Posted on 07/14/2006 9:00:33 PM PDT by Spiff
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6501 Greenway Parkway Suite 103-640 Scottsdale, AZ 85254 :: Phone (520) 829-3112 |
"True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason." Alfred North Whitehead First, I want to say thank you to all the supporters and believers in this great grassroots movement known as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps; your dedication has paid off in the momentum we now see across the nation as citizens have reached the level of awareness and frustration we have shared for years. They are now following your leadership, taking action, and are demanding that our borders be secured. Our public servants are listening, the politicians are scramblingpositive change is in the air. The Minuteman Border Fence The first phase of our fence building project began during Memorial Day, and I emphasize the first phase. Given the political duplicity of the U.S. Senates vote this week NOT to fund the federal border fence they approved just two months ago, we were right in our judgment to proceed. We gave President Bush an ultimatum, which he only partially and weakly answered with a directive that 6,000 National Guardmostly unarmed personnelbe deployed to the border to support the outgunned and outmanned Border Patrol. While we know that the move will help somewhatANY official presence helpsthis is woefully inadequate to effectively secure the border. So, we decided to go ahead with our fence building as a message back to Bush and CongressSecure the BorderNow! We decided first to quickly come to the aid of a supportive local rancher in Cochise County, Arizona by helping him protect his cattle. The plans for the fence to meet the ranchers requirements were explicitly outlined during numerous interviews with the media. Of course, we all know the problems in getting the media to print accurate facts or statements in their entirety. The explicit plans of the design of the fence on the Ladd ranch were clearly outlined in detail during dozens of radio interviews, and that's where you can find the truth. However, inaccurate statements, taken out of context, by one small town newspaper reporter have fed some circulation of false and malicious claims of a scam because the first fence section omitted trenching that would have proved dangerous to the ranchers cattle. There was immediately some vandalism to the fence, which has been repaired, and better secured against further attack. If one reads our description of the fence building effort instead of just focusing on our generic graphic model, we have clearly stated there will have to be a variety of fence design adaptations, including the full blown double layered Gaza Strip-styled security fence. Coincidently, that precise fence design has been recently adopted by the U.S. federal government in their planning, as well. Obviously, this is the most effective design to prevent incursions across our sovereign border. However, our mission includes coming to the aid of landowners and in two cases we are adjusting our fence construction to design specifications that meet the particular needs of the host landowners. In the case of the Ladd ranch, we wanted to help protect the rancher's cattle. The first step was to erect a five-strand barbed-wire fence to protect the cattle from the concertina wire, and the vehicle barriers, both of which will be added later with further accommodations. So, specifically, there will be a layer of barbed-wire fencing to protect the cattle, concertina wire to prevent human beings from climbing the fence, and steel vehicle barriers to prevent automobiles from driving through the fence. It seems some folks have a tough time with reading comprehension or visualization of the projected fence designs. Regarding the funds collected as contributions to the fence project: All donations which have been received have been recorded, processed, and banked by a highly reputable and responsible caging company which specializes in non-profit accountability. Funds are safely and appropriately held in a secured bank account, overseen by a certified public accountant and a lawyer, disbursed by an authorized escrow agent only against approved, invoiced expenses. Some folks want to make it seem as if I personally have collected donor funds, turned them into cash, and have the money hidden under my mattress at home. For the record, I do not touch contributions at any stage, and I do not personally control MCDC bank accountsagain, objective professional fiduciary officers are accountable for all money in and money out. All donations are secured in a federal financial institutiona bank, and may be applied only towards the fence building enterprise. The funds cannot be used in any other way. We estimate the original 2.2 miles of completed fencing (including concertina wire and vehicle barriers) on the Ladd ranch will run approximately $17,000could be slightly more could be slightly less. To ensure quality control and limit liability issues going forward, we have hired a local contractor to oversee the whole Minuteman Fence projectthe contractor charges a minimal reduced fee as their civic contribution to the effort. We have completed our research on procurement of the materials necessary to construct the Gaza-style double layered security fence. In fact, the 4 x 4 heavy gauge steel fence post has been purchased; the heavy gauge steel wire mesh and a concertina wire mesh material for the top of the fence have all been located and will be purchased soon. All of the materials will be moved over the next few weeks, along with heavy equipment, to the ranch area slated for construction phase two. We are also planning on creating metal plaques with the names of those who wish acknowledgement, who have donated to the Minuteman Border Fence project. These will be attached to the interior layer of fencing once the construction has been completed. Everything we promise will be fulfilled. Volunteers Timeline In the meantime, we have completed our actual fence blueprints, which are now in the hands of an accredited architect, and engineers, who are ensuring that the fence design meets all regulatory requirements in its construction. There are of course tremendous