U.S. studying wall along Canadian border

[Gloria]

Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1134859819229&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

U.S. studying wall along Canadian border
Dec. 17, 2005. 07:46 PM

WASHINGTON (CP) — Canada has no interest in a new U.S. initiative to study building a security wall along the border, officials said Saturday.

And a cross-border business group said it makes no sense when what's urgently required are measures to speed the flow of trade.

The study "on the use of physical barriers" was slipped into an amendment to a bill on border security and illegal immigration passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The amendment, sponsored by California Republican Duncan Hunter, also approved building security fences with lights and cameras along more than 1,000 kilometres of the U.S.-Mexico border in four states to keep out illegal aliens and drugs.

The move comes amid heightened bilateral tensions arising from Canada's election campaign. But U.S. sources said it was prompted by southern U.S. politicians anxious to assure constituents they're not penalizing one border over another.

MORE

[Jim Sagle]

1. The idea is to keep Americans from escaping.

[peace frog]

19. BINGO

:mad:

[No Exit]

25. LOL--I was just about to say that!

[newspeak]

55. wow

great minds think alike. That's what I was thinking-it's to keep us contained.

[flaminbats]

37. How else can Bush bring back the military draft? n/t

[Miss Chybil]

49. It does seem like we're slipping into the control

an "East German" type regime, doesn't it.

[AspenRose]

56. So much for the 21st Century Underground Railroad.....

eom

[Generator]

62. Paranoia underground

Unite! My first thought.

[maddezmom]

2. why stop at walls at borders

why don't we just build a dome? :sarcasm:

[tsuki]

28. Well, where I live we have many walled in communities with

security guards and patrols.

[ret5hd]

34. just be sure to remind them...

someday those gates may be locked from the outside.

[Voltaire99]

58. LOL! Nice one. (nt)

[SammyBlue]

50. Because you forgot the 100 miles of mines on the water borders along with:

1. The anti submarine guards
   
2. The anti-aircraft guns or SAMs to shoot foreign jets out of the sky (Curse you, British Airways)
   
3. The INS shooting anyone does not present a valid form of American ID on the spot
   
4. Satellite lasers to blow up anything a SAM misses
   
5. A police officer in every house to make sure there are no foreigners or un-American talk
   
6. A shadow police to remove those people in the middle of the night
   
7. A shadow court to trial and convict them
   
8. A shadow prison to torture them
   
9. A shadow death chamber to kill them
   
10. Speakers everywhere broadcasting "We will Protect you! We will save you" over and over again.
    

1984, we're all ready there!!!

[tularetom]

3. Uh, Duncan, ya know those guys

who gave all that money to you and the Dukester? well, they want you to shut the fuck up about these goddamn fences. How the hell are they gonna be able to keep paying you if they can't hire illegals for $5 an hour, you dumbass.

[KamaAina]

4. "Mr. Hunter, tear down this wall!"

Cripes. The Berlin Wall episode was perhaps the only lucid moment of the entire Reagan presidency, and now his heirs want to recreate the wall right here at home.

:grr: :banghead: :nuke:

[cmd]

33. My first thought, too.

Ah, the things fear will do to people.

[stevedeshazer]

5. No wall too high, nor bar too low

Hasn't he been indicted yet?

[Bozita]

6. insanity at a new level

[uppityperson]

7. Oh give me a break.

There is no way. Sorry, this country is just too big to be able to pull that off.

[Thom Little]

8. Can you say "pork barrel spending"? Is there no end to conservative waste?

[MisterP]

9. It Can't Happen Here

[TankLV]

65. Love the sarcasm!

Uh - you WERE being sarcastic I hope, right?

[wordpix2]

10. wonder how many billions THAT will cost? Fencing BC-AK-WA border -INSANE

That border is full of rocky mountains that meet numerous waterways---how insane is this?

[Ouabache]

16. probably no more billion$$ than the levees and dykes around Norleans

that they DON'T want to rebuild correctly, if at all.

