$3.4 billion for new Homeland Security complex: Imagine how much health care that could have paid for
It wasn’t long ago that the Department of Homeland Security was just a fascist glimmer in George W. Bush’s eye that subsequently went on to become a symbol of one rogue and illegitimate administration’s gross abuse of civil liberties.
But now a new sheriff is in town, and a new enemy is in the cross-hairs that needs to be aggressively confronted, so it’s worth an even heavier investment of taxpayer dollars.
That and they needed the meeting space:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Washington notables broke ground on the future home of the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, symbolically starting construction on the biggest federal building project in the Washington area since the Pentagon 68 years ago.
The project will bring together more than 15,000 employees now scattered in 35 offices in the region, placing them on a 176-acre campus strewn with historic buildings in a long-neglected corner of Washington, five miles from the Capitol building.
Department leaders hope the $3.4 billion consolidation will help the department fulfill its core mission — protecting the homeland — in ways big and small.
“It will help us hold meetings,” Secretary Janet Napolitano said. “It will help us build that culture of ‘One DHS.’”
Assuming Napolitano holds a meeting every single weekday over the next 10 years, this new complex is only costing $1.3 million per meeting. Not bad by government standards — but we’ll round that up to $2 million per meeting on the assumption that they’ll buy bagels.
At least this way the DHS will have a central location from which to direct the Girl Scouts response during a national emergency.
Update: Commenters are saying that GoToMeeting.com would have been a much cheaper alternative, but that’s assuming that the government wouldn’t have decided that GoToMeeting.com’s office was too small to handle their requests and in need of a several billion dollar renovation. It’d be even more expensive if the administration declared meetings a basic human right and nationalized the entire meeting industry.
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Categories: Homeland Security
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Will this be the future home of Big Brother?
A little hitleresque! He as well built huge buildings for his SS……Anyone in congress screaming about this waste of tax dollars???
gotomeeting.com
http://www.gotomeeting.com
Try it free for 30 days.
Cost: Less than 3.4 billion.
And listen to Sean Hannity or maybe Rush’s program for a promo code to save a few bucks more.
Darn. Spent some time looking for Sean or Rush’s site to see what their promo code actually was. Was going to mention it up there. Ms Pirate won that one. If I was only a few seconds faster…
hmm, I wonder if the new building will have “open borders”
Wow. Somehow I thought their core mission had morphed into detecting terrorists among the right wing, and going after veterans.
I suppose being able to meet with Girl Scouts to organize our protection from bad people is needed.
Sheesh what buffoons!
Here’s a thought. If the Girl Scouts can handle this, why do we need FEMA?
And just where are they supposed to coordinate the government’s armed response to the upcoming swine flu riots without a suitable HQ? Have you ever seen swine flu riots? I didn’t think so!
And with a building that size, just think how many new euphemisms they will be able to dream up!
What a sweet target. Fantastic!
I guess the principle of dispersion is lost on our security experts.
A building that big must be very hard to hit with a jetliner.
Demoncrat thought process…
We can’t use GoToMeeting.com until all
illegal aliensundocumented workers are provided free internet access. Duh.Rogue maybe, but illegitimate? WTF?
Does that give anyone else the creeps?
Yeah….like Duh Won needs a temple or something.
I can’t take it anymore. This is all just so stupid.
I saw a short clip on Fox today of Pelosi arriving at the Capitol. A few steps away from her Sheela Jackson Lee was fast-stepping it to the entrance of the Capitol. It was so pathetic. That is her life. Getting an aisle seat.
BTW, I really hate Sheela Jackson Lee’s hairstyle. I hate it. I really, really hate it.
Also, what do you think they are going to inscribe over the entrance to the new DHS? Nothing about God, certainly. Maybe something socialistic, probably.
Hello all, this is a freakin disaster for those of us that live in Northern Va and have to work there.
1. There is no public transportation to work, unless you want to go all the way into DC then back track into MD.
2. It is the worst neighborhood in DC.
3. There is no metro stop and DC refuses to put one in. This means employees will have to ride shuttle buses to and from the two closest metro stations. Add another 15 mins to your daily commute.
4. It places the river between half the employees. A river they refuse to build a new bridge accross to ease commuting traffic. Some will have to travel miles to cross then backtrack.
5. Many employees will simply retire, or look for employment in another agency (myself included, I refuse to move to MD).
6. The real stupidity is government owned buildings will be left vacant in DC.
7. The CG commute time for meetings’ at the Pentagon will double.
8. You can’t get to the airport from there (you can metro there now).
9. All the millions we spent on high tech equipment to teleconference meetings goes to waste.
10. It will increase DHS oversight into missions areas where they have ‘no’ responsibilities (search & rescue, oil pollution, marine industry standards, etc..).
Now, the reason we are given why we ‘have to’ move to the picked location. So we will have the ‘high ground’ overlooking the air force one helo complex that we sit directly accross the river from now. Of course, our current building will become upscale condos providing excellant sniper coverage of the same complex.
Yeah, I question the stupidity of that one too.
This is just another taxpayer funded give away to DC liberals so they can further develope the area around the new Nationals Stadium and up the tax rates, while pushing their poorer constituents into the suburbs of MD and off the DC welfare roles.
Probably something akin to an apology given the current bunch in the WH.
What? No new Reichstag or Chancellery?
The new inscription over the entrance to the DHS will be:
“Nos es rumex. Commodo don’t tentatio nos iterum”
We are sorry. Please don’t attack us again.”
GoToMeeting.com is not secure and doesn’t meet the necessary security protocols. DoD doesn’t permit its use.
$225,000.00 per employee.
These people are freakin’ ridiculous. Let’s waste more money to prop up another useless federal agency that we really don’t need.
These people are trying to convince us there’s a “healthcare emergency” and that healthcare is the reason for all our deficit woes, yet they keep running through money.
What will happen when they no longer have the money? Will China be any more obliging to loan us some more until we’re their slaves for generations?
Homeland Security is another bloated, wasteful DC creation that needs to justify its existence. Like the same waste of space politicians themselves.
Sigh…. and here you and I are pinching our pennies and watching what we spend. I hope karma eventually bites all these people…. and the people who voted Obummer and his cronies into office.
Napolitano refuses to round up and deport illegal aliens, so a building that size is an absolute necessity.
Inactive DHS agents now have a place to congregate and tuck their thumbs up each other’s @sses while under her orders ignoring the continued invasion of our country.
3.9 Billion is nothing for Blue Lips. This plays right in to his strategy of devaluing the dollar to the point of hyperinflation. He has a printing press and he’s not afraid to use it. The looming catastrophe of the currency flood now being produced will give this administration the opportunity to claim a “National Emergency” exists and usurp more power for the Executive Branch (well, the part occupied by Party loyalists anyway).
For all you DemoCommies out there: remember this – Reasons why you, as a Liberal Democrat, should be scared of your President’s grab for power:
1. You all hated Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush.
2. You all complained that they were totalitarian Conservatives who cared more about the Bible than anything else.
3. You all are scared to death that a Republican President may actually put someone on the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
So, you hate Republican Presidents, good for you.
Remember, Obama is making a huge grab for powers not currently delegated to the Executive Branch. At some point in time, a REPUBLICAN will again be elected President. That REPUBLICAN will have the same powers that Obama is trying to grab now.
If you were scared of Bush, wait until you have a Republican President who has all of the power that Obama is trying to grab now.
To avoid this, call your Senator or Member (such an apt term, isn’t it) of Congress and tell them that the Executive Branch should be limited by the Constitution, not expanded by a Tyrant.
/rant off..
Putting a new facility in that area will help that part of the city, unless they have a cafeteria on the premises which they will.
However, it’s still not far enough away to be safe if the city is “attacked”.
Anyway, my only other reaction is where are they going to put Hinckley? In Janet’s office? Or is he going to be the new Czar of Government Relations with Actors, or perhaps the Czar of why we need Gun Control?
they must be using those $7,000.00 Government hammers to build it.
that’s assuming Dear Leader and Acorn will allow future elections of anyone other than Dems
I thought the Federal Government was pushing the use of telework in order to save the climate and provide a quality work environment for its employees.
I’d also thought the work of Homeland Security, by nature, would be in the field – not in a big, administrative building.
Another liberal sanctuary.
I wonder how much of that 3.4 billion is slated for Situpon purchases.
Arbeit Macht Frei
if the dhs staff are as useless as napolitano, they should be able to hold those non productive meetings at a picnic table somewhere and save taxpayers a lot of money.
Starting to wonder if all this fema camp for the martial law theory might have some teeth why in need of such a big building????
Like thousands of others, I have a chronic illness that CDC&P, NIH and WHO ignored and/or covered up since Yuppie Flu/Incline Village. Thanks to their AIYH (all-in-your-head) stance, there is no diagnostic test, treatment or cure. How ironic to be classified under Homeland Security! Will they stop the viruses from entering the country? Don’t count on it!
Why spend so much money on bricks and mortar when you can hold a virtual meeting
Use code word fox news for a free trial LOL!
A better use of the $ would be to round up and deport the 30M illegal invaders in this country. But hey, a new office building is more important than fulfilling their mission apparently. I probaly know more about security that napalitano. And that aint saying much.
Then who will keep the landscape of their new complex manicured?
WE DESERVE A NEW BUILDING. WE NEEEED A NEW BUILDING. A NEW BUILDING SHOWS OUR BEAUROCRACY IS IMPORTANT. AND OH YEAH, IT STIMULATES UNION CONSTRUCTION JOBS. WE HAVE ALREADY SPENT 20 MILLION BUCKS ON PREPLANNING AND WE HAVE THE CUTEST OUTDOOR/INDOOR CAFE FOR THE EMPLOYEES COMPLETE WITH UMBRELLA TABLES AND WAITERS.
Ha!!! What’s scary is that is probably the thought processes of 75% of the pols. “Jose does a heck of job on the shrubs and Maria can clean like nobody’s business. All for $25/ day.” They don’t care about the impact to our country, culture, and economy. As long as they have cheap labor.
Haven’t they ever heard of GoToMeeting?
nevermind…..now I see the update…rolls eyes
DHS, along with the Education Department, should be dismantled.
EVERY Time I see that this woman is in charge of Homeland Security, I cringe….
Admittedly, the old Navy Annex stinks when it comes to meeting space…or a lot of things functional, really, like heat in the winter time, or air conditioning in the summer. It’s one of those locations that you can really tell they dragged out of mothballs and haphazardly recommissioned for use by DHS. Given this and the disparate nature of the agencies, spread out as they are, all over the District, it’s understandable to want a centralized location. But what is the point of a centralized location and “oneness” when you can’t even define your overall goals and processes? Until DHS defines what it wants to do and how it wants to do it, billions of dollars for a new headquarters building isn’t going to fix what has been broken since Day One.