liability implications in this project that we are continuously addressing. We have two landowners in Arizona who have committed to the construction of 1.5 miles of the double layered Gaza-style security fence. (You can read an op-ed written by one of those landowners at the end of this document.) We are now in negotiations with a landowner in California, who would like to see the double layered Gaza-style security fence built along his property, to protect his constitutionally-guaranteed pursuit of happiness on sovereign U.S. soil. Building fences, such as the double layered Gaza-style security fence, is an enormous engineering and construction feat. The federal government still flatly refuses to take this on, despite the double-talk. It must be planned carefully with the safety of the volunteers being considered first and foremost in importance. Plans needed to be drawn, materials needed to be acquired. Some good news is that, contrary to false information disseminated by Internet web sites, a close review of the respective county planning and zoning ordinances show no laws or regulations which would prevent a landowner from erecting this type of fence in a non-residential zoned area on private property. The fence is being erected on the edge of the front tier along the borderif the government can build such a fence, then our best legal advice says that a private property owner can also erect the same style of fence. We will this summer and fall complete the first 2.2 mile section of fence, meeting the requirements of the Ladd family. As contributions will allow, we will complete just over 1.5 mile of the double layered Gaza-style fence as illustrated on our web site. I guess some people feel that it should be built based on their time schedule; however, we will build it as we see fit and by a timeline that works best for our volunteers and the courageous landowners who are stepping forward. MCDC Finances On a related topic, I guess it's time to counter another attack piece attempting to cast doubt upon the appropriations of donations to MCDC. Not only are we constantly embattled by the open borders and anti-rule of law lobbyists, but now we seem to be constantly attacked by people who claim to be part of the secure borders movement, but are actually working under a thinly veiled, racist agenda. Then we have those who disagreed with our approach to the border security problem and quit the organization only to continue to call themselves Minutemen, while assailing us with wild and vindictive allegations of improprieties. We also have those who were terminated from MCDC for violating our code of conduct that is explicitly outlined in our standard operating procedures. Some such people contacted a local Phoenix ABC television affiliate. This hit piece, done by a local Phoenix ABC affiliate was prompted by disclosures offered ABC by two anti-Semites, who last April demanded that we allow them to manage Minuteman operations, including all of its funding, donations and crafting of our media message. I rejected their offer, and my decision has proved to be a wise one. ABC even made it seem as if our volunteers had no porta-potties at the location of our border watch operations. In one part of the report, a trusted and dedicated line leader was asked if porta-potties were available to volunteers. What you did not see was that the volunteer was asked the question while on a scouting mission along one of our observation lines located far away from the base camp. Of course, we don't provide porta-potties in the middle of nowhere, and the ABC reporter made it seem as though we were not providing volunteers with even bathroom facilities. The same camera crew had full access to our base camp, our comms center, and the equipment centerand even used the porta-potties that we have always made available to our volunteers. I've included a couple of photos, which clearly show the capital equipment that donations have been used to purchase. Each and every border watch stateTexas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Washington State, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire receives funding for equipment, operations and recruitment meetings. Again I must emphasize the reporter's piece was full of lies, innuendo and crass conspiracy theories prompted and promoted by people who either quit the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps or were terminated due to a lack of integrity or a violation of our standard operating procedures. By the way, no accredited professional financial institution or company would dare risk their livelihoods or their reputation by working for the MCDC if they did not believe in our cause and our integritynor would they risk the chance of violating the IRS regulations by playing monkey business with funds that come into this organization. Not only would these professionals risk ruining their careers and their reputations, they risk violating federal laws and going to jail. So even though we've met every obligation and hired professional management there are still those from outside who seek to destroy our American citizens movement. For those who just ask the question where does the money golet me take you on just a short journey through a rapidly growing national movement. The following is a list of just a few of the areas where the money goes to good use: Web site development, updates to the web site, blast email communications, our database, updates to the database, computer equipment, which MCDC owns; servers, bandwidth for a web site that receives upwards of several hundred thousand hits or more each week. Let's talk about the phone systems and communicationsmost of our national leadership team or state directors have been provided Internet phones in their home offices at no personal charge, paid for by donations. We have purchased and pay charges for cell phones provided for our field operations and our national directors. For the field, we have satellite phones, radio equipment, repeaters, antennae, extra radio batteries, battery chargers, flashlights, maps, dry erase boards, porta-potties. How about background checks, ID cards, email blasts like this oneall our operations cost money. We are constantly reaching out to find