As you know, I live on the border and pay attention to what is going on down here. Yesterday evening I was at a meeting with a fellow I know who is a contactor with Homeland Security and is housed at a Coast Guard base. When you ask what he does, he gets sorta vague and I do know he has to go through a through security check every couple of years.

The conversation was about the Border Patrol and he stated that both the Border Patrol and Coast Guard were in very bad state of moral as they were not allowed to do their jobs. The had orders to in essence not work more than a little come from very high up. He said, that lack of funding was the reason given, but nobody believed that.

The long and short of it is border security is practically non-existent right now.

I would have like to have asked some questions, but it was the wrong time and place to do so.

In the meantime, across the river in Mexico, gun battles, murders, kidnapping and all of that stuff are a daily occurrence. The change of government in Mexico has had no effect on violence there. There is in effect a new black out in Mexico. Reporters who cover the violence end up dead.