I stumbled across a blog that has an interesting comparison of the dates when news that is bad for Bush is released, and the dates when Homeland Security's issues terror warnings. It is trying to make the case that Bush is using terror alerts and warnings to knock these stories off the front page.

I'm not sure if I totally believe the evidence they are laying out. The evidence can be discredited with one simple statement:

Over the past two years, there has been a constant stream of “bad news” for President Bush. So every single terror alert or warning issued is likely to coincide within a few days with bad news.

To put this another way, there is a higher rate of drowning in Florida than in Nevada. It's not that people of Nevada are better swimmers than people in Florida... It's because Florida is surrounded by water. There is no sense looking for a conspiracy when a simpler explanation exists.

In the past two years, you have these major events that look bad for Bush:

• No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
• The changing reasons for going to war in Iraq
• High American casualties in Iraq (almost 1,000 dead, many more injured)
• Cost of Iraq and Afghanistan ($200 billion and climbing)
• Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden are still out there
• Haliburton scandals that affect VP Cheney
• Government deficits (almost $500 billion per year)
• Release of pre-9/11 intelligence that was not acted upon
• White House leaks CIA operative's name

I mean, I could go on and on for many more pages. Dozens of events have occurred in the past couple of years that look bad for Bush. So there is a high likelihood that one of those events will coincide with a terror alert.

Plus, the list also includes minor events like war protests, Kerry choosing a running mate, change in power in other countries running on anti-war platforms (Germany, Spain, etc.), pullout of troops from other countries, UN and Red Cross pull out of Iraq, etc. I mean, if you really wanted to count every possible bad event, you could make a list of hundreds of such events.

So there is no conspiracy here. Those who have read this blog before will note that I am no real great fan of Bush, but I don't think this list shows evidence of anything sinister.

I agree there are political motives behind most things any president does, this list isn't proof of them though.