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Now that the Bush Administration doesn't have Tom Ridge to trot out, waving his arms and screaming "Orange Alert! Orange Alert!" like the robot from "Lost In Space", they've upped their game a little bit by periodically trying to spook everyone with some half-assed terrorist plot they've "foiled in the nick of time".
A few weeks ago it was the guys who were going to shoot their way into Fort Dix, and this week it was the crazed Jamaican Muslims who were going to blow up JFK Airport.
These stories play big for a day or two, and all the networks trot out their "anti-terrorism experts", and the right-wing bloggers get to thump their chests and fling some more poo, and we're all supposed to stay cowering in our bunkers. This time around, in fact, the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party went on record saying he thought a few terror attacks would prove what a great job Bush is doing keeping America safe.
The spin cycle on this shit doesn't last as long as it used to, but it's still pretty depressing to see that anyone puts the slightest bit of credence into it. I almost punched out my TV when NBC's "anti-terrorism consultant", answering a softball lobbed at him by Ann Curry on the "Today" show, actually said he thought the reason these plots happen is because Muslims hate our American freedoms.
For starters, in each one of these plots that shows up, the ham-handed actions of the FBI turn up over and over and over and over. Some informant bankrolled by the FBI infiltrates the group and practically bludgeons them over the head "urging" them to buy guns and explosives, make plans, and so on. J. Edgar "Madge" Hoover would be so proud of the agents following in his footsteps.
Next, even while the Serious Law Enforcement Officials inevitably say that these foiled plots would cause "massive destruction on an unimaginable scale", once somebody who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about weighs in, the actual assault being planned turns out to be technically impossible, logistically unfeasible, or downright foolish.
Keith Olbermann had a good piece about this the other night (link goes to the always-informative Crooks & Liars, who usually have these video clips first). Even the current mayor of New York City publicly said people should "get over it" (Bloomberg is being touted as a possible 3rd party/independent candidate for President, BTW, and it would be very interesting to see him up against Rudy "I'm The Hero Of 9/11" Giuliani).
On the positive side, though, they didn't really achieve their objective of keeping Scooter Libby's jail sentence out of the media. I also notice that with each new Republican debate, the already-announced candidates look more and more desperate trying to keep on message with this stuff. So maybe even the die-hards are beginning to see that their jig is almost up.
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