New E-Travel Alert being e-mailed to members

My mom received this e-mail alert from E-Travel today:

by ANGELA KOCHERGA
WFAA
Posted on October 18, 2010 at 1:19 AM

MONTERREY, Mexico — There are growing concerns about Americans traveling to parts of Mexico.

The Texas Homeland Security director says nobody should be going to Mexico right now. And the Jonas Brothers have canceled a concert in Monterrey for safety reasons.

That news translated to deep disappointment for fans of the musical group on Facebook. One confessed to being "depressed and sad."

Monterrey is home to its own Jonas Brothers Fan Club. It's also the scene of escalating drug violence.

While the Jonas Brothers avoid Monterrey, Steve McCraw — the man in charge of Homeland Security in Texas — said Americans should stay out of Mexico altogether.

He made the statement in testimony before a Texas Senate committee. "Candidly, nobody should be going into Mexico at this point in time," he said.

In May, Texas authorities issued a warning about the danger of venturing into Mexican waters on Falcon Lake, which straddles the Texas border.

News 8 double-checked whether the Texas Homeland Security director was referring only to northern Mexico. His chief of staff told us no — he means "all of Mexico."

A travel warning issued by the U.S. Department of State does single out an increasing number of hot spots in Mexico, but also points out that millions of Americans travel to Mexico safely every year.

And popular tourist destinations like Cancun have not suffered the kind of drug violence seen in some other parts of Mexico.

The Jonas Brothers will still play scheduled concerts in Guadalajuara and Mexico City. The group will honor tickets bought by those disappointed fans in Monterrey — if they're willing to travel to see them perform.

E-mail akocherga@belo.com

I use Handy Mail and they've just started having to charge 10 pesos for each letter mailed because the Homeland Security was getting so tough on things like no return address for the letters mailed from here via Texas with US stamps on them. You have to declare if you're sending a check of over a certain amount as Homeland Security is looking to stop drug money via US mail. Now they're going to Fedex mail to Cincinnati to be dropped in a mail box there.

It's over the top that they're saying to avoid all of Mexico.

There was a segment on Anderson Cooper 360 last night about the person that was killed on Falcon Lake. It may be a part of what has triggered this alert.

There's no way the media would have let that one go to waste. I'm surprised there hasn't been more outrage considering the current political climate. Right up the hatemongers' alley, so to speak.
Perhaps the upcoming elections have them distracted for the time being.
What's your take on the whole fiasco? And why isn't the govt. involved? Lizzy

I my humble opinion... Dems rarely start wars.... US is about warred out anyways....

not to mention... they're broke....

And if Afghanistan taught em anything.... it taught em, it's no fun getting shot at with yer own damned guns!!

I'm thinking if the US wasn't in Iraq and Afganistan right now they would probably be storming their southern border. They need something to keep people employed......

Hock has a point about who usually starts wars... but don't forget Clinton and Bosnia.
We could well afford it at the time from a fiscal perspective,but I have often wondered about the wisdom of messing with the status quo without big time research on the underpinnings of the place we are planning to invade.
It's way too often that when the autocracy is removed, the locals start killing each other off and we're left to clean up the mess. Lizzy

hockables wrote: I my humble opinion... Dems rarely start wars.... US is about warred out anyways....

not to mention... they're broke....

And if Afghanistan taught em anything.... it taught em, it's no fun getting shot at with yer own damned guns!!

Didn't WWII start on FDR"s watch and Korea on HST's watch and Viet Nam on JFK's watch and escalated on LBJ's watch? just asking.

The French were involved in Vietnam fro the 1800,s through WW2. US involvement began on NOV 1 1955 and ended 15 May 1975. NOT JFK's conflict, Eisenhower's. The French were the original "colonizers". Lizzy

locogringo wrote:

hockables wrote: I my humble opinion... Dems rarely start wars.... US is about warred out anyways....

not to mention... they're broke....

