The numbers for homeland security grant money for fiscal year 2006 are out, and while the budget for the program was cut by $120 million, nearly all of that cut was absorbed by New York and Washington, D.C. Now the politicians are out crying to the press because they won't get all the pork-barrel projects they wanted.
Back in the days of the Cold War, spies found ingenious and unusual ways to communicate with each other, hiding their communications in plain sight, whether encrypted or not. For instance, an intelligence agency case officer might contact one of his agents (spies) by placing an ad in the personals section of the local newspaper. This practice, it seems, continues today.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that government employees who speak out aren't always protected by the First Amendment. In the 5-4 decision in Garcetti et al. v. Ceballos, the Court ruled that government employees are not protected by the First Amendment when they speak about matters pertaining to their jobs.
If you want something done right, they say, you have to do it yourself. That seems to be the attitude of members of the Minuteman Project who began construction of a 10-mile section of fence on the Arizona border with Mexico Saturday.
The United States filed papers Friday in two federal lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program, invoking the state secrets privilege to have the lawsuits dismissed.
The practice of remembering and honoring those who have fallen in our wars remained largely unchanged for generations, until government mucked things up in 1968 by passing the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. Today, we show our appreciation by beginning our school children's summer vacations, sleeping late on Monday morning and spending the week traveling to the nearest water park when we should be honoring their sacrifices.
Members of the House Intelligence Committee said Friday that press disclosures of classified programs intended to find terrorists caused damage to national security. But a former National Security Agency intelligence analyst disagrees, saying the programs themselves damage national security.
Government employee unions are fighting tooth and nail any attempt to overhaul government personnel systems to pay employees based on performance, rather than just being listed on the payroll. And in the Department of Homeland Security, where it could be argued that such a system is desperately needed, the unions have won again, putting homeland security in jeopardy.
Veterans Administration officials told Congress on Thursday that a department employee had been routinely taking home data on over 26 million veterans for over three years before it was stolen from his house in an apparent burglary May 3.
There used to be a time where I could, without guilt, vote for Republicans as the lesser of two evils. The thought of John Kerry sitting in the White House frightened me, so I was able to vote for Bush in 2004 and be reasonably certain that I did the country a favor. I don't regret that vote, but I certainly won't be repeating it.
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