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A New Book: The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege… And How We Can Be Safe Again. Written by ex-homeland security secretary and former governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge. In the book, Ridge accuses the Bush White House of pushing him to “raise the national security alert just before the 2004 Elections.” Anyone surprised by this new revelation??

In a new book, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals new details on politicization under President Bush, reports US News & World Report's Paul Bedard. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004.

Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.

Dave Weigel, writing for the Washington Independent, notes that in the past, Ridge has denied manipulating security information for political reasons. In 2004, for example, he said, "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."

"What Tom Ridge disclosed confirms our worst suspicions," said Sen. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who criticized the color-coded system back in 2003. "Just like they did in Iraq, the Bush Administration manipulated intelligence to cause fear in the public to further its political goals."

The Bush administration was forced to admit in the days after the 2004 alert that it was based on intelligence three or four years old. Officials then claimed there was a previously unmentioned "separate stream of intelligence" that justified the warning -- but offered little tangible information to support their new story.

ThinkProgress recalls, the AP reported that "even 'some senior Republicans' privately questioned Ridge's timing of a terror alert that came just three days after the Democratic National Convention."  Link

Another former Bush Administration staff coming out with a book incriminating George Dubya of politicizing a department to win an election! Tom Ridge will now join the ranks of Paul O'Neil, John DiIulio, David Kuo and Scott McClellan. Not to mention Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. All authors and all with scathing stories against the Bush Administration. I'm still waiting to hear from Scooter Libby!

Well, with these new anti-Bush releases comes the Bush Damage Control team scurling around to protect and defend the Bush name, legacy and the only monument - the Bush Library. Already fireback comments have been taken:

Top officials from the George W. Bush White House are disputing claims in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's coming book that they pressured him to adjust the terror threat level for political gain. We went over backwards repeatedly and with great discipline to make sure politics did not influence any national security and homeland security decisions,” former White House chief of staff Andy Card told POLITICO. “The clear instructions were to make sure politics never influenced anything.”

Now, Now, Now - this can't be true! Can it?!
The Republicans would never use FEAR as their platform to gain votes! They would used Gay Marriage! You remember, Gay marriage will disrupt and destroy the very fabric and institute of holy matrimony! And Bush is your man that will put a stop to anal penetration across the nation.

To use the terror threat level to win an election, now this can't be coming from Karl Rove's Campaign Tactics and Response Strageties playbook, can't it??!

The Bush administration politicized national security? Never! I can't believe it! Bush would never do something like that! He would never use a massive terrorist attack that occurred on his watch to shove his neo-con, rightwing agenda down the throats of America. He would not sell our country to go into WAR by rupturing false evidence of WMDs. He wouldn't be so crass as to expose the cover of a secret-intelligent agent just to punish the husband who had crossed him. He would never circumvent the law by wiretapping our own American citizens without judicial warrants. He would never stoop so low as to use the power of the federal government to bar a husband for making medical choices for his brain-dead wife if it got him in good will with the rabid fundamentalist base of his party.

I refuse to believe what Tom Ridge has to say.
I will stand with the Evangelical Fundamental Neo-Conservatives and not believe anything written in this book!
I will stand with them and not believe - just like I will stand with them and not believe that the Holocaust ever happen, Global Warming is destroying our planet, and Christians are the holier than thou politicians & can do no wrong!