No one likes to be opposed. As people, we pick a side of an argument we believe in and try our hardest to win. That’s life, but there are differing ways in which we oppose one another and some are much more inflammatory than others. See if you agree. Is it not more frustrating, more infuriating when someone attempts to trick you to win an argument? Is there not more respect given to those who say, “You’re wrong, I’m right, and I will prove it!” versus someone who attempts trickery and poorly devised schemes to win an argument while congratulating you on your hard-fought victory?

I say it is better to be defeated than to be duped and defeated. When it comes to the issue of border security Barack Obama is attempting poorly crafted chicanery on the citizens of this country. Obama is not the first to fail the American people on this issue, but he is the first to fail them in such an insulting manner. Before we shine the light of accountability on Obama’s bamboozling bag of border tricks, we should look at the failures to secure the border that preceded his presidency.

Through the time and effort of average Americans in the Minuteman Project the nation received video footage of the undeniably massive influx of illegal aliens crossing the border. If ever it was in question, the will of the American people to be safe and secure in their own nation has now been made clear. The U.S. border must be secured.

On Oct. 26, 2006, the Secure Fence Act was passed. It stated that within 18 months the government was to have secured the border through the use of physical barriers, border patrol agents, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-based sensors, satellites, radar coverage, cameras and additional checkpoints. Just to make sure there was no question about the end goal, the term “operational control,” which is referenced throughout the law, was defined as “the prevention of all unlawful U.S. entries, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics and other contraband.” So why is the border still wide open? Here is where the trickery starts. Instead of going full bore to complete the project, funding became a political wedge issue as double fencing became single fencing, and by the time the Obama administration was faced with the border security issue, fencing at all was seen as impractical. As reported by the Associated Press back in 2005, then-Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano was already undermining the fence option with statements such as, “You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works.”

In a very foreseeable progression in the government’s failure to secure the border, Arizona passes SB1070 to protect its state from an onslaught of illegal immigration. The current Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, once again with a majority of American support, forces the government’s hand to take action. Even with the self-proclaimed transparent Obama administration at the helm, like painful déjà vu, government trickery again replaced government action. In response to Brewer’s meeting with Barack Obama and the promise of government aid to secure the Arizona border, the president’s response was to post warning signs in the desert, 80 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border and about 30 miles from the state capital. The signs read, “Smuggling and illegal immigration may be encountered in this area.” No kidding, Sherlock! As reported by CBS news, Governor Brewer now stars in a new video showing the warning signs at her state’s border as she gives the president both barrels for his lackadaisical response to this growing threat.
I can identify with her anger because it is not just opposition to securing the border that Obama is showing, it is opposition presented through an intelligence-insulting ruse. The Obama-border-sign fiasco is the biggest slap in the face to America on this issue so far and it will not be forgotten quickly. The economic and physical security of Americans is not a joke to be placed on signs at the nation’s edge. After what has been years of failed policy on border security, Barack Obama is redefining the concept of “adding insult to injury.” You can put that on a sign.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his Ph.D. in Sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books “Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society” and “Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World.” Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008, 2009 and 2010 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 FM, www.ibbetsonusa.com. For interviews or questions, please contact him at? ibbetson91.9@gmail.com

Remember when you were in grade school, or dare I say high school, and you found yourself in a humiliating situation after having failed to read the day’s assignment and being called to expound upon your of knowledge in front of the class? If this happened to you then you don’t need me to frame how things transpired, since for most, this was a situation of distress, confusion, sadness, and shame. The memory of facing the class and trying to repel each of the teacher’s questions like incoming missiles can create a sheen of perspiration on the brow even today.

Some people find they relive these situations in their dreams from time to time when the sandman decides to deal them a dirty hand at bedtime. For most, the saving grace that allows us to break free from such situations is that we grew up and took on the responsibility to prepare for the tasks that we face today. This truth is eloquently stated in the Bible in Corinthians, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” How the Obama administration could gain from following these wise words!

