corrente

Of course, neither of the writers of these stories saw any conceivable connection between them…….from this morning’s WaPo:

Responding to widespread criticism, Department of Homeland Security officials are considering changes to the color-coded terrorism warning system and other methods of providing more useful information to the public without causing panic or disclosing closely held intelligence.

Among the possibilities forwarded to Secretary Michael Chertoff are issuing lower-key alerts on the department's Web site -- as the State Department does now with travel advisories -- rather than by holding news conferences, and changing the color categories to numbers or letters, current and former officials said.

Also, the department may launch a years-long public education campaign, including television documentaries and participation in made-for-TV movies, officials said.
Homeland Security officials privately acknowledge the many flaws of the system under which the threat level was raised from yellow, or "elevated risk" of attack, to orange, or "high risk," six times between September 2002 and last fall.

Hmm, now what exactly was it that happened last fall that would make that the cutoff for consideration of this issue? Don’t tell me we could be talking about the election! NO! How could that be involved? Well, let’s look through the rest of the paper while waiting for inspiration to strike.

What have we here…? WaPo again:

A Democratic polling memo released yesterday found that women, who voted for President Bush last year in large numbers, have begun migrating back to their traditional home in the Democratic Party as the public's agenda has shifted from homeland security and terrorism to domestic concerns such as jobs and the economy.

The memo, released by Lake Snell Perry Mermin & Associates Inc., found women picked unnamed Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans by a 13-point margin. It also found that several key groups of women who voted Republican last year are now evenly or almost evenly split between the parties. Married women are now evenly split, while white women favor Democrats by three percentage points. Kerry lost both groups by 11 points.

"Homeland security and terrorism dominated the public's security agenda for several years following September 11th," the memo said. "However, the current focus appears to have shifted from safeguarding against terrorism to a stronger emphasis on issues that hit home financially. In dozens of recent focus groups among many different cohorts of women, concerns like retirement, health care and economic security are trumping the sorts of homeland security concerns that dominated women's issue agenda before the last election."

Start spreadin’ the word: If anything blows up, falls over, catches fire, turns pale or takes sick in large numbers, it’s the fault of George Bush and the Republicans who failed to protect us. ‘Cuz you just know if this trend keeps up they’ll try to hit us with the Terrorist Attack Stick again to drive the weepy waffly womenfolk back into Righty Camp.