Finally, the gub'mint is aware of the Canadian menace

[KRonn]

she has a point. after all, all of America's immediate neighbours are foreign countries!

Or...maybe instead, the US is the foreign country.....   

[Savonarola]

she has a point. after all, all of America's immediate neighbours are foreign countries!

It's worse than that; we have barbarous Gauls on our northern border. 

And (according to them) they once sacked the Capitol. 


Save us Gaia Julia Napolitana.

[charliebear]

Think of the good things that would happened if we were sacked by the Canadians:

- beer (Molson, LaBatts, et cetera) for breakfast
- Every day is hockey day
- school aged children would learn curling instead of soccer
- Captain Canada and sidekick Barrister Boy would defend us, too


See?  There's a ray of sunshine after all.

[Grey Fox]

Curling in school, I wish.

[Barrister]

I think she confused it with the millenium plot, which did try to enter from Canada.

Tried and was detected and the threat thwarted.

The system worked.

[Barrister]

Curling in school, I wish.

I did some curling in high school.

[crazy canuck]

Her stupidity is getting a lot of op ed play up here.  Another piece in the globe:

Janet Napolitano needs to check her facts
  LAWRENCE MARTIN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

April 23, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

What is Bush throwback Janet Napolitano doing in Barack Obama's cabinet? One of the promises made by the new President, who is making one liberal breakthrough after another, was to end the politics of fear. But as Homeland Security Secretary, Ms. Napolitano is acting like fear personified - it's as if she's in the claws of Dick Cheney.

She was still suggesting this week that the 9/11 terrorists made their way across the Canadian border, despite the contrary having been publicly acknowledged dozens of times. This has even aroused our quiet man in Washington, Ambassador Michael Wilson, to arrange a private meeting with her to set the record straight.

Mr. Wilson and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have the right to be adamant on this file. The endless U.S. angst over security has led to a ramping-up of the border, which has cut into Can-Am commerce. It has led to the introduction of passport requirements, even though we're now almost eight years beyond 9/11. Canadians still have to take off their shoes for inspections at airports because - no telling what damage a pair of wingtips might do - there might be bombs hidden away in the leather.

Ms. Napolitano and others have repeatedly cited the case of the so-called millennium bomber, Ahmed Ressam, who had a trunkload of bomb-making materials when he tried to cross over from British Columbia. That was a decade ago. Mr. Ressam was caught - at the border. The system worked, as it has when other suspected terrorists have tried that route.

Ms. Napolitano's words in a CBC interview have triggered a rare unanimity of opposition in Canada. RCMP Commissioner William Elliott has spoken out, as has business leader Thomas d'Aquino. Mr. Harper raised the border issue with former president George W. Bush in blunt terms, but to no avail. He raised it in more mild terminology with Mr. Obama during his visit to Ottawa two months ago. The message, it seems, hasn't gotten through.

Ms. Napolitano, who also raised hackles in the interview by saying there should be some parity in border security measures for Mexico and Canada, was a highly regarded governor in Arizona. It may be that in being named as a woman to such a sensitive security post, she has felt an extra need to show toughness. We recall Hillary Clinton berating Mr. Obama before the presidential primaries over his idea of negotiating with enemies of the United States.

Mr. Obama has gone ahead with that policy, which has become an approach that even a Conservative such as Mr. Harper can appreciate. He lauded the President at the Summit of the Americas on the weekend for opening a new era in which confrontation is replaced by dialogue. Mr. Harper has carved out a good relationship with Mr. Obama and he should see to it that there is some very direct dialogue on the border issue. Progress has already been made with this administration on the NAFTA file. While campaigning, Mr. Obama vowed to renegotiate the trade agreement, but appears to have dropped the idea.

On the border question, Ms. Napolitano did issue a corrective to her 9/11 comments, saying she was misunderstood.  [CC editorial -   more like she misunderstood the facts] But she went on to indicate that there will be no easing of restrictions, saying other terrorists have attempted to get into the United States by way of Canada.

That is probably true and there will probably always be such attempts. But where's the statute of limitations? Instead of easing border barriers as we get further from 9/11, the opposite has taken place. To some, like Ms. Napolitano, this seems to make sense.

But if we are to extend her line of thinking, there will never be a debarricaded border because there is always a chance of a successful attempt from the Canadian side, it being impossible to track down and incarcerate every would-be terrorist in the galaxy.

The other line of thinking is that, as the President has said, you don't let fear trump freedom. If you do, you just play into the hands, as the Prime Minister has said, of those you are trying to defeat.

There are a bunch of other articles that go on about how the extra border delays are hurting the economies of both nations but I wont bore you with that. 

[Martinus]

I want to go back to the past when we didn't have borders.

You'll have to go waaaayyy back when cities were producing zero culture.

Israeli cities still produce zero culture, as they are inhabited by a mix of Russians and Arabs.

Is Gaza going to: flip?

[saskganesh]

Curling in school, I wish.

... we had that. 

also hockey was part of PE as well.

[Malthus]

There are a bunch of other articles that go on about how the extra border delays are hurting the economies of both nations but I wont bore you with that.

The bullshit factor in this "controversy" is high, as any would-be "terrorist' really wishing to cross from Canada into the US can probably do so perfectly legally no matter how absurd the restrictions get. It is pure symbolism over substance, you can't keep a would-be "terrorist" out because you can't identify a would-be "terrorist" *before* they commit their crime.

Meanwhile, this silliness is costing everyone (Americans and Canadians alike) money during a recession. 

[KRonn]

Well, this angst by Canada has gone far enough. Looks like we need an "Overseas Contingency Operation" in Canada, to clarify and rectify the "Man Caused Disaster" put forth by the Head of US Homeland Security.     

[Grey Fox]

Sask & BB.

Well you anglos are a bunch of lucky SOB.

[saskganesh]

Sask & BB.

Well you anglos are a bunch of lucky SOB.

must be a winnipeg thing.

[Barrister]

Sask & BB.

Well you anglos are a bunch of lucky SOB.

must be a winnipeg thing.

I'm pretty sure Winnipeg has more curling clubs per capita than anywhere else on the planet.

[derspiess]

Looks like the Obama Administration has found its Joycelin Elders