Big Beat

UT College Republicans President Cassie Wright, who recently came under fire for tweeting, “My president is black. He smokes a lot of crack. Holla. #2012 #Obama” took to Facebook recently to argue her reasoning behind the comment.

Burnt Orange Report, who broke the original story of the offending tweet, managed to get a screengrab of Wright’s Facebook page featuring a conversation in which she is seen defending the tweet heard round the world to a Facebook “friend”.

Turns out Ms. Wright’s little rhyme was a reference to a song by Young Jeezy entitled, “My President is Black.” Thus, reasons Wright, “Perhaps you should contact Young Jeezy as well for negative statements found in his song.”

She goes on to argue that since the President admitted, (in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance), that he used cocaine, it wasn’t out of line for her to point out the irony of a song celebrating him since he is, in fact, a known “drug user.” And, I’ll add in her defense that cocaine doesn’t rhyme with black, so obviously, we should give her a little poetic license.

“I find the fact that Obama was a drug user ironic, considering there is a popular song celebrating his election and character. Not sure how finding humor in this irony is open discrimination against any race, but believe what you will.”

It’s true, Cassie Wright should not be fired from her post because she’s a racist, but because she’s proven that she is unfit for political life. Here’s a woman in the most powerful Republican seat at UT, one of the largest universities in America in one of the largest Republican voting states in America. She lucks into the position after her predecessor, Lauren Pierce, makes the same dumb mistake on Twitter less than a month earlier, tweeting in response to news of a shooter at the White House:

“Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had! #2012.”

Repairing her club’s reputation should be priority number one for Wright, especially in an election year when her party is struggling to prove to ethnic minorities that they are not a bunch of racists who want to deport everyone who is brown. What does Wright do instead, just 32 days later? Tweet, from New Orleans, at 2:46 AM on Sunday morning, that the President of the United States snorts crack. Oh, and holla.

I know I should be happy to see Republicans fall on their faces, but I can’t help it. I feel a responsibility to mentor the kids. Especially because they weren’t as fortunate as I was to be old by the time social media came into fashion.

Come here, UT College Republicans, and listen to what your wise, old Tía Cindy has to say. Especially you, Cesar Villareal, UT College Republicans spokesperson from my hometown of Brownsville, Texas. You’ve already begun distancing yourself from Ms. Wright with this apology you released to the school paper, The Daily Texan:

The UT College Republicans neither condones any ‘tweeted’ remarks, nor any statements made by any member of our organization that may be hurtful and lacking in sensitivity. The opinion of our President Wright is that of her own not in keeping with our core values, our standards, and our code of conduct. While some within our organization may not respect the current President, UT College Republicans does respect the office of the President of the United States. We are all Americans, and even if we do not agree with certain policies, the UT College Republicans wish all our leaders well, as they are all dedicated to public service. I personally apologize for [the] ‘tweeted’ remark.”

That’s an excellent start, but if you don’t fire this incompetent person now, she’s going to take you down with her in a conflagration of reckless tweets and poorly reasoned Facebook comments. What do you think Anthony Weiner’s spokesperson is up to these days? Probably shilling for some pyramid scheme. Take my advice and give this woman the heave-ho now before she ends your career. Oh, and holla.

Walls, walls, walls. That’s the solution to all our problems down on the border, and a wall is what they’re thinking of erecting after stray bullets hit two boys during basketball tryouts Monday at Harwell Middle School in Edinburg.

Over fifty kids were in the parking lot behind the school that had been converted into a makeshift basketball court when the presumably stray bullets came flying through. One boy, a 13 year-old, was going for a layup when he was hit under the arm. The other, age 14, was shot in the upper right torso while sitting on a curb waiting his turn. Both boys are in stable condition in the hospital in McAllen.

The source of the bullets is still unknown though two target shooters were taken into custody and later released after they were found on an adjacent ranch about 800 yards from the school. Also found on that ranch was an undocumented immigrant, trespassing and carrying an AR-15 automatic rifle. That man will face trespassing and other charges for allegedly hunting without permission from the landowner.

Officials of the five-month-old school, as well as parents interviewed, were, ridiculously, unaware that hunting was taking place so close to the campus though Superintendent Rene Gutierrez said he was informed by the owner of a property northeast of the school that there was hunting on his ranch.

“We were not aware that there was hunting on the west side of the school or that there were [hunting] leases on the west side until last night,” Gutierrez said.

Even more disturbing is Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño’s assertion that this is but one of several new schools in Hidalgo County built in rural areas that are adjacent to land used for hunting.

How is this possible? Surely, it’s illegal to hunt that close to children.

“It’s very possible that there won’t be any criminal charges filed,” Sheriff Treviño said at a press conference this week. It turns out there is no law in Texas against hunting near a school or hospital, only against hunting inside city limits.

