“A world without walls is the only sustainable world. . ."

President Bush, in one of the most weakly veiled political misdirections of recent memory, signed into law the "Secure Fence Act of 2006." The plan calls for a 700-mile fence to be constructed along approximately 1/3 of the United States southern border with Mexico.

Mexican President Vincente Fox is outraged.

We've seen other countries put up fences and walls.

Israel has had to construct walls to protect itself from a "tough neighborhood".

Israeli concern is that if they don't protect themselves, they will be flooded with Islamic Fundamentalist who wish to blow themselves up in crowded areas, killing hundreds of Israelis.

China has a wall.

They built it to keep out the Mongolian invaders, who had been kicking Chinese ass for a long time.

The Germans fortified their country in about...1936.

That was a sign of positive things.

North Korea and South Korea are divided by all types of protective walls.

Most of them are in the form of land-mines.

Fences aren't good for International Relations.

Take a look at what the OAS had to say:

The Organization of American States released a statement Wednesday from Mexico and 27 regional countries expressing "deep concern" over the fence measure. The statement further called the proposal "a unilateral measure that goes against the spirit of understanding that should characterize how shared problems between neighboring countries are handled and that affects cooperation in the hemisphere."

CNN.com

Fear not Canadians...we've not forgotten you!

The legislation included this little gem:

(a) In General- The Secretary of Homeland Security shall conduct a study on the feasibility of a state of-the-art infrastructure security system along the northern international land and maritime border of the United States and shall include in the study--

(1) the necessity of implementing such a system;
(2) the feasibility of implementing such a system; and
(3) the economic impact implementing such a system will have along the northern border.

Its a P.R. disaster.

This country is being run like Ford Motor Co. but with a greater deficit.

This doesn't do much to endear us to the world, or quell International Concerns that we are a bunch of nationalist zealots.

There is nothing wrong with Patriotism.

But there is nothing inherently patriotic about building a fence.

There is something inherently patriotic about questioning your governments decisions, and speaking up if you disagree.

I know I'll be tagged as a super-liberal for this quote, but:

“A world without walls is the only sustainable world. . . . If the world is dominated by people who believe that their races, their religions, their ethnic differences are the most important factors, then a huge number of people will perish in this century.”
-- Bill Clinton

The biggest problem I have with this law and that the GOP claim to have "made a significant step towards correcting our immigration problems", is that they didn't fund its construction.

The act provides no funding mechanism for the fence, though a $1.2 billion appropriation was approved as part of a bill the president signed this month. There are no concrete numbers, but estimates suggest the fence would cost twice that amount. The earlier bill, however, stipulates that the $1.2 billion could be used for a fence, lighting, vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

CNN.com

Thats right.

Its nothing but another unfunded mandate.

Something that looks good in the GOP trophy case, but is totally fraudulent.

Kind of like No Child Left Behind.

The President and Congress did this with the big "conversion from analog to digital broadcasting" bill too.

Story.

Its a ploy by Bush and the GOP leadership in Congress to make it look as though they have accomplished one of the goals they set forth.

It would be one of the first.

And it makes them look less incompetent to the voters.

It makes the GOP look like they can make good on their word, and address one of the issues that Americans have identified as a serious problem in coming years.

So good for them, they passed the bill.

Now who's going to pay it?

There is no fence.

Don't expect to see construction begin anytime soon.

But hey, the headlines are just what they need, unless the Media pays attention and makes an issue of the funding.

Is that so much to ask?

Stay Tuned...