[TheDon]

Anyone heard about this?

[gridlock]

Effective operation of a “virtual fence” presupposes that the government wishes to enforce the law. If they decide to watch somebody cross the border on a camera located five miles away, it won’t make any difference unless they go out and pick him up.

[snowrip]

amnesty am-nes-ty -n 1. a general pardon for offenses against a government

The Senate and liberal media are counting on you to give up and go home. When we stop calling, this bill WILL PASS, and Senior bush WILL SIGN IT.

Passage of “comprehensive immigration reform” means amnesty as it is defined by the dictionary, the law, and by common sense. Are you willing to let your government get away with a bill that will cost us $2,500,000,000,000, has no meaningful reforms for border security and no penalties for the illegals already here? That will actually increase the financial incentives for those who wish to come here illegally, and grant illegal aliens more benefits than are granted to lawful American citizens?

Keep the pressure on, because the Senate is hoping this will all just go away if they wait long enough. Write, call, email, and fax your representatives... and DO NOT STOP. If you are unable to reach your Congressional or Senate rep, try the office of El Presidente. Contact your local and state party representatives, and the Republican and Democrat National Committees. Keep building the tidal wave that we need to KILL THIS BILL!

Links and contact info:


CONTACT YOUR REPS NOW

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Stop Amnesty Now!... a must read

McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY) 361-A RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-2541

McConnel’s district offices:

Paducah (Western Kentucky Office) Phone: (270) 442-4554
Bowling Green (South Central Kentucky Office) Phone: (270) 781-1673 Louisville (Louisville Metro Area Office) Phone: (502) 582-6304
Fort Wright (Northern Kentucky Office) Phone: (859) 578-0188
London (Eastern Kentucky Office) Phone: (606) 864-2026
Lexington (Bluegrass Area Office) Phone: (859) 224-8286

[ClearCase_guy]

Nine towers, along a 28-mile stretch of border, and each tower has a range of over 9 miles? I guess they’re going for redundancy, but they seem to be packing a lot of expensive equipment into this little space.

[faq]

Those are just virtual towers and cameras along with virtual Border Patrol agents near the virtual fence. But, you can almost imagine them when reading this article.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

It would still be far cheaper in the long run and take far less annual appropriations to go with the physical barrier, than to leave the border open and use high tech, expensive equipment with large amount of manpower in order to continually catch the border-crossers.

Of course the advantage of this alternative for the politicians is that in later years the politicians can simply reduce the appropriation of the annual expenditures for this hi-tech, high manpower approach, and reopen the borders for their Wall Street “open borders” buddies. (”But we have higher priorities in healthcare and education - it’s for the chil’un!” they’ll say.)

[snowrip]

The all-weather, all-hours technology will be able to distinguish humans from animals and vehicles, determine a group's size and whether weapons are being carried.

Uhhhh... thats ounds great, but what happens when someone decides to put a half-dozen .380 rounds into the sensor arrays? This also presumes that the (Bush) Border Patrol has the manpower, and the will, to go arrest and deport the illegals they spot.

[Sybeck1]

Boondoggle

[Eagle of Liberty]

I'm all for a virtual fence as long as it is fitted with this:

[the_Watchman]

“ranchers solitude”? Give me a break. I know of ranchers as far north as Wilcox who get regular, unwanted visits from illegals passing through.

[Tarpon]

Sure the contract was let months back to build a total of nine towers, deploy by July 2007. Provided you actually had people watches the cameras, border agents in the field to apprehend ... it might do some good. No where near what a real secure fence would do, as the border can still be rushed and overwhelm the responders. It also depends on the wathcers not getting tired and turning it off for the day.

Build the real fence use the toys for surveillance of the real fence.

[Ancesthntr]

If I was a rancher along the border, I have my non-virtual Remington 700 loaded up with non-virtual 175 grain .308 cal. Sierra Matchkings, and non-virtually defend my property and family. And then I’d probably be non-virtually arrested for being a bad boy. Can’t have people actually defend themselves now, can we?

[kik5150]

“The all-weather, all-hours technology will be able to distinguish humans from animals”

They have already developed a “top Secret” defeat to this technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR4MgGPV63M

[50sDad]

1) The very phrasing of the headline pre-assumes that border enforcement is "bad' or at lease dangerous in some way to the ranchers.

2) Since this does affect national security, will somebody PLEASE put this reporter in jail for bringing this up?

[Michael Barnes]

Why don't we employ defenses the likes of Area51? High Tech surveillence backed by deadly force. I'm quite certain the problem would solve itself over time.

Hey, waita second, I have to call Discovery Channel and Art Bell, I now know how we can get the inside scoop on Area51, send some meh-hee-cans in there.

[RJL]

According to Arivaca merchant Roger Beal, U.S. Border Patrol officials have said the 360-degree ground surveillance radar on each tower has a range of about 9 1/2 miles and the cameras more than 10 miles.

The all-weather, all-hours technology will be able to distinguish humans from animals and vehicles, determine a group's size and whether weapons are being carried.

And as soon as the political heat dies down, the Feds can flip a switch and turn it off to keep the illegals pouring in.

That's why we want a double or triple layer fence built, it's something we can see and know is still working.

[TLI]

has turned ranchers' solitude into 'war zone'

Total bs.

The credit must go where the credit is due.

The illegals, the smugglers and Kennedy, that is what has created the "war zone."

[Cicero]

Actually the problem would largely dry up if they enforced the laws WITHIN our country.

If they prosecuted employers for giving them jobs, and if they stopped giving them welfare, free schooling, and welfare benefits, they would leave voluntarily and stop pouring in.

I don’t notice that Americans can go to Mexico and get free schooling or welfare benefits, and there is a LOT of wealth in Mexico. They could afford it just as easily as we can.

[wolfcreek]

This isn’t something new. There are all kinds of sensors along the border.

Anyone who’s been between Alpine and Marfa,TX has probably seen the *blimp*. It looks like a fat spaceshuttle and is tethered to the ground with a couple of thousand ft. of steel cable. Some type of ground-based radar to detect vehicle and low-flying planes crossing the desert.

[ApplegateRanch]

Buried near the end, we get this little nuugget:

In the 11 years that she and her husband Richard have owned the historic ranch, Schultz said they've never had a break-in or had an illegal immigrant step foot on the ranch without asking permission.

The presumption is that they give the permission, and perhaps even profit from their 'visitors', which is why they are against the towers?

[dennisw]

Tell the President to build a virtual fence around the White House and tear down the wrought iron one