The Regulator Room - On the Go!

Tell Congress to close the Enron Loophole NOW

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:07:10 GMT

The price of a barrel of oil has doubled in a year, and yet global emergency supplies have increased from 52 days to 54 days supply (bearing a loss of total global refining capacity). Supply exceeds demand, yet prices have increased? This is strictly profiteering at the expense of the people, and it must be stopped NOW.

Tell your Congress person and Senators to pass this in to law and then encourage our oil company owning President to sign this in to law NOW:

http://closeloophole.org/

Congress has passed HR 6377, ordering a stop to this madness:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110T4Nf1L::

Applaud your congress person for taking action and tell them to NOT STOP THERE! Gas prices should not be in excess of $2.39 a gallon - and we can make this happen!

Mexican military members murdering people in Arizona

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:54:27 GMT

Police Union Standing By Mexican Militia Reports

Police documents show that at least one of the suspects involved in a home invasion and homicide were active members of the Mexican Army.

View Police Documents:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

A top member of a Phoenix police union is standing by reports that at least one of the men involved in a Monday morning home invasion and homicide was an active member in the Mexican Army. Click Here for the update.

"Even if you put aside the Mexican military, you have illegals in the country...they're protected with tactical gear using tactical strategies in police uniforms willing to ambush police officers. I think that's bad enough," said Mark Spencer, President of the Phoenix Police Enforcement Association.

While on the J.D. Hayworth show Tuesday, Mark Spencer announced that the suspects were hired by drug cartels to perform home invasions and murders.

The incident at 8329 W. Cypress St. resulted in the death of the homeowner. Between 50 and 100 rounds were fired at the house.

Spencer said a police officer told him that one of the men captured said they were completely prepared to ambush Phoenix police, but ran out of ammunition.

He added that all were all dressed in military tactical gear and were armed with AR-15 assault rifles. Three other men involved in the invasion escaped.

Click Here to listen to Spencer's interview on the J.D. Hayworth show.

However, Phoenix Police have not confirmed the men were Mexican Army members.

Sgt. Joel Tranter said one suspect revealed that he had "prior military training," but "no credible evidence" that any of them were active in the military.

Click Here for more from Sgt. Tranter with KFYI reporter Bob Bennett.

Obama has a problem with race...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:56:05 GMT

Obama quotes

From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.'

From Dreams of My Father: ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

If you ever forwarded an e-mail, nows the time to do it again. Send this to everyone you know, regardless of their political disposition. This guy is an extremist... http://www.theobamafile.com/

When record profits are on the line... Oil companies behind price fixing?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:21:06 GMT

Price fixing any one?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=&sid=agZ1gqbuhxpo

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11252.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101470_pf.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/29cff8ec-3ef4-11dd-8fd9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080622145305.ul30erug&show_article=1

Bumping it up a notch - BUY GAS FROM AMERICAN SOURCES

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:41:10 GMT

Anybody remember this one? Let's keep the pressure on the oil companies and OPEC!

WHERE TO BUY YOUR USA-GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON:

Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled about it. It might even be good for us!

The Saudis are boycotting American goods.

We should return the favor.

An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.
Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia Just buy from gas companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis.

Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell.......................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco..........144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil...............130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway...117,740,000 barrels
Amoco..........................62,231,000 barrels

Citgo Gas comes from South America, from a Dictator who hates Americans.

Do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION! (Oil is now $90-$95 a barrel)

Here are some large companies that DO NOT import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco.................. 0 barrels**
Conoco................ 0 barrels
Sinclair................ 0 barrels
BP/Phillips........... 0 barrels
Hess................... 0 barrels
ARC0. ................ 0 barrels
Also: Pilot, Flying J, Love's, RaceTrac, Valero

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers. It's really simple to do.

Now, don't wimp out at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I'm sending this note to about thirty people.

If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) .... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers !!!

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If it goes one level further, you guessed it ..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. How long would all that take?

If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next eight days!

MORE OIL IN THE ROCKYS THEN ALL THE WORLD OVER!?

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:35:59 GMT

http://www.stansberryonline.com/OIL/20060405-OIL-COL.asp?pcode=WOILG551&alias=200604OIL

So says them...

Dollar mains gains on Euro

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:24:55 GMT

Dollar Gains Most Since 2005 as Bernanke Says Growth Risk Fades

By Bo Nielsen and Ye Xie

June 10 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar headed for the biggest two-day gain against the euro since 2005 after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said economic risks have faded, spurring traders to boost wagers interest rates will rise.

The U.S. currency rose to a three-month high against the yen after Bernanke said late yesterday that the central bank will ``strongly resist'' any waning of public confidence in stable prices. ``Strong'' economic fundamentals will translate to dollar strength, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today in a Bloomberg Television interview in Washington.

Policy makers are trying to ``dispel this notion in the market that the U.S. has a policy of benign neglect to the dollar,'' said Sophia Drossos, a currency strategist in New York at Morgan Stanley, in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ``They are making it very clear that the benefits of a weak dollar are far outweighed by the costs.''

The dollar climbed 1.3 percent to $1.5448 at 2:53 p.m. in New York from $1.5646 yesterday, bringing the two-day gain to 2.1 percent, the most since Nov. 4, 2005. The dollar rose to 107.37 yen, the highest since Feb. 27, from 106.31 yesterday. Japan's currency traded at 165.98 per euro from 166.33.

Futures on the Chicago Board of Trade show a 52 percent chance the Fed will raise its 2 percent target rate for overnight lending between banks by at least a quarter point at its Aug. 5 meeting, compared with 31 percent the previous day. The contracts show a 96 percent chance the Fed will increase the rate by December, up from 67 percent odds a week ago.

Crude Oil Drops

The dollar has fallen 11.6 percent against the euro and 7.3 percent versus the yen since September, when the Fed began to lower borrowing costs from 5.25 percent. Crude oil today climbed to $137.98 a barrel in New York before falling more than $6 to $131.35. The price more than doubled in the past year.

