Mexico Watch: Calderón gets around to explaining roots of Mexico drug crime (UPDATED 2X)

Wonder why it took him so long. Wouldn't have anything to do with not wanting to collect taxes, would it? From Bloomberg's report today titled Bodies of 72 People Found in Mass Grave in Northern Mexico After Shootout

[...] Calderon said today that the country needed to boost security efforts on the local level in order to more effectively combat drug traffickers.

More than 400 municipalities in Mexico don’t have their own police force, and 90 percent of those that do have fewer than 100 officers, Calderon said at an event in Mexico City to discuss security with political leaders.

More than 60 percent of municipal police officers receive a monthly salary of 4,000 pesos ($306) or less, he said.

“The root of crime in Mexico is at the local level,” Calderon said. “The municipalities haven’t been able to respond with efficiency to the challenge of insecurity.”

Thanks so awfully much for letting us know, Mr Calderón. I guess from your announcement today it's not just dope-smoking, gun-smuggling gringos that are at fault, as you charged the other day. [banging her head on the keyboard] Sigh.
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3:00 PM and 5:00 PM Updates
Latest update includes revisions to text re López Obrador and Mexico's presidential election, links.
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Remember what López Obrador said in 2005 when George Bush told Vicente Fox that he needed to raise taxes? He said there was no need to raise taxes; just collect the taxes already on the books.

For that (and for the cardinal sins of failing to please the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and announcing that Mexicans shouldn't have to go to the United States to find work) López Obrador was branded as mentally unbalanced, a Communist, and a friend of dictators.

Now how did that view of him arise during the Mexican presidential campaign? For the answer, we could start by asking the U.S. ad agencies that Calderón reportedly hired during the campaign. And we could ask Americans Dick Morris and Rob Allyn, who were hired as consultants for the Calderón campaign.

See this report in addition to the ones I included above, for more on U.S. meddling in Mexico's 2006 presidential election.

So here we are today, dealing with a narco war that is "failure to collect taxes from rich Mexicans" spelled backward, and with American tax money being poured into the drug war.

And with deep thinkers yammering that the only real solution is to legalize pot in the USA. How's that supposed to work, pray tell? The legal dope industry would be so heavily regulated and taxed in the USA that Mexico would still be the primary grower, an industry that the drug lords would still control.

And with Calderón calling Americans who complain about being overrun by illegal immigrants "racists."

And with Mexican drug gangs running riot in the United States.

What can I call the deep thinkers in Washington's Mexico Policy Establishment? How to describe them? Idiots! Parakeet brains --no no that would be insulting parakeets.

And here's that map again, in case anyone missed it:


And here's my August 23 commentary on the map, in which I observed that it was actually Calderón who was the insurgency because clearly the drug lords were Mexico's government, and the post titled Mexico: If it walks like an insurgency and quacks like an insurgency ...

I give up. Washington has won. I'm going on vacation before my doctor puts me on blood pressure medication. Bye.