At a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon last year, President Obama vowed to make ending border violence a "top priority." How's that hope and change working out? Drug-related crime is out of control, the State Department is warning spring-break vacationers to avoid the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua, and the bloodshed has now reached the U.S. consulate's office.

A young American consulate worker and her unborn baby were slain this weekend in Mexico, along with her U.S. detention officer husband and the Mexican husband of another consulate worker. The wanton murders appear to have been a coordinated drug cartel hit; the victims had all just left a children's birthday party in Juarez and were headed across the border back into Texas. The pregnant American official, Lesley Enriquez, is reportedly the first consulate employee to die in drug-related violence since 1985. Her 7-month-old daughter, terrorized by the gunfire while strapped in her car seat, was the lone survivor of the attack.

The State Department has now authorized the evacuation of dependents of U.S. personnel in six Mexican cities along its northern border with the U.S. And the resort town of Acapulco saw at least 13 murdered over the past week -- including four beheadings. The total death toll over the past three years is nearing 20,000.

Mexican government officials have been quite content to blame their neighbors for the outbreaks; to play the race card; to demand blanket amnesty for illegal aliens from their country trying to flee the violence and misery; and to collect massive infusions of U.S. aid that have fallen into the wrong hands. The question for this White House is: How many more Americans will be targeted for execution before we stop rewarding such fatally arrogant behavior?

Reminder: With bipartisan support, the Bush administration handed over $1.6 billion to help Mexico control its border chaos in 2008. The crime-fighting package known as the "Merida Initiative" funded helicopters, surveillance equipment, computer infrastructure, the expansion of intelligence databases, anti-corruption initiatives, human rights education and training, and an anti-money laundering program for our southern neighbors.

President Obama accelerated the release of Merida Initiative cash to Mexico and tossed even more taxpayer funding into the mix. All of this while our own measly border enforcement initiatives have been shortchanged, demagogued or completely abandoned.

Critics of the Merida Initiative (including yours truly) warned that lax oversight would lead to inevitable plundering of the money by corrupt Mexican government officials and more unabated bloodshed. Calderon cried "racist!" and demanded that the aid be forked over with no strings attached: "Give it to me. And give it to me without conditions," he told Congress.

Well, who's watching over the program now? Who's measuring its success or failure? Judging from the endless pile of corpses and horrific headlines, the Merida Initiative has turned out to be a boon and a boondoggle for the Mexican thugocracy. The civilian police force is notoriously under the thumb of the drug networks across the country. Infiltrators have penetrated at all levels.

The Brookings Institution warned two years ago: "Multiple Federal agencies have earned a reputation for ineffectiveness and corruption; among them, the Attorney General's Federal Investigative Agency, the Ministry of Public Security's Federal Preventive Police Force, the Ministry of Government's Center for Investigation and National Security and the Ministry of Finance's Customs Administration. … State security agencies and the courts have not protected the citizenry effectively. According to surveys carried out by Transparencia Mexicana, the police and justice system are perceived as having worse problems of corruption and inefficiency than other public agencies."

Yet, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the lesson of this weekend's killing spree is that the U.S. needs to work even closer with the Calderon administration -- and at least one House Democrat in Texas, Henry Cuellar, is calling for a second Merida Initiative package. This is a recipe for an even bloodier Mexican Drug Cartel Stimulus Package.

If you subsidize it, you'll get more of it. Loco.

Before I start this, let's all take a moment and revel in the outright defeat of liberal stalwart "Republican" Tommy Merritt in HD 7. Goodbye, O Caucus of One. We knew ye too well. This blogger offers hearty congratulations and welcome to conservative David Simpson.

(cross-posted at Blue Dot Blues)

Oy vay. We don't have enough problems in these SBOE races? The nefarious Texas EducratParent PAC has endorsed Thomas Ratliff in the SBOE 9 Republican primary (where Don McLeroy is the incumbent).

Big news this morning, courtesy of The Hill's Aaron Blake. A decision has been made in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
 

The court upheld disclosure requirements for corporations but struck down the distinction between individual expenditures and corporate ones. That should allow corporations to spend freely in support or opposition to candidates.

"No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 5-4 decision, led by the court's conservative wing.

The case is a potential gatecrasher for the amount of money in politics, and experts were immediately casting the ruling as a big change in campaign finance law.

East Austin was home to a historically unusual event this morning: a gathering of Republican precinct chairmen and supporters, and more than a dozen Republican candidates. Today's press conference at the Travis County Republican Party headquarters on Cameron Road was well attended, and the press got their first look at the strength of the local Republican slate in 2010.

From the press release:
 

"There are 16 Republican candidates who will be competing for offices in Travis county-wide races. There are 8 more candidates for positions that include parts of Travis County and extend outside its boundaries. Along with the 22 state-wide races and 7 federal races where Republicans vie for positions, voters in this county will have to make choices among some 53 Republicans on the ballot in Travis County."

"The candidates on the Republican slate are representative of the best that Travis County has to offer: A clear choice of common sense leadership, integrity and focus on our fellow citizens of Austin who want to keep jobs if you have them, find jobs if you've lost yours and provide for your family for them to be prosperous."

One of the most heavily targeted Congressional districts in the country for 2010 is the Texas 10th, currently held by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul.  Since February, McCaul has been gearing up for a fight against Democrat businessman Jack McDonald.  Today, after a long and arduous exploratory campaign in which McDonald gave McCaul plenty of reason to sweat, McDonald made public his decision to back out of the race.

So.  Jack McDonald is NOT filing to run against Michael McCaul.  McCaul does have a primary challenger in Travis County resident Joe Petronis.  But neither of them will face off against the well-funded McDonald next November.