Homeland Security Frivolity - Part I
September 11th sure changed America. It gave Congress and the President a big excuse to waste a lot more of our money. This is a big topic, so I'll do it in bites. First I'll talk about the straight "security" wastes. Down the road I'll go after the anti-immigration nonsense, but not yet.
The security spending is complete nonsense. It quickly turned into another porkfest. I remember reading the Fulton County Leader Herald about how Homeland Security bought a truckload of gasmasks for the county. The article quoted the sheriff saying he wasn't quite sure what to do with them.
Take a look at Fulton County sometime. About 50,000 people in a pretty large area. A smaller population than the town of Colonie (80K+), with nearly 10 times the land area. And Colonie doesn't make a good target for a gas attack. One small waste for man, one giant waste for America.
Homeland Security funds went to high-risk places like Montana, Idaho and New Hampshire. Don't forget the Dakotas. The first President Bush saw 1000 points of light. This one found 1000 Maginot Lines.
Here in NY, the state government got all psycho about security. Metal detectors everywhere. One local courthouse now has six state officers guarding one door. In a rural county. Osama is not aiming for courthouses in rural counties. Can we get a clue?
You see, it doesn't matter how many places you secure. If terrorists want to blow something up, they'll just attack whatever isn't protected. Do we need soldiers protecting every school, every Walmart, every apartment building? Why not? The politicians aren't paying for it. We are.
During all the hype I heard Chuck Schumer advocate that we need these radiation detection devices to protect our borders. The devices cost $10 million apiece, and have a range of 80 feet. Let's be optimistic and say 200 feet. So we'd need 25 or so per mile. We've got about 10,000 miles of border, not counting Alaska and Hawaii. 2.5 million devices times $10 million equals $25 trillion, and then we've got to hire 20 million people to run them. Smart planning Chuck. Maybe he was thinking about fundraising for his next campaign.
I've got my security plan. First I make a few million, then I retire to Costa Rica. Think about it. If there was a nuclear war, would anyone nuke Costa Rica? Might be the safest place on earth. Maybe New Zealand. Montana was already pretty safe, but with all that homeland security money, now it's ... well ... just as safe as it was before.
In the meantime, if we could stop wasting so much money, more of us could afford a real retirement plan.
The security spending is complete nonsense. It quickly turned into another porkfest. I remember reading the Fulton County Leader Herald about how Homeland Security bought a truckload of gasmasks for the county. The article quoted the sheriff saying he wasn't quite sure what to do with them.
Take a look at Fulton County sometime. About 50,000 people in a pretty large area. A smaller population than the town of Colonie (80K+), with nearly 10 times the land area. And Colonie doesn't make a good target for a gas attack. One small waste for man, one giant waste for America.
Homeland Security funds went to high-risk places like Montana, Idaho and New Hampshire. Don't forget the Dakotas. The first President Bush saw 1000 points of light. This one found 1000 Maginot Lines.
Here in NY, the state government got all psycho about security. Metal detectors everywhere. One local courthouse now has six state officers guarding one door. In a rural county. Osama is not aiming for courthouses in rural counties. Can we get a clue?
You see, it doesn't matter how many places you secure. If terrorists want to blow something up, they'll just attack whatever isn't protected. Do we need soldiers protecting every school, every Walmart, every apartment building? Why not? The politicians aren't paying for it. We are.
During all the hype I heard Chuck Schumer advocate that we need these radiation detection devices to protect our borders. The devices cost $10 million apiece, and have a range of 80 feet. Let's be optimistic and say 200 feet. So we'd need 25 or so per mile. We've got about 10,000 miles of border, not counting Alaska and Hawaii. 2.5 million devices times $10 million equals $25 trillion, and then we've got to hire 20 million people to run them. Smart planning Chuck. Maybe he was thinking about fundraising for his next campaign.
I've got my security plan. First I make a few million, then I retire to Costa Rica. Think about it. If there was a nuclear war, would anyone nuke Costa Rica? Might be the safest place on earth. Maybe New Zealand. Montana was already pretty safe, but with all that homeland security money, now it's ... well ... just as safe as it was before.
In the meantime, if we could stop wasting so much money, more of us could afford a real retirement plan.
posted by Albany Lawyer at 10:55 PM
1 Comments:
FDR kept the U.S. in a depression partly by massive deficit spending, most of which went to states that he previous lost in the election, so he could buy their votes next time around.
Bush is the opposite, he's spending us into a depression with massive deficit spending, most of which goes to the states that supported him.
Do you get the idea that most Presidents really don't spend our money to protect us, but they sure will spend our money to protect their own ass.
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