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US Builds A Retarded �Fence�

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21 2008 2:00 AM

Submitted by FearTheReaper. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: US Border, Illegal Immigration, Border fence, Texas

In response to the insane, right wing anti-immigrant crowd, our government announced that we would be building a 700-mile border fence between the U.S. and Mexico. How fucking awesome is that? Especially when you consider that the border is 2,100 miles long. Obviously it will work, because most ranchers only fence off 1/3 of their land and the cows don�t know the difference. I know when I was growing up, we fenced in 1/3 of the yard, and our dog was never able to get out. That�s how fences work, especially retarded fences.

So, in October 2006, Bush signed The Secure Fence Act. And then we went about figuring out how to build this border fence. The Department of Homeland Security, which never does anything wrong, came up with the construction plans and began acquiring land. In California, Arizona, and New Mexico there were few problems because borderland is mostly federal land. But Texas is another story, because much of the land is privately owned. That means eminent domain, which means people are losing their land. For a retarded fence.

Oh, and by the time 2008 rolled around, the 700-mile border fence was halved.

Department officials have since whittled that down to a plan for about 370 miles of pedestrian fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers to be finished by the end of 2008.

Vehicle barriers? How the fuck is an illegal immigrant ever going to get over a vehicle barrier? It�s genius! And don�t even think that illegal immigrants will know how to build a ladder or dig a hole. That�s crazy talk.

Late last year, the DHS sent letters to 135 private property owners explaining that they had to give up their land - for a fence that will only cover 370 miles of land on a 2100 mile border.

Landowners were given 30 days to change their minds or face legal action. More than 100 of them -- 71 in Texas -- let the deadline pass.

The US has begun taking legal action to take the property away.

Over the past several weeks, U.S. attorneys acting on behalf of the Homeland Security Department have been filing lawsuits against the holdouts. Already, federal district judges have ordered one landowner in California, 11 in Arizona and 11 in Texas -- including the small city of Eagle Pass -- to temporarily surrender their properties. The mayor of Eagle Pass, which is located about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio and stands to lose 233 acres of city-owned land, said the city is planning to appeal. Suits are also pending against 14 landowners in California and 44 in South Texas.

Okay. See anything wrong there? How about a city losing 233 acres to a fucking fence? Exactly how wide is this retarded fence? It�s a pretty consistent story all along the border. Nydia and Fred Garcia�s ranch is screwed.

The fence would mean that 25 acres of the 80 acres of farmland that they and another brother jointly own would be on the Mexican side.

Massive amounts of land will be lost because of the placement of the fence. One would expect a border fence to be built on the border. No so. In some cases, like that of Eloisa Tamez, 72, the fence will cut through her ranch, which is one mile north of the border. And why not? It�s not like the government hasn�t completely fucked her family over before?

Her ancestors once owned 12,000 acres. In the 1930s, the federal government took more than half of her inherited land, without paying a cent, to build flood levees.

Now she only owns three acres -- and the government wants to put a fence through the middle of it. Did I mention the fence will be 370 miles long, while the border is 2,100 miles long? I did? Oh, did I mention that the fence won�t be in one piece? Did I tell you about the giant missing parts of the fence? That there will be big holes in places where rich people live?

Meet Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt. He�s good friend to a man named George Bush.

Hunt was a Bush-Cheney campaign �Pioneer� in 2000. More recently, Hunt �donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to help build Bush�s presidential library.� In 2001, Bush appointed Hunt to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, granting him �a security clearance and access to classified intelligence.�

Hunt, one of the wealthiest oilmen in the world, previously served on the board of Halliburton and was National Petroleum Council chairman between 1991 and 1994.

Guess whose land the fence won�t affect? Turns out the fence is just going to stop when it gets to Hunt�s land, then pick back up on the other side. That�ll stop those illegal Mexicans!

Daniel Garza, a 76-year-old man who might lose his home to the border fence�s intrusion, noted, �I don�t see why they have to destroy my home, my land, and let the wall end there.� Pointing across the street to Hunt�s land, he added, �How will that stop illegal immigration?�

It won�t. Now shut the fuck up, poor person. Of course, it�s not the only place the fence will have holes.

While the border wall will go through her backyard and effectively destroy her home, it will stop at the edge of the River Bend Resort and golf course, a popular Winter Texan retreat two miles down the road. The wall starts up again on the other side of the resort.

