re: #313 Gus 802

Don’t remind me. I remember when DHS first started out and seeing all of these millions going to these BS seminars, training “gyms”, and all sorts of waste.

Yeah, me too. Don’t get me started on the dispersal of funds. From CNN in 2004:

Since the September 11 attacks, about $13.1 billion has surged into state coffers from the federal government — sorely needed money that has gone for police, fire and emergency services to help finance equipment and training to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.

That is a 990% increase over the $1.2 billion spent by the federal government for similar programs in the preceding three years. But the vast majority of the $13.1 billion was distributed with no regard for the threats, vulnerabilities and potential consequences faced by each region.

Of the top 10 states and districts receiving the most money per capita last year, only the District of Columbia also appeared on a list of the top 10 most at-risk places, as calculated by AIR for TIME. In fact, funding appears to be almost inversely proportional to risk.

If all the federal homeland-security grants from last year are added together, Wyoming received $61 a person while California got just $14, according to data gathered at TIME’s request by the Public Policy Institute of California, an independent, nonprofit research organization. Alaska received an impressive $58 a resident, while New York got less than $25. On and on goes the upside-down math of the new homeland-security funding.

I guess they needed to make sure all the ‘real americans’ in Wasilla were safe.

As for New York, i think this lovely Onion video captures it:

theonion.com