Late Friday night, Congress passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security for one week. This vote followed weeks of debate over efforts to attach a prohibition on funding President Obama’s executive order granting amnesty to certain illegal immigrants to the Homeland Security funding bill.

Despite the heated rhetoric from both sides, no one seriously believes that Congress will allow Homeland Security funding to lapse. Most in Congress believe that, without the Department of Homeland Security, Americans would be left unprotected from terrorists and natural disasters. As with most areas of bipartisan agreement, the truth is the exact opposite of the DC consensus.

The American people would be much better off if Congress transferred the few constitutional functions performed by Homeland Security to other parts of the government and then shut down the rest of the department. Many Americans associate Homeland Security with the color—coded terrorist warning system and the “if you see something, say something” public relations campaign.

These programs were designed to inspire public confidence in the department, but instead they inspired public ridicule. Ironically, the best case for shutting down this department is its most well-known component — the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). More terrorist attacks have been thwarted by airline passengers than by the TSA! The TSA may be ineffective at stopping terrorists, but it is very effective at harassing innocent Americans like Lucy Forck.

more: http://patriotrising.com/2015/03/04/ron-paul-what-is-department-of-homeland-security-good-for/

: Police Killings Grossly Underreported

: We previously reported that Americans are 9 times more likely
: to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist.

: But it turns out that our numbers were incorrect …

: This isn’t surprising, given that: “Reliable estimates of the

: number of justifiable homicides committed by police
: officers in the United States do not exist.” A study of
: killings by police from 1999 to 2002 in the Central Florida
: region found that the national databases included (in
: Florida) only one-fourth of the number of persons killed by
: police as reported in the local news media.

: The Guardian reports today: An average of 545 people killed by
: local and state law enforcement officers in the US went
: uncounted in the country’s most authoritative crime
: statistics every year for almost a decade, according to a
: report released on Tuesday.

: The first-ever attempt by US record-keepers to estimate the
: number of uncounted “law enforcement homicides” exposed
: previous official tallies as capturing less than half of
: the real picture. The new estimate – an average of 928
: people killed by police annually over eight recent years,
: compared to 383 in published FBI data – amounted to a more
: glaring admission than ever before of the government’s
: failure to track how many people police kill.

: The revelation called into particular question the FBI
: practice of publishing annual totals of “justifiable
: homicides by law enforcement” – tallies that are widely
: cited in the media and elsewhere as the most accurate
: official count of police homicides.

: As shown below, that means that you’re 55 times more likely to
: be killed by a police officer than a terrorist.
: You’re Much More Likely to Be Killed By Brain-Eating
: Parasites, Texting While Driving, Toddlers, Lightning,
: Falling Out of Bed, Alcoholism, Food Poisoning, Choking On
: Food, a Financial Crash, Obesity, Medical Errors or
: “Autoerotic Asphyxiation” than by Terrorists

: Daniel Benjamin – the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the
: United States Department of State from 2009 to 2012 – noted
: last month (at 10:22): The total number of deaths from
: terrorism in recent years has been extremely small in the
: West. And the threat itself has been considerably reduced.
: Given all the headlines people don’t have that perception;
: but if you look at the statistics that is the case.

: Time Magazine noted in 2013 that the chance of dying in a
: terrorist attack in the United States from 2007 to 2011,
: according to Richard Barrett – coordinator of the United
: Nations al Qaeda/Taliban Monitoring Team – was 1 in 20
: million.

: Let’s look at specific numbers …

: The U.S. Department of State reports that only 17 U.S.
: citizens were killed worldwide as a result of terrorism in
: 2011.* That figure includes deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and
: all other theaters of war.

: In contrast, the American agency which tracks health-related
: issues – the U.S. Centers for Disease Control – rounds up
: the most prevalent causes of death in the United States:
: the rest:
: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/youre-55-times-likely-killed-police-officer-terrorist.html