Red states: want some security with that pork?
 

As some of you know (not reported on Faux, sorry) DHS has redistributed security money this year, reducing aid to New York City and boosting it for the heartland red states in what I'm sure isn't just partisan porkifying.

Insted, here are some of the terrorist targets identified by DHS in its terror funding formula:
* Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo
* Amish Country Popcorn factory
* Mule Day Parade
* the Sweetwater Flea Market
* “Beach at End of a Street.”
* “Nix’s Check Cashing”
* “Mall at Sears”
* “Ice Cream Parlor”
* “Tackle Shop”
* “Donut Shop”
* “Anti-Cruelty Society”
* “Bean Fest”
* Apple and Pork Festival

New York security funding got dropped 40%. DHS assessed that Indiana had more vulnerable and noteworthy (attackworthy) assets than New York. Wisconsin came in 2nd,

The DHS list does not include many major business and finance operations or critical national telecommunications hubs. but does include 163 water parks.

Great quote from the NYT:
One business owner who learned from a reporter that a company named Amish Country Popcorn was on the list was at first puzzled. The businessman, Brian Lehman, said he owned the only operation in the country with that name.

“I am out in the middle of nowhere,” said Mr. Lehman, whose business in Berne, Ind., has five employees and grows and distributes popcorn. “We are nothing but a bunch of Amish buggies and tractors out here. No one would care.”

But on second thought, he came up with an explanation: “Maybe because popcorn explodes?”
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Fund redistribution was announced earlier this year, with dramatic cuts for blue states and increased funding for red states. Who says the War on Terror can't be used for the redistribution of wealth?

My crazy one-armed uncle was always warning me of the coming Russian invasion of Indiana, my birth state. He used those fears to justify his stock of M-16s, AR-15s, AKs, and other semi and fully-auto assault weapons, both legal and not.

How much did California get?

California was allocated total HSGP $231,950,605. New York allocated $183,673,552. Illinois $90,405,480. As usual, the NYT is the news source of fools.

And I'm sure your uncle does a better job of protecting Indiana then the DHS does.

we should be seeing some of that money for a number of projects with various agencies here. CA is target-rich and by far the largest economy of any of the states. We should get more money, no?

Where did you find that? Was that last years funding?

AFAIK, the full funding distribution has not been announced for this year, only parts of the formula.

The issue is that the formula has been so tweaked to favor the red states that Homeland Security this year failed to include Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty as a national icon or monument.

The news story is that DHS' own internal audit showed up the target list flaws: A Homeland Security database of vulnerable terror targets in the United States, which includes an insect zoo but not the Statue of Liberty, is too flawed to determine allocation of federal security funds.

I'm not defending the allocations here, but from what I understand the idea was to protect more of the country rather than focus on the previous targets as much. New York and D.C. have gotten the lion's share of funding (as they should have) and their "protection" should be ahead of other areas without funding. Case in point are the recent terrorist arrests in Miami and Chicago, areas which were likely underfunded with the previous disbursements.

From what I read, New York is still the #1 recepient of DHS dollars.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp/newsreleases/FY06_HSGP_Allocations.pdf

My understanding is that office buildings with people in them are 'assessed' with higher value than a monument. An office building in downtown LA should have higher priority than the statue of liberty. Also, more money needed to go into port security in places like Long Beach than NYC getting all of it.

But wouldn't a monument potentially have alot of tourists in it?

tourists....terrorists....it's all the same

they both start with "t"

So we *want* them to hit the tourist places. It's kinda like the strategy of luring all the terrorists to Iraq by starting a war there. Consider US tourist attractions to be "honey pots" to draw in the baddies...

If something happens, one or more of the 20 biggest targets in the USA have a 90% likelyhood of being hit. The rest is just fluff. Terrorists like symbols.