U.S.-MEXICO DRUG WAR: WE'RE CLUCKING LIKE CHICKENS

By showing true mettle and grit -- by standing with staid backbones --
Beto O'Rourke and the seven other city representatives sent others
running for the proverbial hills, like chickens, Tuesday.

Mayor John Cook and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes couldn't run fast
enough, bwaak, bwaak.

It boiled down to simply asking Congress to at least discuss the
feasibility of making drug use legal as a way of breaking the backs of
drug cartels.

At issue is the war zone that is Juarez, and figuring out how to stop
the mobster drug lords and their armies, who rule that city of 1.5
million. They've already killed nearly 1,700 people in the last year
and two weeks.

An intelligence report says they plan on killing high-level
politicians this year, and that may include U.S. politicians.

O'Rourke proposed that the federal government discuss lifting the
prohibition on narcotics in this country, as was done with the lifting
of prohibition of alcohol more than 70 years ago. Just discuss it,
that's all.

Could it work?

No, it won't!

OK, then, let's not do it.

That all that was proposed and placed on a City Council resolution
that mostly dealt with the city's intent to help Juarez as much as
possible.

Cook vetoed that almost immediately.

He sounded good by stating: "It's not realistic to believe that the
U.S. Congress will seriously consider ..."

What he really said was: Holy smoke! I don't want to get near that
political hot potato.

Reyes said, "Legalizing the types of drugs that are being smuggled
across the border is not an effective way to combat the violence in
Mexico."

What Reyes really said was: Jeezo-beezo, get that away from
me.

So what do we do? Any suggestions? Should we tell the murderers to be
nice? Maybe they'll listen to reason? Maybe we can send Dr. Phil over
there?

Or, does somebody want to say that "education is the
answer."

City Council simply asks for a discussion in Congress.

For instance:

Did all of America turn into drunks back when the prohibition against
liquor was lifted?

Will we all become addicted to marijuana and other narcotics if drugs
are made legal?

Hey, let's shoot crap into our veins, Bubba. It's legal
now.

Will we actually do that?

What's disheartening about this "run for the hills" attitude of some
is the resolution didn't say, "let's legalize drugs!" It was simply:
Let's have the feds talk about it, see if it's feasible -- get the
smartest minds involved in the discussion.

After all, nobody seems to have a better idea. Mexico's federal, state
and local law enforcement are Barney Fife when it comes to dealing
with the cartels.

The citizens in Mexico are too afraid to rebel against the
free-for-all kidnappers, extortionists and armed robbers who seem to
get away every time.

Our federal government is a "Cook & Reyes" on this because, just as
O'Rourke told the El Paso Times on Tuesday, any politician pushing
this idea needs a whole lot of courage and will certainly have to
worry about ever getting elected again.

Facts are: We're not stopping our citizens from selling automatic
weapons to the cartels. We're not stopping billions of dollars worth
of illegal drugs from coming into the U.S. We're not stopping our
buying and using the drugs. We're not stopping the billions of dollars
of cash going back to the cartels.

And now we can't even talk about a new way to stop all that, just
because it's controversial?