Arizona’s new immigration law SB 1070 is being attacked by liberals around the globe as racist, overreaching, barbaric, draconian, and the list of descriptors is almost limitless. From the White House, President Obama called the law “misguided” and now jumps back and forth on the issue of whether or not Arizona’s law promotes racial profiling. Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, both highly critical of Arizona’s law, recently admitted in public forums before television cameras that they had not even read the 10-page bill they had been condemning. I wonder if they felt silly, like children who had failed to do their homework and were then called to the front of the class to give their report. To many it appeared so, but to me they were more frightening than anything. Should the American people require that they stay after class, or even be held back? Way back? When I saw how little the facts really mattered to these government officials when it came to how they dealt with Arizona and the America people, I began to see the childlike mentality that dictatorships often encompass.

This is a scary place where deliberation and decision making is devoid of fact and reason and based merely on party line politics and the whims of the White House. The words in Corinthians come back to me with modern-day applicability: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like the Obama administration. It’s a painfully accurate fit.

I would say that reading the laws would bolster the credibility of the White House’s opposition to laws, with which they disagree, but the problem here is much deeper than understanding that “reading is fundamental;” you also have to care about the people and respect the rule of law. As Fox News reports, John Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated that illegal aliens from Arizona may be rejected for processing based on his view, which subsequently falls in line with the White House’s stance that Arizona’s law is not the solution to the illegal immigration problem. Has John Morton read the law he now rejects? Well, he certainly has not been briefed on the specifics of Arizona’s SB 1070 by Obama administration officials such as Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano. It is apparent that right now America has an administration quick to turn in their verdicts and slow to do their homework.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a published author, lecturer, and radio host. He can be contacted at ibbetson91.9@gmail.com.

Inside Obama’s budget is the elimination of the funding for the states that incarcerate illegal immigrants. When you eliminate that money, the states are going to have but one option- free them. What happens then?

President Obama sent his budget details to Congress and the elimination of funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAPP) is a cut of $400 million that is used to jail illegal criminals. Now, I can imagine that there are border states like California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico that are going to find it hard to justify keeping those illegals who have been fortunate enough to be jailed, and will most likely be freed as there will be no funding to keep these people where they rightfully belong. Most, if not all, are there because they first, committed a crime and second because they did it as someone who entered this nation illegally.

I imagine that it is going to be a field day for the criminal illegals when the jailhouse doors are swung wide open and they simply walk out to go back to whatever life they had prior to incarceration. Law enforcement hands are going to be tied as they solve crimes that lead back to illegals and when they discover that there is no funding to keep them off the streets, they will simply release them once again.

I would imagine that if you live in one of the states (and I am sure there are others receiving funding), that you should perhaps arm yourself and do whatever is necessary to have a concealed carry permit. The only recourse you may have is to make certain that you are protected from the onslaught of crime you will be facing from those who have no business being in this country in the first place.

But, what really pours salt in the wound, is that of the estimated 20 million illegals in this nation, our President supposedly “gets it” that before he can push his “immigration reform” plan, he first needs to secure the borders. But the need to fund the housing costs of those who have already committed crimes and need to be removed from society are not that important? Something simply does not compute in that equation.

Then again, from what I have been able to determine so far, very little this administration is doing makes much sense. I guess this is more of that “Hope and Change” we have come to admire in this new President who obviously has no desire to incarcerate those illegal alien criminals. I guess it is left up to the American people to “hope he changes his mind” and Congress overrides his cuts in this program. Perhaps there are those in Congress who actually understands that the burdens being placed on taxpayers for the tremendous amount of government money for social services like Medicaid, welfare, food and housing programs for the illegals in our nation.

Yet, I imagine that our President only sees another way to garner more votes in his re-election bid in 2012. Once again, Obama shows that his politics far outweighs his principles. These are principles that every Conservative should not only embrace, but make a part of their core belief in that Americans deserve far better than having to pay the way for those here illegally.