DHS: No Monuments Worth Protecting In NYC

[smoogatz]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/06/no_icons_no_mon.html


No Icons, No Monuments Worth Protecting

June 01, 2006 12:18 PM

Richard Esposito Reports:

"New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News... That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40 percent--from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006.

"The formula did not consider as landmarks or icons: The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists. It also left off notable landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

"The form ignored that New York City is the capital of the world financial markets and merely stated the city had four significant bank assets."


Un. Fucking. Believable.

[GodlessBiker]

1. The inhabitants of Grant's tomb are shocked!

[RoseMead]

2. The Statue of Liberty is only an icon

for those who actually believe in liberty. :(

[Bridget Burke]

17. And that poem is an embarrassment....

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[bvar22]

35. The Statue of Liberty.....

....was mostly about immigrants anyway.

[treestar]

44. The ones most of us are descended from

[populistdriven]

3. Bush is doing everything he can to have a Terrorist attack b4 elections

[bluefish]

4. New Yorkers should make their

Voices heard, again.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. All Americans should...and people of other nations as well.

What American would not be stung by an attack on the Statue of Liberty?

And doesn't the United Nations belong to the rest of the world as much as the US?

[Karenca]

5. The Cloisters, ALL THE BRIDGES, The PORTS!,

The Hayden Planeterium
Saint Patrick's Cathedral
The Chrysler Building
Washington Square Arch
The entire freakin Wall St. area
Rockefeller Center.

Damn it.

edited to add Yankee Stadium.
The NY Public Library (did you say that one?)

[Lerkfish]

6. lets remember this at the next arranged MIHOP.

someone bookmark this thread.

I'm being serious.

[liberalmuse]

8. WTF?

I guess the Statue of Liberty or United Nations doesn't mesh with the new facist state, and museums are librul enclaves anyway. Oh yeah, and there's only about 8 million of those things called "people".

[coalition_unwilling]

9. I guess the Empire State Building doesn't qualify as "iconic"?

This little gesture should give even the most craven of Repukes ammo to impeach BFEE.

[iconoclastic cat]

10. If you all don't think this was a deliberate slap,

you don't fully understand the petty, vindictive nature of King George.

[fooj]

38. Vindictive to the core.

:grr:

[anotherdrew]

40. pay back's gonna be a bitch bush - mark my words

he will fucking pay for this

just when I'd have thought they could sink no lower.

[wakeme2008]

11. But Jebbie is getting more $$$ from them

that is the biggest ripoff going.

[Kittycat]

47. Of course. THey have all those theme parks to protect

eom

[wallwriter]

12. Could there be a bigger "F*** You" to NYC? n/t

[superconnected]

13. In other words, the NSA just announced NY is not worth protecting.

It's not like the Federal Gov has been protecting NY since Bush got in anyway.

New Orleans isn't worth protecting either.

I guess we will just keep finding these things out as disasters happen. Or when funds are elminated/severly diminised for protection.

[superconnected]

14. How much is Falluja worth? They're apparently worth protecting.

[Nihil]

42. You really don't want to be "protected" like that though ...

Massacre, siege, desolation ... even an "undefended" NYC
is better than the US treatment of Fallujah ...

[Eugene]

15. The omission is glaring, but that is not the big story here.

The monument count gaffe aside, the DHS memo lists NYC as a top 25% risk target
across the board. The assessment may have also counted some landmarks
under other asset categories like commercial or transportation.
That still doesn't explain the Statue of Liberty or the United Nations.

The real story is that DHS is ignored some its own findings to shortchange
NYC's anti-terror efforts.

[tridim]

19. I'd like to know how they came up with those percentages.

Did they ask their Saudi pals?

[truthisfreedom]

16. bushco hates NYC so much that they'll do anything to weaken defenses.

Hillary should use this as part of her platform.

[RadiDem]

18. Payback for voting Dem >>>>

In 2004 approx 90% of the people who lived close enough to the World Tarde Center to actually SEE them collapse voted against the texas traitor who let that happen.

[central scrutinizer]

20. "money grubbers"

More of the same. Bushco already has reneged on money promised to New York City. If you need more evidence that Buscho favors red states, compare preparedness for Hurricane Frances (just before the 2004 election, Florida) versus preparedness for Katrina (2005, Louisiana).

Remember this little gem:

City officials worried that Bush might try to back out of providing the full $20 billion that he promised, with his pledge vulnerable to opposition in Congress, the financial demands of the war in Afghanistan and the slumping economy. Indeed, budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. fueled these fears when he said the $7 billion going to families of victims of the trade center attacks would count as part of that $20 billion. And he said that local politicians had "treated this as a little money-grubbing game."

http://www.gothamgazette.com/iotw/911_sixmonths/index7.shtml

[Retrograde]

21. why not paint a big target

in the middle of Central Park and get it over with?

