Homeland Security: Possible attack before election

Keep 'em scared...

 

Bring them on!

 

Ridge: Welcome ladies and gentleman, The terrorists don't want you to vote for George W. Bush, therefore, you must vote for George W. Bush, or else, according to the intelligence, which is not definite, and might be chatter, but might be true, and is definitely true in the sense that it's chatter, is that somebody, or some group of somebodies, or a group of nobodies wanting to be somebody, at some place, outside the lower 48, or quite possibly somewhere inside, or somewhere not inside but neither here nor there, nor anywhere, may, and by may I mean might or could possibly, or potentially, at some time or array of times, in the near to long term future otherwise unspeified, or quite possibly already but not yet within our event horizon, might do something bad, horrific, and potentiallly causing possible discomfort, in a fashion that may in fact be objectionable to many, or few, or somewhere in between, to somebody, which includes any person, place, thing, or group thereof, or general esoteric concept, who or which may or may not be you, or related to you, or who might be somehow related to the person, or group of persons, or incorporated organization that handles your dry cleaning on a weekly, semi-weekly, or monthly basis. All citizens must remain in a state of preventative vigilance until such incidents I have described or not described have occurred or not occurred. Any questions?


Seriously, any time they have one of these ominous announcements without raising the "threat level", several things come into mind, one of which seemingly must be true:

1. Either the announcement isn't a big deal and they are simply distracting people, consciously or no; or

2. It really does mean something, in which case the threat level system is a useless endeavor; or

3. Neither of the above is true and the Homeland Sec people and DOJ are just plain clueless.

 

CNN frontpage:

Al Qaeda plans a large-scale attack on the United States "in an effort to disrupt the democratic process" before November's elections, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today. Ridge said U.S. officials have no precise knowledge of the time, place or method of attack, but said they are "actively working to gain that knowledge."

Great timing when Kerry and Edwards are dominating the media coverage.

But I hope they are not using fear for campaigning, that is kind of disgusting, you know

 

They plan to blow up ballot boxes in black neighborhoods in Florida in an effort to get Bush re-elected.

 

Seriously, you liberals have gone too far. Would you prefer that the Dept of Homeland Security *not* take the appropriate precautions to keep up safe? How absurd. Your blind hatred for the Administration has caused you to want to undermine the efforts of the people who are protecting YOU from terror. It's disgusting. We need to do everything we can to prevent another 9-11. That's why Ridge & Co. are publicizing this. Instead of getting behind the effort and doing what you can to make America safer, you liberals instead choose to ridicule the people who protect us. No wonder everyone is sick of your negativity and contempt.

 

dude, stick your head back in the sand and shut up.

 

This stuff has been trickling out lately... a few days ago, you had a Federal election official call for a plan to possibly postpone elections.

 

t_j,

Just curious... would you advocate the suspension of elections in the face of a credible threat?

 

I like how they don't know the time, place or manner, but they do know enough to know that the time will be before November, and the purpose will be to disrupt the election (because they want us to believe the terrorists want Kerry).

Ridiculous.

 

Liberals, first you cry and moan that the Administration didn't do enough to prevent 9-11 (despite most of the planning happening on Clinton's watch, who by the way did very little to combat terror). Now that we are acting on intelligence, you complain? You complain if nothing is done. Then you complain when something is done. Does this make sense? Of course not.

Then you respond to very valid points by saying "shut up". Very mature.

 

I think warning of a real threat with some evidence to back it up is a reasonable request, right?

Now it is more like "I am warning you, there may be an attack, maybe or maybe not, I don't know when, where, how it will happen, you have to figure out the rest yourself, sir". That really pisses me off.

 

No seriously, shut up.

 

Hey, I'm liberal and I tend to agree with you. I do think the administration is in a lose-lose situation. The timing does seem a little fishy, but I'm not necessarily willing to concede at this moment that the entire intellegence community is just blowing smoke up our collective asses for the sake of the administration.

And if the goal is truly to scare people, it clearly hasn't worked all that well because people seem to be shrugging off these warnings with a collective, "Ho hum."

I don't care for the Bush admin at all. I don't want them re-elected. But, I'm not going to off-handedly reject a terror alert as conspiracy.

Oh, and TJ, lay off the "you liberals" bit. It is old and makes you sound like an idiot.

 

Whoa, now this is good!

What can we do? Over and over we are told to be aware and fearful yet to continue with our everyday lives. There was once a suggestion concerning duct tape, yes?

T_J, seriously. What are you doing to make American safer?

I mean, I know you say you: drive a large SUV, go to Treasures, make lots and lots of money, help even more wealthy people make lots of money, volunteer for mentally challenged youth, and go to Rice baseball games.

Fine. But what do you do to make America safer when you hear one of these meaningless, hang-wringing contentless "announcements?" Do you hassle people of Arab ancestry? Do you shake your fist at the homeless with increased vigor?

We eagerly wait your evasion and rhetoric -- er, I mean, answer.

 

That term doesn't quite capture El Choo_Choo. The classic definition of an idiot, one that does not participate in the political discussion or process, is not what T_J is at all. With all the poo that he slings I wish he were an idiot.

 

That begs the question that I asked before and remains open though; if this is legitimate, why not raise the threat level?

That indicates to me that they are not confident enough in it to do that; they are confident enough to have a press conference, to know the time of the attack (before Nov), and its purpose (to disrupt elections) -- despite expressly not knowing the time, place, manner, or perpetrators, etc. Are they in possession of a coded message that says: "Osama, the plans are in place, and by plans, I mean the plans to disrupt the November contest, if you know what I mean, details to follow!

I doubt that highly. I would venture that that portion of it is speculation, added in after the fact by their analysts.

But in the end, what does thie announcement do? It kicks John Edwards off the front page, sends a message that certain individuals want to send, and doesn't really seem to make anybody any safer, since the Orange alert measures aren't in place, for whatever they're worth.