Taking the national pulse after those terrorism suspicion arrests, Newsweek did a poll:

…the most murderous terror plot to be publicly exposed since 9/11 disrupted more than air travel. It roiled public opinion too. While the NEWSWEEK Poll suggests President George W. Bush and the GOP-led Congress have plenty to worry about just three months before the midterm congressional elections, it shows a slight uptick in the president’s lagging approval rating and a significant boost in voters’ opinions of his handling of the terror threat.

According to the poll, conducted through phone interviews with 1,001 Americans, 55 percent disapprove of how the president is doing his job, while 38 percent approve, an increase of 3 points since the May 11-12 NEWSWEEK Poll. But a majority, 55 percent, approve of Bush’s handling of terrorism and homeland security (40 percent disapprove), an 11-point boost since May, returning the president to levels not seen since early 2005. (emphasis mine)

WTF?!?!?

This makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever. Whoever responded to this poll & approved of Bush on terrorism that didn’t a couple months ago (of course the ones that approve period are whacko, but at least they’re consistent), I am honestly shocked that people so dumb could work a telephone. Let’s deal with this shit, shall we?

-Those arrests, first of all. Contrary to President Dumbass’ explanation, none of the extraordinary powers he requested had any hand in those people being caught. The arrest in Britain was thanks to a tip from Pakistan and also, oh yeah, in fucking Britain! It was also rushed, by request of Bush so it would coincide with a GOP event, which may have deprived the brits of evidence to use against them. Did I mention it was in Britain? As for the others, that story of the arab immigrants US citizens w/ the misfortune of being of palestinian descent & living in Texas* “caught” w/ a ton of throwaway cellphones & money reeks of racial profiling, they just won’t admit it, and those guys in Miami were a joke. That leaves the Seattle jewish center shooting — oh, wait, that guy actually got to hurt people. Oops…

-In any non-political setting, when people approve of something that they didn’t before it’s because they adapted to the situation and/or somehow improved the service. Nothing policywise changed between the last poll & this one, so there was no reason to say “waitaminute, he’s doing good now!” That some apparently did, assuming that the samples were similar, is mind-boggling.

-If you think about it, what’s being asked is itself innacurate. The question should be if you approve of the TACTICS taken to address terrorism & national security, not a “how’m I doin?”. Also, these kind of things should come w/ a questionaire verifying that only people who know WTF is being discussed are counted in the sample, the political tides should not be determined by people who don’t care enough to learn before forming an opinion. If you tell someone what you think but the most you pay attention is a quick glance at the front page of your local paper before flipping to the funnies, that’s not an opinion, that’s a visceral reaction, a nervous twitch that thinks it’s a thought, and neither I nor anyone else with half a brain cares what that mental fart of yours smells like.

-The worst part of it all is what approval itself means. Government feeds off of FEAR, if people are scared they get irrational, if they get irrational they mindlessly clamor for Big Brother to “do something!!” & approve of whatever the hell they end up doing as a result. In politics, image is everything, effect doesn’t matter. Hell, effect on this issue is overblown anyway. There are so many layers to the State that even if by some miracle something done at any level of it makes sense at all, it is illogical to trace that achievement upwards: some cop lucking into a plot in, say, Colorado does NOT mean that the ideas of some empty suit in DC are a success.

If all this is too much, let me ask just one thing to the people frightened into Bush worship: if your fear of terrorism is going up, then by what standard does that mean success? Hmm? Think about that one & get back to me.

For our sake, I hope this poll is not even close to being representative. Cuz if it is, the US lost…

(* - in case anyone misreads this, I know they weren’t caught in Texas.)