i'm not surprised AND i believe him as well

i think LOADS o' dirty deeds happened on the last watch. way more than this one - although one can't tell from what's happening at town hall meetings. it would almost seem as if THIS president started an unjust, illegal and immoral war (based on LIES LIES AND MORE LIES). it's almost as if THIS president encouraged torture and killing. it's almost as if THIS president allowed his own citizens to suffer after natural disaster. it's as if this president ONLY cared about big bid-nez.

listen, barack obama isn't a god. he has disappointed me time after time. HOWEVER, HE IS FAR FAR FAR better than king george. he strikes me as being more HONEST than king george. more INTELLIGENT than king george.

and barack obama got shafted the day he started. people are now blaming HIM for the wars in iraqafghanistan (yes, really).

wtf??????????????
Ridge Says He Was Pressured to Elevate Threat Warning

By Garance Franke-Ruta

Washington Post Staff Writer

Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security, says that he was pressured by other Bush administration department heads to raise the national security-threat level on the eve of the 2004 presidential election -- a move he rejected as having such uncomfortable political undertones that it could destroy the administration's credibility.

The disclosure comes in Ridge's new book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . and How We Can Be Safe Again," written with Larry Bloom and published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. It will not hit bookstores until Sept. 1, but a copy of the book was obtained Friday by The Washington Post...........

nice!

(not)

there really isn't too much for me to say here. i'm not really surprised. perhaps surprised at the stupidity of posting from your WORK computer. then again, i guess i'm not really surprised about that either.

if i said it once, i've said it a thousand times. it's fear and ignorance.

Advertise on NYTimes.com
Racist Web Posts Traced to Homeland Security
By KIRK SEMPLE

After federal border agents detained several Mexican immigrants in western New York in June, an article about the incident in a local newspaper drew an onslaught of vitriolic postings on its Web site. Some were racist. Others attacked farmers in the region, an apple-growing area east of Rochester, accusing them of harboring illegal workers. Still others made personal attacks about the reporter who wrote the article.

Most of the posts were made anonymously. But in reviewing the logs of its Internet server, the paper, The Wayne County Star in Wolcott, traced three of them to Internet protocol addresses at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border protection.......

what is shepard smith doing on faux?

he has more than half a brain. he has more of an open mind. he appears to at least be somewhat fair and unbiased in his reporting. so tell me, what IS he doing on faux? (and don't forget his most incredible and heartfelt reporting on katrina. ok ok ok perhaps that was NOT unbiased, but damn it was good)

Fox host defends DHS report on right-wing extremists

By David Edwards and Muriel Kane
While providing breaking coverage of Wednesday’s fatal shooting by a white supremacist at the Washington, DC Holocaust Museum, Fox News host Shepard Smith connected the crime with both the recent killing of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller and last April’s report on right-wing extremism from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“For the second time in as many weeks” Smith stated, “a crime scene reminds me of a memo … from the government, warning, ‘Look out for crazy extremists out there about to go do weirdness.’”

Reporter Catherine Herridge agreed that “it does seem to be the act of an individual who had extremist views and … someone who did have a military history. And as you remember, that was the element of the right-wing intelligence assessment which was so controversial.”........

oh snap!

guess who owns SEVERAL pairs of docs? yup, moi! (they ARE vegetarian mind you. made of fabric)

guess who is NOT a threat. who is in no way shape or form A TERRORIST? ME. i am NOT A TERRORIST.

(my personal favorite on the list you ax? i tell you then...it be RACIAL NORDIC MYSTICSM. yup, 'racial nordic mysticsm'. isn't that the shite?)

you know the f**k what? radical terrorists from other lands don't have to attack us. we're self-destructing on our own

New Homeland Security memo lists black power, shaved-head Doc Marten wearers as ‘extremist threats’

By John Byrne
It’s not just right-wing “radical” groups on the Department of Homeland Security’s black list anymore.

Another embarrassing Homeland Security memo (pdf here) detailing those the agency believes are extremists has leaked. The first was sent to police and warned of radical groups on the right; the second is sure to offend an even broader array of those involved in activism.

The memo, dated March 26, 2009, is titled “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” and came after the original memo fingering right-wing groups as a threat.

Those now listed as dangerous extremists include: Mexican separatists, “black power” advocates, “racial Nordic mysticism” practitioners and black nationalists.

Homeland Security told The Daily Beast’s Benjamin Sarlin, who posted the Lexicon, that the memo had been recalled almost as soon as it had been sent out.

Notably, Sardin says the memo includes no mention of Muslim extremism.

