A New Reason For More Illegals

According to the Wall Street Journal,

"Mexican crime groups have virtually taken over the pipeline system of Mexico's state oil monopoly, stealing growing amounts of fuel and gaining an important source of new revenue as they fight other gangs and Mexico's government, according to the oil company."

I was wondering how long it would take until the cartels began to diversify from drugs and kidnapping-for-ransom.  Petróleos Mexicanos (PMEX) is the nationalized oil company of Mexico.  It is the third largest revenue source for the Mexican government.  Alternating between first and second place is the annual dollar amount wired or mailed back home by illegal Mexican aliens living and working here in the Yankee Nation.


Many believe that it is the Zetas (being employed by the Gulf Cartel) who are tapping into the pipeline.  Whether or not it is the Zetas is immaterial.  The important consideration is: how much (if any) will this cause the price of Mexican Crude to increase?  If the price does increase, will it be enough for Barry the Pretender's administration to begin to issue new drilling permits for domestic oil production?


El Presidente Calderon has a huge problem on his hands as well.  If the Gulf Cartel is siphoning-off sales and tax revenue normally received by the Mexican government, will he finally declare war on the Cartels and use the military to attempt to stomp them out?  Either way, look for more Mexicans pushing lawnmowers in your neighborhood  or loitering in front to the nearest Home Depot.

Barry Beats The Bushes

Prosecutions for attempting to enter the country after having “been denied admission, excluded, deported, or removed” are on pace to surpass 37,100 for the year, an increase of more than 1,200 from 2010. If the trend continues, the Barry's administration will have prosecuted more illegal immigrants for illegal re-entry than George W. Bush’s administration did in his two terms combined.


How can this be explained?  The Republican mantra is that the Democrats want all the Tonks possible into the country because they are all future Democrats.  If the head Democrat is racking up the "reentry prosecutions" then the Republicans might be wrong.  There's gotta be another reason; there's gotta be .....


Golly, gee Mr. President, if your predecessor was a war-mongering racist, what does this prosecution fact (coupled with the continuation of Bush's one war and three of your own) make you?


Deo Vindice

Bad Eagle Doesn't Mince Words

In a new post, my contemporary,  Bad Eagle, has succinctly stated what I have long believed about the current Chief Executive of the Yankee Nation:

"The alien, lying black African Muslim Communist traitor had succeeded in another of his innumerable initiatives to utterly humiliate and denigrate the American people."

Bad Eagle's post is concerning not so much Sarah Palin (although she is the exemplar of the dynamic) herself as it is concerned with the dynamic of virtual rape the media accomplishes with great glee.  The public's demand for this can be directly linked to the fact that we no longer have public executions.

Deo Vindice

Cesar and the Big Man

Mr. Chavez in his younger days

It has frequently amazed me, as I drive upon a street named for Cesar Chavez or past a high school with his name on it.  I wonder if people who believe that he was an advocate of the illegal alien know that he really wasn't.

He called an area just North of Yuma his home: Bard Valley.  When I first came on duty in the Border Patrol, his folks were still living - and that's where they lived.

Chavez became an organizer at a young age (notice the photo above).  He traveled throughout Arizona and California on behalf of what was, at first, known as the Valley Farm Workers.  The organization, later, morphed several times and changed its name along the way.   In the early days, Chavez' outfit was composed of I-151 (green card) holders or of full-blown U. S. citizens.  All of them were migratory workers who traveled mostly between California and Arizona.  Occasionally, they'd get as far East as the Carolinas if the work was slow in the West.

It was some time in the early 1970's that the Valley Farm Workers were having a huelga - a strike - on the citrus growers in Yuma County.  The growers, not wanting their citrus crops to rot on the trees, began to let it be known around the border towns in Sonora and Baja California that they were willing to hire Tonks to harvest the citrus.

True to union form, the Valley Farm Workers were willing to call a scab a scab.  Illegal aliens were coming into Arizona to pick citrus and to, effectively, put a damper on whatever smoke the Farm Workers' strike was generating.  Chavez and the Farm Workers weren't going to sit still for that.  One morning, about a hundred of them showed up en masse just East of the Port of Entry at San Luis, Arizona.  They spread out Eastward from the Port with one Farm Worker about every couple of hundred yards.  Every one of them was armed with impact weapons: clubs, chains, baseball bats, etc. .

By noon time, several Tonks had tried to run the Farm Workers' gauntlet - with the predictable result.  All available Border Patrol Agents on the day shift were ordered to leave their assigned areas and to report to the desert area East of San Luis. The Senior Patrol Agent In Charge showed-up as well.  Our job, on that day, was to defend innocent life: the innocent life of the Tonks (all of whom were unarmed).

The SPAIC, was a big guy; he was called Big Man.  It didn't take long for the Agents to begin herding the Farm Workers into a manageable gaggle while Big Man sought out Chavez, the leader.  Big Man spoke quietly with Chavez and asked him to take his entourage back to the union hall in San Luis.  It was at that point that Chavez lost it and, loudly, threatened Big Man's life.  Many Agents and Farm Workers heard it.

