Does the term Homeland Security bug you too....?

[Eddie]

Homeland Security. I've had to deal with them on numerous occasions. I haven't seen any militant aspect. The people I have dealt with are a bunch of paper pushers who can't take a dump without filling out several forms.

Example: We had an emergency vehicle provided by a DHS grant. Among the many pieces of paper generated by this grant was a DHS requirement that the vehicle's contents be inventoried once a year and once each time it was used. They needed to see an SOP on the inventory and a sample inventory sheet. I wrote the SOP and worked with the guys that would use the vehicle to make a practical and easy to use inventory sheet that was a checklist grouped by where items would be found in the vehicle to make it easy to complete the inventory. DHS rejected our SOP. (threatened to cut off future grant money if we didn't re-write it) Their reason: "You cannot use the same form for the yearly inventory that you use for the per use inventory."

I opened the document and alphabetized the items on the inventory, changed the title to "Yearly Inventory" and changed the SOP to remind them to use the yearly inventory form when conducting a yearly inventory and the per use form when conducting a per use inventory. That seemed to satisfy them. (I suspect somebody needed too fill out a form to show that they had corrected our form which led to the inside joke that this particular vehicle needed a trailer to haul around all the forms required to actually use it.)

That is only one of many examples of what the fine people at DHS do for us.

 

[spearheadersarge]

I thought DHS was supposed to prevent the compartmentalized flow of actionable intelligence between the CIA,FBI, NSA, and DOD. It was supposed to be a clearing house where little bits of info could be woven into the big picture to prevent another 9/11. Also it was supposed to become the coordinating repository for incident management response as well as disaster preparedness readiness as well. Now it has balloned into a mega bureaucratic entity that couldn't respond to Katrina and worse is just another bloated ferderal pig that shouldn't exist just like many others!

 

[cosermann]

...isn't that the public agency, whose main job is to keep Americans feeling in danger and insecure to justify the high dollars spent on useless crap that doesn't make us more secure?

Yup, that's the one.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I thought DHS was supposed to prevent the compartmentalized flow of actionable intelligence between the CIA,FBI, NSA, and DOD. It was supposed to be a clearing house where little bits of info could be woven into the big picture to prevent another 9/11. Also it was supposed to become the coordinating repository for incident management response as well as disaster preparedness readiness as well. Now it has balloned into a mega bureaucratic entity that couldn't respond to Katrina and worse is just another bloated ferderal pig that shouldn't exist just like many others!

FEMA responded to Katrina just fine (based on the fact that they had rescue teams, food and water prepositioned in the area waiting for the hurricane to pass by). The fault was with the State of Louisiana and City of New Orleans for: A. Not following their own emergency plans; B. Not promptly declaring a Disaster Emergency; and C. Not making the official request for federal disaster assistance without which no federal aid could be legally provided (Bush skirted legality by ordering the FEMA US&R Teams prepositioned). The rest of the "failure" was the inability of the MSM to understand the federal system and to broadcast their stupidity 24/7 for a month or two.

 

[spearheadersarge]

True! I was not faulting the federal response just that they aren't nimble enough to meet a rapidly evolving situation due to the buracracies involved in the process. They were ready and willing but the states were not prepared to go and thus everyone was sitting on their hands waiting for the approval to go in. It is a problem with Katrina that most people don't understand.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

True! I was not faulting the federal response just that they aren't nimble enough to meet a rapidly evolving situation due to the buracracies involved in the process. They were ready and willing but the states were not prepared to go and thus everyone was sitting on their hands waiting for the approval to go in. It is a problem with Katrina that most people don't understand.

Yeah, that was my 'standard rant'. FEMA's problem is not the responders, it's the bean-counters who want to account for all the expenses. I imagine that's true for most agencies which have some sort of emergency response in their purview. When FEMA started the US&R program in 1983 in response to the Northridge Quake in California, the program was fairly unwieldy and a real pain-in-the-butt to work with, but as the agency gained experience and got some senior leadership which had backgrounds in the field, they found ways to streamline. As always, the biggest response variable is transportation time to the work area, which is why Pres. Bush's decision to preposition the TFs was a good one.

 

[Delmar]

This has bugged me eversince GWB named his new department after 9-11. Doesn't the term Homeland remind you of the Fatherland type rhetoric used in WWII? It just reeks of oppressive government. Everytime I hear the term, goosestepping, jackbooted thugs run through my mind.

Anyone else feel this way?

Nope

 

[turnandshoot4]

I hate it. I hate it when I see my tax dollars driving down the road in a Ford Explorer getting 17 miles to the gallon with HOMELAND SECUITY written down the side. What are they really securing?

The ILLUSION of saftey.

 

[Expat]

Nope

Well put.

 

[tenring]

Anybody ever read all the pages of the Patriot Act? Guess who will enforce all those provisions if a National Emergency is declared? Any one have a National Guard unit in their town?