Drag Roads

What you see above is a Drag Road. In Terms of Border Patrol operations, Drag Roads usually run parallel to the international boundary line - The Line. They can, sometimes, be utilized some miles in the interior perpendicular to known routes of Tonk travel.

Metal drags are made entirely of metal in the shape of a "C". This type of drag is excellent for smoothing-out "washboarding" of dirt roads (caused by yahoos driving too fast on them). The best type of drag is constructed of used tires bolted together and attached to a metal bar; the more tires the better. A six or an eight tire drag is superb for producing a glass-like appearance on the road. When towed at a speed of about 5 mph, the tire drag produces an appearance on the road that has no equal when it comes to the initial sign cutting.

The Border Patrol still uses drags to perform the necessary function of clearing old and already-chased sign from The Line and from other roads in the interior. The dirt around head gates on canals are simply raked-out with a common metal rake to create a clean slate for new foot traffic.

Once the road has been dragged the sign cutting (looking for sign) actually begins. As much as possible, it is desirable to cut into the sun. This way, the shadows created by the sun on the side of the sign facing the sign cutter make the sign stand out like a billboard.

Some Tonks attempt to obliterate their sign across a drag road by dragging a branch filled with leaves behind them. The brush-out shows up as well as the actual footprints. All the tracker has to do is to follow the brush-out until the Tonk has dropped the branch. Then, his or her sign will be recordable. For example: "I'm following a group of six that brushed-out two miles East of the Port of Entry (POE). They're 3 diamond tennies, one plain flat and a broken-line irrigator boot".
Armed with such information, Agents farther in the interior can begin looking for the same sign upon known avenues of travel.

There is much experience required to be a tracker and no one person is perfect at the endeavor. Some, though, can come fairly close to perfection. The Agent who taught me, Eli, was known for his ability to cut sign across malapai. One of the Old Patrol has written a book on the subject. His name is Joel Hardin and his book, Tracker, can be found on Amazon (the last time I checked).

This Border Town

There were songs of the Old Patrol that were written and sung by Agents such as Tommy Shelton. I can't find them anywhere and lack the expertise of posting the audio I have on cassette tape of Tommy singing them. Like Western Music, they told stories. Most of Tommy's were concerned with the innate integrity of human beings and the infrequent displays of honor among contrabandistas. This one is more current; I'm fairly certain that it wasn't written by and Agent (current or retired). Still, it is supported by good photography and an honest description of what the average Tonk believes about Los Estados Unidos.

The problem with it is that doesn't acknowledge that we know that the only place where the streets are paved with gold is Heaven.

U.S. Border Patrol is Using Video Games Technology to Help Keep Border Safe - FoxNews.com

U.S. Border Patrol is Using Video Games Technology to Help Keep Border Safe - FoxNews.com

In January, citing missed deadlines and cost overruns, the Obamaadministration scrapped the virtual border fence project, which was a system of sensors,radar, video and other technology as a way of spotting illegal immigrants crossing over.

Now, with funding from the DHS, Customs and BorderProtection (CBP) is exploring ways, through video game simulation, to make sure the same mistakes aren't made again -- and work out questions like how much fence and what kind of fence is needed or how sensors, vehicles and other technical equipment can best be used.

The virtual games allow users to track people moving across the border, see how agents respond and control outcomes to apprehend suspects.

Users can also see how many suspects have been apprehended, what resources went into them, as well as the dollar amount spent.

Ask any Patrol Agent who knows how to cut sign and chase: the fence was a bad solution to a real problem. If present-day Agents were all proficient in sign cutting and chasing and were allowed to do it, the need for a fence would be non-existent.

Border Patrol Agents using virtual reality to solve the problem is, also, a laughable matter. The problem is real and it is one whose only solution is teaching Agents how to apply their statutory authority and, then, allowing them to use it.

DHS and CBP appear to be administered by fools.

Trump appears in N.H., but doubts about possible bid remain - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com

Trump appears in N.H., but doubts about possible bid remain - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com:

"Donald Trump may have looked and sounded like a presidential candidate as he paraded around New Hampshire on Wednesday, the site of the first 2012 primary, but GOP insiders remain dubious that he's going to mount a serious campaign."

Trading one demagogue for another does not seem as if it would be a good idea for the future of what's left of the Republic. Trump is, as is Obama, a bully. They share the bully's ultimate flaw: cowardice. In each of them, the cowardice is manifested differently. In Trump it can be seen in his lack of strength for interpersonal commitment across gender lines. In Barry, the cowardice is displayed in his remarkably deft ability to play the game called "Let's-You-and-Him-Fight". He plays the game by surrounding himself with his sorry allotment of Czars who are little more than shills and Fellow Travelers of the most foul stripe.