At that point, Big Man had a decision to make.  He could arrest and prosecute Chavez for the communicated threat (and make Chavez a martyr).  He could ignore it.  Or he could let Chavez know that, since the threat that was made had no time stamp upon it, that, for his own personal safety, Big Man would shoot Chavez on sight for reasons of self-protection.

Of all those three possible courses of action, Big Man chose the latter.

Some years later, Big Man retired and is still living in Yuma County to this day.  And Chavez?  He never came back to Yuma County.  Until the day he died, he conducted his organizing in California and Texas.  When he needed something done in Arizona he'd send his subordinates.  Big Man had a big iron on his hip.

Texas Singer Songwriters

My friend, Old Rebel, usually starts Fridays with some good Southron music on his blog.  I thought I'd pop an occasional offering of Texans along those same lines.  I first heard "Trashy Women" in a recording by Confederate Railroad and had no idea that Chris Wall wrote it until very recently.  Please note the Texas National Flag in the background.

Don't worry, Old Rebel, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

ANM

Sit, Aggie .... Stay!

How many Aggies does it take to eat an armadillo?


Two.  One to eat the armadillo and the other to watch for cars.


This is the man who has been our governor for quite some time.  We are familiar with his verbiage; especially at election time.  He has an excellent cadre of handlers who are masters of coaching him in all the right moves and words.

Each re-election time, Perry declares that he's going to be tough on illegal aliens and border crime.  His words are cheap.  Today, the Governor of Alamaba signed some really significant legislation that will probably cause Tonks to flee Alamaba.  Texas is still waiting for such legislation.

For all his bluster, Perry the Texas Aggie cannot deliver on much of anything his advisors have told him to promise.  Mostly, this is because Perry has a job that is fairly weak when compared to the powers of Governors of some other States.  This is good for Texas and it's a good place to have an Aggie if he's going to be a Governor: there's a Constitutional limit to the actual damage he can do.

But what if he were to become President of the United States?  He might look great and sound good to some of you, but are you really ready to have an Aggie as President?

How do you keep an Aggie busy?

Write "please turn over" on both sides of a piece of paper.

Deo Vindice

Head Wounds Bleed A Lot

Airborne and Anglico were working the Railroad Yards one 1600 to 2400 shift.  It was hot in Yuma and it was the middle of July.  The Tonks, after they entered without inspection, tried to make their way to the Railroad Yards and hole-up in a Westbound freight train.  The job of the Border Patrol Agent was to enter the Yards and eject them from the railroad cars before Southern Pacific pulled out and headed for Indio and Los Angeles.


About 2000, Airborne boarded a moving boxcar wherein he found several Tonks making their journey toward the Promised Land.  Airborne was busy throwing them off of the moving train and Anglico was collecting them.  That's when Airborne was blindsided by one of the Tonks and thrown off the train, himself.

Anglico was close by and witnessed Airborne's fix.  Fortunately, the train was still  moving slowly so Anglico hauled himself into the boxcar and ejected Airborne's assailant.

Now, at that time in his life, Airborne was a rowdy sort.  His comprehension of frontier justice was rather complete in its application..  When he and Anglico had collected all the Tonks they had thrown-off the train, Airborne buttonholed his assailant for "special attention".  To say that Airborne "wailed" on the guy would be to put it mildly.  The Tonk understood.  After all, that was how he would have expected to have been treated by the Federal Police in Mexico.  In fact, the Tonk had so many bruises on his face and head that Airborne and Anglico decided to simply take him to a hole in the fence and send him back to Mexico with a stern warning never to come back.

Fast forward to the next night.  Airborne and Clutch were working together in an area of California known as Andrade.  The game that evening was to sit on top of a hill until a seismic sensor was activated and then race the Tonks to a choke point in their line of travel.  The choke point was known as "the spillway".  It was surrounded by sand, greasewood bushes and Russian Flax.

At about 2100 the sensors went off.  Clutch and Airborne raced to the spillway and the Tonks scattered; each of them finding a tree or bush under which to try to hide from the Migra.  Clutch has pulled several out from their hidey holes while airborne was struggling to extract his first from under a tree.  Airborne was a strong man and he pulled and pulled on his Tonk's ankles but was unsuccessful in getting him free.

Finally, Clutch walked around to the front of the Tonk and shined a light on him.  "His head's stuck, Airborne!  Stop pulling!"

Airborne stopped pullung and found that the Tonk's head was, indeed, stuck in an inverted "Y" of branches.  Then he saw why.  It was the bandages on the Tonk's head that had allowed him to become stuck.  It was the Tonk from the previous night; the one pushed back through the fence by Airborne and Anglico.

If the Tonk recognized Airborne, he didn't reveal it.  He simply said, "Pues, Oficial, usted me pesco... era mi propia culpa".

Yanqui, Go Home! Donde? Taco Bell!

As much as I dislike being called a Yanqui (Yankee), that is what the Mexicans call anyone who lives North of the Rio Grande.  Many of them (The Meskins)  are so dense that they cannot comprehend that many of us are deeply suspicious of Yankees as well.  We Texans are especially proud of the fact that we were our own Republic for nine years before our affiliation with the United States by treaty.

Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, Mexico's chief minister of tourism, has appealed to the State of Texas to lift its travel advisory on his sad, fly-ridden third world country. Senor Lopez-Negrete concedes that places such as Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Cuidad Acuna and the like are not nice-to-be places at the moment.  But, he said, interior destinations are much safer for Texans and other assorted gringos.  Really?

Today, Texas Rangers took incoming fire from elements of a Cartel.  This sort of thing happens frequently on The Border, but what about the interior of the country?  For example, just before Spring Break weekend this year, twelve taxi drivers - and their passengers were killed in Mexico's mecca for tourists: Acapulco.  There are numerous other examples of why Tio Rodolfo is puffing hot air.

Mexico is a place that no one should visit.  It is a violent, dirty environment that is hospitable only to those who are permitted to be legally armed (which is precious few).  Perhaps Mr. Lopez-Negrete would like to consult with the widows of the several beheaded Mexican chiefs of police who also live in the "safe" interior.  Even the illegal Mexican aliens, hiding in our in our several States, know the danger.  Do you think that they want to be sent back home to the Land of Manana?  No, they do not; that's one of the chief reasons they're here.

The short of it is, if you want to take a vacation with an "international" flavor, just go to Taco Bell.

Atlas' Sorry Existence

George Washington said it best:

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

This was one of the foremost proven results of the War To Prevent Southern Independence (1861-1865).  For the Federals, it was a question of power; for the Confederacy, it was a question of existence. The only thing resolved at Appomattox was the fact that the crushing power of Leviathan reigned supreme.  The Fedgov had out-lasted and out-spent the "enemy", but it had not conquered their identity.

Given into the hands of those who would control others, the power of government (as we know it today) is the power to destroy or to bend.  That same Fedgov has created at least two entirely new conditions of servitude: one voluntary and the other involuntary.

The voluntary servitude has been inflicted upon those  who survive on the teat of the Fedgov.  Programs to numerous to count ensure that all those who come within a particular program's jurisdiction shall be beholden to the Master for provision of some sort.  The most notable of such programs is the one providing unemployment benefits - now extending to three years - and providing an easy market of affiliation for whatever political party or candidate making such largess possible.

With rare exception, people (should I call them "victims of the state"?)  choose to participate, voluntarily, in this charade of being free people.  Their condition is nothing more than a mockery of what a free man or woman actually is.  The lie is apparent to all but them.

This brings one to consider the involuntary servitude of the present day.  The current crop of slaves-against-their-will are the citizens who are paying for all of the "programs".  We watch our money being spent by those who have taken it from us with the threat of force (the Fedgov).  We notice that it is being spent, quite often, upon cementing the voluntary slaves into their position of fealty and dependence.

We, the involuntary slaves, also are fond of saying that we are free.  The fact is that we are not any more free than are the voluntary slaves.  Both groups will be perpetually locked into our squirrel-cage existence until one of one decides that the humiliation must cease.  H. L. Mencken said, "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under".  One day, the humiliation and the shame will become too great to bear.  Only then will Atlas shrug.

Deo Vindice

Sucker-Grade Snake Oil

The famed Stimulus Plan has been a complete work of smoke and mirrors by our man Barry The Pretender.

* Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.
* Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
* Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
* Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
* Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
* The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
* During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)

It has, in fact, been a grand bill of goods sold by hucksters who have more in common with snake oil salesmen than they do with anything that resembles statesmen.  The Stimulus Plan was proffered upon us in the wake of the Bush-initiated bail-out of General Motors and Chrysler.  (I can only imagine what Thomas Jefferson would have thought of that.)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February 2009.  Democrats pushed the legislation as a way to create jobs and extend unemployment benefits through a mix of government spending, tax cuts and financial aid to cash-strapped states. It adds $830 billion to the budget deficit between fiscal years 2009-2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Whether of not the ARRA actually did get people "back to work" is not as important as the political philosophy behind the legislation.  Succinctly, it was founded upon the assumption that it is the federal government which creates jobs in the private sector by either spending or by tax cuts for selected industries.  In the reality of our world, the ARRA did neither with any measurable difference from the status quo ante.

More properly, job creation in a real Constitutional Republic is a result of what the government dosen't do than it is a result of what it does do.

The extension of unemployment benefits does not equate to job creation (which is not the Constitutional business of the Yankee fedgov anyway).  The increase is fedgov jobs has been chiefly temporary ones with the Census Bureau and - more scarily - with the IRS.

How much more can we take of Bush 43 and his logical extension, Barry The Pretender?

Deo Vindice

Read more (and see another good graph) at the Washington Examiner:

The Shores of Tripoli

U.S.M.C. Officers' Mamaluke Sword

USA today (probably proudly) proclaimed:

For better or worse, the United States and its allies have joined the fight in Libya, where a determined but disorganized rebel force is battling against a tenacious dictator who has vowed to drag America and its allies into a "long war."

I don't want to seem odd or unpatriotic but ... why?  For what purpose?  Barry the Pretender, grabbing at any excuse he can, said "We are not going to use force to go beyond a well-defined goal — specifically, the protection of civilians in Libya."  Pardon me, but that's the same reason given by Theodore Roosevelt for sending the Marines there during his administration.  In fact, it was during that time that Marine Lieut. O'Bannon was presented with the Mamaluke sword by a high-ranking Arab.  My own Mamaluke is sitting in a closet.   So far, we've sent the Libyans cruise missiles... but what about the Marines of today?