and educate more of our fellow Americans, which requires funds be expended for postage and fees for direct mailing, press releases that are professionally written, proofed, and distributed to the mainstream and alternative media (domestic and worldwide), etc. The scheduling of hundreds of television and radio interviews is handled by a professional media firm, as is the placement of our national newspaper, email, and web advertisements. We do cover some travel and fuel expenses for line leaders and the leadership team, who all work well beyond the average call of duty. We have used donations to purchase thermal imaging cameras, video cameras, third-generation night vision cameras, computer systems at each border watch headquarters operation, even Internet service at each border watch operation, where it is available. We help provide water, Gatorade, snacks, large tents and pop-up canopies for outdoor meetings; trailers to haul equipment, office supplies, a national headquarters building, the rent, the utilities, high-speed Internet connectivity at the national headquarters, computer systems at the national headquarters, phone systems at the national headquarters, the cost of printing letters, thousands of dollars in postage for membership mailings, the printing of brochures, the printing of banners used at gun shows, parades and recruiting events. The rental of tables for gun shows, the rental of venues for meetings around the countryall are covered with the funds we receive from generous donors from around the country. Our national leadership team does have their travel expenses covered when engaged in official Minuteman Civil Defense Corps business. My travel expenses are covered by donations, but only when I am traveling for official Minuteman Civil Defense Corps business. Most of my travel expenses are covered by organizations that request my presence at meetings, conferences and other speaking engagements. When I am compensated to speak by a hosting organization, not only do I have the opportunity to travel around the country to educate people about the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps mission and the crisis at the border, but I also have the opportunity to recruit volunteers and solicit for donations to MCDC. Only four of the dozens of trips that I have made in the last year have been paid for out of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps funds. Those trips were to Washington D.C. to work with cooperative organizations and to talk to Congressthe total cost of those four trips comes to less than $3,000. Our last two, month long border-watch operations cost around $80,000 each, and each 3-day monthly muster costs us at least $1,000 per state, not including travel expenses. Each of our satellite chapters around the country has received start up funding and continues to be supported by the national organization. Each new chapter receives approximately $1,000 in start up capital to cover expenses. We have a rapidly expanding national organization that needs the support of aggressive national fundraising effortsit costs money to raise money, but I assure you every penny is accounted for as federal law requires, and is utilized appropriately. At this time we have a fully accredited, independent auditor undertaking a full accounting of the past years income and expenses. We are completing federally mandated accounting and filing of our financial activity for the past year. (Those conspiracy theorists out there forget that the #1 oversight committee on groups like ours is the IRS, aka the federal government, who would be the first to shut us down if there were any improprieties involved with our finances.) We are required to submit our Form 990 filing to the IRS on November 15, 2006. Once completed, our financial reports will be made available to the public, as required by law, and on the same timetable as all other non-profit organizations. Those who wish to harm us want MCDC held to some other standard and to have us distracted and discredited in order to break our momentum. We are staying on task, and they can take their intentions of destroying the greatest citizen movement to save the Republic this country has seen in recent history, and hike it. I believe we have exposed their lack of credibility, we will continue to build, and I invite those whose falsehoods will be refuted by our results for the common good of America to forever be silenced. There have also been many questions asked as to how I make a living. I am not salaried by MCDCotherwise, it is no ones business. I have never felt the need to publicly defend my integrityabove all else: to thine own self be true. However, in light of the circumstances of malicious attacks, I will, this one last time, reveal personal information to answer the critics. The hours of toil and sacrifice necessary to run this national organization has taken a toll on my personal life and has led to my shutting down my newspaperThe Tombstone Tumbleweed. My present source of income has been the honorariums and fees received from organizations who request me for speaking engagements. I have also received money from selling my life story for a movie that will soon go into production. Even with those combined sources of income, I have made just enough to keep my head above water. The remainder of my living expenses is covered by my devoted and dedicated wife, who shares my passion for the MCDC mission. I do foresee a need come the new year for me to request a modest salary to maintain my role as president of MCDC. If the board and national directors do not agree then it will be necessary for me to leave the organization and return to teachingor I may need to go get a job at Wal-Mart or Home Depot! With regular communication to you the volunteers and supporters of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, I hope to provide information that informs and assures you of the integrity of this healthy and expanding national grassroots organization. I want to thank you personally for the privilege of working with you in this great and good cause. With sincere gratitude for your courage and support of this great Republic,
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Really? Where is the other 8 miles EV?
