Bush Admin: "No monuments" in NYC

Here in Minneapolis, we've got some delightful smaller-scale icons: the Grain Belt Beer sign, Spoonbridge and Cherry, Minnehaha Falls (where Longfellow was inspired to write the Song of Hiawatha), some nifty flour mills along the Mississippi, and--oh yeah--the Mall of America. But they're not Statue of Liberty-sized monuments, so one could argue that's why the Bush Administration cut our Homeland Security funding by nearly two-thirds.

But New York City?

ABC reports that New York's anti-terrorism funding was slashed from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006. The reason? New York has no "monuments or icons," according to a DHS form. Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building... none of them monuments?

Too bad the World Trade Center towers were destroyed by terrorists, because they surely would've qualified. Right?

Update: Nor is Washington DC considered a terrorist target by the Bush Administration. Huh?

Where does the money go? Next week the Republicans will again push their legislation to permanently repeal the Estate Tax. If they're successful, they'll be taking a trillion dollars out of government coffers (you know, the ones we might use to, say, protect New York) over the next ten years. Preserve the estate tax: take action here.