The U.S. dollar climbed to 94.42 cents per Australian dollar, the highest since May 16, before trading at 94.54 cents. Against the New Zealand dollar, the U.S. currency gained to 75.02 cents, the strongest since January. The British pound slid to $1.9551 from $1.9751 after data showed U.K. house prices dropped in May.

``The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so,'' Bernanke said in a speech at a Boston Fed conference. ``The Federal Open Market Committee will strongly resist an erosion of longer-term inflation expectations.''

The Fed is ``aware'' that the weak dollar boosts inflation, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said in response to questions after a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York today. Paulson repeated comments made yesterday that currency intervention is a tool for policy makers. He also urged China to loosen government controls on energy prices and the value of the country's currency.

Chinese Yuan

The yuan traded near the highest level since a dollar peg was scrapped in 2005. The currency was little changed at 6.9255 per dollar in Shanghai, compared with 6.9230 on June 6, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

A report today showed that the U.S. trade deficit widened in April as the surging cost of oil boosted imports to a record, overshadowing the biggest gain in exports in four years. The gap grew 7.8 percent to $60.9 billion the Commerce Department said.

The two-year U.S. Treasury yields rose 17 basis points to 2.88 percent. The yield advantage of a German two-year bund over a comparable Treasury has narrowed to 1.76 percent from 2.26 percent on June 6.

``You are going to see the dollar rally over the next 12 months,'' said Michael Aronstein, chief investment strategist at Oscar Gruss & Son Inc. in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``Global investors are quite underweight the U.S. You could see the beginning of a real reversal of that''

Group of Eight

The U.S. dollar index traded on ICE futures in New York rose 1.16 percent to 73.702, the biggest one-day gain since Dec. 14. The index tracks the dollar against six major trading partners including the yen, euro and pound.

Finance ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized countries may consider joint action to deflate the price of oil and prop up the dollar at their meeting June 13-14 in Japan, said DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in a report to clients.

The last time the major industrialized countries intervened was on Sept. 22, 2000, when they bought the euro after it tumbled 27 percent from its 1999 debut. They last propped up the dollar in 1995, when it sank almost 20 percent in four months against the Japanese yen to a post-World War II low of 79.95 yen.

The greenback dropped 1.4 percent against the euro last week, the most since March, after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on June 5 that policy makers may raise borrowing costs in July to contain inflation and the U.S. Labor Department reported the next day that the jobless rate increased the most in May in more than two decades.

The European Central Bank needs to act in a ``forward- looking'' manner in order to ensure price stability, said council member Axel Weber at the University of York today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bo Nielsen in New York at bnielsen4@bloomberg.net; Ye Xie in New York at yxie6@bloomberg.net Last Updated: June 10, 2008 14:55 EDT

For once, I actually believe OPEC!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:22:20 GMT

OPEC chief appeals for calm over oil

Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:33am EDT

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC's Secretary General on Tuesday appealed for calm, saying the record-high crude oil price was unbearable and did not reflect any shortage of supply in the market.

Abdullah al-Badri also called for measures to curb market speculation, a factor OPEC says is sending prices to unjustified levels. Oil hit a record $139.12 a barrel on Friday and was trading near $136 on Tuesday.

"I ask through you, through Reuters, really we need some calm. We are panicking too much," Badri told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.

"The situation is unbearable as far as we are concerned. I want to say, there is no shortage now and in the future."

The comments are the latest to underscore the view of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it is pumping more than enough oil and high prices reflect factors beyond its control.

"We are not happy with the current level of price for one reason. It has nothing to do with the fundamentals," he said.

"Speculators are playing a big role in high oil prices. Also there are other considerations, the value of the dollar and the geopolitical situation."

Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter and OPEC's most influential member, said on Monday it would soon call for a meeting to discuss what it called unjustified rises in prices.

Badri supported holding such a meeting, which he said might happen before the next scheduled OPEC gathering on September 9.

NO DEMAND FOR MORE

OPEC, source of two in every five barrels of oil, is pumping 32.2 million barrels per day (bpd), more than estimates of demand for its oil in 2008, Badri said.

The International Energy Agency, adviser to 27 industrialized countries, on Tuesday raised its forecast for the need for OPEC oil this year by 300,000 bpd to 31.6 million bpd -- still below OPEC's output.

In support of his point that prices are being driven by factors other than supply, Badri said world consumption of 87 million bpd is smaller than the value of trading in oil-related financial instruments.

Badri said the "paper market" equaled about 1.36 billion bpd and he was critical of investment banks, some of whose forecasts for rising prices have been partly credited for sending oil to new peaks.

"Their practice at this time is not in favor of producers and consumers," he said. "We really cannot be guided by one or two speculators."

OPEC, which currently has 13 member-countries, was willing to raise production if needed, although there was no demand for extra barrels.

"Nobody is asking for oil at this time. We are checking with our member countries. There is no queue for oil," he said.

The IEA on Tuesday cut its forecast for world oil demand growth in 2008 by 230,000 bpd to 800,000 bpd, citing the impact on consumption of fuel subsidy cuts in Asia.

Demand remains robust despite rising prices and Badri said OPEC would not make as large a reduction in demand when it publishes its latest forecasts.

"Maybe we would reduce by 40,000-50,000 barrels per day in the next report, but not more," he said, referring to OPEC's Monthly Oil Market Report for June scheduled to be published on Friday.

"With the high price, there will be a slowdown in demand. There's no doubt about it, but I don't think it's as much as the IEA forecast."

(Additional reporting by James Jukwey, Barbara Lewis and Jane Merriman, editing by William Hardy/Peg Mackey)

GOP refuses to hold Big Oil accountable for price fixing fiasco

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:19:14 GMT

Republicans block extra taxes on oil companies

Jun 10, 3:24 PM (ET)

By H. JOSEF HEBERT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline.

The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge.

"Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and want Congress to do something about oil company profits and "an orgy of speculation" on oil markets.

But Republicans argued the Democratic proposal focusing on new oil industry taxes is not the answer to the country's energy problems.

"The American people are clamoring for relief at the pump," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., but if taxes are increased on the oil companies "they will get exactly what they don't want. The bill will raise taxes, increase imports."

The Democrats failed, 51-43, to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and bring the energy package up for consideration.

Separately, Democrats also failed to get Republican support for a proposal to extend tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy development, and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation. The tax breaks have either expired or are scheduled to end this year.

The tax provisions were included in a broader $50 billion tax measure blocked by a GOP filibuster threat. A vote to take up the measure was 50-44, short of the 60 votes needed.

The windfall profits bill would have imposed a 25 percent tax on profits over what would be determined "reasonable" when compared to profits several years ago. The oil companies could have avoided the tax if they invested the money in alternative energy projects or refinery expansion. It also would have rescinded oil company tax breaks - worth $17 billion over the next 10 years - with the revenue to be used for tax incentives to producers of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources as well as for energy conservation.

The legislation also would:

_Require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures markets and open the way for federal regulation of traders who are based in the United States but use foreign trading platforms. The measures are designed to reduce market speculation.

_Make oil and gas price gouging a federal crime, with stiff penalties of up to $5 million during a presidentially declared energy emergency.

_Authorize the Justice Department to bring charges of price fixing against countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has acknowledged that Americans are hurting from the high energy costs but strongly opposes the Democrats' response and has ridiculed those who "think we can tax our way out of this problem."

"Republicans by and large believe that the solution to this problem, in part, is to increase domestic production," McConnell said.

A GOP energy plan, rejected by the Senate last month, calls for opening a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development and to allow states to opt out of the national moratorium that has been in effect for a quarter century against oil and gas drilling in more than 80 percent of the country's coastal waters.

Artificially inflated oil prices will come back to bite investors manipulating markets

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:17:05 GMT

ECB chief warns against oil shock

By Carter Dougherty

Monday, June 9, 2008

PARIS: The president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, on Monday called on oil producers and consumers to learn from past mistakes if Western economies were to avoid a repeat of the high inflation and unemployment that followed the first global oil shock in 1973.

That year is widely acknowledged as an economic watershed, a time when an OPEC oil embargo led to a spiral of higher prices, recession in Western economies and a wrenching contraction in the early 1980s that finally put an end to a decade of sharp inflation.

No one, whether Western consumers or oil suppliers, should want to repeat that history, Trichet said. "There is a joint interest in behaving as properly as possible," he said.

Trichet spoke at the Forum for New Diplomacy, a series of periodic discussions organized by the International Herald Tribune and the Paris-based Académie Diplomatique Internationale, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the ECB.

He did not specify what suppliers might do, but some countries, including the United States, have urged oil exporters to pump more crude to bring down prices.

The U.S. Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., on Monday welcomed a call by Saudi Arabia, a top global exporter, for a summit meeting of oil producing and consuming countries to discuss what the Saudis call an unjustified rise in oil prices.

Paulson said on CNBC television that record oil prices were "a problem" for the U.S. economy and repeated his view that the rise in oil prices was due mainly to increasing global demand, output that has not expanded and recent volatility in supplies, Reuters reported.

Despite rising energy and food prices, Trichet said it was vital for workers in Western countries to moderate wage increases, which economists regard as the best way to avoid an inflationary spiral.

Speaking less than a week after the ECB surprised financial markets with likely plans to raise interest rates in July, Trichet strongly emphasized the need to keep expectations of inflation under control. Such expectations influence future prices because they feed price-setting decisions in the present, and the ECB fears companies will anticipate greater inflation by raising both prices and wages.

"A very solid anchoring of inflation expectations is essential," he said.

In celebrating the euro's achievements over the past 10 years in recent days, Trichet has emphasized the ECB's determination to preserve its independence, guaranteed in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that laid the ground rules for monetary union.

But some people who negotiated the treaty have cautioned that the relationship between the ECB and governments of the 15-nation euro area could turn increasingly fractious as the bank attempts to tame record inflation by raising borrowing costs.

The Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on Saturday called on Trichet to exercise "a bit more prudence" in ECB decisions.

"We all respect the independence of the European Central Bank but we all expect the European Central Bank to behave responsibly," Zapatero said while traveling in the city of Léon.

Zapatero, who is grappling with a sharply slowing economy and crippling strikes by angry truckers, also blamed Trichet for higher oil prices because crude, which is priced in dollars, becomes more expensive when the dollar weakens. After Trichet spoke Thursday, the price of a barrel of oil exploded by $16 to nearly $140 a barrel, although it fell back a bit Monday.

As on previous occasions when French officials criticized the ECB, Germany reacted unambiguously.

"The independence of the ECB against attempts to exert political influence is indispensable" for the German government, said a German government spokesman, Thomas Steg.

Trichet brushed off the unusually pointed criticism from Zapatero, saying the ECB would make its decisions without undue influence from politicians.

"Everybody knows that we are independent," he said. "Everybody knows that this independence is totally guaranteed by the treaty."

The coming decade is likely to see a greater international role for both the euro and the ECB, central bankers and analysts believe, and the bank's actions over the last week have highlighted the strains that can result.

The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, managed to talk up the dollar last week - one of the few times U.S. officials have had such an explicit, immediate effect on exchange rates. But the dollar fell back after Trichet hinted that the ECB would raise interest rates because of inflationary pressures in Europe.

ECB plans to raise borrowing costs effectively trumped Bernanke's message, since higher interest rates make euro-denominated assets more attractive. Soon after the ECB's indication, the dollar weakened sharply against the euro before recovering somewhat Monday to around $1.57 to the euro.

Illegal aliens meet Local LEO's enforcing the law as it should be...