Perhaps the most amusing item is the document’s loose definition of “skinhead,” which appears to encompass anyone who shaves their heads and wears Doc Martens. Even those skinheads who merely preach “group unity” are worrisome, the memo says..........

i don't know if this is catch-22

or like an o'henry story or a comedy or a serious tragedy. i DO know it's EFFED UP

Treated Like a Terrorist by the DMV
By Dave Lindorff, Smirking Chimp.
I am not a terrorist.

How can I prove this in these paranoid times? Easy. The New York Department of Motor Vehicles took my $30 payment over the phone to clear what they said was a record of my NY drivers license having once been withdrawn, and informed the National Driver Register in Washington that I'm a good guy deserving of a renewal of my Pennsylvania drivers license.

Let me explain.

After 9-11, Congress and the Bush Department of Homeland Security went into overdrive passing things like the USA PATRIOT Act, the establishment of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to monitor air passengers and to develop lists of people to harass at air terminals, a network of black sites to detain and torture suspected terrorists, and more recently the National Driver Register, a federal data bank designed to link all drivers licenses and car registrations to a central computer system, and thus ferret out would be terrorists trying to create false identities courtesy of the state DMVs.

I, like uncounted tens of thousands of innocent Americans, ran afoul of this latest catch-a-terrorist system as my Pennsylvania drivers license, which I first obtained in 1997 when I moved from New York to Pennsylvania, came up for a third renewal. Several months ahead of my renewal date, I got a coldly worded and ominous letter from the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles saying my license could not be renewed because the new federal data base was reporting that my New York license had been "withdrawn" by the NY DMV..............

if you live in boise

quick pack your bags and move to a SAFE city like la. it's DANGEROUS to live in boise as it turns out. NO, this isn't april 1st any longer. it's real (well really effed up)
it would be funny if shite like this didn't cost TONS OF MONEY (studies i mean)

Terrorism Study Drops a Bombshell on Boise

By Lyndsey Layton and Ashley SurdinWashington Post Staff Writers
Quick: Name the Western U.S. city most vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Is it Los Angeles, with its crowded roads that make quick escape impossible? San Francisco and its iconic bridge? Or Seattle with its Space Needle and busy port?
Try Boise, Idaho, with its, um, potatoes.
A new study funded largely by the Department of Homeland Security ranked 132 American cities according to vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Boise was the only city in the western half of the country to make the top 10.
"To be honest, we're a little bit surprised," said Adam Park, a spokesman for Boise, a landlocked city of 200,000 where the big event this weekend is a Professional Bull Riders invitational. .......

was it innocent curiosity?

me? i don't think so
Ex-Inspector General: 'Nefarious political purpose' behind Obama passport file breach?
David Edwards
The State Department says it is trying to determine whether three contract workers had a political motive for looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file.
Two of the employees were fired for the security breach and the third was disciplined but is still working, the department said Thursday night. It would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined or the names of the two companies for which they worked. The department's inspector general is investigating.
Clark Kent Ervin, a CNN security analyst and former State Department Inspector General, told CNN that the facts surrounding the breach of Obama's passport files point to a political motivation..........
.............Ervin continued, "According to the state department, senior managers learned about this from a reporter and the fact that the dates in question all have some political significance, as you just pointed out suggests to me there was a political motivation for this."
Ervin was replaced by the Bush Administration in 2004, after he "issued many critical reports about the mismanagement and security flaws at the Department of Homeland Security," ABC reported.............

good idea

let's make it look like it's the NEXT president's fault! wonder how king george and his court can do the same with iraq?
'Virtual Fence' Along Border To Be Delayed

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from linked, tower-mounted sensors and communications and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday.
Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee.
While the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of its Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol............

because while we're spending money on building fences and bringing roger clemens up on charges our deployed men and women aren't being protected as they should.

c'mon now eloisa, you already KNOW the answer to your question!

because it's a GOLF course for the RICH WHITE GOOD OL' BOYS. that's why there is NO border fence. poor people from south of the border will NEVER cross a GOLF COURSE you silly goose! they have 'guard pros' on duty
the rich just get richer (AND whiter)

Homeland Security Won't Explain Why the Mexican Border Wall Bypasses the Rich and Connected
By Melissa del Bosque , Texas Observer.
As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.
Tamez, a nursing director at the University of Texas at Brownsville, is one of the last of the Spanish land grant heirs in Cameron County. Her ancestors once owned 12,000 acres. In the 1930s, the federal government took more than half of her inherited land, without paying a cent, to build flood levees.
Now Homeland Security wants to put an 18-foot steel and concrete wall through what remains.
While the border wall will go through her backyard and effectively destroy her home, it will stop at the edge of the River Bend Resort and golf course, a popular Winter Texan retreat two miles down the road. The wall starts up again on the other side of the resort.
"It has a golf course and all of the amenities," Tamez says. "There are no plans to build a wall there. If the wall is so important for security, then why are we skipping parts?"
Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.......

