1. The US has been at threat condition orange (or is it taz) since it was created.
For awhile it was threat level yellow then they moved it to threat level orange. I think that TSA watches too many movies instead of talking to the folks who do threat assesments for a living (i.e. CIA, NSA, FBI, etc). DHS does a poor job of intel (as talked about obliquely by posters who deal with the alphabet soup agencies and DHS on a frequent basis).
Remember 9/11, and be vigilent insted of paranoid.