Stompy

They made an alert system for a reason. They should use it.

Now, if the media chose to jump all over it once it turned from yellow to orange, then that's a problem with the media moreso than a problem with those who decided to raise it.

In THIS case, they aren't raising the level. They feel this need to hold a press conference and draw media attention each time they notice "increased chatter". It's pointless.

If *I* were in charge and I noticed this "excessive chatter" that they speak of, I would simply raise the threat level to match the activity of said chatter. I think the alert system speaks for itself. The public knows that if you raise the alert level that something is going on.

Now, if the media chose to jump all over THAT, then that's a different story... but holding an unnecessary press conference each time you get a blip on your chatter monitor is a bit excessive and rather annoying.

Of course, no one can entirely predict when something happens and the public needs to also realize this. They might complain NOW that "Hey, we were never alerted before 9/11", but they should use their brain and pay attention to current events.

Had people paid more attention to what was going on in the world as opposed to being more concerned about the next American Idol or who Ben Affleck was banging (yeah yea, these were after 9/11, but I'm sure you get the point), they wouldn't need the govt to state the obvious: "Hey, we might get attacked sometime soon on US soil." I think this is apparent from how "shocked" everyone was on 9/11. Those who paid attention to what was going on in the world knew that something like this was gonna happen VERY soon. Those who didn't pay attention (most everyone else) had this whole "Why did they do this to us?! They must hate the fact that we're free!!" response.

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