At least one source relates that 2,200 of them are embarking out of New Bern, NC for Lybia.  So much for no boots on the ground.  That kind of force is roughly about the size of a Regimental Landing Team (or whatever the Corps is calling it these days).  Any way you cut it, 2,200 Marines are capable of extensive property damage as well as increased mortality rates among the local population.

One thing this state of affairs proves about Barry the Pretender: he is a liar.  Starting new wars in the Middle East is just another proof in a long list of proofs of violated campaign promises.

Deo Vindice

The Fool On The Hill

Barry the Pretender and his Court Fool, Eric Holder, have been handed a stinging rebuke by the Supremes.  It seems as if the the Yankee Department of Justice filed suit in federal court over Arizona's revoking the business license of any business that the State knows is hiring Tonks.

The case wound its way to SCOTUS wherein the decision was 5-3 against the bad guys.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion: “It uses the federal government’s own definition of ‘unauthorized alien,’ it relies solely on the federal government’s own determination of who is an unauthorized alien, and it requires Arizona employers to use the federal government’s own system for checking employee status.”

Beautiful!  I'm glad that there is someone (or at least five of them) who knows how to think in that court.  Roberts used the Yankee's own law against them and turned it around in favor of a State.

One question that begs to be answered is this:  Despite their flimsy attempts at proof up to this point, if it were to be proven that there is a Tonk living in the Chief Executive's mansion, whose license may be revoked?  It would seem that such a fraud would be the ultimate reason for a serious call to secession.

Deo Vindice

Eat Your Heart Out, Barry!

Our friend Will is a graph maniac.  I've been following him for some time and this one (and its accompanying graph) was just too sweet to pass-up.

The inventory of private-sector jobs in Texas increased by 732,800 between April 2001 and the same month this year, according to an On Numbers analysis of new federal employment data.

No other state registered an increase of more than 100,000 private-sector jobs during the decade. Only 19 states and the District of Columbia posted any gains at all.

 Even with an Aggie for Governor, Texas seems to be doing something right.  Maybe that's because, in Texas, our Governor's main power is in signing the legislation that is permitted to come to the floor by the Lieutenant Governor.  In that way, Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst wields much more power in Austin than does Rick Perry.


Be very careful if Governor Perry should he decide to enter the beauty contest for Chief Executive of the Yankee Nation.  Here in Texas, Perry always talks a good game before election time and then goes back to his Liberal-appeasing ways after he had been re-elected.  True, he does carry a laughably impotent .380 ACP when he's out and about.  He even made headlines here last year after shooting a coyote with it while jogging.

As Governor, Perry's job is more ambassadorial than anything else.  He has done a good job of enticing various manufacturers to relocate to Texas and has wheeled and dealed enough to cajole legislators into ensuring tax breaks for them.  Hence, Will's graph shown above.

Before Perry's last re-election he went out to the Big Bend area of the State and toured the Border.  He, then, proceeded to harangue the voters with tough talk about how he was going to stem the tide of Tonks ... since the feds weren't doing it.  After the election, Perry sent 1,200 Texas National Guard personnel to various sections of the Border.  The only problems are that (1) these Guardsmen are not actually on the Border (they're pretty far back); and (2) those of them who have weapons have not been issued any ammunition.  Their job is little more than those flag worshippers who call themselves Minutemen: report what they see to the Border Patrol (who are, mostly, administratively precluded from doing anything about the reports they get).

Go ahead.  Push Perry into running for Yankee President.  But just remember what we say here:  "Why did the Aggie cross the road?  Because it was the chicken's day off.

Deo Vindice

Free At Last ..... Free At Last ...!

Zadvyas v. Davis may not be a hot topic of conversation around the water cooler, but it does have some import for what happens to illegal aliens after they have served time (in the United States) for murder.  In short, what this piece of case law allows is: no matter what crime a foreigner commits, the government may not detain him indefinitely while he awaits deportation for his offense. The immigration authorities, the court ruled, may not hold a foreigner more than six months before deporting him. After that, he must be released. In other words, if his home country won’t take him, tough luck for the crime victims. The criminal must be freed to protect his “constitutional right” to walk the streets and commit more crimes.

Between 2001 and 2004, ICE reported that, it released 27,947 criminal aliens, adding that 20,967 (75 percent) of these criminal aliens originated from countries where the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members are known to be active. MS-13 is the brutally violent gang from El Salvador. Between 2001 and 2005, ICE released 45,008 illegals from countries somehow involved with terrorism either by sponsoring terrorism or supporting the terrorists.

All of the above happened on the watch of Republican darling George W. Bush - along with Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff - his Secretaries of Homeland Security.  Barry the Pretender and Janet the Clueless are going to have similar numbers.  Just don't expect to see them before November of 2012.

Deo Vindice

Yellow Dog Takes A Burn

Yellow Dog Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin (Travis County area), Texas is singing the blues.  It seems as if the conservative-controlled legislature has redistricted him out of at least 600,000 residents who voted for Barry the Pretender. 

