Border Patrol Finishes in Middle of Pack
Nick Gillespie | May 17, 2007, 8:38am
If you're annoyed that the U.S. Post Office sponsors a team in the Tour de France, then avert your gaze from Nascar, where the U.S. Border Patrol is now in the pits:
The U.S. Border Patrol, seeking to recruit 6,000 new agents by the end of 2008, has emblazoned its name on a NASCAR Busch Series car in an attempt to rev up its ambitious hiring plan.
The agency is teaming with Jay Robinson Racing for a 25-race sponsorship of the No. 28 Chevrolet that will run through the remainder of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season. The green-and-white Border Patrol vehicle made its debut May 11 at the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina during the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 -- won by Denny Hamlin in a Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet. The Border Patrol-sponsored car finished 25th out of 43.
I'm sure that's a great use of taxpayer money, but can you spare us the sanctimonious, rah-rah bullshit like this:
The NASCAR vehicle represents "what CBP Border Patrol is attempting to do with its hiring and recruiting efforts; it is fast, diligent and precise," U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said. "This partnership is exactly what we needed to rev our recruiting and hiring into high gear."
More here.
In "It's Our Job To Stop That Dream," from our April issue, Malia Politzer detailed "the endless, futile work of the Border Patrol." Read it here.
kevrob | May 17, 2007, 11:39am | #
I've never understood the appeal of the Milwaukee's Best/Red, White & Blue/Busch/Old Milwaukee sector of the American beer market. Once upon a time, Miller High Life, Budweiser, Schlitz, etc. were considered "premium beers." Their cheaper sub-premium stablemates were certainly a boon to schoolboys without much dough and to anybody who needed a lot of brew for steaming brats. But they never did much for me. If I wanted to buy cheap beer, I'd go a little lower on the Great Chain of Brewing. Little Huber Brewing - now
Minhas Craft Brewery - of Monroe, WI was always my preferred provider of lawnmower beer. This brewery turned out Augsburger before a larger brewer bought that brand, and also supplied the beer for the Berghoff restaurants in Chicago. They reentered the market a few years ago, replacing the Augie labe with Berghoff. A Canadian outfit bought them, and they are contract-brewing
Mountain Creek, a lager as good (or bad) as any of the name canned macrobrews, but without the price-bumping advertising budgets. My neighborhood liquor store sells a 6 of cans for ~$2.40. It's in the great tradition of other cheap beers from Huber, such as Bohemian Club, Wisconsin Club or Regal Brau. These beers weren't always great, or even good, but they had character. Try the Huber bock if you ever get the chance. For years it was about the only commercially made American bock, and only available for a few months annually.
Büllvinkøl, "Natty" is properly the nickname for
National Bohemian, not those watered-down acorn squeezins from St. Looie.
Why doesn't the Border Patrol advertise in
Dey Terk Ur Jobz Monthly?
Kevin
(A beer snob, but not above slumming.)
