Homeland Security= giant boondoggle

[LiberalEsto]

The Department of Homeland Security seems to be little more than a massive boondoggle for squandering our tax dollars.

I drove from Maryland to New Jersey and back this past weekend on Route 95, and was amazed to see huge light-up signs warning drivers to "report suspicious activity." There must have been 7 or 8 along the way between Columbia, MD and Cherry Hill, NJ. Each one gave a new local phone number to "report suspicious activity."

What a colossal waste of our tax money!
What is a driver supposed to do - stop in the middle of Rt. 95 to jot down the numbers just in case there might be suspicious activity somewhere ahead?
How are you supposed to remember the correct "suspicious activity" phone number for each jurisdiction?
How are you going to remember that phone number after seeing it for perhaps two seconds as you drive beneath the sign?

If I saw something "suspicious" I'd call 911, not try to recall the last signboard phone number I'd passed. This "security" effort is being run by a bunch of swindlers, wastrels and complete idiots.

How many of these stupid electronic signs are being installed among America's highways, and how much do they cost to install, operate and maintain?
Who are the manufacturers and contractors making money off this project? (Wouldn't it be funny if Diebold were one of the companies?)

I plan to write to my congressperson (Chris Van Hollen) and ask him to try to get a fiscal accounting of Homeland Security spending on nonsense like this. Why aren't they spending that money making ports and chemical plants more secure?



:mad:

[KG]

1. why do you hate amurka?

well as long as the sheeple are kept in a state of wild eyed fear, it's worth every penny to the powers that be.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Why does our "government" hate Amurka

and Amurkans?

[bryant69]

2. Interesting

Well, American Sign Makers need their own economic boondoggles as well. I mean it's hard to make signs; so if Uncle Sam can throw a little work their way, well why not? I mean, it's not like that money is going to an undeserving "lucky ducky" poor person, is it?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[flyarm]

4. PORTS AND CHEMICAL PLANT SECURITY...

doesn't keep you scared shitless!!

this ought to make you madder,.i can tell you are a just retired flight attendant ny for one of the airlines involved in 9/11..this sure pisses me off big time..in fact it infuriates me that all security protocol was thrown out the door!
this is dispicable..welcome to * world!

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3288796

snip:


July 29, 2005, 10:55PM

Subcontractor who got rich in wake of 9/11 investigated
Auditors say expense claims of $15 million cannot be substantiated
Washington Post

WASHINGTON - Three years ago, Sunnye Sims lived in a two-bedroom apartment north of San Diego, paying $1,025 in monthly rent. Then she landed a dream job, with $5.4 million in pay for nine months of work.

Now she owns a $1.9 million stucco mansion. Sims is not a Hollywood starlet. She's a meeting-and-events planner from Texas who built her fortune on a U.S. government contract.

In 2002, her tiny company secured a no-bid subcontract to manage logistics on an urgent federal project to protect the nation's airports in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Sims, now 42, recruited hundreds of people to help hire a government force of 60,000 airline passenger screeners on a tight deadline.

With little experience, her tiny company was asked to help set up and run screener assessment centers in a hurry at more than 150 hotels and other facilities. Her company eventually billed $24 million.

The company, Eclipse Events, was among the most important of the 168 subcontractors hired by prime contractor NCS Pearson. The cost of the overall contract rose in less than a year to $741 million from $104 million, and federal auditors concluded that $303 million of that was unsubstantiated.

Spurred by that audit, federal agents are examining the entire contract and focusing on Eclipse, according to government officials and Pearson.

A deeper examination of the Eclipse subcontract illustrates the chaos that accompanied Homeland Security initiatives after the terrorist attacks and shows how contractors were allowed to operate with little government oversight.

Eclipse started as a one-woman operation based in Sims' apartment.

<<She was hired in a hurry, through word of mouth, recommended by someone who did not review her background in detail.>>


$24 million subcontract

Her company, Eclipse, did not exist as a corporation until Sims got the Pearson subcontract; two weeks later, she filed incorporation papers. Over the next several months, Sims hired hundreds of freelance meeting planners, many of them sight unseen.

As the number of hotel assessment sites expanded — the Transportation Security Administration doubled the number of screeners to be hired — Eclipse's subcontract grew to $24 million from $1.1 million.

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Read the whole article..if you want to be sick...feel safe yet????????

[tanyev]

5. Call them.

Report John Bolton.

[ScamUSA.Com]

6. suspicious activity? how about the racers on the NJ turnpike

now thats a real danger

[sexybomber]

7. How about...

everyone with a New Jersey license? :evilgrin:

Sorry, I had to. I've known too many crazy Jersey drivers. I'm sure y'all aren't all nuts ;)

[KharmaTrain]

8. TSA...Making Our Skies Safer?

I'm putting together our vacation travel check list. It used to be what you brought with you, now it's what you shouldn't.

Forget about that lighter or Swiss Army knife and be prepared to remove your shoes and get the once over by a screener who'd either is looking for the next Mohammed Atta (and you kinda look like him...who cares if you have grey hair) or when their next cigarette break is.

I just saw some moran on CNNServative claim we're "safer" today than before 9/11. Yeah, just walk into any government building...even the small courthouse to get a picnic permit. The metal detectors, dogs and tons of guys walking around in ugly Hawaiian shirts with earpieces are everywhere. Safer...yeah, right. And, if there is a lapse, it's surely cause this is the fault of the unions...it always is.

I joke that one day some woman will be caught with some kind of explosive female hygiene device...and then imagine the fun going through the screening process will be.

[kentuck]

9. Indeed it is...

Therefore, we will be stuck with it forever...