homeland security

So we just found out that Homeland Security can not even keep their own offices secure but they are sure good at keeping an eye on Americans.

Scripps Howard has a story up about a retired couple who decided to pay off some debt on their credit card. They sent in a little over six grand to pay down the balance and next thing you know they were listed as a terror threat. Apparently the rule is now if you pay a substantially greater amount on your credit card than normal Homeland Security gets notified and you get red flagged.

To me this sounds like total bullshit. Last year Congress passed legislation allowing credit cards to raise their minimum monthly payment whenever they feel like it. Now if people try to get out of debt they get marked as terrorists. Will this country stop at nothing to try and keep people in debt?

From Reuters:

The secretive U.S. government foreign investment review process that approved an Arab company's deal to assume management of terminals at six U.S. ports is "deeply flawed" and should be revamped, a leading lawmaker said on Sunday.

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said she and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) of Connecticut, will introduce legislation next week to overhaul the process and give the lead to the Department of Homeland Security.

I don't think the problem is the program being just flawed. The problem lies much deeper. It lies within an administration that has gone unchecked for so long that they feel they can do whatever they want. They are like kids - if you let them continue to misbehave then they start believing it is ok.

This problem has been created by the Republican party. It doesn't matter if the White House is the same party as the party which controls Congress. As matter of fact, yes it does. When the same party in the White House is the same that controls Congress then a need for greater oversight is a must. It puts the White House in a dangerous "comfort zone" because they don't have to worry as much about being questioned. If current times teaches us anything its that party loyalty can be a devastating factor on a nation.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was not aware a Dubai-owned
company was seeking to operate terminals in six U.S. ports and that his
agency was leading the review until after the deal's approval, an
administration official said yesterday.

 Mr. Chertoff's spokesman, Russ Knocke, told The Washington Times
the issue rose no higher than the department's assistant secretary for
policy, Stewart Baker.

"[Chertoff] was not briefed up to this until after this story started
appearing in the newspapers," Mr. Knocke said.

Mr. Chertoff is the third Cabinet official to acknowledge he did not know
his agency had signed off on the plan as a member of the interagency

Article continues

here.

Now lets get this all straight. In a post 9-11 America where we have to worry
about terrorists trying to come in our borders and cause their destruction there
is a deal that has given control of 6 major ports to the Dubai, a country known
to harbor terrorists and had connections with those who attacked us on 9/11.
This deal was not known about by our secretary of defense, the joint chiefs of
staff, our President and the head of our homeland security. I am not a
conspiracy theory nut but I can see how this would make those "9/11 was an
inside job" people go crazy. This is just proving their point even more. Our
administration is out of touch with what is happening to our security and they
don't even take it seriously.

With issues like this it is a gift to the Democrats that Bush wants to make
terrorism the number one issue this election.

Newsweek has obtained new e-mails that Michael Brown turned over to Congress
regarding Katrina. These emails show a White House in "Chaos" following the
storm:

Brown, now trying to restore his image, gave Congress a set of e-mails
sent as the catastrophe unfolded. The e-mails, obtained by NEWSWEEK, provide
the latest—though still incomplete—picture of senior officials' chatter amid
the chaos.

Four days after Katrina hit, on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 1, it was
finally clear to everyone that things had gone horribly wrong. But Brown and
other officials seemed mired in office politics. Brooks Altshuler, Brown's
policy director, worried that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
was growing unhappy with Brown's performance. "Please talk up the Secretary
during your press avails I.e. 'Solid team with solid support from the
secretary etc.'" Altshuler wrote his boss. "Unconfirmed, but people are
noticing and they are reading into friction ... " Brown angrily responded
that he had told the Homeland secretary that his numerous phone calls were
"killing me ... He assures me he is not trying to interfere, but they are
literally driving me crazy ... "

View complete article
here.

