Read the whole thing here. It’s amusing, although I’m not sure I would think so if I lived in Arizona.

If you need an example of wigged-out, dysfunctional democracy verging on outright insanity, look no further than state Senator Sylvia Allen’s Border Security, Federalism and States’ Sovereignty Committee.

Here, Chairwoman Allen and a cadre of right-wing loons hold sway. Rational questions and reasoned arguments are dismissed with a flutter of Allen’s hands. And those poking their heads in the room to interject a note of sanity are most unwelcome.

That was the case Thursday when Major General Hugo E. Salazar, Adjutant General of the Arizona National Guard, dropped by Allen’s committee to express his concerns over Senate Bill 1083.

That bill, which is Allen’s baby, would create a state-sponsored “Arizona Guard” with four paid staff positions, an initial $500,000 from the state’s general fund and an extra $1.4 million from gang task-force funds, all so that potentially hundreds of local, armed militia-types can run around on the border after “illegals.”

[…]

[Salazar] hastened to state that he had no official position on the bill, but he had a number of worries, among them the fact that Allen’s militia would be armed.

Though Allen had earlier stated that there are 23 state guards around the country, Salazar pointed out that Arizona’s would be the first where guard members would be carrying guns. Even the Texas State Guard, which serves as a model for other such organizations, is unarmed.

“There are a lot of things that would have to occur before I would be comfortable putting a weapon in a volunteer’s hand,” Salazar said.

Allen was soon interrupting him, asking the general pointedly, “How do we fight a war without weapons?…How do we fight a war without guns?”

Referring to the soldiers he’s already got on the border helping various law enforcement agencies, he replied, “Ma’am, the soldiers and airmen I have working on the border are not fighting a war. They’re on federal orders to do a mission.”

He then went on to school Allen on the difference between a “war” and America’s border problems.

“The situation we have on the border is a law enforcement and policy problem,” he said. “The problem I believe is that you cannot solve a law enforcement and policy problem with a military solution. A military solution is for a military problem.”

Allen was having none of it.

“Sir, we are in a war,” she informed the general. “The cartels have targeted our country. It’s where they’re making their millions. And they’re not going to back off.”

[…]