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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (249685)	5/12/2008 9:08:32 PM
From: ManyMoose	Respond to of 793818

You just named my top three, and I don't think the presidency has much say so over much of anything else.

To: KLP who wrote (249685)	5/12/2008 9:28:20 PM
From: Condo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793818

Speaking of illegal immigration, here's an update on the border fence, physical and virtual. Seems to me climbing food prices may increase illegal border crossing traffic. WASHINGTON — Sections of Texas' border with Mexico eventually could be secured by the same kind of high-tech "virtual fence" that's been deployed in Arizona, key legislators said Friday after touring the state-of-the-art surveillance network. The comments by two subcommittee chairmen with the House Homeland Security Committee — Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and Christopher Carney, D-Pa.— followed an inspection tour Friday of the $20.6 million virtual fence near Sasabe, Ariz. The project links high-tech surveillance towers, cameras, radar, ground sensors and unmanned aerial drones along a 28-mile section of the 1,947-mile international border. "In Texas, there is an outcry and a great deal of conflict over installing physical barriers along the border," said Jackson Lee, chairman of the panel's subcommittee on transportation security and infrastructure protection. "What I have seen here today can be a very effective 21st century tool to secure our borders." Carney, the chairman of the panel's oversight subcommittee, called the virtual fence "a tremendous concept" that's ready for eventual deployment elsewhere along the border "once we make sure the bugs are ironed out." Substitute for physical wall Carney, who toured the area with Jackson Lee and five other lawmakers, said the virtual fence was best suited for sparsely inhabited stretches along the border. "If we can ever get the technology to match the dedication of the Border Patrol personnel here, we'll have an impenetrable border," he said. The Homeland Security Department certified the effectiveness of the blend of technologies by the Boeing Co. in February after a series of setbacks and over the objections of some members of the Democratic-led committee. Investigators from Congress' Government Accountability Office had concluded that radar intercepts of people or vehicles crossing the border were too slow to appear on Border Patrol agents' monitors. The inspectors also found that cameras were unable to accurately detect targets beyond 3.1 miles. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, another member of the House committee, said that securing the border would require a variety of "strategically placed physical and virtual barriers in addition to electronic surveillance. "No single type of barrier will provide appropriate border security," he added. McCaul worked in his congressional district on Friday and did not make the trip to Arizona. Jackson Lee said the lawmakers' inspection tour turned her from a skeptic into a believer that the blend of high-tech surveillance and targeted deployment of Border Patrol agents could intercept illegal immigrants and drug traffickers. Flaws in the system have been slashed from 53 to just four, she said. "I've changed my assessment because the technology did not work — and now it does," she said. Initiative upgrades security The virtual fence is part of a broader $7.8 billion Secure Border Initiative designed to upgrade security along 6,000 miles of American borders with Mexico and Canada by 2011. Russ Knocke, the Homeland Security Department's spokesman, said the Bush administration was pressing ahead with high-tech surveillance projects along another 83 miles of the Arizona border as well as completing construction of 670 miles of pedestrian and vehicle fences by the end of the year. The 28-mile virtual fence has helped Border Patrol agents carry out roughly 3,400 apprehensions in that sector this year, he said. stewart.powell@chron.com siliconinvestor.com

To: KLP who wrote (249685)	5/13/2008 7:19:32 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793818

Karen, the way I look at it is would you rather be stabbed in the back by a close friend or complete stranger? The Global Warming nonsense has tentacles in far too many areas of the economy to be taken lightly. We simply cannot as a nation remains prosperous if we continue to send trillions of dollars to foreigner governments for energy. It emboldens dictators from Venezuela to the Middle East and gives them tremendous influence and leverage in the inner workings of our government. This issue to me is more important than Supreme Court nominations - more important than Border Control and on-par with public education, because it affects everyone’s way of life. We've been fortunate with the advent of the internet and the creative talents of our people to take advantage of the global information age. That economic shift is maturing and the rest of the world is catching up to many of the business opportunities. What lies next is anybodies guess. Our future is seriously in jeopardy. The impact of 4 and 5 dollar a gallon gasoline and heating oil has yet to be felt. With Congress and the three Presidential candidates speaking the same nonsense of Global Warming and willing to turn over our sovereignty to the U.N. in the form of Carbon Credits, we're in deep trouble. Someone needs to run as a "Common Sense Conservative" and stop this nonsense ASAP! Otherwise, I fear the standard of living we've come to enjoy will be in serious trouble.