Homeland Security

Not only that, but also your cell phone, camera, or any electronic device that has storage:

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

Welcome to communistic America - the Republican dream come true.

Despite Congress saying otherwise. Chertoff has decided he is the new decider and it is even pissing off Republicans:

Noting that Chertoff's department was forced to temporarily suspend a similar requirement for air travelers last summer when the rule caused a massive U.S. passport backlog, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) said the secretary "frankly has as much credibility on telling people to grow up as Geoffrey the giraffe."

Now can member of Congress be shocked that someone in this administration is acting in a rogue like fashion? That is the basis of Bush's administration. They do what they want, when they want, how they want - laws be damned! Honestly I think Congress also deserves it because instead of reigning in on this abuse of power they ignore it and let it go on.

From the party of "small government" and "fiscal responsibility":

The Homeland Security Department spent more than $90 million to create a network for sharing sensitive anti-terrorism information with state and local governments that it has decided to replace, according to an internal department document.

The decision was made late last year but was not announced. It was outlined in an Oct. 27 memorandum that listed the network's flaws and asserted that DHS's counterterrorism, immigration enforcement and disaster management missions were hampered by the proliferation of more than 100 Web "portals" that provide poorly coordinated information.

How many billions have been wasted by Bush, yet the Republicans go out and brag about their fiscal responsibility? And they wonder why the real Republicans won't even get out to vote for them.

This weekend amazed me. During all the talk shows hardly a word was mention about the resignation of Susan Ralston. Instead all focus was on the Foley scandal yet again. Ralston's resignation is equally, if not more, important than Foleygate.

Ralston was Karl Rove's top aide. You could say she was to Karl Rove what Karl Rove is to Bush (she was Rove's Rove). The reasoning for her resignation is very troubling and shows an extreme lapse in our national security:

A top aide to White House strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after disclosures that she accepted gifts from and passed information to now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the first official in the West Wing to lose a job in the influence-peddling scandal.

(emphasis mine).

Something that must be asked is what information Ralston passed to Abramoff. It is bad enough that a now convicted felon had 485 visits to the White House, but just as troubling is Abramoff's super Zionistic life. Abramoff was using much of his money to help fund militias in Israel. Now we must ask the question, "If Ralston was passing secrets to Abramoff, was Abramoff in turn passing secrets to these Israeli militias?".

It is troubling that the intelligence committees in both the House and Senate are not looking more into a possible breach of our national security. Of course with the Republican leadership, nothing Bush does is wrong. This is why we need the media to spend a little less time on Foley and a lot more time on Ralston and Abramoff. Their ignoring of this story could be detrimental to our nation's security.

More like Homeland Waste:

The multibillion-dollar surge in federal contracting to bolster the nation's domestic defenses in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been marred by extensive waste and misspent funds, according to a new bipartisan congressional report.

Lawmakers say that since the Homeland Security Department's formation in 2003, an explosion of no-bid deals and a critical shortage of trained government contract managers have created a system prone to abuse. Based on a comprehensive survey of hundreds of government audits, 32 Homeland Security Department contracts worth a total of $34 billion have "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement," according to the report, which is slated for release today and was obtained in advance by The Washington Post.

The value of contracts awarded without full competition increased 739 percent from 2003 to 2005, to $5.5 billion, more than half the $10 billion awarded by the department that year. By comparison, the agency awarded a total of $3.5 billion in contracts in 2003, the year it was created.

Among the contracts that went awry were deals for hiring airport screeners, inspecting airport luggage, detecting radiation at the nation's ports, securing the borders and housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Investigators looking into those contracts turned up whole security systems that needed to be scrapped, contractor bills for luxury hotel rooms and Homeland Security officials who bought personal items with government credit cards.

Yeah, the Republicans are really the ones who are up on homeland security, national defense and fiscal responsibility. The Midas touch - what the Republicans touch turns to gold (for corporations).

Another big breach in one of our government computers:

For the second time in two weeks, Social Security numbers and other personal information of Navy personnel have been discovered on an Internet site, triggering an investigation.

The Navy said Friday that information on more than 100,000 naval and Marine Corps aviators and aircrew was on the Naval Safety Center Web site and on nearly 1,100 computer discs mailed out to naval commands.

There was no indication that the information has been used illegally, said Navy spokesman Lt. Ryan Perry. He said Rear Adm. George Mayer, commander of the Naval Safety Center, had the information removed immediately and officials are looking into how the data was posted on the Web site.

The Navy is also attempting to retrieve the computer disks, he said, and individuals whose data was revealed on the Internet were being notified. Both active and reserve members were affected by the latest incident, including aviators who may have served within the last 20 years.

