They Handle Everything Else Anyways 

Thanks to Jenna for pointing out this bill:

Senate homeland security panel Chairman Susan Collins said yesterday that she will introduce a bill to give the Homeland Security Department the lead in approving foreign takeovers of companies that touch on national security.

The concern over a Dubai-owned company taking over some U.S. seaport operations has spawned a flurry of similar legislation on Capitol Hill, including bills to block the deal or prevent similar future deals.

"The process right now is deeply flawed," Miss Collins, Maine Republican, said of the interagency committee currently charged with approving acquisitions such as the Dubai deal.

"I think we need to scrap the committee, start again, constitute it within the Department of Homeland Security," Miss Collins said on ABC's "This Week," adding that a member of the intelligence community also should be part of the review panel.

Greeaattt... one more thing for DHS to do. They already are part of the drug war, are trying to stop illegal music copying (that's economic terrorism after all), and keep people from selling t-shirts that disparage FEMA, so why not this too?

George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association, has been selling anti-FEMA T-shirts since last fall, a reflection of his frustration with the federal government's response to the storm that left him homeless and unemployed.

But on Feb. 1, when he handed a shirt to a fellow Katrina victim as he was picking up canned goods at a charity's relief tent, Barisich found himself in trouble with the government.

He was cited by a group of Homeland Security officials for selling a T-shirt on federal property - in this case, near a FEMA center in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Chalmette, La.

Just one question? What's the definition of "touching on national security" anyway? To most politicians, this will make "homeland security" even more of a useless buzz phrase than it already is. Every time a deal comes around that might adversely affect their district, they'll be bandying about the homeland security reason to block it. This is pathetic.

We have been throwing around that phrase way too much. We've thrown it around so much, that it has become absolutely useless. Politicians are quickly becoming the boys who cried homeland security, and the wolves are licking their chops.