This is not a drill.
The common thread between bioterrorism, four copies of the book "The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus," and $46 mahogany tape dispensers is -- unfortunately -- your taxpayer dollars funding federal bioterrorism preparedness grants administered through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you were to ask officials from a certain Los Angeles County that question, they might also throw into the mix paid actors and volunteers hired through an old Hollywood standby, Central Casting; thousands of dollars for "tchotchkes" such as letter openers, whistles, magnets, travel toothbrushes, clipboards and stress balls; and maybe even 70 high-end desk chairs (worth about $600 each). And don't forget the 800 computers - although only 171 staff members were funded through this particular bioterrorism grant.
For more outrage, read the entire article, "County Aims Anti-Terrorism Cash at Some Unusual Targets," by Charles Ornstein, for the Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2006