Right. As though that's a minor hurdle.
The last I looked Simcox and not even EV has the power to overrule Federal and State environmental laws.
LOL
"I am trying to confirm this but I also believe he was one of their pilots to which I believe I have seen in print."
Thanks EFV for keeping me good on the facts. Was good ole joe one of flying minutemen? I found a link
Many of the participants cast a wary eye at the media horde that swarmed around them during week one. Joe McCutchen, a 73-year old pharmacist from Fort Smith, Ark., snorted when overhearing a reporters interview, denouncing the bulls**t questions, of an ignorant media.
McCutchen, who also is a pilot that will fly one of the 16 planes the Minuteman Project has at its disposal, said the media hasnt come out of the closet on the immigration issue. We want open debate on this, a discussion, an objective discussion and youre just not giving us the opportunity.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7409293/page/2/
wow seems like a big volunteer there
===placemark===
Thanks for all your research.
I'll read your lastest in the morning.
Long day. Need to call this one a night.
Got another confirmation of something you were disputing me on. This seems like a good fact:
Oh Ev about Joe's McCutchen well known anti semtic views here is a leeter he wrote to a Arkansas paper in 2003
Duped again! Weapons of Mass Delusion. Who orchestrated Bushs illegal Iraqi war? Official reports indicate that 25 Zionists were the architects. Examination of Bushs predominately neo-con Jewish/Zionist inner circle reveals all advocate continuing illegal preemptive strikes against Middle-Eastern countries.
A partial list: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Ari Fleischer, Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Chertoff, Elliot Abrams, Michael Ladeen, David Wurmser, Lewis Libby and Karl Rove a combination of dual-citizenships, Israel-Firsters, or offspring of Trotskyists. These men all hold strategic positions in the federal government. Cover for the aforementioned is supplied by Falwell/Robertson fundamentalists.
Jewish media control, i.e. Viacom, CBS, MTV, ABC, Clear Channels, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros., Sony, Disney, coupled with goodly numbers of Jewish editorialists, print and spoken, guarantees a Jewish/Israeli slant.
Bush and his mostly Jewish neo-cons' war against Iraq was illegal, immoral and resulted in the emasculation of the Constitution. There are no weapons of mass destruction and no evidence that Iraq has harmed U.S. interests, i.e. no Iraqi terrorists. Evidence indicates Bush I was a party to installing Saddam and was formerly a business partner, and U.S. furnished Iraq with start-up material for bacterial warfare.
Bush and his neo-con handlers have vaporized the 14th Amendment, shades of Nazi German differing only in role-reversal. Additionally, Globalist Bush refuses to secure our southern border, and estimates state that in excess of 10,000 illegals are crossing daily. The aforementioned, accompanied by "Homeland Security" and the "Patriot Acts" guarantees a U.S. citizen lock-down! American culture is in a melt-down.
Who benefited? Bush oil, Israel and the military/industrial complex.
The Bush administration is involved in a criminally arrogant disdain for the Founders' formula for a free society.
