Beating the war drums

Walking around DC, the first thing I noticed were some sort of propaganda posters on the sides of bus shelters. Obama shared a poster with Iran's Ahmadinejad in a rather evil embrace with a Mullah, the text read: "Do you trust him? (Obama) Do trust them? (the Iranians)." 

The push for a military operation in Iran, though probably lacking in popular support in the U.S., seems a viable option in Israel, which would undoubtably require U.S. assistance in some capacity. Not only is it a terrible idea, it would likely fail to achieve its objectives. The Economist lays out one of the best arguements for sanctions and diplomacy in place of military action that can be read here. 

BorderLine Propaganda

In the wake of so many U.S. politicians (especially those in AZ) clamoring for greater "border security," it seems that the claim that Mexican drug violence is destabilizing the border regions is simply not true:

The top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso and Austin, according to a new FBI report. And an in-house Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities. 

From "AP Impact: US-Mexico border isn't so dangerous."

 I have colleagues who work closely with border issues who have often vented about how mainstream media often blows the Mexico violence issue completely out of proportion. In fact, my buddy Paul even took on the L.A. Times on its Mexico coverage and got into a little back and forth with their Mexico correspondent. Immigration reform is definitely an important issue that the Obama Administration will have to tackle in the near future. I think the upcoming November elections are reason enough to believe that fearmongering over Mexico, Mexican immigrants and the safety of our borders have more political motivation than anything else.