Purpose of the terror alert levels (Rainbow of Doom)

[Mr. Dictator]

the first time I heard "orange", I immediately packed all my possessions and relocated to a secluded shack some 100 miles east in the desert.

all the cool survivalists go to oregon.

 

[amadeus]

It took me two years to get over that. Then Bloomberg said we were at "Orange Plus" and I just lost my zest for life.

You kept it for all that time under Comrade Bloomberg?

 

[The Yankee]

You kept it for all that time under Comrade Bloomberg?

I was following him around hoping he'd drop his wallet on the 6 train.

 

[amadeus]

It was probably full of just carbon credits and new tax proposals.

 

[JollyRoger]

Easier and faster to get the message out than contacting every police agency and security service individually. There is a ton of news in the paper everyday that doesn't affect me personally.

How is forcing every law enforcement agency in the country to wade through the to of news to get a needed message easier and faster? Shouldn't there be a database of contact information by now where the message can be sent to every agency at once very quickly?

 

[ParkCungHee]

I remember shortly after they came out with the Terror Alert, New York had an Amber Alert. People scrambled to figure out where Amber is on the chart.

 

[Perfection]

all the cool survivalists go to oregon.

Bruce Beach went to Canada, and he's cool!

 

[Gilder]

It's probably still knocking around so Homeland Security can actually feel like they've accomplished something.

 

[ybbor]

To be honest, if they never said anything, we'd be even more pissed off than over some of the stuff they are doing (or not doing).

Exactly. IIRC, the alert level was originally put in place because before they just said "there's an increased risk of a terrorist attack" and stopped. No one had any idea how much of an increased risk we faced, so then they decided to say "we're at an "elevated" level of risk.

 

[The Yankee]

It still doesn't say anything, but it did shut up.........oh......three people.

 

[Merkinball]

All it is is DEFCON levels applied to stupid civilians.

 

[Quiet Sound]

Link

The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

...

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.

"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "

Make of that what you will.

 

[Tee Kay]

All it is is DEFCON levels applied to stupid civilians.

Completely agree.

 

[GenMarshall]

It's a useless system with two colors that will never be used.

 

[Mango]

I think we're all missing the real concern here.

Apparently the government didn't graduate 1st grade.

 

[MobBoss]

I like the Ron White proposal. Terror alert consists of only two levels: (1) Momma, take off the dang helmet. (2) Momma, put on the dang helmet.

 

[The Yankee]

I think we're all missing the real concern here.

Apparently the government didn't graduate 1st grade.

Haven't you heard that Roy G. Biv is a known terrorist leader?

 

[Agent Cooper]

If a leader of a nation needs to rally up the populations sympathy and trust into ones leadership, one way to do it is to strike fear into them - a threat of foreign origin as an example. Oldest trick in the political handbook....