�It has a golf course and all of the amenities,� Tamez says. �There are no plans to build a wall there. If the wall is so important for security, then why are we skipping parts?�

Because they don�t give a shit. Because it�s not about the fence. It�s about money. They used the fervor of the anti-immigrant morons to steal more money from Americans. It�s about a bullshit project that gives money to some company for making a worthless product. They certainly don�t care about the people of Texas.

Foster says he has never received any logical answers from Homeland Security as to why certain areas in his city had been targeted for fencing over other areas. �I puzzled a while over why the fence would bypass the industrial park and go through the city park,� he says.

The word �soulless� comes to mind. Understand what this is: Nothing more than a giant give away of money to private companies. This is the most useless, fucked up, retarded fence in the world. Officially, it�s going to cost at least $1.2 billion, while most estimates double that amount.

In a February 2007 hearing, Congressman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had more scathing remarks for Giddens and the SBInet project. �As of December, the Department of Homeland Security had hired a staff of 98 to oversee the new SBInet contract. This may seem like progress until you ask who these overseers are. More than half are private contractors. Some of these private contractors even work for companies that are business partners of Boeing, the company they are supposed to be overseeing. And from what we are now learning from the department, this may be just the tip of the iceberg.�

Waxman said of SBInet that �virtually every detail is being outsourced from the government to private contractors. The government is relying on private contractors to design the programs, build them, and even conduct oversight over them.�

Total fucking waste. But that�s just to build the fence. What about keeping it operational?

A 2007 congressional report estimates the cost of maintaining and building the fence could be as much as $49 billion over its expected 25-year life span.

America, bend over, because a retarded fence is being rammed up your dirt hole.

299 Comments

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smithers_jones

Los Angeles, CA

November 2003

FEB 21, 2008 09:02 AM

martinj_b52 said:

guitargeek said:
This is my new Official Dumbest Fucking Thing I've Ever Heard Of.

Easy to say, when you dont LIVE on the border and have all the crap going on that IS happening to the people who live on the border. Our immigration policy is SO complex that it takes about $7,000 (source: the Kenyan immigrant working down the street from me) to get here LEGALLY (its that big government thing I keep harping about). Once again, the vested interests work hard at blurring the lines between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration. ILLEGAL immigration is STILL breaking the LAW.

Until Mexico makes some radical changes, the situation ISNT going to improve.

Personally, I am all about the concept of the "fair-iis-fair" (dont look this up-its MY idea) immigration policy. And it IS fair. Whatever immigration policy is in effect for your HOME country shall be applied to you HERE. In other words, the law of YOUR land on immigration pertaining to Americans going THERE is what you are limited by HERE.

So we could confiscate Korans from the Saudi immigrants, because Bibles are not allowed in their country. Mexicans would take it in the shorts: They would pay an 80% sales tax when they sell their houses, would go to jail if they attempted to work while here legally, and would have to live in the house they own for 6 months or the government would come by and seize it. AND the cops would LOVE it, because all mexicans would have to pay their traffic fines TO THE COPS.

MEXICAN DOUBLE STANDARD

IMMIGRATION IN MEXICO

Hilarious. The dude with the "I'd rather be waterboarding" avatar and who wants to incorporate the immigration policies of every country on the planet into our own and apply them to people based on country of origin is complaining about "big government" and complex immigration policies.

Also, the examples you used to illustrate your "fair is fair" immigration policy are not examples of immigration policy in Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

KikiBH

Washington, DC

December 2004

FEB 21, 2008 09:21 AM

martinj_b52 said:

abracadabra said:
It's kinda funny in a sadistic way. We come to a foreign soil, then we kill most of the original inhabitants and take their land. Next we build the most powerful army and invent awful bombs to irradiate a foreign nation. Now we build fences to keep out what we once were, immigrants. Congratulations US.

They were killing EACH OTHER and ENSLAVING each other when we got here. "Native americans" were thousands of tribes, not one big happy family. And they were acting like nations-warring with each other.

I think this is the first time in my 31 years of life that I've heard someone defend what the white man did to the Native American culture. I hope I don't hear it again for at least another 31 years.

emotedcreations

Germany

July 2006

FEB 21, 2008 09:31 AM

KikiBH said:

martinj_b52 said:

I think this is the first time in my 31 years of life that I've heard someone defend what the white man did to the Native American culture. I hope I don't hear it again for at least another 31 years.

That about sums up the tone of most of his commentary. Save yourself the trouble and put him on ignore now.

