The War at Home

Some FBI agents don't have email. The FBI's top agent in New York says it's a matter of money. Which leads me to ask, Wouldn't we be more secure if they saved the money they've wasted listening in on warrentless wiretaps of American citizens and used it so that FBI agents can communicate?

Along the same line, the White House finally figured out that it might be a good idea to have federal standards for safeguarding chemical plants--five and a half years after 9/11. (You may recall that 60 Minutes did a scathing expose of the laughable state of securing chemical plants a couple of years ago.) But even this turns out to be just another charade: According to AP, the proposed regulations "would largely let the industry decide how stiff the protections should be and leave inspections to private auditors."

I used to think that the administration was shamelessly arrogant. I still think they're shameless, but clearly they're incompetent, too.