The color-coded Homeland Security threat advisory system, criticized by just about everybody as “vague and confusing,” is about to get a lot more complex and confusing under a bill currently before the House homeland security committee.
H.R. 5001, the Homeland Security Information Sharing Enhancement Act of 2006, will require the Department of Homeland Security, when it issues threat advisories, to “limit the scope of each advisory and alert to a specific region, locality, or economic sector believed to be at risk” and not to “use color designations as the exclusive means of specifying the homeland security threat conditions that are the subject of the advisory or alert.”
The color-coded threat advisory system isn’t going away; instead, threat advisories are going to be a lot more targeted, but potentially a lot more confusing to those who receive them.
It also rearranges the bureaucratic deck chairs to try to provide for better information sharing with state, local and tribal officials, along with its companion bill, H.R. 5002, the Homeland Security Information Sharing Partnerships Act of 2006, which would create a whole new bureaucracy called the State, Local, and Tribal Information Fusion Center Initiative. Under this initiative, the new DHS bureaucracy will coordinate with state, local and tribal information fusion centers. Confused yet? I’m not even quite sure what an information fusion center is. Somebody want to tell me what that’s all about?
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.), who is Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman, introduced both bills, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the ranking member, cosponsored both of them. “What we’re doing here today is historic because we are working to create and strengthen a new intelligence capability for the U.S. government,” Simmons told National Journal’s CongressDaily.
“I think we need to press for progress when it comes to the information-sharing environment, not just internally in the department but among all the various agencies,” Lofgren said.
Oh, I forgot to mention the computer network. H.R. 5001 would require Homeland Security to create a new computer network, based on the Comprehensive Information Technology Network Architecture, for sharing of information between DHS and state, local and tribal agencies. Oh, boy. The hackers are going to have a field day with this.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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forstand
Mar 30, 2006
Years ago I designed a fire alarm system inside a large manufacturing plant. It had four vertical lights. One light was area one, two lights was area two and so on. Right next to each light standard was a 4′x8′ plywood sign telling you where each area was and a map. Right below each light/sign was a simple on/off switch. Turning on the switch would illuminate the correct number of lights for that area. There also was a fire extinguisher right next to the switch. Anyone seeing a fire merely turned the switch on, grabbed the fire extinguisher and started frighting the fire. The plant fire brigade could respond with all the plant’s fire equipment and fire personnel within a minute to anywhere in the plant. Numerous fire drills and one actual fire proved this.
My new idiot supervisor took it upon himself to ‘upgrade’ the system. He did away with the large signs (with maps and descriptions) and the light standards located throughout the plant and then put in place one switch and one colored light standard in the main production area of the plant.
The next fire drill required over two minutes for proper rollout of the fire brigade because no one knew where to go; i.e., a yellow light means go where? Geeze, we were informed of it a month previously in a safety meeting and were expected to memorize what all four colors meant.
Few people understand KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Jason
Mar 30, 2006
You know what this means… right?
Your single little alert imagelet is going to have to become it’s own page, akin to ’server farm status’ pages.
:)
J. Bruno
Mar 30, 2006
When are we finally going to institute the Homeland Security threat parabola? “GET UNDER THE DESKS KIDS, THE SLOPE IS 2.5!”
Mar 30, 2006
Adrift at Sea » More Republican Idiocy