One Iowa Congressman took a recent trip to the border — and not via Taco Bell either.

Congressman Steve King has just returned from a five-day trip to Arizona’s border with Mexico. “It was a real eye-opener,” King says. “One cannot get a feel for this without going down there and being in it.”

King has been advocating construction of a fence along the U.S./Mexico border, and King says the drug trade he witnessed just reaffirmed his belief that a fence is what it will take to stop the flood of immigrants crossing the border.

“This is my second trip down to the border but this is the one that I learned the most at and the one that really causes me to take a look at this and see it from a different perspective on how many people are coming across the border illegally and how many drugs are a part of that,” King says.

King was the only member of congress on this trip. He went with a “security detail” to meet with border patrol agents, some retired agents, and a group of fewer than two dozen Native Americans called the Shadow Wolves who are intercepting more drugs than the two-thousand border patrol agents in the area.

When King was at the reservation one night, the Shadow Wolves caught a gang member with 180 pounds of marijuana hidden in his pick-up.

It would appear that Congressman King actually took the time to see what needs to be seen.

King says a concrete fence must be built along the whole length of the U.S./Mexico border because his trip made him realize the number of border crossings are “far greater in number” than he thought, and the level of violence and the drug trade is much higher, too.

To those in his own Republican party who say the U.S. is not a country that builds walls but is a country that tears them down, King offers this response. “There is a 180 degree difference between a wall that’s built to keep people in, which the Berlin Wall was, and a wall that’s built to keep people out, which this would be,” King says.

“It’s entirely moral to defend yourself from people who are pouring over your borders, that don’t have respect for our sovereignty and who are brining billions of dollars of drugs into the United States.”

There’s a national wildlife refuge in the area of Arizona King visited, and he says a fence worked there to protect the endangered “lesser long-nosed bat.” That species of bat lives in only four caves in the world, one of which illegal immigrants crossing the border in Arizona used as a hiding place.

The bats left, according to King, so the National Park Service built a wrought-iron fence around the cave’s entrance. King says the winged creatures moved back in the cave once the illegal immigrants were kept out.

“A fence does work,” King says. “It worked to keep the illegals out of the bat cave.” King says he spent about two days traveling to and from Arizona and about three days along what he estimates was about 450 miles of border.

King says he went in sort of “undercover” fashion so he’d get the real story, not the sanitized version delivered to members of congress who climb into helicopters and fly over the area.

So what would work? One point? Two points? Three points?

How about THESE points?

THE BZ BORDER SOLUTION:

• Secure the southern and northern borders of the United States in any physical, logistical and human fashion necessary;
• Use ALL available INS and Border Patrol sources available and then National Guard and then strictly military forces only if necessary in terms of personnel;
• Rely on human USBP interdiction first and then construct techno-fences, with physical fences only if absolutely necessary as a last resort — physical fences are too easily breached;
• At the same time develop and implement a new national SSN card which resists theft;
• Require all states to verify each and every voter during every election to be a lawful resident;
• Require all states to comply with English-Only teaching programs;
• Require all states to audit, identify and then penalize all employers who utilize illegal immigrants in any form;
• Completely halt ALL legal immigration for the next two years, in order to digest, record and then implement the above mandates;
• Create and then share immigration databases with all affected federal, state and local agencies;
• Create a “Temporary Guest Worker Program” which allows a maximum stay of two years;
• No amnesty for anyone. PERIOD.

Without any one of the above sections in place, our country is doomed to failure.

What do YOU think?

BZ

“I’m going to catch as many as I can and throw them in my jail,” said Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “And the jails are not that nice.”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is right. His jails primarily suck. And that’s on a good day. Check it out: when he ran out of brick and mortar buildings for inmates, he created tent cities in the Arizona desert. Allow me to consult my thermometer right now: oh yes; about 118 degrees in the shade. Perfect for inmates or boiling lobster tails.

Before I go further, to get a good sense of who he is, I refer you to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department website, some truths about Sheriff Joe, and what Wikipedia has to say about the good Sheriff.

People either love or hate Sheriff Joe. Many hate him. He has been sued. He has received numerous death threats. Still he has survived. Some say that he is the most recognized and revered politician in the entire state of Arizona. At age 74, not a bad testimony — considering Arizona is rife with True Politicians as is any other given state. In my opinion Sheriff Joe is the last of a breed.

Hell, I should have made him a Today’s Hero months ago.

Silly me.

Also: silly me for not checking Arpaio’s influence on the illegal immigrant issue because Arizona is, of course, on the cutting edge of illegal immigration as it borders the Mexican state of Sonora and the Mexican cities of Nogales and Agua Prieta.

From the Associated Press:

Beginning Wednesday, more illegal immigrants coming through Maricopa County could meet the same fate as the sheriff’s department beefs up its efforts to find illegal immigrants.

A 250-member posse that will operate similarly to the anti-smuggler task force will patrol the area for illegal immigrants who pay smugglers to cross through Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

The posse will be made up of existing sheriff’s deputies and members of the department’s 3,000-member posse reserve of trained, unpaid volunteers.