[TomInTib]

11. Howz about a string of snow forts? Let the Minutemen go shrink

what's left of their balls and play soldier at the same time.

Maybe Hunter could do a tour or two.

[Up2Late]

12. Duncan Hunter knows his days "on the outside" are numbered.

I can't all the crap he's been trying to pull lately.:crazy:

[Thom Little]

13. edited

edited

[neverforget]

14. So when do we get the landmines to go along with the wall?

You know it's coming with these a-holes.

[drdtroit]

15. I didn't realize that Halliburton's in the chain-link biz. n/t

[beam me up scottie]

17. Bingo.

Somebody must be.

[mbperrin]

68. There! An answer that makes sense!!

Can we get it with that plastic weave stuff in different colors? But will the razor wire clash? Heavens, so many decisions.....

[HuffleClaw]

18. ahhhahhaahaaaa

what a joke. but hilarious that it happens to arise during our canadian election campaign. our conservative guy, harper, has been trying his best to convince folks that his policy isn't just recycled american republican pap.

[dw]

20. What to Consider When Installing a Lethal Electrified Fence

Some happy thoughts from http://www.lattatech.com/article_lethal.htm

...

A perimeter of one mile in a rectangular layout with a single opening at the vehicle sallyport will usually cost about $1 million dollars. This figure is not proportional to the length of perimeter, since the control and electrification system is a significant base cost. To this number the costs of special conditions such as environment, construction access, control/monitor scenarios, fence modifications, and other detection systems must be added.

...

A lethal fence does not discriminate between humans and other living creatures and thus animal kill can be significant. Physical measures such as barriers can be taken to keep the animals away from the fence.

In the full time lethal design a stinger wire is run along the grade beam to deter rodents from passing over the grade beam and coming in contact with the electrified wires. In both designs, holes or slots are placed in the grade beam to allow rodents to pass through the grade beam safely. Larger animals cannot pass through the fence without being electrified. These larger animals such as birds are the animals that are most threatened. These birds feed on the rodents that are safely passing through the barrier. The birds are mostly likely electrified while standing on the ground and pecking at a wire.

... (There's much more, which I'm sure would be a turn-on for Mr. Hunter. But then there's a strong possibility he'll be studying this subject from the inside in the not-too-distant future.)

[shanti]

21. hey wait a minute!

didn't they just report that they were planning a mexico border wall too? we're being boxed in!

[Hekate]

22. "Mr. Bush, tear down that wall!"

Criminal idiocy. The lunatics are running the asylum.

Ironically I just finished watching The Sound of Music, where the Von Trapp family slips away through the mountains when Austria goes insane.

Our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves at how fast our people are consenting to be imprisoned in our own land.

Hekate

[Peace Patriot]

27. There is no consent involved. Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft

machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

----------

"Our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves at how fast our people are consenting to be imprisoned in our own land." --Hekate

[burrowowl]

23. How many billions?

I don't think the U$ can afford a wall along the Canadian border or the Mexican border. NUTS!

[No Exit]

24. Damn Canadians coming here for our jobs!

Desperate Canadians coming here to escape poverty and dirt and oppression! :sarcasm:

[area51]

38. No, not our jobs.

It's those pesky Canadians, trying to sneak in their unsafe drugs into the U.S. </sarcasm>

[No Exit]

45. They want to poison us! We never take drugs!!!

Those 24/7, constant, all-pervasive, screaming ads for prescription drugs for every conceivable "ailment", both real and imaginary--all that's just a front to fool our enemies!!

[No Exit]

26. Welcome to Bushworld, in which the U.S. becomes an Iron Curtain nation

Citizens of Bushworld are not allowed to travel freely to the outside world, nor is the outside world allowed to travel freely within the confines of Bushworld.

[Peace Patriot]

29. The Bushites' ideal society is Guantanamo Bay. Writ large.

What's with all this wall business? (--besides $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?)

Israel thinks it can survive within a walled medieval fortress bristling with armaments, surrounded by hostile neighbors. Even walling themselves off on the INSIDE with a snaky barrier in and out of Palestinian hovels, slicing off bits of prime ag land. You'd think a culture that was 5,000 years old would have more wisdom.

