This week Narco-Sphere news drops another bomb shell . That is war funding in Iraq included a supplemental provision for funding the militarization of Mexican society and that the money will be used by groups like Blackwater. Essentially setting up our own right-wing paramilitary group for Latin and Central America, and it will likely be used against all the normal countries we use this for: Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil. This is combined with the fact that we have re-activated the American 4th fleet to dominate the naval lanes of the Caribbean and Latin America is very bad news. As a descendant of a founder, and long line of naval officers, usually I'd say how happy I am, but in this case without a firm commitment to work with the other countries of the OAS to interdict right and left wing paramilitary drug cartels, I have no such enthusiasm. Clearly this is being used to dominate naval lanes in the way the Athenian Navy did, as gunboat diplom...

With the release of a Canadian Report from the CSIS Americas Program on the future integration of North American Society, called North American Future 2025 , that is the creation of MexiAmeriCanada- I have to say after reading it I am less then impressed by its lack of Pan Americanism. It basically creates a North American Empire that excludes the rest of the hemisphere. If you want integration and a borderless economy that is a fine goal for any one who honestly believes in free markets, but note that it should be the entire hemisphere and come as a result of sovereign republics that believe in the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy or Bolivarian Democracy and there will be less turmoil in doing it. You do not need to create crisis after crisis to bring a hemispheric society together, the OAS can do that through greater and uplifting cycles of mutual development, free markets, trade even with people we have had historical disagreements with, and prosperity for our citizens ens...

My daughter keeps pointing out to me that 90% of the time Senators Obama and Clinton give almost the same answers to every question. This is sometimes amusing, but as the pandering gets heavy in the rust belt (Ohio and soon Pennsylvania) their joint rush toward traditional Democratic trade protectionism has been little short of headlong ... ... and potentially dangerous. Investor's Business Daily (h/t to Fausta's Blog ) points out that all this noise will be awfully unsettling to our allies and trade partners: Both candidates threaten to leave NAFTA unless its "labor and environmental standards" are strictly "enforced." Enforcement? Hammer? What kind of criminals are these would-be G-men talking about? Evil ruffians out there committing . . . trade. This not only insults our allies and trading partners, it signals to everyone else that America's capricious, chest-thumping protectionist ally, Mexico, a third-world nation that is trying hard to transform i...