Thursday, February 21, 2008

Once more, Bush watches out for we the little people

In light of the most recent revelation about the border wall being constructed between Texas and Mexico, I can only thank my lucky stars knowing I'll be far better protected from the incursions of undocumenteds the terrorists who may dare to cross our Texas border than those less fortunate than I, i.e., those fat cat rich folks who will suffer the the onslaught of intruders through their property. I'm referring to the following from The Texas Observer article:

Holes in the Wall

Homeland Security won’t say why the border wall is bypassing the wealthy and politically connected.

Melissa del Bosque | February 18, 2008 | Web Exclusive

As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.

Tamez, a nursing director at the University of Texas at Brownsville, is one of the last of the Spanish land grant heirs in Cameron County. 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 Homeland Security wants to put an 18-foot steel and concrete wall through what remains.

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?”

Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.

The complete article can be seen at The Texas Observer.

Dada finds it astounding that Homeland Security and the Bush administration are willing to sacrifice the wealthiest and biggest contributors to American society while protecting us, the poorest. As the article further points out, less than 70 miles north of the Brownsville wall gap, another gap appears. It's at the 6,000 acre property development of Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt who recently donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to build the George W. Bush presidential library.

Wouldn't you think the least Bush could do is see Hunt's Sharyland Plantation in the tiny border town of Granjeno, population 313, is afforded the same protection as the properties of us poor folks enjoys?

2 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

I have a sinking feeling those "unprotected" areas owned by Hunt Bros, Bush Bros, and wealthy golf resorts will be using the "private security forces" that our govt uses on a cost-plus basis. Kind of gives new urgency to chip your ball out of a sandtrap protected by blackwater snipers before they decide to use your pink plaid golf sweater for some hole-in-one target practice.

Dada said...

Oh, of course, how could I have overlooked blackwater? Who knows? They may have found a way to add real excitement to the game for duffers. Certainly play through times will dramatically decrease for those holes fronting the border gap. And for the blackwater boys it'll be like a giant "Plinko!" game or Cheney skeet shoot.