Hot Dog and Hee Haw! ... Guess What We Got Today!

If Frank Capra were making his iconic holiday move "It's A Wonderful Life" today, George Bailey would, in his surreal whirl around Pottersville, end up being kidnapped, extraordinary renditioned and branded as an enemy combatant.

The flourishing democracy of Pakistan is up in flames, and, we sit on the eve of the new FISA Bill, with The Commander Guy's order for immunity for the telecommunication companies still on the front-burner, and there was that little business of Cheney's impeachment that, mistakenly leaked into the mainstream news (but only derisively, as if it was a joke that, at least one member of Congress, wants to hold the Executive Branch accountable to the Constitution).

So, what do you suppose we get today?

If you said "A new terror threat warning" you'd be right on cue for a big Bedford Falls "Hot Dog!" and "Hee-Haw!"

Shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, in this go-around.

And it goes to show how discombobulated the Bush Grindhouse is.

It's a given, their going to play the "fear card", but pointing at shopping malls, and during the holiday season?

I thought, to get past September 11th, to blot out the horrible terrorist attack, we were supposed to go shopping?

How can it be that, now, if we go shopping, we might be blown up? Well, at least those of us who live in LA or Chi-Town.

Yes, it's another one of those warning with the all-important "but", that goes to great pains to convey that the information may not be credible.

The bulletin acknowledges that U.S. intelligence officers are uncertain as to whether the information is real, and intelligence officers say there is a concern that it could be "disinformation."

Which Joe Gandelman, over on The Moderate Voice (after his opening of "There’s yet another warning about a planned Al Qaeda attack in the United States — and the danger is that the political contamination of the terrorism issue, the perceived use of it by the Bush administration in past elections ...") notes;

It’s this constant “oh by the way” that is lessening the impact of these alerts because part of the public has stopped believing them (the part that feels the administration took Fox News consultant Dick Morris’ advice and played the security card in elections) and part of the public that won’t pay much attention until and unless there is an attack because too many alarmist news stories increasingly lose their sense of urgency"

And here's this gem, from ABC, about this imminent, possible, holiday shopping mall terror threat;

Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com that the FBI received the information in late September and declassified it yesterday for wide distribution.

Even if we say that they got it on September 30th, at 11:59PM, that makes it nearly six-weeks before that let it out of the bag?

I guess that makes sense.

Too late to use it as a chilling threat on the "Back-To-School" shoppers and, to blare it out, dripping with fear, for Halloween, well, that would only discourage the candy shoppers.

So, perhaps, our movie will end, when Zuzu hears the bell ring, she'll say "Daddy, teacher says that whenever a bell rings, that means President Bush has issued another terrorist threat" and the copy of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" will carry the inscription "No President Is A Failure Who Issues Bogus Terror Threats".


Bonus Hot Dogs and Hee Haws

Logan Murphy/Crooks and Liars - Olbermann: Bush Used Bogus Terror Threat to Scare Votes for FISA Bill

Steven Benen/The Carpetbagger Report: On eve of telecom vote, AT&T whistleblower steps up

If The Telecoms Get Amnesty, Will Reporters or Photographers Be Jailed For Reporting It?