The Chronic Curmudgeon

Let me predicate this comment by saying I have no love for the Bushies. I preface my comment further by agreeing with you: Cornfields in Nebraska are certainly less iconic than are New York City edifices of the well-known kind such as the Empire State Building. If I were a crazy terrorist who thought the U.S. Military's involvement in the Middle East had earned our country a retaliatory strike of shock-and-awe proportions, certainly I would choose targets in New York City or in some equivalent metropolis.

BUT...and you knew a "but" was coming...

The savvy, pragmatic terrorist might recognize that shock-and-awe tactics may neither shock nor awe Americans like these tactics did on September 11. al Qaeda leadership, which we know is is not as crazy as it is dogmatic and scary, might in fact salivate at the prospect of tainting our food supply, highly susceptible to attack thanks to Republicans' quarter-century-long, Reagan Administration-spawned predilection for mass production agribusiness that has ever consolidated our food supply, giving would-be terrorists the opportunity to poison millions by introducing a devastatingly effective, genetically engineered pathogen via the conduit of, say, just one cornfield processing plant in, say, Nebraska.

Perspective (sorry I could not figure out how to make this a table...)

NY - New York City $124,450,000 % of total: 18% |||
CA - Los Angeles/Long Beach Area $80,610,000 % of NY: 65% % of total: 11% |||
IL - Chicago Area $52,260,000 % of NY: 42% % of total: 7% |||
DC - National Capital Region $46,470,000 % of NY: 37% % of total: 7% |||
NJ - Jersey City/Newark Area $34,330,000 % of NY: 28% % of total: 5% |||
CA - Bay Area $28,320,000 % of NY: 23% % of total: 4% |||
PA - Philadelphia Area $19,520,000 % of NY: 16% % of total: 3% |||
GA - Atlanta Area $18,660,000 % of NY: 15% % of total: 3% |||
MI - Detroit $18,630,000 % of NY: 15% % of total: 3% |||
MA - Boston Area $18,210,000 % of NY: 15% % of total: 3% |||
TX - Houston Area $16,670,000 % of NY: 13% % of total: 2% |||
FL - Miami Area $15,980,000 % of NY: 13% % of total: 2% |||
TX - Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Area $13,830,000 % of NY: 11% % of total: 2% |||
CA - Anaheim/Santa Ana Area $11,980,000 % of NY: 10% % of total: 2% |||
FL - Ft. Lauderdale Area $9,980,000 % of NY: 8% % of total: 1% |||
MD - Baltimore $9,670,000 % of NY: 8% % of total: 1% |||
FL - Orlando Area $9,440,000 % of NY: 8% % of total: 1% |||
OR - Portland Area $9,360,000 % of NY: 8% % of total: 1% |||
FL - Jacksonville Area $9,270,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
MO - Kansas City Area $9,240,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
MO - St. Louis Area $9,200,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
WA - Seattle Area $9,150,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
NC - Charlotte Area $8,970,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
FL - Tampa Area* $8,800,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
WI - Milwaukee Area $8,570,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
KY - Louisville Area* $8,520,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
NE - Omaha Area* $8,330,000 % of NY: 7% % of total: 1% |||
CA - San Diego Area* $7,990,000 % of NY: 6% % of total: 1% |||
NV - Las Vegas Area* $7,750,000 % of NY: 6% % of total: 1% |||
CA - Sacramento Area* $7,390,000 % of NY: 6% % of total: 1% |||
PA - Pittsburgh Area $4,870,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
HI - Honolulu Area $4,760,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
OH - Cleveland Area $4,730,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
LA - New Orleans Area $4,690,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
OH - Cincinnati Area $4,660,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
TX - San Antonio Area $4,460,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
CO - Denver Area $4,380,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
IN - Indianapolis Area $4,370,000 % of NY: 4% % of total: 1% |||
OH - Columbus Area $4,320,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
MN - Twin Cities Area $4,310,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
TN - Memphis Area $4,200,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
OK - Oklahoma City Area* $4,102,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
AZ - Phoenix Area* $3,920,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
OH - Toledo Area* $3,850,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
LA - Baton Rouge Area* $3,740,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||
NY - Buffalo Area* $3,710,000 % of NY: 3% % of total: 1% |||

So as the various congress critters go balistic over this let us remember a few points:

1) This is a block grant program (Republican House members favorite type of funding).

