We have more agencies in charge of security in this country, than probably any other country in the world. One of the main reasons for this is the way we divide the power. We have many different federal agencies, then we have different state agencies, city agencies, county agencies and sometimes town agencies. With all this, you would think that we must have the best security in the world, wouldn't you? Well let me talk about a recent news item that I read on Yahoo. It told of a homeless man who was rummaging through garbage cans in lower manhattan. This in itself is very upsetting, that in a country of so much obvious wealth there are so many millions of homeless, but that is not the subject of this article. While the man was digging around he found something. What he found was almost unbelievable. Before I tell you about it, I would like to say that if I presented this scenario as something that was possible, you would probably have laughed me out of the room. The homeless man found the complete plans for the new Freedom Tower that is replacing the World Trade Towers. On the cover of the document it was stamped "Secure Document — Confidential". The document was 150 pages long and detailed every part of the building, even down to thickness of different parts and so on. To the credit of the homeless man, he turned the document in to the authorities. The document was created in October, 2007. How could anyone be so stupid as to throw out this document? Was it the case of some political hack being given a copy and when the idiot was finished reading it, he tossed it? I would not be surprised, having met a few of these types. I don't really know how the document got into the trash, but the very least that should have been done, was have everyone that received a copy sign for it and now have all of them produce their copies and the one that can't, should have legal action taken against them.

It seems that Homeland Security is just another bureaucratic layer that is just complicating things even more. The problem is that different spy agencies do not want to share their data with each other, because each one is trying to get a political foot up on the other. The people that are the heads of these agencies and their underlings should be removed and people appointed that put America first. We seem to have a lot of this "me first" mentality going around lately, a lot more than I have ever seen in my lifetime. One has only to look at the oil companies, the medical insurance companies and others, to see that all they care about is the bottom line. Sure companies have to make a profit, but should it be so much that it causes suffering? The oil companies alone are causing all kinds of economic woes for us and forcing the price of everything up. The medical insurance companies are starting to do the same thing. In case you haven't heard, they have begun their plans to increase what is paid for drugs. They want us to pay one third of the price of all drugs we use. I read a story about a man that they actually did this to and he was taking some expensive drugs, I think for cancer and that made his share something like three thousand dollars per month. He either has to stop taking the drugs and die, which they don't care about and maybe even look forward to, then they don't have any money to lay out, or find some way of getting this money every month. Nope, we have become nothing more than an annoyance to some and a bunch of people to drain of every asset to others. America and Americans are just not the top priority anymore.

Here we are, supposedly the most advanced nation on the face of the earth and we are not even able to make the internet a truly secure place to conduct commerce on. I buy on the internet and indeed you can get some real bargains online if you shop carefully. When you shop, you are taking a risk however. In the last year I have had to close two credit cards, because others had gotten a hold of my numbers. I don't know if this was due to bad site security or the fact that the banks keep losing our accounts. Every time you turn around, you read about a bank stating that they lost ten million accounts in a lap top or they lost twelve million from a cyber attack. It is pitiful. Our data is not treated very well by anyone. Where is the government, with all these agencies listening to all the world's phone calls and reading all their email, why can't they spare some people to make sure that our personal data is protected? I bet our data would be protected a lot better, if criminal charges were imposed for poor security, when data was lost. There may come a point where the data on every single American will be in the hands of criminals and spies, if most of it isn't already. Isn't this also part of protecting this country? Again that mentality that we are all just here and since we are not the rich and powerful, there is no need to go out of the way to protect us. Hey we are Americans and if it wasn't for us, there would be no America. We supposedly elect our representatives to look out for our needs, but it seems that once they get elected the start looking out for their own and it is people like the lobbyists that drive this government. Our needs are not even considered. Then comes election time and we look around and more times than not, we notice that most of the candidates that are leading the pack are really supported by all the self interests and their money, making it very hard, if not impossible, for change to take place.

Let's look at a project that was supposedly one of the main security areas after 9/11 and that is airport security. All we heard after 9/11 was how airport security was being beefed up. People were made to stand on long lines, some strip-searched, some even had their names come up on computers stating that they were security risks, when they weren't. New scanners were put in airports that now allow employees to look right through your clothes, further reducing your right to privacy. All this would be okay if it accomplished something, we would say it was for the good of the country. The problem here is that airport security is a joke. In late 2007, a test of airport security was made by federal agents. They were easily able to smuggle in liquid explosives and bomb components. Incendiary devices were also easily taken through the checkpoints. You may think that the additional screening that some people are put through would stop them, but even the federal officers that were subject to this, were still able to get their death devices past the airport security. Some lawmakers think that the airport screeners are told in advance that a test is going to take place. If this is true and these are the results we get, we might as well get rid of all the screeners and the expensive machines and save all that money. It would be quite a hardship, but airlines could just say that you can take nothing with you on board a plane. If you want clothes and such when you get there, they can be shipped separately to your destination, on a cargo plane that does not carry passengers. The boxes and cases would be scanned before going on the cargo plane, but at least passengers. would not be at risk. The money saved on all that airport scanning and scanning machines could be used to help subsidize the cargo planes. If people need prescriptions to carry on the plane, the airline would provide them after being given notice at the time of ticket purchase for the same price that is paid to the drug store. These prescriptions would be given to the person AFTER they are on board. If for some reason a mistake is made, the person would have to get off the plane, get an emergency prescription and take the next flight. That is true security. All that would be required when you get on the plane is a search of your person. Unfortunately, that only applies to passengers., there is so much more to check at the airports. There are people with access to the runways, the planes and areas we have not even thought of. They must have security clearances and even then there should be some kind of double check instituted. Some people that have entry to the runways and planes, don't even work at the airport.

One of the places that you would think had the tightest security of all is a nuclear reactors and the building that houses it. Well guess what, ABC interviewed a former security analyst for the Department of Energy, who viewed tapes provided to him from ABC news, of findings at nuclear reactors. He stated that , "The truck is the real threat. You want to make sure the truck stays away 250 feet minimum." It seems that the biggest security threat is the college nuclear reactors. There is highly enriched uranium at these places and their security is wanting. The average person doesn't even know that that some colleges contain nuclear reactors. The schools are now under investigation by the NRC, but it seems that that some may be located in Florida, Ohio and Texas. Nuclear experts are now saying that there is a significant threat of sabotage at these places. Well how did they ever figure this out after all this time? Does it take a private investigation to put these people on notice? Apparently so. Why couldn't they figure out that if you have a nuclear facility that it needs to be protected under strict security rules? What do they do when they inspect these places, drink coffee and eat donuts and then leave? This is such a major security threat that I find it hard to believe that the NRC doesn't take these things more seriously. Again I say, get rid of the hacks running these agencies and their underlings and get people in that care, instead of saying something like, "hey Joe thanks for helping me with my election, how would you like to be head of the NRC?"

Here is the worst part of all of this. The federal government is allowing people, known as whistle-blowers, people that expose safety and security issues, to be fired. Sure, they embarrass the hacks that are responsible for running the agencies. Again this shows where we stand. An employee exposes a potential dangerous situation that could cost many lives, sometimes after repeatedly going to his supervisors who did nothing about it and he finally became a whistle-blower. Maybe he went to the newspapers or some such place, but that really doesn't matter. If what he said was true and it potentially protected lives, he should be given a medal, but instead he is told to hit the road. There are just too many political interests here. Who cares if someone's ego gets bruised, if that is the cost of saving lives? Folks our priorities have been turned upside down. These people are living in a sea of self interest, a sea that we are drowning in.