Hey - thanks for fighting this war while we let your information go out to the whole world. You will be welcomed back as heroes and given the honor of high debt obtained by someone else who got your information from your own country.

This is going to cost tax payers billions before it is all said and done. Congress already had to approve $160 million just because of the VA breech. While this one is not that big, there are numerous smaller stories like this and those numbers are adding up quick.

Working in the tech world, I always take quick interest in stories that involve cyber security. This is the main reason that I have been so outspoken on that recent rash of identity thefts, mainly from government computers. The icing on the cake was when we learned this week that a 28 year old consultant hacked into the FBI's computer and gained access to such vital information as identities of people in the witness relocation program and even obtained the directors password. He did so utilizing common programs found on the internet.

This kind of news is rather breath taking to someone who works to secure information all the time. I know the inner workings of software and what helps compose a good security system. Apparently the U.S. Government does not.

There has been discussion on who is to blame on this. People feel that Bush shouldn't be at fault, but the following story tells otherwise:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has still failed to appoint a cyber-security director after a delay of a year.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the creation of a position for an assistant cyber security czar as part of a six-point agenda July 13, 2005. He identified elevating the position to an assistant Cabinet-level post as part of an overall strategy to "ensure that the department's policies, operations, and structures are aligned in the best way to address the potential threats -- both present and future." But a year later, that position remains unfilled, National Journal's Technology Daily reported Wednesday.

A concerted push to appoint a single person in charge of national cyber security recovery began in Congress two years ago. As part of a cyber security subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives that was dissolved after the 108th Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., helped draft and pass House legislation to create a cyber security czar with real power in the Department of Homeland Security, Technology Daily said.

Recently, Lofgren said the House inserted language in a bill to restructure the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requiring President George W. Bush to nominate someone to the cyber czar job within 90 days.

There was an article I remember reading about ten years ago that said one of the main battlegrounds in world war three would be in cyber space. That statement has stuck with me and is very true. We are in a world of terrorism and these terrorists apparently have good technology. How long before they commit a cyber terrorist act? Hell hack into an airliners mainframe and mess with air traffic or take down a power grid. There a numerous avenues this threat could go down and Bush has failed to get someone to protect such a vital area in our security.

What this all comes down to is that we are living in a different world and fighting a different war. Unfortunately we have leaders who do not see it that way. They believe in the old conventional wisdoms that war takes place on battle fields with guns and soldiers. Wars can easily be waged online in today's cyber world and this is a front we must do everything necessary to protect. Find the best hacker out there you can and hire them to be the cyber security czar. They have knowledge that can become our greatest asset in the name of security.

You can tell elections are getting closer. Instead of raising the terror level, we start to hear more about how the government is "uncovering terrorist plots":

The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned. The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources said. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.

Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the "lone wolf" terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.

It's not clear, however, if any cash or assistance was delivered.

It is going to be interesting as cases like this and the one in Miami get to court. How much of a plan are these? Are they some idiots just playing jihadist or are there really substance to them?

Something else interesting to consider when you here this story is why the government choose to cut New York's homeland security funding? I thought they didn't have any targets that terrorists would want to hit. If this claim is true then heads need to roll in Homeland Security. It also further discredits Bush's continued claim of "we are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here".

Amongst all the problems with ID theft from government computers, we now find that even the FBI is not secure:

A government consultant, using computer programs easily found on the Internet, managed to crack the FBI's classified computer system and gain the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

The break-ins, which occurred four times in 2004, gave the consultant access to records in the Witness Protection Program and details on counterespionage activity, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. As a direct result, the bureau said it was forced to temporarily shut down its network and commit thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused.

The government does not allege that the consultant, Joseph Thomas Colon, intended to harm national security. But prosecutors said Colon's "curiosity hacks" nonetheless exposed sensitive information.

Colon, 28, an employee of BAE Systems who was assigned to the FBI field office in Springfield, Ill., said in court filings that he used the passwords and other information to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and better help the FBI install its new computer system. And he said agents in the Springfield office approved his actions.

Perhaps instead of worrying about collecting data on millions of U.S. citizens phone calls and developing this "super database", the NSA, which employs some of the greatest computer minds, should be working on developing a more impenetrable computer system.

Now why doesn't this surprise me?

Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's.

He entered the pleas, one to a violation of the city charter and the other of the city administrative code, in a Bronx courtroom before Justice John P. Collins and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines. He was accompanied by three lawyers and three supporters for the proceeding, which lasted about 10 minutes.