Speaking to a reporter from KUT, Doggett said that this action has "plunged a dagger into the heart of Travis County".  It's strange how politicians tend to believe that they, themselves, are their districts.  Similar to his Houston contemporary, Sheila Jackson Lee: if Doggett is the answer, it must be a really stupid question.

Death's Face In Houston

This individual is not a Tonk.  He is a surly individual who could not survive in his own Third World country so he had to come to ours in the attempt to degrade our own gene pool.  His country of origin is known: Mexico.  Johoan Rodriguez, 26 murdered  Houston Police Officer over the weekend.  Mr. Rodrigues' blood alcohol level was .238 - almost three times the legal limit.  You may read the details of the story here, but there's more to it than just what's in the newspaper.

ICE has reported to HPD that Mr. Rodriguez has been deported (not "voluntarily returned") twice: once in 2005 and once in 2006.  He has also made an oral false claim to U.S. citizenship and a documented false claim to U.S. citizenship (both are prosecutable offenses).

Re-entry after deportation is a violation of  8 USC Sec. 1326 and is a felony.  Why was Rodriguez not prosecuted under that statute after his 2005 deportation.  Why was he simply deported again in 2006?  Michael Chertoff, George W. Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security played a hand in declining prosecution of this dangerous thug.  He (and his vile master) were busy prosecuting two Border Patrol Agents - Ramos and Compean - for what they maintained was illegal use of force against a repeat drug trafficker.  Anyone who believes that George W. Bush, as the Yankee President, was not a friend of Tonks has to be a deeply deluded individual.  

So, let's see what Bush and Chertoff have to their credit as far as Mr. Rodriguez is concerned:

• Failure to prosecute a re-entry after doportation
• Failure to prosecute an oral false claim to U. S. citizenship
• Failure to prosecute a documented false claim to U.S. citizenship

I wonder how this will make Officer Will's widow and children feel as time goes on.  Mrs. Will is scheduled to give birth to another child in two months.  Barry the Pretender and Janet the Clueless (his own Secretary of Homeland Security) have assured the Will family - and us as well - that the U.S./Mexico border is as safe as it's ever been.  In a way, that's true ... it has never been safe.  But it is small consolation to fatherless children and a husband-less wife to be consoled with the hollow words of either a ruling Republican or a ruling Democrat.  There is only one difference between any of the members of the power elite: style.  In content, they facilitate the same result: misery.  Leviathan has no soul.

I wonder, to which part of the nine circles of hell Dante Alighieri would have consigned these lying pecksniffs had he written Ill Inferno yesterday?

Deo Vindice

Oklahoma's Increase in Potential Leftist Voters

Uniradioinforma has revealed an astounding census fact:

Los hispanos aumentaron de 5,2% de la población de Oklahoma en 2000 a 8,9% en 2010.

The Hispanic population of Oklahoma, in ten years has increased from 5.2% to 8.9%.  The photographic insert in Uniradioinforma's article seems to suggest that this huge increase has been accomplished by illegal aliens.  No doubt, there are many Tonks included in that giant increase in Oklahoma's population, but certainly not all of them are Tonks.

Given the Leftists' ability to supplement the normal voter pool with persons of questionable eligibility, this is a development worth watching.

Deo Vindice

Happy Birthday, Border Patrol!

On this day in 1924, the U.S. Congress established the United States Border Patrol as part of the Immigration Bureau, an arm of the Department of Labor. Its duties included the prevention of smuggling and the arrest of illegal entrants into the United States.


 During Prohibition smuggling absorbed most of the attention of the border patrol, as bootleggers avoided the bridges and slipped their forbidden cargo across the Rio Grande by way of pack mules. 


In 1933, the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization into the Immigration and Naturalization Service were united, and in 1940 the patrol moved out of the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice.  Now, it has been transferred into the Department of Homeland Security (along with the Secret Service and the Coast Guard) and not-so-ably overseen by our friend, Janet the Clueless.

Photo ID Now Required For Voting In Texas

Go Away, Tonks and Serial Voters

Today, the Texas legislature passed a Voter Photo ID law (story here).  Tomorrow, Governor Rick Perry will sign it.  This places Texas in company with South Carolina and Wisconsin in the attempt to remove one more avenue for voter fraud to drive upon.

When Lyndon Baines Johnson was a U.S. Representative from Texas, the standing joke among residents of Starr County was that even folks in the cemetery were voting for him.  Many refinements have been made to that old fraud (not Johnson - he was unexcelled in that respect) since then.  It is apparently much easier for unqualified people to vote in our larger cities than it is in places where most voters and poll watchers know each other.  How else could one explain the tendencies for larger cities to keep electing Democrats and otherwise good Southrons to elect Machine Republicans?

I know ... the answer is "herd mentality and intellectual vacancy".

Memorial Day 2011

Memorial Day is a day which, originally, was designed to honor Union servicemen who had died during the War To Prevent Southern Independence.  Several years later Confederate States of America war dead were included in the observation.

Texas has (until recently) observed 19 January as our date for such affairs.  We call it Confederate Heroes Day.  Now, there is a different federal holiday celebrated at that time and "CHD" has fallen into disuse in Texas.  Shame on us.

