Barney Fife -- report for border duty in the National Guard!

By Aussiegirl

Shades of Mayberry's intrepid Barney Fife, who wasn't allowed to carry a loaded weapon, but had to carry a lone bullet in his shirt pocket. These guys aren't even allowed to carry weapons at all. Obviously this entire fiasco is a charade intended to quieten down the restive masses clamoring for real border enforcement. But you know the elites can't be bothered with such nonsense, best to calm the natives until they put their pitchforks down so the big boys can get down to the important business of forming a more perfect North American Union.

A new role for the undermanned Border Patrol�-�Nation/Politics�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

National Guard troops deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of President Bush's plan to free U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assigned bodyguards -- some of the same agents the soldiers were sent to relieve.

Several veteran Border Patrol agents in Arizona told The Washington Times they were issued standing orders to be within five minutes of National Guard troops along the border and that Border Patrol units were pulled from other regions to protect the Guard units -- leaving their own areas short-handed.

The agents, who refer to the assignment as "the nanny patrol," said most of the Guard troops are not allowed to carry loaded weapons, despite a significant increase in border violence directed at Border Patrol agents and other law-enforcement personnel over the past year.

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 10,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents, said the presence of more than 6,000 Guard troops on the border has allowed a few hundred agents to be reassigned from administrative to field duties, but that "about the same number are now assigned to guard the National Guard troops."

"Other agents are being assigned to supervise the National Guard troops, who are performing different administrative tasks," said NBPC President T.J. Bonner, a 28-year Border Patrol veteran.

"Overtime has been authorized for these duties, but was not authorized for patrolling the border prior to the arrival of the National Guard."