“You’re in the state of Texas and the state of Texas, like any other state in the union, has rural schools all over the country. And a lot of the schools are surrounded by hunting … Even during dove season, we get literally hundreds of calls of residents having barbecues having pellets rain upon their roof. I mean that happens every year. You’ve got to remember you’re in rural Hidalgo County, Texas, and it is a hunting state.”

However, he added, “you would seem to think also that there’s some sort of personal responsibility that one has to take as a hunter or as a responsible adult.”

You would think that, but then you wouldn’t be in Texas.

Surgeons were able to remove a bullet from one of the boys. Experts from the Texas Department of Public Safety will compare ballistics to determine whether the shooters were the men detained by the police.

Operation Fast and Furious—the Arizona-based federal gun-tracking program that led to the death of a U.S. agent at the hands of Mexican criminals—could be underway in Texas, too, and may have led to the death of Laredo immigration agent Jaime Zapata.

Fast and Furious, launched in autumn 2009, allowed illegal guns to travel, or “walk,” into Mexico so federal agents could track Mexican drug cartel activity. The problem is that the U.S. lost track of hundreds of guns. Some wound up at the scenes of drug cartel murders, and even next to the body of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was shot and killed while patrolling the Arizona desert last year.

Fast and Furious was run out of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a federal law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. There is startling evidence that a similar scheme could be occurring in Texas. According to an October 2011 investigation by Houston NBC affiliate KPRC, employees at a Houston gun shop named Carter’s Country alleged that they were asked by Houston ATF agents in 2006 to sell guns to suspicious purchasers and notify ATF so agents could observe the purchases. Carter’s Country employees say they complied with the request, adding that at least 6 of the 16 times they called during a suspicious sale, ATF agents never showed, but told Carter’s Country to make the sale anyway.

These sales continued into December 2010, when a Carter’s Country salesman became the subject of a Houston grand jury investigation due to a criminal complaint filed by ATF. That prompted Carter’s Country to pull the plug and hire high-powered defense attorney Dick DeGuerin.

ATF officials refused to be interviewed on-camera by KPRC, but told reporter Robert Arnold that Carter’s Country may have “misconstrued” the bureau’s request for help as a gun-walking operation. DeGuerin and Carter’s Country stuck to their story, and in March 2011, on the heels of the shooting death of Laredo Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico, DeGuerin received word that ATF was dropping the case. “We stood to embarrass them, meaning the ATF, for being hypocritical, two-faced, and turning against the very people who were trying to help them,” DeGuerin said.

And what of the murder of special agent Zapata, who was shot and killed in Mexico in February 2011? That gun was traced back to gun dealers near Dallas.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking about Zapata’s death. That went unanswered. So in August Cornyn asked Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the leaders of the congressional investigation of Fast and Furious, to launch an inquiry into whether ATF ever conducted Texas-based gun-walking operations.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Nov. 8, Cornyn attempted to grill Holder about Fast and Furious, but the AG did his best to paint the questioning as partisan bickering. Unable to name one person in his department who was disciplined over the operation, Holder left the American people with more questions than answers.

Why did ATF drop the charges against Carter’s Country? Why did the Department of Justice wait more than five months to arrest three men in suburban Dallas it knew were gun dealers? Why did the arrests come two weeks after Zapata was killed, when, as Issa and Grassley found, ATF knew the men were trafficking guns long before they bought the weapon tied to the Zapata murder?

Jaime Zapata’s mother, Mary Zapata-Muñoz, has her own thoughts about the mystery surrounding her son’s death:

“I hope that it’s not a cover up. I pray that the weapon that killed my son didn’t come from the United States and was allowed to travel to Mexico. A few days after [Jaime] passed away, he came to me in a dream. And he pointed to his lips and he said, ‘Mom, I cannot speak. You have to speak for me. Seek justice. Make sure that another person does not have to go through what I went through.’”

I hope the same as Mrs. Zapata-Muñoz, but it sure doesn’t look good.

Operation Fast and Furious—the Arizona-based federal gun-tracking program that led to the death of a U.S. agent at the hands of Mexican criminals—could be underway in Texas, too, and may have led to the death of Laredo immigration agent Jaime Zapata.

Fast and Furious, launched in autumn 2009, allowed illegal guns to travel, or “walk,” into Mexico so federal agents could track Mexican drug cartel activity. The problem is that the U.S. lost track of hundreds of guns. Some wound up at the scenes of drug cartel murders, and even next to the body of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was shot and killed while patrolling the Arizona desert last year.

Fast and Furious was run out of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a federal law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. There is startling evidence that a similar scheme could be occurring in Texas. According to an October 2011 investigation by Houston NBC affiliate KPRC, employees at a Houston gun shop named Carter’s Country alleged that they were asked by Houston ATF agents in 2006 to sell guns to suspicious purchasers and notify ATF so agents could observe the purchases. Carter’s Country employees say they complied with the request, adding that at least 6 of the 16 times they called during a suspicious sale, ATF agents never showed, but told Carter’s Country to make the sale anyway.

