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Speaking to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Albuquerque in 2001, George W. Bush declared that, as Mexico was a friend and neighbor, “It’s so important for us to tear down our barriers and walls that might separate Mexico from the United States.” Bush succeeded. And during his tenure, millions from Mexico exploited his magnanimity to violate our laws, trample upon our sovereignty, walk into our country and remain here. In 2007, supported by John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and Barack Obama, Bush backed amnesty for the 12 million people who had entered America illegally. The nation thundered...

<p>Russia is warning Ukraine of “irreversible consequences” after cross-border shelling from the battle-worn east struck Russian territory Sunday, reportedly killing one Russian citizen and injuring two others.</p> <p>“This incident highlights the extremely dangerous escalation of tensions in the Russian-Ukrainian border and may have irreversible consequences, the responsibility for which lies on the Ukrainian side,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday, calling the incident an “aggressive action.”</p>

Moscow strongly condemns Kiev forces shooting at Russian border guards and demands that such actions cease. Otherwise, Russia reserves the right to protect its territory and citizens, the Foreign Ministry has said. At around 3 am on Saturday, a vehicle with a squad of Russian border guards, on duty at the frontier between Russia and Ukraine, came under fire from the Ukrainian side, the Russian Ministry said in a statement. As a result of the incident in the Kuibyshev district of the Rostov region, the vehicle sustained damage: eight bullet holes were found in the vehicle’s chassis. “Only by good...

About 30 civilians have been killed in an artillery attack on Maryinka, a suburb of Donetsk, Igor Strelkov (Girkin), the defense minister of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said at a press conference on Saturday. "We know about 30 dead people. But not all ruins have yet been cleared. So there might be more of them. Militia sites have not been affected by the shelling. There are no losses among our fighters," Strelkov said at a press conference on Saturday. DPR Prime Minister Alexander Borodai, who also attended the press conference, said the evacuation of civilians from Maryinka and other...

A Ukrainian Interior Ministry official said at least 30 servicemen were killed Friday after pro-Russia rebels fired on them with missiles. Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to the interior minister, said authorities would react swiftly to punish the perpetrators. "They will be destroyed or captured and be made answerable to Ukrainian law," Shkiryak said. Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said the attack was on a forward base in a village near the Russian border and confirmed there had been heavy casualties, but did not give any specific figure. The base was located near one of three border crossings whose closure Russian...

Washington and Lee University expressed regret Tuesday for the school’s past ownership of slaves and promised to remove Confederate flags from the main chamber of its Lee Chapel after a group of black students protested that the historic Virginia school was unwelcoming to minorities. President Kenneth P. Ruscio’s announcement was a surprising move for the small, private liberal arts college in Lexington, which has long celebrated its Southern heritage. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee served as the university’s president after the Civil War, his crypt is beneath the chapel, and the school has gingerly addressed its ties to the Confederacy...

Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko has signed decrees of ousting General Vasily Krutov from the posts of first deputy head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and head of the SBU anti-terrorist centre. Respective papers have been posted on the Ukrainian president's web site. Vasily Krutov was appointed to these positions in the middle of April this year. The Ukrainian president has replaced Krutov with Vasily Gritsak, a Ukrainian police general-lieutenant and deputy chairman of the Ukrainian State Migration Service since April 2013. Petr Poroshenko has also dismissed Vladislav Bukharev from the position of SBU first deputy head responsible for the...

On July 4, 1864, four days after President Abraham Lincoln had surprised him by accepting his resignation, Treasury secretary Salmon P. Chase confided to his diary, “I am too earnest, too antislavery … [and] too radical.” Chase surely possessed each of these attributes – in excess – but they had little to do with his unexpected exit from Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” Rather, it was much more personal. Chase’s oft-repeated threat to quit had tested the forbearance of a beleaguered president once too often. Out of patience, Lincoln ended his tenure with the observation that “you and I have reached...

July 5th is the birthday of Admiral James Farragut, the first man to hold the ranks of rear admiral, vice admiral and admiral in the United States Navy. Farragut is notable particularly for his actions during the Civil War, including the capture of New Orleans in 1862. He continued to be on active duty until his death in 1870.

