AlterNet: HIGHTOWER: The Scam Of Homeland Security

There's a rule of bureaucracy that says: When confused, reorganize.

You'll be glad to know that the Republican leadership quietly slipped some very useful amendments into the DHS bill. Useful to their corporate campaign contributors, that is. For example, GOP majority leader Dick Armey attached a provision that gives blanket immunity to corporations that make faulty bomb detectors, gas masks, and other antiterrorism equipment. Thanks to Dick, victims won't be allowed to sue for injury or death even if the manufacturers intentionally make defective devices. Hey Dick, how does this help our security?

Dick also used the DHS bill to undo an earlier corporate reform passed by the house. This reform prohibited giving government contracts to runaway corporations – those cheaters that reincorporate as foreign companies by setting up phony off-shore addresses so they can avoid paying their U.S. taxes. Without a vote, Armey simply inserted a provision in the DHS bill reversing this reform.

Homeland Security might be a new agency, but it's the product of the same old corrupt politics.