The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings.
Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card — which lists his place of birth as “Tijuana, B.C.” and his address as “123 Fraud Blvd.” on an incorrectly spelled “Staton Island, N.Y.” — to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.
Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it.
“Obviously, it’s not working,” Mr. DeCell said.
In addition to being a forgery obtained for him from a street vendor in California, Mr. DeCell’s card was modeled on an older version, which the Mexican government publicly acknowledges is not a secure document. The Mexican government says the old-style cards “are no longer valid.”
Some members of Congress tried to crack down on use of the card, particularly as valid ID for opening a bank account, but the Bush administration opposed that effort.
The greatest absurdity still lies with the silly people who persist in swearing this administration knows how to accomplish anything useful!
This is just another example among a whole plethera of similar examples, that illustrates the complete disconnect of the Bush administration with middle class America. Homeland Security was created ONLY to give the impression that the administration was doing something about terrorism, but in reality Homeland Security is just another incompetent government depatment that is only effecient at sucking vast amounts of tax payers money . Homeland Security can’t get anything right as evidenced by this latest fiasco.
Mr. Eideard, the one thing no one can dispute about this administration is it’s ability to win presidential elections. Beyond that, it’s a pretty dismal score card.
Apparently Mr. DeCell possesses multiple fake identity cards as the one pictured is not the one described in the text.
WokTiny 2008, Middle Class American for the Middle Class America
Solution to all America’s problems: send everyone home, tear out all the cities, and replant all the trees. (Maybe not in that exact order)
Blaming Bush for the lousy work of ordinary government employees is pretty dishonest. On the other hand, I’ve learned to not expect much from any government buearocracy. Which is one of the reasons why I believe it’s so dangerous that people are becoming more dependent on them.
Mike (#4) how can you not blame Bush. He is in charge. He is the guy that is supposed to make this right. OUT of any of the stooges over there that should take the blame is Bush. He should fix this but he dosnt want to. Mainly due to he dsont give a damn about the american people.
Take the shades off man.
Chris,
I agree that Bush is to blame, but all of the blame should not fall on him. Since when does the president make decisions for every facet of the government? That is what the appointed officials and elected congress men and women are for.
Granted, Bush is to blame for the appointed officials in his administration, but US citizens are to blame for elected congress men and women. Bush doesn’t have all the power, his decisions can be vetoed, assuming those we elect care about the American people.
Bush can talk all he wants, but he has little power if congress isn’t behind him and we, the American people, elect the congress.
Since when did American people make good decisions regarding who they vote for? Apparently there are too many uneducated people out there that do not know what’s going on in the country, let alone the rest of the world. As long as who they vote for someone that acts in their best interest and agenda, it does not really matter.
Blame the president, blame congress, but more importantly…blame the ignorant people…
Chris,
A President is only in office for four years (eight if re-elected), civil service employees are there for an entire career. Just because one of them screws up and does something stupid or illegal, doesn’t prove an administration as a whole is corrupt or incompetent. Politics is such an unproductive sport.
You obviously don’t know how difficult it is to shitcan regular government employees… even the one who don’t do their jobs.
What a lot of tapdancing around the truth.
Homeland Insecurity was created by the present administration. It was their political appointees and cronies who populate the administration of the body. They’re incompetent and won’t accept responsibility…and the usual copouts are filling cyberspace with the usual excuses.
is this why you started the cage match forums? john?
So do you support dropping the issuing of Mexican ID cards? They’ve told banks it’s A-OK.
It has always been intereting to me, as to HOW the services of this country have no TEETH. EPA, FAA, OSHA, and the rest, are all run with a cloud over their head.
OSHA, EPA, warns companies BEFORE they come into a business to Check things out. So the companies can clean things up, for 1 day.
The FINES are stupid. charging a company with a fine, that isnt even 1% of their profit margin, is redicoulous, and THEN they just raise the price of the product by 5% to cover the fine.
FAA, has little to do with Aircraft safty… esp, with aircraft that are 15+ years old.
so, you think, that the Security groups for protecting this country are any better?? Iv seen Cashiers with more knowledge and challenge then most of our security services.
Then you think(or they do), that the DEA, CIA, FBI, and so forth, could EVER sort threw all the data accumulated in 1 day of internet activity(monitoring, and VOIP)??
The first group that tried it, already said, it would take 5 years to get, and process any information, after they HAD it.
