“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”

Jonathan Swift
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"The Democrats have moved to the right, and the right has moved into a mental hospital." - Bill Maher
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"The city is crowded my friends are away and I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle so I gotta get up and go

It's a cruel ... cruel summer"

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Fool Proof security is proof that even fools can beat it

This looked interesting

The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings.

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card -- which lists his place of birth as "Tijuana, B.C." and his address as "123 Fraud Blvd." on an incorrectly spelled "Staton Island, N.Y." -- to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.

Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it.
35 billion dollars a year is spent on Homeland Securities' budget. All the walls, guards, loss of civil liberties, databases and domestic spying in the world doesn't seem to help the situation of America's security. Instead of guarding our vital resources like water, food, energy, transportation, none of which have been changed since 9/11, we busy ourselves with spying on citizens and squashing free speech on the net.

Even if this is an isolated incident (which I doubt it is, this guy has gotten into other buildings and on airplanes before), it makes you wonder where the money is going. Sure, the panhandle got a grant awhile back for a nifty bomb bot, but it can't all go to that. Some will blame it on human failure, but, your security is only as smart as the people running it.