Month July 2010

Violence and drugs out of control in Sinaloa

The violence in Sinaloa is unstoppable. No authority, at any level of government has been able to stop the terrorism of organized crime and its breakdown of civil society and state institutions. Does the Mexico government favor the Sinaloa cartel?…

Oakland edgy, awaits Mehserle verdict

SFist Oakland riots, will they or won’t they happen? Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop accused of killing Oscar Grant at the Frutivale station, could face 2nd degree murder (15 years – life), voluntary manslaughter (3 – 11 years), involuntary manslaughter…

Schwarzenegger. The grinch who stole the paychecks

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered 200,000 state employees be paid minimum wage until the budget passes. The State Controller is refusing to implement the order, saying the computer system can’t handle such a change and the question of whether the governor…

All politics is local: Al-Qa’eda and the Afghanistan War

As pressure to end the war builds in Washington, supporters of the war in Afghanistan will invariably return to their strongest argument: the threat of Al-Qa'eda. However, a reasonable understanding of the terrorist organization shows that even Al-Qa'eda is not enough to justify a bloody and expensive occupation.