The northern border must've gotten jealous from its southern counterparts DMZ Makeover.

Latino Político | "We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit." - Octavio Paz

First off this is my backyard.  I think someone fed Mr. Richburg a press release. It's doubtful he visited Derby Line Vt in person or he misunderstood. The photo caption in the piece is incorrect. Forty minutes ago, we drove on that street. That's not Derby Line Vt..that street separates another town close by. All the towns in this area straddle the US/Canada boundary.

There has always been the white lettering and signs directing to report to Customs, be it Canada or U..S.A. "American Border Patrol agents cruising through town in their green and white sport-utility vehicles" have been around forever - at least 35 years.

The residents in Canada and VT 'border' towns share more than just the library - joint Commissions for water, streets, electricity and Fire Department services. Vt residents send their kids to schools on the Canadian side paid for by the VT town in which they reside. Vt residents visit their family physicians on the Canadian side.  A friend, who resides on the Canadian side, sits on the Board of Directors of the Library-Opera-Theater.

That's why when Chertoff came to visit the joint Canadian/VT towns..to announce their great plan... they were sent packing. DHS had a brillant idea to build an Israeli wall!!!!  VT residents pointed out there's a treaty with Canada for among other things fire fighting services..the Vt border towns' nearest fire service is some 25 miles away. Some properties that straddle the border pay property taxes in both countries. And what about the 34 mile lake - 25% in Vt, 75% in Canada, will you build a a 5 mile long wall too?. What Chertoff did not know is that 80% of people living on the Canadian side are American citizens who work on the U.S. side every day in ...hospitals, painters, carpenters, offices in their businesses etc...so there's still 'free flow' Both Canadian and U. S. Customs officers know everyone. If a stranger shows up, they get the third degree.  Nothing has changed or will, 9/11 did not move our property lines.

Protect us from Binny ask the residents?...he has not been around. The 9/11 guys were U.S.A based - they all entered the country legally!  Now, making America safe is an industry worth hundreds of billions.  We'd like some of that money for a larger hospital, more schools, school buses and SBA loans.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

I suppose kids need a passport to visit a friend two doors down.  Incredible.

Down here on the southern border, virtually no one wants anything to do with this fence. They ran this monstrosity right through the campus of Texas Southmost College, one place among many to have parts of their property blocked off. But they did make an exception for a fucking private golf course. They held a public meeting a couple months ago in Brownsville and Sen. Brownback showed up. When he didn't like the reception he got or the public comments against his pet project, the pissy little piece of bigoted shit said just maybe they'ed move the wall NORTH of Brownsville and give it back to Mexico. Things got real ugly, real fast, and he had to leave much sooner than planned.

stupid is as stupid does..Forrest Gump..while i don't know what it means I think it covers Northern Border Prob.

the U.S. and into Canada. "No, no don't throw us into the briar patch," said Brear Rabbit.

Jeff Wegerson

First, a big loud Boo!

Sept. 11 exposed the vulnerability of America's northern frontier and the ease with which anyone -- a terrorist with a portable nuclear device, for example -- could cross into the United States from Canada using one of the multitude of unguarded back roads or forest paths, or, in a border town such as Derby Line, simply by crossing the street.

So, terrorists will come in from the north, and illegal immigrants come in from the south. Got it.

This juxtaposition from different parts of the story is fodder for The Daily Show.

"...Border Patrol agent Fernando Beltran, the operations chief for Swanton Sector's Newport station, [said] "This may have been Mayberry before, but it's not anymore."
[...]
Beltran said he instructs his agents to use discretion and "common sense." It goes like this: "If a kid [on the Canada side] throws a Frisbee over here, he can come and get it. But if he got the Frisbee and kept walking down to the Arby's to get a soda, we're going to stop you."

"We can't be wrong once," Beltran added. "If we're wrong once, that could be devastating to the whole country."

Hmmm...Mayberry...hmm. Stop a kid walking down the street to get a soda...could be devastating if they don't stop the kid.

Sounds a lot like something Barney Fife would say.