These sales continued into December 2010, when a Carter’s Country salesman became the subject of a Houston grand jury investigation due to a criminal complaint filed by ATF. That prompted Carter’s Country to pull the plug and hire high-powered defense attorney Dick DeGuerin.

ATF officials refused to be interviewed on-camera by KPRC, but told reporter Robert Arnold that Carter’s Country may have “misconstrued” the bureau’s request for help as a gun-walking operation. DeGuerin and Carter’s Country stuck to their story, and in March 2011, on the heels of the shooting death of Laredo Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico, DeGuerin received word that ATF was dropping the case. “We stood to embarrass them, meaning the ATF, for being hypocritical, two-faced, and turning against the very people who were trying to help them,” DeGuerin said.

And what of the murder of special agent Zapata, who was shot and killed in Mexico in February 2011? That gun was traced back to gun dealers near Dallas.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking about Zapata’s death. That went unanswered. So in August Cornyn asked Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the leaders of the congressional investigation of Fast and Furious, to launch an inquiry into whether ATF ever conducted Texas-based gun-walking operations.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Nov. 8, Cornyn attempted to grill Holder about Fast and Furious, but the AG did his best to paint the questioning as partisan bickering. Unable to name one person in his department who was disciplined over the operation, Holder left the American people with more questions than answers.

Why did ATF drop the charges against Carter’s Country? Why did the Department of Justice wait more than five months to arrest three men in suburban Dallas it knew were gun dealers? Why did the arrests come two weeks after Zapata was killed, when, as Issa and Grassley found, ATF knew the men were trafficking guns long before they bought the weapon tied to the Zapata murder?

Jaime Zapata’s mother, Mary Zapata-Muñoz, has her own thoughts about the mystery surrounding her son’s death:

“I hope that it’s not a cover up. I pray that the weapon that killed my son didn’t come from the United States and was allowed to travel to Mexico. A few days after [Jaime] passed away, he came to me in a dream. And he pointed to his lips and he said, ‘Mom, I cannot speak. You have to speak for me. Seek justice. Make sure that another person does not have to go through what I went through.’”

I hope the same as Mrs. Zapata-Muñoz, but it sure doesn’t look good.

The day after Thanksgiving, 18 year-old high school student Joaquin Luna of Mission, Texas, put on a suit and tie, kissed his family goodbye, went into the bathroom, and shot himself in the head. He died instantly.

Luna, who was born across the border from Roma, Texas, and was brought to this country at the age of six months, was the kind of student to which Texas grants in-state tuition and financial aid. He had an affinity for math and science, and a report card full of A’s and B’s. What he didn’t have was American citizenship.

In an interview with Rio Grande Valley CBS affiliate KGBT, Luna’s brother Dire Mendoza said his little brother was distraught over his illegal status, adding in an interview with Fox News Latino, that the death of the DREAM Act left Luna with little hope of ever fulfilling his own dream of becoming an engineer to help better the financial situation of his mother.

I think he did it to have politicians have more heart and give other kids the opportunity he thought he was never given. If this DREAM Act would have passed this would never have happened.

But late Tuesday, KGBT reported a different story coming from unnamed sources close to the situation. Those sources said claims that Luna killed himself over his undocumented status and the death of the DREAM Act were simply “not true.”

They went on to say that Luna left behind eight to nine letters to people close to him, including his sisters and brothers and his best friend. KGBT’s sources said the letters mentioned nothing about the DREAM Act or his immigration status.

Luna’s principal, Clem Garza, also said that Luna was in the process of applying to colleges when he took his life and that he never mentioned anything about the DREAM Act or feeling discouraged about his status standing in the way of his goals.

While Luna’s family admitted they’d not seen the letters, they’re sticking to their belief that he committed suicide because of an uncertain future due to his undocumented status.

In the fallout, both liberals and conservatives have taken the suicide of Joaquin Luna as a symbol for their cause. Either he is a “Matthew Shepherd for the Immigration Reform movement” or he is “one less illegal drain on the system.”

What is for certain is that turning 18 as an undocumented person in this country is life altering. University of Chicago sociologist Roberto Gonzales recently pioneered a study about the ways in which young undocumented people learn of and cope with the effects of their immigration status, as recently reported by UChicago News. Luna’s age is the typical time when problems occur:

Most of those surveyed told Gonzales that they first had to deal with their status between the ages of 16 and 18, usually when they sought part-time jobs, driver’s licenses or admission to college — all of which require applicants either to have a Social Security number or to verify their immigration status. Many had lived their childhood unaware that they were not U.S. citizens.

Many respondents told Gonzales that they felt confused, angry, frustrated, scared and stigmatized when they learned of their immigration status. Their social habits changed out of fear of who to trust. Career plans halted. Arrest and deportation became constant threats for many, Gonzales said.

We may never know if the death of the DREAM Act played a role in the suicide of Joaquin Luna. But perhaps more importantly, his death has reopened a dialogue about the people behind the “illegal” label.