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We don’t spend much time on political horse races, but a recent newsletter from Mary Beth Harrell provides a worthy expression of principle.

You may well be embarrassed – possibly stunned – even outraged, when I tell you…while my oldest boy is in Iraq right now serving our country – making personal sacrifices to champion the precious and fundamental rights that we hold dear, my opponent and incumbent Congressman John Carter is fighting to bring back literacy tests as a requisite for voting.

Why? “I simply believe you should be able to read, write and speak English to be a voter in the United States,” said Carter. A literacy test? The Austin-American Statesman declared that “is a curious statement from a member of Congress and former judge, because citizenship is the requisite for voting, not literacy…”Carter is 64, surely he remembers how literacy tests, poll taxes and grandfather clauses were used to strip non-whites of their voting rights in Texas. That’s why LBJ championed the Voting Rights Act.

But, Carter told the press there, is “no longer any racial bias in Texas” and so he stopped cold a vote to renew the Voting Rights Act. As the Houston Chronicle observed, Carter “has either been marooned on Mars most of his life or is frighteningly oblivious to reality.” Only a couple of weeks ago, in Carter’s own town, just north of Austin, a bailiff was fired for allegedly using the word “wetback, within earshot of students hauled into court for skipping school to attend pro-immigration rallies.”

My oldest boy is in Iraq right now fighting for our fundamental freedoms, our fundamental right to vote, our fundamental sense of fair play – not literacy tests.

I will champion the Voting Rights Act in Congress. I will champion America’s brighter future and continued greatness. But only with you help! Isn’t time to show your support for an independent and reasoned voice in Congress that will make you proud – not embarrassed…Then please make your campaign contribution now – don’t wait – do it now.

While we respectfully dissent from the connection Harrell makes between the Iraq war and American freedom, we do agree that the existence of that occupation raises crucial questions about the legitimacy of a mission that would export democracy as we know it.

“Bring ’em home,” we’d sing. And when they get home, show ’em what democracy looks like without barriers.

Tactics and Technology

The following represents the tactical and technological approaches, under the direction of the CBP Commissioner and Chief of the Border Patrol, that the Border Patrol will pursue in addressing this Strategy’s objectives: a more flexible, welltrained, nationally-directed Border Patrol; specialized teams and rapid-response capabilities; intelligence-driven operations; and infrastructure, facility, and
technology support.

Approach 1

A more flexible, well-trained, nationally directed
Border Patrol
The Border Patrol will use a highly centralized organizational model with a direct chain of command from the CBP Commissioner, to the Chief of the Border Patrol, to the Sector Chief Patrol Agents. This national command structure will facilitate national determinations on threat and resource priorities and will allow for the rapid deployment of Border Patrol assets, both on a short-term, temporary basis, as well as on long-term or permanent operations. This nationally directed mobility, with supporting national policies, will allow the Border Patrol to rapidly respond to emerging threats and hot spots along the border in a proactive prevention and response capacity. This type of flexibility is critical to address the present terrorist threat.

Anti-terrorism training is critical to ensuring that Border Patrol agents are fully prepared to address the terrorism threat. In conjunction with the Office of Training and Development, the Border Patrol will continually assess its anti-terrorism training requirements to ensure that agents, supervisors, and managers have the necessary multi-disciplinary training to effectively carry out the Border Patrol’s priority anti-terrorism mission. The Office of Training and Development will work with the Border Patrol to ensure this training is developed and delivered in the most effective and operationally efficient manner, using methods such as computer-based modules, mobile training teams, train-the-trainer instruction, classroom and Academy training.

The Border Patrol will continue to deploy assets to interior U.S. locations where there is a direct nexus to
border control operations, such as at transportation hubs, airports, and bus stations to confront routes of
egress for terrorists, smugglers, and illegal aliens, and to support ICE-led interior efforts when appropriately coordinated and approved at the national level.

Approach 2

Specialized teams and rapid-response capabilities

CBP will expand the training and response capabilities of the Border Patrol’s specialized BORTAC, BORSTAR,
and Special Response teams to support domestic and international intelligence-driven and anti-terrorism
efforts as well as other special operations. These teams will assist in terrorism prevention through
planning, training, and tactical deployment. As a highly mobile, rapid-response tool, they will significantly increase CBP’s ability to respond operationally to specific terrorist threats and incidents, as well as to support the traditional Border Patrol mission.

Approach 3

Intelligence-driven operations

The Border Patrol will expand the use of national security and terrorist-related intelligence and targeting information to improve intelligence-driven operations. This will enable the Border Patrol to deploy its resources effectively to target areas of greatest risk. These operations will be coordinated with the Office of Field Operations to ensure maximum effectiveness at and between the ports of entry. In order to support tactical and strategic operations, the Border Patrol will enhance its own organic intelligence program by coordinating with CBP’s Office of Intelligence. In addition, the Border Patrol will leverage the intelligence capabilities of the Offices of Intelligence, Field Operations, and Anti-Terrorism to increase threat assessment, targeting efforts, operational planning, and communication to support its anti-terrorism and traditional missions.

