Colors of fear disappear, after they serve their purpose

JABBS: Has Homeland Security's Color Coding Of Terror Threats Been Scrapped? A Closer Look Suggests Yes, After Serving Its Purpose (To Get Bush Re-Elected):

Americans may be surprised to learn that we still have the Homeland Security Advisory System.

Even Americans who don't know it by name are familiar with the color-coded system (if not, check the graphic at right). When former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the system in 2002 -- before the department itself was created -- he stressed the need to provide a 'clear' indication of a terror threat to the nation, but 'flexible to apply to threats made against a city, a state, a sector, or an industry.'

From the get-go, critics of the Bush Administration suggested that it was using the terror threat system for political gain, in part because President Bush's popularity always seemed to rise after a change in the terror threat system. As the New York Times reported in August, 2004, a terror threat announcement by Ridge earlier that month was used to 'repeatedly praise President Bush's leadership.'

Conservatives no doubt reject the argument, but after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff reacted to the Mumbai train bombing earlier this month by saying 'there are no plans to raise the nation's threat level,' just four days after failing to mention the terror threat system at all when announcing the U.S. had helped end 'a terrorist network that was in the planning stages of an attack against the transportation system in the New York-New Jersey area,' I had to wonder, what happened to the 'flexibility' of the terror threat system?