Category Archives: Texana

Arizona law matches federal one

Bob Phillips, an OC-504 comrade who served as a San Diego assistant district attorney for many years says the allegedly-racist Arizona anti-illegal immigration law isn’t new:

“…at least as I understand it, doesn’t change the existing law at all, except maybe to encourage Arizona cops to be more proactive in doing what the Border Patrol is too understaffed to do effectively by themselves.

“When I was a cop way back in the 70’s, we used to stop and arrest illegal aliens all the time. A state cop (under the case law) is empowered to enforce federal statutes so long as it was Congress’s intent that they do so when the statute was enacted. There is case law that says that Congress intended local cops to enforce the federal illegal entry and illegal presence statutes. So we did so until it became politically incorrect to do so.

“So San Diego PD, and many other agencies, by policy, quit enforcing the federal statutes. Arizona did no more than eliminate the issue (if there ever was one) by making it a violation of state law as well to be in the country illegally. Being a victim of the illegal alien invasion myself at times, I’m all for it.”

Me, too, tired as I am of seeing my taxes rise to pay for the consequences of the invasion that our feckless politicians and president wish to ignore.

B-ball classic

It wasn’t the NBA, but WAYA youth basketball. Mr. B. came off the floor about noon with a big sigh and a head shake. He’d just scored eighteen points in the last two quarters, helping his all-boys-but-two team 36-30 over an all-girls-but-one team that was supposed to be a pushover.

They were the last time. Not this day. Anyhow, they won, even if they got a fright in the bargain, falling behind several times before winning it. If they give one (and I’m not sure they do) the opponents deserved the trophy for most-improved. Mr. B. was happy. His point total was a single-game record for him. But it was acquired under a lot of pressure.

Port Aransas

PortA2With any luck, the beaches at Port A should be safe from the BP oil spill, unless there’s a big Gulf hurricane next month to drive it west to us.

Pemex oil spill was worse

The Gulf oil spill, which British Petroleum is now trying to cap, so to speak, at the wellhead five thousand feet below the surface with a steel and concrete box, is puny compared to a Pemex one back in the early 80s 1979. That sucker was spewing even more oil than BP’s until it finally was plugged up. It involved a Dallas company owned by our then-Gov. Bill Clements who was leasing equipment to Pemex, the Mexican national oil company.

The Pemex blowout’s saving grace, as I recall, was that it was scores of miles south of the Texas coast, somewhere in the Bay of Campeche. BP’s is less dramatic but more worrisome because it is relatively close to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Hence whatever oil does not sink to the bottom or get volatilized in the warm air and water will soil the beaches and fishing grounds of four states.

Though I expect the Mexicans are still trying to get the tar balls off their own beaches south of Matamoros. Pemex, long a power in Mexican politics, is far less environmental- or social-minded than BP. You just seldom read about it. Our news media rarely penetrates that far south, and Pemex and the Mexican government would not cooperate if they did.

UPDATE:  Houston Chronicle claims some of it got as far north as the beaches at Port A. Not much, apparently, as they credit “heavy rains” with washing most of it away.

A full Lake Travis

laketravisrisen

It probably won’t last at this height of slightly more than 681 feet above mean sea level, not if La Nina kicks in and we get another dry, scorching summer. But it’s certainly an improvement over last summer’s view of this then-dry upper end of Cypress Creek Arm.

This is not Mexican Independence Day?

Nope. That’s September 16. Cinco de Mayo is both simpler and more complicated, being at root a commemoration of a Mexican peasant army’s 1862 defeat of an invading contingent of the French Foreign Legion. Nowadays, it’s more of a family celebration among Mexican-Americans, with only a look-back at the old country, where it’s hardly observed at all.

One of the best explanations of the history of it that I’ve seen is by Austinite Don Miles. His 296-page non-fiction Indie book, Cinco de Mayo: What Is Everyone Celebrating, is a fascinating adventure story involving a pathetic Austrian royalist and his nervous wife, poorly-armed Mexican revolutionaries, some die-hard Confederates, Unconditional Surrender Grant, and much more. You really should get the book. (A used copy goes for just $2.84 plus S&H) Too bad it’s not an e-book. At least, if it is, I can’t find a copy.

The “papers, please” canard

Blogger John Salmon and I are continuing our argument (when he’s not trying to change the subject to the “awful” Mexican War) about his favoring leaving the Southern border open and amnesty for all comers and, by-the-by, calling me and others who disagree with him racists.

One of his arguments against the new Arizona immigration law is the standard legacy media lie that, under its provisions, cops (presumably white fascists) will start pulling over every Hispanic Mexican-looking driver and demanding their papers proving their right to be in the country. Sounds likely to John and his fellow Northeasterners, who see precious few Hispanics Mexicans.

The flaw in the argument (which also has been made by none other than our feckless president) is the large size of the Hispanic Mexican population here in Texas (one-third of us) and the other border states. Not to mention the crucial fact that many of our cops are, themselves, Hispanics Mexican-Americans.

So no cop in Arizona or anywhere else in a border state is going to start picking on Hispanics Mexicans about their citizenship unless they are already suspected of violating the law. Otherwise, there’d be no time for said cops to do anything else but stop them, there are so many of them. You see what I’m saying?