MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann does an excellent story on how the terror alert level goes up whenever the Bush Administration is in trouble, citing thirteen specific examples.

Video here, courtesy of Crooks & Liar.

And if you want to read it, do so here.  Here’s an example:

Number Three:

February 5^th, 2003. Secretary of State Powell tells the United Nations Security Council of Iraq’s concealment of weapons, including 18 mobile biological weapons laboratories, justifying a U.N. or U.S. first strike. Many in the UN are doubtful. Months later, much of the information proves untrue.

February 7^th, 2003. Two days later, as anti-war demonstrations continue to take place around the globe, Homeland Security Secretary Ridge cites “credible threats” by Al Qaeda, and raises the terror alert level to orange. Three days after that, Fire Administrator David Paulison – who would become the acting head of FEMA after the Hurricane Katrina disaster – advises Americans to stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to protect themselves against radiological or biological attack.

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Number Nine:

July 29^th, 2004. At their party convention in Boston, the Democrats formally nominate John Kerry as their candidate for President. As in the wake of any convention, the Democrats dominate the media attention over the ensuing weekend.

Monday, August 1^st, 2004. The Department of Homeland Security raises the alert status for financial centers in New York, New Jersey, and Washington to orange. The evidence supporting the warning – reconnaissance data, left in a home in Iraq – later proves to be roughly four years old and largely out-of-date.