Unclear on the National Guard Concept?

V:

Aren't you making it a little complicated for Hagel?

Posted by Frank at May 15, 2006 8:46 AM

I was at a Lowes home improvement store yesterday. When a customer needs help in a department, an announcement is played through the public address system to let the employess know.

For example:

"Customer assistance needed in PLUMBING."

Normally I tune this out unless I'm the customer in plumbing. But this time, the message repeated itself in Spanish.

So my question is, who the hell was the Spanish message for? This announcement isn't for customers, it's for EMPLOYEES!

Just how many people working at Lowes cannot speak English even on a rudimentary level that allows them to understand a term like plumbing? Is it such a high number that it necessitates bi-lingual paging? I also noticed that nearly everything in the store was in two languages. This seems to have happened almost overnight.

Add this to the experience I had last week when I accidentally pushed the ESPANOL INSTRUCTIONES button on the self-checkout line at the grocery store. It was as though I was being ordered around by the disembodied voice of Emilio Zapata.

If I wanted to live in Mexico, I would have moved there. I didn't expect Mexico to move to me.

Does this make me an evil hate-filled villian?

Posted by Mumblix Grumph at May 15, 2006 10:48 AM

It's not the GOP itself we need to punish. Just a few particularly clueless incumbents who need to be replaced.

Repeat after me: Don't Vote RINO.

Posted by Michael Andreyakovich at May 15, 2006 12:11 PM

One role of the national guard may be to protect the border from invading armies, but that is not the situation here. This is an issue of law enforcement: apprehending and arresting people at the border. That is not the role that the national guard has been trained for. To use them as such degrades the lethal training that they have had, as well as puts them in a role to enforce the law that they do not excel at.

Remember that the national guard are part-time soldiers. They have been called away from their homes to serve excellently as they have in Iraq already. We need to save the remaining guard units we have stateside for emergency purposes, such as hurricanes.

Posted by Charlie at May 15, 2006 12:40 PM

Charlie,
Some units of the national guard did exercises just north of the border several years ago and were instructed to apprehend any illegals they happened to come across. They did indeed find and apprehend some illegals, sorry, no time to look for a link. Something along that line could be done, i.e. rotating various states' units there for "training" for a few weeks, to avoid long-term deployments.

But I don't agree with your eliding of protecting the national border with "law enforcement"; the latter is usually a matter for state or local authorities, and protecting the border is the job of the Federal government. The Border Patrol is overwhelmed even when its leadership is ordering its agents to do their job properly (sarcasm, referring to their orders to leave posts, according to reports last week). Most of the time, it is not literally the Mexican Army coming across, but it is a fact that we are being invaded across the border, every day. You may not view that as an "emergency", but you are probably in the minority.

Posted by Morenuancedthanyou at May 15, 2006 1:19 PM

That wasn't really Chuck E. Cheese. It was actually his little brother Dick.

Posted by Time for a Primary Challenge at May 15, 2006 7:46 PM

All this talk of patrolling the border makes me glad my son's in Baghdad where he's safe from both the Mexican border gangs and our incompetent elected officials.

Posted by Xixi at May 16, 2006 5:31 AM

I think we need to focus on WHY we need to protect our borders. Controlling illegal immigration, in my opinion, is secondary. When thousands of poor Mexicans can slip through the Southwest deserts and disappear into our interior, what would stop 10 or 15 Jihadists from doing the same? A flood of illegal immigrants, to me, is only an indicator of our border security (or lack there of).
So let's get control of who comes into our country. Identify them using biometrics technology, and anyone who is not a citizen, remove them promptly.
Although the situation is somewhat different, I'll remind your readers that the National Guard was deployed to the Mexican border in 1916 to chase down Poncho Via. I guess someone could argue that situation was a law enforcement situation.

Posted by Toby at May 16, 2006 6:52 AM

Well, I see the maskirovka is working.

The National Guard won't be "guarding the border." They'll be providing "support functions" for the Border Patrol. Arizona Governor Napolitano did something similar - send AZ National Guardsmen "to the border" - to do oil changes on Border Patrol vechicles.

The National Guardsmen are to be sent "to the border" to "free up" more Border Patrol agents to work in the field.

If you believe that, I've got the deed to this bridge in Brooklyn...

Posted by Kevin Baker at May 16, 2006 7:46 AM

For years we have listened to the socialist catch phrase "Women and Minorities". Who does that leave? Ummm...Oh yeah, the much reviled and constantly ridiculed White American Male. The men that work the levers and turn the wheels, build the future and protect our women and children.

Last night, President Bush fired the first shot in what I believe is the Second American Civil War. The first casualty will be the already on life support Republican Party.

A scant six hours later, the second shot was fired by Spanish invaders, through the window of an Awfful House restaurant in North Carolina, at several white men, one injured by flying glass, as the invaders drove off after a heated discussion about immigration.

The debate about immigration is over. It's not that the political class doesn't hear the voice of the people, they really just don't care. The Bushes and Kennedys didn't booze and shmooze thier way through the Ivy League to learn how to be just like us.

The shocking predictions of the Heritage Foundation of 120 to 160 million new invaders in twenty years, as a result of this so-called compromise, spells the end of America as we know it. Put more simply, we are on the road to the extinction of white people. This, of course, is a stated goal of the Spanish invaders and the suicidal left.

That first shot will be clearly heard along the by-ways and dirt Roads of this great land. The left and it's minions have already destroyed the core of our urban centers. That's ok, they can have them. An America they don't understand or care about exists in fly over country. This is White America and it will fight back.

You probably won't hear the B.S. about how we can't round up 12 million illegals when they come for our 200 million firearms. Don't worry, the battle will be fully engaged by then. White males against the government.

God bless America. MOLON LABE

Posted by DirtRagsRanch at May 16, 2006 12:34 PM

Vice President Cheney was on the radio this afternoon and he said that one of the missions for the National Guard was for engineer troops to build fences. He said that the San Diego Fence was built by Guard troops doing their Annual training of two weeks.

If you dont think much can be done in two weeks, remember the Nationa1 Guard's 104th Fighter group in the Bosnian air war. The 104th deployed for annual training (incrementally over a three month period) from Massachusetts to Aviano Italy and proceeded to train for combat by flying combat missions in their A-10s. They provided combat patrols for three months on a two week annual training schedule.

If the National Guard can fly combat missions on their annual training, it seems likely they can build a good fence. This is not you father's National Guard!

Posted by rich at May 16, 2006 1:54 PM

As far as fences go, every 4H club and Boy Scout troop in any of the American municipalities which touch on the border could start building their part of the wall...and eventually it would stretch all along the frontier. Nothing like provate enterprise to get it done and done quickly.

If we don't stop the flood, we'll end up like Saudi Arabia, with a slave class...we're getting there already, only these slaves carry weapons.

Posted by dymphna at May 17, 2006 11:15 PM