And so the FUD'ing begins...

My, my, my. I thought they'd at least leave the FUD thing alone until sometime in late August.

On the news this morning, I see the US Dept. of Homeland Security is claiming that Bin Laden is plotting to disrupt the coming presidential elections. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bin Laden - or any one of a number of other nut cases in the world - was plotting something. A US Presidential election is a nice big target in terms of timeline - pretty much anywhere from August through to November - that's a pretty big window of opportunity.

On the other hand, the track record for "plausible threats" hasn't exactly been awe-inspiring. For the last three years, every time the 'threat level' gets increased, the silence is deafening. It's also notable that the 'threat level' has increased around holidays and other 'leisure' times - obvious target periods that a schoolchild could recognize.

Cynically, I have to wonder if this warning isn't an effort to get people all worried about "security", and therefore run to the 'hero-war-president' Bush during the election. Let's face it, past "alerts" haven't exactly amounted to anything.

Like the so-called "evidence" that Saddam Hussein had all kinds of nasty weapons, and intentions of using them that was put forth during the run-up to invading Iraq, I have to wonder just what "evidence" is driving the current paranoia-inducing announcements.

In my mind, this all fits into other factors in the US election race:

1. The GOP attempting to trash John Edwards as VP candidate.

2. The Bush campaign is trying to play up GWB's "successes"

3. Iraq is a two-edged sword. In Bush's favor, the US "handed power" over to an Iraqi government at the end of June. On the other side of the coin, the country is hardly stable, and American troops continue to come home in body bags.

As the election heats up, I expect several major issues to become more prominent:

1. Did the Bush administration lie to the public about Iraq?
2. Has the Presidency overstepped its authority where prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan are concerned?
3. Is the Patriot act excessive (not to mention "Patriot II")?
4. Gay Marriage (read - civil rights in general)
5. Is separation of Church and State being maintained?
6. Was there ever any real relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda?