You will be shocked, shocked to learn this.

Would you have guessed this in a million years?

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. – USA Today, May 11, 2005.

Juliusblog did, in August of last year. He observed that whenever Bush’s ratings dipped, there was a new terror alert. He compiled all the HSA terror alerts for a period of 46 months and logged them against Bush's poll data from 15 different sources to create this chart (click here to enlarge):

And here's what he found out…

Every terror alert is followed by a slight uptick of Bush approval ratings.

Whenever there are many unfavorable headlines, there's another alert or announcement (distraction effect).

As we approach the 2004 elections, the number and frequency of terror alerts keeps growing, to the point that they collapse in the graphic. At the same time, Bush ratings are lower than ever.

In response to today's inconvenient news outbreak, the administration briefly evacuated the White House and the Capitol to protect our government from a possible terrorist attack. Really and truly, they did.
UPDATE: Something I hadn't thought of...

Everytime the Fed Government raised the terra alurtz states had to shell out millions of dollars for readiness.

However at the same time:

Bush cut funding to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness, which supplies a variety of first-responder grants to state and local governments, by $800 million, to $3.6 billion in 2005 from $4.4 billion in 2004. [Department of Homeland Security, 2005 Budget in Brief, www.dhs.gov; Congressional Quarterly, www.CQ.com]

Thanks to Parker for the catch.