Terra Terra Terra.... On Wednesday, my son on his way home to NY from TX had to land in Atlanta to

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

switch planes. He said that about every 10 minutes, over the loud speaker, it was repeated that the terror code was at Orange.

Now this morning, on local NYC GENBC news, lots of talk about terrorists being able to get their hands on chemicals and that notices have been sent to chemical companies to work with Home Land Security.

Are they revving this up because the Senate is on the verge of voting on the FISA bill?

Any reports on terra in your area?

[spanone]

1. they don't need this . the senate will rubber stamp house fisa bill

[marmar]

2. That orange alert announcement at airports every few minutes has been standard since 9/11.....

.... It's part of the perpetual state of fear they've tried to keep us in. But few people even pay it any attention anymore, at least among regular fliers.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. This trip was the first one my son flew in a few years, and the alert was only in Atlanta.

I myself, haven't flown in 4 years, so I don't have a clue.

He also mentioned that the security in NY was anal but much more lax in Dallas and Atlanta.

BTW..the alerts didn't scare him as he knows it's bullshit.

[babylonsister]

5. Yep, orange is the terra color this decade; every airport does this. nt

[Berry Cool]

3. I don't think you're seeing anything out of the usual.

Every time I go to the airport a message repeats and repeats over the speakers that "the terror threat has been elevated to Orange." Of course, it's been Orange for years, but the announcement makes it sound as if it was just raised. I have heard this announcement for years.

Also, I can tell you because of the work I do that yes, chemical companies have indeed been told to work with Homeland Security to classify the chemicals they have at their locations and to better secure them in general, or substitute safer chemicals for them if possible. This is not at all a bad idea and should have been done ages ago. Not only because so many companies' chemicals are poorly secured and we have thus always stood a greater likehihood of terrorism by chemical attack than by, say, flying planes into buildings, but because a chemical plant not taking care with its chemicals or using/storing more dangerous chemicals than it needs to is a huge hazard to the area around it. One spill of a really hazardous chemical can cause as much death and destruction as a terrorist attack any day. Remember Bhopal? Killed about as many as died on 9/11, and it was "just" a leak of gas that's lethal to inhale.

The chemical companies should have had to get their act together a long time ago. It's a sign of how badly Little Lord Pissypants is doing his job that DHS hasn't brought the hammer down on them way sooner, if only in the name of public safety from a leak or spill by their own personnel.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. People who realize that DHS was not doing enough, knew that the chemical and nuclear plants

were vulnerable and yet, this concern of DHS about chemical plants is just emerging now. The timing to me is very suspicious.

As to nuclear plants...I live about 15 minutes by car away from one, and there was an excellent HBO documentary by Rory Kennedy (RFK's daughter) with her brother Robert Kennedy Jr. as a commentator, called Indian Point. They were able to fly above it with no problem at all. People can also drive right up to the front door without being stopped. They do have a couple of people that "protect" it with motor boats on the Hudson River.

BTW....the planes that flew down from Boston and attacked the WTC, passed over Indian Point....

[cobalt1999]

7. I fly every week for work and that's just the standard announcement.

In fact, it's so standard, I wouldn't notice unless it changed.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Cheap cigarettes are terror tools around here...

Congressnutter Peter King, of the district next door to mine, has declared war on Indian reservations selling no-tax cigarettes.

Technically, the reservations are only allowed to sell tax-free butts to themselves, and the rest of us pay full freight, but at least one of them has been selling tax-free to anyone who walks in the door. This has been largely winked at, but now King has discovered the terrorists "might" be buying butts in bulk and reselling them, sending the profits off to buy weapons and fund terrorist training camps.

The mind is in a continual state of boggle.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. Yep! That was an issue Terra King came up with a couple of months ago.

I recall posting on a thread about that.

King represents the district that I lived in when I was a kid and in retrospect, so happy that my parents moved us out of there!

I now live in a district that had the good sense of voting out our long term Bushbot Congresscritter, and voted in a Progressive, John Hall. He voted No to FISA and No to war funding.

[Sal Minella]

10. Extra points for knitting together the terra-terra-terra hysteria with blatant domestic racism.

Clever.