Border

2010 is on the way to being the bloodiest year yet in Mexico's ever-escalating prohibition-fueled violence. In 2008, 5,000 were killed; last year, the toll was 8,000. This year, we're only at the half-way point, and the toll so far is closing in on 6,000.

There is no end in sight to the prohibition-related violence plaguing Mexico, and now, the cartels have started making threats aimed at law enforcement on the US side of the border.

As the rising conservative clamor to "secure the border" -- whatever that means -- grows louder, the Obama administration is moving fast to pay for more border guards, customs and immigration agents, DEA agents, FBI task forces, and even a couple of unmanned drones -- about $600 million total of "emergency appropriations."

This may have been the bloodiest week yet in the prohibition-related violence that has wracked Mexico since Felipe Calderon called out the army in December 2006. And the death toll this year just passed 5,000, putting 2010 on pace to be the deadliest year yet south of the border.

In what is most likely a bid to blunt a campaign issue -- border security -- for Republicans in this year's off-year elections, the Obama administration is sending more than a thousand troops to the Southwestern border.

In Mexico, the killing continues with no end in sight. Here's the latest rundown.

Calderon's war on drugs is closing in on the 20,000 dead figure, according to a running tally by the Mexico City newspaper El Universal. And the prohibition-related killing continues unabated.

No letup in Mexico's prohibition-related violence this week, with another 208 killings to add to the toll.

The Mexico Drug War Update was on vacation last week, but now it's back. Weirdly enough, 420 people were killed in prohibition-related violence there in the past two weeks. Nothing to celebrate about that.

We're already $1.2 billion into helping Mexico try to wage prohibition on its powerful and violent drug trafficking cartels. Now, border congressmen want another $500 million in an emergency appropriation this year.