New York officials were given a one-page tally that explained, in part, how the region's risk-based standing was calculated. The document said the region had no "national monuments or icons,"

"We're quite frankly getting highly sophisticated in our ability to analyze threat," said Russ Knocke [homeland security spokesman]. Knocke would not address specifically why a threat-based assessment cut funds for a city that has been attacked twice and targeted repeatedly by Islamic terrorists. "It's not so much fighting the last war, it's taking in the threat picture today," he said. "We've got to apply dollars where they will have the greatest impact." But a document obtained by the Daily News that explains what Homeland Security reviewers were looking at in their analysis suggests key data were missing. For instance, in the category "national monuments and icons," the feds list none. For banking and finance businesses, they could find only four worth more than $8 billion, when the Bloomberg administration estimates there are at least 20. "How do you leave every single landmark in the most famous city in the world off of that list?" said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who along with King was demanding a meeting with Chertoff.

Michael Chertoff must be fired Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told New York to drop dead yesterday as he slashed the city's federal anti-terror funding in a traitorous action that endangers the lives of 8 million people and demands his immediate firing. Chertoff's decision to cut the flow of U.S. money by 40% was at the least gross incompetence and at the worst vengeful payback by a petty bureaucrat who tangled last year with the NYPD and wound up humiliated. Either way, President Bush must give Chertoff the boot with a hearty, "Heck of a job, Mikey."

Whatever the motivation, the department has issued a bizarre document that cuts our funding by 40%, says there are no icons to protect and slams the Police Department that has taken the lead in the fight against terrorism. The top of the document might as well read Homeland Security to New York: Drop Dead. This is all the more shameful when you consider that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff once worked in New York. His tenure in his present position is finite and he should forget ever coming back here. His department's sophisticated formula says there isn't much to see here, anyway.

The document said the region had no "national monuments or icons,"

The lowball dollar amount puts at risk the NYPD's plan to build a "ring of steel" of security measures around lower Manhattan -- surveillance cameras, computerized license plate readers and vehicle barriers.

It's all a big joke anyway...right?

As JRT points out...there is no terrorist threat....right? What are you all worried about? It's all a big joke anyway...right?

The Homeland Security official who signed off on funding cuts for New York and extra cash for the heartland is a small-town gal whose back-door appointment to the job was mired in controversy.