The spotlight has been shown recently on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Ever since the departure of Tom Ridge, Chertoff has had a semi-low profile compared to other officials such as Rumsfeld or Rovitt. Not any more. Today he proved that he will continue the Bush Administration’s assault on homeland security. From the AP:
The federal government can provide only limited help to states and local governments to protect transit systems from terror attacks, and local officials must be largely responsible for the costs of improved subway, train and bus security, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
His comments, one week after the bombings on London’s subway and bus systems, prompted criticism from Senate Democrats who represent large metropolitian areas.
Chertoff said attacks that could produce the most casualties are his highest priority. He said the federal government should financially support the nation’s commercial airlines because the aviation system is largely a federal responsibilty, while mass transit systems are mostly owned and operated by state and local authorities.
More below the fold…
I really don’t understand what type of logic these people operate upon. Not only is this recommendation an assault on their stated goal of security, it’s also a politically-stupid move. The state governments are already operating on bare minimum resources and now they’re being asked to pick up Bush’s tab for this? Wait, it gets better. Chertoff continues his remarks by driving a cultural wedge between us and our allies:
Chertoff drew a comparison between lifestyles and attitudes in the United States and Europe that he said play a part in preventing terror attacks.
“I’m not going to single out particular countries, but in continental Europe, there are generations where you have these second, third-generation persons, descendants of immigrants, who are not considered to be truly in the fabric of the country,” he said.
“One of the great things about this country is there is a lot of social mobility,” Chertoff added. “It’s hard to imagine a country that is more welcoming and more willing to accept people in which people can rise. And I think that tends to reduce the amount of frustration.”
He also acknowledged that “we’re never going to have people who are disaffected, you know, we’ve had all kinds of people historically who do bad things and commit acts of terror.” Still, Chertoff said, but that “our welcoming social fabric, our civil liberties and our sense of equality and openness is still one of the very powerful tools we have and something we want to be careful not to diminish.”
Underfund our transit system? Check
Take a crack at our European friends? Check
Prove that he is a shill for the Bush Administration? Check
It’s official. Michael Chertoff is the Secretary of Homeland Insecurity
Use this diary to document the ways that the Bush Administration is making us less-safe here in the homeland.
More from the AP article: (emphasis mine)
They are nothing if not consistent. This strikes me as the moral equiv. of tax cuts for the rich. The hell with the rest of us, esp. you folks who live in mass transit cities.
And I love this:
“we’re never going to have people who are disaffected, you know,”
I guess he missed that bombing in Okla. City a few years back.
Our tax dollars are being used to subsidize private companies — while public transit is being shortchanged.
As a transit rider, and the spouse of a transit employee, I am highly pissed…but not surprised; the poor and middle class mostly ride transit, and who the fuck in this administration cares about them?
This morning I caught a hearing on CSPAN for insurance companies and terror attacks. Basically from the little bit of it I heard the governmaent wants the tax payers to pay the costs of the terrorist ‘future attacks’- can you imagine? and one wonders why some of us are thinking with tin foil hats on?
It was also mentioned that the insurance companies made their biggest profit ever this past year.
But who pays the insurance companies? Consumers. In this case they were talking about small and mid-size business owners who need more insurance so that IF there was another 9/11 these businesses could rebuild quicker to keep the economy going.
The priorities of this Admin are so askew.
Good God, this is so jaw dropingly stupid with a bit of racism? or prejudice thrown in for good measure that’s it kinda hard to know where to start to say how wrong and as you say politically stupid this seems to be. Another story the MSM should be shouting to the rooftops about how the states are supposed to pay for their own security-even federally mandated things states are supposed to do. Such as the fucken color-coded system. When they elevate it as the did here after the bombings if I’m not mistaken the states are obligated by law to increase security. I know here in Ca. when they were raising the color all the time it cost the state something like a million dollars a week for the added security to pay extra police, etc.
What exactly again is Homeland Security Dept. supposed to do again, remind me..ah yeah, I think make the country safer..I don’t remember any clause in there stating the states without any help were on their own and the states federal taxpayer money was going to go where exactly? And not come back to the states.
