Below The Beltway

That is the only conclusion that one can draw from this Washington Post report:

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento.

The announcement that the two cities targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, would suffer 40 percent reductions in urban security funds prompted outrage from lawmakers and local officials in both areas, who questioned the wisdom of cutting funds so deeply for cities widely recognized as prime terrorist targets. The decision came less than five months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff unveiled changes in the grants plan intended to focus funding on areas facing the gravest risk of attack

Okay, let’s get this straight. The progenitors of al Qaeda attacked New York in 1993. They attacked again in 2001, and hit both New York and Washington, D.C. And now the Department of Homeland Security has determined that the greatest threat lies not in an attack on the Capitol Building, but in an attack on Sacremento ? If only it were that simple:

Potential targets outside the Northeast also took painful hits, including New Orleans, San Diego and Phoenix. New Orleans’s grants for security and disaster preparedness were cut in half even as it struggles to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

And what about those cities that will be getting increased funding ?

Louisville’s funding increase from $5 million to $8.5 million, and Mayor Jerry Abramson said the money will be used primarily on a project to improve communications between emergency responders. “A lot of this is about logistical issues that are very important if something were to happen,” he said.

Undersecretary for Preparedness George Foresman told reporters that although the program was formed with anti-terrorism objectives in mind, the money is meant to improve readiness for “an act of terrorism or an act of Mother Nature.”

Because, of course, Louisville, Kentucky is both a potential terrorist target and the target of next month’s killer hurricane.

Being prepared is one thiing, preparing for a blizzard in Hawaii is quite another.

Update: Of course, as KipEsquire points out, it really isn’t surprising that this is happening:

There is simply no objective way to “properly” allocate these monies. And even if there were, who truly believes that such a process could survive the Politics of Pull? Maybe there should be a Homeland Security subsidy budget — I think not. But even so, let’s not lie to ourselves about the “right” way to spend such a budget. There is no right way — there is only the politicians’ way.

In other words, the War on Terror is becoming another porkbarrel project. Wonderful.

Linked with Outside The Beltway.