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Thursday, July 08, 2004

Tom "Bogeyman" Ridge is expected to say some shit about al-Qaida planning something or other. What? Their cricket tournament is over, Osama having stopped the rot with a sixer off a googly, and al-Qaida is back in their evil laboratory plotting their next attack? Thanks for the heads-up, Tommyboy:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is expected to say at a Thursday briefing that the al Qaeda terrorist group may be entering the "operational or planning phase of an attack," an administration official said Thursday.

It's believed, the official said, al Qaeda will attempt to strike before the November presidential election, the official added.

No new specific intelligence exists, and Ridge will not announce that he is raising the national color-coded threat level beyond the yellow, or elevated, level.

It was not immediately clear how the assessment of existing intelligence has led Ridge to his planned remarks.

"No new intelligence"? Crayola color-code threat not being raised? "Not immediately clear" why they're doing this?
Here's a hint: They need to change the headlines from being about Kerry-Edwards and Kennyboy to being about how we all need to be vigilant yet calm; scared shitless yet composed. And they always do this. Any time that there's some bad news for the Bushies, bang zip wow, here's a new terra announcement.
At my first sociology conference, another presenter at my session was giving a paper analyzing the effects that false hurricane warnings had on community preparedness and emergency response during the aftermath. Turns out that the more warnings you have that don't come true, then the less people prepare in the future. And then when a hurricane actually hits, you have more people than normal who aren't ready. Chicken-little effect, nothing too ground-breaking. But we're going to have the same goddam thing happening here. It's already happened. Last year we had jackasses covering their house in saran wrap and stocking up on potted meat out of fear of a chemical attack. Now what? Does anybody pay attention other than those people who seek out drama in their lives? This aspect of the Bushco propaganda--the use of terra alerts to scare people into submission--is one of the better parts of "F9/11."
And when another terra attack does occur, Bushco can say, "See? We told you. We were on the job. And by the way, we're imposing marshall law, and the elections are suspended. And we're still going to cut taxes."

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