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:02:23 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/us/09panhandle.html?_r=2&ei=5065&oref=slogin&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

States Take New Tack on Illegal Immigration

By DAMIEN CAVE

MILTON, Fla. — Three months after the local police inspected more than a dozen businesses searching for illegal immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers, this community in the Florida Panhandle has become more law-abiding, emptier and whiter.

Many of the Hispanic immigrants who came in 2004 to help rebuild after Hurricane Ivan have either fled or gone into hiding. Churches with services in Spanish are half-empty. Businesses are struggling to find workers. And for Hispanic citizens with roots here — the foremen and entrepreneurs who received visits from the police — the losses are especially profound.

“It was very hard because the community is very small, and to see people who came to eat here all the time then come and close the business,” said Geronimo Barragan, who owns two branches of La Hacienda, Mexican restaurants where the police arrested 10 employees.

“I don’t blame them,” Mr. Barragan added. “It’s just that it hurts.”

Sheriff Wendell Hall of Santa Rosa County, who led the effort, said the arrests were for violations of state identity theft laws. But he also seemed proud to have found a way around rules allowing only the federal government to enforce immigration laws. In his office, the sheriff displayed a framed editorial cartoon that showed Daniel Boone admiring his arrest of at least 27 illegal workers.

His approach is increasingly common. Last month, 260 illegal immigrants in Iowa were sentenced to five months in prison for violations of federal identity theft laws.

At the same time, in the last year, local police departments from coast to coast have rounded up hundreds of immigrants for nonviolent, often minor, crimes, like fishing without a license in Georgia, with the end result being deportation.

In some cases, the police received training and a measure of jurisdiction from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under a program that lets officers investigate and detain people they suspect to be illegal immigrants.

But with local demand for tougher immigration enforcement growing, 95 departments are waiting to join the 47 in the program. And in a number of places, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, police officers or entire departments are choosing to tackle the issue on their own.

State lawmakers, in response to Congressional inaction on immigration law, are giving local authorities a wider berth. In 2007, 1,562 bills related to illegal immigration were introduced nationwide and 240 were enacted in 46 states, triple the number that passed in 2006, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A new law in Mississippi makes it a felony for an illegal immigrant to hold a job. In Oklahoma, sheltering or transporting illegal immigrants is also a felony.

It remains unclear how the new laws will be enforced. Yet at the very least, say both advocates and critics, they are likely to lead to more of what occurred here: more local police officers demanding immigrants’ documents; more arrests for identity theft; more accusations of racial profiling; and more movement of immigrants, with some fleeing and others being sent to jail.

“It is a way to address illegal immigration without calling it that,” said Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports intensified local enforcement. She added, “They don’t just have to sit and wait for Washington.”

Community Complaints

Police officers here in a handful of Gulf Coast counties from Pensacola to Tallahassee said they started hearing complaints about illegal immigrants last year. With the national debate raging and the local economy sagging, many residents began to question whether illegal immigrants were taking Americans’ jobs.

It did not show up in statistics — the unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 3.6 percent in 2007, below state and national averages — so the arguments focused in part on unfair competition.

Donna Tucker, executive director of the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce, said illegal immigration “creates havoc within the system” because businesses that used illegal labor often did not pay into workers’ compensation funds and paid workers less.

“Those businesses can survive a lot longer than the ones that are trying to do things right,” Ms. Tucker said.

Some of the frustrations also veered into prejudice.

George S. Collins, an inspector in charge of the illegal trafficking task force in Okaloosa County, said many people wanted to know “why we weren’t going to Wal-Mart and rounding up the Mexicans” — a comment Mr. Collins said was racist and offensive.

Usually though, the complaints were cultural and legal.

Interviews with more than 25 residents and police officers suggest that the views of Harry T. Buckles, 68, a retired Navy corpsman, are common. Outside his home in Gulf Breeze, Mr. Buckles said the main problem with today’s Hispanic immigrants was that they did not assimilate.

Even after hundreds flowed in to rebuild Santa Rosa County, Mr. Buckles said: “They didn’t become part of the community. They didn’t speak the language.”

Echoing the comments of others, he said he became irritated when he heard Spanish at the Winn-Dixie and saw a line of immigrants sending money home at the Western Union. Mr. Buckles said he feared his community would lose its character and become like Miami, with its foreign-born majority and common use of Spanish.

“We see things nationwide and we know that we could be overwhelmed,” he said.

In fact, only about 3 percent of the population of Santa Rosa County is Hispanic, according to census figures compiled in 2006. As a proportion of its population, the Hispanic community here is less than half the size of what is in Omaha or Des Moines — mostly white cities where the Hispanic population is still below the national average.

Santa Rosa is hardly the only place to use a tough approach against a small immigrant population. In Mississippi, where strict laws on false documentation recently passed, only about 1.7 percent of the state’s 2.9 million people were born abroad and more than half of them are in the United States legally, according to estimates from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tightening restrictions on immigration.

But here, the result is a divide often marked by a lack of in-depth interaction.

On one side are longtime residents like Sheriff Hall, who said immigrant laborers were not involved in fixing his office or home after the hurricanes, and Mr. Buckles, who said his relationship with Hispanics was based mainly on seeing them at stores or construction sites.

On the other side are a smaller number of immigrants and employers who use immigrant labor.

Some of the immigrants are newly arrived, sticking mostly to themselves. But the group also includes Antonio Tejeda, 38, a roofer and naturalized American citizen from Mexico who wears an N.F.L. jersey to church and speaks English with a slight drawl; and Ruben Barragan, 19, one of the workers arrested in one of the La Hacienda restaurant raids who, though illegal, spoke English and called his infant son Eric because he wanted him to have an American name.

When told about such men, Mr. Buckles said perhaps the government could find ways to create exceptions. But he was not convinced they deserved to stay.

“They got here illegally,” Mr. Buckles said. “They broke the law as soon as they came.”