Joe McCutchen
Fort Smith
Oh and this one too(this was a follow up in the SW times in arkansas on June 23 2003
" June 5 this paper published my letter stating that the Iraqi war was provoked by Neo-con Zionists. Before the Iraqi war, Bushs Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, along with Abram Shulsky, Elliot Abrams and Michael Ledeen created for Rumsfeld the Office of Special Plans to circumvent Pentagon Intelligence. They openly call themselves "The Cabal" and have admitted they used "weapons of mass destruction" as a motivational tool for war.
I further stated the central government, banking, media (radio/TV/print) and entertainment are controlled by Jews, which is easily proven.
Two gentlemen writers attacked me with personal smears, choosing not to address the substance of the letter, indicating a lack of knowledge and/or refusal to deal with facts.
Jews were the force that created and have sustained a mass immigration and open-borders policy a practice that is in the process of destroying Western Culture and is about to create a slave-state. Witness Patriot Acts I and II written by a non-citizen Vietnamese, Viet Dinh employed by John Ashcroft.
Since the passage of the Balfour Agreement, creating the state of Israel, U.S. taxpayers have poured in $3 trillion. Ten million Americans unemployed, and this year alone we have dumped $19 billion into Israel.
American and international Jews own the world monetary system. Would it not be appropriate if they used their own financial resources to subsidize Israel? For example, Bill Gertz, aka Bill Gates.
The Iraqi war was unconstitutional and immoral; the best that can be said of Bush, Ashcroft and their Neo-con Zionists is that their blather is full of factual elasticity.
To survive, America must surmount P.C., revisionism and incendiaries enemies hurl, i.e. racists, anti-Semitic, xenophobe, et. al.
Americans, emerge from your cocoons.
Joe McCutchen
Fort Smith
2003, That was way before the MMP. Simcox should have caught that.
Oh yeah, I mean this guy is a diehard. Plus he was really involved, This guy doesnt strike me as he and Simcox are around the campfire orprob as he was flying Simcox some place that these views didnt come up
Our ranchers ought to have their cattle fenced in so they can't wander over and visit with Mexican cattle.
How nice of the MCDP to help one rancher contain his cattle. Maybe they'd help me build a fence to keep my neighbor's cats out?
I bet there are lots of ranchers who wouldn't mind having cattle fences installed for free.
Have they put in the vehicle barriers & cameras that were supposed to be installed by the end of June?
Yeah, but how much were you really in charge of?
I'm betting that when they finally make the financial information public, 80% or more (and I'm being kind, here, I really think it will be MORE) of the money raised will have gone for "fundraising" and very little to actually support the volunteers.
I think the 2 miles of cattle fencing is all we're going to see.
If you do it yourself and you use your own list you can do it for next to nothing. If you use a service like Constant Contact, which is an excellent email service that I've recommended to different people to include a congressional candidate who now uses it, it isn't exactly cheap. It offers email campaign management, easy formatting and creation of email with graphics and other professional-looking elements, it tracks what emails get delivered, what gets bounced, and it even tracks the click-thrus on the links within the email. I know that if I was sending out campaign or fundraising emails to a large list, I wouldn't do it any other way.
There's a good possibility that Simcox purchased email "blast" services from the same company that he's using for direct mail and web-based donation services. And I'll bet they charge a pretty penny for rental of their email lists as they do their direct mail lists.
Do you have any evidence that Chris Simcox has flown first class or are you just making stuff up as you've been for days? Simcox's statement describes his travel and who paid for it. Maybe you ought to actually take the time to read it.
Simcox was very clear about plans for the fence in the statement which is the subject of this thread. You keep asking where the fence is? Why isn't it finished yet? Why did he stop short? Why only a cattle fence? All of that is explained in the statement. Simcox can't control what the hostile leftist media and some people on the Internet who perceive that they are Simcox's rivals say and what expectations people create within their own minds. He's got to deal with a number of factors and he explained many of them. But you're looking for or trying to foment scandal where none exists.
Now, if you want to get worked up over a real scandal, how about Isabel Garcia who is the head of Derechos Humanos, the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, and also serves as the Pima County Legal Defender where taxpayers provide her an $80,000 annual salary. She leads her pro-illegal alien groups in protests and other border operations like assisting illegal aliens in crossing the border, handing illegal aliens pamphlets, cards, and maps about how to avoid capture and what to do if they are captured. Her groups were there to harass the Minutemen during their operations and just this last week signed an agreement with the Mexican Government to be able to cross the border and provide assistance to people attempting to violate our border. Her groups will provide the same food, water, and equipment they've been using to aid and abet the illegals on U.S. soil but they're now going to do it on the Mexican side. This group is blatantly violating the law as they are openly aiding and abetting illegal aliens in entering the U.S. illegally and assisting them, harboring them, and aiding them once they get across.
