Threat level was raised to "orange", which is a consequential step. At least it's from something that actually happened, and not a campaign-assistance stunt as happened during Bush years. Remember?

The threat level was "orange" on Wed so unless this yahoo is also a time traveller, it's not because of him.

Could this be a weak attempt to attack the US because a stronger one had been thwarted when the US blew up the terrorist training camp in Yemen last week?
Why is rep Pete King getting hysterical? Is this the same rep King that held fundraisers for the IRA to blow up British people?
During the run down to the presidential election McCain said he knew where Bin Laden was and was going to get him after we elected McCain, did he decide not to tell us now?

Really, Bernard? You may be right, but then the presumably legitimate news source below are idiots or liars:
http://www.examiner.com/x-12767-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m12d25-US-raises-terrorism-alert-level-to-orange-after-possible-terror-attack-on-plane

More:

http://www.newser.com/story/76930/attempted-act-of-terrorism-triggers-higher-alert-level.html

(Newser) - The US government has raised the terror alert level for airline flights to orange, the second-highest designation, after today’s incident involving a passenger on a Detroit-bound jet that the White House says was "an attempted act of terrorism." Earlier, a 23-year-old Nigerian claiming ties to al-Qaeda tried to ignite a powder he had smuggled aboard the flight from Amsterdam.

And from DHS.gov:

* The United States government's national threat level is Elevated, or Yellow.
* For all domestic and international flights, the U.S. threat level is High, or Orange. See the Transportation Security Administration for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines.

OK, so the general level is yellow and the flight level is *reported* to have been raised to orange *after* this incident - where is this "Wednesday" coming from? tx

Neil B, there are a lot of headlines saying the threat level has been raised to orange, but I can't find this stated in any article actually written by a journalist, as opposed to aggregated from headlines, which are often written by someone who didn't actually report on the story. And when there's a breaking story like this there are often errors.

I am pretty sure it was orange the last time I traveled (November). At that time, as always, the announcements at the airport stated that the DHS "has raised the threat level to orange." FWIW, several of the articles on this story at talkingpointsmemo.com say specifically that the threat level has not been raised.

In the linked NY Times article, it states:

"The official said there were no immediate plans to elevate the nation’s threat level, which has been at orange since 2006."

Wow, I stand corrected. Yes, see Wikipedia at bottom, etc. Considering what I read around, this is a sad commentary on the quality of today's "news" outlets, or many of them at least. See link at that TPM with phrase 'The US as now raised the terrorist alert status to US air flights to "orange"'. Here's the paydirt at the MSNBC link, which the writer of the TPM column didn't take into the phrase!:

News organizations, including msnbc.com, initially reported that the government had raised the terrorism alert for flights after the incident. Those reports were inaccurate; the flight alert had been at orange before the incident.

Damn, can't we have a consistent, reliable take on something as basic and consequential as this?

In addition, the alert has been raised to High [Orange] on a select or partial basis three times:

* August 1 - November 10, 2004, for specific financial institutions in northern New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., citing intelligence pointing to the possibility of a car or truck bomb attack, naming specific buildings as possible targets.[19][20]
* July 7, 2005 - August 12, 2005, for mass transit systems only. The DHS secretary announced the level after the 7 July 2005 London bombings despite the absence of "specific, credible information suggesting imminent attack" in the United States.[21]
* August 10, 2006 - present, for all domestic airline flights and all international flights to or from the United States, with the exception of flights from the United Kingdom to the United States. Flights from the United Kingdom to the United States had been under a Severe alert, but were downgraded to High on August 13, 2006.

Sorry about that! Jeez, who can I trust?

(Oh, BTW: that mistake was reported by some "news organizations" not just aggregators! Or is that report about the reporting, itself suspect? That is really shoddy, they are supposed to have better fact-checkers etc. Combined with their asshole commentators like Broder and Will, the MSM are looking more and more like cheap trash all the time. I will have to be much more careful now, even about the basic "factual" stuff I would have expected them to get right.)

Does this mean we are gonna have to take our pants off at airport screenings now?

If anything, this shows what a joke Bush-era security measures have always been. They can't stop this nonsense from happening. It's always been just a show to make it look like they were doing something about it.

No Passport? Welcome aboard

Does this mean we are gonna have to take our pants off at airport screenings now? -JB @ 11:10

Apologies to Monty Python...if only for the days when all we had to do was take off our pants.

One should not make too much of this incident. In the last eight years, there have been millions of flights, two attempted ignitions (Richard Reid in 2001, and this jackass), and no airplanes knocked out of the sky. That's actually a pretty good record. It's harder for one man to bring down an airplane than the conventional wisdom supposes. And, because there's one less fool to worry about, flying today is safer than it was yesterday.

I just flew from Miami to Detroit this morning on American Airlines. Although the Miami terminal was very crowded, the security checkpoints moved at a good pace and there were no extra measures that I could see nor were they any different than the last time I flew.

I'm not surprised both Reps. King and Hoekstra are exploiting this. No one ever lost an election by misunderestimating the fear and loathing of the American voter.

What a joke. I suppose the Pentagon will ask for hundreds of billions of more dollars to bomb and shoot missiles into Yemen because some jackass tried to set his underwear on fire. Since we have already declared war on "terror", which is a tactic, maybe we should declare war on camoflauge. Hey, those al-Qaeda guys wear camoflauge a lot, so why not? God, I hope Obama doesn't overreact to this nothing of an incident.

Digby has a great take on "new security measures" (click on "Fergawdsake") :

Fergawdsake

According to a statement posted Saturday morning on Air Canada’s Web site, the Transportation Security Administration will severely limit the behavior of both passengers and crew during flights in United States airspace — restricting movement in the final hour of flight. Late Saturday morning, the T.S.A. had not yet included this new information on its own Web site.

“Among other things,” the statement in Air Canada’s Web site read, “during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps.”

The suspect, identified as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, tried to light his explosives while the plane was descending into Detroit on Friday.

The suspect was wearing a white t-shirt and drank two diet cokes, so the TSA will be banning those on all flights as well.

The Blinky believes that this incident will result in further tightening of airport security laws. Furthermore, The Blinky would care to postulate that it will be used as a means of clamping down on immigration.

Blinky is King! Blinky is King!

Detroit attorney Kurt Haskell dropped bombshell revelations concerning his eyewitness experience of the Flight 253 attack and how the FBI detained a second man after dogs detected a bomb in his luggage on The Alex Jones Show today. The FBI has not only ignored Haskell?s story, but they have launched a cover-up by refusing to even acknowledge the existence of another man who filmed the entire flight, including the aborted attack, as well as the well-dressed man who aided the bomber to board the plane even though he had no passport and was on a terror watch list. Search "Kurt Haskell Veterans Today" for the missing information you need to ask the right questions!