The Raids

The half-dozen officers involved in the Santa Rosa operations did not announce their arrival. They detained 13 workers at Panhandle Growers. At the two branches of La Hacienda the police quietly detained 10 workers without resistance. And at Emerald Coast Interiors, a boat-cushion factory, the police arrested a handful more.

Sheriff Hall said that his department received tips that led him to all the locations he visited and that he was responding to a steep rise in complaints about illegal immigration. He said he had been frustrated a year ago by a lack of response from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And this time, customs officials said, he did not contact the agency for input before forming a multicounty task force that led to the February operation.

Sheriff Hall said his men were focused on identity theft and did not need special training because “it’s the same thing we do every day.” He insisted that the officers treated everyone fairly. Unlike Bay County officers, who surrounded construction sites last year and arrested immigrants who ran, “we didn’t chase anyone,” he said.

And at many locations witnesses said the police treated all workers equally.

Managers at the restaurants Okki, El Rodeo, China Sea and La Hacienda said police officers checked all employees’ documents, regardless of their ethnicity.

But other business owners, employees and residents said the police focused disproportionately on Hispanics or the foreign born and seemed determined to scare immigrants out of the area. In many cases, employers said, the officers did not even mention identity theft, narrowing their scope to immigrants.

“They were targeting all the places with Hispanic workers,” said Elvin Garcia, 26, a waiter at El Rodeo.

At Red Barn Barbecue, witnesses said that skin color clearly influenced police procedure. When several officers visited and saw no one who was Hispanic in the kitchen, they moved on. “We offered to give them records, and they said, ‘No, it’s not necessary,’ ” said Randy Brochu, whose family owns the business.

Meanwhile, at Emerald Coast Interiors, three employees — one black, one white, one Hispanic — independently said the police did, in fact, chase a handful of Hispanic employees who ran. Three women, they said, were caught in a ditch behind the main building.

Luis Ramirez, the plant’s operations manager, said the officers asked to see documentation only for the workers who fled. “It was racial profiling,” Mr. Ramirez said.

His company has not filed a lawsuit, so his accusations have not been tested. But Florida courts have repeatedly held that flight alone is not enough to justify a suspicion of criminal activity or arrest. In Bay County, officials said they tried to avoid chasing people now because prosecutors have warned that it undermines their cases.

Even without a chase, immigrant advocates say that local efforts to track down illegal immigrants undermine community safety by scaring immigrants from reporting violent crimes.

“It’s a dangerous route to take,” said David Urias, a staff lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, which sued Otero County in New Mexico this year after the police raided Hispanics’ homes for minor violations like an unleashed dog. “What you’re going to see,” Mr. Urias said, “is more people pushed into the shadows.”

The Aftermath

Indeed, three months after the sweeps, nearly everyone agrees that the fabric of this community has changed. Hundreds of Hispanic families, both legal and illegal, seem to have disappeared.

John Davy, a co-owner of Panhandle Growers, said some employers “treated their guys humanely” by helping them flee to other areas. “What we’re victims of is a system that’s broken,” he said.

Many residents said they felt torn between competing loyalties to compassion and the law.

“On one hand, I’m sitting here thinking when Ivan was here, you could not get enough people to do the thing that needed to get done,” said Mrs. Tucker at the Chamber of Commerce. “And these illegal aliens, people welcomed them with open arms because they were working hard, they were helping our community. But from a chamber standpoint, you’re operating on the side of the law. It’s a hard thing.”

In the immigrant community, fears now cloud the most basic routines. Many Hispanics said they avoided being seen or heard speaking Spanish in Wal-Mart, even if they live here legally. Others detailed their habit of meticulously checking their cars’ headlights, blinkers and registration to avoid being pulled over.

The message many Hispanics have taken from the raids is simple. “We’re Mexican — they don’t want us here,” said Erika Barragan, 20, whose husband, Ruben, came here illegally roughly six years ago and was one of 23 people scheduled to be deported after the February raids. She said she would go back to Mexico this summer.

Her husband’s employers, Geronimo Barragan (no relation) and his wife, Guilla, are trying to remain positive.

They are citizens and parents of four American-born children, ages 2 to 16. They have lived in Santa Rosa County for more than a decade, founding a Baptist church here and working 16-hour days, six days a week to build two restaurants known for their affordable food and Christian atmosphere, which extends to a ban on alcohol.

They said the raids came as a shock.

“We love the community, and we always tried to do our best,” Mr. Barragan said.

Mrs. Barragan put it more bluntly. “This,” she said, “is like our promised land.”

The Barragans said they did not know their workers were illegal because they provided Social Security numbers and other information that was required. Like most employers, they asked for nothing more.

They have not publicly opposed the sheriff’s actions, and in their effort to move on, they have distanced themselves from his critics. Mr. Barragan even visited Sheriff Hall at his office to tell him he had no hard feelings and would do everything he could to comply in the future.

And yet, the cost has been significant. Both of the restaurants were closed for more than two months. Only one has recently reopened.

Unable to find people in the area who can cook Mexican food, Mr. Barragan, 41, has been scouring the nation, recruiting in Houston, Chicago and Baton Rouge. He has yet to find all the workers he needs, relying on a handful of new hires with work visas that expire in November. He said he wished that Congress could find a way to bring more foreign workers to America legally.

For Mrs. Barragan, 39, a warm, thin woman with hair to her waist, the consequences have been more personal. On a recent Wednesday night, her church’s prayer service was half-empty. Many of her friends have left. And many of the employees that her family mentored in the ways of America are gone, taken away by the police.

“That’s what had the most effect on our lives,” Mrs. Barragan said, speaking in Spanish so she could be more specific. “Not closing La Hacienda, or ‘we’re not going to make money,’ or ‘how are we going to pay our bills?’ I personally didn’t think about that. It hurt me more to see them there — handcuffed. The way they went out.”

Her husband agreed, explaining between bouts of tears that some of the deported workers’ families had become victims of more violent crime. “One of them has a small daughter and someone robbed their house while he was in jail,” Mr. Barragan said. “Twice.”