And if Afghanistan taught em anything.... it taught em, it's no fun getting shot at with yer own damned guns!!

Didn't WWII start on FDR"s watch and Korea on HST's watch and Viet Nam on JFK's watch and escalated on LBJ's watch? just asking.

They do say that Roosevelt wuz itchin for a way to convince Congress to get involved in the European Conflict... I would also suggest the US didn't start the Conflict... although it could be argued that piss poor US Foreign Policy was the precursor to the Pacific Conflict... just sayin is all...
And HST shoulda left McArthur in the East ta finish cleanin up and the Korean thing might have ended very differently... just sayin is all...

Got a little off track on this thread. Let's see.

Revolution doesn't count, but probably Republicans because they wanted to lower taxes.

War of 1812 hmmmmmmmmmmm. Madison, a Federalist I believe. Probably a Dem because believed in big government. Don't know.

War with Mexico. Polk was a Jeffersonian Dem.

Civil War. ahhhhhhhhhh. Republican.

Spanish American War. McKinley. Republican.

WWI. Wilson. Dem.

WWII FDR. Dem.

Korea. Dem.

Vietnam. Dem.

aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Grenada. Republican.

And so forth. Close race if you ask me.

Eisenhower took the US into Vietnam. Grenada was an invasion not a war. Iraq 1 and 2 were Republican. All since WWII were Rebublican wars.

U wanna try something interesting...

GOOGLE " US invasion of: " start with A, then B, then C.... let GOOGLE list em all...

Pretty Impressive

Yes this is true that there may be some threats for US citizen because of some issues of Government. But any how Mexico is great place i will go there on all inclusive holidays package.

Sorry, Steve.... but an "All Inclusive Holiday Package" is not what I would consider México....
more like an Artificially flavored theme park. -pardon the mixed metaphor.
Just do your research... and go, to the real México.
These battles are not about tourists. Mostly it's inter-gang rivalry. Lizzy

If it's all that dangerous here why hasn't every other government in the world issued travel warnings? Nothing from the Canadians.
The U.S. seems to like keeping their citizens on high level alert at all times.
Maybe they don't want to lose valuable tourist dollars.

Not an unreasonable conclusion under the circumstances. They rule by convincing all and sundry that the sky is falling so they can sell a few more bomb shelters. Lizzy

raqueteer wrote:If it's all that dangerous here why hasn't every other government in the world issued travel warnings? Nothing from the Canadians.
The U.S. seems to like keeping their citizens on high level alert at all times.
Maybe they don't want to lose valuable tourist dollars.

raqueteer - The US news media is always bashing Mexico telling how unsafe it is. You hit the nail right on the head. The US is in such deep doo doo that they're only interest is to keep tourist dollars at home.

Cancun and other areas had the best spring break ever according to what I was told. If it's really so bad, how come so many of us travel within Mexico and back and forth freely to the US without incident.

Vietnam was started in the Eisenhower administration.

What else do you not know?

roni wrote:Vietnam was started in the Eisenhower administration.

What else do you not know?

Who are you speaking to and why the nasty retort of “look at me I’m so much smarter than you.” ?

roni wrote:Vietnam was started in the Eisenhower administration.

What else do you not know?

It helps if you read the WHOLE thread before jumping on anyone. You would have found that it was already stated a number of times that Eisenhower got the U.S. involved in Vietnam.

roni wrote:Vietnam was started in the Eisenhower administration.

What else do you not know?

Viet Nam was a French adventure, not Eisenhower's. What else do YOU not know?

David wrote:

roni wrote:Vietnam was started in the Eisenhower administration.

What else do you not know?

Viet Nam was a French adventure, not Eisenhower's. What else do YOU not know?

You being nasty is no better than “roni”, IMHO. What gives?

Vietnam wasn't an official war until mid '64 under LBJ. Covert before that but not very covert as our carrier fleet operated off shore since '61. Home base Subic Bay Philippines

Maybe we won't have as much traffic this year.

Stay home everyone where it is safe.