Row of Loosely Guarded Targets Lies Just Outside New York City - New York Times

Row of Loosely Guarded Targets Lies Just Outside New York City - New York Times: "Trying to safeguard more than 100 potential terrorist targets in two miles surrounded by residential communities, industrial areas and commuter corridors has proved a daunting challenge. Federal, state and local officials have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to install gates, roadblocks and security cameras and to provide additional patrols, surveillance and intelligence operations.
But even those in charge of the effort say the job is incomplete, bogged down by obstacles that are a microcosm of the nation's struggle against potential terrorist threats.
After distributing tens of billions to state and local governments since 9/11, the federal Department of Homeland Security cut New Jersey's financing this year to about $60 million from $99 million last year. Many security experts have complained that the formula - which provides Montana with three times as much money per capita as New Jersey - is guided more by politics than by the likelihood of an attack."

This is a short excerpt from a NYTimes expose on the vulnerabilities of the most densely populated state in the nation. Politics, as always, have been disruptive. Whether we're talking about the distribution of global aid money from the US, the World Bank, or the IMF; Iraqi reconstruction; or domestic affairs like the Dept of Homeland Security, everyone seems to be jostling for their own piece of the cake, a little kickback and something "for their time and effort." Rather than devising real solutions, we're running around with bloated bills and budgets so overdone that their costs have doubled due to all the pork added in to get things passed (I'm referencing a recent energy bill, I believe.... my brain's in a fog at the moment, but there's billions and billions of industry pay offs and subsidies built in--rather than actually addressing what's needed--consumer end stuff and alternatie sources). $100 million has been "misplaced in Iraq." etc etc etc.

Let's turn to terrorism, a bulwark of Republican support. So sure Montana has a bunch of crazy militia men running around, and that faction did manage to cause extensive turmoil in Oklahoma City, but I think it is fairly uncontested that the nations ports and chemical facilities, particularly near our biggest cities, are where true vulnerability lies. Places like Long Beach, CA or Newark, NJ, right inside the LA and NYC metropolitan areas, lightly defended, and rife with dangerous substances and weak areas primed for exploitation. Terrorism is a very valid concern as the US drains away its cache of good will abroad. The more people that dislike America, the more have an urge to do it harm. The USA should as a neccessity be working to repair these relationships, but at the same time, it must address its multiple Achile's heels. Before money is poured into closing the Canadian border and annoying our friendly socialist neighbor to the north, we should address real vulnerabilities like those exposed in this article. Failure to do so is plain inexusable, short sighted, and purely political. Washington--get your act together and start acting in the citizen's interest. It's hopeless, I know--but please please--Mr. Smith: Please stand up!