Word: hsd
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...address the Democratic presidential candidates and politics on the national stage. So I dutifully wrote to Harvard Students for Dean to test the waters. As luck would have it, this columnist got Dean’s first name wrong in her email, and subsequently got no responses from HSD, (or whatever their acronym is). But then I realized: I’m not interested in writing about Dean. How he really likes to talk tough about Bush. How he’s running a more grassroots campaign. How he ran a tight ship in Vermont. It?...
...Once you've got your duct tape and plastic sheeting, Homeland Security suggests choosing a room in your home that is internal (not facing the street or yard) and large enough to accommodate your family in the case of attack. According to the HSD website, "ten square feet of floor space per person will provide sufficient air to prevent carbon dioxide build-up for up to five hours...
...Other than battening down the (plastic) hatches, there isn't much else we can do. HSD guidelines suggest everyone "be aware of your surroundings," because, paradoxically, "The very nature of terrorism suggests there may be little or no warning." What should we look for, then? It's not clear. But the underlying message is well taken: if you're in a public venue, take a minute or two to figure out where the exit signs are. Of course, in the case of an actual emergency, they'll be easily identified by the swarms of panicked people running through them...
...Then there's the departmental budget to consider: Because Congress failed to approve spending bills before the start of the fiscal year (on October 1st), the HSD, along with virtually every other federal endeavor, is operating under an assumed budgetary outline. There are sure to be battles - perhaps largely symbolic, given that come January, the GOP will have control over both houses of Congress - over exactly how much money is appropriated to which security measure. There are also concerns among Democrats and Republicans over several last-minute provisions tacked onto the HSD bill, including one (which raised particular hackles) that...
...Questions of security Even as the Senate conflict comes to a close, battles still rage over security. Not national security - personal security. Critics of the HSD proposal say the legislation would permit the government virtually unfettered access to private information exchanged between U.S. citizens. The computer system in question is called "Total Information Awareness" and it is being run out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which is in turn part of the Information Awareness Office. The software, according to reports by the New York Times, would allow government surveillance of e-mail, credit card and banking...