i'm always saying

how things CAN'T be real (a couple of postings ago i did it). well i just read this and i KNOW it's real. i think martial law may damn well be a possibility. i'm scared but i will NEVER go gently into that good night. i'll never shut up and i'll never give up. there HAVE to be more of US than THEM, no?
do you realize we have MORE of a change of being shot by one of 'our own' than a militant (foreign) terrorist?

FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'
By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does -- and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.
InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.
"Then the FBI cloned it," says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years...........

i've written about this before

and i'll continue to write about it.

i have been fingerprinted for work. they're on file somewhere (as a matter of fact, i was fingerprinted in kindergarten. i don't know why. we're talking WAYYYYYYYYYYYY back in the day. there were NO amber alerts. it wasn't for that reason. odd, no?). there was a reason i was fingerprinted for work (i used to sign checks. BIG checks. that was my OLD department. i don't sign checks now). i consented. i KNOW about it.

i'm a law abiding citizen. i pay my taxes (and i really don't cheat). i don't steal. i don't own a gun nor do i want to. i don't beat any one up (although i must admit the thought has crossed my mind from time to time). i don't play loud music in my house OR my car (sometimes i do crank it up but never where anyone can be annoyed by it). i come to a full stop at stop signs (yes, even at 3 am when i am usually leaving for work). i drive the speed limit (well, ok, i TRY to drive the speed limit). i am polite and i MEAN it. i say excuse me (which, i think is something LACKING in our country. not enough say EXCUSE ME. that is a whole other story) and please and thank you. i hold the door for the person in back of me (ah, we relocated to our new building for work. we have wickedly high tech revolving doors at a couple of the entrances. i'll talk about them sometime too). i apologize if i accidentally let a door close on someone or cut across their path or whatever.

i am NOT a criminal. i am NOT a terrorist. i do NOT want secret organizations in the united states having a pattern of how i walk or knowing who i email or talk to on the phone (that's easy - not too many people i HATE HATE HATE the phone). i don't want to be spied on by my OWN country.

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces

By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer
CLARKSBURG, W. Va. -- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law. ........

he's NOT getting the job

afterall
but remember, if they didn't get caught HE WOULD HAVE HAD THE PROMOTION
that's how it works afterall
Fake FEMA Briefing Costs Official New Assignment
Missteps Too Common At Agency, Critics Say

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response to California's devastating wildfires.
The flap is not the first time FEMA or its parent Department of Homeland Security has been on the wrong end of a public relations move that backfired. Rather, it fits a pattern in which domestic security officials have mismanaged the public presentation of their efforts, whether those efforts are going well or poorly. .........

i drive back and forth to work

(amendment 9/30/2007: i have been gently reminded, i also have a TON of pens, most of which are anchored in my bun AND several little ketchup bottles in my handbag)
to the grocery store, to my dad's house, to the half door, to an occasional restaurant, a movie theater, a lecture at a local college or university, to a friend's house. perhaps i'll go here or there every once in a while, but i don't travel that much. i usually carry a bit of makeup with me. some butts, some mints, an extra pair of sox, my digital camera, my mp3 player, my knitting, a book, lots of pens, some money (not a lot). in my car i have extra shoes, boots, water, cds, some yarn, a denim jacket, a wrap (as in if it's cold out, it goes around my body), books, a magazine on women with tattooes that i am in, three GIANT rats seatbelted in the back seat along with their friend, little teddy (remind me, around the holidays to tell the festive tale (or is it tail) of the three christmas rats). i know i have more in that car, i just can't think of ALL of it right now.
i drink a LOT of coffee. two big gulps every morning at dunkin'. i am currently listening to some leon russell. i'm currently reading: gertrude bell: queen of the desert, shaper of nations by georgina howell. i watch lots of television. i write. i don't sleep very much at all (usually averaging 3 hours a night) but i am USUALLY in bed BY 8:00 each night. as i said, not sleeping. i don't like violence. i have never even gotten a traveling traffic ticket (i have gotten two PARKING tickets in my whole life. ONE was not justified). i pay my taxes and i'm honest. i don't build bombs in my basement or plot to bring the united states down. i knit.

it's NOT your bid-nez to find these things out about me UNLESS #1) i tell you (which i just did) OR #2) you suspect me of being something i'm NOT and get a warrant to spy on me

otherwise BUTT out. you aren't entitled to MY life. it's MINE

Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented
U.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known

By Ellen NakashimaWashington Post Staff Writer
The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.
The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country. .................

scary dude

(hey bud, i think there are too many people like YOU out there)

Rep. Peter King: There are "too many mosques in this country”
New York Rep. Peter King, a prominent House Republican, said there are “too many mosques in this country” in a recent interview with Politico. “There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King said. “We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them.” King is the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. And as an outspoken advocate of strong anti-terror measures, he has been unafraid to ruffle some feathers in his drive to protect the homeland. .................