This video is in memory of the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Home Guard of the Confederate States who fought, and in many cases died, far from home to preserve Liberty and their God Given Rights.

 Deo Vindice

ACLU of Indiana Has A New Logo

ACLU of Indiana

Those poor folks of the Indiana's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union are most certainly confused.  They have introduced a federal lawsuit to attempt to block a new State law from coming into effect.  The law would permit State and local police to either detain or arrest a person who has been notified that an action has been taken against them pursuant to immigration law.  Story here 

Their point of departure from sanity is illustrated by one Mr. Falk:

"For these three plaintiffs and many others in similar situations, this law would allow their arrests simply because paperwork — perhaps even paperwork supporting their routes to citizenship — had been issued by an agency sometime in their lives, even if they have committed no crime," ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk said in a statement.

 The "route to citizenship" is the new euphemism for "a way to allow a criminal alien to become a U.S. citizen".  Such a person is a criminal because he or she violated existing law to arrive here in the first place.  It is called Entry Without Inspection, or "EWI" (8 United States Code, Sec. 1325).  Under current law, EWI's have no recourse to adjust their status from illegal to legal.  Because the EWI has violated the law, the Tonk is per se "excludible".  "Excludible" means that the person will be excluded from all others standing in line awaiting lawful entry.  For them, there is no "route to citizenship".


Mr. Falk (and others of similar persuasion) need to be asked whether or not they have a social and cultural death wish.  Thee is a finite limit as to how many people who have no desire to be assimilated the several States can absorb.  The Mexicans' cry for the "reconquista" of what they call Aztlan is not simply the grito of a few crazies; for many, it is the burning desire of their lives.

Mr. Falk's confusion probably has its basis in either a deeply seated self-loathing and a wish to have others reduce the comforts of life which his trade as a lawyer has provided for him or it is based upon fashionable notions of "diversity".  Those Tonks who mightily resist assimilation want to take away both Falk's comfort and any diversity that he may worship.  Should he have any doubt about that fact, I would be glad to introduce him to some not-so-nice people on both sides of The Line who will assure him that he is, in fact, nothing but a useful idiot.

Deo Vindice

What Is A Tonk?

Tonks Misbehaving

People keep asking me, "What do you mean by 'Tonk'"?

The title "Tonk" is used almost exclusively by the Border Patrol.  Before the reign of Jimmy Carter and his worthless INS Commissioner, Leonel Castillo, the term was used "in the clear" on the radio.  Subsequent to that not-so-dynamic duo, it has been used only in private conversations between Agents.

Officially, "Tonk" is an acronym which stands for "Territory of origin not known".  It is used to describe an individual who has not yet been intensively interviewed by the Border Patrol to determine his or her country of origin.  As everyone knows, ethnicity is not a reliable indicator of nationality.  Just because a person is of obvious Latin extraction it does not necessarily follow that the person is  Mexican.  Under Border Patrol administrative procedure it it vital to discover a Tonk's nationality.  Mexicans (in theory), unless they have entered the U.S. without inspection several times, are simply shooed-over the border at the nearest Port of Entry.  If a Mexican has been apprehended several times, the Old Patrol would have set him/her up for formal deportation.

An alien of Latin ethnicity (or any other ethnicity for that matter) who is not a Mexican national cannot be pushed back into Mexico.  They must be put on an airplane and sent back to the country of their nationality.  These people are known as OTM's, or "Other Than Mexicans".

There is  plenty of room for confusion in the matter of determining nationality.  Nationals of countries South of the United States come in all hues: Asian, Anglo, Black, Latin.  Frequently, a Tonk from another country will try to pass as a national of Mexico in order to avoid being sent back to his real home turf.  Some will calim U. S. citizenship (whether with the aid of documents or without).  Should the individual "break" under questioning and admit the truth, the person could be looking at some serious prison time (at least under the Old Patrol's watch).

Let me be very clear: "Tonk" is not a term or racial derision; it is a temporary geographic description.  Once, I apprehended a female Tonk.  She was Black and made an oral false claim to U. S. citizenship.  She claimed to have been born and raised in New Orleans.  Non-withstanding her accent (which was nowhere near a Louisiana accent), I took her back to the station for further questioning.  When she couldn't recall the name of the street in New Orleans with the trolly tracks, I knew that she'd break.  She finally admitted that she was from Belize.  She was no longer a Tonk at that point and we sent her home.

"Greenhouse Gas" Not a Threat From Texas

A story in the Texas Tribune tells it all.

Acting on behalf of 14 other states, the state of Texas today filed an opening brief in its case seeking to overturn a finding by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases pose a danger to public health and welfare. According to the brief, the EPA's decision was "arbitrary and capricious".

We have quite enough gas-bags generating intolerable amounts of noxious fumes. U.S. Representative Shiela Jackson-Lee, with her triple crown weave, has been doing an admirable job of producing malodorous pronouncements. Representing a gerrymandered district of inner-city Houston (and carefully selected suburbs), Jackson-Lee has been unsurpassed in her seemingly never-ending quest to be the buffoon she believes herself not to be.

We Texans need not vote her out of office; she's always good for laughs.

