The Obama Administration has picked Alan Bersin to advise Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Bersin now holds the dubious unofficial title of border czar.

The job is supposed to entail coordinating American policy on immigration, guns, drugs and bulk cash shipments into Mexico. One anonymous spokesman said: “The position will focus on illegal immigration into the U.S. as well as southbound gun trafficking and cash smuggling.” Exact duties are not available other than Bersin will report to Napolitano.

Wikipedia has this to say about Bersin’s background:

Mr. Bersin was born in 1946 to a traditional Conservative Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. He attended public schools and Hebrew school in New York City. He received an A.B. in government from Harvard, and then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1974, he obtained a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.

From 1995-1998, Mr. Bersin served as the Attorney General’s Southwest Border Representative, coordinating law enforcement on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

His appointment in 1998 as Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego City Schools put him in control of the eighth largest urban school district in the U.S. In 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him as California's Education Secretary.

The Wikipedia post failed to mention Bersin had no background in education when appointed as Superintendent in San Diego, nor did the online encyclopedia say he resigned the education secretary post 16 months into the job. Upon issuing his resignation he cited a combination of factors, one being having to split his time between his Sacramento and San Diego homes. One month later he was named to sit on the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board.

Bersin is also chair of a U.S. Mexico border task force sponsored by COMEXI, the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. Yes, Bersin is a CFR member, hence Napolitano’s comment, “Alan brings years of vital experience with local, state and international partners to help us meet the challenges we face at our borders.”

Bersin, a long time democrat, is a friend of the Clintons. He advised both Republicans and Democrats on educational issues, often at the same time — George Bush and Gray Davis are two.

Labeled an autocrat, a bully, ingratiating, and careful about his public image right down to body language and photo-ops by California journalists, he was opposed by teachers’ unions, and once highly castigated by a San Diego State University professor in an open letter that used this phrase to describe him and his tactics: “lawless bully backed by some of the most powerful interests in the U.S., from developers to rich foundations....” He is said to have “a long list of well-heeled allies.”

If so, "Czar" might fit in this case.

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Pat Henry said:

Drug Czar? Just knowing the connections and the intended fiat "jurisdiction," one can reasonable understand that this fellow is a top-of-the-heap drug runner/profiteer. Clinton smuggled cocaine in the nose cones of Arkansas planes. The Terminator was with Bush (family buddies with Clintons) at the Mexican Prez' minutes-long swearing in, and these folks utilize the drug war to cut out private competition (not that I want any cut!) Read _Red Cocaine_ by Joesph Douglass to see the Comintern roots of the drug problem that arose in the 60s, through trained, imported gangs. Note there the clear implication that the Dept.s of State and Justice were already fully engaged by at least the 80s. The dots connect themselves. Praying for exposure of the evidence on a larger scale, ...

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danwhitehead1 said:

	Czar? Republic? Somebody please help me out of my ignorance. How does a czar fit into a republic?
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William N. Grigg said:

	"Commissar" is a better title -- -- and, now that the heroic Border Patrol has mutated into a nominally American version of the KGB's old Border Guards directorate, this fellow Bersin will have his own police force to play with. Go here -- http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/026365.html -- for a timely account of the new Commissar's shock troops at work.
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