WASHINGTON (AP) - A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners.
...Now supporters may be getting closer to victory. A provision in an immigration bill expected to pass the House next week would give the homeland security secretary authority to move forward with the project regardless of any laws that stand in the way, and would bar courts from hearing lawsuits against it.

"We need to get this thing done, and we need to do it for security reasons, and at some point we just need to do it," said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., whose district is just north of the border.

But environmentalists and the California Coastal Commission, the independent state agency that regulates the state's coastline, say the plan promoted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is too extreme.

...How the fence provision would fare in the Senate is unclear. California's two Democratic senators have not announced their positions.

Full story: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-other/2005/feb/04/020405187.html

The article goes on to say:

Among other provisions, it would level the peaks lining Smugglers Gulch and fill part of the deep canyon with 2 million cubic yards of dirt in order to build a road across it. The Coastal Commission voted down the proposal a year ago, saying it would erode soil near the federally protected Tijuana Estuary that's home to marshes, California brown pelicans and rare plants and birds.

"We're going to destroy our environment in the name of fear," said Peter Douglas, the commission's executive director. "Frankly, there are ways that we can do both, protecting the environment and meeting the concerns of border control and homeland security."

Coastal Commission officials contended Customs and Border Protection didn't meet them halfway when they proposed alternatives, including switchback roads through the gulch.

I really don't give a rat's behind what the environMENTALists say.  This bill, if passed, will supercede everything, there will be no court or California state law that will be able to stop them.  The US House will pass it, the only question is, will the US Senate pass it?

I really don't give a rat's behind what the environMENTALists say.  This bill, if passed, will supercede everything, there will be no court or California state law that will be able to stop them.  The US House will pass it, the only question is, will the US Senate pass it?


but then where will the Republican backers get their illegal imigrant maids?

notice the environmentalists came up with a solution that didn't destory a natural environment permanently, but the US just wants to bulldoze it all.  reminds me of what the Soviets used to do.

but then where will the Republican backers get their illegal imigrant maids?

notice the environmentalists came up with a solution that didn't destory a natural environment permanently, but the US just wants to bulldoze it all.  reminds me of what the Soviets used to do.

It certainly does, except the Soviets used drastic measures to stop citizens from leaving, not immigrants from entering.  This says boatloads about America.  Yeah, "everyone wants to come here, what a great countr," but it doesn't end there.  American nationalists like to pretend the U.S. got where it is by free-market ingenuity and entrepeneurship.  They say the rest of the world is jealous of our freedom and success and America has nothing to do with the privations suffered by poorer countries.  Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, these conservatives will scoff at anybody who cautions about environmental damage.  What's a few dead birds and some dried up swamp compared to our national security?  Well, we've used national security or economic gain as reasons for damaging the ecology and now we are faced with ever more serious environmental crises.  The only people now who deny man-made global warming are corporate media shills such as Rush Limbaugh, the pupils of said shills, and the paid-off corporate scientists who provide the data for the shills.
As far as "illegal immigrant maids," no prob, that's why the Republicans support a so-called "guest worker" program.

As far as "illegal immigrant maids," no prob, that's why the Republicans support a so-called "guest worker" program.


Bull.  President Bush supports guest worker program permits (also called amnesty-in-disguise.)  The majority of republicans in the US House and the US Senate, as well as the majority of republican-voters do not support this.  Bush will lose on this guest worker garbage.

Bull.  President Bush supports guest worker program permits (also called amnesty-in-disguise.)  The majority of republicans in the US House and the US Senate, as well as the majority of republican-voters do not support this.  Bush will lose on this guest worker garbage.

The majority of Republicans can't afford domestic servants (in which case they're crazy to vote Republican), but the political elites (Republican AND Democrat) couldn't care less about the majority.  If the guest worker program doesn't pass because Republicans want to flex muscle for their constituents, then the elites will find another way to access migrant labor.
My guess is both the domestic help market and the agricultural labor market will keep accessing migrant workers just as they are now.  I don't believe they'll "close the borders," there's too much cheap labor at stake.  Yeah, you can complain about the taxpayer money consumed by immigrants, but the rich people and corporations who avail themselves of migrant labor know best how to dodge taxes.  So YOU pay for the haves to have more.  That's the whole Republican plan.  Bush said so himself, don't raise taxes on the rich, we know how to get out of paying them!
::)

This gingoist crap drives me insane.  We are, after all, a nation of immigrants.  And as to "homeland security" I got a tee shirt for xmass with a foto of Geronimo and his band.  The caption says "Homeland Security, fighting terrorism since 1492".  So, all where do your ancestors come from, and what were they when they got here?

This gingoist crap drives me insane.  We are, after all, a nation of immigrants.  And as to "homeland security" I got a tee shirt for xmass with a foto of Geronimo and his band.  The caption says "Homeland Security, fighting terrorism since 1492".  So, all where do your ancestors come from, and what were they when they got here?

That's what the Right calls "moral equivalency," but I say nonsence in order for "moral equivalency" there has to be something moral to equivalesce.  Is that a word?  No, it's definitely not a word.  But anyway, it's like Ward Churchill was trying to say.  O'Reilly is making him into an enemy of the people.  A dufus such as O'Reilly can't possibly understand where where Ward Churchill is coming from!  We (Guys like Ward and me) don't have a medieval view of humanity in the 21st century.