Clueless Rendell 'Embarrassed' and 'Appalled' Pennsylvania Is Tracking Protesters

Actually, what Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell should be embarrassed and appalled by is the fact he's so out of touch he doesn't even have the slightest idea what his state's Homeland Security office is spending money on.

Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday evening that he was “embarrassed” and “appalled” that a contractor hired by the state has been tracking all sorts of “legitimate protest groups,” and that the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security then disseminated that information to law enforcement around the state in its tri-weekly intelligence bulletins.

Rendell said the contract with the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, based in Philadelphia, would be not be renewed when it expires at the end of October, and until then the state would not disseminate information they supplied.

The state is charged by the federal government with determining and alerting local officials to “credible real threats to critical infrastructure.”

Instead, the Office of Homeland Security was notifying law enforcement of gay pride parades, taxpayer rallies and protests in support of the Governor’s own education policies, said Rendell.

Just imagine if a Republican governor was monitoring gay pride parades.

He said he first learned of the issue and ordered a review “this morning when I read the story in the Patriot-News.”

“Let me make this as clear as I can possibly make it,” he said. “Protesting against an idea, a principle, a process, protesting is not a real threat... Protesting is a God-given American right, a right that’s in our constitution.”

Rendell called the items included in the intelligence bulletins “absolutely ludicrous,” and he said distributing it to gas drilling companies “was against the guidelines set up for this program to begin with.”

But James Powers, the director of Homeland Security, will remain employed.

“He thought he was carrying out the federal mandate,” said Rendell. “He was wrong. He made a significant mistake.”

The governor said, “It’s easy to kick one person, but I think there’s shared responsibility here. I’m most interested in why I didn’t know... I would have stopped this on day one... Ultimately the responsibility is mine, and I’m deeply embarrassed.”

Update: For some reason the PennLive link is down. Here's an AP story.