Need Security Officer training? Meet CuffTec Training!

Tue, 27 May 2008 18:53:33 GMT

FYI - I have spots open for anyone seeking to obtain any of the following courses:

Beginning on 5/31/08 at 1100hrs. in Everett, WA:

Legal Aspects of the Use of Force - an in depth module on the use of force continuum, and the potential repercussions of the use of force in today's society. Applicable to private security officers or private investigators. This module is instructed by a Washington State certified security guard trainer, and is designed to meet the on going education requirements of the Department of Licensing for Private Security Guard licenses.

Crisis Intervention - an exploration of techniques and tactics associated with the primary reasons persons act out, and how to control and manage that behavior. From the perspective of the security officer or law enforcement professional in today's litigious society.

OCAT - Pepper spray certification course. Instruction and certification in the lawful use of OC spray as a defensive tool.

Beginning on 6/1/08 at 1100hrs. in Everett, WA:

PATH (Practical and Tactical Handcuffing) and the Monadnock Police Council expandable baton certification with defensive tactics. Ground fighting, application of handcuffs and the lawful use of tactical batons.

You will receive a certification card from Cufftec Training LLC in Crisis Intervention, OCAT (pepper spray), PATH (Practical and Tactical Handcuffing) and in the Monadnock Expandable Baton program upon completion of the course and testing.

Cost is $50 dollars per student, per course, so a total of $100 dollars for both days.

Please contact Tony Myhre at 425-239-8859, or email tony.myhre@cufftec.com for more information, directions and to sign up for these courses.

TRM/The Regulator Room founder

HOT Weather Coming to Western Washington

Wed, 14 May 2008 23:00:03 GMT

Special Weather Statement


SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
930 AM PDT WED MAY 14 2008

...UNSEASONABLY HOT WEATHER WILL AFFECT WESTERN WASHINGTON FROM
THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY..

AFTER A COOL AND CLOUDY SPRING IN WESTERN WASHINGTON...A DRAMATIC
SHIFT TO HOT AND SUNNY WEATHER WILL TAKE PLACE STARTING THURSDAY.

TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN TO CLIMB ON THURSDAY...AS A STRONG UPPER
RIDGE BUILDS OVER THE REGION AND PROVIDES SUNNY SKIES. WEAK
NORTHERLY ONSHORE FLOW WILL KEEP TEMPERATURES FROM GETTING REALLY
HOT. STILL...HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS MUCH OF WESTERN WASHINGTON
WILL BE IN THE 70S AND LOWER 80S.

FRIDAY WILL BE THE HOTTEST DAY FOR MANY SPOTS IN WESTERN
WASHINGTON...AS THE STRONG RIDGE REMAINS OVER THE AREA AND THE
LOW LEVEL FLOW TURNS WEAKLY OFFSHORE. MOST AREAS WILL HAVE HIGH
TEMPERATURES IN THE 80S...WITH SOME SPOTS IN THE SOUTHWEST
INTERIOR AND THE EAST PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS EXCEEDING THE 90
DEGREE MARK. SOME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL PROBABLY BE
BROKEN.

TEMPERATURES ALONG THE COAST WILL BE A BIT COOLER SATURDAY...AS
THE LOW LEVEL FLOW BEGINS TO TURN ONSHORE AGAIN. BUT HIGH
TEMPERATURES OVER THE INTERIOR LOWLANDS ON SATURDAY WILL BE
SIMILAR TO FRIDAY.

SUNDAY IS EXPECTED TO BE SOMEWHAT COOLER...AS THE UPPER RIDGE
BEGINS TO WEAKEN AND COOLER MARINE AIR SEEPS INLAND. A DEEPER
LAYER OF MARINE AIR WILL LIKELY PUSH INLAND SUNDAY NIGHT...MARKING
A RETURN TO MORE TYPICAL MAY WEATHER FOR EARLY NEXT WEEK.

SEVERAL RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN JEOPARDY FROM THURSDAY
THROUGH SATURDAY. THE FOLLOWING TABLE COMPARES THE OFFICIAL
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST WITH RECORD HIGHS AT A FEW
LOCATIONS. ASTERICES INDICATE RECORDS THAT WOULD BE BROKEN OR TIED
BASED ON THE CURRENT FORECAST.

                 THURSDAY         FRIDAY        SATURDAY
LOCATION       FCST   RECORD   FCST   RECORD   FCST   RECORD

BELLINGHAM      71      79      77      78      79      81
SEA-TAC ARPT    77      85      86*     84      85*     85
OLYMPIA ARPT    81      85      87*     86      86      90
QUILLAYUTE      75      85      83      86      74      82
HOQUIAM         79      88      85      88      74      87

THOUGH IT IS NOT CURRENTLY FORECAST...IF SEA-TAC AIRPORT REACHES 90
DEGREES DURING THE UPCOMING HOT SPELL...IT WOULD BE THE EARLIEST
90-DEGREE DAY ON RECORD AT SEA-TAC. CURRENTLY...THE EARLIEST
OCCURRENCE OF 90-DEGREE WEATHER OCCURRED ON MAY 20 1963. ..WHEN THE
HIGH REACHED 92 DEGREES.

AFTER SUCH COOL WEATHER THIS SPRING...PEOPLE SHOULD REFRESH
THEMSELVES ON BASIC HOT WEATHER TIPS. WHEN THE WEATHER WARMS
UP...BE SURE TO DRINK PLENTY OF WATER...WEAR LIGHTWEIGHT AND LIGHT
COLORED CLOTHING...AND BE SURE TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SUNBURN BY
WEARING SUNSCREEN AND A HAT.

