The lamestream media told you:

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff is being attacked by critics for using his authority to bypass “37 environmental-, historic- and cultural-protection laws” that stand in the way of building a partial fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In other news, high-tech fencing planned by Boeing and others is a complete disaster, with extensive deployments failing to operate as promised. Spokespersons have indicated it will take another three years to make the system work and get it up. Sen. John McCain called it, “a disgrace.”

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Say what? There are how many laws interfering with the defense of our border? These laws were enacted by who exactly? It’s going to take how long to make a camera-and-sensor system work that physically blocks no one? What private business would tolerate a three-year delay in any project of any kind, let alone one that affects national security?

The reporter on the story above, Sean Holstege of Gannett’s Arizona Republic, reports two days later that the Minutemen are on the border for their April muster, and the two groups are relaying detailed accurate information to Border Patrol agents, using store-bought walkie-talkies, and a new technological marvel called a cell phone, a sort of phone that works entirely without wires.

“The small scale operations may seem quaint,” Holstege writes, “but the border groups maintain that their cameras, which transmit wirelessly to the web, have led to the arrest of hundreds of border crossers in recent months.” The Border Patrol welcomes the non-intrusive, non-confrontational assistance of the citizen volunteers, according to the story. Officially, the government doesn’t approve of actions it does not control, and which make it look bad.

“Federal officials said they haven’t seen the volunteer cameras and couldn’t comment,” two obvious lies, carefully reported by Holstege.

Anyone with a fast web connection can volunteer to work the remote cameras from their homes, anywhere in the country. A similar Homeland Security plan, “Project 28,” was delayed for eight months by technical glitches with satellite uplinks.

The lengthy story, full of interesting details, fails to identify how a person can volunteer, but does point out that a full Minuteman deployment on the 1,950-mile border could cost as little as $40 million, while the government system, which doesn’t work, is estimated at $1.2 billion, before cost overruns, additional delays and routine snafus.

The story:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0404techno0404.html

To volunteer:

http://www.borderops.com/index.php

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