Maybe just maybe we’d have more than enough fucken money to revamp mass transit and our ports or have a dam good start with say oh maybe some 300 Billion dollars..oh wait we’re spending that in Iraq. And maybe the states should just get together and say that hey, they don’t want their taxpayer money going over there but back to their states since they’re supposed to pay for their own security.
Hard to imagine a country more welcoming huh..or people here not disaffected or part of the fabric(jeez what horseshit)…yeah like our continued screwing of Native Americans and until just recently(in history’s timeline)people were still lynching black people-that’s a welcoming fabric for our own people alright to say nothing of Latino Americans who seem to be vilified quite a bit as ‘taking’ jobs from other Americans…and of course the ongoing ramped up war against homosexuals going on right now in the country(re Santorums idiotic rant on liberals/pedophilia-and tying it to permitting other sexual lifestyles).
A lot of social mobility going on? Yeah he’s buying into bush’s ownership society fantasy and how good the economy is doing. Try looking at unemployment statistics for minorities in this country-including white people in depressed areas- as a better indicator of social mobility stagnating…although much of ‘white’ america isn’t doing so well either right now as far as I can tell from my daily reading.
So the aviation is a federal responsibilty is it..well then maybe the federal government should make sure the airlines quit trying to screw all the airline workers out of the pensions.
oh hell, I think I’ve ranted here long enough and not said anything anybody here doesn’t already know, except to add a little more succinctly my first response was just oh fucken bloody dam hell, how much longer before Americans marche on the goddam Whitehouse? And frog marches the whole fucken bunch of them Gitmo? So we can quit writing these almost daily rants or thinking them. It takes a lot of dam energy to keep on being constantly pissed off with something new every dam day.
But how do you really feel ink? 🙂
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I flipped my lid yesterday with the Gitmo stuff, I had to step away from it all because I was overwhelmed. The atrocities they have committed in such a short amount of time have been breathtaking. While it’s great that we have a forum like to this to vent, our real power lies in the advocacy we spread beyond the pond–petitions, LTEs, phone calls, canvassing for candidates, etc. Regardless of the asinine actions of Bu$hco, I’m still glad to have allies like you and the rest of the BooTribbers to fight the good fight.
</soapbox>
hey ‘man’, well yeah I did get a bit carried away but as you said I think all of us here try to not go off on tangents every day(although it sure would be easy to do..so many outrages, crime and corruption).
As you said also this site though has helped us all talk through our rage but also with an eye to taking concrete steps to help get rid of all these criminals.
I too feel a most profane rant coming on. I don’t know what part of Chertoff’s little spiel pisses me off more. What’s implicit (at least to me) in his first quote is that the Feds will protect Federal property, but “Sorry, states & cities, you’ll just have to protect yourselves.” I’m in an unusual position to see this first-hand: I live in DC (the new Fortress America), but consider Baltimore, a port city just up the road, my hometown. The contrast in security between the two could not be more stark. I don’t have the figure at hand, but the amount of shipping going through America’s ports inspected by DHS or whomever is appalingly low, <10% of containers, I believe. Balto’s Mayor Martin O’Malley has been one of the leading critics of the admin’s “all hat & no cattle” attitude towards the actual defense of the homeland; in fact it was the theme of his one shining moment at last year’s DNC.
I don’t know where to start on that second quote. It’s such utter doublespeaking horsesh*t it leaves me a bit speechless. It’s also just so f*cking characteristic of the myopic, jingoistic worldview these jokers hold. Y’know, right now that Jefferson quote comes to mind: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.” We are so cruisin’ for a bruisin’, one way or another.
It is kinda hard to actually deconstruct his whole speech as the whole thing is crap. I imagine the Homeland Security is just another corrupt rip off and a lot of the billions is getting siphoned off into certain peoples pockets.
Seems the Democrats have been talking about the ports from day one which continues to fall on deaf ears. Rather defies making any kind of sense no matter how you look at it…along with no security either for nuclear reactors.
It is a big scam. “Security” companies are making out like bandits with fat gov’t contracts, with no accounting whatsoever. Nothing substantial is actually done; it’s all just for show. The electorate feels more secure with BushCo, and BushCo emphasizes the feeling of security over the actuality of security.
