Many years ago, we found ourselves drinking a beer or three with a couple of Kiwis in a pub out in the middle of the Australian Outback. The owner of the pub, a pleasant middle-aged woman, came around to tell us we had to leave because it was closing time. We hadn’t finished our beer, so we lingered. A few minutes later she came around again to tell us we really had to leave.
We still hadn’t finished, so one of the Kiwis asked, “What happens if we don’t?”
“Ahhh, then you’d be in big trouble” she said with a big smile on her face. “Because I’d call the police and you’d only have three days before they showed up to arrest you.”
That summarizes President Obama rapid response to violence on the Arizona border as reported by the Los Angeles Times:
The Obama administration announced Monday that illegal immigrants from Mexico have until Aug. 1 to make it across the U.S. border before it gets really serious about border security with the deployment of 1,200 additional National Guardsmen there.
The Times story goes on to say:
The Aug. 1 troop deployment, announced weeks ago and being implemented next month to supplement previous border efforts, comes just three days after Arizona’s tough new illegal immigrant enforcement is scheduled to take effect. The ACLU, Obama administration and government of Mexico, among others, are challenging the law in federal courts, seeking an injunction to halt the July 29 implementation, called S.B. 1070.
The Department of Homeland Security said the additional troops would be deployed for one year to support surveillance and efforts to combat international drug trafficking along the border.
It said 524 troops would go to Arizona, 224 to California, 250 to Texas, 72 to New Mexico and 130 somewhere else in command support roles. The troops set for Arizona equal almost two per mile of state border with Mexico.
Far be it from us to dispute the Honorable Janet Napolitano, but those numbers didn’t sound right to us.
130 of them will be stationed “somewhere else in command support roles”, which leaves just 1070 that will actually be stationed on the border. (A remarkable coincidence, isn’t it, that Arizona’s anti-illegal alien law is SB 1070 and that Obama will station 1070 troops on the border?)
According to Wikipedia, the length of the Mexican-American border is actually 1,969 miles. So rather than two per mile as Napolitano claims, there will actually be just one National Guardsman every 1.84 miles.
Assuming that they patrol in three 8-hour shifts, that means one National Guardsman every 5.5 miles.
But even that is being far too generous, because if we assume that they patrol in groups of at least ten for safety reasons, that means one group of National Guardsman every 55 miles, far from the two per mile that Napolitano touted.
Feeling more secure now?
Claiming “a sense of unprecedented urgency,” the DHS statement quoted Secy. Janet Napolitano as saying:
Over the past year and a half, this administration has pursued a new border security strategy with an unprecedented sense of urgency, making historic investments in personnel, technology and infrastructure. These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border.
Napolitano’s press release was issued on July 19. To complete the analogy started way back at the beginning of this story, the illegal aliens, drug runners, people smugglers and terrorists only have 12 days to finish their beers before the police show up.
And even then, they won’t have to worry too much because there won’t be enough “police” to actually make a difference.
Source: Los Angeles Times
This post was last modified on July 21, 2010
View Comments (18)
Illegals are literally pouring into this country through well established "trails." A recent video showed the traffic in one area, and the border patrol actually told the videographer that he did not have enough people to go to that area if there was a problem. They hand counted the numbers in this 24 hour recording. Approximately 700 illegals a month were streaming in each month. How to find the trails? Follow the trash heaps left behind as these poor people who are just coming here to make a better life pass through. The video showed that they were smuggling guns and drugs. Oh, and maybe Janet doesn't realize that Baja California is in Mexico, not the US. That would explain the discrepancies in the length of the border.
I honestly believe he is trying to destroy America from the inside-out.
In my humble opinion I think we will be lucky to live through this regime's agenda.
And what expertise or training does the National Guard have in border protection? It's a farce, more jive from the jive master. Obama is just trying to bamboozle the white racist, Nascar rubes living near the Mexican border.
In this administration, if their mouths are moving, they're lying. I bet most of the Guard ends-up being paper pushers, no matter what Napolitano says. She will be loath to assign more than a token number of them to actually patrol the border.
Obama's administration has a vested interest in NOT enforcing the border, because they see it as a way to gain the majority of the Hispanic vote. Obama is just scamming us yet again.
This is all ridiculous... Obongo is missing a "dare to be great" opportunity. First, imagine the amount of jobs and revenue that would be created by building a "Berlin" style wall from the Gulf to the Pacific and then staffing it with civilian law enforcement. What a wonderful FDR style work program it would be, kind of like the TVA. Sure, it wouldn't get him good press South of the border or in the anti-American liberal race baiting enclaves, but it could just be interpreted as an act of good faith by America at large that he really cares (please suspend disbelief at this point) about our nation. Second, he could drop his lawsuit against Arizona and focus more of the DOJs time on legitimate issues. I know this is a pipe dream and counter to the "true agenda" being pursued by Obongo and his socialist cronies, but at some point you'd think at least some of them would realize that the next time elections are held their "blank slate" candidate is isn't going to have the easy ride he had last time around when no one had any obvious dirt to challenge his acts with and consider how much they've pissed of the majority of working voters of this nation.
Geez, can't we suspend our cynicism for just a darn minute and give this deal a chance to work? Nah, having National Guard troops watching monitors and providing effort to stem the drug traffic isn't going to make a dent in the numbers illegally flowing into the U S. More than likely, they will be denied proper rules of engagement and just help to give a more accurate count of the bodies for future census and voting purposes.
Yep, my cynicism is intact -
My guess is, Obama will order the guards to give illegals secure escort across the boarder.
Protect the illegals from Radical AMERICANS.
Here's a relative metaphor for how soon Obama will accomplish this:
"Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo... "
The people in Washington D.C. are traitors.
Straight up.......to quote the lovely and talented Ms. Garofolo (frankly I don't give a F@ck if I spelled her name incorrectly)
No matter how you spell her name (S-H-I-T-F-E-R-B-R-A-I-N-Z or G-R-E-A-S-Y-H-A-S-B-E-E-N or W-H-O-T-H-E-H-E-L-L-I-S-T-H-I-S-L-E-F-T-W-I-N-G-I-D-I-O-T-?), it's still plain old "Janeane Garofalo."
My bet is that they'll station the troops in small towns across the country, where Violent Tea Party Racists are most likely to demand their country back.