Here's what I thought you'd like to hear about today:

1. Common Sense in the Senate on Immigration - The conservative minority in great deliberative body speaks out
2. What is really going on in Guantanamo - An eyewitness account
3. Fences Work - The San Diego Experience

Listen
Subscribe
Add Wizbang Podcast to iTunes

Common Sense in the Senate

I subscribe to the Senate Republican Conference Podcast, which is a grab bag of windbags, pontificators, spinners, and fools who populate the U.S. Senate on the Republican side. Every week I get to hear Senator Grassley talk about what pork barrel project he is promoting for his home state of Iowa, or Senator Trent Lott's report from Mississippi on what Elk's club meeting he attended last week. But lately they have also been sending down the pipe some terrific material that gives me great hope for the future of our nation. No kidding. Two podcasts last week renewed my confidence in the Senate. Fresh on the recent Senate vote for an open borders immigration bill, three conservative senators came to the microphone for a conference call with reporters on how they were going to recover from the Ted Kennedy & John McCain sponsored abomination that the senate passed. George Allen, Jim DeMint, and Johnny Isakson held a news conference on the immigration vote. You won't find three better advocates in the Senate for common sense and responsible government. At least on this issue. Listen to this clip from the start, where Jim DeMint from South Carolina summarized the state of the immigration debate. I'm willing to forgive his use of the word "irregardless". Shudder. He captures some of the key ideas I agree with in a clear and down to earth manner.

Play clip.

Later on, a reporter from his home state, who had drunk the anti-anti-immigration demonstrator's kool aid, asked a clueless question. Listen to Jim DeMint hit out of the park.

Play clip.

Why have we only heard from Lindsey Graham on the talking heads shows, while intelligent, articulate, focused senators like Jim DeMint are ignored by the media? This is crazy.

What is really going on in Guantanamo

The second Senate Republican Conference Podcast I received last week was about the Cuban detention center.

Speaking of smart and ignored senators, how about Bob Bennett of Utah? I travel to Salt Lake City a lot on business visiting customers, and on a trip during the election season in 2004, I was greeted by the goofiest campaign billboards I have ever seen, advertising the candidacy for the Republican nominee, then two-term Senator Bob Bennett.

Utah is a Republican state. Like Idaho, there is no opposition party to speak of. Democrats in Utah and Idaho are generally far more conservative than Republicans anywhere else. So, the Republican nominee for Senate from the State of Utah in 2004 was going to win. It was only a question of by how much. Polls predicted a 40 point win. A month before the election, he had out-raised his opponent by $2m to $100k. On Election Day, he won by a vote of 68%-29%.

But the billboard really got me. It was a picture of the Senator, big smile, big ears, and it simply said: "Bold. Brilliant. Beanpole." Well, Senator Bennett is more than a beanpole. He led a delegation of politicians from the U.S. and Europe to the Guantanamo Detention Center in Cuba last week. His news conference, which I received thanks to the Senate Republican Conference Podcast, was enlightening. It's a far cry from what the media or the UN is reporting, without the benefit of actually visiting the center. After Bennett, you will hear Congressman Dennis Cardoza, Democrat from California.

Play Clip.

So the only fault the Democratic Congressman can find is that it costs $200k per detainee, not counting the trial costs. How much did the World Trade Center cost? I can't remember. And he is concerned about how trials can be accomplished. I am confused about the trial issue. If someone is fighting a war, under the direction of military officers, and they attack their enemy, what crimes have they committed? I can't think of any. It's war, after all, and you are supposed to kill your enemy. Well, that's what the combatants at Guantanamo are accused of doing: waging war. It's not a crime, it's a war. That doesn't mean you should let them go. It just means that the reason for keeping them in a detention center is so they don't continue to wage war against us. You can't have a trial when there is no crime, so we should stop worrying about trials. Just keep them locked up, until they die or the war is over. It might be a little while longer, but I frankly don't give a damn.

Fences Work

"Is there ever a case where an open border is preferable to a fenced border?"

On Wednesday's the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on border security. Chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) presided. David Aguilar, chief of border patrol, Customs and Border Protection, Dept. of Homeland Security and others testified before the committee. The primary purpose of the hearing was to hear about how the National Guard would be used in the President's immigration plan. That subject occupied most of the hearing, with the representative of the Guard speaking about how they have worked with the border patrol in the past, and that there would not be Guard troops shooting illegal aliens. There was one exchange that I watched while getting dressed on Sunday that refuted the hysterical open borders complaints about a fence to protect our southern border. Some say it would not work, others that it is racist or xenophobic or worse. The fact is that it works. It has to be geographically appropriate, but it would save lives. Listen to this exchange between Chairman Hunter and Border Patrol Chief Aguilar that I snagged off C-SPAN. This segment is from 2 hours and 13 minutes into the three hour session. At this point there were only a few congressmen in the room. Hunter is trying to get Aguilar to admit that a fence would work, but Aguilar wants to make sure it is the right kind of fence, and not require too much of his limited personnel to manage. Hunter has to drag it out of Aguilar, but after ten minutes he agrees that a fence would save lives, stop incursions of Mexican military, and prevent drug smuggling. It just makes sense.

Play clip.

Hunter is trying to get a simple answer to a complex problem. But clearly a fence will help. Aguilar wants special kinds of fences in each geographical area to maximize effectiveness and minimize costs. But he still wants a fence. All the hysteria over "concertina wire" is just not relevant.