Senate panel votes to give the Governor a state militia for the border

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists of our Tea-Publican legislature are at it again. A Senate panel has approved a proposal to create an armed militia that could be deployed to the Mexican border under the direction of the Governor. The bill, SB 1083, is backed by "states’ rights" advocates and anti-immigration zealots. What could possibly go wrong? (Jan Brewer and her teabaggers are recklessly irresponsible enough to create an international incident or start a war).

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Senate panel OKs bill to create state militia for border security, disasters:

[The bill] would set aside $500,000 in one-time funding and $1.4 million annually for the new state militia.

As envisioned, the Arizona State Guard would have its own command structure apart from the Arizona National Guard.

It would be under the direct control of the governor, who could deploy it to respond to disasters and interdict those who engage in “cross-border criminal activity.”

The militia would also have arrest, detention and property seizure powers.

Ah, so what they are really saying is that Jan Brewer will have her own private armed militia that she can use to abuse the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike with the power of arrest, detention and property seizure.

Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, the head of the Arizona National Guard, candidly expressed his reservations during a hearing by the Senate Border Security, Federalism and States’ Sovereignty Committee.

Salazar said he believes he would ultimately be responsible for the new force because current state law gives him responsibility over military organizations in the state. He also said he has concerns about allowing militia volunteers carry weapons, noting that National Guard members go through extensive training before they are armed.

“I’m not saying that weapons cannot be carried, but there’s a lot of things that have to occur before I would be comfortable putting a weapon in a volunteer’s hand,” he said.

Salazar’s remarks prompted Sen. Sylvia Allen, the bill’s sponsor and the committee’s chairwoman, to ask: “How do we fight a war without weapons?”

Salazar said his soldiers that are deployed to the border there are “not fighting the war.”

Rather, he said their mission is to support federal law enforcement. Salazar also said the border issue is a law enforcement and policy problem — not a military one.

“The problem or concern I have is that you cannot solve what I believe is a law enforcement and policy problem with a military solution,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar is a wise man.

So let's bring the crazy from our teabagger senators:

Sen. Sylvia "6,000 years" Allen said she’s confident that the new force would be highly trained before given a mission.

“But we have to start somewhere. If we don’t start now and get this bill passed, we will never have a state guard to help us if some terrible, God-forbid, something awful happens in this state. We wouldn’t have been available to help in some way. What is Hezbollah training for over there across that border?” she said, referring to reports that the organization is training Mexican drug cartels.

This bit of paranoia, as best as I can tell, appears to have started with the certifiably insane Alex Jones on his hate radio show and spread to other right-wing conspiracy sites such as the Free Republic, World Net Daily and, of course, FAUX News Fraudcasting. This is a great way for teabaggers to combine their anti-Muslim bigotry with anti-Mexican bigotry — "Mexicans are really Islamic terrorists! They're going to impose a Caliphate and Sharia law on us God-fearing Tea-Publican Christians."

Meanwhile, Sen. Al Melvin, R-SaddleBrooke, said he wants to make sure that the new force would be funded solely by the state and not receive any money from the federal government.

“If it’s federal money, regardless of the administration… it could be influenced one way or another,” he said.

Ah yes, because as Cap'n Al knows, the U.S. federal "guvmint" is the real enemy of our freedom and the liberty to be as crazy as we wanna be.

God save this state from itself.

UPDATE: Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times has more on this story. This "Secessionist Committee" disregarded the testimony of law enforcement and military officers in favor of their teabagger border brigade. Sylvia Allen's "Arizona Guard": Disaster in the Making – Phoenix New Times.