So Caplon arranged for Manna Food Center, a local food bank whose board she chairs, to bring boxes of food Friday to two still-closed elementary schools. Officials used the school district’s automated phone system to notify parents of the distribution.[ String of snow days deprives many students of food,February 15, 2010 ]

In this Friday Jan. 12, 2010 photo, Mercedes Rodas, left, chooses cans of food that were being provided to people whose children are usually in the school lunch program at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, Md., in the aftermath of back-to-back blizzards.

When a country has too many Muslim immigrants, violence has a way of popping up. It just sorta happens somehow. Italy is learning the hard way, with one riot per month so far this year.

Dozens of angry North Africans overturned cars and smashed shop windows in an area of the city which in recent years has become one of the most multicultural pockets of Europe.

The trouble began on Saturday after a 19-year-old was killed by a group of immigrants from South America following an argument on a bus.

The North Africans, most of them Egyptian, then went on a rampage in the northeastern area of Via Padova, attacking shops and businesses owned by immigrants from Peru, Ecuador and other South American countries.

Milan’s deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, said the violence had turned the area into a “Wild West between North African and South American gangs”.

Milan’s authorities said they would start checking people’s documents in the city’s most racially diverse neighbourhoods in order to root out illegal immigrants.

Milan’s deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato, said officials would go from building to building in areas where immigrants live. Half of the 46 immigrants picked up by police on Saturday night had been found to be in Italy illegally, he said. [Milan riots after Egyptian stabbed to death2/14/10]

Below, Muslims residing in Milan (many illegally) apparently like to overturn cars.

(See Corriere Della Sera’s slide show of the riot.)