WHEN THE WEATHER HEATS UP...IT MAY BE TEMPTING TO JUMP INTO AREA
LAKES AND RIVERS...SOME OF WHICH WILL HAVE SLIGHTLY ELEVATED
LEVELS DUE TO SNOWMELT BROUGHT ON BY THE HOT WEATHER. KEEP IN MIND
THAT MOST LAKE WATER TEMPERATURES ARE STILL IN THE 40S AFTER THE
COOL SPRING WEATHER. RIVERS FED WITH SNOWMELT COULD EASILY HAVE
WATER TEMPERATURES IN THE 30S. DURING SPRING HEAT WAVES OF THIS
MAGNITUDE...IT CAN BE AN IRONIC TWIST OF FATE FOR PEOPLE TO
ESCAPE THE HEAT BY JUMPING INTO RIVER AND LAKES...ONLY TO SUFFER
OR EVEN DIE FROM THE HYPOTHERMIA BROUGHT ON BY THE FRIGID WATER
TEMPERATURES. DESPITE THE HOT WEATHER...PEOPLE SHOULD STILL USE
COLD WATER SAFETY PRACTICES BY WEARING A WETSUIT WHEN GOING INTO
SUCH COLD WATERS.

LASTLY...WITH PLENTY OF SNOW STILL LEFT IN THE MOUNTAINS...THE
RECENT RAIN AND THE UPCOMING HOT SPELL WILL PROVIDE SUBSTANTIALLY
HIGHER AVALANCHE DANGER. PLEASE REFER TO LATEST FORECASTS AND
STATEMENTS FROM THE NORTHWEST WEATHER AND AVALANCHE CENTER AT
WWW.NWAC.US.

$$

HANER

The Regulator Room needs more members!

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:18:57 GMT

Help us by referring our site to your friends, co-workers and family! -

We need more active members!

Spread the word about our group to your friends, colleagues, family and employees! Cut and paste this message in to an email, and let your LEO, security, fire, EMS or military buddies know about The Regulator Room...:

See something in our blog that makes you want to sound off?! Looking to network with other Police Officers, Firefighters, EMT's, security professionals, PSD operators, static or force protection folks? Try the (typically) #1 Police / Emergency Services site on MSN http://groups.msn.com/TheRegulatorRoom/.

Group members share non-classified/sensitive open source intelligence, safety tips, post jokes, news, pictures, exchange equipment, network and talk about the state of our world and the things that effect our lives and those of our friends and families.

Other than the sample pics available here on MSN Spaces, the remaining 1500+ pictures currently in The Regulator Room on MSN will remain available only in the group setting, along with other content (such as links, disaster response and recovery and emergency prepardeness information, our 9/11 tribute and CuffTec training course, agency training and equipment listings).

Feel free to leave a comment, or join The Regulator Room on MSN, for daily insight, updates, comments and more about Law Enforcement, the War on Terror, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration and of course, politics.

Membership is easy, and you will NEVER be spammed or added to a mailing list, because The Regulator Room discussion forum is not a public site! We've never had a single incident of SPAM, and if we can help it, we never will.

Check us out, and join us in The Regulator Room discussion forum on MSN Groups.

http://groups.msn.com/TheRegulatorRoom/

Brought to you by CuffTec Security and Law Enforcement Training - offering police and security training and consulting services, and a full public safety product line (including firearms and ammunition!)

Hillary Clinton LOATHES the military - PICTURE SAYS ALL!

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:07:42 GMT

Absolutely The best picture EVER! NEEDS TO BE REPEATED MANY TIMES

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has already started her 2008 presidential campaign by aligning herself with the military and pretending to be tough on terror. Fortunately, the ultraliberal Hillary has yet to brainwash all of the voting public in to believing that her symbolism is really substance. Many have never forgotten that when she was CO-president for eight years she was quoted as saying : "I loathe the military."
(read the message below the photo)

The picture shows that this soldier has been thru Survival School and learned his lessons well. He's giving the sign of "coercion" with his left hand. These hand signs are taught in survival school to be used by POW's as a method of posing messages back to our intelligence services who may view the photo or video. This guy was obviously being coerced into shaking hands with Hillary Clinton. It's ironic how little she knew that he would so inform us about the photo--perhaps because she's never understood our military to begin with.

If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.

The rate in Washington D. C is 80.6 per 100,000.

That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.........Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington.

Truck Drivers protest high fuel prices, threaten national shut down

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:47:51 GMT

Truckers Protest High Gas, Diesel Prices

Last Edited: Thursday, 10 Apr 2008, 4:30 PM EDT

Created: Thursday, 10 Apr 2008, 4:07 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 100 dump truck drivers have blared their horns at Congress to protest high fuel prices.

The truck drivers circled the U.S. Capitol on Thursday and drove in a loop around the National Mall several times demanding relief.

One truck had a sign attached to the side that read "Fair Compensation." The drivers say the cost of fuel is hurting their livelihood.

ICE should step up deportation efforts nationwide, build a BIG fence with Mexico

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:44:55 GMT

I have an exceptional idea Mr. Mayor - shut up. Let's tell these so called "respectable" businesses to stop hiring ILLEGAL workers, and hire American citizens or people who have immigrated legally. Why not? Oh, they're more expensive. Well, I think those costs would be offset by our not paying 10's of BILLIONS of dollars in social welfare to our ILLEGAL population every year. Deport every single person who is ILLEGALLY in this country. Spend the money. It'll save us all in the long run:

L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa warns ICE
to back off immigration raids

Daily News Wire Services

Article Launched: 04/10/2008 07:10:57 AM PDT

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa warned that work-site raids on nonexploitative" businesses could have a severe impact on the local economy.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking federal officials to rethink their policy on workplace immigration crackdowns that involve established businesses and to focus on employers that mistreat workers instead.

The mayor said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that work-site raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement could have "severe and long-lasting effects" on the local economy, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

ICE made more than 4,900 work-site arrests nationwide in fiscal 2007, a 45-fold increase over the number in 2001, authorities said.

More than 130 undocumented workers were arrested at a San Fernando Valley manufacturing company in February and over 60 workers were arrested for immigration violations at South Bay-area warehouses last week.