A recent Arizona state law makes human smuggling a crime — it was already a federal crime — (though largely unenforced by those who have the power to do so!) allowing local law enforcement agencies to arrest suspected smugglers.

And so in steps another player: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. He believes the law can be applied to the smuggled immigrants themselves, thinking that illegal immigrants who pay smugglers to enter the United States are committing conspiracy to smuggle and can therefore be prosecuted under the state law.

Sounds to me like the continual controversy of “spirit of the law” vs. the “letter of the law.”

Which philosophy do you think should win? And on whose side should the law lean?

Naturally, attorneys for some of the arrested illegal immigrants have filed motions to have the charges dismissed. One LA lawyer brought into the case by the Mexican Consul General’s Office in Phoenix (big clue there) filed another motion claiming Thomas and Arpaio are violating state and federal law and are using the conspiracy charges to control illegal immigration, which, they allege, is the federal government’s job.

Easily countered: the federal government ISN’T DOING ITS JOB. Period.

Again, from the AP story:

Arpaio said the motions don’t worry him.

“I get sued when I go to the toilet. You think I’m worried about it?” he said. “If they think I’m going to slow down because of these threats, I’ve got news for them – I’m not going to slow down. I’ll do more of it.”

Balls. Pure and simple.

So few of them left in this country.

Huh, George?

BZ

As most already know, my life has been “busy” shall we say, these last two months. This situation has been complicated by the fact that Blogger appeared to be ignoring me in the most insulting way — not allowing me to post, eradicating lengthy posts, not allowing me to add a photograph, not allowing me to save drafts or publish at all. Even now, as I write these words, I’m attempting to add a photo (on another computer) and the process is glazingly slow.

As a matter of fact, there it goes. I can’t add a photo and this computer is hooked to DSL. I have a little winky dial-up at home but, unfortunately, with the way my life has been running, all the emergencies and issues have been in the Sacratomato Valley — nowhere near my home.

The previous post, for example, was accomplished after five attempts by first composing in Word and then pasting rapidly. No photo, no graphics. On my work computer, my blog appeared as though I had completely eradicated my right sidebar and I thought: “Lord, how would I possibly re-create this blog from scratch?” I admit; I panicked.

I had to wait all day until I could leave work and access another computer. But at least I know the problem: my work computer. I discovered the I.T. creatures have added more sites to their URLs of Death — to include Blogger. I also discovered “other entities” had been logging onto Blogger for hours at a time during work hours — whilst I used my early morning time to blog before work. Heavy sigh.

So there you have it. I have to bring my massive HP Pavilion zd8000 to work and try to run it from my phone line, through my dial-up ISP.

I’ve not gone away; I’ve simply been out-maneuvered by a wily I.T. team.

I’ll not give up so easily.

BZ

One opinion, one point:

Opinion:
When it comes to fiscal conservatism, the Republican Party simply fails under President Bush. Today, the federal government spends $2.47 trillion—that’s 2,470 billions of dollars—each year. Adjusted for inflation, that’s 50 percent larger than the big-government Clinton-era budgets of only a decade ago – remember those? – the ones conservatives complained about? Of that, only 21 cents of every taxpayer dollar goes to national defense and homeland security. By contrast, 54 cents goes to entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and 8 cents goes to servicing the federal debt.

As The Patriot Post indicates: Meanwhile, the federal deficit will grow another $423 billion this year, raising the national debt to $8.28 trillion! While we’re not exactly “The sky is falling!” deficit hawks, it’s worth noting that big budgets and big deficits tighten the money supply, increasing the costs of investment and slowing economic growth and prosperity.

This is not what Conservatism is about. I continue to be disappointed.

Point:
Just what you want in your beef: bovine spongiform encephalopathy. You know it as Mad Cow Disease. And were you aware that the USDA under President Bush has barred Kansas meatpacking company Creekstone Farms from following through on its plan to test 100% of its cattle for BSE?

In order to reassure its overseas customers, Creekstone wanted to test 100% of its cows – compared to the USDA – which tests 1% of slaughtered cattle. The USDA had the actual temerity to say that Creekstone’s proposed testing regime would “undermine confidence in government efforts to spot the disease,” which can cause fatal brain damage in people eating infected animals.

Here are some Truths according to BZ:

Yes, it would undermine confidence. And why is the USDA only testing 1%?
Moreover, the USDA is likely afraid that testing would reveal Mad Cow more common than anyone ever imagined.

That the Bush Administration’s USDA would actually oppose a positive move for the benefit of public health is beyond outrageous. It’s just plain stupid and dangerous.

And what of tree trade and open markets? What if Creekstone’s beef “takes off” because of vigorous testing? Wouldn’t that likely force others in the beef industry to test in a like fashion?

So, Bush USDA: competition isn’t good? Public health isn’t good? Saving peoples’ lives isn’t good?

This is reprehensible.

BZ