April 30, 2009
BORDER MONEY GOING TO WRONG PLACES
Washington - Madam Speaker, Homeland Security is going to spend $740 million to beef up legal ports of entry into the United States. We absolutely need more border security. The problem is the bureaucrats who have probably never been to either of our borders are sending most of that money to little-used crossings, including one that just handles two cars and sees only four people a day. Many of these 37 crossings that are getting money average merely 50 cars and 85 people a day.
Contrast that with the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo legal crossing. It is receiving no additional money, and it is the largest legal port of entry in North America. It is vital to U.S.-Mexico trade. Over 7,000 18-wheelers a day cross that border in each direction. Trucks wait 2 hours to come into the United States. The vast majority of these trucks are not screened due to manpower and money issues.
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April 29, 2009
ARE WE SAFER?
Madam Speaker, a lot of hype has occurred about the first hundred days of the new government. The question to be asked is, is America safer today than a hundred days ago?
Well, the government has determined to close Guantanamo Bay prison in spite of evidence these terrorists still want to harm us; the United States is considering canceling the development of the most advanced fighter in world history, the F-22; foreign computer hackers have gotten into the Defense Department system; North Korea launched its first ballistic missile while we did nothing but object; the United States now wants to scrap its missile defense system in Poland because the Russians are complaining, even though the system was designed to protect us from Iranian missiles, not the Russians.
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April 28, 2009
HOMELAND SECURITY PARANOIA
Mr. Speaker, according to a recently released secret memo by Homeland Security, America now faces new serious threats. I am not referring to al Qaeda, the Somali pirates, or radical Islamic terrorists. The memo states we are in danger from people who are concerned about our porous borders, gun owners, returning military veterans, the recent tax protestors at the TEA parties, and those who want to protect the unborn.
Mr. Speaker, these Americans simply disagree with the administration on certain issues. But by disagreeing, they are now labeled and vilified by Homeland Security as extremists and threats to America. So because of Homeland Security paranoia, is the cloak and dagger agency going to watch these people and spy on them under the guise of national security? We shall see.
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April 27, 2009
WATER SAVES LIVES
Mr. Speaker, what do six terrorist attacks, Gitmo, dead Americans, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed--also known as KSM--have in common? Waterboarding.
Last week, several top secret national security papers were released to the public. We learned from these documents that waterboarding is apparently saving American lives. After being waterboarded numerous times at Gitmo, KSM, the killer responsible for planning 9/11, started talking. He told the CIA about plans to hijack an airplane and crash it into a skyscraper in Los Angeles and kill Americans. He disclosed the 17-member terrorist cell charged with executing that plan. He also exposed plans of another terrorist cell in New York plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.
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April 23, 2009
SAN JACINTO DAY
Mr. Speaker, growing up in Houston, Texas, I always liked this day, April 21, because it was a school holiday. I believed there was no school because it was my mother's birthday. She never told me differently. I was proud to be the only kid that had a mother with a school holiday.
It was only later that I came to find out that the holiday also represented the most important military victory in Texas history, one that occurred near my hometown of Houston. It was a unique holiday for Texas called ``San Jacinto Day.''
It all started when Texas declared independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836. Texans held off the invading Mexican army at a place called the Alamo. They were led by a commander by the name of William Barret Travis, a 27-year-old lawyer from South Carolina. The 187 volunteers held out for 13 days and inflicted vicious casualties on the invaders. But Santa Anna, dictator of Mexico, was able to storm over the Alamo walls on March 6, 1836, and killed all the remaining defenders. He went looking for the rest of the Texans that wanted independence from Mexico. General Sam Houston had been building the Texas army, and Santa Anna's three armies from Mexico were giving chase. The Texans and their families fled east in what historians call the ``runaway scrape.''
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