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Department of Fatherland^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hHomeland Insecurity

So it turns out that the Bush Administration's biggest and most lasting contribution to National Security, the formation of the DHS, has...... well, not so much worked out, as catastrophically failed. If this was a photo blog, you'd now be seeing a picture of a bus, comically submerged, and the words 'Epic Fail!' pasted over it.

Where, oh where lord, to begin.

Failure By Design

First, a study done by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has concluded that the DHS is full of massive, catastrophic waste.

Shocking, I know.

In its report, CREW documents billions of dollars in taxpayer money that was lost on poorly conceived or never-implemented DHS programs, including $1.3 billion on an immigration program aimed at tracking people coming to and leaving the US. The program "has never worked as Congress intended," CREW alleges, naming US-VISIT the top "Failed Program" in its report.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely charged with failing New Orleans' residents after Hurricane Katrina, was awarded the dubious distinction as "most troubled DHS component." And the US Customs and Border Protection agency was "most criminal," according to CREW, because of the number of officials charged with protecting the border who have subsequently be charged with aiding illegal immigrants.

“The Department of Homeland Security is an embarrassment that would be comical if only our national security were not at stake," Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said in a news release. "The agency and its leadership must be held accountable for its failures and pushed to do better.”

Source: Raw Story

Republican Graft Sinks Ships

My personal favorite aspect of the failure of the DHS has to be the complete and spectacular blowout of the Coast Guard's Five Year Plan to upgrade its aging, creaky and overtaxed fleet.

It was a grand plan too. An entirely new set of ships, a massive upgrade to existing vessels, a state of the art, custom made intelligence gathering and surveillance system... the works.

But of course, being the Bush Administration, it had to flame out, and take your precious tax dollars down the drain with it.

First, being Bushies, they outsourced the entirety of design to private defense contractors and left it, unsupervised, in their 'capable' hands. Predictably, this was a very, very bad idea. The new flagship vessels turned out to have serious security flaws and be built out of components that, well, can't take the cold, despite being specced to withstand -40 below. Oops.

Then they started retrofitting the old vessels, according to plan. Only out of the first batch, 8 of them were so unseaworthy they had to be thrown away. They wouldn't actually, you know, float. At least, not for long, since they immediately started cracking apart. Another ship design is so heavy it's useless, and has been described as a 'brick'.

You know you want to have bricks instead of ships. Lolz.

The Coast Guard has since had to beg the Navy for ships to make up for these losses, and the program is SEVEN BILLION over-budget. The Coast Guard is now actually less effective than it was before.

Lovely, huh?

Source: The Economist
Source: CREW (Note: PDF)

Gutsy Move Department

I was impressed with Morales when I saw him on The Daily Show, and I'm even more impressed now.

Morales has apparently been in something of a power struggle with his political opposition, and he has a simple solution: Let the people decide. Right here, right now. The opposition holds the provincial governments, he holds the national one. So Morales has quite literally dared his opponents to hold a referendum, right now, to retain their offices, alongside himself, naturally.

That's just unheard of. It's like Russian Roulette with a vote.

Source: The Associated Press

Department of "Duhhh"

Results are in on the Bush Administration's anti-science, anti-reason, anti-education approach to sex and social policy.

Teen pregnancy is up! For the first time in 14 years!

The birth rate had been dropping since 1991. The decline had slowed in recent years, but government statisticians said Wednesday it jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Wow. Lovely.

Source: Raw Story

Artistic Anarchy

So a world-famous graffiti artist has plastered a security wall designed to divide up, well, let's face it, Palestinian land from the pesky natives with some subversive art. It's hilarious stuff too. Not to mention, err, some security you have there. It probably takes less time to punch a small hole in a concrete wall than to paint an entire series of graffiti pictures.

Source: Raw Story