police

George Bush has always been far more willing to give money to Halliburton and Exxon/Mobil than he has to give it to fund our fire departments, police departments and healthcare system.

Well, here he goes again. In the good old Republican tradition of hurting Americans which we saw so blatantly in New Orleans after Katrina, Bush is proposing to cut federal funding to fire departments, police, etc. by half. From Salon.com:

The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half next year, according to budget documents obtained by The Associated Press...

The department [of Homeland Security] wanted to provide $3.2 billion to help states and cities protect against terrorist attacks in 2009, but the White House said it would ask Congress for less than half — $1.4 billion, according to a Nov. 26 document. The plan calls outright elimination of programs for port security, transit security, and local emergency management operations in the next budget year. This is President Bush's last budget, and the new administration would have to live with the funding decisions between Jan. 20 and Sept. 30, 2009.

What? Elimination of funding for port security? Well, I guess he doesn't like port security since Democrats prevented him from turning our port security to his buddies in Dubai. More from Salon:

I am posting, without comment, but with fingers trembling with rage, the diary that my friend, Weeping posted at My Left Wing.

I was just stopped by the cops while smoking a cigarette on my own stoop, as I do multiple times a day.
I know all the neighbors, who walks their dog, who parks across the street, who's attractive, who goes shopping: I see it all.

But this time, someone saw me.

Or thought they did.
As I was smoking a cigarette, talking on the phone, a police car pulled up across the street and stopped, dead in the middle of the street.

In the back of my mind, I thought somehow this would involve me, but immediately dismissed the thought as paranoia, looked around for some kind of trouble, and proceeded to watch the cop get out of the car and head right towards me.

"I have to go," I said abruptly to my friend, "The police are here."

"Do you live here?" The cop inquired.

I just stared right at him, incredulous (though not really, I know better) and indignant.

That's what it was, indignation.

"Yes." I said tersely, "What's happening?"

Someone called in that there was a "young black male" on my stoop who didn't live there, and did I have ID.

The next maybe seven minutes (the entire duration of the encounter) is more or less a blur.