Free at Last!

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are free at last! After more than two years of solitary confinement the former Border Patrol agents have been released from federal custody to serve out there remaining sentences under house arrest. These men are finally back with their families where they belong. They have some time to wok on rebuilding their lives which have been destroyed by the over-zealous prosecution of these two men. Welcome home guys!

Ramos-Compean appeal heard today!

Ramos and Compean get their appeal heard today in Lousiana. Read here. More on this to follow later!

Greed of catastropic poportions

The repercussions of greed are almost always costly. The case of Agustin Dovalina III, the former Laredo Chief of Police is no exception. According to a story in today's Laredo Morning Times, Dovalina's attorney lied about the financial hardship the caused the ex-chief to accept the bribes. Regardless of hardship, the bribes were taken, and the careers of those indicted, and those of many others in their circles have been devastated. Lives ruined and careers tainted for a few dollars, and a set of golf clubs. Pathetic. It has been said that everyone has a price. I sure hope if I am ever tempted that I can hold out for a little bit more, at least enough to cover the attorneys fees.

The Glen Beck effect

Well I have held off mentioning the Glen Beck saga on these pages until I had heard both sides of the argument. If you don't have any idea what I am talking about, here is a short synopsis. Glen Beck is a leading proponent of Immigration change, no surprise there. He had US Rep Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and the Webb County Sheriff, Rick Flores on his show a couple of weeks ago. The discussion degraded to a series of insults and nasty innuendo, all on national prime-time television. In the end, Beck dismissed Laredo as a two bit, third world town, with nothing but the drug industry keeping it afloat financially. I think Glen knows better, and was just using this to advance the discussion on immigration. Bottom line is this hurt Laredo, and does NOT advance the dialog. I have been a big fan of Glen Beck here, and have promoted some of his ideas on these pages. That doesn't mean I agree with everything out of his mouth. In the end, Glen is just trying to bring home the ratings. You can't blame the man for that.

Thanksgiving

When I was in the Navy, every year at Thanksgiving a bunch of stiff-necked Admirals would release Thanksgiving messages. I'm sure there will be a ton of them released today. These messages would thank the troops and their families for the sacrifices they made each day for their country. I didn't always read them, because I was always a little too involved in the sacrifice of the moment. These messages always seemed to read the same way. Perhaps they were boilerplate. Not just today, but everyday I give thanks to my brothers and sisters on the BorderZone. Many of you are working today, spending another day away from the people that you love. Thank you for what you do every day. I have so much to be thankful for, there's no way I could put it all on one blog posting. You can be sure that as each day passes there is something that makes me think of how lucky I am to be an American serving my country on the BorderZone.