So, if you want a scandal of someone actually breaking the law and using her office as a taxpayer paid attorney to do it, there you go. How about fighting for the conservative side for once?
You and your FROBL dung flingers have spent months and months smearing, lying about, slandering, libeling, and trashing conservative Republican Tom Tancredo right here on Free Republic. And now you point to the numbers in the poll (where he's still winning by the way) as some kind of proof about how poorly Tancredo is supported here. You guys are the reason the numbers would be any lower than they would normally be. Plus, the poll is about who would get a vote for President. A better poll would be about general support for Tom Tancredo and his current efforts. Personally, I don't want him to run for President and like him doing exactly doing what he's doing now right where he's at. It would require a number of miracls for him to win the primary and he'll waste his time and expend far too much effort and money and political capital doing it.
So, you found some nasty things said by people kicked out of the MP for cause. I guess you'll start trolling the anti-FReeper sites and start attacking Jim Robinson with the lies and smears that they post on those sites too. Same thing.
When the MMP became aware that the McCutchen's were racists, they were kicked out. If anyone is determined to be racist by their comments, behavior, etc. and it becomes known to the project leaders, then that person is kicked out. Criminal background checks do not reveal one's position on matters of race. I don't know when the MMP learned about the McCutchen's racist background but the source and timing really is irrelevant. Their racism violated the MMP's policies and they were ejected from the group.
Let's use Free Republic as an example. Would you suddenly consider Free Republic a racist site and consider Jim Robinson a racist if a FReeper had signed up 2 weeks ago and had posted a number of completely non-racist posts but they had been outed as a racist by ABC news in a hit piece that trashed Free Republic? I mean, why didn't Jim Robinson know that poster was racist? Why didn't his application process for FReeper membership determine that the person had dealing with racist organizations and had made racist statements in the past (a couple of letters to the editor of a hometown newspaper)? Doesn't Jim Robinson and other FReepers have Google and why didn't they Google that poster? Why didn't Jim Robinson remove his account until AFTER the ABC News broadcast? All would be STUPID questions and would serve to cast ridiculous aspersions upon Free Republic, FReepers, and Jim Robinson.
Such tarring as racist would be expected from the typical drooling leftist scum, but never from an alleged conservative who posts on a conservative forum like Free Republic. So why are you doing the same to Chris Simcox and the Minuteman Project?
I've posted this today and have posted it before. Criminal background checks do not reveal one's opinion on matters of race. While reprehensible, being a racist or anti-semite is not a crime and would not appear on a simple background check.
If you're talking about McCutchen, then you're wrong. He tried to insert himself into a number of things but was rejected over and over. The McCutchen's were assigned the furthest observation post from HQ, the one closest to the city of Sierra Vista, because they were incompetent morons. They were put right along a highway (that, by the way, sees a lot of action at night as illegal aliens come down from the mountain to cross the highway to get to their pick up points) where it was hoped that they would not get into any trouble. Instead, Ms. McCutchen couldn't sit still and got up and walked around. Right next to the highway she stumbled on a rock and gashed her head. The morons "cleaned up" the wound with some toilet paper illegal aliens had left lying around in a nearby lay up site, ignoring the amount of disease found at such site. I came up on them while they were doing this and they got yelled at for being so stupid. I drove them to HQ for first aid and then drove them to the ER in town. But they decided to not use the ER and went back to their hotel. These are really stupid people and had nothing more than the lowest volunteer positions as far as I know.
Well known!? Until you Googled it and found TWO letters to the editor in a small newspaper in Arkansas even you didn't know about the letters. How would you expect the Minuteman Project to know it a week or two into their first border operation? Should the MMP organizers have read those Arkansas newspapers from 2003? In your desperation to smear the Minuteman Project, Chris Simcox, and anyone who wants the border secured you have lost all connection with logic and reason and have become completely irrational in your thinking.
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