Speaking in a quiet voice, Mr. Kerik admitted that he had accepted renovations to his Bronx apartment from a company he believed to be "clean."

Remember - Kerik was Bush's pick to head Homeland Security. He pulled out after his background came under heavy scrutiny. Chertoff is Bush's second pick to this criminal. Now is there any question why FEMA is so screwed up?

When you can't manage situations, then you must throw money at it. That seems to be the Republican way of dealing things and it causes a big mess and a bigger burden for the U.S. tax payer:

Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion.

A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.

There are the bureaucrats who ordered nearly half a billion dollars worth of mobile homes that are still empty, and renovations for a shelter at a former Alabama Army base that cost about $416,000 per evacuee.

And there is the Illinois woman who tried to collect federal benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in the rising New Orleans waters. In fact, prosecutors say, the children did not exist.

So what has this lack of oversight on the part of our government cost us? Take your blood pressure medicine then read on:

The estimate of up to $2 billion in fraud and waste represents nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June, or about 6 percent of total money that has been obligated.

Congress has said FEMA is broken, as well as the media and a vast number of Americans. Of course old "stay the course" Bush doesn't feel that way. Well here is another perfect example of just how broken FEMA is. Another part of our government destroyed by this administration and we are left to clean up the mess. Incompetence does not even begin to describe it.

We are now reduced from being Americans to being a string of ones and zeros:

The Pentagon pays a private company to compile data on teenagers it can recruit to the military. The Homeland Security Department buys consumer information to help screen people at borders and detect immigration fraud.

As federal agencies delve into the vast commercial market for consumer information, such as buying habits and financial records, they are tapping into data that would be difficult for the government to accumulate but that has become a booming business for private companies.

Industry executives, analysts and watchdog groups say the federal government has significantly increased what it spends to buy personal data from the private sector, along with the software to make sense of it, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They expect the sums to keep rising far into the future.

So what protections are being put in place to make sure people don't misuse this information? With the growing number of "computer thefts" (like I believe they are really being stolen), more of our information can be made available for illegal activities.

Another protection that needs to be put in place is making sure this information is not made available to elected officials. It could quickly be abused by politicians hoping to gain the edge in targeting mailings and phone calls.

This is a program that needs very serious oversight by not only Congress but also the Judicial branch. It is the only way to protect our democracy from a sure demise.

Is it no wonder our country is hurting financially?

The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.

Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief agency.

Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.

Agents from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

You fill top government positions with cronies and this is what you get - excessive waste of tax payers money. We were told there would be great oversight of the money spent in the Gulf and that oversight could only come from the federal level. Well guess what - they have failed again. How many more failures can we allow to go unanswered by Bush and his crony administration?

Wow it is nice that we are so much safer since 9/11 and the creation of the super-bureaucratic Department of Homeland Security:

A computer hacker stole 1,500 files containing sensitive personnel information on contractors and employees who work for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency within the Department of Energy in charge of overseeing the security at the nation's nuclear weapons sites.

The data stolen included names, social security numbers, codes for the locations where the contractors worked and their security clearances.

See the terrorists don't even need to come into the country. They just need to higher some super geek to hack into computers for them. This is just another example of how we are not anymore safe since 9/11 and the fault for that stops in the Oval Office.

This is truly an absurd quote from the Governor of Florida:

Tropical Storm Alberto, pushing a dome of sea water toward shore, quickened its assault on North Florida this evening. Officials urged coastal residents to swiftly evacuate the area.

''Its arrival on our shores will be much quicker than we were anticipating a few hours ago,'' Gov. Jeb Bush said shortly after 5:30 p.m. ``They need to get to high ground and they need to get safe.''

The 2006 hurricane season is just 12 days old.

''Good God, who would have thunk it,'' Bush said.

Gee who would of thunk it? I guess only the people who pay attention to the warnings and what is happening with our climate - that is "who would of thunk it".

Who would have thunk this? We are into a new hurricane season with the first one getting ready to hit land and still have not corrected any problems exposed during Katrina. Instead of spending last week trying to come up to solutions with the broken FEMA and DHS, Republican leaders in Senate decided to argue about gay marriage. Hell even the Republican Senator from Louisiana, Dave Vitter, had this profound statement last week:

"I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. "I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress."

I am sure the tens of thousands still displaced or still mourning the lost of loved ones happen to disagree very much with this insensitive asshole.

So we are officially into the 2006 season and still worse off than we were in 2005. A warning to people along the coast - MOVE. Get the hell out of those areas and abandon them. Let the property value drop down to jack shit because your life means a lot more than that.