Demand Chertoff's resignation NOW.
As Bill's Cheers and Jeers pointed out, the Department of Homeland Security has decided New York City has no icons or monuments that need protecting from terrorism. I suppose the only important building NYC had was the World Trade Center, and since Al Qaeda already got that, we don't need to worry. Similarly, Washington, D.C. was downgraded to a "low risk city", and St. Louis, Omaha, Milwaukee, Louisville, Charlotte, and Tampa were upgraded.
Demand Tracy Henke's firing NOW.
This is what the funding's architect, Tracy Henke, has to say for herself:
Needless to say, not everybody has nice things to say about me, so anybody who wants to say something nice, please feel free to do so. You know, it's one of those things where it's occasionally important to have a little bit of that positive affirmation. If nothing else, then I'll have to call my parents, and the reality is they don't give it to me either.
Somehow I don't think even Stuart Smalley would give this piece of human excrement any affirmation.
I just can't provide snark, but here's more:
The new DHS plan is advertised as a "risk-based" model, but it came up with almost the opposite conclusions to a Rand Corp. study last year that calculated terrorism risk to 47 cities. Seven of the 10 highest-risk cities in the Rand study will lose funding under the DHS plan; six of the 10 lowest-risk cities in the Rand study will see increases in funds, including such hot spots as Milwaukee and Tampa.
Demand ACCOUNTABILITY.
Chertoff, barraged by questions on the subject, became petulant, saying that "threatening the secretary is not a way to drive funding decisions," and "there's a little bit of the quality of what-have-you-done-for-me-yesterday about some of the criticism."
Although the District is home to the White House, the Capitol, FBI headquarters and many national monuments, it received a smaller state grant than Montana, Hawaii and Utah. Each of them received $4.5 million, as did Rhode Island.
DHS is blaming New York City's application for the cuts.
Federal officials said yesterday that the city had not only done a poor job of articulating its needs in its application, but had also mishandled the application itself, failing to file it electronically as required, instead faxing its request to Washington.
City and state officials insisted that they had made no mistakes. And a state official provided a written acknowledgment from the federal government saying that the city's application for grant money had been "successfully submitted" and said that the city could "log in" any time to view the application.
DEMAND NAMES.
Department officials have declined to release a list of risk scores for the jurisdictions vying for funding under its grant programs. The department has also declined to release information about the review panels, made up of law enforcement and homeland security officials from 47 states, whose recommendations were used in making decisions.
It's time to TAKE BACK our country from these assholes.