The Washington Post announces that the Obama Administration is close to being ready to virtually resume the Bush Administration's ploy of fabricating a largely invisible and more or less nonexistent border "fence:"
The emperor has no fence.
In announcing the resumption of a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border yesterday, the Obama administration sent a powerful message of continuity with President George W. Bush, who included a pledge to secure the border as part of a 2006 effort to persuade Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.
Much as Bush aides did three years ago, administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security described a five-year, multibillion-dollar plan yesterday to link a chain of tower-mounted sensors and other surveillance equipment over most of the 2,000-mile southern frontier. ...
On Monday, U.S. officials began erecting 17 camera and radio towers on a 23-mile stretch near Tucson, and they expect this summer to add 36 others over 30 miles near Ajo, Ariz. If testing goes well and DHS approves, plans call for covering the 320-mile Arizona border by 2012 and the full border with Mexico -- except for a 200-mile stretch in southwestern Texas where it is difficult to cross and expensive to monitor -- by 2014.
The emperor has no fence.
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29 comments:
Boy, I guess that "virtual fence" should be completed right about the time the last person in Latin America crosses the border.
President Camacho himself could not have done a better job.
Nice post. No fence indeed!
The first virtual fence was a joke. Illegal aliens always carry drugs with them and are always accompanied by a few heavily armed drug cartel enforcers.
Some of the towers were partially made of wood, so the smugglers just burned them down. Others were low enough that illegals threw rocks and destroyed them. And of course, a few rounds from an AK47 through the equipment causes what the government called "problems".
No virtual fence will work unless US troops are there to protect the equipment. But then, if you are going to have troops there indefinitely...
An effective fence, armed Border Patrol, and troops on land and the Coast Guard and Navy at see will be required. Once this is done, eliminating free schooling, welfare, free health care, and illegal hiring will solve the problem. And, this could all be done with a fraction of what we wasted on any number of banks.
In related news, the Pentagon announced today that the McNamara Line has virtually stopped North Vietnamese infiltration along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
"President Camacho himself could not have done a better job."
Come on scro, don't be a pussy! Beats jail, don't it?
Too bad we don't have "virtual taxes."
Pithy.
Off topic, but lenders are now destroying unfinished homes in California's high desert areas if the cost of finishing them is less than the projected sales price. link
Steve, did you see this article yet?
"In Disneyland's shadow, a rising new demographic"
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-anaheim-latinos9-2009may09,0,5124639.story
You mean they are actually going to put up a few miles of chicken wire again?
Ay caramba!
Thanks for the LA Times link and another exercise in rotten ethnic pseudo-journalism. And what a rinky dink website. That's where the people of Los Angeles - now refusing to buy the newspaper - are supposed to flock for their news? Latimes.com?! How long until they just close that entire operation down?
Lately I don't see many links to the LA Times or any newspaper in say Miami. Frankly I think these two cities have mostly dropped off the radar screen according to the rest of the country. They are now latin cities - and as such they are not exactly hotbeds of any sort of innovation.
So what's this Boeing subsidy costing per mile?
This is the logical end of a political culture that measures inputs instead of outputs. To appease critics they spend billions, thus showing they are "doing something". If the critics doubled in political power then Washington would build us a virtual fence twice as tall. That's how much our politicians suck.
"This is the logical end of a political culture that measures inputs instead of outputs."
Like NCLB, huh?
I don't think you have to complicate things that much Chief. It's nothing but political theater. If the Govt enforced existing law and fined employers for hiring illegals, the problem would end. No need for a costly and ultimately inefectual fence except that it looks like Govt is "doing" something.
BEWARE! The only thing this announcement means is that he's covering his rear to begin amnesty in a few weeks/months. Obama's handlers know that he can't put off amnesty until 2010 because of the mid-term elections, so he has to do it this year. Preferably over the summer when no one's looking. Or for 4th of July, when he can wrap it up in a patriotic tortilla and shove it down our throats. I guarantee when he announces it in a few weeks, this fence ruse will be his reference point when he says, "And for those critics who feel we're not doing enough to protect our borders, just last month I announced a resumption of the fence..." blah blah blah, and all the folks who don't pay attention much to the news will nod and say, "well, as long as we have that fence, maybe the ones who are here should be citizens."
Jesus Cortez, 28, a Cal State Fullerton student and landscaper who has lived in west Anaheim since he was 9, recalled the neighborhood's transition as white families moved out and Latinos settled inI wonder what degree he is getting?
