Does Osama Fish for Salmon?

Posted on March 30, 2006 in Nipper Kettle Paranoids

This is probably the most absurd use of Homeland Security money yet conceived and stands as a classic example of Republican PORK-BARREL:

DILLINGHAM, Alaska — From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state’s southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of walrus intestine….

Workers on motorized lifts installed seven cameras in a 360-degree cluster on top of City Hall. They put up groups of six atop two light poles at the loading dock, and more at the fire hall and boat harbor.

By mid-February, more than 60 cameras watched over the town, and the Dillingham Police Department plans to install 20 more — all purchased through a $202,000 Homeland Security grant meant primarily to defend against a terrorist attack.

Now the residents of this far-flung village have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land, with — as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it — “one camera for every 30 residents.”

Be sure to read Bruce Schneier’s amusing take on this not-so-amusing paranoia in a far off and unimportant corner of America.

I award Dillingham Police Chief Richard Thompson one of my noncoveted Nipper Kettle Awards.