The Rollout

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

-- 8/12/2006, NBC News, U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests

Why did the Administration wait until September to make its case against Iraq? White House chief of staff Andrew Card told The New York Times last week, ``From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August.''

-- 9/12/2002, CNN, Marketing Iraq



So how should we perceive the bumped-up rollout for this latest terrorism product? For one, we can think about how the success in foiling the plot is being so highly touted, yet terror alerts were raised, and security procedures have been increased in an untenable direction. (Really. So it's not just nail clippers anymore; we're confiscating bottled water and mascara? I'm sure we all feel safer already.) And of course the usual gang of tele-bedwetters are huddling together on the usual shows, telling us that the only way to press on is to live like rats cornered in a sewer. Good luck with that.

For another, we might also consider that there's only twelve weeks left before Li'l Napoleon meets his Waterloo, and no amount of secret signing statements of self-assigned superpowers will change that. Fundraising is way down for them, and as this is a money game first and foremost, perhaps this is just a prefatory hole card, before the real hand gets played out in September and October.

Strap on your hip waders, folks, because the shit's gonna pile up, and the useful idiots will be out and about, digging for that elusive pony.