How can it NOT be political?

An interesting take on the alerts (WOLF!) on the front page of both versions of the WaPO. (perhaps they are seeing the folly of their Rethug rubber stamp news lately?)

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37911-2004Aug3.html>

I thought of some questions, and, having absolutely no idea of the logistics of this, will post them anyway...

Why is it that these threats even need to be announced? What would the general reaction if there was just an increased police presence in certain areas? For any who live or work in the 'threatened' areas or buildings, was there a big difference in security visibility over the last few days?

I live in an exurb of a small town near a small city, so, although I enjoy being in urban areas, have no recent experience in cities the size of DC and NYC.

because there is nothing that the average citizen can do in the presence of a higher alert that they cant and shouldn't do without one.

The purpose is news control. To displace news which might be unfavorable to the administration or favorable to the opposition.

Hence, the current alerts were made to counter and displace the positive attention being paid to Kerry's speech at the convention and the campaign followup. To deprive him of news attention and free publicity by dominating limited national news bandwidth.

And, of course, to try and make the Bush administration look good by showing they are doing something, no matter that they are really only just issuing public statements.

That is not to say there is not antiterroist intelligence and activity going out behind the scenes, but that has nothing to do with the administration policy apparatus, its a function of the existing agencies.