Now OUR Neo-Consters are chiming in, with THREE THOUSAND MILES OF WALL to keep out those Canadian communists.

You know what? I'm more and more thinking that secession is the answer. I've heard they've got projects on it in Vermont and New Hampshire. I'm in Calif. Let's say we build a wall right down the eastern border of Washington, Oregon and Calif, tell the "red" states to go @#$%! themselves, and form a federation with Canada and Mexico.

(Now I'm the first person to say that we DON'T KNOW how the "red states" voted, what with the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in Bush's electronic voting machines and all. I'm just speaking metaphorically, you understand. We could allow immigration of any "blue" people who want to leave Bushland, and screen out the "red" people at the border.) (Why would "reds" want to leave Bushland? To benefit from the Western Federation's universal health care plan, of course, our superior schools, our technological advancement, and our great prosperity, absent the need to pay Halliburton and other Bushite parasites billions and billions and billions of dollars for nothing. But we would not let them in without some sort of DNA testing for evidence of "intelligent design.")

[Voltaire99]

60. Too damn true!

The Israeli analogy is appropriate, too.

The animating spirit of America has become a twisted zealotry, best expressed through invasion and fortress walls. We desperately need to turn back this impulse, but the political will scarcely exists even to briefly stymie it.

If we allow this madness to concretize itself through more masturbatory symbolism--the "Freedom Fry Tower" planned for the WTC site, or, even more extreme, this ludicrous proposed wall--then it will be all the harder to steer America back to reason.

That, of course, is the right wing goal. They want to believe their moment of ascendancy came on 9/11, the birth of their own thousand year Reich. And they are trying, even against waning public interest, to lock in that moment.

Much about our cultural future is going to be decided in this decade. The correct moves--withdrawing our imperial armies, ceasing this phony "war on terrorism," ceasing to spy on Americans, and dialing back the insane rhetoric issuing from virtually every mouth in Washington--can liberate us. They can restore us. The wrong ones will condemn us to an era that will make the lowest pits of McCarthyism look good by comparison.

[Vinca]

30. Let me know when Duncan starts building his wall.

I want to be sure I'm on the other side before it's completed.

[leftchick]

31. Duncan Hunter is a fucking lunatic!

:argh:

[no_hypocrisy]

32. F'ing hypocrisy! We celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall and 15+ years

later we follow Israel's example and propose building our own.

[Straight Shooter]

35. "It can't happen here!"

:sarcasm:

Whatever happened to land of the free? Being enclosed by fences turns us into cattle.

[leesa]

36. Can we please hurry up Mr. Hunter's criminal indictments please?

Hello Amerika? Can you say East Berlin?

[Gregorian]

39. Fortress America.

When will people realize that there is always a simple, easy, peaceful solution to problems. That is if they are even problems.

I for one do not want to be inside a walled in America.

Do we have the resources?
Should we be using our money on PRODUCTIVE things?
Is our standard of living driving "illegal" immigration?

This idea is so stupid, I can guarantee it will be done. And at great cost. Much greater than planned.

America is very sick. The people of America don't care that for every four hours, they only get to keep three, and the gov't takes one. That's a lot of money. And it's being thrown into evil things and wasteful things.

Starving children deserve being fed before that idiotic wall is even a theory. Stupid politicians.

[CornField]

40. CornField studying wall-climbing course brochure

Just in case...

[truth2power]

41. This is so transparent..

First thing I thought of was that this sounds an awful lot like the Berlin Wall. And we know that wall wasn't built to keep the West Germans OUT.

[Kolesar]

42. Would lead to extinction of Grizzly Bears

and other species that depend upon crossing the border to get to suitable seasonal habit and mating opportunities. The US populations of grizzlies and wolves would be at risk, for one.

