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The first thing that needs to be submitted before it charges, invisibly, out of my skull is the matter of the birds down at our little Adobe Hut. Normally, El Gringo Viejo will say that we have a lot of nice birds and some new or interesting species. But for the last couple of months, we have had birds, but not the overwhelming numbers of species to which we have become accustomed.
Then, on the other hand (a politician might say) we have had more species of butterflies, by a long shot, than any other year at our 12 year old place. There have been many species of butterflies that have never crossed our radar before. Then, on the other , other hand the normally numerous Monarch Butterflies are few and far between. Normally from March through August there is a huge flight that comes up from Michoacán State about 600 miles to our southwest.
There have been the normal amount of long dry periods along with rainy spells with copious amounts of tropical rains at intervals...always just in time to keep El Gringo Viejo from becoming depressed and despondent. It has not been anything beyond normally hot. If anything, due to the chilly mornings, it has been slightly to the cool side of the normal. By chilly mornings, we have had temperatures falling into the mid-fifties Fahrenheit, three or four times per week.
Otherwise, besides the overload of doves and whitewings, and the panoply of really great birds and butterflies, the late Summer's burst of flowers and greenery has been the second best show we have had. It will be very nice during the rest of the year, if in fact we can receive a regular dose of angel tears during the Autumnal episode.
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Concerning Alfredo Caro Quintero, and the uproar about his having been released early after serving 28 years of a 40 year sentence for murder with aggravating circumstances. Forty years, in Mexico, is essentially a capital sentence. The sudden release of the thuggish bum caught many...,perhaps all....interested parties off guard. It was disappointing on several levels.
That a federal court would set aside a verdict on the basis that the trial "should have been held in Jalisco State Courts since there was no federal crime per se that had been violated" was a flimsy sham. The stretch they used the first time (back in the 1980s) that any felony committed during the operation of a conspiracy or the involvement in crimes of trafficking hallucinogens, narcotics, or inebriates... or other substances that are injurious to the health of families or individuals, those crimes can be addressed by the authority of the federation and penalties assigned in keeping with the norms of the State wherein the crimes were alleged to have occurred. So there really was no such error in trial or sentencing.
The news that Caro-Quintero was suddenly whisked away and evaporated from the consciousness of Mexico is not true. It was carried on the wire services, especially on Associated Press and McClatchy, but it is the best understanding that Mexican military investigators have shadowed Caro-Quintero's every move. On top of that, there are four or five other legal entities who want their piece of the thug as well, including Interpol.
The story is that Caro-Quintero is very debilitated from the strutting bully that he was 28 years ago. Combined effects of various types of venereal disease are blamed for his dilapidated appearance (we remember the before and after pictures of Alphonse Capone, for instance). Other stories include the probability that he has some kind of dark organ cancer as well, and was considered to be terminal. Costa Rica also declared that that nation would not allow Caro-Quintero to return; his properties there had been confiscated anyway.
A bevy of Federal Prosecutors made a written and personally presented appeal directly to the Supreme Court, challenging the release, and the Supreme Court Justices quickly acceded to the petition. They have also given a guarantee of rapid adjudication of the petition for re-detention and a setting aside of the ruling of the federal judge in Guadalajara. It is my best understanding at this time that the written arguments have already been presented and read. There may soon follow an opportunity for the judges to question the prosecutors if there is a need for extra information or explanation. So sometime before this month is out we may be able to see Caro Quintero "re-encarcelado" and perhaps even prepared for delivery to the Gringos....who are holding an approved extradition request that is about 10 years old, but still valid. The Mexican compliance with extradition during the past ten or twelve years has been phenomenal, quite frankly, and we must hope that Obama doesn't do any more to give the powers that be in Mexico to cease with that co-operation.
Frankly, it would be just as well if he were to die in prison, awaiting extradition.
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Now, concerning other activities beyond the silly-if-it-weren't-so-sad Syrian mess, we would like to re-direct the attention of the OROGs back to the original messes. So long as we are deriving joy that Obama is proving to the world that he is a chronic, pathological liar, and that once and for all even the low-information voter can tell without doubt that Obama is a slug, allow El Gringo Viejo to advise one and all...."It does not matter! The dullards and committed marxists will do not care that Obama is a deranged incompetent who lies. and lies poorly at that. They simply do not care. Anything that Obama does that we would consider a moral transgression or a personality defect or a character flaw, the Low Information Voter considers all that to be what Obama has to do to overcome racism, to protect himself and his family, to fight for the little guy who is being trampled by the millionaires and billionaires. The Low Information Voter cannot think beyond the veneer. They think the blood in All Star Wrestling is real, and they believe in Hope and Change.
But! We must continue to press our esteemed legislators to hold the line on the budget and on the debt ceiling and the absolute necessity to not fund the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative. Yes, even now, or especially now that the eyes of the world are watching to see if the Obsolete Press will allow Obama to get away with another slushy, mushy quagmire manoeuvre that involves misstating the case, blaming the Republicans for wanting to starve minority children and grandma, along with wanting to shut the government down so that the people cannot have what they want.
Which, of course is humorous, because all this Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative was originally pegged to "do something" about the 35,000,000 people who do not have "health care". Of course, those 35,000,000 had better "health care" than all of us. If a miracle baby has a temperature of 101.1...off to the emergency room. The folks with "no health care" would wait around for a bit, and then they would get to go behind the curtains, and then the child would be cured, and they would go home. No charge. They would complain about having to wait, but of course, they do not know how long we have to wait for any medical consultation or treatment, because of them. Because, in reality they go first.
And the really funny thing for Nancy Pelosi to explain to her grandchildren? Well, it's the fact that with full implementation of the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative there will still be about 40,000,000 people without "free health care" as the Democrat Congressmen and operatives call it.
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Just a few asides for our readers. It is always a pleasure to have you over. Come back when you can stay longer.
El Gringo Viejo
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