Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)
By fiat President Bush creates Homeland Security Department:-)
Some reporters seem to be giving President Bush some extra-presidential powers.
The Friday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times featured a sidebar, credited to the Associated Press and Gannet News Service, entitled “Homeland Security Department Facts,” which lists the number of employees, branches included, “Affected Departments, agencies,” and proposed budget for Bush’s proposed department.
What is odd about is that in three out of the four sections, the Homeland Security Department is described as a fact as opposed to a proposal that would need congressional approval.
Seriously, in all likelihood, this just sloppy editing and writing, and perhaps only on the part of either the AP or Gannett News Service, but in another way it seems like a perfect statement how much power has been ceded to Bush and his advisors for the sake of the War on Terror.
Roger Waters once sang:
What God wants
God gets
God help us all
Has Bush become the new national deity?
Since I haven’t been able to find the piece in question anywhere on the web I have transcribed in its entirety below.
HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT FACTS
Employees: 170,000, making it the third-largest federal agency
Branches included: The department would assume control of the Secret Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs Service, Coast Guard, the new Transportation Security Administration and the now-independent Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Affected departments, agencies: The new department will draw from the budgets and jurisdictions of Cabinet departments or Cabinet-level agencies including Justice, Treasury, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Energy, Commerce, Defense, Interior and the General Services Administration.
Budget: $37 billion
AP, Gannett News Service