We need troops and a fence/wall (preferably a wall).
Our political class/elites screw us mightily, but we dont do anything back to them. We should be boycotting many companies and banks (HINT) to put the hurt on them, but all we do is complain, usually on the internet, so they are not affected by our dissapointment.
m
"Anonymous said...
Steve, did you see this article yet?
"In Disneyland's shadow, a rising new demographic""
Thanks for the link. From that article:
"A brick wall separated Julio Perez's childhood home from Disneyland, where his father worked in the laundry room.
On that side was the Anaheim that America knew, the quintessential Orange County suburb where expanses of orange groves gave way to rows of 1950s tract homes and a signature theme park.
On his side was the neighborhood where Perez, 30, spent his 1980s childhood: a dense, vibrant, heavily Latino island where parks filled with soccer players and families grilled carne asada. Today, his side of the wall has become the new face of Anaheim."
Wow. Disneyland actually had a wall around it. I guess Uncle Walt didn't want people getting into his park unless they paid. The racist swine! This just shows that the federal government is far less competent than Disney, which is at least capable of building a wall.
Notice also, how you only had to wait until the third paragraph in that article to get the word "vibrant". From the picture accompanying the article, vibrancy consists of mexican bantam-weight wrestle-mania. An ancient and proud culture indeed.
You mean they are actually going to put up a few miles of chicken wire again?No chicken wire. There's no actual fence of any sort planned, just the towers.
To me, it's astonishing that we still have a wall and have a large active duty force on the border between North and South Korea, but won't do the same when we are being INVADED!
John
Maybe Janet Napoliano is so busy defending the Canadian border against terrorists , etc, that she doesn't have any time left to deal with the Mexican border.
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=1520295
> U.S. officials began erecting 17 camera and radio
> towers on a 23-mile stretch near Tucson
So, while the revolution won't be televised, the fence will be. As wrote Neil Postmann: we're amusing ourselves to death.
It's nothing but political theater
Obviously. I like taking the pro-barrier position because it's eminently doable and because I like arguing, but it's not needed for immigration control. As you suggest, immigration control could be done with paperwork.
1. end the free ride (welfare & socialization of costs); paperwork.
2. set up draconian (going out of business) penalties for employers; paperwork.
3. enforce sporadically; a small number of boots on the ground.
A barrier would help if the government gave a crap about terrorism, though.
"Frankly I think these two cities have mostly dropped off the radar screen according to the rest of the country. They are now latin cities - and as such they are not exactly hotbeds of any sort of innovation."
the amount of music that used to come out of LA was tremendous. now that it's a mexican city, not so much. the sunset strip seemed to be the place that almost 1 in 4 major bands came from. also, i've posted before about the 90s LA gangster rap phenomenon. mexican immigration completely and utterly wiped that out.
if you look at the billboard 200, mexicans account for almost none of the commercial music being made in the US. yet i suspect mexicans might be close to the majority of births in 2010. they have a similar negligible effect on any field of endeavor. mestizos are mediocre humans, barely present at the highest level in almost any activity.
it seems that a lot of political commentary on the subject simply takes for granted that mexicans are going to repeat what the european americans did in the 20th century. but does anybody who is familiar with mexicans actually see them doing anything even remotely similar? there are 100 million mexicans in mexico and THEY DO NOTHING. they have no impact on anything. if you were drawing up a plan for demographic recruitment into various fields, such as science, sports, music, engineering, art, medicine, industry, you would probably not include ANY mexicans.
turning the US into a mexican nation is a human resources debacle. a country with little talent or ability for anything.
jody: if you were drawing up a plan for demographic recruitment into various fields, such as science, sports, music, engineering, art, medicine, industry, you would probably not include ANY mexicans.You left out lettuce-picking.
jody said
"also, i've posted before about the 90s LA gangster rap phenomenon. mexican immigration completely and utterly wiped that out."
That's one good thing Mexican immigration accomplished.
This is like the Olympics in Chicago, with the Daley buddies who are mostly in the construction business looking to it like manna from heaven.
I shall take this opportunity to say FFFFFFFUUUUUUUU fu fu fu fu to Stroger and Daley, and Stroger's 37863478634734 strong close family all employed in the local government.
Scum.
Thieves.
Should be in jail, pieces of s**t.
I feel kinda strong on Stroger and Daley, if you can't tell.
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