By Marita Noon

Posted: 09/07/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

Twenty-three Senators have recently thrown their support behind an innocent looking bill that will, among other things, create an illegal immigration superhighway, remove access to natural resources, and ultimately strip ranchers of their grazing rights, all under the auspices of preserving wilderness.

When New Mexico s Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall introduced S.B. 1689 in September 2009, immigration was barely a blip on the public s radar. Over the last year, other issues such as stimulus spending, health care, and cap-and-trade have stolen the spotlight. Their harmless sounding bill, which makes land in New Mexico part of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Landscape Conversation System, received virtually no attention. However, it has percolated to the top as the markup of the bill has been approved (23-0) and is headed to the Senate floor.

Now that immigration is in the spotlight as non-border states mimic Arizona s controversial immigration law, polls show that the majority of the public wants to stem the tide of illegal immigrants. S.B. 1689 will disappoint that majority.

Unless people speak up, this New Mexico bill will sail through on a professional courtesy to Sens. Bingaman and Udall. Senators give lip service to the demands for closed borders, yet 23 voted to move S.B. 1689 to the floor. Supporters, including, McCain, Alexander, Landrieu, and Lincoln, need to be held accountable.

In southern New Mexico the proposed Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Wilderness National Conservation Area sets aside a long north/south strip of land just miles from the border that contains all the elements that make it perfect for the movement of both human and drug trafficking: wilderness/de facto wilderness safe havens; east /west highway access; rugged and complex north/south mountain and drainage orientation; and high, strategic points of observation.

In northern New Mexico the Bingaman/Udall partnership co-sponsored S.B. 874 (El Rio Grande Del Norte National Conservation Establishment Act) again impacts land near the border the border of Colorado and New Mexico. This land is rich in natural resources. If Bingaman and Udall have their way, these resources will never be developed, needed jobs will not be created, and state revenues will be reduced.

In both the north and the south, the parcels proposed for conservation contain both state and federal lands that are leased for farming, ranching, and oil and gas extraction. Specifically stated within S.B.1689 is the withdrawal of Operation of the mineral leasing, mineral materials and geothermal leasing laws. The wilderness of 1964 specifically forbids the use of motorized vehicles. The elimination of motorized vehicles devastates land management and the ability to pursue traffickers.

In the immigration superhighway, The Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, Border Patrol will be prevented from chasing traffickers in motorized vehicles. Will illegals be concerned about damaging the wilderness? No. They will have a fleet of vehicles mirroring the situation in Arizona. Meanwhile, the Border Patrol will have their mobility and access destroyed. (Editor s note: Sen. Bingaman s office has told the Sun-News that the bill has language guaranteeing motorized access in wilderness areas for the Border Patrol.)

Additionally, the idea of preserving wilderness is typically about maintaining land in its original, pristine condition. The nearby Gila Wilderness has become a near biological desert with reduced grass and production resulting from the elimination of cattle grazing and the misconceived fire management plan that was implemented as early as the 1920s. Without the water and infrastructure provided for the cattle, the deer concentrations long ago moved out. Science is proving that the restoration of many grasslands must have man s intervention.

Are the senators trying to block access to America s natural resources and kill potential job creation for hard working Americans while creating an illegal immigration super highway, or is this another unintended consequence? Are they simply too deep in the pockets of the environmental industry? Tell the senators who voted to move S.B. 1689 out of committee not to vote for its passage when it makes it to the floor. America doesn t want another immigration super highway and at this point in history, we surely don t need to be focusing on locking up more lands.

Marita Noon is the executive vice president of Energy Makes America Great Inc., the advocacy arm of CARE (Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Energy), the New Mexico nonprofit organization advocating for citizens right to energy that is abundant, available, and affordable. CARE works on energy issues state, region and nation wide. Find out more at www.EnergyMakesAmericaGreat.org

According to a new and recent federal study the rate of sexual assaults on prison inmates are much higher than the national average, even though the State Corrections Department says they have a zero tolerance policy. Also the abuse of prisoners by guards has been ongoing for a long time, but with the downturn of the economy, guards are actually blackmailing prisoners to write their state Representatives and state Senators, telling them that the prisons are underpaid and understaffed and forcing the loss of privileges and the abuse of food.

