Prime example of how * is not protecting the country.

[fishface]

(use it on your freetard friends )from last Feb.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/07/bush_seeks_to_end_research_program_on_bioattacks/

Bush seeks to end research program on bioattacks
By John Heilprin, Associated Press, 2/7/2004

WASHINGTON -- On the same day a poison-laced letter shuttered Senate offices, President Bush asked Congress to eliminate an $8.2 million research program on how to decontaminate buildings attacked with toxins.

Critics said Thursday that they were surprised by Bush's request, which was included in his 2005 budget proposal. Its release coincided with the discovery of the poison ricin in the office of the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, on Monday.

"It is a stunning example of the budget choices this administration has made, where tax cuts for elites are more important than public health or adequate homeland security," said Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota and the Senator minority leader.

Daschle's office was the target of an anthrax-laced letter in October 2001 when he was the majority leader.

<snip>
Buried in documents justifying the Environmental Protection Agency's budget plan is an acknowledgment that Bush's proposed research cut "represents the complete elimination of homeland security building decontamination research."

[Pepperbelly]

1. Kerry should pound him with this in the debate. Sincerely. nt

[ClintonTyree]

2. But nobody's allowed...................

to ask questions! Great debate format, huh? They'll ask pre-arranged questions, both candidates will have rehearsed answers and we'll get absolutely nothing out of GWB but sound bites.

In a real debate the little shithead would get his ass handed to him but NOOOOOOO, we couldn't have that now, could we? Heaven forbid GWB is made to think on his feet.

[NMDemDist2]

3. this is a post from a local baord I used on an "Are we safer" thread

Bush has still only given lip service to "Homeland Security." We still only check 5% of incoming cargo in our seaports and this article was enough to make your hair stand on end....

Airport security 'embarrassing'
23/09/2004 19:51 - (SA)

Washington - Undercover agents smuggled explosives and weapons past security screening at 15 airports across the United States in an operation that highlighted embarrassing deficiencies, US media reported on Thursday.

The operation was carried out in late 2003 and the department of Homeland security's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, said in a report that the performance of some airport security guards was worse than before the September 11 2001 attacks.

"The performance was poor," Ervin was quoted as saying as he presented details of the report to Congress on Wednesday.

According to USA Today newspaper the tests highlighted problems in detecting explosives like that used to blow up two airliners in Russia last month.

The newspaper said representative John Mica, chair of a House of Representatives aviation sub committee, confirmed that weapons and explosives were missed by airport screeners.

He was quoted as saying that the results on weapons were "bad enough", but those on explosives were "absolutely horrendous". .....

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1594374,00.html

and this...

Bush Proposed Massive Cuts in Port Security Grant Funding. Bush's 2005 budget calls for $50 million for port security grants, down from $200 million in his 2004 budget. Seven million cargo containers arrive in US ports each year, but as few as 2 percent of those are screened. The CIA reported, "The United States is more likely to be attacked with a weapon of mass destruction smuggled into the country aboard a ship than one delivered by a ballistic missile." And a 2003 Pentagon simulation found that even a "minor" attack on a US port could shut down all the ports for a month. Budget of the United States, www.omb.gov; Journal of Commerce, 3/24/03; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7/10/03; Portland Press Herald, 7/5/03; Boston Globe, 6/21/03

Bush's Container Security Program Has Serious Gaps, is "Inherently Dangerous." Bush's Container Security Initiative uses ships' manifest data, which the GAO called "one of the least reliable or useful for targeting purposes," to evaluate risk. Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Stephen Flynn called the program "inherently dangerous." The president of the American Association of Port Authorities, Kurt Nagle, said: "It's disheartening that port facilities have been neglected as a key player. Port authorities and facility operators are expected to comply with the new security regulations, at a cost of billions of dollars. Federal help is simply imperative in order to make that expectation reality." Sunday Telegram, 3/30/03; House HS Committee Democrats, America at Risk, 1/04; Congressional Quarterly, 2/9/04

[A_Possum]

4. It's just so weird

It's weird, weird, weird.

HOW can they be this stupid? How can anyone think this is the way to keep us "safe?"