I've sent to my rep and to my 3 senators (you'd have to be in LA to understand!) I think that's the way to work...I present this here in the hopes that others, to include Barr's constituents would do the same if they think the ideas are worthy of merit.
Not that I need other people's endorsement...I KNOW I'm right (lol), I'd simply rather try to engender followership of a good idea (saves a lot time on my part, too!)
You appear to be making the claim, as many others have, that this is a brand new entity that will expand the government as far as employees. That is not the case. This is a simple consolidation of about 75 existing organizations under one management structure with single point accountability instead of 75 management structures and as many points of accountability. It is a classic business style re-organization. It will make many existing employees in the administration sector redundant and with Bush’s new power to hire and fire as he sees fit those redundancies will result in reductions in force and therefore smaller government. It also reduces the 50 or so congressional committees and the resultant appropriations to no more than 4 committees. Couple that with Bush’s plan to privatize as many as 850,000 federal positions and I can’t see how any conservative would not applaud the way this is being approached.
I won’t address your Letters of Marque and Reprisal since the bounty is very high for any of the terrorists on the list and if there are bounty hunters ready and willing to go after them I think they have all the sanction they require.
Now to the super database. IMO it will never get off the ground nor do I think it will do any good. Having said that, it is not a part of the H.S.A. anyway. Poindexter works for the DOD not the new agency. If and when it is implemented, it would be a DOD initiative and you have already stated that the DOD should be in charge of Homeland Security a point that I must disagree with strenuously. The DOD is a war making body and is only that. It is not for domestic policing and certainly not for troop deployment within our borders unless and until martial law is declared. If the decision is made to place troops on the border then it will do no good to do it temporarily.
For the borders to be completely sealed troops would be required forever in numbers sufficient to do the job 24 hours a day year in and year out. Where will they be quartered given thousands of miles of land border and coastal waterways? I am not sure how changing the Coast Guard’s mission from the WOD to the WOT is mutually exclusive. A boat or ship smuggling drugs or terrorists or just illegal aliens cannot be determined until boarded and searched.
We can take care of both the illegal alien problem in one of two ways. We can indeed declare Martial Law and use the military to sweep the country for the 10 million illegals already here plus close the borders, up to and including, gun impalements. That is the only way to completely stop the flow of Mexican border jumpers. It will take martial law because illegal aliens from Mexico have a lot of home grown support and civilian courts would never allow such a sweep by either Federal or local LEAs on the scale required to clean out the backlog.
The only other alternative is to remove the incentives for illegals to come here in the first place whether it is for jobs or welfare. Both are the responsibilities of the states. Those states with the most generous welfare payments draw the most freeloaders both legal and illegal. It is also up to the states to enact laws that punish employers for hiring illegal aliens and to enforce those laws. Once the incentive is removed then the illegal alien problem will begin to become manageable.
You have added a lot to the debate and that is what all of us should do instead of the constant flow of emotion that seems to be prevalent of late.