Garden State of Mind

A few weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, Jon Corzine, Senator of my own beloved Garden State, offered a bill in the US Senate to impose a terrible burden on our nation's chemical plants -- his bill would have forced them to take some precautions against the most likely risks of terrorist attacks on their facilities.

Here in New Jersey, home of many major petrochemicals manufacturers (why do you think we're known as the Garden State? It's a lot like calling that frozen tundra up north Greenland now, isn't it?).

Initially, Corzine's bill enjoyed bi-partisan support. (Those of you who are too young to recall 9/11 should understand that there was a brief period in which a gullible and patriotic country rallied to the President, only to be rewarded with the most one-sided partisan policies his White House team could dream up).

Within days, the Republicans backed away from a bill that was unpopular with the chemical companies, and Corzine's bill languished in the Senatorial equivalent of a dead letter office.

So today, I was heartened to hear that the Department of Homeland Security -- the Executive branch's favorite dead letter office -- has finally figured out what Corzine knew nearly four years ago -- that voluntary corporate security provisions are inadequate to the sort of risks that terrorism imposes on that company's neighbors.

-- Is it just me, or is it amazing that it took the Bush team four years to figure this out?

-- Here's a game you can play at home: Watch the DHS folks over the next year and see how many other four-year-old ideas they suddenly discover -- could port security be next?

It is really sad to say this, but I am just glad they are finally waking up at DHS.

Unlike many in the President's corner, I am very concerned about the likelihood of future terrorist attacks here in the USA.

And we are not prepared.

Neil

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