The Dept. of Homeland Security, the bureaucratic boondoggle created after 9/11, maintains a National Asset Database, basically a list of places that the feds think are potential targets for terrorists. The data is supplied by individual state governments.
The Guardian Unlimited reports:
The worst thing that usually happens at Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, in Alabama, involves the resident emu who, visitors are warned, has been known to deliver a "hard peck".
Yet the zoo is listed as a critical potential target for terrorists, according to an internal audit by the US government that condemns the Department of Homeland Security for taking a too-broad approach to the risk of attack. The report, by the department’s inspector-general who serves as a watchdog, lists numerous other sites in the National Asset Database "whose criticality is not readily apparent" – including the Sweetwater flea market in Tennessee, Amish Country Popcorn in Indiana, a kangaroo conservation centre, a cheque-cashing outlet and a doughnut shop. Other, vaguer, entries include "a restaurant", "a travel stop" and "beach at end of a street".
Now certainly Stephen Colbert is a funny political commentator, but he is a piker compared to the bureaucrats at Homeland Security.
I love the bureauspeak comment by the department’s inspector-general — sites "whose criticality is not readily apparent". That’s as funny as the list itself.
This is, of course, supposed to be an example of federalism; that is, individual states controlling their own activities within the framework of the union. Well, it only demonstrates that state governments are as idiotic as the federal government. But we knew that all along.
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#1 by Libertarian on July 14th, 2006
I never could figure out why we needed a Department of Homeland Security. Why does the Department of Defense exist, then, if NOT for homeland security?
This organization was created to increase government intrusion into our lies and to generally increase government power. It’s all being done to “protect” us from people who are angry with our “government.”
#2 by Don Bangert on July 14th, 2006
Libertarian: Instead of reading their title as Dept. of Homeland Security, try reading it as Dept. of Government Security. It helps one to truely understand who’s interests they’re watching out for. Once one understands what it is that motivates them, their actions make more sense.