Which is why here in Ontario the judiciary are part of the Ministry of the Attorney General, whereas the Crown Attorneys (prosecutors) are part of the . . . whoops, bad example. 
I wasn’t aware that I was posting so cryptically in this thread; I suspect that either John Mace truly does have the reading comprehension problems we talk about so often, or he is deliberately misunderstanding everything I say.
Thanks, kaylasdad; you apparently have a lot more patience for explaining things that seemed pretty obvious than I do.
For the record, I don’t know how close the United States is to become a religion-driven authoritarian state. I do know that what I hear and read and see on these boards frightens me to a degree. In some ways, I have a better perspective than citizens of the U.S. do because I’m an outsider looking in; you can’t always see things clearly when you’re living in the middle of them, and you get used to the chipping away (like the frog who gets boiled alive because the temperature gets turned up so slowly). It seems to me like the religious temperature in the U.S. is getting slowly turned up. I could be wrong; in fact, I truly hope that I am.
The Department Of Homeland Security has heard your concerns!
Be at rest loyal citizens, we are not here to subjugate the God given freedoms of this great union!
We are constantly vigilent and on guard against those who would like termites, eat away at the foundation of this glorious nation!
Our Precious Bodily Fluids will never be polluted by the nay sayers and nabobs who cry out against the actions of our national preservation. NO!, they will feel the crush of our boots on their faces and their children’s faces, in order that we protect , preserve and promote the God given promise of our national security!
Are your neighbours, your family and your friends “pure” in the truth of the value of our state? Do NOt question them, but simply observe and report! Vigelence is the only answer to the creeping menace, the threat of those who mock, bellittle and question the compassionate authority of the Homeland!
Those that you feel may question, may even ridicule our glorious Homeland are indeed suspect! Do not approach them, call our 1-800 number and report them! Do NOT hesitatE!
We will “handle it” from there.
Do not panic.
Shop as usual!
GRIN
FML
The Clear Skies Act
The Healthy Forests Initiative
The PATRIOT Act
Operation Enduring Freedom
etc.
As for Canada, they have lots of nice things we could use, like an enormous amount of oil, tar sands, shale, coal, and fresh water. I wouldn’t be too worried though, things would have to be pretty bad around the world in general for us to invade you and if that happens you can hide in your igloos anyway.
DoD has a very different remit, and is Constitutionally and legally prevented from doing certain things (like law enforcement & intelligence gathering activities within the borders of the US). That’s where the ‘artificial wall between intelligence agencies’ came from that the 9/11 report complained about - FBI was legally prevented from accessing some information CIA / NSA / DoD had and vice-versa. The Patriot Act changed some of that, as did the establishment of DHS, but the laws are still in place about the US Military (i.e. DoD) being legally allowed to do law-enforcement activities within the borders of the US. DHS includes FBI and others that have no such constraints placed upon them by law.
Now I’m not so naive to believe that those laws don’t ever get broken or have never been broken, but officially tasking DoD with protection of the US inside the US by Executive Order or cabinet-level order would violate a whole bunch of laws and get people a whole lot more upset than they already are about the Executive Branch overstepping their authority.
Second (200th?) for Department of Homeland Security being creepy as hell, though.
My main complaint is how many more layers of abstraction are required between Bush and responsibility for anything? He’s got a War Czar, a Terrorist Czar, a Drug Czar, a DHS Czar. I mean, does he actually do anything other than take naps and make fun of foreign dignitaries anymore?
From your quote, “…The homeland administrations refused the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the country as a whole…”
This might have been the official line, but in practice things were a little different. At least one of the leaders thoroughly enjoyed the homeland concept.
http://www.btimes.co.za/97/1026/news/news12.htm
http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/thisday/1994-03-10.htm
Apologies for the double post, but for those who don’t like clicking on links, here’s one excerpt:
The FBI is still DoJ, not DHS.
You’re correct, but that’s not really what I was referring to - the Patriot act did erode some parts of the ‘wall’ in intelligence between DoD, CIA, NSA, and FBI though… they can share, and if I recall correctly that sharing is done through DHS.
I could be wrong in that recollection however.
I, too, find the idea of “Homeland” security awful.
Yes, I acknowledge that part of my issue is who is doing it. But at the time it was created I wasn’t really against Bush yet, and it still made me cringe.
Department of Security Coordination. Vague, dull in a bureaucratic way, describes what it’s supposed to do, and gives the hearer a feeling that its mandate is so big and diffuse it won’t actually accomplish anything. Exactly what a department or agency name is supposed to be.