Bush to New York: drop dead! No really, I mean it -- drop dead!

More from the Bush Administration in the category of, you couldn't make it up.  The NY Times headline is City Has Itself to Blame for Terror Cuts, U.S. Says, which is the Times's polite translation of the old Daily News headline from the Gerald Ford/Abe Beame era.  This time, however, considering the potential consequences, "drop dead!" seems a lot more literal . . . .

The meat of the story is that, in the most recent round of Department of Homeland Security anti-terrorism grants, New York City's allocation was slashed 40% from last year, while places like  Omaha, Louisville and Charlotte, North Carolina jumped 40%.  If that seems slightly irrational to you, then you may also be surprised to learn that Washington, DC was also cut 40% as well.  DHS's explanation is that New York's application was very poorly done, very poorly done indeed.  And it was faxed, if you can believe that, instead of being filed electronically, as the bureaucracy had specifically requested.  Oh, yeah, and one more thing -- New York has no national monuments or icons according to Homeland Security's risk analysis.  (Apparently someone at DHS later acknowledged that they might have forgotten about the Statue of Liberty.)  So you see, it is New York's own fault . . . .  All this after DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced in January that “[t]he department is investing federal funding into our communities facing the greatest risk and demonstrating the greatest need in order to receive the highest return in our nation’s security.”  More here and here as well.