Posted on 02/28/2006 5:11:11 PM PST by SandRat
PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano said Monday she is getting a bit of a run-around on her request that the federal government pay to station National Guard troops along the border.
Napolitano, in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting, said she met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The governor last month specifically asked Rumsfeld to use a provision of federal law to pay the state to station Guard troops in Southern Arizona to help deter border crossing.
“I cannot report much progress,” Napolitano told Capitol Media Services after Monday’s meeting. “The Department of Defense is saying ‘Go to the Department of Homeland Security,' " she said. “The Department of Homeland Security is saying, 'Go to the Department of Defense.' ”
In her January letter to Rumsfeld, Napolitano said Guard volunteers could work at border crossing points to assist with vehicle inspections and electronic identification checks. “This would free up Border Patrol officers to do other duties more directly related to enforcement,” she wrote.
She also said Guard units could operate “roving patrols” on back roads, not only reporting suspicious activity but also as a highly visible deterrent. Napolitano said Rumsfeld offered little in the way of assurances.
“He’s basically saying, ‘If (the Department of) Homeland Security concurs with your request, I will consider it,” she said. “It’s kind of a classic Washington response,” the governor said.
“You’ve got a problem at the border? Go to this department. No, go to this department. No, go to this department,” Napolitano complained. “I’m going to go to all departments until I get a satisfactory resolution here.”
Napolitano also talked with Rumsfeld — and separately, in a private meeting of governors with President Bush — about the larger concern that all states have about proposed cutbacks in Guard strength.
The president’s budget seeks to put the total number of National Guard troops under state control at 333,000. By contrast, Congress wants 350,000. And Napolitano said the governors also are concerned about equipment left in Iraq by activated Guard troops.
“We got verbal assurances that the cuts that were rumored won't happen and that equipment will be replaced and repaired,”
Napolitano said after her meeting with Rumsfeld. But the governor, noting the president’s “actual (budget) document doesn't show that,” said the governors are going to keep watch to assure that the final product adopted by Congress includes the higher numbers.
I would like to be the first Arizonan to apologize to my fellow Americans for the idea being put forward by the drug addicts in my state to turn our elections into a lottery. Vote and have a chance to win a million dollars. Only the severely brain damaged would come up with a stunt like this. I just learned of this goofy DemocRAT stunt today but I will be working hard to insure that EVERY AMERICAN gets a chance to participate in Arizona's goofy Lottolection. If they don't give EVERY other American a chance to win, I'll make sure that a jury decides that they are engaging in discrimination.
In the past, many states had a state militia that is not the National Guard. The state militia cannot be federalized and sent out of state. It is time that state's form militias (organized and unorganized). The organized milita should be company/battalion size to defend an area. It is called up to support local LE in an emergency. The unorganized militia is every able body male who owns a firearm. They should be called up in an extreme emergency to support the organized militia and local LE by local authorities.
They key is she can order her troops to the border. The gimmic is she wants the Feds to pay for it.
Raise your hand if you think Napolitano is calling for the coast guard on her border in order to keep them out of Iraq! Napolitano does not care about the border but she does want the troops pulled out of Iraq.
All true of JihadiJanyet!
Every state has the authority to create the "well regulated militia" that is "necessary to the security of a free state" that is mentioned in the 2nd Amendment. We can now plainly see that that is NOT the National Guard, and that the citizen militia in almost every state has fallen into disuse. If a state would create one, it can only be called into federal service by an act of Congress, not the C-in-C (president)
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