I NEED INFORMATION... for an upcoming Podcast.

[David Ippolito]

I need a little help here.

I do a daily Podcast, (I Love the Company) and on Wednesday I do something called "The Wednesday Wake-Up Call".

I want to write a humorous, but pointed song about my suspicion that between now and the November elections, we are going to see "Terror Alerts" make a huge comeback!

How and wwhere can I find out how many "Terror Alerts" or "warnings" or press conferences about "plots that were disrupted" ... how many were issued by this administration in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, let's say starting 6 months out, and how mnay have been issued since Bush's second inauguration.

Really could use a hand. When I write these songs... like "JesusLand" and others, I try to carefully craft the lyric, and I want it to be as accurate and informed as possible.

http://www.thatguitarman.com

Thanks

David (That Guitar Man from Central Park)

[Ian David]

1. Olbermann Questions Timing of Terror Alert ... Again

I think this is what you need...

Olbermann Questions Timing of Terror Alert ... Again
Posted by Brad Wilmouth on October 7, 2005 - 02:47.

Another terror alert, another chance for Keith Olbermann to question whether it's politically motivated. There seems to be a pattern that when the Bush administration announces a terror alert, MSNBC's Countdown host speculates about whether it was politically timed to benefit the administration in some way. Only this time, while doing so again on Thursday night's show, Olbermann oddly used self-contradictory logic in admitting repeatedly that not only were administration members not the ones who decided to announce the latest terror alert, but that the White House has actually been downplaying the authenticity of the information that New York City authorities decided to take seriously.

Olbermann also found time to mock President Bush's speech on terrorism from earlier that day, saying the President was "returning to the theme of scaring the bejesus out of anybody who will listen." He later speculated to MSNBC analyst Craig Crawford that when a politician "seems to be using as a last line of personal political defense," does he risk "trivializing the issue" and "sounding like Joe McCarthy on communist infiltration?"

After leading the October 6 show with an update on Karl Rove's expected fourth grand jury appearance, Olbermann first raised the coincidental timing of the terror alert and sarcastically cautioned the audience, "Stop what you're thinking. It's just an amazing coincidence. The terrorists just happened to wait to make these threats until there's bad news about the administration that it needs to preempt. Just a coincidence." After making a similar sarcastic comment later, he got to an interview with Crawford in which he revealed that "we've cobbled together in the last couple of hours a list of at least 13 occasions that, on which, whenever there has been news that significantly impacted the White House negatively, there has been some sudden credible terror threat somewhere in this country," and then wondered, "How could the coincidence be so consistent?" Crawford agreed that "it is a pattern" and complained that "those of us who bring it up get accused of treason."

But when Olbermann later raised the same point with MSNBC terrorism analyst Evan Kohlman and wondered whether "somebody could really be playing domestic politics with terror," Kohlman shot down the theory, explaining that "I'm not sure it's generated of national politics" because "it's really coming from New York" and the "federal agencies that you would think would be spouting off President Bush's policy like the Department of Homeland Security are the ones that are pouring water on it."

In fact, Olbermann himself had even conveyed this information five times during the show, one example of which came during a plug at about 8:15pm EDT when he said of the terror alert, "New York acted on it. Washington seems to be downplaying it. Is there a threat or does somebody just want us to think there is?" So, according to Olbermann himself, the White House has actually been negating the authenticity of the terror threat, yet he still speculates that the terror alert was politically timed to benefit the White House. Are we to believe the Bush administration has someone planted in New York City's government to call terror alerts whenever Karl Rove gets into trouble?

Below is a transcript of the relevant parts of Thursday night's Countdown show:

More:
http://newsbusters.org/node/2031


See also:

seattlepi.com Buzzworthy: Terror alert timing
Terror alert timing. A few days ago our home page "Daily Poll" asked readers, "Do you think the timing of terror alerts has ever been politically motivated? ...
blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/buzz/archives/003153.html - 33k -



Also:

error Alerts vs. Bush Approval

Julius Civitatus at JuliusBlog has taken an aggregate Bush approval numbers graph over time and added the announcements of terror alerts to the equation.



Notice how neatly Terror Alerts align with drops in Bush's approval numbers. Notice also that his numbers tend to jump up a bit after each alert. Finally, notice how these alerts are getting much more frequent the closer we get to the election and the lower Bush's numbers sink.

Now, it would be too cynical even for me to think that there aren't ongoing, serious terrorist plots against the United States. I'm sure that there are many. The trotting out of Tom "This isn't Political" Ridge, though, is a bit too timely to be believed.


More:
http://slapnose.com/archives/2004/08/06/terror_alerts_vs_bush_approval/

[Avalux]

2. Here's a WP article that may help you -

might also want to look up sociologist Robb Willer (in the article) who has been studying the terror alert/political trends closely. Good luck!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28037-2004Oct12.html

[David Ippolito]

3. Thanks... I keep looking

I'm just not sure I'm looking in the right places. Where can I find the actual number of alerts by The Deptartment of (sigh) Homeland Security.... hopefully to track them by date?

Any idea?

I tried DHS... but, I'm not getting much help from them.

David