Saturday, January 26, 2008  What do we know about US-side drug
cartel infrastructure?  Ever since I learned last spring during
legislative committee hearings that Governor Perry's border
security initiative basically amounts to a Laurel and Hardy
routine, I've been paying a lot more attention to the threat
posed by drug cartels' violence and corruption trickling (at
this point, pouring?) across the border onto US/Texas soil.  I
may not think arresting drug users is the answer to any problem
I believe needs solving (on that me and the Texas Department of
Public Safety Narcotics Division agree), but that doesn't mean I
have any common interests with the killers and thugs who're
turning parts of Mexico into a full-blown battle zone.  Thanks
to massive amounts of legal, desirable commerce that's largely
unappreciated by those who've never visited the border, a wall
cannot stop corruption or drugs from entering the US. Nor will
it keep drug cartels (or immigrants) out, not when smugglers are
capable of building tu