The 109th Congress Sucks
Terry Trippany on Oct 02 2006 at 9:28 am | Filed under: Feature Article, Politicians at Work
Congress - For the People?
I think we may possibly be looking at the end of one of the worst Congresses to have ever served, or in this case not serve, the American People.
John Fund presents us with a perfect example of the complete and utter failure of our leaders. He is reporting on the high fives that Congress is giving itself in passing a new tough Port Security Act. In doing so Fund points out that a House-Senate conference stripped out a key provision that would have barred serious felons from working in sensitive dock security positions. This is shameful.
How did this happen? Well once again our elected officials decided it would be better to attract union money and subsequent endorsements than it would be to protect American security interests.
Congress is patting itself on the back for passing the Port Security Act last Saturday. But the day before, a House-Senate conference committee stripped out a provision that would have barred serious felons from working in sensitive dock security jobs. Port security isn’t just about checking the contents of cargo containers, it also means checking the background of the 400,000 workers on our docks.
U.S. harbors are filled with workers convicted of serious crimes. Just last year the Justice Department filed a RICO suit charging that the 65,000-member East Coast-based International Longshoremen’s Association is a “vehicle for organized crime.”
But the House-Senate conference drastically watered down a Senate-passed requirement that aligned the standards for hiring dock workers with those used at airports and nuclear plants. The statute still bans workers who have been convicted of treason, espionage and terror-related offenses–a mere handful at most. But a seven-year time-out period on hiring those who’ve committed crimes such as murder, bribery, identity fraud and the illegal use of firearms was dropped in the dead of night at the behest of unions fearful that too many of their members could lose their jobs.
“The security stakes are too high to trust serious felons who could be manipulated or bribed by people trying to smuggle a nuclear device or chemical weapon into our ports,” says Sen. Jim DeMint, sponsor of the dropped provision. Security analysts echo his fears. They say terrorists working with truck drivers could plant a bomb aboard a cruise ship or pack a 40-foot cargo container with explosives. Stephen Flynn, a former U.S. Customs official now with the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News that “if a bomb went off in a seaport, we would likely see a closing of the seaports, bringing the global trade system to a halt and potentially putting our economy into recession.”
Officials at several ports echo these concerns. “There is a gaping hole in port security,” Byron Miller of the Charleston, S.C., port, the nation’s sixth largest, told me. “Right now, by law we cannot do background checks on 8,000 people who work at this port.” He noted that a state bill to provide for background checks was killed last year after unions applied a full-court press against it.
The rest of the article discusses the rampant corruption going on at our ports. It is a must read.
The problem is massive. The Department of Homeland Security recently investigated the ports of New York and New Jersey and found that of 9,000 truckers checked, nearly half had criminal records. They included murderers, drug dealers, arsonists and members of the deadly MS-13 gang. It concluded that these security gaps represent “vulnerabilities that could be capitalized by terrorist organizations.” A dock worker who has been convicted of smuggling drugs is a potential danger. “Instead of bringing in 50 kilograms of heroin, what would stop them from bringing in five kilograms of plutonium?” asks Joseph King, a former Customs Service agent who now teaches criminal justice at New York University.
The Democrats are running against President Bush, the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, Pharmaceutical Companies and Voter ID’s. The typical fear of success platform.
The Republicans are simply running as the “better than Democrats” party.
When all is done and said it is not good enough to be one step better than “really sucking”. I needn’t reminding anyone that this implies that you still suck.
If I had my choice I’d fire every damn person that opposed this legislation. This Congress is a shame. Good riddance.
Others - Michelle Malkin
Congresses, American People, John Fund, Port Security Act, union