Moss,
I feel pretty safe in saying that the security guard who let the guy in wasn’t a political appointee, and was probably hired through a standard OPM process (if he’s not a contractor).
#5, 9 Maybe you trolls would like to blame Bush for the lousy service and long lines at the DMV, because he IS the president and he obviously has all the power, so the highschool drop-out making minimum wage behind the counter is just following his direction when she loses my drivers liscence application, right? Ironic that you talk about people scapegoating in cyberspace.
Moss and others,
If you are going to blame Bush for this, you need to support making all civil servants at-will employees.
Also, DHS was populated by civil servants who were cast-offs from other agencies. What better way to get rid of impossible-to-fire employees than to ship them off to DHS when DHS was created?
I personally think that creating DHS was a bad idea, and Bush deserves taking knocks because he created such a crappy agency. These guys are the knuckleheads who thought that people were going to hijack planes with fingernail clippers.
Ultimately, any firm or business I managed — I took responsibility for the actions of the employees. Generally, they were small businesses and I knew everyone and hired everyone. The list, however, did include management of an American branch of a fair-sized foreign firm.
The non-ethic of “forgiving” supervisors/managers because they were appointed by some political party you tie to your heartstrings — escapes me. I guess, along with fiscal responsibility and an unwillingness to shove the youth of your nation into a foreign war — the current flavor of reactionary politics abrogates Management 101, as well.
As do the apologists.
Just as an aside, I would have thought that high school level English would prepare some of the Bushies to understand that “this administration” certainly encompasses more than the efforts of the crony in chief. Perhaps not?
Sharing even that level of responsibility is apparently beyond some folks.
#6, Bert, Please, take a Civics class and learn a little about how the Government operates.
The Legislative branch (Congress) passes laws. The executive branch (President) enacts the laws and runs the government departments. The judicial branch (Federal Courts) gets the chance of making sure everyone is operating within the bounds of the law (most of the time).
The President, as head of the executive is responsible for running the government departments. Most of the government is divided into branches and overseen by Cabinet Secretaries. One of the government divisions is called Homeland Security (aka Homeland Insecurity), run by Michael Chertoff. Chertoff is a Cabinet Secretary reporting to the President. In fact, every Federal Civil Servant reports to the President. None of them report to Congress or the Judiciary.
Since Bush nominated Michael Chertoff to run Homeland Security and Chertoff hired all the staff, Bush is responsible. So this is one time when Congress can not be blamed for something.
#18 … What about the State Department…you know the Sec. of State is appointed by the President but the Sec. of State doesn’t hire all of the cronies there. Didn’t some politician or ex-politician say something about that when Powell was Sec. of State?
#7 We have to have good candidates to vote for before we can make good decisions on who to vote for. Neither party has done that in decades.
Both parties want a Puppet…
they dont want someone that can THINK.
Other countries have more then 2 parties, why NOT the USA.
stupid idiots, BLACKBALLEd, and degraded the other MAJOR groups in the 40-60’s, with Little and NO cause.
Sorry, MisterRustic — then, you’re back up at the top of the food chain with the political appointees who didn’t do their job in the first place, choosing an HR exec, etc..
State government in my neck of the woods works just like the Feds. The new administration brings in their own people to head departments. They determine the style and substance during their reign. If they’re adults, they accept the responsibility for what they do.
Of course, like a lot of governments, state or fed, conservative or liberal — they hire cousin Ernie or Bubba the Fundraiser before they look at any other credentials. When the rank and file department worker sees that process in action, how do you expect them to respond?
There are nations where being a bureaucrat is a useful career choice. There are societies where a civil servant is accepted and respected as a necessary part of an independent government. Just not here.
#18
Actually, it’s Congress who creates and grants the legal authority to the various executive departments and the overall buearocracy of the government. The President may run them, but he can’t just make things up from his own whims.
So, if the government doesn’t function properly because of faulty design, a sizable chunk of the blame does rest on the shoulders of Congress.
Mike — I have some shorefront property in the Rockies to sell you.
“he can’t just make things up from his own whims” — you mean like Bush’s own private line item veto which includes whole bills he says he can decide whether or not apply to him?
26,
and get rid of the buddy system and the seniority systems.
Its amazing to me that Mr. DeCell has gone from law breaker to crusader for a secure US.