When a state Representative or Senator schedules a visit to a particular prison, a call ahead to inform the prison officials of the visit causes a clean-up of the way guards are treating their prisoners. When prisoners are asked if they have been abused by either guards or other prisoners, to answer can easily mean their death if they inform on another prisoner and extreme abuse by the guards if they inform on them.

The State Corrections Department can take disciplinary action against any prisoner who violates the sexual conduct rule, or commits a sex crime against another inmate. This punishment amounts to Solitary confinement for up to 20 days, or revocation of privileges for up to 120 day, and put in a higher risk unit, and the offender can be fined $10 dollars, or up to 180 days with no visitation privileges and maybe 180 days without telephone privileges. The offender can also have up to 354 days of “good time” taken away. If a man is serving a life sentence without parole, or an extremely long sentence that would see him released only after he is old and gray, what would this loss mean to him? In most cases these actions is little more than a slap on the wrist to many hard core perpetrators and can be extremely detrimental, as well as danger for the victim.

 Retaliation by the offender or other convicts for that matter can sometimes be a severe beating, or even death, since the thought in the minds of the prisoners is that the victim has “ratted” them out, a term that is used most prisons for a prisoner who gives information on another prisoner.

The retaliation is considered a way of life in prison and to break the “code of ethics” set down by the other inmates has long been extremely severe. In most prisons the rule of “see nothing, know nothing and hear nothing” applies to all who are incarcerated. Just as the Correctional Department has their set of rules and regulations that the prisoners must live by, so the prisoners have long had their own form of rules and regulations. The rules a prisoner must live by when they enter a facility are all pretty much the same and to break one of those rules can bring down severe reprisal by the rest of the prisoners.

Refusing to participate in these ‘kangaroo type courts or an action,” is to put your very life on the line. Survival in a prison facility is hard at best with the mental and physical abuse suffered at the hands of the guards and the Department of corrections is tenuous at best. Most of the prisons have taken away exercise equipment, fearing the prisoners who become stronger than the officials. The prisoners are taken advantage of in many prisons by placing them on a high starch diet that leads many prisoners to become “obese” thereby being injurious to their health.

The amount of medical  or dental treatment is a joke and almost non-existent and when it is ministered the prisoner in Oklahoma are expected to pay for the services, (even though it is at a much lower rate) and doctors many time refuse treatment that would be grounds for a law suit on the outside. When you add the dangers of forcible rape of many young offenders entering the system, it can be a tremendous hardship to serve their time without standing up for themselves which can bring disciplinary action by the officials running the unit.

Extreme Prison Reform Needed in Most Jails & Prisons, Especially in Oklahoma

4.4% of prison inmates nationwide report sexual victimization and the same for 3.1% of jail inmates nationwide. It is estimated that almost 89,000 prison and jail inmates nationwide report being sexually victimization. This is only the tip of the iceberg, since there are probably twice that many that never get reported for fear of severe retaliation by other prisoners.

Oklahoma County Jails

In most Oklahoma counties jails 3.2% of the county jail inmates report that they have been sexually victimized by prisoners and 1.5% report being victimized by staff, but there have been no reports by Tulsa prisoners. There are probably cases that have not been reported for fear of reprisals, since there have been .4% of the inmates in the Tulsa jail report being victimized by staff. It does not compute that staff would be the largest offender in this situation.

Oklahoma State Prisons

There have been .40% of inmates reports of sexual victimization in state run prisons and .35% reported being victimized by staff. There seems to be a lapse of reports in private run prisons of sexually victimizes prisoners, but this is hard to believe, since the guards at these institutions are more lax than at the state run facilities. It is problematic that the reports do not make it into the system for fear of reprisals by other inmates and there are no reports on record for the private run prisons.

