Fence? What fence?
Posted on 04/04/2007 4:22:47 AM PDT by ajolympian2004
Fence? What fence?
Last September, I said this about the House vote to approve a 700-mile fence at the southern border:
There's no funding for the fence, which will take years to build if it ever does get funded. There are so many other immediate reforms that could have been adopted this year that would have strengthened immigration enforcement, closed deportation loopholes immediately, and provided true relief at the border. (And don't even get me started on this administration's renewed laxity at the front door, which has been thrown open to tens of thousands of new Saudi student visa holders while enforcement against millions of current visa overstayers remain virtually non-existent.)
The 700-mile fence vote is an election season gesture, and grass-roots conservatives who have watched the GOP squander away this issue afor six years are not going to be appeased by mid-September 2006 gesture politics.
Last October, on the day the Secure Fence Act was signed, I noted GOP efforts to water it down and criticized border security symbolism.
And as I noted here last fall, USNews and World Report underscored my point about the funding for the fence in name only:
Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost $3.2 million a mile, Congress voted to hand DHS just $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2007 for construction; that would cover the cost of about 370 miles of fence, not 700. What's more, a congressional deal gives DHS the flexibility to use money for other purposes besides the wall itself, most notably technology and roadways. Some of the money could go to a project DHS was already working on: a plan to dot the border with up to 1,800 massive observation towers equipped with cameras. Michael Jackson, the No. 2 official at DHS, says the department plans "to refine and assess how much [steel fencing] we need with the new technology tool kit." DHS, he adds, will most likely build "somewhere in the ballpark" of 370 miles of San Diego-style fence.
The bill offers DHS other kinds of wiggle room on the fence as well. In a last-minute effort to appease two Republican holdouts-including Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had concerns about local input on the location of fencing -congressional leaders committed in writing to changing some specific aspects of the legislation after the November elections. Those changes will ensure that local governments and American Indian tribes will be consulted "regarding the exact placement of the fence," according to a letter signed by Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Now comes a fresh report on the disappearing fence from yesterday's Washington Times:
Six months after approving a bill promising to build some 850 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Bush administration and Senate Republicans are now saying 370 miles is enough.
Not news if you've been paying attention.
There are more open-borders cave-ins in store:
In his negotiations with Republican senators, Mr. Bush also appears to have rejected the key compromise in the Senate bill passed last year: allowing only longtime illegal aliens with "roots" to have a path to citizenship. He instead favors a more circuitous path that is open to almost all illegal aliens.
Mr. Bush has embraced higher financial penalties for illegal aliens who want to remain in the United States, and for the first time has accepted specific "triggers," including stepped-up enforcement, that must be met before legalization and guest-worker plans go into effect, according to a PowerPoint presentation that administration officials and advisers say represents the state of discussions between Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans.
The presentation, first obtained and released by U.S. News & World Report [Chris Kelly spotlights the PowerPoint here], calls for 370 miles of fencing, 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 300 miles of electronic monitoring on the border. By that trigger, the guest-worker and legalization programs could begin with less than 900 miles of the 1,950-mile U.S.-Mexico border being monitored or blocked.
Maybe it's time for another Send A Brick campaign.
ZERO, NADA PESOS.
The rats and rinos helping to destroy our country as we know it. Selling their soul to the devil for a vote. May the Lord in Heaven rescue The Republic one more time be fore it is too late.Ignorance can be cured, read a book. Stupidity is for life.
The rats and rinos helping to destroy our country as we know it. Selling their soul to the devil for a vote. May the Lord in Heaven rescue The Republic one more time be fore it is too late.Ignorance can be cured, read a book. Stupidity is for life.
BUMP
The rats and rinos helping to destroy our country as we know it. Selling their soul to the devil for a vote. May the Lord in Heaven rescue The Republic one more time be fore it is too late.Ignorance can be cured, read a book. Stupidity is for life.
Right in line with the $1500 toilet seats.
Where’s Halliburton when you need them?
I’m sure the labor costs could be cut down to almost nothing with the tens of thousands of great Americans who would volunteer their time gladly to build this fence along our southern border.
I certainly hope that Rep. Tom Tancredo’s presence in the GOP Presidential debates helps to greatly improve upon a decent overall solution to the continuing U.S. illegal immigration mess and decent improvements to U.S. land border protections and U.S. ocean coasts protections!
Hell, we’ve got, what, 12 to 20 million willing laborers right here in the United States! And they LOVE doing construction work for low wages...y’know, the “jobs Americans won’t do”!
}:-)4
Bush hasn't recognized the nature of the Democrats in Washington, who've been trying to destroy him for 6 years. Bush doesn't recognize the nature of the illegal aliens, who want to change America, not become part of America. Bush is not a moron, but he is stubborn (sometimes good) and has blindspots the size of 20 million illegal aliens (bad).
If Bush keeps this up, he's going to lose his remaining GOP base support. If Bush keeps up wimping out in fighting the war on terror, he's going to leave office with 2% favorable numbers. The GOP base is getting fed up with Bush and the war funding fight isn't going to change that.
Yeah, that's enough for me...to never donate to those damn fools again.
All of the invaders will already be here by the time the fence gets started on it seems.
Conservatives are so firmly in the Pubbies pocket, that we are now being treated the same way blacks are treated by the Demoncrats.
They will say “You vote for us or you get Hillary!”. All the time they go left and anti-American too.
Dear Republican candidates for President,
Please pay attention to the anger mounting over this issue. If you don’t address it, it will cost you another election.
Thank you,
Your Base.
Over $600 per foot. I'd like to bid on this job.
Here's proof:
I received a call earlier this week from the NRCC, a "survey" call. The young man seemed earnest enough, but his questions displayed an intelligence more geared to a middle schooler. The first question went something like "would a Hillary Clinton presidency be disastrous for this country?"
By the time he was midway through the second question, I had to stop him. I said, "young man, I don't want to screw up your survey, because I'm a Republican and I voted as such in November, even though I did it while holding my nose."
"You tell the people that you work for that the reason Republicans lost the majority is that they ran away from their base on such fundamental issues as border enforcement and government spending."
"I will no longer vote for a particular candidate just because he's not as bad as the guy he's running against, nor will I vote in fear of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. Republicans had control of the levers of power for six years, and squandered their opportunity."
As I paused for breath, the caller politely said, "thank you for your time, sir...good bye." I got the feeling he's been through a few calls like mine.
I was going to post this as a separate thread, but decided against it. After pondering it for a few minutes, it just wasn't "breaking news".
Even if the money were all there for the fencing, this administration will find a way to make it a virtual fence.
#1 The man in charge of the spending for Homeland Security is David Norquist, brother of Grover, premier open border policy maker for the White House, who mishandled all the money for Iraq for Defense and wouldn’t answer congress about it.
#2 The head council for Homeland Security recently quit and is now a lobbyist for Lockheed-martin, the outfit that will get the bid. This is Phil Perry, son in law of Cheney.
More about this:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/09/sbi-net-contract-virtual-fence-look.html
The SBI Net contract -”virtual fence”- LOOK who will handle the money!
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2007/02/exposing-dept-of-job-security-who-is.html
Exposing the Dept. of Job Security (who is Philip Perry?)
The real problem is you haven't recognized that this was GW's plan from the beginning.
Thanks for the information.
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