1a) The funding formula was left to DHS (at least I assume so otherwise we wouldn't be here).

1b) Said congress critters cut the overall allocation to the block grant program.

2) NY/+Newark holds down ~25% of the national total.

3) NY got a big boost the year before to make up for shortfalls.

Bush also chose today to resurrect his call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. There was no call for a constitutional amendment requiring healthcare for all Americans or energy independence or anything else that may actually improve the quality of our rights or freedoms. I suppose Bushie was concerned that he might be edged out as the worst president in American history. I think he's place in history now is safe.

And I would argue, UG, that such percentages are directly proportional to -- actually, less reflective of -- the number of targets and likelihood of threats to NY and DC. You mean to tell me that al Qaida's walking around with maps of Toledo and Omaha in their possession? Or that you think that realistically Louisville and Baton Rouge are targets at levels requiring commensurate funding?

I can virtually guarantee you that the next time we get hit, it will be one of those top five cities on your list, and not one of the other gazillion that laughably made the list. And then when we in the target zones hear the rest of the country wailing about how "we" were attacked, we can bitterly remind all the rest of how, when given the opportunity to help protect us, this administration opted not to... and others preached "perspective."

Couple of points: first, NYC has a huge amount of money that it spends on its own counterterrorism capabilities. There is, in a sense, less need for the feds to provide grants to NY.

Second, state and local jurisdictions around the country are developing intelligence analytic capabilities and centers for law enforcement to exchange information. These are good projects that should be funded - where did the 9/11 hijackers get their flight training? Not in New York. You need to build the capabilities of local police forces to detect cells before they hit the big targets. This costs money that smaller jurisdictions can't generally afford.

Mudge,
Not really arguing with your point. I'm just kind of appalled how this has been reported. All the focus is on the "cut" rather than the lackluster comitment to funding HS activities - when a NY Republican starts mouthing off about it I want to ask if he/she supported the tax cuts. As for the list I think it only gets laughable when you reach my own city of Portland. I can make a farily strong case for each of the locations higher on the list plus San Diego,

(hit the post button instead of preview)
...San Diego as a major Naval installation, Baton Rouge & NO for the oil infrastructure, and Seattle as another major west coast port.

The top 10 = about 60% of the funding. The rest are probably a combination of the way the grants were written, some "let's make the Speaker, Chairman,..." happy, good applications for needed one time investments, and probably consultations with Nancy's psychic.

I will admit that I do get a little weary of the whole argument at this level. We've got a whole lot of shinny new stuff all over the country, lots of training (NIMS/ICS/etc.), and still no unified national emergency communications system. If you can't communicate, as both the twin towers and Katrina proved, all the rest of it is worthless.

Within 12 months after 9/11 we should have published a specification for a single national emergency communications system, taken whatever spectrum was needed (like the TV bands), let all the manufacturers make the equipment, and gotten reliable, secure communications into the hands of every first responder in the nation. Instead we've continued a piecemeal "market driven" program and no one can talk to anyone else. It is hailed as a major accomplishment when the cops can talk to the firefighters in one of our major cities... who in their right mind would have ever designed a system where that wasn't possible from the beginning.

We have Sheriffs Marine Patrols in Oregon, operating on US navigable waterways, funded by DHS and other federal funds, who don't carry VHF-FM radios - the standard for marine communications and the primary way for mariners to call for assistance.

Just ****** crazy.

Actually mudge, a large scale attack on agriculture could be devatstating to many aspects of the US economy.
Imagine a potato famine for the US. Every single restaurant, deli, and grocer would be effected, not to mention putting Frito Lay and Old Dutch out of business.
Agriculture, or "agribusiness" as most of it is now, should warrant protection from the Gov.

Now, whether or not this is what Chertoff and Bush have in mind for that money is debateable. Bush has used homeland security money for his red-state friends in the past, and it has had nothing to do with security.
Michael Chertoff is like a puppet. Hes a patsy for an administration seething with deceit and intolerance.