Invisible Sky Wizards Don't Do Homeland Security

The Kentucky General Assembly thinks our best protection from terrorist attacks, industrial accidents and natural disasters is - wait for it - an invisible wizard who lives in the sky.

You may also believe this. If you do, please paint "We put our faith in god" on your front door, back door, roof and car so that the next time you need help from the actual human beings who work emergency rescue, they'll know to pass you by to help people who put their faith in government services.

Under state law, God is Kentucky's first line of defense against terrorism. The 2006 law organizing the state Office of Homeland Security lists its initial duty as "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

(The quote is from John Cheves' original article in the dead-tree version of the Herald on Friday. That version is not online; the link above is to the version by the AP, which threatens eternal damnation and lawsuits against anyone who reprints its sacred words.)

Stressing dependence on god is the department's initial duty? Really? Because when I'm trapped under tornado wreckage, or seeking shelter from a train wreck's poisonous gas cloud, or hoping the security at the neighborhood chemical plant is tighter than it looks, what I really want to see first is the Department of Homeland Security's overpaid executives down on their knees praying to an invisible sky wizard.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

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Criminally Corrupt Patronage And Incompetence Is Inbred In The Bush Administration

As Captain Renault in the timeless movie Casablanca would say, "I am shocked" SHOCKED to find that there are corruption and accounting irregularities in the Department of Homeland Security. The Associated Press via TPM,

"Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.
...
"The inability of Defense and Homeland Security to pass financial audits is costing taxpayers dearly. There is no accountability for billions in wasteful spending," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "Private contractors are getting rich, military equipment can't be tracked, and fraud is growing. The departments seem incapable of providing even the most basic level of accountability by balancing their financial books."
...
Nor is there a central accounting system: In 2005, after spending $52 million, DHS dropped a $229 million contract with BearingPoint to develop a single software accounting system after it became obvious it wasn't going to work. The department now plans to base its systems on those already in place at the Transportation Security Administration or Customs and Border Protection.

Norquist also likened his agency's situation to a house. "If you left your front door unlocked, it doesn't mean your house got robbed. But you should be concerned if your front door is routinely left unsecured, he said."

Holy smokes; this sounds pretty bad, and this Norquist guy seems pretty flippant about it all. Who is this guy that is so carefree and nonchalant with the taxpayers money during a time of war and massive budget deficits? Norquist...the name seems vaguely familiar. Oh, it is David Norquist, brother of Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff's best friend and co-conspirator in the defrauding and looting of American Indian Tribes; and author of the infamous quote "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Oh my; so David, the ideological idolizer and clone of brother Grover Norquist, is the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Homeland Security. The cabinet department so screwed up, corrupt and out of control that it can't even be audited. As Condi Rice would say, "Who could have predicted this?" So who put this terminally ill suited man in this position? That would be George Bush and Michael "What? There's a storm in New Orleans?" Chertoff. The only two men in the world that make Mike "Heckuva Job Brownie" Brown look like the most intelligent and efficient manager in history.

It is a consistent pattern with Bush to place the most dangerously incompetent and ill suited hack cronies in the most critical positions. Jerry Bremer for pro counsel of Iraq, Harriet Miers for White House Counsel and almost the Supreme Court, Joe Albaugh and Michael Brown at FEMA and, the most destructive of all, Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Alberto Gonzales could not find a courtroom with a map and a GPS device. Literally, the only time Gonzales has been confirmed to have actually been in a courtroom was when he went to a local city court in Texas to try and get Bush out of jury duty, out of fear that the public would find out about Bush's history of DWIs and alcoholism. This legal cipher was placed in charge of the entire justice system of the United States.

Clearly, George Bush, like Grover and David Norquist, wants to drown our government "in the bathtub" and then flush it down the toilet. The Bush Administration puts the most corrupt, incompetent people in critical positions and allows them to rape, pillage and plunder their departments to effective death. Ladies and gentlemen, they are very close to "Mission Accomplished".

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Time to get your 12-year-old a photo ID to fly him to Grandma’s?

It looks like a “yes,” if the Department of Homeland Silliness Security has its way:

The proposed new rules, which are currently open for public comments, would require that:

1. All would be international travelers to or from the USA (even US citizens crossing the U.S.-Canada border on foot) would have to have government-issued ID credentials
2. All would-be passengers on international or domestic flights to, from, over, via, or within the U.S. would have to have both government-issued ID credentials and explicit case-by-case prior permission from the DHS to the airline to allow each passenger to board a plane.

The proposed rules would enforce the requirements for papers and permits through default provisions that would:

1. Require all air travelers to show their papers (”government-issued photo ID”) to airline staff on request of the DHS, under penalty of denial of transportation.
2. Forbid any airline from issuing a boarding pass to anyone, or allowing them to board a plane, unless and until the airline received individual permission (a “cleared message”) authorizing that airline to allow that specific person on that specific flight.

I don’t see anything about “exceptions for juveniles.”

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