And 'Last Comic Standing Homeland Security?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the fruit of this current administration, has an operating budget for 2006 of 40.6 billion U.S. dollars. After three years and more than 100 billion dollars, we really reached the point were we can sleep better at night knowing that our "leaders" are doing everything to protect us against terrorists Those attacks.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), nothing has changed since the beginning of the DHS in 2003. During their recent test of nine border posts in the United States: California, Texas, Arizona, Michigan, New York, Washington and Idaho, the GAO investigators were able to penetrate all nine border crossings with fake IDs and fake names.

Terrorists or criminals can "pass freely in the United States ... with little or no chance of being discovered," the GAO concluded in testimony to the Senate finance committee. The researchers used readily available computers and software to create these fake driving licenses and documents. None of Customs and Border Protection agents "never questioned the authenticity of the forged documents." The GAO also said similar tests in 2003 produced similar results.

According to DHS, which has trained border agents to detect forged documents and agents intercepted more than 75,000 last year, but the work is complicated by the variety of legitimate documents. More than 8,000 are used to enter the country, including easy to falsify, licenses and birth certificates.

So let me be sure I understand this: three years, 100 billion U.S. dollars, the complete erosion of our civil liberties, an infringement of our privacy during phone calls, monitoring our bank accounts and arrest citizens, denying them the assistance legal, but still the test results are the same as 2003. I'm missing something here or is the DHS's largest joke ever played on the American public.

Why is it that whenever we get close to a budget or an increase in funding for DHS at the hearing of the Senate Finance, the Committee seems to have suddenly bombarded with new threats from terrorists or new information in a pending attack? Do you really think that we are all so stupid or is it just that they have so little respect for us, but I do not care!

So what we got for our money and the loss of civil liberties? Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, applauded the increased funding and changes to the Department of Homeland Security organization during a ceremony at the White House in October last year where President Bush signed the 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations Act . He outlined an integrated management preparation to improve the coordination and implementation of preparedness activities and training at a cost of $ 4 billion.

What were they doing in the last three years? Secretary Chertoff earlier this year, outlined a new six-point program which included the following: the creation of an Office of Intelligence and Analysis to be led by a chief intelligence officer and raising the component separating information analysis of IAIP. Wow this sounds important. He also wants to establish an Office of Operations, which will include the Homeland Security Operations Center. Then there is the Office of Policy and the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Now I'm sure there must be a department that DHS has a way of operating licenses Stupid Training for departments to increase funding.

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