kiss this sucker goodbye…….

tom ridge, the homeland security secretary, who has already announced that he is leaving his sinking ship by resigning from president bush’s cabinet, is still shoveling the same nonsense he has been shoveling since the day he got sworn in.

as the winner of this week’s “hey abbott award,” this guy’s two main claims to fame are that he looks like a pennsylvania state trooper and his garage must be filled with swiss army knives.

while governor of pennsylvania he worked hard to make it a state with more economic problems than you could shake the proverbial stick at. the only increase in income in the state during his reign seemed to come from the numbers of traffic tickets that were handed out by state troopers who spent most their time hiding behind billboards rather than out chasing criminals.

as for the swiss army knives, ridge controls the transportation security administration whose employees check your baggage at the airports and then steal your various personal goods under the guise that they might be dangerous to the security of the airplane.

ridge claims that he is resigning from his homeland security post because of family concerns. that is nonsense. he has been made to resign because president bush has finally realized what a loser this guy is and how much danger our country is still in when it comes to “homeland security.”

as an aside to this, we find it amazing that reporters like jack kelly of the pittsburgh, pennsylvania post gazette still write articles about ridge as if he were some type of success.

kelly writes that “tom ridge unveiled television commercials that feature children asking their parents questions about what to do if terrorists were to attack their community.”

maybe jack kelly should put down his coffee, leave his city room, and go find out who is making those commercials and who in the homeland security department is getting what for outsourcing those commercials.

and if that isn’t enough to keep kelly busy, maybe he should find out what has happened to all the swiss army knives the transportation security administration baggage checkers have stolen?

maybe we should have given the “hey abbott award” to jack kelly this week.

**our editorial director, belding weed, invites your comments. his belief is that businesses, institutions and government agencies are just structures. it is the person who runs the show who creates the morality. other than calling the person to your attention and perhaps hurting his/her feelings there isn't much more we can do.

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