Deo Vindice

Moslems' Champion Downcast

Avoiding foreign entanglements is something that U. S. Presidents have had a difficult time achieving. The current one, Barry the Pretender, is no different. Today, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel informed him that what Pretender had demanded was never doing to happen.

This, of course, ensures that the residents of the pretend country of Palestine will continue to chunk rocks, bottle rockets and larger rockets at the Israelies until the latter decide they've had a belly-full. Ever since the late 1940's (when the Balfour Declaration came to fruition) our Jewish friends have had to periodically respond with speed, force and violence to those who would exterminate them.

It make me wonder about the resident mettle of Southrons today. Are we internally fortified enough to resist extinction? Every time I pass through Atlanta I marvel at how Yankee-fied the city is and many of its residents are. Houston (a city more closer to home) is almost as bad. Lately, I'm having a difficult time finding someone who speaks English without having that annoying "Midwest Accent". As far as Spanish goes, Mexican Spanish is difficult to locate anymore around Texas' Gulf Coast region these days. It's either the disgusting corruption of Spanglish or a strange gutteral-sounding Spanish from Central America.

My friend, Edmundo, is just as grossed-out as I am. Born and raised in Texas, Edmundo sounds like any other Texan when he speaks English. When we both speak Spanish, it's proper and literate Mexican Spanish. Mundo's grandfather used to tell him: "Save your Lone Star bottle caps, mi hijo, because when the true Texans arise and begin the re-distribution of land, beer and women (not necessarily in that order) you'll be able to show them what side you're on".

Deo Vindice

The Crash of Texas' Sanctuary Cities

Y'all just gotta stand up for the Texas House of Representatives. As reported in a Copy Written article in the Texas Tribune, something good has actually happened in Austin (even though Barry the Pretender is there tonight "dragging the bucket" for re-election money). Assuming the Texas Senate will pass it (which they probably will), Governor Rick Perry will sign the Ban on Sanctuary Cities (Houston, Dallas and Austin) in the sovereign State of Texas.

The measure was passed on a 100 to 47 vote just before midnight.

The racist Mexican-American Caucus in the State Capitol are fit to be tied. Naturally, they are the ones screaming racism. Even the Lesbian mayor of Houston (an "undeclared" sanctuary-city-that-is-not-a-sanctuary-city), Anise Parker, is having a hissy fit. Her current rant is that the coming law will have a "chilling effect" upon witnesses to crimes and will prevent them from coming forward to offer testimony concerning crimes they may have witnessed.

Missy Mayor has obviously forgotten that it is against the law to enter the country without inspection and that re-entry after deportation is a felony. I wonder how many Tonks now living in Houston are felons. She may want them offering sworn testimony in a court of law ... I do not.

Deo Vindice

Zetas and Cartels

Diverse elements of cyberspace have publicized that Mexican Marine Corps's capture of Martin Omaar Estrada Luna, the presumed the Zeta commander in Tamaulipas (the border state across from Texas). In at least one of Mexico's drug cartels, the Gulf Cartel, Zeta affiliation is openly acknowledged. Because the drug cartels exist to operate by wholesaling product in the United States, fear of the Zetas is moderate to high among border State residents on our side of The Line.

In Mexico, Zetas have been responsible for the high volume of murders/executions in the border states of Tamaulipas, Sonora and Baja California. The average Zeta is former Mexican military and trained by people who were trained at various military bases in the United States. He may be a threat to Mexican nationals but he is hardly a threat to most U. S. citizens. The reason is: we are the consumers of the product protected by him - the Zeta. The cartel jefes would be displeased if their soldiers began killing customers instead of the competition (real or imagined).

The Zetas , on occasion, make short trips into the United States but these trips are simply to guard the shipment of product through desolate regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The only people the Zetas encounter on those trips are Border Patrol Agents. The Border Patrol, thanks to administrative rules starting from Janet The Clueless and going all the way back to Jimmy Carter's Leonel Castillo have neither the equipment, training or permission to deal with the Zetas.

Mexican Backup

Airborne was a member of the Old Patrol. Before he Entered On Duty (EOD'd) at Yuma, Airborne had been a city cop - a motor officer - somewhere in south Carolina; Charleston, I believe. Back in the Old Patrol, most of us had military backgrounds. Domngo had been in the Navy, Edmundo was in the Army and your author is a former Marine. Airborne came by his name naturally: he was crazy. He was crazy enough to jump out of an in-flight aircraft for no other reason than someone told him to do it.

One day, during a particularly boring day shift, Airborne was working alone in a small corner of the AO known as West San Luis. The territory encompassed no more than several hundred acres immediately West of the Port of Entry in San Luis, Arizona. Airborne's AO included a small city park (ironically named "Friendship Park") and a river bottom area wherein what was left of the Colorado River flowed into Mexico.

It was in that river bottom area of cotton fields and scrub brush that Airborne found that he was without help on our side of The Line.

Day shifts in that AO were worse than boring for the Agents as well as for the Tonks. Frequently, the Tonks would gain illegal entry for a couple hundred feet just to see if an Agent was watching. If he was, he would charge down from his roost at a place knows as "the bodega" to try to apprehend the Tonks.