Complaints from the prisoners who claim they were sexually victimized  by other inmates has been instrumental in congressional action and a few changes to how the facilities are run, but the problem is not going away. With the national record of victimization of nearly 89,000 prisoners nationwide, something needs to be done. If this crime was committed against a citizen on the outside it would result in a sentence in most states of 5 years or more.

Proper Care for Prisoners

The prisoners in our prisons are wards of the state and are the responsibility of the state and all states should see to the proper diet, safety, exercise, medical and dental treatment of these prisoners. If they do not they are in violation of their fiduciary capacity and need to be severely reprimanded or fired if they cannot perform their duties with alacrity. The rate of abuse of our prisoners in Oklahoma is a travesty of the re-habilitation of all that have fallen into the system.

A study done by the U S Department of Justice studied the inmate populations in all 50 states and two in Oklahoma state and found that nationally, 2.1% of  prison inmates and 1.5% of jail inmates reported sexual victimization by other prisoners from 2008 to 2009, but in comparison 3.9% of inmates at the Mack Alford Correctional Center and the Davis Correctional Center reported 5.2% sexual attacks by other prisoners. Both of these facilities are medium security facilities, and have a strong gang alliance in both, including the “Arian Brotherhood” and “Mexican Mafia”.

The country jail in Oklahoma City is running a close second to the Davis prison facility.

The Oklahoma State Corrections Department has not kept up with the needs for prison reform, nor have they shown humane treatment to the prisoners under their jurisdiction. According to a spokesman for the ODC, they are saying that the reason for the sexual predators in prison is for control over another prisoner. Isn’t that what it is all about when a man outside the prison rapes a woman? And for that offence we send him to prison, yet they give him what amounts to a slap on the wrist and nothing more in time if a prisoner commits such and act against a fellow inmate.

The ODC claims that it is hard to prove a sexual assault because they do not have enough guards, but the crime scene could be contained if they really wanted to. The problem is that they think of the prisoners as animals and treat them with less respect and humanity than most people treat their animals. This is one reason there are so many repeat offenders returning to the prisons. If we treat them like animals while they are incarcerated, how can we expect them to act like humans when they have finished serving their time in prison?

Solutions Needed

With the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003 by the Congress the state of Oklahoma put out a manual on how to deal with the issue and how to report such an assault. How can you expect a prisoner to believe that the administration officials at a facility will take them seriously, or protect them from reprisal, when they treat them like animals?

They have even stopped letting prisoners receive merchandise bought and shipped from a reputable store on the outside and rip off the prisoners for the money they receive from relatives by forcing them to buy goods from the prison commissary at inflated prices. The state of Oklahoma is in dire need of reform on all levels and the rest of the states are not too far behind them. If we want to re-introduce these people back into society when they have completed their sentences, then we have to give them something to look forward to, by treating them as human beings.

 Keep in mind that not all the prisoners in prison are there because they are guilty. Some have been convicted of heinous crimes on circumstantial evidence. In some cases it was manufactured by an over-zealous district attorney, other time they were convicted by a court appointed attorney who did not represent them or did not have the knowledge to be practicing law. Not too many fall into that category, but a few do and for that reason we need to treat them with humane treatment and see to their needs and protection. They are after all the property of the state and as such it is the state’s responsibility to take care of them humanely.

Across the nation this year more than 390,000 applicants applied for and came before the countries immigration courts to be admitted to the U S as citizens of this nation. This is a huge number of people that will likely be sworn in as citizens of a nation that is drowning in immigrants, both legal and illegal. For sake of argument let’s say that 375,000 of those applying will be sworn in per year; over a ten year period that will amount to 3,750,000 people added to the illegals that are already here and show no sign of being deported back to their respective countries, or leaving of their own free will, the number of people trying to become a part of the fastest growing nations in terms of population is staggering.

