Wonky Muse

August 7, 2004

Orange Pickings

Via Juliusblog's 06-05-04 entry, a new chart is making rounds on the internet summarizing data that shows whenever Bush's ratings dip or there are unfavorable headlines in the news, a new terror alert comes out. Those new terror alerts are then followed by a slight increase in Bush's approval ratings. As the election nears, the number of those terror alerts have increased in frequency. Coincidence? Judge for yourself.

Another interesting find on the subject is the developing article by American Prospect's senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta about the history of all the orange alerts that have been declared by the Department of Homeland Security. Very telling.

Last, but not least, in an attempt to defend the latest orange alert, U.S. officials leaked the name of a terror suspect who turned out to be working undercover to catch other Al Qaeda suspects. This is outrageous. First they out CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame. Now the identity of a suspect who may be a source of vital information is leaked because of stupidity or political gain. How can we get future suspects to cooperate if they're exposed so mindlessly like this? This should be a felony, if not downright treasonous. It just set our terrorist intelligence back a few notches.

posted at 3:43 PM by Wonky Muse

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