[Palladin]

Wrong. The new department will be a clean agency, one that can root out the traitorous sleeper agents in the rogue departments....stomp on the kind of guys who shoot women and children, like at Ruby Ridge, and who incinerate innocent civilians, as they did at Waco.

[katze]

#10 I hear you, Palladin; it will happen. The naysayers will never win.

[dr_who]

An oversite role is good, but oversite on the part of the public is even better, especially when the government listens instead of covering stuff up. I think the point about turf wars is a valid one. I think they're inevitable.

[LS]

I sure hope you are right. All we need is yet another cabinet position to support. But I see your point. Sort of a "blue team" to check on everyone else.

[Jesse]

Yeah, just like the Dept. of Education has improved literacy and education in the US. Get ready for National ID cards, Retinal scans to travel, federalization of local law enforcement, gun registration, mandatory flight plans for all general aviation, etc.

Silly me. I thought we had a post for Homeland Defense. Wasn't it called the Dept. of Defense?

Increasing the responsibilities and the power of the federal government is a very, very bad idea no matter who is in power.

The clunk you just heard is another brick being laid to pave the road to Hell.

[dixierat22]

The new department may start out 'clean', but it's still just another beauracracy. That just means a bigger government, not better security. This is not a good move. They will seek unprecedented powers to invade our privacy. Our security from terrorists will be no better and our security from our government will be worse.

[bigunreal]

Yeah, the solution for an intrusive, out of control gargantuan federal government is to create yet another ridiculous, unconstitutional agency. Bush is really whittling down the size and scope of government, isn't he? The hilarious thing is to read the posts of the Stupid Party faithful about this latest, very un-conservative like proposal of Dubya's. Every one of you would be going nuts if Bill Clinton had done the exact same thing. You'd be (correctly) protesting the addition of another useless federal agency. And, oh yes, you'd be looking for answers in the Stupid Party.

[Robert Drobot]

In your dreams......Post # 10.

Bush said this cabinet position would be responsible for bringing together federal and state law enforcement.

We're talking a national police here people. This is dirty from the get go.

I don't expect a globalist to understand the superior status of state authority.

It's the states that should be developing a cooperative state level network for the tracking of suspected terrorists within their borders, and providing such data to the fed on an as needed basis.

The states are allowing the fed steamroller to squash their autonomy as flat as a pancake.

WAKE UP DUMMIES -- THIS IS A VIOLATION OF THE REPUBLIC'S CONSTITUTION ! ! !

[poet]

Clean now, but, what if another clinton type gets in in the future? Have a healthy suspicion about things such as this. Could this affect forums such as this one. I, for one, do not want cradle to the grave security if I have to give up my freedom to speak, think or move about.

[185JHP]

The thing is, we need some intelligence collection on homeland threats. OTOH we don't want a bunch who open an investigation on anyone they see using Russian dressing. There would be a heavy risk in having the FBI do this, with the stench of their traitors still so sharp. It's a compromise, and symbols are important.