As a complete OT aside, I’d like to say again Amen to chocolate, just on general principles.
Yeah all these security companies(ha) that have sprung up is quite amazing to say nothing of the fact that soooooooo many seem to have ties in one way or another to bush or bush cronies or whacko neocons.(surprise, surprise as Gomer might say-hows that for dating myself). And add to that as you said with no freaken oversight on how money is spent is just so unimaginably stupid plus completely lax on Congress’s part for allowing these non-bid no oversight deals to go on. Well hey, it’s only tax payer money, more where that came from, right?
As for the Amen to chocolate-who doesn’t like chocolate-it is a food group isn’t it?
You don’t need a tinfoil hat to see the web of mutually-beneficial relationships these jokers have built to profit from fear. They will fall, I’m certain, I just don’t know when, or how, or whether they’ll take civilization with ’em.
And on the other thing: my health-conscious housemate asked me last week, “Do you ever, like, crave protein?” and I replied, “I dunno — is chocolate a protein?”
Well, more and more studies are coming out every year that seem to point to the fact that chocolate-especially dark chocolate-has various compounds in it that is actually quite healthy and even beneficial to your heart. Of course like anything moderation is the key.
As for protein, well hell, I’d rather eat chocolate than meat.
Chocolate is the only way I get through some days with this administration. I cannot begin to describe how my chocolate consumption has gone up since 2000. I read the blogs, and hit the chocolate. I have a half-eaten bag of dark chocolate Hershey kisses right here in the desk drawer at work. Sadly, this is not snark.
yeps, and after two terms in office, they won’t give a shit if they get another or not, they’ll have all the chips, wait till we regroup, make more chips, for the ones they stole, and then the dip-shit public will put another one of these bastards back in charge, and VOILA, it starts again….geeessshh…I need a smoke
Now if I could combine my smoking habit with chocolate, so I could somehow just have a chocolate nicotine cig(sounds good to me)I think that might just be the perfect habit.
And Yeah it does seem to be an uphill battle -one step forward two steps back.
Wow! Now there’s a guy who’s obviously overdosed on the kool-aid! Someone call 9/11! Oh…wait…they’re not properly funded…by the time they get here, it’ll probably be too late…
I found an interesting article on FCW.com regarding Democrats’ proposals to increase funding for first responders. I stumbled on it via a google news search. Anyone know more info about the site?
Hell, sometimes I’m nervous around tanker trucks.
Not to mention the ones coming and going from Oak Ridge with the little radioactive labels on them.
But then I might have good reason to…
This from the A.P. as reported on FoxNews:
Be nervous, be very nervous!
Two Men Arrested After High-Speed Chase in Tennessee
Two Israeli men who led the Unicoi County (Tennessee) sheriff on a high-speed chase in a rented moving truck were placed under arrest and are being investigated by the FBI, local officials said.
Shmuel Dahan and Almaliach Naor, both from Israel, were being held without bond Sunday afternoon at the Unicoi County Jail. The truck, rented from a Ryder office in Mars Hills, N.C., was being held in the county garage pending an FBI investigation, officials said.
Dahan is charged with reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest, while Naor faces charges of false identification and evading arrest, an officer with the Unicoi County Sheriff’s Department who would not give his name said Sunday.
An investigation by the FBI is ongoing and more charges are possible, he said. A woman who answered the phone at the FBI’s Knoxville office said there was no one available to answer questions about the arrest.
The incident began late Saturday afternoon when Sheriff Kent Harris noticed a rental truck traveling at a high speed along former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly-traveled highway near the North Carolina state line.
“I was really concerned because the driver would not stop after I flashed my headlights for nearly three miles,” Harris said. “He was weaving back and forth and I was wondering what a large (rental truck) was doing on the two-lane highway late Saturday afternoon instead of the faster I-26 Interstate.”
Harris said he saw the men throw something from the truck while they were being pursued. Officers scouring the area later found a vial containing an unknown substance along the roadway, he said.
Once the men were apprehended, officers also found a “Learn to Fly” brochure in the truck, leading Harris and others to express concern about security at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin.
“I got a sick feeling when I saw it,” Harris said.
