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There are many other sources of information in the public realm on not just this "border intelligence" silliness but the broader scope of DEA "interdiction" silliness. No personal experience here, but simple common sense, those who perform these tasks will be the first to tell you how successful and indespible they are. Can't blame them, they've got families to feed as well as egos to stoke. Must be fun to tell folks I'm part of an "Elite" force that walks around the desert and finds empty cans of pinnaple with literally months between any significant arrests, thats if they get lucky. Typically they are thwarted, most every time. And it ain't just these "Elite" agents pay we are talking about here for month of activity. Ever heard of the military industrial complex? You're seeing an entirely new approach to draining our country's scarce resources. These border fencers are just holding out there hands for more, more, more. And deliver no change. Nothing "left wing" about fiscal responsibility. I recommend you revisit your middle school poli-sci texts. Perhaps you are a beneficiary of this new, expanded, wasteful governement spend. Or perhaps your are simply ignorant. At the very least, read and try to understand the opposing voice and you won't be so entirely dismissive.

I will relate a small amount of the back story to this article. Wisconsin currently has a mining statute in effect, which has strict environmental regulations. Nevertheless, a Rio Tinto Zinc subsidiary, Flambeau Mining Corporation, was able in two years able to obtain a permit to operate a zinc sulfide mine in northern Wisconsin near Ladysmith. Between 1991 and 1999 they were able to remove over $500 million in gold, silver and copper from that operation. However, when Exxon attempted to do the same thing farther east near the Mole Lake Sakaogon Chippewa Reservation, they were stopped by the tribe, which under several treaties with the U.S. government was judged by the Supreme Court to have status equal to that of a state when it comes to setting clean water and air standards under the aegis of the Environmental Protection Agency. This benefited the tourism industry greatly by preventing the ruining of the pristine Wolf River, a tributary to the Wisconsin River. Now Cline wants to despoil the Chequamegon National Forest and the Bad River Chippewa Reservation by placing a colossal iron mine atop the Great Divide of Northern Wisconsin, at the headwaters of both the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems. The largest freshwater estuary in North America is threatened by this proposed mine. The Bad River Tribe also has EPA status equal to that of Wisconsin. At no time has the Bad River Tribe been included in the process of formulating this bill. Nonetheless, it is foreseeable that Gogebic Taconite will be thwarted by this tribe. We in northern Wisconsin are aware of how beholden Governor Walker and his cronies are to big money interests. The FBI John Doe investigation into Walker's campaign finance malfeasance will tell the tale. They lie when they say that this is about jobs. It is not. Rather, it is about deregulation of Wisconsin's environmental standards. The bill currently under consideration in our legislature is the ONLY jobs initiative put forth by the G.O.P. It really is just about giving Gogebic Taconite a free pass to pollute to their heart's content. It will not be tolerated. As our Secretary of State Doug LaFollette has said, "In Wisconsin, the economy is a subset of the environment, not the other way around".