As tornadoes and flooding torment the Midwest, citizens are working together to protect the cities and towns they call home. But that’s no average Joe in this photo — it’s Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. So with five states under federal disaster declarations since the beginning of June alone, what’s wrong with this picture? Though DHS has acknowledged the disaster scale of the Midwest flooding isn’t as the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, requirements of the recovery effort are massive. DHS and Chertoff have a lot on their plate. Is shoveling sand in Waterloo, Iowa, really where …
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff sat down with a handful of bloggers yesterday to talk about some of the issues facing his department, including completion of the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, compliance with Real ID and the prospects of immigration reform in 2008. Following his somewhat contentious testimony to Congress yesterday, Chertoff used the interview to dispel myths associated with the Real ID law, which has come under attack from liberals and civil liberties groups who incorrectly call it a national ID. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) accused …