For the Tonks as well as the Agents, this game of cat-and-mouse was great fun as each honed their skills for the time the game would be in earnest once nightfall arrived. There was a considerable amount of drugs entering through West San Luis during those years.

In the days of the Old Patrol, Journeyman Agents gained and maintained a good, working relationship with our Mexican cousins on their side of The Line (more of this dynamic in a separate article). We did this because neither side knew when they might be in need of the others' abilities.

Airborne had had a rough previous night and he had no patience for playing games with the Tonks who would laugh and jeer at him as he nearly caught them - five or six times. They scampered back through the fence to their side, cursed him and flipped him off. Airborne had enough. He called the supervisor back at our station and asked for the Mexican police to be notified of what was transpiring and where.

The Mexican cops appeared within several minutes amid demands from the loudspeakers on their vehicles, "Alto! Parate!". The group scattered and ran (screeming and yelling) half a block into the Mexican town opposite San Luis, Arizona. Then, silence ... silence ... "pop" ... "pop" - the unmistakable reports of handgun fire. There were no more screams. There were no more yells. After a few minutes, the Mexican cops appeared on their side of the fence, smiling.

"Gracias", Airborne said to them.

"De nada", replied the Mexican sergeant.

Airborne returned to the bodega.

Oil & Gas Production

It seems as if this is a good start to bringing back some of the numerous oil field jobs lost (as well as ancillary jobs related to them - groceries, restaurants, motels, etc.) due to the bundling ineptitude of our Chief Destroyer, Barry Obama.

The story includes,

The US House of Representative approved a bill that would compel the US Department of the Interior to hold federal Outer Continental Shelf lease sales that it canceled following the 2010 Macondo well accident and crude oil spill. The measure passed by 266 to 149 votes on May 5 after several hours of debate.

HR 1230 would require DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement to hold OCS sales in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off Virginia’s coast, both of which were scheduled for 2011 before the Apr. 28, 2010, blowout and explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled 5 million bbl of oil into the gulf before the well was capped late last summer.

It's, really good to see the House of Representatives finally starting to do some representation on this matter but it may be too little too late. Assuming the clowns in the Senate pass it as well, what are the chances of Barry signing it?

Deo Vindice

Chipotle's and Aztlan

Story here. It obviously pays to maintain a friendly relationship with Tonks

Denver-based Chipotle has won plaudits from Wall Street for its seemingly uncanny ability to hold down labor costs. That ability has been a major factor behind its six-fold increase in share price since late 2008. Chipotle shares fell 2.4 percent Tuesday to $260.40.

We'll never know how many jobs they take "that-U.S. citizens-won't-take" until they are all compelled to leave. But don't hold your breath. The ideological clones - Republican and Democrat - who claim to be our representatives haven't shown much interest in the proposition.

Osama Dead?

Is he dead like Jimmy Hoffa or is he dead like Elvis?

Although I respect the members of Seal Team Six, belief in pronouncements by the Monster Leviathan is something I don't have.

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

Veteran To Veteran

I received this by email and though it does not relate directly to the Border Patrol, I thought that it may be of interest to readers of this blog .....

Semper Fi,

Agent Nowhere Man

Veteran to Veteran When a Veteran leaves the 'job' and retires to a better life, many are jealous, some are pleased, and others, who may have already retired, wonder if he knows what he is leaving behind, because we already know. 1. We know, for example, that after a lifetime of camaraderie that few experience, it will remain as a longing for those past times. 2. We know in the Military life there is a fellowship which lasts long after the uniforms are hung up in the back of the closet. 3. We know even if he throws them away, they will be on him with every step and breath that remains in his life. We also know how the very bearing of the man speaks of what he was and in his heart still is. These are the burdens of the job. You will still look at people suspiciously, still see what others do not see or choose to ignore and always will look at the rest of the Military world with a respect for what they do; only grown in a lifetime of knowing. Never think for one moment you are escaping from that life. You are only escaping the 'job' and merely being allowed to leave 'active' duty. So what I wish for you is that whenever you ease into retirement, in your heart you never forget for one moment that you are still a member of the greatest fraternity the world has ever known. NOW... Civilian Friends vs. Veteran Friends Comparisons: CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Get upset if you're too busy to talk to them for a week. VETERAN FRIENDS: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry on the same conversation you were having the last time you met. ---------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry. VETERAN FRIENDS: Have cried with you. --------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it' s yours. VETERAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back. -------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Know a few things about you. VETERAN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you. --------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing. VETERAN FRIENDS: Will stand by you no matter what the crowd does. --------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Are for a while. VETERAN FRIENDS: Are for life. --------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Have shared a few experiences... VETERAN FRIENDS: Have shared a lifetime of experiences no citizen could ever dream of... --------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough. VETERAN FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, 'You better drink the rest of that before you spill it!' Then carry you home safely and put you to bed... ----------------------------------------------------- CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will ignore this. VETERAN FRIENDS: Will forward this. ---------------------------------------------------- A veteran - whether active duty, retired, served one hitch, or reserve is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The Government of the United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life'. From one Veteran to another, it's an honor to be in your company. Thank you for your service to our country and defending the freedoms we enjoy.