This Could Be Great, if it's Ever Completed Once It's Started

Or it could become the US Government's version of the Boston Big Dig project, or our very own Chicago Deep Tunnel. Just another multibilliondollar boondoggle that creates lots of jobs and contracts for the well connected and takes a decade to complete. (geez, that sounded like it came out of the mouth of a liberal, I'm just tired of governmental waste in this post 9-11 world as are many others)

Or it could be the answer to the border problem in the long run. In the meantime good old-fashioned border patrol agents and the National Guard troops that were promised and yet not fully delivered will have to be the stopgap measure.

The Seattle Times: Billions at stake in border contract: "WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is expected next month to choose an industry consortium to erect a high-tech security shield along the U.S. borders, launching one of the federal government's most ambitious public-works projects in years.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls the proposed Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet) the 'most comprehensive effort in the nation's history' to gain control of more than 6,000 miles of border with Mexico and Canada, and 2,000 miles of coastline.

SBInet is a centerpiece of President Bush's efforts to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border at a time Congress is locked in a struggle to revise the nation's immigration laws. Administration officials say they intend to proceed with the security net regardless of the outcome of the debate over immigration legislation.

The multibillion-dollar undertaking has ignited a contract battle among industry teams headed by four leading defense companies — Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon — and Ericsson, the Swedish-based telecommunications giant with U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas." full article

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