Now let’s take a look at our water resources, economy and the number of people we can logically support. We are a nation smaller than China and Russia, with less potable water than Russia, or China and with an economy that is stagnant and in trouble for the last 10 years. Yet, the flow of traffic into our country hasn’t slowed in numbers of immigrants (either legal or illegal) and probably will not slow for the next ten years. With a growth rate of close to 10% we will reach a population growth of more than 500,000,000 people in this country by 2020. How will we be able to support these numbers, with the limited amount of water and resources needed to sustain the nation?

With our present administration, we are at the mercy of this type of uncontrolled growth at the expense of the legal citizens that enter our country and the illegal traffic of immigrants are a burden on that same economy at a cost to the American taxpayer. So the question becomes one that no one in Washington wants to answer. Using a reasonable synopsis, we will not only become a nation that is dead in a future of less than twenty years, if this explosion of immigrants is not brought to a halt.

I have feelings for my fellow man, but I also have the feelings of a man who wants a secure place for my children and their children to grow up and live a decent life in a country that has been a beacon to the world for two hundred years. We could accept the legal immigration over the past two hundred year, because we had the resources to support them and the growth of a nation as a producer of goods for other nations. Now with most of our industry moving their operations overseas to capitalize on the lower wage scales, while we increase ours, we have become a nation that imports more than we export.

Slowing the Flood of Immigration

The only salvation for this country’s demise as a leading nation in the near future is to slow the tide of illegals that ender our country each year and stay to become a burden on the country and the people. If they would take control of their destiny in their native lands, they would be able to do what the U S has done, by increasing production and industry and salaries in those countries, thereby alleviating the reason for them to leave their native lands. The money made for the wares they make for export would build wealth in those countries and produce a higher standard of life.

The largest burden is the Illegal immigrant who leeches off the taxpayers who pay into the system. To correct this imbalance, there needs to be an ejection of all illegals to their respective countries and a closing of the borders so tightly that no one can enter illegally. Arizona has the right idea, but the present administration in Washington will not do the job that is needed to follow suit and eject the illegals. They would rather spend the tax dollars of the public to persecute and prosecute law suits against a sovereign state, than to face the problems of the border and illegal immigration head on. 

We once needed the burgeoning growth as this country built to the status of a great nation, but the land and water resources we have are now being taxed beyond endurance by so many bodies immigrating across our southern borders illegally. The laws are there for their ejection, but are not being used by the federal government for fear of offending someone in another country. The time to worry about offending someone not of this nation is past. We need only to worry about offending the people of the United States that were born here and have lived all their life here.

There used to be all kinds of Developed countries that gave away their citizenship as freely as we do in the U.S. But one by one they all have recognized the folly of that policy.

These are a just a few of the countries that have repealed their anchor citizenship laws:

•         Canada-  Saw the error of allowing indiscriminate citizenship and was the last non-U.S. holdout against citizenship of anchor born babies. Illegal aliens no longer got citizenship for their babies after 2009.

•         Australia- Their citizenship requirements are much stiffer than those of H.R. 1868 which took effect in 2007.

•         New Zealand- This country repealed its anchor citizenship law in 2006.

•         Ireland- Decided to repeal their anchor law in 2005.

•         France- Was wise enough to repeal the anchor law in 1993.

•         India- Repealed birth right law in 1987.

•         The United Kingdom- Repealed the law for anchor citizenship in 1983

•         Portugal- Repealed this law in 1981.

The United States has become the laughing stock of the world. Only the U.S. values its citizenship so lowly that it distributes it to anyone and to the off-spring of foreign citizens visiting anyplace on tourist visas and to foreigners who violate their promises on their visits, work and student visas, to illegally stay in the U S, including the millions who sneak across our borders illegally.

Ruining the Base of Our Economy

The amount of increase in our population dramatically with anchor babies and mothers, especially in times of hardship such as we are in at this time is like playing Russian roulette with the country. We need to think of the people in this country, their livelihoods and the need for jobs and food for people who were born here to American parents. Americans have always been at the forefront of having sympathy for someone less fortunate, but charity always should begin at home.

We like to think that we are a nation of great wealth, and compared to the rest of the world we stand high in that respect, but it fast fading into the distance. We now have a President that is ruining our country, people elected to the Senate and Congress that are bent on the same aims, yet they do not have the foresight to see where it is leading us.

