An End To Color-Coded Chaos?

(I also posted over here.)

This story in yesterday’s Parade Magazine tells us…

President Obama once referred to the Homeland Security Advisory System as “the color-coded politics of fear,” and now his administration is taking a close look at the five-tiered public-alert system.

…

…President Obama says that the Homeland Security Advisory System should “focus on keeping us safe when information specific to a particular sector or geographic region is received,” according to White House spokesman Nick Shapiro. He adds that the President “will not tolerate politicization of such a system.” In one of her first acts as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Janet Napolitano launched a department-wide review of current policies and programs “to outline her priorities and determine where changes may need to be made,” says DHS spokesman Sean Smith.

And I’ll bet you didn’t know that this whole color-coded business was actually referred to as the Homeland Security Alert System (or HSAS - I didn't anyway), which (as the New York Times notes here) was confusing to the majority of this country back in August 2003 (with confusion, of course, being the M.O. for the Bushco cabal back then, accompanied soon afterwards by fear assuaged only by The Dear Leader), although…

Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that agency officials had not seen the Congressional report but that they continued to believe the color-coded alerts were valuable.

''The color-coded system indicates the U.S. intelligence community's best assessment of the collective threat against this nation,'' Mr. Roehrkasse said, adding that the department was trying to provide more detailed threat information to the public and had begun ''a process of working with our state partners, mayors and private sector partners, inviting them to provide feedback on how the system is working for them.''

Hmm, Brian Roehrkasse…why does that name sound familiar?

Oh, I know now; it’s because he spread lies and distortions every chance he could while working for a variety of Bushco agencies, including the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Transportation, DHS, and (perhaps most infamously) the Justice Department – his tenure there is duly noted here by Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine.

The August 2003 Times story also tells us that Dem Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey said that “The system may be doing more harm than good. If the Department of Homeland Security doesn't revamp this system, Congress may have to do it for them.”

And apparently, the Repug 109th Congress tried to do that (shocking, I know); this tells us that majority party Rep. Christopher Cox of California sponsored H.R. 1817, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (more here - Cox was the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security), which (among other things) would have ensured better information-sharing on what constituted one type of alert versus another (the bill passed out of the House but died in the Senate – for such a detailed piece of legislation, it’s surprising that it was put together by a guy who went on to become a pretty sucky SEC chairman).

(I should also note that HSAS was instituted by the first Homeland Security Secretary, former PA governor Tom Ridge, who – surprise, surprise! – told us how it was abused by his “betters” here; the system also prompted this thoroughly comic response from Cox’s Dem successor as Homeland Security Chairman, Bennie Thompson by name, to a rather stunning moment of idiocy from Ridge’s successor Mike “City Of Louisiana” Chertoff.)

Actually, how about this – maybe our politicians should, from time to time, remind us all to be vigilant and alert to any possible occurrences or activities that seem out of character in our homes, neighborhoods, or workplaces involving our family, friends or neighbors, and contact law enforcement the first time we witness anything of that nature, OK? Not intruding on anyone’s space or anything like that, but just using common sense.

Whether it’s a “yellow,” “blue” or “red” day, the threats remain constant regardless. As does our duty to act as intelligent adults (and thus serve as an example for any nitwit politician looking to abuse our fears and cultivate our stupidity…a lot fewer of them now than before last November 4th, though).