Is this true or a hoax? Texans, what do you know about this?

Local law enforcement was bombarded with calls from across the country Saturday asking about a report that the Zetas had taken over two ranches off Mines Road.

But officials with the Laredo Police Department, Webb County Sheriff’s Department and Border Patrol said they knew nothing about such an incident, while Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, said the agency does not comment on rumors.

The report, which spread like wildfire among blogs Saturday afternoon, appears to have initially been posted on a blog called Diggers Realm.

The blogger wrote that he got a tip from a San Diego, Calif., minuteman named Jeff Schwilk, who said that the Zetas, former enforcers of the Gulf Cartel, had crossed into the United States and taken over two ranches off Mines Road, about 10 miles northwest of Interstate 35.

The 'conspiracy' revealed
(Steve Irvin, Scripps Media, July 27, 2010)

I don’t really need to read many of the far right wing blogs flagellating in cyberspace these days.

Not when there’s a whole battalion of their readers ready to accuse our news organization of a deep-seeded conspiracy for failing to repeat the rants of a few misinformed idiots.

The latest of these dispatches arrived over the weekend, when a number of viewers demanded to know why we, as “the media,” weren’t reporting that the Los Zetas drug cartel had taken over two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area.

The reports, which arrived all the way from Pennsylvania (which is very close to Laredo) quoted sources within the Laredo police department who “confirmed” this was an “act of war.”

Google this, and you’ll find a number of corroborating reports which manage to say the EXACT same thing, as if they’re all repeating…the exact same thing. Amazingly, none of these “reporters” appears to have actually picked up the phone and called the Laredo police department to verify the story.

And none of the viewers who e-mailed the station did either.

My point is, the reason we didn’t report the story is… IT ISN’T TRUE. In fact when the Laredo Morning Times published its own story Saturday discounting the rumors of a drug cartel takeover and subsequent standoff, reporter Nick DiGeorgiu called around to police and the Webb County Sheriff’s office, and got a general shoulder-shrugging about it, although officials said the phone had been ringing off the hook from various minuteman groups.

Simply put… not confirmed…. Not true.

Another reporter who lives in the area actually drove up and down the road where drug cartels had supposedly taken over the ranches. That reporter noted zero police presence in the area at the time… when supposedly a standoff was happening.

The point is, these rumors circulate and bubble up from the ether on almost a daily basis now. They are published with a mouse-click, and shared and duplicated with three more mouse clicks. They feed into the paranoia that already exists among extremists who believe “the media” is really an arm of a presidential administration promoting the Obama “socialist agenda.”

C’mon people… really?

The fact is, the Glenn Becks and Bill O’Reillys of the world are merely regurgitating the same agenda from a series of far right-wing bloggers and the daily talking points from the Republican National Committee. Their MARKETING STRATEGY is to get you to believe they are the only “real” source of information. Beck, in particular, constantly sounds the drumbeat as one who is here to bring you the stories “the media” won’t bring you. Listen to him for a couple of days, and you are quickly spurred to buy his products and listen to him some more because he’s made some gigantic discovery that will change the world and you’ll hear so much more if you just listen for the next two weeks straight.

Beck has the number one rated show in cable news. Fox is the number one network. They are “the media.”

The scary thing is, it’s as if some people actually want to believe there’s a media conspiracy. They would actually rather hear their news from people who reinforce their beliefs. Opposing viewpoints be damned. And in the case of the drug cartels taking over ranches in Laredo, they apparently aren’t even that interested in the truth.

Sorry to disappoint folks, but here at your local news station, we’re not sitting around trying to figure out how we can advance President Obama’s, or anyone else’s agenda. We have daily discussions on how to serve our community and cover stories which are important to our viewers. We also spend a fair amount of time trying to make sure we get those stories right. That means you’re going to hear stories which occasionally tell you something you don’t want to hear.

But feel free to e-mail us and tell us what you’re reading on all those blogs. It’ll save me the trouble.

That's not proof, ebrown... especially if there is a media black out or, as the blog suggested, the police aren't talking about it. Of course they'd deny it.

Just saying.

Is it really a hoax?

I tend to think so, but I have no idea what happens between Mexico and Texas.

the number race based attacks on Hispanics keeps rising.

This toxic environment, in which hateful rhetoric targets immigrants while the number of hate crimes against Hispanics and others perceived to be immigrants steadily increases, has caused a heightened sense of fear in communities around the country.

The Role of Extremist Anti-Immigration Groups

Some groups opposing immigration reform, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA, have portrayed immigrants as responsible for numerous societal ills, often using stereotypes and outright bigotry. While these groups, and other similar organizations, have strived to position themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America, a closer look at the public record reveals that some of these organizations have disturbing links to or relationships with extremists in the anti-Immigration movement. These seemingly "legitimate" advocates against illegal immigration are frequently quoted in the mainstream media, have been called to testify before Congress, and often hold meetings with lawmakers and other public figures. This is one of the most disturbing developments of the past few years: the legitimization and mainstreaming of virulently anti-immigrant rhetoric that veers dangerously close to — and too often crosses the line beyond civil discourse over contentious immigration policy issues.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace. ...

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

But the conservatives in America cry "socialism", unemployed Americans and those on food stamps are "feeeloaders", and it's all Obama's fault.

Officials dispute reports of ranch takeover by Zetas
(By Nick Georgiou - Laredo Morning Times - July 26, 2010)

LAREDO — Local law enforcement was bombarded with calls from across the country Saturday asking about a report that the Zetas had taken over two ranches off Mines Road.

But officials with the Laredo Police Department, Webb County Sheriff's Department and Border Patrol said they knew nothing about such an incident, while Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, said the agency does not comment on rumors.

“The public would be the first to know if anything was going on,” said Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar on Sunday afternoon. “Our deputies went out there and talked to ranch owners in the area and found nothing.”

The report that the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's former enforcers, had taken over two Laredo ranches appeared to have initially surfaced around 10 a.m. Saturday on the blog Diggers Realm.

The report then spread like wildfire among blogs and social networking sites throughout the day. A Webb County Sheriff's official said the department was even having difficulty functioning because of the volume of calls they were receiving because of the report.

The Diggers Realm blogger stated that he received a tip from a San Diego Minuteman named Jeff Schwilk, who said the Zetas had crossed into the United States and taken over two ranches off Mines Road, about 10 miles northwest of Interstate 35.

Quoting Schwilk, the blogger wrote of a standoff between “the unknown size Zeta forces and the U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement on two ranches.”

The blogger wrote that the story was confirmed by anonymous Laredo Police Department sources.

Late Saturday, no law enforcement activity was visible along Mines Road from I-35 to Las Penitas subdivision.

The Diggers Realm blogger stated that he received a tip from a San Diego Minuteman named Jeff Schwilk, who said the Zetas had crossed into the United States and taken over two ranches off Mines Road, about 10 miles northwest of Interstate 35.