Not Quiet On Southern Front

This is the border you're paying to fence.

Border security may conjur up visions of illegals wading the Rio Grande and Tom Tancredo advertising terror attacks by brown people, but still the Department of Homeland Security is doggedly proceeding with plans to put up that infamous fence it has postulated. Opposed by border police officials, Governor Perry of Texas, border merchants who are being boycotted by infuriated Mexican buyers, But still refusing to consult on the matter, DHS is the newest advocate of Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, without apologies to Robert Frost.

Along the border many residents also are refusing to give up their land to enable the quixotic idea of keeping out those invading hordes by putting up a fence. DHS is giving them warning today, they're determined to commit the atrocity they've planned and next it's the courts. Myself, I think one look at the Big Bend area pictured above and you will see it's ridiculous to think a little fence is going to sterilize our border. And I am hopeful that if it gets to court there will be sane judges on the bench at the time.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is giving Texas landowners opposed to a border fence one last chance to allow access to their land before he takes court action against them, a Texas senator said Thursday.

Sen. John Cornyn said letters from the Department of Homeland Security are expected to go out today. But for those who refuse to provide the temporary access, the department would likely seek a court order to enter the property, he said.

"He assured me that negotiations would continue and his hope is the vast majority of these cases could be resolved without litigation – maybe in a handful of cases litigation would be required," he said.

Some residents in the Rio Grande Valley, where opposition to the fence is most fervent, have refused to let federal officials on their land. Earlier this year, Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada refused to sign documents allowing workers access to city property.

A Homeland Security Department spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

President Bush last year approved 700 miles of fencing and barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration and smuggling. Unlike other states, most land in Texas is in private hands.

"All that will do is fire people up more down here," John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association, said of the impending letters.
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Opponents have said federal officials have failed to keep them fully informed on fence plans and refused to listen to residents' proposals for alternatives. Others say the fence is a waste of taxpayers' money and will hurt border economies.

The occupied White House is amassing a psychotic record on so many fronts, it's beginning to wear down credulousness. Another incidence of insane wastrel spending is just another 'brick in the wall'. This one needs to be listed very high on the accumulating reasons that the whole executive branch should be wearing white coats that has sleeves tied in the back.

A wall is in itself ridiculous, as Sen. Ted Kennedy has often noted, because if it's ten feet high, there will always be eleven foot ladders. For anyone who remembers the Berlin Wall, it was constantly breached. But psychologically, it seems, the DHS has committed to this absurdity, and like the cretin in chief, you don't confuse them with the facts, their minds are made up.

This is Alice in Wonderland behavior. Maybe if they take another bite of their cookie, they will outgrow it. Or the courts, as I hope, may see reality and make an end of this nonsense.