Warning: Signifigant Risk of Terrorist Attacks!

[bbirtle]

Attachment 10536

Hehe, are they still including this in the FoxNews rolling new ticker? How often does it come up in daily news channels, is it ignored? Or does the news caster mention "and the Dept of Homeland Security today has upgraded the warning to Purple this morning. All residents of populated areas are warned to replensih their stocks of duct tape and avoid gatherings of more than five people. Foreign travel is strongly discouraged..."

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=29

Attachment 10537

Been awhile since I was back in the states and curious... I had a good laugh at this web page myself just now.

[edg]

DANCE!

edg

[Benny Profane]

Is that a meatpuppet?

[iceman]

bbirtle, you French people will never get it.

[Tippster]

Elevated is the lowest it's been since they instituted the fucking thing. Every now and then they raise it to High or Mauve or something to try to distract from the latest gaffe out of the White House.

[Samwich]

I hate the warning system. All it creates is panic. It's like the light on your dashboard that comes on when something in the engine is wrong. It just lights up and says 'warning.'

They might as well say 'uh-oh!' and leave it at that.

[Viva]

You know, this really should be a "Frenchman's Need To Douch" index.

[CUBUCK]

I hate the warning system. All it creates is panic. It's like the light on your dashboard that comes on when something in the engine is wrong. It just lights up and says 'warning.'

They might as well say 'uh-oh!' and leave it at that.

Its not an easy spot. If you do and say nothing then you get the You knew and didn't tell us crowd. Kind of like the bush knew about 9/11 and did nothing to stop it bunch. Personally I think I would rather know.

[Free Range Lobster]

Its not an easy spot. If you do and say nothing then you get the You knew and didn't tell us crowd. Kind of like the bush knew about 9/11 and did nothing to stop it bunch. Personally I think I would rather know.

And even post 9/11 they still "know" about things yet do "nothing".

[edg]

But with the system they're *not* telling you. And that within itself poses a problem.

I empathise with the crowd who say, "You know something? Tell us." Nothing pisses me off more than the "If you knew what we knew" attitude of the police. If I knew what you knew, then I could make my own fucking mind up, couldn't I, chump?

But full (or even partial disclosure) of what the security services "know," which itself is pretty doubtful, could cause mass panic. What is the intention of these terrorist attacks? Mass panic.

In essense, I feel that if a situation is deemed significant enough to alter the level of alertness, it is significant enough to reveal to the public your evidence; this goes for both increases and decreases in alert status. Think of it in terms of the Avalanche warning system : yes, you have numbers 1-5, but you also need the associated 'full disclosure' text report to decide your course of action.

edg

[CUBUCK]

I think also to some degree if they know something they want to be able to capture those that are trying to take part in an attack. If they tell the world they know exactly what it is then the event will not happen and the suspects will not be captured.

[Cono Este]

I think the whole idea of a national alert system for the public is stupid. Maybe in some big cities like Ny. The only positive I can see is that by issueing a national alert vs. specific, we are not tipping our hand to the terrorists.

[bbirtle]

Just got back from a ski holiday.

How often does it make the news in the US? Last time I was there I saw it in what seemed to be the rolling news ticker on FoxNews while other media outlets ignored it. Has even FoxNews realized it's stupid?

I'm surprised the risk hasn't been elevated to "Mauve: Elevated risk of loss in faith in Bush" given the recent thing over the domestic eavesdropping.

PS to Viva --- "Juste parce que on habite en France ne signifie pas que on EST français."

[Viva]

PS to Viva --- "Juste parce que on habite en France ne signifie pas que on EST français."

Non, mon cher. That comment was directed at Frenchmen in general. Making fun of the French is an American passtime.

[bagtagley]

It's like the light on your dashboard that comes on when something in the engine is wrong. It just lights up and says 'warning.'

Except totally different cause the CEL is actually useful. You stick a plug in the dash and get an error report.

Stick a plug up George Bush's ass and see if you get anything useful.