When I was a student at Oberlin College, Casa Fiesta was one of the most popular hangout spots in that small, Midwestern town.  Best known for their margaritas, fajitas, and endless supply of free tortilla chips, the Mexican restaurant was always packed with students, townspeople, and professors. It was located just kitty-corner from the house where I lived, so close that sometimes I would always catch a whiff of frying garlic and onions when I walked to and from class.

But that may all have changed at about 11 am this Wednesday, when Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials made a series of arrests at the Casa Fiesta in Oberlin and in Casa Fiestas in Ashland, Fremont, Norwalk, Oregon, Sandusky, Vermillion and Youngstown, Ohio.  Overall, 58 immigrants were arrested, although three women were eventually let go. However, they will still be required to appear before a federal immigration judge.  According to ICE spokesman Greg Palmore, the immigrants -- all Mexican citizens -- are likely to be deported as soon as possible.  

Cross-posted at Facing South

Hurricane Dolly is poised to strike the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border later today, maybe even escalating to and is now a Category 2 storm. About 1.5 million Texans stand in the storm's projected path, and the governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico is planning to evacuate 23,000 people -- a reminder that nature knows no borders.

We all hear about how Illegal Immigrants are causing crime, ruining our country. Well Mr. O'reilly, Mr. Dobbs, Mr. Hannity..... I know you won't cover it but some of us will....

This horrendous crime happened in Shenandoah, PA. not far from where my parents are originally from. Local news has barely covered it and Harrisburg's Patriot News hasn't covered it all.

I was born in Pottsville, Pa not far from here and most of my extended family come from here.
I lived in Harrisburg until I was 18. I am just appalled and saddened by this. The fact that nobody has been arrested or charged shows you how out of wack our system is.

Correction: I have removed the AP article. Sorry about that! I've replaced it with a link to Marina's diary....

Just this week, my news filters started picking up what increasingly appears to be a disinformation campaign aimed at "poisoning the well" in Latin America:

* "DEA Reports Show That Mexican Cartel 'Thugs' Are Receiving Training From Iranian Revolutionary Guard"

* "Mexican Drug Cartels and Islamic Radicals Working Together"

* "The Caracas-Tehran Axes"

Something is up. They are cranking up the propaganda machine, perhaps in preparation for a future deployment of U.S. forces in Mexico, Colombia and/or Paraguay. For now, their intention seems to be to threaten and to terrorize. Imagine that.

The current edition of Econoticiario brings you stories from Spain (the end of the Catalan drought?), Mexico (a slideshow of a glacier crumbling in Patagonia), Costa Rica (results of a new study on the migratory habits of leatherback turtles), Colombia (Costa Rica announces carbon offset program for air travelers), and Chile (tightening of rules in Santiago on who can drive on "pre-emergency" days)

Your Spanish words of the week:

tar sands--arenas alquitranadas

energía mareomotriz--wave power/energy

energía solar--solar power/energy

energía eólica--wind power/energy

energía geotérmica--geothermal power/energy

Michelle Obama was invited to join a mostly black sorority. I don't know this sorority but I like what I have heard, although I haven't quite got the Skee Wee noise thing.

Apparently, according to those who think racism in the United States was put to rest by affirmative action(evil) and black movie stars, we live in a post racial society

Mexico is in a whole lot of trouble. Right now this is a page 26 story. Soon it will be page 1.

It all revolves around OIL.

Crude output from Mexico's Cantarell, the world's third-largest oil field, is falling at the fastest pace in 12 years as investment limits keep state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos from fully exploiting deposits and finding new ones.

Production at the Gulf of Mexico development dropped 34 percent in May from a year earlier, the biggest decline since October 1995, according to data compiled by the government and Bloomberg.

To repeat: Mexico has the world's third largest oil field. It is now in terminal decline. This also impacts the US.

Falling production is curbing exports to the U.S., which buys about 80 percent of the oil Mexico sells abroad. Sales to the U.S. declined to 1.07 million barrels a day in May, the lowest since November 1995.

More below.

Today I am leaving my usual sort of diary to enter into the world of tin-foil-hattery.  I am a scientist by training.  When I do write a diary, it is filled with citations and usually too long.  I qualify my speculations and express my opinions as such.  