The clause in the Constitution that deals with the birth of children to parents in this country was meant to protect children born to legal parents on American soil. There is nothing in the clause that should have been interpreted as a means to circumvent the law of the U S by allowing illegals to take advantage of it. It is definitely time for this law to be revised and the present law as it stands to be repealed.

By: Thomas D Segel                                    

 Harlingen, Texas, September 3, 2010:  As we move closer and closer to Election Day, I really start to worry about the GOP.  It has always been a strange political party that could never really understand its own strengths and weaknesses.  Because of that failing, especially during good times, it tends to form that old cliché called the Circular Firing Squad, and shoot itself in places where it really hurts.

 We saw the Republican majority vanish, not because it had the wrong ideas about governance,

but because it decided the safest way to hold office was to emulate the actions of its opponents.  It started spending the people’s money like a Sailor or Marine on a Saturday Night Liberty Call. (Before those Sailors and Marines write nasty letters, we should all remember we have been there---and done that!)  The main aftermath of such extravagance is that on Monday morning you suffer for your indigestions.  The GOP suffered great losses from being labeled Democrat-Lite, and they are still having a hard time shaking loose from that title.

 As Republicans start feeling secure in their party positions, they have also become very lazy in preparing to face opponents.  We saw this in the poorly managed McCain presidential campaign.  We saw it in multiple debate performances.  We saw it in poorly designed and ill received attack ads.  We saw it in campaigns where the Republican candidates tried to be pleasing to everyone, the result being nobody was pleased.  Most of all, we saw it on the stump, where candidates lost their message time and time again.  Last night we saw it in Arizona Governor Jan Brewer when she became lost in space for one of the longest dead air events in television.  In the vast majority of these examples, the difficult situations would never have surfaced if there had been adequate advance preparation.

 Republicans in office have another major failing.  They all want to be loved.  Well that is something they should really rethink.  The American public accepts politicians because we realize that some governance is required, but none of them was voted into office because they were the Prom Kings and Queens at the last big dance.  In fact, even at this hour when Republicans hold a six point generic poll lead over the Democrats, two out of three Americans would rather see every one now in office out on the street.  So, forget about all that love, candidates…It ain’t gonna happen!

 Most important of all is the attitude of Republicans once they obtain those lofty seats of power.  Historically, they have became arrogant, insufferable, egoists who suddenly became all knowing and all seeing.  They refused to pay the slightest heed to the very citizenry that placed them in elected office.  Time and time again, telephone calls, emails, letters and face-to-face visitations let those in office know the public was very unhappy with their accommodation of opponent’s wrong-headed legislation and their own wild spending. It made no difference.  Those in office only bowed to Party leadership and ignored the public…much to their own peril.

 We are now about to elect a new Congress.  There is strong public sentiment for a new Contract With America.  What it should contain has been well documented.  If the candidates will adopt such a document …and can convince America they will honor it completely, there can be a huge victory for the GOP come November.  The other side of the same coin is…If Republicans continue to be their own worst enemy and recommit the sins of the past…. Well, just like before…nobody really loved you, anyway.

You can read more of Thomas D Segel's blogs at www.thomasdsegel.com</a>

Shuckins! At my gas station this week was the dreaded note on the pump: “This gasoline now contains ethanol.” I have changed stations several times this last year to keep from buying E10, gasoline laced with 10 percent ethanol. This move to ethanol laced gasoline is political in nature. I have three major objections to being forced to use E10.

First, the BTU (energy) content of E10 is not as high as regular gasoline, so I surrender gas mileage. I already drive carefully and under the speed limit to boost gas mileage so this will not “break the bank” in my life. However, I do not want to spend money foolishly fuelish.

Further, my 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis reacts to E10 with a warning to “Check Engine” which means the oxygen sensors in my car puke with E10. It has always done so and the advice of my mechanic has been to not put ethanol in my gas tank. When I put regular gas back in the warning light goes off. So, why should I pay money to have a problem with my car and lose gas mileage to boot?

