Homeland Security Blues

re: Homeland Security Blues

C. MacLean — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:06:25 GMT

Obama would do better to abolish the Dept. of Homeland Security altogether, and let the individual agencies go back to doing what they were doing. DHS was just another Bush boondoggle.

Redundant, bureaucratic, inefficient - yet another symbol of the Bush administration we could do without.

re: Homeland Security Blues

roroes — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:29:08 GMT

DHS should disappear... USA can do great without. A lot of redundancy and the job can be absorbed by other departments which can do a better job

Clinton On Best Political Blogs » Blog Archive » Homeland Security Blues

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re: Homeland Security Blues

asclepious — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:46:49 GMT

Witt,1st choice;Sheehan second, or together as a 1-2 punch!

re: Homeland Security Blues

Toynbee — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:06:19 GMT

The Homeland Security will cease to exist within two years. The dismantling is already under study and was before the election. It's a goner.

Toynbee

re: Homeland Security Blues

abadreview — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:53:00 GMT

Homeland security is an unnecessary entity, we have enough agencies, why complicate things?

re: Homeland Security Blues

FromNorthJersey — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:02:05 GMT

Thanks for this article, I am glad someone is focusing on this article. I hope the new Homeland Security Chief will streamline the Immigration Department. I am an immigrant and applied for my wife's residency in 2002. She came to New York as a student, studied hard and got herself a MBA, worked for a top investment bank and paid hundereds of thousands of dollars in taxes. She almost got killed on 9/11, would cry everytime she would be near Ground Zero for years. Her firm moved her overseas when the application was pending. Now she is stuck, cannot get back to the US, where our home is. We have a young daughter and our lives have turned upside down as her documents are still not finalized.

Our story is one of many. We would urge the new Homeland Security Chief to help us, the immigrants who truly believe in the story of America, who have always worked hard want to make themselves a part of the American mosaic. Our immigration process is completely screwed up and needs complete overhaul. Both my wife and I are highly educated and affluent - we would welcome to live any country we choose to - except the one that we love. America needs to open up again and understand that it is still those immigrants that made the country what it is today - from factory workers to highly skilled professionals.

re: Homeland Security Blues

alvieldavidsoncg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:42:15 GMT

No one in the position of leadership in Department of Homeland Security will be able to satisfy all the demands of the job. Natural disasters make that leader look bad because he/she does not have enough personnel to fill all the crying and whining by the general public who thinks the government must bring them a bottle to suck.

?? Newsweek: Who will head Homeland Security Office?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:14:34 GMT

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Obama fans ?? Newsweek: Who will head Homeland Security Office?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:23:16 GMT

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MSNBC » Blog Archive » Newsweek: Who will head Homeland Security Office?

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?? Newsweek: Who will head Homeland Security Office?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:35:40 GMT

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Newsweek: Who will head Homeland Security Office? | Barack Obama

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re: Homeland Security Blues

wildfyre — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:57:49 GMT

Better yet... disband the monster

re: Homeland Security Blues

prt1231 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:29:42 GMT

Witt is an excellent choice....but as the article pointed out...DHS is a bureaucratic nightmare. The whole thing needs to be scrapped and reorganized. Just another fire example of GWB management...NOT!

re: Homeland Security Blues

santiken — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:31:01 GMT

What an absolute waste of taxpayer money. State Homeland Security agencies are just as bad. I should know, I used to work for one. What a crock...a bunch of overpaid office geeks running around trying to justify their six figure salaries. I say get rid of them all and save the taxpayers money!

re: Homeland Security Blues

NewEnglandJim — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:19:00 GMT

Ok lets step back and not make a difficult situation worse. Disbanding DHS at this point in the game would be one of the dumbest moves we as a nation could take all it would do would be to set back efforts across the response and protection spectrum by years. Years we just do not have. Is DHS a bureaucratic monster? Yup it sure as hell is but is it functioning better than it was? Well if any one considers where they were and where they are now and what has been done in terms of systemic changes that are now just starting to function properly then we and the agency have come light years and with some common sense direction and leadership could and most likely will provide the protection and response capability we all expect. So a couple of novel thoughts:

* Leave Chertoff right where he is for a bit. I suspect he would stay and let him finish what he has started. But try some thing novel like give him a clear set of expections and direction.

* Let R. David Paulison stay right at FEMA. FEMA is actually functioning and getting better able to do what needs to be done. No agency is ever going to be able to do every thing FEMA is expected to do to every ones satisfaction but under Paulison they sure as hell are trying.

* Don't let t he individual agency bureaucrats get the chance to build new kingdoms that don't want to work together, make them work together and finish the information integration that has been built get a chance to work.

* Don't put some top cop in charge. If and when you replace Chertoff go with some one that understands that this is all about being one step ahead of those that would hurt us and then having the capability to act decisively. We don't need more legions of gun toting Rambo wannabe's we need people that can ferret out what is going on before it happens.

* The Administration and Congressional Oversite needs to provide a set of simple and direct rules that DHS can actually follow. Examples of which could include actually enforcing Maritime Security regulations and doing it the same all over the country. The Coast Guard may say they are doing this but they are not and until some one tells them to simply enforce the rules that are in place they will continue to do things one way one place and another way in some other port.

* Secure the damned border. We should soon have enough Customs personnel in place and trained to do this (we didn't when we started) but Congress and the administration could make this much better if they would simply direct DHS to secure the border (forget the virtual fence and the sweet heart deal with Boeing to build it that was forced on DHS it doesn't work build a damn fence)

* Have the president start the process to get the American people to understand that we can not protect them from every act of nature if they continue to want to live in harms way. Heck I would like to live on a warm sunny beach too but can we continue to pay for people that do and keep getting clocked by hurricanes?

* Most importantly realize what the goal of all of this has been, is now and should be in the future. To help keep us safe and secure. Keeping us secure is never going to be cheap. But the alternative is such that I don't want to think about it. We are too far in boys and girls, a kneejerk reaction now to dismantle DHS isn't the answer. I have been in many states these last few years working with all levels of DHS types Federal, State and local and while the picture may be uneven any one saying they are all just a bunch of overpaid office geeks has no knowledge of what has been done, is being done and what is in the works. Leave well enough alone but provide clear direction and expectations that should be novel enough change for now.

TPile » Blog Archive » Obama Transition Chatter 11/13/08 (Updated Again)

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TPile » Blog Archive » Obama Transition Chatter 11/13/08 (Updated Again)

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Rand Beers Reportedly to Lead Obama's DHS Transition Effort | Security Debrief - a blog of homeland security news and analysis

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Clinton On Best Political Blogs » Blog Archive » Powering Up : Homeland Security Blues

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