From Xico

Good Guys and Bad Guys

Amurricans (or as a NY Times blogger called them/us, Amerks) exercising their rights:

  Foto Ap

Go Rick Perry Go!

Below you can find my translation of pieces of an article by several news agencies: Notimex, ap and Reuters which appears in today's La Jornada.

First a slight Rick Perry detour. 

Here is a photo of Rick Perry in glasses.

Perry may or may not need them,  but I suspect this pair is purely cosmetic.  There is no evidence of lense distortion of the eyes. Not even a tiny bit. They don't even magnify his eyes a bit the way glasses for presbyopia (older people's trouble seeing close--he surely needs some at 64. But he wouldn't want to wear THOSE in public). And you'll notice they are the um trendiest sort, the kind EVERYONE on TV is wearing.  Maybe he got the idea from Sarah Palin. 

On Sunday, Perry attended church at Clear Lake Evangelical Church in Iowa.  Notice the church is in Iowa.  In 2012 Perry soared and then crashed in Iowa.  At this church, according to the Washington Post, "He came for redemption.  . . . .  Rick perry held his arms across his torso and swayed as the choir sang. . . . He bowed his head while the pastor preached about 'God's perfect plan of salvation.'"

The Washington Post says that the border crisis "gives Perry an animating issue placing him at the forefront of Republican politics." The article goes on, "After church. . . Perry spoke about the influx of young immigrants in front of about 100 conservative activists who sat rapt inside a hot and steamy airplane hangar here.    When the governor said the words ´'securing the border,' he clenched his left fist, flexed his bicep and leaned his body forward. He paced side to side with a wireless microphone and no notes, bending his knees for emphasis. He looked like a Texas A&M football coach giving the aggies a pep talk.

.  .  .  .

"'I will tell you this,' he added, his voice growing louder.  'If the federal government does not do its constitutional duty to secure the southern border of the United States, the state of Texas will do it!'"  

"The activists rose to their feet and cheered.  Perry had scored a touchdown."

This is one of those situations where if I didn't laugh I'd cry.

 As I said, the following story is from a joint effort by news agencies in La Jornada. The translation is mine.

"Yesterday Rick Perry announced the deployment of a thousand soldiers in the National Gard on the frontier with Mexico to reinforce the security in the midst of a human crisis without precedent, in the face of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors, the majority coming from Central America.

"The governor, a possible aspirant [I wish this were a joke.  Maybe a running character on Saturday Night Live if it still exists] for the Republican nomination for president, said that in recent months the security measures on the border had been seen to be overwhelmed by the arrival of some 57 thousand unaccompanied child migrants crossing into the US between October and June.

"The governor maintained that cartels and criminal gans were exploiting this situation in order to engage in trafficking in people and drugs.  

"Perry said that the National Guard troups would work together with state agents from the Department of Public Security to guarantee security to all residents.

"The soldiers will also help to combat the drug cartels and to dissuade the foreign criminals from entering.

. . . .

"Perry, critical of the White House response to this crisis, said that the State has the responsibility to act in the face of 'the vain words and empty promises' of the federal government. 

Democratic legislators accused Perry of militarizing the frontier.  'Militarization is the wrong reponse to the arrival of these children,' said Joaquín Castro, a Congressional representative [from San Antonio]I continue to hope that our state  can give a measured more useful response than to send armed soldiers to welcome the children seeking refuge from the violence," he said.

The chief of police of Cameron County [the southeastern most county of Texas, across the border from Matamoros.  It includes Brownsville] Omar Lucio said that he didn't know if the troops would arrive at that part of the border and asked what benefits it would bring in case it did.  'These people are trained for war, not for police work,' he asserted. . . 'I think the money would be better spent if it were given to agencies in charge of enforcing the law near the frontier.'

"More than 3 thousand agents of the Border Patrol operate in south Texas.  Perry has asked Obama on many occasions to send the National Guard to the border. "

+ + + + + +

And just so you can get further acquainted with this man Rick Perry who is governor of Texas and apparently still hoping to run for President, listen to him at athe Conservative Political Action Conference  of the United States this year in Washington DC.  

  

Good grief.  I hope you recognize what a fantasyland this man lives in with his followers.

 

And here are some pictures taken from La Jornada of kids.

 

 

A child at a demonstration in California. (Reuters)

 

An immigrant minor rests under a train in Arriaga, Chiapas, on his way to the US frontier (Foto: Alfredo Dominguez)

 

A child in a processing center in Texas. (foto AP)

 

Two small Central Americans play in a refuge in Tapachula [Mexico, I think.] (foto: Alfredo Dominguez)

These kids could be anyone's kids.  They don't need a system that batters and bruises them.

