The War on Terror will be Televised -- on a $12,000 TV Your Tax Dollars Bought

North Andover, Massachusetts -- population 27,000 -- got $1.5 million from Washington to fight terrorism.

They spent $12,350 of that on a plasma screen TV.

Citizens Against Government Waste figures there has been $1.72 billion in pork barrel spending mixed in to homeland security spending since 9/11. Some examples:

• $208,100 to Premier Yachts, Inc -- runs dinner cruises in Boston, Chicago, and DC. It had revenues of $40 million last year, without the 200-grand from taxpayers
• Greyhound bus lines got $1.6 million in security grants -- but the Boston Herald found that no baggage inspections were being done at any of the Greyhound stations they checked
• $460,000 for a project linking computers in three suburban Massachusetts police departments with fiber optic lines

Maybe those fiber optic lines could improve reception on that plasma screen TV. (Boston Herald)