A leaked memorandum from the RAND corporation think tank suggests that Kiev should engage in an all-out war in the eastern regions, including shutting down all communications, putting citizens in internment camps and killing all who resist. The RAND Corporation is non-profit global think tank which offers research and analysis to the US armed forces. In the shocking letter, which has been leaked by the media, the advice offers a step by step brutal guide in how to deal with the population in eastern Ukraine. ‘Military op’s advantages overweigh disadvantage’ In the first line the memorandum notes that the peace...

This video shows a residential area on the north side of Lugansk being shelled. When it zooms in, you can see people standing in the streets, just watching the shells fall. The area is just north of the Train Station (Large building with a circular road), across the river. The video was taken from the same area where the Lugansk live traffic cams are, that I found and posted this morning.

From the live traffic/weather cams for rebel-controlled Lugansk. Smoke and explosions at 515EST. There must be some kind of a fight going on there, again. Latest Tweets say the airport is still in Kiev hands, but it is surrounded, and all the approaches are mined with IED's.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is hoping to establish a new ceasefire between Kyiv and pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, as he hosts Ukrainian, Russian, and French diplomats in Berlin on Wednesday. A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had been invited to the afternoon meeting. Lavrov reportedly welcomed the initiative.

A group of hackers called Green Dragon Crew announced on Twitter that the recent cyber-attack on the Privatbank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine was their doing. The attack appears to be a distributed denial-of-service since on June 30, for a few hours, the bank’s pages either would not load or offered sporadic access to the customers. However, the group also claims that they managed to breach the bank’s systems and that they have access to customer bank accounts. In order to do this, they would have to access different systems because payment service and the website are not part...

Ukraine's President has just under 20 minutes to extend the ceasefire agreement. Poroshenko is under heavy pressure from Moscow to do just that. But there is no sign that the ceasefire has worked, and as the deadline approaches, Ukraine's troops are on the move: The news website Obozrevatel reports that Poroshenko has declared martial law in Donetsk and Lugansk. It's not official yet, but it seems that the ceasefire is over and a new phase of the anti-terror operation (ATO) is just beginning.

A cameraman for Russia's Channel One TV station died from injuries after being shot by Ukrainian troops in Donetsk, the head of the press service for the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) said, as quoted by RIA Novosti. “The cameraman was injured in the stomach and died of the wounds,” Klavdia Kulbatskaya said. SNIP--- The cameraman Anatoly Klyan, along with a few other journalists, boarded a bus full of women – mostly mothers – who were traveling to a military base in Donetsk to demand that their sons be dismissed from the unit and allowed to go home, Kulbatskaya added. When...

Combat actions in east Ukraine will only intensify after the truce comes to an end on Monday, TASS cites head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Valery Bolotov as saying on Sunday. Kiev’s unilaterally-proclaimed seven-day ceasefire regime expired at 23:00 Moscow time on Friday, June 27. President Petr Poroshenko extended it until 22:00 local time (23:00 Moscow time) on Monday, June 30. Nevertheless, armed clashes between Ukraine’s military and local self-defense forces in east Ukraine have continued, despite the declared ceasefire. SNIP--- The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic also mentioned an armed clash between fighters of the National Guard...

The entire city of Syracuse killed. The entire population of New York City displaced. That's what it would be like if Syria's war was happening in the United States, according to non-profit group If We Were Syrian. In attempt to hammer home the horrific human cost of the Syrian civil war, If We Were Syrian calculated what it would be like if 160,000 people were killed and 9.3 million people evicted from their homes in the United States and the other six G7 countries. The results are horrifying: If you wanted to make it proportional to the size of America's...

With Petroshenko agreeing to extend today's cease-fire deadline for 3 days, the Russians, unfortunately, are not optimistic after the 'expert-level' talks in Europe. Given this, it appears Russia is preparing its retaliation for possible further sanctions that are being waved by Europe and the US. As AP reports, Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom, says it could limit supplies to European customers that intend to re-sell the natural gas on to Ukraine. Whil enot naming specific countries, the Gazprom CEO explained he needed to clamp down on the so-called reverse-flow supplies the the cut-off Ukraine as they were "half-fraudulent schemes." Russia...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security officials said Wednesday that fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were advancing on the Haditha Dam, the second-largest in Iraq, raising the possibility of catastrophic damage and flooding. Worries about the dam came as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki criticized his political rivals but did not reject entreaties by Western leaders, including a personal visit by Secretary of State John Kerry, to help defuse the crisis by forming a new government with more equitable power sharing among competing groups. The ISIS militants advancing on the Euphrates River dam, about 120 miles northwest of...