Apparently the Department of Homeland Security has been feeling irrelevant lately. While their latest headline: Terrorists may try to sneak stuff into toothpaste tubes sounds provocative, it’s hardly so.
How about a front page, headline grabbing line such as:
- More than 30,000 Americans will die by firearms this year
- More than 30,000 Americans will die from motor vehicle incidents in this year
- More than 4000 Americans will die in workplace incidents this year
- 22% of American kids will not graduate from high school this year
- More than 10 million kids will be eligible for a free or reduced price meal at school this year (I was one growing up)
- More than 400,000 Americans will die of tobacco related disease this year
- Tens of millions of Americans will go through this year without dental insurance; leading to a range of health consequences.
- Or…. another week, another military scandal. Wait, that one already has a few headlines. (Simply had to get that in considering they’re expected to be governmental standard bearers. If that’s the case….I wonder where many folks from Homeland Security fall?)
This year we’ll spend more than $59B (that’s Billion) on the 13 year old, 240,000 employee Department of Homeland Security. In only 13 years we’ve managed to shove through an agenda large enough to ramp up this agency to this size–nearly $60B. It’s nice to be made aware the terrorists —may— try and stuff some stuff into a few tubes of toothpaste during this narrow Olympics timeframe. It’s unfortunate we’ve lost the ability to lead at the highest levels of government to better address the things that —will— happen this year. I’ve thrown away votes before–knowingly mind you–on candidates I believed would have done a better job leading than governing. Unfortunately I’m likely to continue to throw away those votes in the hopes that someday we can get a few folks in place who are better qualified to lead, not just govern.
AniMal