30-Yr Treasurys Fall As Inflation Concerns Follow Bernanke, Fed - WSJ.com

30-Yr Treasurys Fall As Inflation Concerns Follow Bernanke, Fed - WSJ.com:

"In his first-ever, post-policy meeting briefing, Chairman Ben Bernanke largely repeated the earlier Fed policy statement, saying the economic recovery still needs some stimulus."

There is something fundamentally skewed with Bernanke's comprehension as to the "hows" of economic recovery. The only "stimulus" possible, in his thinking, is to spit (spend) more make believe dollars into the whirlwind.

Texas (after the initial shock and necessary adjustments) would probably be better off separating itself from the crazies and going it alone (or with other like-minded States). Barring that, the last thing the United States needs to be doing is going deeper into debt in a feeble attempt to recover from debt. If I were to do run my personal finances in such a manner, I'd have been bankrupt long ago.

Deo Vindice

Georgia County Votes to Keep Confederate Battle Flag Flying - FoxNews.com

It's a truly sad situation that this controversy would even happen; let alone make the news. Thank you, Board of Commissioners for standing up for heritage!

Deo Vindice

Georgia County Votes to Keep Confederate Battle Flag Flying - FoxNews.com

New billboard campaign urges secession | The Gonzales Cannon

The possibility of secession frightens many and seems ridiculous to most. The ones who are frightened are so disposed because they cannot imagine a different definition of why they are. The constituency that heaps ridicule upon the idea of secession because they view it as being antiquated, backward and associated with human slavery.

New billboard campaign urges secession | The Gonzales Cannon

For us - today - secession is all about being who we have always been. It is an affirmation of who we are and always have been. Before we were Americans, we were - and still are - Texans.

Gas Prices Pinch, And Obama Feels The Pain : NPR

Black Barry's continuing denial of the obvious would be amusing if it were not affecting the economy.

"The truth is, the only real solution to helping families at the pump in the medium- and long-term is clean energy," he said. "That's how we'll save families money. That's how we'll reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We've got to develop new technologies to lessen our reliance on fuel that is finite and that we've got to import from other countries."

He doesn't seem to grasp the fact that we have plenty of petroleum available to us. All of it lies within our own territory. Until now, I thought that Jimmy "The Failure" Carter was the worst possible Chief Executive we've ever had.

Silly me.

Gas Prices Pinch, And Obama Feels The Pain : NPR

The "Old Patrol"

The "Old Patrol" is a term used by the newer level managers who were, themselves, never part of it. They are too young to have been in it. Sometimes the term is used derisively in the same manner that one of "Dirty" Harry Callahan's Lieutenants described him as being a Neanderthal.

The Old Patrol was the outfit respected by just about all law enforcement agencies in the country. The Old Patrol members were not hampered by the stifling dictates of political correctness. They had a job to do; they knew how to do it and they were well-versed in their necessary statutory authority. The job wasn't over until the chase was completed and the Tonks and smugglers had all been processed.

Members of the New Patrol must harbor secret fantasies about what they have read about the Old Days. Most, I imagine, have read No Second Place Winner long before they took the written exam prior to the Academy. Once they actually start the job, they quickly discover that the world inhabited by Bill Jordan, Charlie Askins and Skeeter Skelton no longer exists for them.

There is probably a good reason that it does not: there are considerably more of them these days than there were of us. (There are - or recently have been - actual Border Patrol Recruiters ... something unheard-of in the Old Patrol) These days, Agents are drawn from a considerably larger "pool" and many of them bring with them the mental and emotional bacteria which still clings to them from those waters. When I Entered On Duty (EOD'd) after the war in Viet Nam, there were less than three thousand Border Patrol Agents nation-wide. Now, there are many times that number.

Once we graduated from the Academy, we were all able to take sworn statements from aliens and from smugglers in both Spanish and in English and to translate from one to the other. We prepared cases for prosecution. Not so anymore.

Post Academy probationers learned how to read sign and to track from Journeyman Agents. Trainees were expected to display initiative by cutting sign and to initiate a chase without being granted permission from anyone else. Not so anymore.

The Old Patrol had no such thing as BORTAC. The concept of an "elite-within-an-elite" would have been laughable to us. Once an individual made it off of probation, he was expected to do what was necessary to accomplish securing his portion of The Line ... or of The Railroad Yards ... or of Farm and Ranch work ... or of Traffic/Transportation work ... or of Marine Operations.

For those of us who lived it, the Old Patrol was simply something we assimilated into. The odd thing was that, at the time, none of us realized that one day we would be regarded as Neanderthals.

Homeland Security secretary travels to Artesia, NM, for Border Patrol ceremony :: The Republic

Janet The Clueless continues to make her presence felt among those who have every right to resent it.

Homeland Security secretary travels to Artesia, NM, for Border Patrol ceremony :: The Republic