Terra! Terra!

It would seem the "terror alert" level was raised to oranges - or something like that. Do Americans have any clue what that means?

Oh.. and a little bit of logic concerning our "threat level" system, or whatever they call it. We've been on at least "yellow" since the system was introduced nearly 4 years ago. Wouldn't that mean that "yellow" is the baseline, making it irrelevant? After all, it will be impossible to get to "blue", much less "green" ever again. So why have an elevated threat level 24/7/365/infinity?

My system would have 2 levels:

Green - Act normal, everything is fine, life is good.
Red - Oh Fuck

And.. why raise the threat levels after the attacks? Isn't that a little silly? The bombs have already gone off, and any terrorist with half a brain would know that security would be stepped up as a result.

And.. why does it take a bombing in England to get security raised? Shouldn't security be it's most effective all the time? Are the security officers sitting around playing cards, waiting for chimpy to raise the color before they decide to do something?

Bottom line - the whole color alert thing is just another bullshit device to make Joe American feel safer. It doesn't actually do anything..

Meanwhile....

USA Today has a page 1 story about the Coast Guard falling apart, here:

The Coast Guard's ships, planes and helicopters are breaking down at record rates, which may threaten the service's ability to carry out its post-9/11 mission of protecting ports and waterways against terrorism.

Feel safer yet?

The Bush administration wants to increase the amount of time it will take to replace a fleet that's among the oldest on the globe - older even than fleets owned by nations such as Algeria and Pakistan. The "deepwater" replacement program, conceived in 1998 as a $20 billion, 20-year plan to replace the fleet, could be increased to 25 years under a White House plan.

The strategy would save the government money in the short term. The White House budget office declined to comment.

Oh I know.. they could just scream some more about the threat of gay marriage. Alert Level PINK Mr. Sulu! Raise shields! Load photon torpedoes. Whoop whoop whoop!

Is it just me, or does it seem that George Bush acts exactly opposite to what prudence and judgment would dictate? I'm not kidding. He goes on and on about terrorism yet cuts taxes substantially (benefiting primarily the wealthy) during the "war" and lets the real infrastructure that is needed fall apart.

So - keep on yanking that color boy. Make Joe American feel safer. It's not doing a damn thing.

Everyone who voted for Bush - raise your hand.