The Whole City Is A National Monument

One more piece of unneeded proof that this administration is totally clueless. Just out of idle curiousity, don't you guys live in Washington?

Security Cuts for New York and Washington - New York Times:New York officials were given a one-page tally that explained, in part, how the region's risk-based standing was calculated. The document said the region had no "national monuments or icons," four banking or financial firms with assets of over $8 billion, 28 chemical or hazardous material sites, as well as nearly 7,000 other possible important, high-risk targets, like hospitals or major office buildings, a tally that some city officials said had major omissions or errors.

"It's outrageous that these bean counters don't think the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge are national monuments or icons," said Jordon Barowitz, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg.

Let's not forget Wall Street. Meanwhile, over at the WaaahPoo they provided a little more detail on the latest disbursement of the peoples money.

In addition to Washington and New York, the grant decisions included a 46 percent drop for San Diego, where several of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived; a 61 percent decrease for Phoenix, where an FBI agent suspected that terrorists were taking flight training; and a 30 percent reduction for Boston, the point of origin of the two jetliners that crashed into the World Trade Center.

Phoenix Mayor Phillip Gordon called the grant reduction from $10 million to $3.9 million "outrageous." He said that Phoenix, the nation's fifth-largest city, includes a network of dams, a nuclear power plant and numerous other potential targets.

So where did the pork go?

Winners included Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as smaller cities such as Louisville (up 70 percent), Charlotte (64 percent) and St. Louis (31 percent). The only notable gain in the Northeast was in the Jersey City-Newark area, where the grant rose from $19 million to $34 million.

Then they trot out a bald faced lie.

Undersecretary for Preparedness George Foresman told reporters that although the program was formed with anti-terrorism objectives in mind, the money is meant to improve readiness for "an act of terrorism or an act of Mother Nature."

Yet one of the big losers was hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, whose grant award dropped from $9.3 million to $4.6 million.

They have no intention of rebuilding New Orleans and this isn't really about protecting the country from terrorism. They just don't care. In most sci-fi books San Diego is a prime target, not Charlotte. This administration has continually shown a flagrant disregard for the safety of the Americans under their care. They don't care about the troops, don't care about world opinion, don't care about innocents who die in the name of collateral damage, don't care about Darfur, but they do care that they bully other nations and try to look like the big man on campus.

It's not working anymore. Maybe if you didn't keep sending the National Guard and the Reserves to Iraq, New York might not have to pay overtime to their remaining defenders. You know, the ones who survived the September 11 attack that is cited for every removal of civil liberties?

Tags: terrorism, funding, DHS, risk based, stupidity, September 11