Reduced overtime stymies Border Patrol

This report from the Washington Times lends credibility to Senator Jon Kyl's comments how Obama told him that he would not enforce Border Security until amnesty was passed. Now we learn that overtime pay for Border Patrol agents is reduced to the point they cannot do their jobs. Where are the increased National Guard troops promised by Obama to Arizona?




There is no doubt that Senator Kyl is telling the truth after learning that overtime pay for Border Patrol has been reduced by Border Patrol Headquarters. Obama and his inept Administration once again prove how out of touch they are with the vast majority of American people who want something done about all the illegals in this Country including full Border Security.

Border Patrol agents are now complaining that the cutback of overtime will hinder them getting their jobs done. Why would Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano authorize a memo to cut back on overtime if not to hinder Border Security? Any thinking person knows this comes from the top (Obama/Napolitano) not from the head of Border Security in DC. This Administration is now leaving the Arizona wide open for terrorists to come across the border with the lack of agents and now lack of overtime pay for Border Patrol.

This action on the part of Obama reminds you of a spoiled brat who didn't get his way so now he is taking his football home. Maybe should have said golf balls instead of football.

Reduced overtime stymies Border Patrol
Edict said to curtail patrols


Press A U.S. Border Patrol agent patrols the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico. The Border Patrol has quietly reduced its current force of available agents along the border because of cuts in the amount of overtime hours the agents can work.

By Jerry Seper

7:57 p.m., Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The U.S. Border Patrol has quietly reduced its current force of available agents along the U.S.-Mexico border by cutting the overtime hours they can work even as the Obama administration is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to hire 1,000 new agents, and Congress and the public are clamoring for beefed-up border security.

Several rank-and-file and senior agents told The Washington Times that a new overtime directive issued at the agency's Washington headquarters will limit their ability to get their jobs done, reduce coverage during peak smuggling periods and allow more criminals to avoid apprehension.

"By lowering the statutory overtime cap nearly 15 percent through the current administrative restrictions, top-level managers in the Border Patrol are depriving Americans of desperately needed coverage along the border at a time of national crisis," said T.J. Bonner, a veteran agent who heads the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 15,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents.

Because of the nature of the job, most Border Patrol agents average at least two hours overtime a day and the agency, as part of its ongoing recruitment effort, has promised what it called an "excellent opportunity for overtime pay." The overtime cutback comes at a time that violence against the agents, according to Department of Homeland Security records, is up 31 percent this fiscal year.

More than 200 Border Patrol agents have been assaulted since October, mostly with rocks. On June 8, one agent fatally shot a 15-year-old during a rock attack.

The administration's request for "urgent and essential" new funding came in a letter Tuesday from President Obama to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The White House wants $500 million in emergency spending for the border this year, including $297 million to hire 1,000 new agents.

While the Border Patrol is staffing up, an effort that could take several months, Mr. Obama has said he would post up to 1,200 National Guard troops in the Southwest to provide assistance, though he has not yet provided a plan for deployment to border-state governors.

The decision to limit overtime hours is outlined in an April 29 memo from acting Border Patrol Chief Ronald D. Vitiello to all chief patrol agents and division chiefs. It mandates that they "effectively monitor and manage their employees' overtime levels" by cutting an existing overtime-salary cap.

Congress set the fiscal 2010 overtime cap for federal employees at $35,000, but the Vitiello memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, directs that "no employee will be authorized to exceed an overtime level of $30,000" without a specific waiver from the chief.

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican and a member of both the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, said he was "very concerned" about the directive's impact on the nation's borders.

Read More at Washington Times

McCain TV Ad: Complete the Danged Fence (Right on Senator)

In a new TV ad, Senator John McCain and Sheriff Paul Babeu discuss the McCain / Kyl 10 Point Border Security Plan.



This message from Senator McCain and Sheriff Babeau is right on target -- Obama and his Administration need to get their act together and complete the Border Fence but we are not holding our breath. We don't expect it to happen until Republicans take over control of Congress in 2010. Then they will probably have to override a veto by Obama but we can get it done if we keep pushing. Every last American needs to get behind this push for Border Security.

Bulding the remainder of fence to secure our southern border seems to have no priority from this Administration to get it finished. The border fence at El Paso shows it will work as they are keeping the drug wars in Juarez and not allowing them to cross into El Paso which has become one of the safest large cities in America.

Since a border fence has been shown to work, build it now -- the entire length of the southern border needs the fence like yesterday. Stop the influx of illegals into this Country NOW. Senator McCain is correct about Border Security.

