Bay Area's anti-terror funding chopped

[musette_sf]

Bay Area's anti-terror funding chopped
New formula shifts federal money to New York, L.A.

- Edward Epstein, SF Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, January 8, 2005

Washington -- Federal funds for anti-terrorism efforts in the Bay Area are being slashed 22.3 percent -- to $34.2 million from $44 million -- forcing local police, firefighters and emergency planners to stretch their dollars further.

The cuts are a result of the Department of Homeland Security changing its formula for distributing the money, expanding its list of possible terrorist targets to include more bridges, port facilities, landmarks, government buildings and industrial plants.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/08/MNGB5AND801.DTL

I live here and I hate to say it, but it looks like a possible setup for 9/11 - The Sequel. A little Boxer payback perhaps?.

[feminazi]

1. hey musette, that's ok

i'm sure wyoming's funding was slashed, too. (yes, i'm being sarcastic)

btw, i'm in san jose.

:hi:

[troubleinwinter]

2. Oh well, ya know

there are a lot of homoseckshuals in San Francisco, and Los Angeles has a lot of bridges to protect.

(I'm in Santa Rosa!)

[Piperay]

18. The 'bridges'

here in Los Angeles are really the freeway overpasses. It's stupid, they started calling them 'bridges' after the Northridge Quake. :crazy: Where they get this 'bridge' thing is beyond me, cause they are fucking FREEWAY OVERPASSES! :eyes: The only REAL bridge that actually spans water I can think of in LA is the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro.

[mrbassman03]

22. Yeah! Santa Rosa rocks!

That's where I grew up! Don't get into Petaluma though... :)

[murielm99]

3. I have always thought San Francisco was the next target.

They might like Chicago, too, but we are probably farther down the list.

This scares me. San Francisco is a beautiful city, and my brother lives there.

[tanyev]

21. Nice "joke" from Jeb in 2003

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush joked during a Florida Cabinet meeting Wednesday that the people of San Francisco may be endangered and, "That's probably good news for the country."

The subject was environmental land and Bush was looking at a map showing locations with a lot of different wildlife.

"It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country."

People in the room broke into laughter

"Did I just say that out loud?" the governor asked.

http://ajc.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=8243099&fb=Y&partnerID=552

[WMliberal]

4. No, just corresponds with the decrease in terror threat to Blue states

The terrorists are more concerned with blowing up a Wal-Mart in suburban Missouri than the 4th largest metro area in the U.S., right?

[havocmom]

5. Had to get the $$ for that conference in Oahu from somewhere?

:eyes: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=340420&page=1



<snip> Dec. 17, 2004 — At the same time agents of the budget-strapped Department of Homeland Security worried about being able to afford gas for government cars, top department officials, including outgoing DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, could be found basking in the warm Hawaiian sun for a meeting they said was essential government business.

<snip> While officials reported a continuing freeze on hiring new agents and a halt to non-essential spending in chilly Washington, D.C., buffet lines, lavish luaus and a short walk to the beach awaited top officials at a sumptuous resort and spa on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.

<snip> It was the setting for the second annual Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit and Exposition, with most of the cost paid for by corporations seeking government contracts. The rest of the travel expenses for the officials were picked up by the American taxpayers.

<snip> On the first day of the conference, ABC News cameras caught Ridge, along with several aides, relaxing by one of the five pools at the Honolulu resort. It was listed as "office time" on his official schedule.

Here's a DU thread on the conference
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2920349

Anybody know if that 80-95% number for cargo containers entering the US has gone down yet?

But, hey, we have to show 2 forms of ID to mail a package via USPS. Do you feel safer yet?

[troubleinwinter]

19. Egads... I did not know about this!

"....with most of the cost paid for by corporations seeking government contracts." Is that legal?????!!!

Hahaha "office time"!!!!

How can I get a job with Homeland Security and get my free Hawaiian Vacation?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. Know Ye All - The Emperor Punishes Heretics. Now turn the wheel...

The Gropenfuhrer has some thumbscrews waiting with expensive 'special elections' to savage the budget for decades to come.

Money is a weapon and California is a neo-con target BEFORE Iran.

CA was conquered in classic CIA fashion:
1) Economic destabilization (Enron energy scam)
2) Topple democratically elected leader (Gray Davis)
3) Install US corporate-friendly Nazi strongman (Arnold)
4) Direct more of the profits back to The Emperor (Neo-cons)

I moved to the Bay area from Liebermanville/Insurance City (Hartford) to get away from corporatism and this cruel joke called Arnold arrived to loot and plunder.

[NYC]

7. They need that money for the Texas lawn mower drag races.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1475180

Texas has not ensured that the hundreds of millions of dollars in homeland security grants it has distributed over the past several years is being spent to prevent terrorist attacks, according to a state audit...

...
In another jurisdiction, an agency used a trailer bought with grant funds to haul public education materials, according to the audit. Another hauled lawn mowers to "lawn mower drag races," the report says...

