corrente

Gasp!

Dean, as usual, spoke the unsayable truth: "Every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism." Also as usual, the whore press was all over him like a cheap suit. (See Atrios for a gruesome example of CNN trying to tbe FUX.)

The bright side: It used to take months for the ideas to penetrate that (1) Dean was not only talking sense, but (2) it was safe for others to speak up two. Now the truth cycle is down from months to days:

Rep. William J. Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., also questioned whether the timing of the release was politically motivated, noting that the raised terror alert comes on the heels of last week's Democratic convention.

Pascrell, who serves on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said he was angry that he and other New Jersey officials were not initially told that some of the information predated even the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Pascrell, of Paterson, was also angered that the information was not clearly characterized as surveillance data, as it turned out to be, rather than operational plans for an actual attack.

"Why didn't they tell us in the beginning?" Pascrell said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Look at the timing, look at the situation that exists, and you have to wonder."

Specifically, Pascrell questioned whether a Sunday news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was intended to divert attention from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, who accepted his party's nomination on Thursday in Boston.

Pascrell said he was among officials who had distanced themselves from a statement on Sunday by former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean that, "every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism."

Pascrell said that by Tuesday he began thinking, "Maybe [Dean's statement was] not such far-fetched idea."

At a news conference in New York, Ridge defended his office's actions Tuesday, saying it was "essential" to release the information and raise the terror threat level to orange over the weekend, and that the security measures taken by businesses and local, state and federal agencies made it more difficult for terrorists to achieve their goals.

Ridge rejected the notion that the release of the information was politically motivated.

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters. "Our job is to identify the threat."
(via Newsday)

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Bush sends Waura and The Twins to the site (back, and it's not part of the campaign? Oh, it hurts, it hurts to laugh....

And, oh yeah, there was no "threat." Threat is operationalized, as Pascrell points out. This was just a stale piece of rather dubious intelligence. God knows what the next surprise will be...