It starts with the unmistakable sounds of a helicopter and law enforcement officers communicating via radio. A group of men in an inflatable raft have been spotted in the Rio Grande River, the body of water that divides Texas from Mexico, and others with packages are flailing in the water nearby. Then the video cuts to an image of five words: “We Are In A War.” What follows is a video mash-up of excerpts from border residents' testimonials detailing "drug-war spill over violence." Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced in late August that he plans to release each testimonial over the course of the next 14 weeks. The border stories will be posted to a state-controlled website, ProtectYourTexasBorder.com, where related reports, maps and presentations already live. While little, if any, mention of the United States' decades-long drug war or Mexico's more recent efforts to control drug cartels will likely be made at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this week, Republicans and Democrats are waging a highly partisan battle over just who is telling the truth about life in the border region. Staple's video campaign is just one gambit. "This, for me, is not about politics," Staples, a Republican, told The Huffington Post. "Farmers and ranchers that live and work on the rural stretches of our southern border are facing things that are hard to imagine in the United States: property damage, theft and intimidation on a regular basis. Washington seems to be turning a deaf ear."...more
Video at the link provided.
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