Mexican Border Gaza Strip Bound?

by Gayle Plato

Sitting in Phoenix, the Arab-Israeli conflict along the Gaza Strip seems constant and doesn’t even blip on the radar of the average American. Why should it? Because we’ve a chance to see the parallels of our borderland conflicts. We must stop the exponential growth of warring organized crime now becoming a political stronghold at our doorstep.

Whether Phoenix, El Paso, Tucson, or Tijuana, all borderland states’ populated cities are part of the drug cartel super highway bleeding out over the Mexican border. Crystal Meth is liquid gold for Mexico. In fact, there is a growing middle class, community infrastructure, and a war-lord feudal state reaching a political tipping point. We may jabber on about the cheap labor taking over our cities or the funds we spend on social programs for illegal aliens, but we are missing the real issue. Look to Gaza- Hamas, the former PLO, Israeli and American push-me/pull-me politics with the Gaza Strip, and see how a borderland goes ballistic.

One of the most accurate and insightful experts about Gaza and the crisis upon the region is Benjamin Netanyahu, newly sworn in Israeli Prime Minister. He often explains the dire consequences of the 2005 Israeli pull-out of Gaza. He said then that the region will become a puppet entity of Iran, and he was right. Hamas is backed by Iranian extremism, private Saudi funds, and international Jihadist Evil ( thats with a capital E).

Hamas started in February, 1988, in the Gaza strip as a counter movement to Yasser Arafat and the PLO. Their charter states that their focus is to keep Palestine in Muslim hands and to wipe out Israel. They profess daily to keep up the Muslim Jihad . But the layers of Hamas are ignored often by the Western media. They are not a one-dimensional entity. Hamas has a branch that funnels money into the community too, grooming loyalty of the locals. Gaza has been a crowded world of Muslim, Jewish, and Christians. They were cheap labor, and worked fertile soils of organic foods for instance. Gaza went back to Palestinian control and all Hell broke loose. While Hamas promised a peace with Israel, it didn’t happen. See Mr Netanyahu speak on Hannity and Colmes here:

While we are not a small nation like Israel, carved out of a political region just 60 years ago. We can’t deny what our borderland might become. Drugs are a growing business and the beginning of political process:

“Cartels can challenge — and supplant — governments. Between huge amounts of money available to bribe officials, and covert armies better equipped, trained and motivated than national police and military forces, the cartels can become the government — if in fact they didn’t originate in the government. Getting the government to deploy armed forces against the cartel can become a contradiction in terms. In their most extreme form, cartels are the government.” (http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/geopolitics_dope)

Startfor.com defines the future dilemma I see as a critical facet of out REAL border battle. The local politicians and criminal justice operatives of all U.S. Border states need to come together, and push to problem-solve. A prophetic take by political analyst and writer, George Friedman is detailed here:

“The likely course is a multigenerational pattern of instability along the border. More important, there will be a substantial transfer of wealth from the United States to Mexico in return for an intrinsically low-cost consumable product — drugs. This will be one of the sources of capital that will build the Mexican economy, which today is 14th largest in the world. The accumulation of drug money is and will continue finding its way into the Mexican economy, creating a pool of investment capital. The children and grandchildren of the Zetas will be running banks, running for president, building art museums and telling amusing anecdotes about how grandpa made his money running blow into Nuevo Laredo.
It will also destabilize the U.S. Southwest while grandpa makes his pile. As is frequently the case, it is a problem for which there are no good solutions, or for which the solution is one without real support.”
(http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/geopolitics_dope)
netanyahu on Hannity and Colmes about Gaza

AZ GOP uses poll question to defend stance on increasing taxes

“Cutting my taxes, securing our border. That’s my AZ GOP.”
–Bumpersticker

(Well, one out of two is still half a loaf…)

In a news release today, the Arizona Republican Party used a Kenski/HighGround poll question to suggest that its stance in favor of a (temporary) tax increase is popular with voters:

http://www.azgop.org/news.asp?artid=87&z=2

Sharp readers will notice that the Kenski/HighGround poll question did not break down the amount of the tax increase into per-family or per-household figures.

In our AFP Arizona poll, when we let respondents know that the increase would be over $300 per household, we got very different results. 62 percent of respondents in Phoenix were opposed to the tax, and 64 percent in Glendale. Opposition to tax increases crossed party lines, with 47 percent of self-identified “strong Democrats” in Phoenix opposed, and 52 percent in Glendale.

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/032609-afp-arizona-releases-poll-results-likely-voters-oppose-tax-increases

And then there’s another poll from Rasmussen, showing 65 percent of respondents opposed to a tax hike. Reporter Howie Fisher summarizes the dueling polls here:

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/137363

Near the end, Fisher cites the AZ GOP spokesman:

Brett Mecum, the party’s executive director, admitted that the survey included several other alternatives to making up the $1 billion shortfall. But GOP Mecum refused to make the results of that public, saying the only information the party wants out — at least right now — is that there is support for Brewer’s plan.

Tax Hike to Cause 14,400 Lost Jobs as State’s Economic Output Falls by $1.2 Billion

To close the state’s budget deficit Governor Jan Brewer has proposed a $1 billion tax increase. New findings announced today show that if the State of Arizona were to implement a $1 billion sales tax increase, 14,400 private jobs would be lost.

These new findings are the result of economic modeling conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. The Goldwater Institute asked Beacon Hill to examine the impact of a $1 billion sales tax increase on employment, state economic output, and incomes.

Beacon Hill found that a $1 billion sales tax increase would cause the state to lose 14,400 private sector jobs; the state’s real economic output would decline by $1.2 billion; and Arizonans would see their total after-tax income, already hit hard by recession, fall by $760 million, or almost $300 per household on average.

In addition to the $1 billion tax increase proposed by the governor, Arizona property owners face a tax increase in July when the state equalization tax comes back on the books. Lawmakers and the governor could decide to permanently repeal this tax. In the event that lawmakers choose not to repeal it, and even if it becomes the only tax increase to go into effect this year, almost 4,000 private jobs and $385 million in after-tax income will be lost.

“The Beacon Hill Institute has an excellent reputation for modeling the real effects of tax changes,” said economist Dr. Byron Schlomach, Director of the Goldwater Institute’s Center for Economic Prosperity. “These numbers show that these tax increases will hurt our economic recovery by putting more Arizonans out of work.”

Rasmussen poll: 65% oppose Rep. Governor Brewer’s tax hike

Do you favor or oppose a temporary tax increase to help stem the state budget shortfall?

22% Favor
65% Oppose
13% Not sure

Read the rest of the poll here. The East Valley Tribune analyzed here why the poll results came out differently than a state GOP poll.