So, a major terrorist plot is foiled in England, airline traffic is FUBAR for the forseeable future, and now all of us who have to get on planes any time soon will be dealing with not only our own panic but everyone else's.

And how does the Bush administration feel about this? Well, apparently, they're stoked.

Someday, just once, I want to see someone get up in public and ask why it is that Americans are expected to feel safer with a guy in power whose political fortunes are linked this closely to terrorism. Doesn't it bother anyone else to see that every time something either blows up or almost blows up, the Bush administration lackeys get out there and say, "Hey, fabulous, this is really going to boost our approval ratings"? Wouldn't you rather have someone in power who did not see terrorism as a political godsend? Wouldn't you maybe trust a guy more whose whole political survival didn't depend on things like this happening? Who, you know, didn't think terrorism had an upside?

I merely ask.

I mean, no matter what they do, it's not as if the Bush admininstration will ever run out of terrorism. They have ensured that for the forseeable future there will be an inexhaustible supply. Which is great for them, because apart from terrorism, as that anonymous Republican quoted at the end of the above piece admits, they've got nothing. It is not so good for us, however, because it means that the people running the country believe that terrorism is good for them--whereas, of course, it is not good for us. Things have gone so badly for them that they must now share our sense that the twenty-first century is just a big black cloud of pain and suffering raining down anxiety and grief upon us. But for them, apparently, an incident like this is the silver lining. And its effect on the people they supposedly govern? Well, I guess that's the touch of gray.

When it comes to terrorism, Bush's self-interest is diametrically opposed to that of the rest of the people in the country. He actually profits from it. We don't. This is a major problem, and it's been obvious for a long damn time. It just galls me to see so many people stare right at this giant flashing red warning sign and not see it.

Ah well,

The Plaid Adder