About the "spectacularity" of today's threat and the WH reaction:

[blondeatlast]

Does anyone else think the WH would have liked to keep it in perspective--yes, there's a threat, no need to panic, but once the m$m got hold of the news they realized that they had to be all over it? I find the media biased--and it sure is hell biased in favor of a story that can be exploited for endless dronings by all-knowing $3000 suits with $200 dye jobs and a need to be "fair (or is it "balanced" this week?). (When did the idea of "objective" die?)

Let's face it, it's a caffeine jolt for the Friday gabbers; I can almost see Tweety comi-er, commenting, on it now.

I'm just thinking of it the way I would have LIKED to have handled it. Can't risk citizen's lives, take care of it, let the media know the facts after, Walter/Chet/Harry and Howard calmly deliver the facts, and life goes on.

Yes, I'm almost old enough to remember those days--long gone now.

Full disclosure: no, I don't think it was staged, I don't suspect the timing, tin-foil ruins my dye job...

[liberalmuse]

At least we know that we're safe from printer cartridges.

Even though today's events are silly, at least we know why. With Bush we weren't really told why we were going to Orange or Red or whatever the fuck it was. The media is just a little trigger happy - they should be embarrassed, not President Obama or the White House. President Obama, or rather, the TSA is just doing their job. The media were the ones who saw fit to play the part of chicken little. God that's gettin' old.

[HillbillyBob]

1. A few years ago it would have been condy, then rummy then shooter then

ashcroft then... terror alert stage Red Red RED red.

I think it was put on a little strong. Those who would like to mess up things , an election period would be perfect to interrupt .

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. I think they did the right thing.

Unlike the USDA firing (where they jumped the gun on Shirley Sherrod), the cable MSM took off with this and blathered about it non-stop all day (complete with multi-screen live shots of various airports and looped footage of random planes).

Sherrod was a Fox Noise/Breitbart fairy tale, so I see a difference.

In this microwave-mentality, drive-thru, instant access to information, it was important to get the message out there that we were on top of this, it didn't take us by surprise, and while in route to the UK, our security was already telling British authorities what we needed them to look for upon landing. Ditto with the UAE for the plane that hadn't taken off yet.

Compare with live footage of the My Pet Goat scene...

[Cosmocat]

3. I, frankly, don't get how obtuse people here are being with this ...

this was the most organized and most credible AQ attempted attack on the US since 9-11 ...

That they HOPEFULLY got this thing caught in mid stream is the very definition of Biden's BFD ...

And, yes, the admin has been SPOT on with it, and BO did what a president and admin SHOULD DO with this stuff and not overplay it ...

You are dead right, if this was an R president, it would be stop the presses, we ALL almost died, and everyone who goes to vote on Tuesday should thank the blessed god for Joe Republican and not think about voting for anyone other than an R, because only they could have saved us from this apocolypse ...

[MadMaddie]

4. You nailed it!

The response was just right. Every time a situation comes up he will respond the same way....this will train the "chicken little's" into a new way of thinking.

[blondeatlast]

5. Agreed; my point was that the m$m was going to milk it for all it was worth.

It's heartening to see the DU hysteria has already died down considerably.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. Ya know, I think we are all so stung by the 8 years of Stupid lying to us

that we forget to remember that there is a reason we have an Intelligence service. We would be naive to think that there are no credible threats that our government deals with every day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. What gets me is not the media

But the tin foil hatters.

It was a test run, and I hope them, whoever shadowy them is, didn't learn a thing...

As to the tin foil brigade, when we have a successful attack they will demand heads on platters... And yes it is when.

[sally cat]

8. That's pretty twisty. I think it was more serious than many posters first believed and they felt

embarrassed to have poo-pooed a situation that President Obama took very seriously from the start.