Approach 4

Infrastructure, facility, and technology support
Integrating increased numbers of agents and new technology into the Border Patrol’s enforcement activities has strained resources previously dedicated to infrastructure, facility, and technology support. To ensure the objectives of this Strategy are not negatively impacted by a degradation of its infrastructure, the Border Patrol will continue to assess and address critical needs for this support, which include new construction; the preservation of buildings, technology, vehicles, and fences; and the deployment and maintenance of new technologies, ranging from remote cameras to computer and intelligence systems. This support is critical
to ensuring that the investment made in new agents and new technology maintains its effectiveness in
the face of shifting patterns of border threat and changing criminal tactics. Source

A recent report from the Dallas Fed shows that the maquiladora towns of Acuna and Piedras Negras have been struggling with long-term employment declines, while Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, and Juarez appear to be climbing out of their downturns.

Reynosa is the only maquiladora town near Texas that has demonstrated steady growth since 2000, but Kyle Arnold of the McAllen Monitor reports that Reynosa’s employment growth has cooled in recent months.

“The slowdown in job growth could be due to a slowing economy in the United States and fears of rising interest, said Keith Patridge, president and CEO of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation, a group that tries to bring new jobs and business to both sides of the border,” writes Arnold in a June 27 dispatch.

According to the Dallas Fed, employment in the textile sector across the border from Texas has been steadily losing ground, while machinery, chemicals, and transportation are showing strong growth in recent years. Services, furniture, and electronics also trend upward, but less dramatically, following downturns in the early years of the new century.

McAllen Monitor: “Maquilla hiring rate slowing down” (June 27,2006) Kyle Arnold, Monitor Staff Writer

Dallas Fed: Hot Stats – Maquiladora Employment (June 2006)

From a mysanantonio.com roundup of South Texas military spending:

Texas State University in San Marcos would receive $1 million to train National Guard members for civil disorder missions.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, called the program an “invaluable tool for helping law enforcement learn how to respond to terrorism, violence and other emergency situations.” The funding was opposed by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who offered up a number of amendments to block what he said are unneeded projects and wasteful spending.

“Simply put, every dollar we spend on earmarks in the defense appropriations bill is a dollar we can’t spend on the military,” Flake said.

It’s a sign that times have indeed changed. The Waco newspaper is not impressed with “Dixie obstructionists,” such as local Congressman John Carter, who are blocking the Voting Rights Act. The only helpful thing we could see in Carter’s action is a little truth-in-advertising regarding the stakes of his re-election. As for the truth expressed by the Waco editorial, we could hardly say it better ourselves:

Editorial: Extend Voting Rights Act

Friday, June 23, 2006

Someone tell us what’s been so oppressive about the Voting Rights Act — certainly in contrast to the oppression that went before.
Before the 1965 act, a tyrannical majority under Jim Crow conspired in overt or subtle ways to disenfranchise minorities with poll taxes, literacy tests and reliance on at-large districts.

The act remains the most fundamental and far-reaching achievement of the civil rights era. For with power at the polls comes opportunity.

The act will expire next year. The House was prepared to vote for reauthorization this week when Southern Republicans, including the Texas delegation, stopped the action in its tracks.

Some of these Dixie obstructionists want the law abolished. Some say it shouldn’t just apply to the nine states affected but instead to all.

We can’t argue with the latter proposition. If it’s right for the South, it’s right for all. But that’s a can of worms unnecessarily splayed on the table. The South has managed to serve democracy right under the Voting Rights Act. It is not overly onerous. It has been incorporated into the way affected states govern. It is now, rightfully, a way of life for states that once made the exclusion of minorities a way of life.

The need, unfortunately, is not ancient history. Texas’ adventures in congressional redistricting, with a Supreme Court ruling imminent, showed the necessity for the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act requires that redistricting not dilute the power of minority voters, something that’s easy to do by simply splitting them into subservient parcels of white-majority districts. Democrats have asserted that the GOP plan in Texas did just that. The GOP points out that it created some districts in which minorities have strong representation. The court will decide. If not for the Voting Rights Act, it might be hard for any African American in the South to be elected to Congress or the statehouse, or to serve on many local governing boards.

One of the disssenting Texas Republicans, Rep. John Carter of Round Rock, said his intention is not to abolish the Voting rights Act but to tweak it. It’s unclear what changes he desires.

“I don’t think we have racial bias in Texas anymore,” Carter said . Would that it were so.

The Voting Rights Act continues to stand between a tyrannical majority and those who otherwise would have little, or no, political power.