Security Pork Revisited

The Observer has, at the greatest length here, followed Hillary's fight to steer resources from the Department of Homeland Security to rural fire departments and other agencies across New York State, which use them for things like buying pickup trucks and "hardening" the arena that is home to minor-league hockey's Albany River Rats.

The latest round were announced yesterday and, yes, Mumford is a big winner.

Post-Katrina, homeland security is obviously getting a lot of re-thinking. And grants to first responders sound all the more virtuous.

When you think about it, though, the thin, even layer of security spending spread across America looks even worse now. New Orleans, remember, was seen as being among the handful of places at the very highest risk of a catastrophe, because of its levee system. But Louisiana, like upstate New York, like Wyoming, only got its fair share of security money, and the upgrades of the levees proceeded, as has been painfully detailed, at a lesiurely pace.

So it still seems fair to wonder whether the $176,576 that Hillary has proudly dispatched to Stillwater reflects the best possible use of federal security money.