This is not something I expect or hope you will fret over much. But we need to be aware of what is going on not just in this country, but in comparison with other countries. We need to know who we are keeping pace with and take such solace as the (remaining) differences between us and Russia can give.
But incidentally, this is yet another wedge issue, yet another sign of the devil's bargain Bush and Company, mere profiteers, have struck with the genu-wine loons. This seems a marginal issue, but it won't be for Republicans in swing states, I expect, if it refuses to fizzle out (note it's been building for years and years already).
This article contains a good intro to the Minutemen issue, if you need one, specifically the Republican rift over it, although even WorldNetDaily is dancing around it.
From MosNews [Quote Source Link]
[Google News Roundup]
The Amur Cossack Army will be recreated in Russia's Far East, RIA Novosti reports. The force will unite all the separate Cossack organizations in the region.
16.03.2005
Konstantin Pulikovsky, the presidential envoy to the Far East Federal District says that Cossaks can become a force that can effectively fight terrorists and criminals.
Presidential adviser Gennady Troshev suggests creating a Youth Corps in the town of Khabarovsk to train future Cossacks from childhood.
15,000 Cossacks, who are members of more than 200 divisions, currently live in the Far East Federal District. The efforts of the federal authorities are aimed at preventing disunity, as a number of Cossack organizations work separately.
The Amur Cossack Army was created in 1858 and abolished 60 years later after the revolution.
At the beginning of 20th century there were 11 Cossack armies in Russia, that consisted of 474,000 soldiers. Initially these divisions were formed from people who lived near the state borders, but later millions of peasants joined them
Compare, contrast, and console yourself with the differences you find, to this:
From el Universal Online [Quote Source Link]
[Google News Roundup]
The Vigilante Group Will Start Reporting The Movements Of Undocumented Migrants To The U.S. Border Patrol.
April 01, 2005
As the U.S. and Mexican governments continued their condemnation of the Minuteman Project that will begin operating on the Arizona-Sonora border today, concerns over possible violence are growing among the area's residents.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a statement Thursday saying the U.S. government "does not back" the vigilante group and that the only group responsible for watching the border is the Border Patrol.
However, the statement continued, the United States could not prohibit the Minuteman volunteers from organizing on the border, and the U.S. Border Patrol "appreciates efforts by local residents to report suspicious activities."
Also on Friday, Miguel Escobar Valdez, Mexican Consul in Douglas, Arizona, said the Mexican military was bracing for possible violence on the border.
"The Mexican army is on alert," Escobar said. "Also, law enforcement will be vigilant because the situation is very volatile. This is because, I have to say it, there are violent and radical elements on both sides of the border."
The Minuteman Project is made up of a group of U.S. volunteers angry over the continued entry of undocumented migrants into the United States. They have announced they will watch hightraffic migration areas in the Sonoran desert starting in April, when many migrants try to cross due to the comparably mild weather. The group says it will simply report the movements of migrants to the border patrol, but some fear they will try to illegally detain them and that violence could result.
"These ranchers' campaign has only brought us ruin," said Cristina Loreto, owner of a small restaurant in Agua Prieto, Sonora. "Fear has driven away many people from this area because they are afraid of the racists. I am a witness to how these poor immigrants have suffered."
However, members of the Minuteman Project say they aren't racist, but simply want to enforce U.S. law.
"I have the right to defend the security of my family and my people and if people attack me and call me racist because of this, then they don't understand what is going on here on the border," said Henry Esparza, himself the grandson of Mexican immigrants from Chihuahua and a Minuteman volunteer.
"I have never shot anyone and would never shoot one of my people," Esparza said. "I am the grandson of Chihuahuan immigrants and I consider myself Mexican. But I cannot accept that criminals and terrorists are coming into my country. I think that Al Qaeda could take advantage of the border to infiltrate the country."
While there have been reports of Islamic terrorists using the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the United States, none have been confirmed.
And in the US Press:
From Arizona Central
Volunteer patrols stir uneasiness on border
Minuteman Project could draw 1,000 for migrant watch
Susan Carroll
Republic Tucson Bureau
Apr. 1, 2005
TOMBSTONE - Faye Leedy cornered a burly man standing guard outside the white-walled headquarters for the Minuteman Project, ogling his T-shirt with a look of pure envy.
Leedy, a 73-year-old volunteer for a much-hyped civilian border patrol effort that starts in Tombstone today, read the writing, in old-fashioned Western script, out loud: "Undocumented Border Patrol Agent."
