Nope, we’re at yellow.
New York City is at Orange, and stays such when the rest of the nation slumbers at Yellow. But you can tell when we’re at Serious Orange, as I call it–the three or so bored Guardsmen at Grand Central and Union Square subway station are replaced with five bored Guardsmen in riot gear and machine guns. I have never ever seen a machine gun before now in my city, and I grew up here in the Seventies. Thanks, Osama.
I don’t know about this alert, but given the Spanish example I think it would be very irresponsible not to go to Orange at some election-crucial points.
My bad. I thought the middle one was ‘Orange’. Color blindness, probably.
In that case, obviously my caveat holds no water.
Yep. That is what I have been thinking that about HLS for quite a while now. Consider the terror alerts:
Ridge: I am raising the terror alert to paisley.
People: Why?
Ridge: I can’t tell you.
People: Okay… I guess we trust you.
Ridge: Okay I’m lowering it to very berry blue.
People: Why? What happened, did you catch a terroist, foil an evil plan?
Ridge: I can’t tell you.
Repeat ad-nausium.
After this has happend over and over again. Terror alerts rising and falling, warnings issued, with no descernable effect, no terroists caught, no evil plans foiled, the terror alerts get to be a joke.And not only that - I can to an extent understand not revealing your information or sources. But as far as I’ve seen, they haven’t said a word about how effective the alert levels have been.
Ridge: “Hey, good job, America! When we raised the alert level to a low mauve last month we foiled 23% more terrorist plots! Eula Mae Williams of Aurora, Illinois wins a free toaster for her contribution to our war on terror.”
We just got past a terror warning, for the 4th of July. Quite frankly, I think these vague warning are useless for anything other than getting the administration some news time. We know there are terrorists out there plotting plots, and we should always have some level of heightened awareness, but this ‘something’s being planned for some time, some where, some how’ stuff is beginning to border on the ludicrous.
If there was something specific to look for, something definite, such as ‘watch out for people parking vans near dams’ or anything like that, that would be one thing. Until then, I plan to live my normal life, in my normal ways, while keeping my eyes open. If I see anything suspicious, I’ll report it. But I’m not going to allow this nonsense to panic me, and I’d suggest that everyone else react the same way.
I’d like to believe that the administration is above using this method to further their political aims. Honestly, I really would; I’m trying. But it gets more difficult every day.
Ah ha, I was wondering when they would give this one a unique twist, because we’re getting jaded towards the “regular” ones.
From CNN front page…
:rolleyes:
Believe it or not, I have. I’ve been there. I hold positions that are the minority on this board and in real life. I’ve run up against all the cookie-cutter, party-line, saw-it-on-a-blog-it-must-be-true, arguements you could ever imagine. The line I try to take, and the one I used to see you take, was to calmly rebut the facts or poor reasoning behind the arguement. It can be hard to see the fiftieth person parroting some ridiculous BS coming down the pipe, but you can either ignore it or take it on. If you choose to take it on then surgical strikes are better than carpet bombings. I could go around screaming at people for thinking things like the seasons being caused by the Earth’s elliptical orbit(as opposed to the axial tilt of the planet), or for being stupid bleaters when they say it in response to a query, but that doesn’t win hearts and minds.
Scylla is a terrible example. If you think otherwise then go ahead and pick up his arguements on their merits. Specifically the “WMD found by Thanksgiving 2003” and “Big Dog theory of international relations” ones and see how they hold up. If it is mindless bleating to oppose these positions then I guess I’m a sheep. Being pitted and treated like crap after demonstrating the intellectual bankrupcy to continue to hold the “Big Dog” and “WMD Found!” positions after they have been shown to be meritless is not unfair treatment. I’d argue it is exactly what is deserved for engaging in this behavior.
The only worse example I can think of would be december. He was banned for deliberately, and maliciously, misrepresenting sources. A lot of the hot water he got into was for consistently misrepresenting both sources and other posters. Go back through a few threads and count the “I didn’t say that” phrases or equivelants from other posters in response to his representations of their positions.
Enjoy,
Steven
The point of some of the first posts underscores the idea that the alerts are a reaction to some events that are not predictable, IOW, they are a reaction to expected, but otherwise unplanned spontaneous events. I have to agree that the alerts seem to have curious timing, seemingly sent to snap our attention back to The War On Terrorism and Iraq ™. The fact that they are sent out with a disclaimer that there is no specific indicators makes them look like smoke and mirrors, and makes us (i.e. US) look like where whiffing at thin air with Our Mighty Sword ™. How effective are these warnings, and for whom?
Vlad/Igor
You still probably haven’t. You’re looking at assault rifles, not machine guns.
Sorry for the nitpick, but it was bugging me. 
The announcement by Ridge is meant to make this vote happen without a lot of outcry by the public. Well of course we need all the PA provisions, if the terrorists are coming back to get us!
OK, thanks. All I know is that they’re freakin’ big guns :eek:
Bingo, give this man a cigar.
This in the same day a story that I’ve been watching for awhile broke:
Senior Pakistani officials have told reporters that the Bush team has been pressuring them to find high level Al Qaeda targets before the November elections: with threats and promises to goad them into further action. One source even says that he was told they should hold back announcements of any early success until its during the Democratic Convention.
Niiiiice.
Speaking of other stories, did anyone catch this gem today?
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/24690.htm
I haven’t heard a peep of this anywhere else.
I don’t mind Secretary Ridge popping up every once in a while to announce that he doesn’t have any new or specific information but, by God, we better watch out. The man does have to do something every once in a while to remind us that he is still there. He could well think that trooping through airports barefoot and holding up my pants with one hand while waiving my photo ID with the other while all the time keeping an eye on the basket holding my car keys is not enough to remind me of the vital service being performed by the DHS.
The comedian Lewis Black, who reminds me of my late father physically as well as in his unsuppressed rage, argues that the color code system should be replaced by a simple three tier program with the following categories:
Oh ‘m God
Jesus, and
We’re fucked!
I admire the elegant simplicity and conciseness of Mr Black’s idea. It would be a great improvement over the present scheme and has the advantage of being all the more persuasive when screamed.
Now that the good Secretary has reminded me that Osama wants to blow my butt to smithereens, what the hell an I supposed to do about it? Shall I erect a watch tower on the back forty and scan the horizon with field glasses for swarthy young men? If I see any should I call Secretary Ridge or should I just break out the old 30–06 and deal with it my self? Maybe I should just climb under my bed and refuse to come out until Mr Bush is safely reelected. What the Hell am I supposed to do about it? Tell me! Should I flee to the Great Northern Forrest that is Minnesota?
Or is this (dare I ask) just another attempt to divert my attention, to titillate me with images of undefined terror? Am I better off to obsess on reality TV shows?
How many of these ‘credible threats’ have we had now? And no attacks?
What can we infer from this?
a) The government is foiling these attacks and keeping their results hush-hush. (I might be able to buy the foiling bit, but not the keeping it hush-hush bit)
b) Al Queda operatives are planning attacks, but they can’t all get off work on the same so they can carry out those plans. Really, how many times can suicidal murders plan attacks and not carry anything out??? Not even something small and relatively safe for them?
c) Al Queda may or may not be planning…something. Either way, Ridge doen’t have a clue.
IMO, Michael Moore was right about one thing. Every so often, our government is going to remind us to be afraid. And that seems to be Ridge’s job.
Bricker is right, though. There’s no set schedule so we can’t predict when the next one will come with any certainty.
Well I sort of agree, as long as you take into account that the underlying reason is the interest of the electorate.
What is really sad is that the question of which person is having sex with the POTUS is more important electorally than actual world affairs.
No, jokes are funny.