Never let it be said that when I make an error of judgment, I can't be persuaded I was mistaken.  More importantly, be it known that I am all too willing to acknowledge that the proper thing to do is to publicly admit my blunder.

So, here goes:  I should never have given the Roviavellians in the White House even the slightest benefit of the doubt that they were not purposely politicizing the "liquid bomb threat."  At the risk of violating Drum's Law, I'll do a little "nutpicking" on myself and retract this otherwise rational and reserved assessment.  They knew about this kind of threat long ago, and went after granny's nailclippers instead of the obvious.

WASHINGTON - While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.  [HT-Cloverdale]

They politicize EVERYTHING.  It's pathological.  The only thing that makes me certain that they were not in complete control of the timing of the British round up of the terrorist suspects planning to blow up trans-Atlantic flights with exploding Gatoraide bottles, is that the arrests and subsequent alerts did not happen Monday -- in time to affect the Lamont/Lieberman election -- as O'Reilly and Hannity desired.  Had our British cousins been more trusting of Dick Cheney's ability to restrain himself from using classified information to political advantage (prudently, they were not), the White House certainly would have exerted irresistable pressure for Scotland Yard to move up their time-table enough to assist Joe Lieberman (which you can't spell without "lie").

I came across a wonderfully written call to arms against the fear mongers at Black Sky Theory (wherein the GOP puts so many targets up in the air it's impossible to concentrate your outrage on a single atrocity, and the media tells us it's just dark out).

Brothers and sisters......they've got us afraid of fucking toothpaste.

And when I say "they", of course, I'm referring to the Bush Administration.  Fear is their tool, their weapon, their friend.  They are using fear to cower the populace.  They are engaging in terrorism against the American people. No, they aren't blowing up office buildings, but as noted above, that's not the objective of terrorism.  The objective of terrorism is to create fear among the civilian populace, and that is what they have done and that is what they continue to do.  When a suicide bomber blows up a candy store, he is engaging in high level terrorism from a low-level platform; when Bush, or Cheney, or Lieberman, or Hannity invoke boogeymen such as Osama bin Laden, or Ned Lamont, or Markos Moulitsas, they are engaging in low-level terrorism from a high-level platform.  The only valid metric by which we can compare the two is by calculating the number of people they frighten.  And many, many Americans are frightened enough to vote Republican.

Roosevelt said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  The fear-mongers in Washington and in the media are whipping up a fresh batch of fear every goddamn day. We have to take them on one frightened neighbor at a time.  Make an effort to ease the fear of a Republican voter today. Tell them it's going to be OK.  Remind them that America is strong.  We weren't afraid of the British in 1776, we weren't afraid of the Nazis in 1944, and we have nothing to fear but the fears that are implanted in us.  Some kid with a bottle of Sierra Mist is not coming to Minneapolis, or Indianapolis, or Gallapolis, or Kannapolis to kill us. Take them by the hand as you would a small child, and alleviate their fear.  Tell them to suck it up and be as brave as their fathers and mothers, their grandfathers and grandmothers.  Tell them to quit being such a bunch of fucking pussies.  Tell them "Fuck Fear!"  And remind them that millions of their fellow Americans, armed with pitchforks and torches, will protect them.

Ken Mehlman is all over Ohio, wound up like the little robot he is, already primed with his "Democrats are pussies" talking points at the ready painting 60% of Americans as defeatist weaklings.  Shrub himself let's loose with an LGF patented "Islamic-Fascist" quote, which insults Muslims and trivialized the danger posed by fascism (otherwise know as unbridled corporatism, or neoconservatism).  Meanwhile Lord Cheney of the Sith and his pet poodle spins the bedwetting meme that Connecticut just voted for Osama himself.

What cogent piece of reality brought me to the light?  There was, of course, the timing.  They knew this was coming for two weeks now -- and were just itching to let loose.  They're also primed with the watch-word that strikes fear into every independently minded voter when courting the Democratic Party instead of Republican orthodoxy, quickly sending them under their piss-stained matress -- Al Qaeda.

• I certainly looks like al Qaeda.
• It would have been spectacular (if you can characterize mass-murder that way), just like al Qaeda.
• It involved planes, al Qaeda has a thing for planes.
• Explosive Slurpies certainly count as "improvised," and al Qaeda loves them some IED's.
• The scale of the thing, and it's "sophistication" is just like al Qaeda -- except for the getting caught part.

If we had just caught the 38th number three guy in al Qaeda, don't you think Bush would have announced that loud and clear instead of all the conjecture and insinuation that al Qaeda might be, probably could, looks like they're responsible?  Has al Qaeda ever been reluctant to take credit?  But is it really al Qaeda?  Well, maybe.

I haven't decided which is worse, a still dangerous bin Laden led organization, or that their methods have been mimicked -- that al Qaeda is more a idea than an actual enemy to be defeated.  Apparently, the administration thinks that they'd rather go with the idea that they've thusfar failed to defeat our declared foe than admit they've created even more.  At least then they can claim a victory today.  You'd think they could just go with that, but no.

After two solid days of Demo-Bashing, his points having been etched in the now "so yesterday" Lieberaman/Lamont spin wars, the Kenny's (Mehlman as he helps out the increasingly irrelevant Blackwell) tell us, "instead of focusing on political attacks, we should focus on the fact that we are at war."  Sounds like someone got a new memo because the public ain't buying it  -- and he should take his own advice.

After all, these are the folks who see the population of Haifa living in their basements as an "opportunity" and the demolition of the entire state of Lebanon merely "birth pangs."

The fact is, with this crew they never give you a chance to give them the benefit of the doubt even when you want to.  On everything, they come out swinging for political advantage.  The last time I can remember when Bush acted like the leader of the Nation instead of leader of the Republican Party, his approval rating soared into the 90's (even though at the time I remarked that under the circumstances a trained monkey could have delivered his speech standing on top of that mass grave in Midtown Manhattan and gotten all of America behind him).  Since September of '01, it's been straight downhill. 

Now we're wallowing in the gutter with the administration hacks seizing each and every opportunity to turn tragedy and terror into a boon for the GOP.  If they spent half their energy fighting terrorists instead of liberals, we'd all feel a lot safer.  It's simply callous.

Keep this in mind about the Cheney administration as they head into the midterms.  They want you to be as afraid as they are.  And they're scared to death.

They aren't afaird of terrorists, don't be silly.  The administration's fortunes are completely intertwined with the continuation, not the defeat, of a terrorist threat.  They're afraid of answering for their crimes if they lose control of their Rubber-stamp Congress.  We desperately need a check on this White House to restore the balance where enemies were fought to quell our worst fears, instead exploiting those fears for political gain.