Why am I not surprised? While Washington is roiled in the divisiveness of the immigration/amnesty bill, the pencil pushers are working on the building of "THE FENCE"!

I'm talking about the fence that's supposed to be built along the Mexican border to cut down the number of illegal aliens sneaking into this country every day.

Well, it's not really a fence, as any normal person would imagine. This is a new-fangled one. It's a high-tech "fence" that depends on towers, radar, cameras, video terminals, detectors and all kinds of technology – so much in fact, that Border Patrol agents will need special training to use it?

Training to use a fence? Don't ask. But if you do, the answer is "yes."

President Bush signed legislation authorizing the construction of a border fence, initially planned to be 750 miles long.

Sounds simple enough. The president gives the go-ahead, there's the money and there's the border. Get the wood, concrete, rebar and whatever else, and GO!

But, this is government after all. It wasn't until last September that Boeing was awarded a 3-year, $67-million contract to install the fence.

Presumably things proceeded and indeed, at a congressional hearing June 7, no problems were reported.

Interestingly enough, the next day, the Department of Homeland Security alerted Congress there were problems – according to Boeing, radar problems. Then came reports of more problems, this time with camera coverage from the nine towers.

Why no one said anything during the hearing still hasn't been answered fully, but the fence still isn't being built and illegals keep crossing.

Despite the fact that Boeing is in charge, it still hasn't set a new completion date. Actually, it apparently hasn't even set a launch date.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke says, "We are moving with an absolute sense of urgency."

With thousands of illegals crossing the border every week, one would hope so!

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According to Associated Press, just last week, the House approved new DHS funding which includes $1BILLION for the fence project.

Friends, that's gonna be one heck of a fence – assuming of course, it ever gets built and agents can be trained to use it. Uh Huh.

Bureaucracy is grand, isn't it? With the government in charge of anything, there are always three things that seem to be unlimited – time, money and excuses.

Projects always cost more than projected, take longer to complete and force bureaucrats to new levels of creativity in their cover.

Consider just a couple of government projects in my own backyard.

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It took 16 years for construction to begin with constant delays as politicians bickered on design, location and environmental issues. Delays reportedly cost $400,000 a day!

The original cost estimate was $1.1 billion – it ballooned six-fold to $6.3 billion, and the bridge won't even be done till 2012!

Maybe.

Last week, local politicians were raving about a celebration they want for another new bridge in the area. They want to spend nearly $600 thousand to celebrate the completion of the new, two-mile long, Benicia-Martinez Bridge.

It's another government-run financial disaster. This bridge took seven years longer than planned to complete and ended up costing $1.2 billion – four times the original estimate.

The mamma of such fiascos is the "Big Dig" tunnel and highway project in Boston – original estimate: $3 billion. Final cost: $14.6 billion.

And the project is riddled with flaws and leaks.

A complete list of such idiocy and waste across the country would fill volumes.

But, considering the urgency of the border problem and the anger of Americans that they're being sold out by Congress, it would seem the better part of valor would be to build the fence – a real fence – the kind we can all identify as a FENCE – and do it now.

Put it up, and keep the illegals out. That's the point, and I have the solution!

Consider: China plans to build a highway up Mount Everest to be used for the Olympic-torch relay to the peak of the mountain. The road will go from the base to more than 17,060 feet.

It will be a 67-mile long "black-top highway fenced by undulating guardrails." The Xinhua News Agency went on to say that construction will start next week, will take four months and will cost $19.7 million.

It sounds to me we should make a deal with the Chinese for them build our border fence.

Remember, Chinese workers built the railroads in this country to open up the West, and they did a great job.

They could do the same for the border fence, and, besides, we all know they work cheap – really cheap.

What a concept: Done on time and on budget.

What a dream.

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