Second, the use of the food crop corn to make fuel raises the price of corn-based food since the production of corn competes with the federally subsidized ethanol production. Farmers weigh the value of producing corn for food or for fuel where they get a federal ethanol subsidy. The reduction of corn in our food chain increases the cost of food both for humans and for animal feed. Increasing the cost of feeding animals results in higher animal-based food costs to consumers.

Taxpayers subsidize the production of ethanol, which in turn raises the cost of our food. While food cost is not a problem for me, I do not want to spend the extra money needlessly. Importantly, the escalating food costs are very problematic for the more fragile families in New Mexico.

More so, this artificial increase in food prices have causes riots in Mexico and in other countries with large populations who are mired in poverty, since the increase in food prices is very real to those people and quite catastrophic. There is no reason their corn-based food should increase in price.

Finally, closer to home, New Mexico uses its oil industry to fund education. The use of E10 fuels subtracts money from our schools because the 10 percent of ethanol used in gasoline is mainly produced in the “corn belt.” There is no reason to use less New Mexico produced petroleum to satisfy political whims.

From Voluntary to Mandatory

Understand, I have no objection whatsoever to E10 being sold. Anyone who wants to drive with E10, or E85 for that matter, is free to do so. My objection is that E10 is being forced upon me because it is getting harder and harder to find gasoline without ethanol. While we can talk about ethanol being cleaner burning I am not convinced it is critical when compared to the harm done to food production and New Mexico schools.

Likewise, there is a move to mandate paying for recycling when some citizens do not wish to recycle. In Las Cruces the city council is considering mandating the payment of recycling for every citizen even if some citizens do not wish to recycle. Either directly or indirectly every citizen pays for recycling because recycling does not pay for itself. If recycling made dollars and sense it would not have to be subsidized.

It is important to note that often with government what starts as “voluntary” moves quickly to mandatory, as friends of mine in other cities have found. I have a friend who must separate into six barrels paper, glass, metal, garbage, and two other things which I do not remember. I just remember when I visit he is perpetually upset by all of the care he must take in separating everything he uses. His garage is taken up by the mandatory recycling which he remembers WAS voluntary when it started.

Is it certain that if the Las Cruces City Council starts a recycling program with mandatory payment it will end up as obtrusive as my friend’s? No, but that is the way to bet.

Michael Swickard is a columnist on this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com

In reading the ‘Their View’, written by Gary Johnson the ex Governor of New Mexico in the Sun-News I had to take a different view on the legalization of marijuana. What he worth made a lot of sense and in retrospect shows that prohibition of a product that has no more danger to it than alcohol will never work. The greatest amount of money made by the criminal element of the roaring 20s was from the very prohibition of a product that had theretofore been in plentiful supply to the American people.

It was preached that it was good for the people because alcohol was the ‘Devil’s Brew’, it caused one to lose all inhibitions and that it was addictive. It only caused a small segment of the population of America to lose their inhibitions, commit crimes and was only addictive to a small particle of the population that could not handle its use socially. If the American people want something they will find a way to get it, even more so when it is banned as being against the law.

Marijuana is no more addictive than any other substance that is used to the point of abuse, such as cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and yes, even hard drugs. The addiction comes with the loss of will and drive within a few humans who think they can control their desires, but lose out to the strong abuse of the drugs. One can become addicted to almost any substance known to man, if they abuse it. Look at the people who become addicted to overeating, to drugs that enhance their strength beyond reason. Look at the children that become addicted to the power they have to subjugate another child and become bullies. The same can be said of many grown adults.

Marijuana used in moderation is no different or dangerous to the body than the use of alcohol and should not be on the list of restricted drugs. If controlled and taxed, as is liquor, or cigarettes, it would become a great source of income for the building of our infrastructures and our nation. But when we prohibit its growth and use we make it more desirable to the public, simply because it is the rebelliousness of our human nature to prove we can control it, and thereby abuse it to the extent the people did during the great prohibition of the twenties.