10,000 out of how many?

how many did we displace? way more than 10,000 that's for sure. how many iraqis have helped our troops? way more than 10,000 that's for sure. how many iraqis lives are on the line? way more than 10,000 that's for sure. are these 10,000 going to be alive when (and IF) they really do get into the us? even one of king george's court, ryan c crocker thinks we're not doing our jobs (as far as the refugees go that is)

Crocker Blasts Refugee Process
Iraqis Could Wait 2 Years for Entry, Ambassador Says

By Spencer S. Hsu and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq warned that it may take the U.S. government as long as two years to process and admit nearly 10,000 Iraqi refugees referred by the United Nations for resettlement to the United States, because of bureaucratic bottlenecks.
In a bluntly worded State Department cable titled "Iraqi Refugee Processing: Can We Speed It Up?" Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker noted that the Department of Homeland Security had only a handful of officers in Jordan to vet the refugees.
Bush administration officials in Washington immediately disputed several of Crocker's claims.
Still, the "sensitive" but unclassified memo, sent Sept. 7, laid out a wrenching, ground-level view of the U.S. government's halting response to Iraq's refugee crisis. Human rights groups and independent analysts say thousands of desperate Iraqis who have worked alongside Americans now find themselves the targets of insurgents and sectarian militias, prompting many of them to seek residency in the United States or Europe...........

a sad tale

a german national born in syria was denied admission to the united states. for what reason? no one knows. i really literally mean that. i believe NO ONE knows.

he wasn't just attempting to visit for the first time. he was trying to visit his daughter in california who had recently passed the bar. oh and did i mention, he and his wife (AN AMERICAN BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN) have lived in massachusetts every summer for over 30 years. an oh did i mention, according to this article they've paid MORE than $250,000 in TAXES. oh did i mention, their massachusetts neighbors appear to like them a great deal. oh did i mention, ice took away his HEART MEDS for 36 HOURS because the label was in german (or so they say)???????????

what have we become?

Visit gone awry: Detention roils a US-German family

On a trip to visit his daughter in California, Majed Shehadeh, the husband of a US citizen, was detained, strip-searched, denied his prescription medication, and held in a crowded cell.
By Christa Case Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorand Mariah Blake Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Newburyport, Mass.; and Alzenau, Germany - Ever since Jimmy Carter was president, summer has meant one thing for Majed Shehadeh and his wife, Joanne Mulligan: time to pack. From their modest house in Bavaria, they migrate annually to their summer home in Massachusetts, where Ms. Mulligan was born and raised, with the accent to prove it.
But after making regular trips for decades, Mr. Shehadeh's last visit went deeply awry, indefinitely suspending his plans for returning.
A Syrian-born German citizen, he was detained when he flew into Las Vegas in December to celebrate his daughter's passing of the California bar exam. He was then strip-searched, denied his prescription medication, and kept in a crowded jail cell with no mattresses and a single toilet out in the open. Three days later, he was sent back to Germany.
"Since that ordeal, I'm afraid to go [to the US], and my husband can't go at all. For us, it's a catastrophe," says Mulligan.
Five years after 9/11, intensified security measures resulted in more than 500 people per day being denied entry to the US in 2006. For those traveling by air, that often means spending at least one night in detention.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has numerous mechanisms to ensure that travelers' civil rights are upheld during such detentions.........

..........That night, Shehadeh was taken to the North Las Vegas Detention Center, where he says he was stripped of his belongings, including $1,000 in cash, and his heart medication, which he wouldn't receive for another 36 hours.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Lori Haley says the medication was withheld until a doctor could evaluate Shehadeh because the label was in German. "For his own safety, we had to make sure what he was ingesting was the right medication," she explains. .......

i have mentioned this before

and it's worth continued mentioning. why would someone, let's say an IRAQI help us troops out when the us government in turn, WILL NOT help the iraqi and her/his family out?

if you can trust them to help you and your unit out time after time after time. if you see they are putting their LIVES ON THE LINE for you and your fellow soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines WHY THE HELL CAN'T YOU SAVE THEM? (i'm not blaming the soldiers for this. i'm blaming the red tape AND LIES of the king george and his court administration)

U.S. Failing to Help Iraqi Translator and Family Targeted for Execution

By Maura Stephens, AlterNet
He thought he could rebuild his country by helping the Americans. Now an Iraqi translator and his family have been targeted for execution, and instead of helping, U.S. officials have trapped him in an endless Catch-22.

