Border Fence To Be Completed

The San Diego/Tijuana border fence, long stalled by environmentalist lawsuits and delaying tactics by the hyper-authoritarian California Coastal Commission, is being rammed through -- at long, long last -- by the Department of Homeland Security.

Border Patrol chief David Aguilar puts it right:

"Bottom line, this is about border security. We're addressing the vulnerabilities here in closing a border to potential terrorists."

Fie on that, sez the LATimes. True to its colors, the LAT piece on it did not quote a single private sector advocate for tougher protections on our borders, but did quote the San Diego Audubon Society; the lawyer for the Sierra Club, Audubon, the California Native Plant Society, San Diego Baykeeper and others; and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The reporter apparently missed the mandatory diversity-in-sources training class, since MALDEF and La Raza weren't quoted.

Peter Douglas, ex. dir. of the Coastal Commission, who has for years put the ecological health of one gulch above the safety of the American people, said,

"This is a clear victory for the politics of fear. They were intent on circumventing all the environmental protections we spent decades putting into place. They were able to get through the back door what they couldn't get through the front. And there's nothing we can do about it except mourn the day."

Perhaps he should rethink that "going through the back door" phrase.