[jhain]

8. New Jersey, too

This is what a 'mandate' buys you:

http://www.voicesofsept11.org/homeland_security/010405e.htm

Officials to go to D.C. to fight security cuts

January 4, 2005
BY RICK HEPP

Acting Gov. Richard Codey and the state's congressional delegation have arranged to meet with Bush administration officials Thursday in Washington about millions of dollars in slashed homeland security grants.

"My hope is that we will ferret out what happened and how quickly we will get these funds restored," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), who set up the classified briefing with key Department of Homeland Security officials. "We want to hear everything they have to say and respond to it."

It is the latest step in an aggressive lobbying effort by New Jersey officials since the federal government announced last month it is cutting homeland security grants to Jersey City and Newark for the coming year.

The decision outraged state officials, who have long urged Homeland Security to give New Jersey more funding and have taken every public opportunity to say so.

<more>

[frylock]

9. expanding its list of possible terrorist targets to include more bridges..

Hey, it's not like San Fran has any bridges, port facilities or landmarks that would benefit from additional DHS funding. What the terrorists really want is to hit places like the Tim Hortons in Coeur d'Alene or Helena. :eyes:

[Gman]

10. Let's see... the formula has to be

Blue states -20%, Red states +20%. Sounds simple enough.

[damntexdem]

11. Oh, terrorists would never attack the Bay Area -- after all ...

there are just no targets there: no big bridges, no port facilities, no highrises, no population concentrations, no major government operations, no theme parks, no tourist industry. Yep, we can cut them Bay Areans and use that money where it will do some good: life safeguarding the Inaugural.

[Amigust]

12. One of the two blue areas that tip the state to blue. n/t

Perfect location for a sequel, if ever needed, but it looks like the radicals' use of 9/11 has already given them all the power they need to do whatever they want from here on out.

On the other hand, Rove's admiration of the Nazi crowds could hint at more.

By the way, anyone know what Karl Rove's genealogy is? Just curious.

-------------------------------

Later Edit,

Well, I Googled my own Karl Rove question and came up with this from Common Dreams:

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1006-08.htm

"According to Wilson, and to Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Al Martin (www.almartinraw.com), Rove's grandfather was Karl Heinz Roverer, the Gauleiter of Oldenburg. Roverer was Reich-Statthalter---Nazi State Party Chairman---for his region. He was also a partner and senior engineer in the Roverer Sud-Deutche Ingenieurburo A. G. engineering firm, which built the Birkenau death camp, at which tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, dissidents and other were slaughtered en masse."

and

According to Bob Woodward's Bush at War, Bush attended a New York Yankees game soon after the September 11 World Trade Center disaster. He wore a fireman's jacket. As he threw out the first pitch, the crowd roared. Thousands of fans stuck out their arms with thumbs up. Karl Rove, sitting in the box of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, likened the roar of the crowd to "a Nazi rally."

Yes, indeedee, there may be much more to come.

[Jazzgirl]

13. This sentence is telling.

"I live here and I hate to say it, but it looks like a possible setup for 9/11 - The Sequel. A little Boxer payback perhaps?."

Thats the first thing I thought when I read it. Bet Idaho's anti-terrorism funding has been increased by the amount taken away from the Bay Area....

[prolesunited]

14. Now wouldn't it be the perfect place

for God to show his wrath. The fundie scripts practically write themselves.

[GRLMGC]

15. I'm surprised they're giving more money to NYC and LA

considering how much those resources are needed in Wyoming <sarcasm off>

[Sugarbleus]

16. I live very near also...Monterey Bay

Ya know, I constantly get this feeling that the Bay Area and surrounding, if not the whole of the state, is under a not so subtle attack by RWs and neocons from elsewhere.

It's very unsettling especially when real threats and needs are involved.

I kind of feel like we are living on an "Island" under seige.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. All the Blue states are going to pay the price for voting for Kerry in one

way or another. The proposed tax "reform" is going to stop allowing the deduction for local and state taxes. Guess which states have the highest local and state taxes???
And that is just the beginning....

[Newfoundland]

20. Which formula gives you that idea?

"I live here and I hate to say it, but it looks like a possible setup for 9/11 - The Sequel. A little Boxer payback perhaps?.
"

What part of the plan gives you that idea? I see no hidden variables that could be used to distort the data enough to hide a formula change.

[musette_sf]

23. and we barely knew ye...

[Just Me]

24. Which terrorists will strike where? eom

[musette_sf]

25. the usual suspects

theories abound as to where

[NuttyFluffers]

26. well glad to know my home is under attack by my gov't...

i'm more afraid of my gov'ts ineptitude and spite than anything from 'tha terrarists'.

*sigh* thankfully we have some smart cookies here and a lot of international goodwill. we are a 'sane' part of america, and beautiful to boot. and if another attack happens here i'm pretty sure the first thing will be a protest blaming boosh* and the fundies as the guilty party, because they are the only ones who really harbor a grudge against us. might give us the incentive to kick off a civil war by having us petition china or somebody for protection and giving them a few local empty bases here to defend us. wouldn't mind seceeding from usa if they decide to attack us in the bay area with a 'rallying cry, terrarist attack.'