THE BORDER REPORT

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder must have made every pothead and federal agent in the country blink yesterday when he announced the Feds will no longer target medical marijuana. To some, his pronouncement signals the demise of marijuana laws that are nearly seventy years old. The "legalize it" crowd is pleased.

I'm not, and not because I'm opposed to medical marijuana. Somewhere down there with “deport them all,” “build the walls higher,” and “who cares,” nothing is more infuriating to me than soft potheads whose answer to Mexico’s northern border mess is “legalize it.”

THE BORDER REPORT

So Shorty finally made the big-time.

The five-foot-two Sinaloan gangster who, according to the FBI dossier sitting on my desk, was born on Christmas day in 1954, made it to Forbes Magazine’s top billionaires of the world.

Granted, at 701st place, he’s a little low on the list, tying with a Swiss oil baron and the granddaughter of the Campbell Soup inventor (And why they chose this homoerotic shot is beyond me.)

Shorty's worth $5 million to the Feds and the rumor is that his bounty's about to go up to $10 million. But what's he really worth?

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THE BORDER REPORT

Just received another email from a college kid's parent, worried about their safety on Spring Break in Mexico this year.

I've had a good dozen or so of these questions thrown at me this year, some from Americans who want to travel to Puerto Peñasco, some from parents worried about their kids heading to Mazatlán or Cancún. And the University of Arizona starts its Spring Break today, so today's as good a day as any to get into this.

The short answer is yes, your kids are fine. Yes, they can go down to Mexico and sun on the beach, drink, tan, fornicate and have a great time.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The third largest newspaper company in the United States seems to think it's mission is to terrify the American public with bad information to convince us of the need for the military on the Mexican border.

To me, it's a disturbing aspect of the relationship between the media and the State, this propensity for reporters to confuse their role and start thinking it's their job to sell the public on the government's plans. It's not your job. Your job is to ask critical questions on the public's behalf. If you can't do that, go work in p.r.

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THE BORDER REPORT

A few weeks ago, I speculated that the incoming Obama Administration was heavily interested in putting the military on the Mexican border.

Since then, there's been a steady drumbeat of U.S. Army officials whispering to the press that putting the military on the border is precisely what the president wants to do.

This story from The Associated Press is one of the more glaring examples. If you notice, the source for the story is a military official, not a White House staffer. The story is nothing more than a plant, since there's no way a U.S. military officer is going to tell a reporter what the institution's plans are, not without orders from a higher-up. Clearly, the military wants us to know what it wants to do in Mexico.

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