Coyotemike

Kearney, NE

May 2006

FEB 21, 2008 09:32 AM

Wheezy_E said:
Well at least it will keep out the retarded immigrants, right?

We should build big jumps and give them motorcross bikes or something. That way they'll get a head start on assimilating to the culture. From here on out you must "extreme sport" in.

Actually, I would think that the ones smart enough not to fall for that would be the ones we want.

SSJiffy

Santa Cruz, CA

October 2007

FEB 21, 2008 09:54 AM

The blame the victim mentality the 1st world has used to deal with the 3rd world have led to crap like this. Apparently everyone is on a level playing field and can go 1st world if only they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps; history starts after the decolonization of a country.

Pfft, more fencing and vehicular walls? That just means more people will risk it and go through the deserts. Leaving holes in the new fencing will only encourage the minuteman project to continue going out to home depot and buying farm animal fencing type materials. pfft.

Twelve

Bay City, MI

April 2007

FEB 21, 2008 09:56 AM

Mmm, spending money is awesome.

I would like to take this opportunity to link here.

papawheelie

Fisty, KY

February 2003

FEB 21, 2008 10:00 AM

they can only build 1/3 of the fence because there won't be anyone left here to do the labor on the rest of the thing

gdarklighter

San Diego, CA

August 2005

FEB 21, 2008 10:01 AM

martinj_b52 said:

guitargeek said:
This is my new Official Dumbest Fucking Thing I've Ever Heard Of.

Easy to say, when you dont LIVE on the border and have all the crap going on that IS happening to the people who live on the border.

Not to poke holes in what I'm sure you felt was a carefully worded argument, but I live in San Diego. Here's a visual aid for you. And I've gotta tell you, I'm a little more concerned about things like rising foreclosures in the area, my father's unemployment, the risk of all of Southern California catching on fire again this fall, and the way the Padres keep choking in the postseason. "All the crap going on", as you so eloquently put it, hasn't really been high on my list.

pariah002

Pittsburgh, PA

July 2003

FEB 21, 2008 10:20 AM

My head hurts.
And what really makes my head hurt is that there are a ton of people like martinj_b52 out there.

deanmoriarty

Los Osos, CA

July 2006

FEB 21, 2008 10:28 AM

How bout this one http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/10/18/418705.aspx

scorp17yh

Brookings, OR

November 2004

FEB 21, 2008 10:32 AM

I know FTR posted this in his original story however I thought it needed to be repeated for emphasis....

"...DHS has no problem pursuing elderly and struggling homeowners. In the small town of Granjeno (pop. 313), however, the border fence would, conveniently, "abruptly end" at the property owned by Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt.

It's not surprising that the administration would be hesitant to upset Hunt, who was a Bush-Cheney campaign "Pioneer" in 2000. More recently, Hunt "donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to help build Bush's presidential library." In 2001, Bush appointed Hunt to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, granting him "a security clearance and access to classified intelligence."

starbuck42

I'm lost

February 2007

FEB 21, 2008 10:41 AM

martinj_b52 said:
Easy to say, when you dont LIVE on the border and have all the crap going on that IS happening to the people who live on the border.

Then why are the people who live on the border, the people this article is about, so upset that the government is taking their land?

Bonaparte

Fort Worth, TX

September 2006

FEB 21, 2008 10:52 AM

*sigh*

Hooraydiation

Boston, MA

October 2005

FEB 21, 2008 10:55 AM

starbuck42 said:

martinj_b52 said:
Easy to say, when you dont LIVE on the border and have all the crap going on that IS happening to the people who live on the border.

Then why are the people who live on the border, the people this article is about, so upset that the government is taking their land?

You have to admit that forcing them to move off the border is a pretty elegant inbuilt solution to their complaints, though. One relocations later, and their opinions are just as invalid as yours!

livertarian

Fairfax, VA

February 2008

FEB 21, 2008 11:11 AM

I agree with Ron Paul's assessment of the immigration issue. Illegals are used as a scapegoat by the neo-cons, and as a rallying point for liberals, but we all lose by embracing either side. Either we continue to expand subsidies and entitlements, which are putting future generations into crushing debt, or we enrage our neighbors with harsh extraction and prosecution efforts.

The solution isn't simple or easy, but my man RP has the right idea: Address the more fundamental economic policies that distort and cripple our markets and money. Let the free market decide whether sneaking over US borders is a potentially lucrative risk. I believe if governments got out of the way, we could sort this out over a shorter period of time, if it can be sorted out at all.

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