You call this news? Christ, you're desperate.

You know, Best Buy doesn't have the camera I want to buy for my wife for Christmas. I think I'll write an article - if Bush weren't so incompetent, they'd have that camera.

Diawa

I did not create this announcement from Homeland Security. I guess you are also going to tell me that not protecting our borders and ports is NO BIG DEAL. You are as big an idiot as Bush and the members of Congress who do NOTHING! Spending $8 Billion dollars a month to keep our troops in danger is MORE important then protecting our borders.

How exactly do you control a 1951 mile border, Col? That's about as long as the largest continuous section of the Great Wall of China. So you want a wall? What do you suggest the Dems fund down there? Do you think they will?

How many nations have borders more secure than the US Mexico border, would you say? Why not face the fact that you're just making an unrealistic complaint that you'd never make under a Democrat administration.

Don't fall over or anything, but I have to agree with you on this one... at least partially. Where Clinton didn't know what to do about Islamist extremist terrorism, so he avoided handling it at all... Bush is doing the same thing with Border security.

Extending the fence would be a good start, but it isn't an answer. More Border Patrol is another good idea, but isn't an answer either. The fact is, you can't secure a border completely in a free society. You also can't really inspect the millions of shipping containers that come into the country every day. However, (and this is where I agree) 20% and 10% aren't even "good starts".

Our society can't even stop merchandise from walking out of stores. We sure can't stop every bomb from coming in.

When a terrorist is successful in attacking our country because we did not secure our border and ports you will be singing different tune. We can and must protect our borders to have ANY chance of preventing another terrorist attack. To say we can not protect our borders is NUTS. The real answer is that Bush and Congress are spending in two months in Iraq what we could have built a fence and provided the 10,000 added guards Bush said were needed. In five years Bush did not request nor did Congress do anything to provide the resources needed. They just recently pass a bill to build 700 miles of fence but only included money for about 370 miles of that fence. It is the same old story-- Our elected leaders are NOT doing their most basic job-- To protect our country!

Col, do you understand the opposition thats going on right now because of the border wall going up?  Do you understand that left wing democratic groups oppose major restrictions on the border? 

The border has been insecure for decades. If Bush today was to deploy troops to secure the border you would be the first one howling that Bush is being too aggressive and spending too much money.  You have an obsession with Bush, and that gets into your way of the facts. 

 

 

IslandDog, Bakerstreet,Parated2k

First 9/11 changed the need to control our borders.

Now let me ask you three two more questions:

Why spend the billions we are spending to prevent terrorists from gaining access to our country via airports and ignore our borders?How are we to solve the problem of Illegal immigration if we do not secure our borders?

The illegal immigration issue is one the VAST majority of Americans want solved. In addition, the financial impact on our schools, Hospitals and law enforcement caused by the illegals must stop. We simply can not afford to allow millions of people to come uncontrolled into our country.

This issue of controlling our border has BOTH security and illegal immigration aspects that we simply can not ignore. However that is JUST what Bush and Congress have done.

I'm still trying to figure out how exactly this is news. Although it is probably worth pointing out that a number of Congressmen with strong border security views & credentials went down to defeat in the recent election. Makes me wonder - either the electorate is less concerned about this than Gene, or the Dems are doing what they can to thwart border control as a means of increasing their "fan base."

Daiwa

If as you claim we had all these Congressman that were interested in protecting our borders, where have they been for the past 5 years since 9/11?

The big news story will be when a terrorist group is successful in another 9/11 or worse because we ignored our port and or border security!

" We can and must protect our borders to have ANY chance of preventing another terrorist attack. To say we can not protect our borders is NUTS."

To claim we can and then not admit that you have no clue how is dishonest to an extreme. TO expect other people to do what would be impossible for you to even conceive an answer for is hypocritical. The combination of the two makes your argument meaningless

When Bush says something about terrorism, you guys toss a fit and call it fear mongering. Then when it's your turn there's nukes pouring over the border and into the ports a dozen a day. You can't conceive of what to do about a 2000 mile border, but if Republicans are slow to do anything it is because they just opt not to.

Anyone can see through this. You're wasting your time.

I'm not going to get into the Jericho hysteria.

What I always have felt is needed in terms of Boarder Security is an Active C4I Electronic Sensor Net across our boarders, fully utilizing the Active Denial System (ADS) to turn back anyone crossing our boarders illegally.

Of course, this is not an all inclusive immediate fix, as there are elements to this plan that I am not willing to openly discuss. But, I think you get the general gist of it.

It’s OK if you don’t agree with this; at the very least it is better than playing the blame game, which has never solved anything.

Bakerstreet

When Bush and Cheney used the mushroom cloud threat about Saddam the Intelligence said that Saddam had no active nuclear program. Thus the threat Bush and Cheney used was a LIE. We know many people are coming across our border and could be bringing anything into our country. We also no there are thousands of small nuclear bombs that the old Soviet Union had and that do exist. If one of these terrorist groups used the vast wealth, they seem to have, purchased one or more of these bombs and brought it into our country we could see that mushroom cloud. We are spending many billions to STOP terrorists from coming into our country via airports and then ignore the borders. If Bush and Congress continue to ignore the border, than stop security at the airports and save all that money!

The way you protect the border is with a combination of fences, surveillance equipment and enough manpower to respond when people attempt to come into our country any ware but controlled entrances where we have security. The problem is that although Bush has said we needed at least 10,000 MORE border guards he did NOTHING to request the needed guards. In 5 years he did not request the funding for the VERY staff HE SAID IS REQUIRED. Congress has not initiated the funding in the past 5 annual budgets to provide the REQUIRED manpower. Without the added manpower, just fences and surveillance equipment will NOT get the job accomplished.

What we are spending in Iraq on a war in TWO Months that has produced the failure we see each day, we could have provided the fence, surveillance equipment and the salary for the added guards for a decade! How can we find (Borrow) the money to continue the disaster we see in Iraq each day but can not secure the border and ports of our country? The $9 Billion we can not find to rebuild Iraq would have paid the salary for 10,000 new guards@ a cost (salary and benefits) of $60,000 per year for almost 15 years!

As I SAID, our elected officials ARE NOT MEETING THEIR MOST BASIC RESPOINSIBILITY TO PROTECT OUR COUNTRY!

Bakerstreet


We see the very same thing with regard to the size of the military. In the 2000 Presidential campaign, Bush said the Army and Marine Corps were TOO SMALL. In 6 yeas Bush had done NOTHING to increase the size of the military. He has not asked Congress for more troops and then increased the demands on a military force, which was TOO small, by invading Iraq. When the person in charge identifies a need and then does nothing to try and meet that need they are irresponsible! That is a hallmark of GWB.