My dear friend Andy -- we're so close, we call each other brother and sister -- has a degree in English literature. He loves Shakespeare and Shelley, Byron and Dunne, and can quote from their works far better than most poetry professors I know. Andy loves beauty and harmony and tea and good food. He is simply gaga about his lovely young wife, Alysse, and their two little ones.
He's not the kind of guy you'd expect to want to serve the U.S. military, but just a couple of weeks after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Andy lined up to enlist. He couldn't wait to help the United States bring democracy to Iraq. Since April 2003 Andy has served faithfully with the Army despite being in dire danger almost all the time. He and his wife and two babies have been under sporadic but serious threat of execution because of Andy's work with the U.S. Army. The stress is wearing on Andy and Alysse -- physically and mentally. Andy is well aware that it is only a matter of time before his luck runs out. He is ready to get out of Iraq.
His army colleagues and commanding officers think the world of Andy, but despite his four-plus years of almost nonstop service, Andy can't get out of Iraq. The U.S. Army seems to be quite powerless in this case.
That's because Andy is Iraqi. He has been an interpreter/translator for the U.S. military this whole time..........

and this:

Only 133 Iraqi refugees allowed in US so far this year

Only 133 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the United States since October, well short of the 7,000 the US has vowed to welcome in this fiscal year, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
"I think we're up around 133 thus far that have entered the United States," since October 1, the start of fiscal 2007, Sean McCormack told a press briefing.
"We have more work to do," he added after recalling that at the beginning of the year US authorities vowed to take in at least 7,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of fiscal 2007, and even more in fiscal 2008.
He attributed the slow pace to rigorous security measures: "They have to go through and have to do a vetting procedure, which everybody understands the need to do........

so this administration that is SO TOUGH ON TERROR

is actually creating more chances for terror to occur (effed up or what)? funny (not funny ha ha of course) isn't it? i really can't think of ONE good thing king george and his court have done. i'm sure there has to be ONE thing but it's not easily forthcoming to me

believe me, i wouldn't want to take one of the open positions under this king. perfect for a scapegoat i must say

Job Vacancies At DHS Said To Hurt U.S. Preparedness
A Fourth of Top Positions Not Filled, Report Says


By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today.
As of May 1, Homeland Security had 138 vacancies among its top 575 positions, with the greatest voids reported in its policy, legal and intelligence sections, as well as in immigration agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. The vacant slots include presidential, senior executive and other high-level appointments, according to the report by the majority staff of the House Homeland Security Committee.....

i don't care how one (generally) feels about immigration

THIS is just NOT right.

this woman should get immediate citizenship, period

and if you don't think that - well then i don't think YOU are patriotic
oh and while we're at it, please keep a good thought out and say an extra prayer for her husband. miracles DO happen. i know that for a fact

DHS trying to deport missing soldier's wife

Nick Juliano

Her husband volunteered to defend this country, and he has been missing in the deserts of Iraq for more than a month. Now the US government is trying to kick her out of the country.
Army specialist Alex Jimenez married Yaderlin Hiraldo in 2004. Hiraldo entered the US illegally from the Dominican Republic in 2001, and when Jimenez petitioned for her green card while he was stationed in Iraq it alerted the government to her presence, according to a report on Boston television station WBZ.
Jimenez went missing May 12 in Iraq when he and two other soldiers were captured by al-Qaeda following an ambush. An immigration judge stopped Hiraldo's green card processing when her husband went missing, and the government has so far refused to grant a so-called hardship waiver that would allow her to stay in the country, WBZ reported.............

i wonder if alabama also lists anti-abortionists

as terrorists too

after all some of THEM blow up clinics and shoot doctors and maim people

what is a terrorist if not someone like that? (mr uhl for example)

Alabama site classifies environmental activists, gay rights supporters as possible terrorists

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a webpage that listed environmental, anti-war, and gay rights groups as possible terrorists, according to a report from the Associated Press.
"The director of the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs," the AP reported. "He said he plans to put the Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer identify specific types of groups."
The site described the various groups as "single-issue terrorists" who include "people who feel they are trying to create a better world."........

those bama-ins sure do like 'em some football though