FAST AND FURIOUS Update and Global Warming in One Fell Swoop Sort of

I made fun of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' gun trafficking investigation known as "Fast and Furious" in April.  Here is a follow-up article from today's NY Times.  The investigation, as it was reported in the sources I used, still seems foolish in conception and execution, but the Times articles puts some new  perspective on the situation.  It seems that Charles Grassley, the leading Senate investigator whom I knew was a Republican, is very pro-National Rifle Association, as is his House counterpart.   They seem to have been interested in showing it up as incompetent, which it certainly seemed to be.  However, the bigger debate is really over the existence of the Agency itself which is caught in the "gun wars" of the US, another one of the truly nutty issues with which the right is dividing the  country. 

Not dividing the country but demonstrative of at least some Americans' blindness to reality is this story on Texas's reaction to nine months of drought. After nine rainless months, a major concern appears to be keeping football fields watered.  According to an April post on the Green blog in the NY Times, 

"Texas weather experts attribute this drought to the Niña effect.  Some observers are wondering whether it is also related to global warming, though that's a delicate question in Texas, the only state refusing to carry out greenhouse gas regulations recently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency.  Gov. Rick Perry, who just issued a proclamation urging prayers for rain this weekend [they failed], has said that the climate is always changing but that it is not clear that humans are affecting it."

Having lived in San Antonio for eight years, I have to add that not everyone in Texas is nuts. Not by a long shot.  It's just that the nuts tend to be drawn to politics and business.

Houston Layover

Work and my daughter's wedding in Massachusetts put a longer stop to this than I thought they would. This post was started in the lobby of the Holiday Inn at the Houston Airport. We missed the connection for our flight to Veracruz because the flight into Boston from Houston using the plane we were to take was an hour and a half late. As the incoming-Houston-to-Boston flight, it had turned back to Houston mid-flight because someone on board had suffered some kind of medical emergency.  That seems to me the mark of some continuing humanity in the rushed and impersonal world that the USA seems to be, for the most part, in its public spaces.  The ripples of the delay washed over many people, but we are better for it.

Unfortunately Continental Airlines' treatment of the passengers delayed by this wasn't good.  We had been told in Boston that if we missed our flight to Veracruz, Continental would take care of our hotel and two meals.  But when got off the plane in Houston, we were met by an attendant who rammed a piece of paper in our hands with a telephone number where we could find motels where we could get a discount, not an airline paid-for room. He then literally shoved us on our way.  It took someone else to point out where customer service was located.  We were kind of annoyed: if we'd known that would happen, we'd have spent our unexpected waiting time in Boston.  So my husband protested rather sternly when we arrived at the customer service desk He can look quite stern.  I've always thought he doesn't know just how stern. The passenger assistance women responded belligerently refusing to even check whether we were telling the truth.  First she said, snarlingly, it was weather, then she said it was air traffic control, neither of which Continental is liable for. When another passenger in the same boat, a tall, amiable graduate physics student repeated exactly what we said, the agent, everyone's idea of a nasty, burnt-out school teacher passing out of middle age, finally agreed to review the situation. At first she denied him, too.  But then magically, the information on her screen changed. We were right!  But the agent, glaring at my husband with jaw thrust out and  wagging a finger, told him lack of courtesy would get him nowhere. She refused us meal vouchers. 

In any event, the delay wasn't so bad after all.  We spent much of the time at the Holiday Inn at the airport.  It's a pretty nice one, decorated with a variety of geometric designs, often whimsically used.  We sat for several hours in the lounge as did other people apparently waiting for flights. Clumps swirled through: teenagers bursting with energy and then quieting themselves, self-important men with their cellphones and blackberries at their ears or held out in front of them, a somewhat martial group of women, their chests leading the way, an African and a middle-easterner captured by the soccer game on the tv. I sprawled with my Kindle on a sofa looking out onto dense tropical greenery through louvered windows, their slats cocked at different angles to mute the sun's heat and brilliance.  

Houston had been baking and dry for the previous three weeks, the temperature dancing around on both sides of the 100 degree mark.  At one point, I caught site of glitter on the other side of the windows and realized it was raining: celebration in the lounge.

Which brings me to note that I sat in the lounge in my bulky sweater, brought for Boston weather.  It couldn't have been above 72 degrees inside while it broiled outside.  When we went to the airport, it was the same.  One would think daily experience in Houston might have an impact on people's awareness of global warming, of energy use, etc. etc.  If these public spaces, giant ones in the case of IAH, are so oblivious, what point is there in individuals making their own small efforts?

Sometimes I Really Miss Texas

For all of you poor fools who think Texas is only for George Bush and his ilk, here's an article of interest by Calvin Trillin in this week's New Yorker.  I love where we live now; I still think of the Northeast as home, but remembering Texas brings tears to my eyes.