"Oh, I gotta have one of those," she said with a chuckle. Leedy, a Sierra Vista retiree, is among an unlikely bunch of self-appointed border police set to descend on Cochise County to "assist" the U.S. Border Patrol in keeping undocumented immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.
Inside the project's headquarters on Toughnut Street on Thursday, organizers, who said they expect as many as 1,000 volunteers from across the country, holed up to work out details for a series of protests, patrols and news conferences.
Volunteers for the monthlong effort trickled into town in ones and twos in vehicles with license plates from as far away as Arkansas and Tennessee. Some milled outside the headquarters, wearing gun belts and holsters with sidearms.
As Department of Homeland Security agents cruised through this historic outpost, dubbed "The Town Too Tough To Die," local law enforcement prepared for the influx of volunteers and a rally planned for Saturday.
In offices and boardrooms in Arizona, California and Mexico, opponents of the project put finishing touches on plans to counterprotest the movement and set a schedule to train more volunteers to act as "legal observers."
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., wildly popular with anti-illegal immigration supporters because of his push to seal the border, boarded a plane from the East Coast to head to a rally on Saturday.
Five Republican state lawmakers plan to take a van to Tombstone to show support for the volunteers. Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, said he believes the volunteers won't break the law or attempt to "round up" undocumented immigrants. Going with Harper will be Sens. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, and Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Mesa, and Russell Pearce, R-Mesa.
Rep. Ben Miranda, a Phoenix Democrat, also has said he plans to head to Tombstone to monitor and confront the Minutemen.
As news crews descended on Tombstone, Leedy bristled at charges that the Minuteman Project had any ties to racism or xenophobia. The fears were stoked this week after the White-power organization National Alliance distributed fliers in the border town of Douglas, an hour southeast of Tombstone, and went on TV saying they had infiltrated the project.
"It has nothing to do with racism," Leedy said. "I love the Mexican people. They're beautiful people. I see nothing wrong with them coming here. But they need to do it according to the law."
The project's organizers describe the effort along the border as a massive "neighborhood watch" and said volunteers will be instructed to alert the Border Patrol when they spot undocumented immigrants and to avoid confrontations.
They said the main goal is to draw public attention to the U.S.-Mexican border and particularly problems in Arizona, the busiest illegal-immigration corridor in the nation.
Roughly one out of every five of the 1.1 million undocumented immigrants arrested this year crossing the border came through Cochise County, population 122,000, according to the 2000 census.
The Department of Homeland Security has vowed to gain control of the Arizona border and on Wednesday pledged to send an additional 534 agents and to more than double the number of aircraft over the next six months.
The agency has discouraged people from participating in the Minuteman Project, saying they put themselves and possibly agents at risk. President Bush also spoke against the movement, saying he's "against vigilantes in the United States of America."
Douglas Mayor Ray Borane worries that the project has the potential to get out of control. The Internet-based recruiting effort attracted so much national media attention that organizers face a daunting task trying to weed out White supremacists.
"They're not going to be able to control these people, especially the radical groups," Borane said. "That's of great concern to me."
The Mexican government issued a news release Thursday warning that Mexican consulates will file criminal complaints against anyone who violates the law. The American Civil Liberties Union has trained more than 100 "legal observers," who will follow participants in the Minuteman Project when they start patrols, said Ray Ybarra, organizer of the ACLU effort in Douglas. They plan training sessions today and Saturday.
"It's kind of turning into a movement of its own," he said. "The legal observers are there first and foremost to deter any violence with their presence."
Sitting on the patio outside the Minuteman Project headquarters, Al Phillips, 54, said he drove more than 1,700 miles from Tennessee to help the civilian patrol effort and plans to stay the entire month.
"I think the border needs a few more eyes," he said. "If we see people coming across, we'll call the Border Patrol. That's all we're going to do. Our borders should be more secure than they are."
Larry Vance, a rancher who lives north of the border near Douglas, said the Minuteman Project already is having an effect with news about volunteers and an increased number of Border Patrol agents driving down the number of undocumented immigrants coming through his 20-acre property.
"We haven't seen any aliens in two weeks," he said.
Typically, he said, he spots about 30 or 40 people a night crossing his property.
Sally Alves, owner of Curly Bill's Bed and Breakfast in Tombstone, said the project gives the town, founded in 1877, a bad reputation.
"It's the wrong kind of tourism as far as I'm concerned," she said.
Now, you've got to be glad Bush et al. are not gung ho for this. And this vigilante scene has been going on for some time along the border. It's not my neck of the woods but I've been following it. However this is groundbreaking mainstream recognition for it. And it took the Russians over ten years to figure out what to do with the Cossacks once they resurged in the early nineties.