Dahan also gave authorities a fake Florida driver’s license issues in Plantation, Fla., he said, while Naor produced a fake identification card.
Harris subsequently contacted the FBI, the federal Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms and other local authorities to look into the situation.
“We’re not overreacting,” Harris said. “We have a responsibility to protect the citizens of Unicoi County and that’s what I’m going to do at any cost. I’d rather overreact, if that’s what you call it, than be sorry later.”
© Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Here is the more potentially damning followup article:
Israeli Men Held After Chase
Two Men Arrested After High-Speed Chase in Tennessee
ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) – Two Israeli men were being held Tuesday on a detainer warrant after they ledUnicoi County authorities on a high-speed chase in a rented moving truck over the weekend.
Shmuel Dahan, 23, is being held in the Unicoi County Jail on charges of reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest. His bond was set at $10,000. Almaliach Naor, 19, faces a $5,000 bond on charges of false identification.
Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris said the two men will be turned over to Immigration and Naturalization Services, which he said placed a detainer warrant on the men.
“Their passports in the country were only for tourists, and they were doing things that weren’t part of their passports,” Harris said.
A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement couldn’t comment on the case while the men were in the custody of local authorities.
The two men could be deported, Harris said.
Israeli Deputy Consul General Aviv Ezra in Atlanta said the sheriff told him it was a misunderstanding and that the two men were overwhelmed by the process.
“If they did something that was wrong, out of parameters of the law … they have to pay the punishment,” Ezra said.
The chase began late Saturday afternoon when Harris noticed a rental truck traveling up to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit along former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly traveled highway near the North Carolina state line. The truck was rented from a Ryder office in Mars Hills, N.C., officials have said.
Harris said the men didn’t stop for about two and a half miles, and that witnesses saw them throw a bottle out the window.
A witness gave the bottle to authorities, and it contained a substance first identified as a “fuel source” that Harris sent for testing in Sevierville. The chemical mix turned out not to be explosive, but similar in makeup to furniture stripping solution.
“It’s very dangerous to drink it, but other than that, there’s nothing harmful,” Harris said.
Harris and Ezra said the men deny the bottle came from their vehicle.
“I called the witnesses back in and both told me the same thing,” Harris said. “The bottle was spinning in the road after the pursuit came by.”
Harris said he’s been buying food for the men outside of the jail food because of the men’s religious dietary restrictions.
“We’ve been very good to them, and they have not caused any problems in the jail,” he said.
William B. Lawson, one of the lawyers appointed to represent the Israeli men, said they rented a truck and were hauling furniture when they accidentally got off the interstate and got lost.
© Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
And now, for those of you not opposed to tinfoil hattery and would like to inspect possible Israeli linkages to nuclear sites being breached:
Click here
I agree with Chertoff. Anyone who thinks that we can provide security for 100% of the people 100% of the time is unrealistic. We have to set priorities. Where I fault this administration is that they have not done enough to secure our nuclear facilities which would have enormous consequences if a plane or whatever were to cause an explosion. The death and devastation would be much greater than a subway train or bus being blown up.
I live in a big city where people with backpacks are commonplace on mass transit. Monitoring everyone is impossible.
100% of the time.
However, you also can’t say you are going to protect 20% of the people 50% of the time and 80% of the people 0% of the time, or whatever the percentages come out to. I have more to say about that below.
thx for posting LynChi. The reason I find Chertoff’s suggestion so abhorrent is that their track record royally sucks with regards to funding their mandates. Look at NCLB for a prime example. They shove off the responsibility to the states, knowing full well that they can’t fully fund the reforms, then we end up with a system of less quality than before.
This is just another shot in the assault on mass transit. The Bush Administration was proposing a zero dollar funding mandate for Amtrack but luckily Congress defied their wishes. Thx again for posting.
Dem in Knoxville posted a great diary today regarding chemical plant protection. I recommend checking it out.
for the heads up re Dem in Knoxville’s diary. I agree with the points he made. Trusting chemical plants to monitor themselves is like trusting Republicans to conduct honest elections.