Yesterday I posted such a diary on John McCain's wisit to the countries providing us our drugs,  Mexico and Colombia.  I discovered the many connections between those governments and their elected leaders and the funding of the "war on Drugs", now turned into a War on Illegal Armed Groups (IAGs).  While doing so, I came across the oddest factoid.  On July 2, while visiting Mexico on his July 4th Senate break, John McCain had a private dinner with Carlos Slim, by some accounts the world's richest man. link  This was only reported in the Miami Herald, whhich has a sister paper in Mexico City which covered McCain's visit with more attention to details.

An appalling discovery of US private contractors training the Mexican army in torture has received little attention in the United States despite the underlying issue about the influence of companies such as Blackwater Worldwide and Dynocorp establishing torture techniques abroad. The videos which surfaced in Mexico show an English speaking man directing actions against fellow officers.

In one video, Special Tactical Group officers squirt mineral water up the nose of another officer, a torture technique commonly utilized by Mexican police. The man's head is also shoved into a hole which supposedly contains rats and feces

In the other, the unidentified contractor drags an officer through a puddle of his own vomit as punishment for failure to complete a training exercise. The company involved in this tape is currently unknown.

Warning, the videos contain graphic images.

Barack Obama spent July 4th in Montana, celebrating his daughter Malia's birthday and attending a parade link.  Here on Daily Kos were are engaged in a massive fit of buyer's remorse and we want our primary vote back.now that we don't have the Clinton's to kick around any more, we seem to want to kick the nearest Democrat.  Why oh why, when there is John McCain to mock?

Where in the world was John McCain on the Fourth of July, the only one he gets in his campaign for President?  Why he was down Mexico way, Cindy and Joe Liebermann at his side (along with his Republican BFF, Lindsey Graham), celebrating how well the war on drugs is going these days and figuratively delivering a big giant check for 400 million dollars.  And then back home to the McCain Compound in Sedona Arizona for a little campaign regrouping.  link

John McCain is hoping to carry Colombia and Mexico during the general election. But apparently, no one remembered to tell him that those two countries, not states, are not going to vote in GE

The photo above is of my now 92 year old Tata, Luciano Cervantes Eusebio at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City. He has had the pleasure of being married to my grandmother, Natalia Cervantes Llamas, for over 50 years now. They have 10 kids and 17 grandkids, all living in the United States. We're a mixed bunch of brown and white, but we love our grandparents and we're grateful for everything they've ever done for us.

The reality in the United States these days is that everything is expensive.  Gas.  Food.  Shelter.  Healthcare.  Its a reality all of us are learning to cope with.  Living in Southern California, however, I have the fortunate ability to travel easily between the US and our neighbor to the south, Mexico.  What I found on a recent trip there literally shocked me and made we wonder, just what in the world is wrong with our country.  Mexico is no paragon of quality of life or even transparency of government but somethings they do decidedly better then us.  Healthcare is a prime example.  

For America's Lil' Three (now down to 3.1%of total U.S. GDP (personal consumption spending now accounts for 70%)), the answer is likely to be Mexico. The reason? Automotive unions in Mexico have agreed to cut wages to 'near China levels':

http://biz.yahoo.com/...

Talk about loose change . . .

If the internets are, in part, the emancipation of decades of isolated control of the means of mass communication, shouldn't we pay homage and take seriously the messages of those who fought year after year to tell the stories the masters forbade, by telling and earnestly considering them now?

For more on "The Only Blacklisted American Film," check out:

http://www.imdb.com/...

http://www.archive.org/...

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/...

http://www.historynet.com/...

There is a topic of great importance that raises many issues but is not widely discussed. In the next 2 years, the implications of national sovereignty, foreign policy, bilateral trade, gas prices and Big Oil’s investments of profit, U.S. domestic drilling and energy independence, even immigration and the environment will need to be addressed because of something called a transboundary reservioir.

With the usual 2-3 year gap on reality we've become increasingly used to when reading blogs, the corporate media is finally noticing that something is going on in the oil world. And, despite a lot of distraction about speculators or oil company profits, they are increasingly talking about the reality of booming demand outside of the West, and stagnant production.

Talk about $200 oil is no longer just the realm of doomers, survivalists or other assorted "unserious" people. So what are you doing to adapt to that?

Cinco de Mayo is about the continuing happiness Mexicans enjoyed of successfully forcing out a foreign military from their country in the 1800s.