On 9/11, I was taking a friend - a former pilot - to the doctor. We were naturally talking about that morning's events, and were discussing why those particular targets were picked. His theory: that's where the most cameras are. New York is one of the major media centers in the world: a spectacular, photogenic hit there is going to have emotional impact far and wide. Which was what they wanted.

[jwirr]

28. Along with the WTC being the symbol of our impact on world

economy and the Pentagon the symbol of our world military might.

[CJCRANE]

46. I see it as being

set-up to provide the perfect casus belli.

* was tired of "swatting at flies" as Condi said to the 9/11 commission. So, they just
had to wait for the big one to give them an excuse to go in and kick up a hornet's nest.

[union_maid]

22. Can we succeed NOW?

Getting really tired of sending DC our tax money so that we can't take care of ourselves while the Feds hang us out to dry. I think we need to hold onto it.

[Karenca]

32. Secede?

I wish!!!!!!

[Oak2004]

33. There's a serious secession movement in VT

Yep, we don't just have Republican senators who defect in disgust, socialist Congressmen, and a third major progressive political party (i.e., has a primary and automatic access to the ballot and has its own caucus in the legislature -- http://www.progressiveparty.org ). We've got a left-of-center secession movement that holds its conventions in the state capitol building.

Their strategy is to prepare the populace to support secession, then move to secede when the US government/economy collapses, or if some other opportunity arises to secede nonviolently. They have a fair bit of sympathy, if not quite support.

A lot of their events are telecast on my local government access channel, and I must admit I'm fascinated by them. However I'd prefer to put my political energies where they are likely to be immediately productive rather than invest them in an activity that may or may not ever produce fruits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vermont_Republic

http://www.vermontrepublic.org/

http://www.vtcommons.org/

(We also have screwed up things in VT, including screwed up left-of-center politicians and agencies, and we have bad weather, just so you don't all suffer too much from Vermont envy)

[KamaAina]

23. Well, then, I guess I won't go

I'm gonna be up there for a couple of weeks. Darn. I was hoping there'd be something to see, but I guess not. :sarcasm:

[NVMojo]

24. Uh, what about the HUMANS in NYC? They need them to live so they

can pay taxes for other frivilous Bush adminstration wet dreams!! Damn, when are the neocons going to get their priorities straight???

[bbgrunt]

25. Just another example of how they demoralize the

whole country with the constant barrage of insanity. They are preparing us to become zombies with no will to question anything because there are too just many insane battles to fight---and they just keep comin'.

Soon we will all just be too exhausted to even prioritize and we will stick our heads in the pot and drown ourselves rather than even that the water will boil faster.

[bdamomma]

26. they are truly abusing this country

when will it stop or when will we stop them. These people do not care, they are at war with all of us. This people are out in out evil, and do not care.

[jwirr]

27. Wall Street must be happy!

[Blue_Tires]

29. what about that jewel of the city, Shea Stadium??

or does it not count because it's in Queens?


LOL

[aasleka]

30. The larget elm grove in the country

is in Central Park

[zreosumgame]

31. did they run that by Wall Street?

bet they might disagree...

[Oak2004]

34. Don't you know? Wall Street traders are just overpaid workers

with a sense of entitlement and its not cost effective to provide them security. In fact, what Wall Street needs more than anything is a Guest Trader program, because American workers won't do those jobs at what we're aiming to pay them ...cross off "upper middle class" from the hit list

:sarcasm:

[Clyde39]

36. Remember the old GOP saying........."The adults are now in charge"

We used to hear that a lot from the freepers. It used to be once a week that something was "uncovered" that had us all in shock.....now it's daily barrage!

[genieroze]

37. Here is the link for all the states for 06

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/grants_st-local_fy06.pdf

[suffragette]

39. close elections and pork

From http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_152174250.html
Bloomberg offered his own theory as to why cities like Louisville, Omaha, and Charlotte, N.C., got 40 percent increases.

"We've tried to do analysis of some of the money given out, for political reasons," Bloomberg said. "In fact, in many of the places where they got money, but arguably there's no threat, these are close elections either at Senate level or House level. Is that their motive? I have no idea."

And from http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=141800
Still, it’s surely no coincidence that Memphis (which got $4 million) is in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Louisville ($9 million) is home to Rep. Hal Rogers, chair of the subcommittee on Homeland Security appropriations.


This is absolute crap and they need to be called out on it loudly and repeatedly.

[rman]

41. Right, it's just a large seaport city

No reason at all for any terrorists to target it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

43. I guess they figure why waste the money

they're planning their next MIHOP for a different city anyway.

[treestar]

45. What monuments are worth being protected?

Oh, I know. The WH. The Capitol. The buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall. Crawford, Texas. Disneyworld. Tallahassee.

[CBHagman]

48. My grandparents arrived in NY harbor in the early 20th century.

They were children, but I'll bet they knew in those moments more about NYC icons than Tracy Henke will ever know about NYC in a lifetime. There was this little thing called the Statue of Liberty waiting to greet them...