Napolitano is Homeland Security Secretary

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Kinda like the Home Office. The bits of domestic stuff that no one else is stupid enough to want.

[Lief 🗽]

Homeland Security and the Interior (and maybe bits and pieces of other departments?) should be combined under one department, like they do in the rest of the world with Interior Ministries.

[Mr. Morden]

What exactly qualifies Napolitano for this office?

Well, as I said before, two of the divisions of the Department of Homeland Security are the INS and Customs, and as a border state governor, she's probably forgotten more about illegal immigration than most people know.  Also, the DOHS is responsible for the National Parks, and there are several in Arizona.

If it looks like I'm grasping at straws, I'm not.  It's just that the Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with Homeland Security, and everything to do with miscellanea.

Yeah, a lot of people seem to think that "homeland security" sounds rather orwellian, and consequently think that it's all about wiretapping and such, which is way way off the mark.

[Verily]

What exactly qualifies Napolitano for this office?

Well, as I said before, two of the divisions of the Department of Homeland Security are the INS and Customs, and as a border state governor, she's probably forgotten more about illegal immigration than most people know.  Also, the DOHS is responsible for the National Parks, and there are several in Arizona.

If it looks like I'm grasping at straws, I'm not.  It's just that the Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with Homeland Security, and everything to do with miscellanea.

Yeah, a lot of people seem to think that "homeland security" sounds rather orwellian, and consequently think that it's all about wiretapping and such, which is way way off the mark.

The reality is that Homeland Security isn't about security at all. Even as far as it deals with national emergencies (which are hardly daily affairs, and may not even happen once per President), its focus is on dealing with disasters after they happen, not with preventing them. Preventing disasters belongs to Defense, via the CIA, and Justice, via the FBI (except natural disasters, obviously, which can't realistically be prevented).

[paul718]

In a perfect world, Obama would work to abolish this Bush-era waste of tax dollars.

Yes.  Thank you.  The creation of DHS was a knee-jerk reaction meant to comfort a frightened nation.  Nothing more. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

In a perfect world, Obama would work to abolish this Bush-era waste of tax dollars.

Yes.  Thank you.  The creation of DHS was a knee-jerk reaction meant to comfort a frightened nation.  Nothing more. 

Bush announced the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to knock that FBI whistleblower out of the news.

[Ogre Mage]

What exactly qualifies Napolitano for this office?

She can see Mexico from her house.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

What exactly qualifies Napolitano for this office?

She can see Mexico from her house.

But so can Governor's Richardson, Perry and Schwarzenegger! Won't somebody please think of Governor Schwarzenegger! Would it not be most amusing if one day Governor Schwarzenegger was to become Secretary of Homeland Security or Secretary of Defense? I'd think so.

[Brittain33]

Guess I'm the only one who doesn't think Napolitano would be a shoo-in for AZ Senate in 2010... 

Matthew Yglesias pointed out that she's picking an excellent time to get out of Dodge and leave a tottering economy in the hands of an all-Republican state government.

[perdedor]

In a perfect world, Obama would work to abolish this Bush-era waste of tax dollars.

Yes.  Thank you.  The creation of DHS was a knee-jerk reaction meant to comfort a frightened nation.  Nothing more. 

I wouldn't even give the Bush administration that much credit when analyzing it's intentions. Rather, it was likely the opportunity provided by the mass panic that led to the creation. After all, people find fascism more palletable when it has a front office.

[paul718]

In a perfect world, Obama would work to abolish this Bush-era waste of tax dollars.

Yes.  Thank you.  The creation of DHS was a knee-jerk reaction meant to comfort a frightened nation.  Nothing more. 

I wouldn't even give the Bush administration that much credit when analyzing it's intentions. Rather, it was likely the opportunity provided by the mass panic that led to the creation. After all, people find fascism more palletable when it has a front office.

What is it about DHS that you consider fascist?

[perdedor]

In a perfect world, Obama would work to abolish this Bush-era waste of tax dollars.

Yes.  Thank you.  The creation of DHS was a knee-jerk reaction meant to comfort a frightened nation.  Nothing more. 

I wouldn't even give the Bush administration that much credit when analyzing it's intentions. Rather, it was likely the opportunity provided by the mass panic that led to the creation. After all, people find fascism more palletable when it has a front office.

What is it about DHS that you consider fascist?

It's a department designed to monitor the populace in the name of security. A design that borrows greatly from fascist thought pattern. Talks of national identification cards and warrantless wiretapping leave a lot to be desired in the effort to "preserve freedom".

[paul718]

What is it about DHS that you consider fascist?

It's a department designed to monitor the populace in the name of security. A design that borrows greatly from fascist thought pattern. Talks of national identification cards and warrantless wiretapping leave a lot to be desired in the effort to "preserve freedom".

Domestic surveillance, which the gov't has engaged in for 30 years, is administered by the NSA.  The NSA operates under the Department of Defense, not Homeland Security. 

[perdedor]

What is it about DHS that you consider fascist?

It's a department designed to monitor the populace in the name of security. A design that borrows greatly from fascist thought pattern. Talks of national identification cards and warrantless wiretapping leave a lot to be desired in the effort to "preserve freedom".

Domestic surveillance, which the gov't has engaged in for 30 years, is administered by the NSA.  The NSA operates under the Department of Defense, not Homeland Security. 

That's not what I was suggesting, though I probably could have worded that better, reading it again. What I am suggesting is that the department of homeland security is yet another arm of authoritarian post-9/11 domestic policy. A policy that defines "freedom" as "security", an idea embedded in fascist thought. I wasn't attempting to suggest that the DHS it's self was responsible for warrantless wiretapping (though the national identification card is directly their work), only that the DHS is a fully representative embodiment of all of the small steps that this country has taken towards fascism since it's establishment.