Good Monday morning to you all. Today is our errand day and we have a more extensive series of errands than usual so this might be a bit abbreviated. Well, Irene was bad--thankfully not as bad as it might have been. Now comes the flooding--or more flooding as the case might be. They say it may be a week or more before all of the power is restored to those who have lost it. That doesn't surprise me because I remember how long it took for the power to be restored for the 800k in the Chicago area who lost it during that spring storm not too long ago.

So, finally--ten years after 9/11--someone is asking how much the so-called security our 'Homeland Security' spending has increased our security and whether it has been worth the cost. My answer is: too much for not a lot. Unfortunately, we have been in a frenzied search for absolute security which we can't ever achieve. Worse, that mind set has allowed us to uncritically spend a lot of money so long as some tenuous tie to 'security' can be allegedly shown. I also remember how senators and representatives from less populated states and cities insisted on parity with states like New York and California, and cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. Small town police departments were like kids in a candy store with their parents' credit cards trying to spend the windfall. What pisses me off--I am sure when Cantor insisted that funds for relief after Irene (as before with Joplin) would be available only if it were offset by funds cut from elsewhere he wasn't thinking of taking it from Homeland Security grants.

I noticed that MSNBC and CNN both have polls asking if Irene was 'over-hyped.' I don't know. Can you over hype a storm that has, at last report, caused 14 deaths, caused $7 billion in damage, interrupted power for a couple of million, and flooding over most of the east coast from Main to the Carolinas? I rather wish Katrina had been over hyped.

Redtree Times has an good post this morning which echoes some of my thoughts after reading a bit of Ron Paul's tirade on FEMA. Ever since Ronald Reagan a seemingly growing number of pundits, politicians, and (perhaps) just plain folks want to go back to some kind of simpler nirvana located in some idealized past. The past is gone and it was never as nice as they seem to remember.

I couldn't agree with you more on Cantor and his fellow pustules, Kay. This item should raise your blood pressure so take a couple of deep breaths before reading. I wish our spineless and morally deficient press would take the Repthuglicans to task for their hypocrisy. But, since so much of it is corporate controlled and beholden to the interests of big business and the wealthy, I am not holding my breath.