Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge -- who, apparently, from this picture, suffers from the same malady that most stupid white men do -- says that al-Qaeda might try to disrupt the November presidential election. Not that he's trying to protect his own job by influencing the election himself or anything! (Associated Press photo)
Kerry-Edwards ticket doing great
-- time for another terrorist alert!
God, this is getting so fucking predictable.
Nationwide polls taken this week show the Kerry-Edwards ticket significantly ahead of the BushCheneyCorp ticket.
A CBS News poll of 462 registered voters nationwide taken July 6 puts the Kerry-Edwards ticket at 49 percent and the BushCheneyCorp ticket at 44 percent. (Ralph Nader was not a choice in the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.)
An NBC News poll of 504 registered voters nationwide taken July 6 puts the Kerry-Edwards ticket at 49 percent, the BushCheneyCorp ticket at 41 percent and Nader at 4 percent (with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent). Without Nader as a choice in the poll, the Kerry-Edwards ticket garnered 54 percent and the BushCheneyCorp ticket got 43 percent.
Kerry was leading Bush even before he announced Edwards as his running mate on Tuesday. An American Research Group poll of 773 registered voters nationwide taken July 1 through July 3 put Kerry at 49 percent and Bush at 45 percent. With Nader thrown into the mix, Kerry got 47 percent, Bush 44 percent and Nader 3 percent. (The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percent.)
So it is any fucking surprise to read this from The Associated Press today:
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said [today] that there is "credible" information indicating that al-Qaeda is moving ahead with plans for a "large-scale attack" in the U.S. aimed at disrupting the November elections.
Ridge said it's clear that al-Qaeda has the capability to carry out such an attack. He said U.S. authorities don't have information on the time, place or method, but that they're "actively working" to gain that knoweldge.
He also said al-Qaida is working under the "mistaken belief" that such an attack would affect the nation's resolve.
Ridge said there was no specific information indicating that al-Qaeda is targeting either the Democratic National Convention later this month in Boston or the Republican National Convention a month later in New York.
The United States is tightening security in the face of a steady stream of intelligence indicating al-Qaeda may seek to mount an attack aimed at disrupting elections, the White House said earlier.
The Department of Homeland Security is addressing the threat and has efforts under way to "ramp up security," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said [today].
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters that Americans should not expect a major announcement on homeland security any time soon, indicating that the nation's threat level could remain at its "elevated" level....
In April, a working group made up of representatives from agencies that touch on law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence was established to deal with a series of events through the election that may be attractive targets for terrorists, including the presidential nominating conventions.
Senior administration officials and counterterrorism experts view the coming months as a time to increase vigilance out of concern that Islamic militants may try to replicate the political success they had in Spain with coordinated pre-election train bombings.
Nearly 200 died in the March attack, and the prime minister's ruling [right-wing] Popular Party lost to a [socialist] rival who promised a pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq.
Elaborate plans are already in the works to protect the Republican and Democratic party conventions in New York and Boston, which have been classified as National Security Special Events. With the designation -- a concept that evolved from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta -- comes federal funds, increased preparations and heightened security.
Ridge admits that he has no specific information -- no when, where or how. Why, then, his announcement today if he has absolutely nothing new to announce?
The members of the Bush regime have been warning since the March train bombings in Spain that al-Qaeda might try to influence the U.S. presidential election in November, and they will continue to do so right up to Election Day.
Which is funny -- not "ha-ha" funny, but fucking-scary-in-an-Orwellian-way funny -- because the members of the Bush regime, by repeatedly warning that al-Qaeda is trying to influence the November election, are trying sinisterly to unduly influence the outcome of the election themselves. (Not that they have a history of doing that or anything...)
The subtext of their warnings that al-Qaeda might try to disrupt the November election is this: Al-Qaeda wants to scare you into voting for the Kerry-Edwards ticket!
Which actually doesn't make much sense.
The United States is not Spain. I don't think that anyone -- including anyone in al-Qaeda -- can predict whether the largest number of American voters would be more inclined or less inclined to vote for the BushCheneyCorp ticket if there were another al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil between now and the November election.
The Spanish voters are probably smarter than the American voters; the Spanish voters apparently realized that the right-wing Popular Party's support of the Bush regime's unprovoked invasion of Iraq was a big fucking mistake.
Would American voters be as smart if there were another al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil? Or would they stupidly believe that the same stupid white men (and Condi and Colin, who are stupider and whiter than I'll ever be -- and I am white) who got them into their mess in the first place are the same ones to get them out of it?
And what does al-Qaeda want? Does it want a perpetual war with us infidels? If so, the oil-loving BushCheneyCorp ticket would be al-Qaeda's choice, so why would al-Qaeda try to disrupt the November elections with the aim of seeing the BushCheneyCorp ticket lose "re"-election?
If al-Qaeda wants the United States to leave the Middle East the fuck alone -- as the United States should -- then a repeat of the Spanish election in the United States probably would achieve that aim, as the United States, under new, saner management, would stop its unprovoked military aggression for oil and power and money in the Middle East. But what guarantee does al-Qaeda have that there would be a parallel effect in the United States, that as the result of a terrorist attack or attacks on U.S. soil the regressive, right-wing party would be thrown out for the progressive party?
The only thing I am sure of is that the Bush regime wants to keep us American people in a state of perpetual fear so that we cannot think clearly and thus are easier to manipulate and to control.
And that alone is reason enough to vote for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. I can't imagine another four years of perpetual fear-mongering by the very same people who are making us significantly more vulnerable -- not less -- to terrorist attacks.
10:03:42 AM 
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