It is frustrating to me that this administration thinks that rhetoric and good intentions will solve our security problems. This is the same mind set that thought we would be received with flowers in Iraq, that the Iraqi’s were just waiting for us to deliver democracy to them, that everything would be peaches and cream. Their lack of concrete preparation and realistic expectations just show that they are operating with their heads in the sand.
and would feel a big impact if his bus got blown up…
Oh, and what about other problems, like Sarin gas or other toxins in a subway system? About 200,000+ people ride Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains in a given day; maybe 30,000+ during rush hour. Some carefully placed vials of a bacterial agent could have a major impact.
Why do our tax dollars have to subsidize private companies like the airlines? I’m sure if they added a $25 or $50 surcharge per ticket for security, most people would be willing to pay it. I know I would…
I think this particular situation highlights the difference between Democrats and Republicans, and the Democrats should pound on the difference EV.’ry SING.le CHANCE. they GET.
Democrats propose programs, and the Republicans ask, “How are you going to pay for that program?” The Democrats say that they either will shift money around to make room for the program, or they may have to raise taxes a bit if it’s important enough. Republicans then accuse the Democrats of being fiscally irresponsible and “tax and spend” advocates.
Republicans propose programs, and the Democrats ask, “How are you going to pay for that program?” The Republicans say, “Who cares? We’re just going to ram it through and the states get to work out the details of how they’re going to pay for it.” Then the Democrats are called unpatriotic or worse if they try to point out that this is what we have come to know as an unfunded mandate.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m sick and tired of unfundated mandates. The War on Terra™ wasn’t my idea, but I have to live with the consequences, so the least Repubcorp™ can do is to pay for the consequences of their actions. Is that too much to ask? Probably.
AMEN to all you cats!!! (well except for the proponent of the contrarian view 😉 )
Chertoff engages in some artful bigotry and racial profiling in there that he has to be called out for explicitly. Many of you have alluded to it in the above posts, but for those of you unaware of the vagaries of European immigration demographics…the disaffected, non-assimilated ethnic group he so “cleverly” refers to a being the big threat or a terrorist breeding bed is that of surprise, surprise Arab Muslim immigrants, primarily of Northern African descent.
Last I checked 60% of our population is borderline disaffected.
Fuck Chertoff.
Remember that the evidence at the moment is suggesting that the London bombings were carried out by young men of Pakistani ancestry. I don’t know if they were born in West Yorkshire but one man interviewed said he had known one of the suspects “all my life” which makes me think that if they weren’t born in Britain they have been there a very, very long time.
Thanks for another passionate diary, Manny. Oh my. . .last night I was reading the comments on this thread to make sure I didn’t duplicate any. Before I knew it the birds were chirping, my cat was tapping me on the leg to be fed. . .and somehow it was 5:00 a.m. Needless to say, my back is kinda messed up from falling asleep over my computer. (I just went through a very long, tiring week. . .oops. . .) Now that kitty has been fed, I’ve taken a nap and have stretched a few of the kinks out. . .
This infuriates me on so many levels I don’t know where to begin. As referenced above, the lack of funding for first responders has placed us all in jeopardy. Aside from the funding, how many of those first responders are in the National Guard or Army reserves – and are now in the Middle East? Where is our Homeland Security now? Oh yeah. . .spreading democracy.
For those of us living in Republican governed states – where said Republicans signed a pledge for no new taxes – things are even worse. The social programs are being slashed and burned before our eyes, and once again the little guy is getting hurt. Significantly. State funded healthcare programs? Buh bye. K-12 education? Buh bye. College funding? (yeah right) Property taxes? HELLO!! My mortgage has increased about 30% over the last three years because of property taxes and insurance. We’re all tapped out. Too many citizens have entered into dangerous lending games to keep up with expenses and I fear that house of cards will soon come crashing down.
IMHO, the Dems did a piss-poor job of communicating actual costs to the voters. While the Republicans were handing out $600 rebate checks, they were diverting attention from the $10,000 they were stealing from our back pockets on a local level. Why are the citizens not in an uproar over this? Oh yeah. . .I forgot. Everything has changed since 9/11 and I should learn to deal with it. (Thus spoke my Republican friends) Mmm . . . hmm
I’m not even going to touch on Chertoff’s comments about Europe. What a dick.