Just in case you hadn't already figured it out

In reporting on Shrub's "strongly worded speech" attacking John Kerry as a "tax-and-spend liberal" (We can only hope!) last Wednesday, the Washington Post said it

was timed to deflect criticism of Bush's Iraq policy from such key sources as former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. weapons inspector and the State Department. ... The strategy is aimed at stoking public fears about terrorism, raising new concerns about Kerry's ability to protect Americans and reinforcing Bush's image as the steady anti-terrorism candidate, aides said.

Have your fears been stoked lately? No? How about the alert that went out to schools in September? It said

that a computer disc found in Iraq over the summer contained photos, floor plans and other information about schools in their districts, two U.S. government officials said,

according to CNN on Friday. The existence of that alert was revealed the same week as the dissemination of

a separate but more widespread warning put out [by] the Education Department [which] advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege last month in Russia.

The computer disk scare proved to be bogus almost immediately after: The information was all publicly available on the Internet and the disk itself proved to be "connected" to an Iraqi man who was doing research and had no known association with any terrorist or insurgent group.

As for the other warning, it was almost sad. According to AP for Thursday,

[S]chools were told to watch for activities that may be legitimate on their own - but may suggest a heightened terrorist threat if many of them occur.

Among those activities:

Interest in obtaining site plans for schools, bus routes and attendance lists;

Prolonged "static surveillance" by people disguised as panhandlers, shoe shiners, newspaper or flower vendors or street sweepers not previously seen in the area;

Observations of security drills;

People staring at or quickly looking away from employees or vehicles as they enter or leave parking areas;

Foot surveillance of campuses involving individuals working together.

"Omigosh! That man is looking at me! He must be a terrorist! Oh no! He stopped looking at me! He's definitely a terrorist!"

The feds are

advising schools to take many steps to improve the security of their buildings. Those include installing locks for all doors and windows, having a single entry point into buildings and ensuring they can reach school bus drivers in an emergency.

Or, in short, making schools even more like prisons than they already are.

Thanks for the link to the Post story go to AmericaBlog.

Footnote: This gem is from Friday's story:

"The horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own country among parents, students, faculty staff and other community members," Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a letter sent Wednesday to schools and education groups.

And just in case it hasn't, we'll do our best to generate some.