Valerie Plame Testifies; FBI Issues Terrorism Alert

Nightly news anchor: Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame testified today that her cover was carelessly and recklessly revealed by the White House ...oh ...wait just a minute here ...we've just received a bulletin from the FBI that, and I quote, "suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police".

Oh my! Well, it seems they've also concluded that "parents and children have nothing to fear" and "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety", according to the news release.

You know, two of my little darlings ride what my daughter likes to call the "cheesewagons" every single day. I guess we all need to be just a bit more careful these days when it comes to taking a second look at who's driving our children to school and back just in case there might be any "suspicious activity" going on.

My, that's frightening!

Coming up, as soon as we return from our short commercial break, we'll let you know what to expect for your weekend weather.

Flashback to 2005:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.

"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "

(That confession just never gets old...)