...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, August 03, 2004
      ( 3:38 PM )
 
Fear

I'm really disturbed by this recent terror alert. I know I posted about this earlier this morning. But the administration is now trying to CYA about the whole thing and I'm even more sickened.

"I think you have to keep in mind al-Qaida's history of planning attacks well in advance and then updating those plans just before attacking," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush on a trip to Texas.

Administration officials denied any suggestion that raising the terror alert right after the Democratic National Convention was politically motivated. "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge said.

Keep in mind they plan attacks well in advance and then update them??? Gee, thanks Scotty for that spot of brilliance! Oh, and so then why didn't the administration issue this specific warning in January, supposedly when the bulk of the information, which is 2-4 years old, was last updated? Ridge can mew all he wants that HSA doesn't "do politics" but that's all they exist for! Have they done one concrete thing to make us safer? Does Ridge have one ounce of power to get collective intelligence and use it to create an effective network within the country? Have they done ANYTHING since 9/11 that has not been an empty tactic to enhance fear rather than quell it?

If Bush remains in power, if or when we have a huge calamatous attack again somewhere within the US, at least we can be confident we'll get solid intelligence about it 3 years after it happens. This is so incredibly disturbing, this is so sickening. I am so disgusted by this misuse of Americans, by the abuse of the psyche of this country, and by the blatant manipulation of fear in order to keep power. I just keep praying that Americans will wake up and realize that if they haven't thought this administration lies up until now, the accumulated information MUST tell them that this is NOT the group that can truly lead us in this new era. Ugh, I can't even think about it anymore right now. Ugh.

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