[kitty1]

43. America; Is it something we said?

Passport requirements, walls. This is all getting just a little too George Orwellian for me.
I'm more concerned about the invisible wall going up lately though. Our PM has a tendency to shoot from the hip with his remarks and it worries me somewhat. You can sense the tension going on there.
I'm worried that if there aren't more concessions made all around, things will sour more so between our countries. I really don't want to see that happen.
Not counting Bush and his policies, Canadians genuinely admire Americans for their passion towards their convictions. It's admirable and we need more of that. It's a fine balance both ways, and we don't want to disrupt our relationship dynamics.
2008 Hurry up!

[NYC]

53. Welcome to DU, kitty1.

Just what we need: A Berlin wall to keep us from escaping to Canada.

I suppose that no matter what our governments do, we'll all still get along, as we have in the past. A long time ago, I used to travel back and forth to Canada without any identification at all.

It's a pity we can't have politicians who represent us.

:hi:

[kitty1]

63. Thanks NYC, glad to be here

[pschoeb]

44. Built by private contractors, who will hire illegal immigrants to build it

The extra money they make from paying workers crap will be kickbacked to their Repug overlords

[Barkley]

46. Money for levees not for walls

Where are the grand proposals to re-build New Orleans?

By the time they finish building walls across our borders
there will be tunnels beneath them.

America is not being over-run by immigrants.

Many of these people come here to do the jobs (at rates)
U.S. citizens won't.

[Hyernel]

47. Slave labor to build it?

[agincourt]

48. If worst comes to worst,

we can always get politicians in office who want to stop terrorism, rather than LIHOP types who want a permanent war on terra.

[Pastiche423]

51. Your comment made no sense

[truth2power]

52. Makes sense to me...

The Cabal currently in power doesn't really want to stop terrorism. They want to continue to promote chaos and keep the people stupid and terrified.

While we are thus distracted, they can advance their agenda which is to loot this country of all its wealth and turn us all into serfs.

[Avis]

64. They must be kidding

We live on the MN/MB border - what would they build it out of? Winters are really cold - last winter -46 and concrete cracks, our roads cost a lot because the ground shifts. Snow builds up - high enough that sometimes my dogs can get over 7' fences. What a waste of money, as if it were a good idea in the first place. What would happen at Lake of the Woods, all the rivers etc - and the NW angle? I don't think these people have ever been to the rural areas on the border.

[TankLV]

66. Boy, that'll look nice going down the middle of the Niagara River and thru

the middle of the Falls!

Wonder what color the nighttime illumination display will be!

And Buffalo and Canada just finally agreed on a nice new design for the - gasp - "Peace Bridge".

Can you say "Bush "Freedom" Bridge"?

Just impeccable timing for the Niagara Frontier, as usual.

Simply underwhelming.

[bikebloke]

54. Another Halliburton give-away

For the past year, they've been laying a pipe in front of the Lincoln Memorial. And they don't look even close to finishing. Imagine how long it will take to wall the border. An eternal hand out. And it's our money.

[wickerwoman]

57. Guess it's time to tear down the Peace Arch.

I remember driving up to Vancouver when I was kid and my parents pointing out that it marked the longest undefended border in the world. I thought it was really, really cool.

One more black mark to set down in the Bush legacy.

[sakabatou]

59. Candian Bacon all over again!

[jazzjunkysue]

61. Can't wait to see them wall off the great lakes and St. lawrence river.

That will be a good trick.

As it is, my family drives our major appliances and such across the boarder in boats to avoid paying duty. It's not hard: You put it on the boat in the US and tie up to a dock in Canada. And, voila!

These morons need to go back to kindergarden.

[Not a robought]

67. Will that include fencing off Point Roberts?

It's a 4x3 mile area on the southwest tip of BC just south of Vancouver that is intersected by the 49th parallel and belongs to Washington State but is only accessible through Canada and mostly populated by Canadian residents. The beach community there is great and you can inadvertently "cross the border" when going for a dip in the ocean.

I have a feeling the more south you get, the more clueless you are to the border communities. Highly unlikely this chest thumping will find any traction and more than anything shines light on what ignorant idiots like Duncan Hunter are all about.

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