Los Angeles companies such as clothing manufacturer American Apparel Inc. have reported being questioned by ICE officials about their hiring procedures.

Villaraigosa accused federal officials of targeting "established, responsible employers" in industries that rely on "workforces that include undocumented immigrants."

"In these industries, including most areas of manufacturing, even the most scrupulous and responsible employers have no choice but to rely on workers whose documentation, while facially valid, may raise questions about their lawful presence," he wrote in the March 27 letter.

He said ICE should spend its limited resources targeting employers who exploit wage and hour laws. (THEY'RE ILLEGALLY in our country, DEPORT THEM)

Chertoff has not responded to the mayor's letter, but Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said the department believes its priorities are correct.

She said work-site investigations focus on national security and public safety and that the agency also investigates companies it believes may have committed visa fraud, money laundering, and other violations.

Mayoral spokesman Matt Szabo said Villaraigosa and Los Angeles business leaders hope to discuss their concerns with Chertoff in person next week during an annual business trip to Washington.

For more news and observations about crime in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, check out Mean Streets, the Daily News' crime blog.

Seattle area property managers - meet CuffTec Security Consulting!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:17:59 GMT

Snohomish & King County Property managers

- Why do you need a Security Consultation?:

Another high profile crime may turn in to a catalyst for increased liability at your apartment or condominium community. Having worked in physical security in these environments for over 21 years, I know that most properties have only minimal security precautions:

1. Ineffective lighting in hallways, parking areas and walking paths. - This is a big liability issue for property managers, and one that isn't taken seriously enough. Adequate lighting can make a huge difference in deterring criminal activity, particularly when coupled with a pro-active security enforcement team and a good CCTV system.

2. A "courtesy patrol" type of security service that makes a couple swings through your property every night, locking up the jacuzzi and pool cabana by 10pm! - This is perhaps the biggest issue facing apartment community owners & managers in the Everett, Lynnwood, Mill Creek and Seattle areas. How much do you pay for a security service? What can I really expect from them as far a service level is concerned? What should I ask of them, versus what should they really be doing? Should my security staff be expected to be on property at a specific time, every night, to lock up my cabana or my pool, when I have maintenance personnel who could do this? Or I could install automatic locking systems and card key access controls in order to allow security flexibility, and not establish routine stop in times for security officers? Criminals look for routines in security deployments when they're targeting a property for criminal activity. If they know when security is going to be on a property, they'll come at another time.

Also, the lowest bidding company isn't at all the best company to use. The constraints of a small security budget should not preclude a property manager from hiring a good company either. Spend some time with a consultant who knows physical security, and they'll tell you what to look for in a security services provider, and how much to expect to pay from a quality provider.

3. Low cost, minimally paid on site security guards provide ineffective patrols, documentation and deterring presence throughout the property. - This goes back to the lowest bidder concept. A security guard who makes 9 dollars an hour doesn't want to risk his neck to find out what the problems are in your community. Even at the 10 or 11 dollar an hour level, a security guard is subject to compromise by the criminal element in or around your community by pay offs and corruption. A security guard who is paid well, receives health and medical benefits, paid training and uniforms, adequate training and equipment (such as a means to defend himself), is more likely to produce quality results towards providing your residents with a safe and secure living environment.

Guard companies do what they have to do to get your business, but then they have to provide a poorly trained, inexperienced, and usually under qualified guard for your property, as you've tied their hands by expecting them to provide quality security for 18 dollars a hour.

There's some room for security company owners to be more flexible in their bottom line as well. Most of the owners that I am familiar with are more interested in self promotion, political aspirations, their Corvette's, yachts and very large houses, then they are the welfare of their clients or employees. This is a sad state of affairs, but there are good companies and owners out there! Find out who by calling or clicking on our contact information.

4. CCTV systems recording on low quality tapes (that don't get changed), the camera coverage is inadequate based on the poor lighting, placement and underqualified staff who quoted and installed the system.

5. In unit security systems with poor quality electronics on the receiver board, and poor installation of detection devices (door contacts and motion detectors).

Tony R. Myhre

Co-Owner & Executive Vice President

CuffTec Training LLC - http://www.cufftec.com/

tony.myhre@cufftec.com

Member - International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (http://ileeta.org/index.htm)

Absolut ticks off America with outrageous La Raza ad!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:34:19 GMT

Mexico reconquers California? Absolut drinks to that!

The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut promises to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it could ruffle a few feathers in El Norte.

The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA and now running in Mexico, is a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an "Absolut" -- i.e., perfect -- world.

The U.S.-Mexico border lies where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 when California, as we now know it, was Mexican territory and known as Alta California.

Following the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo saw the Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México ceded to the United States to become modern-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. (Texas actually split from Mexico several years earlier to form a breakaway republic, and was voluntarily annexed by the United States in 1846.)

The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S.

Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”

But he said that were the campaign to run in the United States, it might fall flat.

“Many people aren’t going to understand it here. Americans in the East and the North or in the center of the county -- I don’t know if they know much about the history.

“Probably Americans in Texas and California understand perfectly and I don’t know how they’d take it.”

Meanwhile, the campaign has been circulating on the blogs and generating strong responses from people north of the border.

“I find this ad deeply offensive, and needlessly divisive. I will now make a point of drinking other brands. And 'vodka and tonic' is my drink,” said one visitor, called New Yorker, on MexicoReporter.com.

Reader Paul Green goes into a discussion on the blog Gateway Pundit of whether the U.S. territories ever belonged to Mexico in the first place, and the News12 Long island site invited people to boycott Absolut, with one user, called LivingSmall, writing: “If you drink Absolut vodka, you can voice your approval or disapproval of this advertising campaign with your purchases. I know I will be switching to Grey Goose or Stoli and will never have another bottle of Absolut in my house.

“Hey Absolut ... that's my form of social commentary.”

-- Deborah Bonello and Reed Johnson in Mexico City