This is another issue where we are hearing next to nothing from Napolitano except there is no money -- instead of wasting money propping up the Euro, we should be building the fence and there would be money left over from the $1 trillion they spent on the euro that failed..

In the meantime before the fence is completed, the National Guard needs activated and assigned to the southern border. The request has been made by Senators McCain, Kyl, and others but all we hear are crickets chirping out of Obama and Napolitano all the while more illegals are entering the United States.

Napolitano Sounds Hopeful Note on Oil Leak, but BP Says She Has Wrong Info

This Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is going to go down in history as someone who is asleep at the switch. She has to be the absolute worst Secretary of Homeland Security that this Country will ever have. We can see why the people of Arizona were so anxious for her to get the job and get her out of Arizona. Hard to believe she is in such an important position but maybe it is not important to Obama.

Napolitano was late visiting the Nashville flooding and now she is just getting around to going to the Gulf Coast after how many weeks? Maybe that picture of her during the State of the Union was more right then we knew at the time. She was asleep on the job then and looks like things haven't changed for as long as she takes to visit disaster areas. We expect her to look at the tornado damage in Oklahoma maybe next year or probably never since Oklahoma is a total Red State. Democrats will probably tell her to stay away -- at least the ones running for office.


She couldn't even get the right information on the amount of oil still being released as she said it is slowing when according to BP it is essentially the same flow. Wouldn't you think she would at least get that right? We think she needs fired with all her gaffes but she fits in perfectly with the rest of this inept Administration.

We thought Carter was bad with who hired for his cabinet but Obama has taken it to a new low with the women he has surrounded himself with. Do they make him feel superior? Napolitano, Seibilus, and Clinton all have a tendency to put their foot in their mouths from time to time.

Napolitano Sounds Hopeful Note on Oil Leak, but BP Says She Has Wrong Info
FOXNews.com

Homeland Security secretary said the spill is slowing and called it good news, but it turns out that might not be accurate.

AP

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressed hope Tuesday that the worst is over in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- but the experts may beg to differ.

Napolitano, on a trip to Alabama, said the spill is slowing down, and that tests indicated less oil and more natural gas was coming out of the broken well. She called that good news even though she admitted it hadn't been verified.

Turns out it might not be accurate.

A BP official told the Associated Press late Tuesday that there has always been a mixture of gas and oil coming up since a crippled oil rig sank last month. Company spokesman Mark Proegler said scientists haven't noticed any significant change in the leak.

Napolitano was in Alabama to tour the Mobile Incident Command Center in Mobile, Ala., with Gov. Bob Riley.

Excerpt: Read More at Fox News

Breaking News: Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spill

The Question of the Day: Is anyone going to investigate why there were no fire booms on hand? Our Government wastes a lot of taxpayer dollars so it doesn't seem unreasonable that they should have booms ready and waiting in case of emergency. Who dropped the ball?

Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spillBy Ben Raines
May 03, 2010, 12:09PM

(Elastec/American Marine Photo)An image provided by Carmi, Ill.-based Elastec/American Marine shows an oil burn being conducted in one of its patented Hydro-Fire Boom systems. The inflatable, fire-resistant, water-cooled boom was developed to contain surface oil and burn it offshore, helping prevent destruction of critical environmentally sensitive shoreline habitats, company officials said.

If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.

The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.

The "In-Situ Burn" plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.

But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.

When federal officials called, Elastec/American Marine, shipped the only boom it had in stock, Jeff Bohleber, chief financial officer for Elastec, said today.

At federal officials' behest, the company began calling customers in other countries and asking if the U.S. government could borrow their fire booms for a few days, he said.

A single fire boom being towed by two boats can burn up to 1,800 barrels of oil an hour, Bohleber said. That translates to 75,000 gallons an hour, raising the possibility that the spill could have been contained at the accident scene 100 miles from shore.

"They said this was the tool of last resort. No, this is absolutely the asset of first use. Get in there and start burning oil before the spill gets out of hand," Bohleber said. "If they had six or seven of these systems in place when this happened and got out there and started burning, it would have significantly lessened the amount of oil that got loose."

In the days after the rig sank, U.S Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said the government had all the assets it needed. She did not discuss why officials waited more than a week to conduct a test burn. (Watch video footage of the test burn.)

At the time, former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oil spill response coordinator Ron Gouget -- who helped craft the 1994 plan -- told the Press-Register that officials had pre-approval for burning. "The whole reason the plan was created was so we could pull the trigger right away."

Gouget speculated that burning could have captured 95 percent of the oil as it spilled from the well.

Excerpt: Read More at Al.com