Under any type of prohibition we open an avenue of profit in the black-market trade of that product. I agree that many hard narcotics should be regulated with prescriptions and by other means, to keep them out of the hands of people who are foolish enough to abuse them. This must be done in order to protect our society from the ills that come with addiction. For almost all the narcotics there are uses that are beneficial to man, such as the alleviation of pain of many types, but with the regulation of these drugs it takes away the desire to beat the system and takes away the need for the black-market trade of those products to a certain extent.

The Cash Cow of the Cartels

Our government has long known that the ‘cash cow’ of the Cartels is marijuana, bringing in more than 60 to 70% of the financial gain through money, arms and ammunition, etc., which gives them the power to become more powerful than the government of many countries. Take a look at what marijuana did to Panama under the dictator Noriega, look at what has happened in Mexico. The cartels have moved mostly from Colombia into Mexico, since with the eradication of the marijuana trade in Colombia by the destruction of the crops, but they are a long way from dead. The need for the ‘cash cow’ of marijuana to support their endeavors is the uppermost in their black-market enterprises.

There will always be people foolish enough to snort, sniff, or mainline any new substance that is the popular drug of the age, but marijuana should never have been prohibited in this country or in any other country. It has its true medicinal purposes and if controlled and taxed would be no more dangerous than the alcohol that is consumed in this country. Sure it will take some mental change in our attitude to make this happen, but some far thinking people in some states are getting the message.

Remember it took some really far thinking people to come to the conclusion that the prohibition of alcohol was a no win situation and open it to the public and tax it. The same can be said of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, Benzedrine, or many of the substances used and abused by the public. But let’s be realistic. Are we winning the drug wars? What would happen to the cartels if we took away their largest ‘cash cow’ marijuana? Would they be able to assassinate politicians, pay huge amounts for guns and equipment that makes them stronger than the government as they have in Mexico?

Many states are getting into the medicinal marijuana trade on their own, to fight against the illegal growing in Mexico as well as our own national parks. The answer is not prohibition, it is control, control and taxation of the marijuana. Think how you would feel if prohibition of alcohol were brought back to the country?  Many would give up its use, but still, about 50% of the population would still find a way to make it or smuggle it into the country. And who would that enrich? The criminals who would gather in the black-market trade of liquor.

There will always be abuse, no matter what, and there will always be people who can’t control their own bodies or minds, but the need to control the greedy and dangerous people in the illicit trade of marijuana is ludicrous. The people and the government is crying that we are going broke, yet they stick their heads in the sand and ignore a source of income from the taxation and legal growth of hemp, which is no more dangerous than alcohol. We have gained some sort of handle on the problem of alcoholism in our country, but we still reap a huge tax from it every day. We would not be in any greater danger from marijuana than we were from alcohol.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman;

Thank you for you response concerning illegal immigration, dated July 26, which arrived by the U S Postal Service on August 16. In the future, I welcome your response by e-mail, as it is more reliable.

In that response you made several statements, the most notable being: “I understand the need to reform our broken immigration system and enhance our border security. I am pleased that additional resources have been deployed in New Mexico and am encouraged that border security agencies are now staffed at record levels. However, we must face the reality that while we are making some headway, more must be done… I continue to believe that maintaining border security is critically important and will continue to support efforts to secure our nation’s borders.”

Senator, you are now the second of my two senators and one representative who speaks with a forked tongue. You say one thing and then act in the opposite direction…that Sir is equivocation with intent to deceive!

I could certainly take your words at face value, yet you and Senator Tom Udall are pushing hard for passage of S B 1689, which would designate more than 800 square miles of Southern Dona Ana County as federal wilderness. This would disenfranchise several historical ranching operations and open corridors for illegal aliens and terrorists, as have already been well documented in Arizona, south of I-8 and west of Tucson.

There are already documented instances where various New Mexico agencies will not proceed south of I-10 without armed escort. The one or two people I know who live in that areas are always armed.

Charlie Revie

Las Cruces, N M