Be sure to read Andy McCarthy over on the homepage today, as he examines the Obama administration’s Alinskyite effort to alter the terms of debate in the public square: “overseas contingency operation” for war; “individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay” for enemy combatants; “man-caused disasters” for terrorism. Doubtless, those good, old-fashioned terms will be kept in reserve, and trotted out for use in the most preposterous contexts, in true Orwellian fashion.

The last of the three Newspeak items above is the most portentious for Planet Gore’s policy ambit. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s efforts to avoid the term “terrorism” in favor of “man-caused disasters” prompted a reporter from Germany’s Spiegel Online to ask whether the U.S. was still under threat from Islamic terrorism. Her response?

Although I did not use the word “terrorism,” I referred to “man-caused” disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

Madame Secretary is no longer restricted to the thankless task of preventing terror attacks here at home, but at preventing “man-caused disasters” of all kinds. (And apparently, she is ready to confront her expanded portfolio of disasters cheerfully, having moved past the politics of fear.) There can be little doubt that by this “nuance,” the rhetorical space is being cleared to involve DHS in the Obama administration’s climate-change efforts.

As Chris Horner and I were saying over e-mail last week: get ready for the global war on carbon terror.