Quick Question....

[Earnie Shavers]

The US terror alert system, the red/orange etc, has that been raised or dropped at all since the election?

 

[indra]

The US terror alert system, the red/orange etc, has that been raised or dropped at all since the election?

hmmm.... I have no clue. I always ignored it anyway. Considering the state of the US intelligence gathering system (no offence to any spies out there ), I figured my guess is as good as theirs.

 

[martha]

I think it was raised when that idiot was flying over DC.

 

[echo0001]

Did anybody ever perceive that bull as anything other than an Orwellian gesture on the part of the Bush Administration that was nothing more than a thin attempt to reassure the American public that ol' Georgy Jr. was on the ball?

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Well, that was what I was kinda getting to. I remember that thing was like a yo-yo right up until the election, and since then....... nothing? I'm guessing that the re-election of Bush was enough to scare the terrorists away, right?

 

[A_Wanderer]

It was an excercise in public relations more than a sinister plot to induce a state of fear. There would be a lot more complaints if it did not exist so the administration is fucked either way.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

Yeah, but that's where the question is. It is a reactionary PR thing only, I mean telling people it's an Orange day doesn't really mean a thing, it's purely there to make people feel safe in the knowledge that the govt is on top of it. The question isn't about it's installation (which as dumb as it is, makes perfect sense), but how it is/was used. In 2004 that thing was going up and down all the time. Many questioned whether it was at all genuine, or if it was being used purely as an election tool, as it seemed to only ever rise when Bush had a bad week on the campaign trail. Now it's 2005 and you never hear a peep out of it. So I guess my question is; Is it still going up and down as regularly, but post-election isn't receiving the same attention - or - has it rarely, if at all, changed since the election?

 

[Irvine511]

Tom Ridge has said, on record, that the administration consistently pushed him to raise the terroror alert in response to evidence that he, as the director of homeland security, didn't feel was adequate enough.

it was weilded as a political tool, there's no now question about it. when the dude flew the airplane over the white house, it was raised for DC, and New York stays at orange, but that's it.

there's no election.

let's wait until early 2007.

 

[BonosSaint]

It was an excercise in public relations more than a sinister plot to induce a state of fear. There would be a lot more complaints if it did not exist so the administration is fucked either way.

I find the whole alert thing laughable. I paid attention to it in the beginning, now it's just a joke. Perhaps if I saw a code red, I'd pay attention. As Irvine said, even Tom Ridge said it wasn't Homeland Security initiating the alerts. Why bother even having the agency? It's a paper tiger.

I don't believe it was a sinister plot to induce a state of fear, I believe it was cynical politics. I'm not sure it's the administration that is fucked either way. While all politics is PR, this administration appears to make an art out of propaganda. I don't think I've ever seen it used quite so cynically by my government in my lifetime. If a government official shows up on TV, I just turn the sound down.

PS And until somebody else shows up with an actual vision, I turn the sound down on the Democrats too. They use propaganda too. They just don't have all the tools available to them. (Yeah, yeah, liberal press )
So if you think I am letting anyone off the hook, you're wrong.
I watch whoever is in power. I was charmed by Clinton, but I wasn't blinded.

I find lying to and manipulating the American people unacceptable in any politician. This is an administration that goes beyond spin.


Rant done.

 

[verte76]

I don't feel like the alert system has a useful function, it's politics.