It is no wonder the White House kept these emails from Congress. After a
disaster the people always turn to their leaders. That is more evident in a post
9/11 America. With actions like this coming from or leaders how in the hell can
Bush say "Democrats live in a pre 9/11 world while Republicans live in a post
9/11 world". If Katrina was any indicator of that line of thought then I would
gladly have a pre 9/11 world back - you know one where our country is able to
respond to disasters.

So Bush is back on the

lead by fear campaign. This should come as no shock to anyone but the
details seem to have come to a shock for L.A.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President
Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed
at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House
as "nonexistent."

"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national
TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the
mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call
from the president — but somebody."

The mayor also suggested that some funding from the Iraq war could be
redirected to homeland security, including the protection of high-risk
targets in Los Angeles. He did not advocate an immediate withdrawal of
troops.

"I go to work every day knowing that we are a target," the mayor said.

Full article

available here.

So we don't tell cities if there is an attack possibly aimed at them? Much
like every other "threat" Bush says they have foiled, I suspect this is just the
same - a bunch more Bushit!

President Bush’s speech last night appears to be nothing
more than that, just a speech. He talked about a plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast
and restore normalcy to the lives of those affected. He gave a speech that some
have compared to a “FDR speech”.

A real question lies now in the sincerity of the President.
Why should we trust what he says? After 9-11 he promised this new cabinet level
department of Homeland Security that would be ready at a moments notice to
respond and save lives. Well we saw how much that promised paid off with
Katrina.

The President’s honesty track record is highly tarnished.
Just consider the subject of Iraq alone and the number of lies we have been
told. Saddam has WMD. Saddam was involved in 9-11. Iraq won’t cost us that much.
The list goes on, not to mention other lies and promises he has not kept such as
restoring accountability to the Oval Office and healing the great political
divide that is plaguing our nation.

If Katrina happened on September 11, 2001 instead of the
deadly attacks, then the President might have come out looking good after this
speech. Unfortunately he has a precedence of not following through and that
weakens the impact of his speech ten-fold.

As Ohioans take to the polls today to cast their vote for either a veteran of the Iraq war or a person knee deep in the Ohio coin scandal, we learn that seven more soldiers have died in Iraq and now the total of US soldiers lost is at 1800.

The fact that this insurgency was never thought out or planned for is the biggest mistake the administration has made in this war since its lies were used in order to get us there. This is truly a harsh and sad reality facing America today. Bush’s cowboy “lets go get them” tactics have not helped us one bit. They have cost us 1800 soldiers and hundreds of billions of dollars. Add it all up and what we have is 1800 less soldiers and a record debt.

Americans are not any safer since we invaded Iraq, in fact we are at a greater risk of having a terrorist attack hit here. Homeland security funds have been funneled away in order to pay for other government services. This is a direct result of the record debt we have incurred during the war in Iraq. It can not be blamed on 9/11 alone since we know Saddam had no ties to that war.

If you live in Ohio – 2, please remember to get out and vote for Paul Hackett today. We need a person with the hands on experience of Iraq to have a voice in our government!

If you haven’t heard yet, more documents have surfaced supporting the
allegations that George Bush:

• Was planning to attack Iraq in early 2002
• Had no plans for post war Iraq.

Instead of going into great detail about this, I would like to send you over
to the fine people at
Raw Story where they have an excellent timeline put
together supporting all this evidence. I was planning on doing the same, but
after seeing their hard work on it and it’s accuracy I decided not to do one of
my own, but rather let them take full credit for it.

The new documents just obtained, which can be viewed at

afterdowningstreet.org, are official British government documents
supporting the plans to invade Iraq and also the lack of planning for how to
handle post war Iraq. The documents also point out the fact that the invasion
was considered illegal and that intelligence would have to be “fixed” in order
to gain international support.

This is just more proof that George Bush and his administration are war
criminals, and need to be tried as such. Not only did he attack a country that
was not planning on attacking us or any other nations, he opened Iraq up to more
terrorists, thereby doing the exact opposite. That’s right – we are in more
danger today than we were prior to March 2003.