Again With Political Celebrities! Jeez.

TEXARKANA, TEXAS Shannon Richardson had been married to her husband less than two years when she went to authorities and told them her suspicions: He was the one who had mailed ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg threatening violence against gun-control advocates.

When investigators looked closer, they reached a different conclusion: It was the 35-year-old pregnant actress who had sent the letters, and she tried to frame her estranged husband in a bizarre case of marital conflict crossing with bioterrorism.

This Is How Terrorism Works

I have a sweet commute. I'm literally less than a mile and half from my job. Some mornings I ride a bike to work (12 minutes) once in a while I can even walk (half an hour); this morning I got out of the house a little late and I decided to drive (5 minutes) and grab a walk around lunch time.

But the traffic was awful. My usual westbound route was too crowded so I drove the other way, hoping to bypass all that mess. I went a couple of blocks east, then a block north, only to discover a complete standstill on the road leading to my work cul-de-sac. What's worse, there were a lot of people on foot. Now there are some serious wildfires about 15 miles west of here, so my assumption was something was burning. 

Since I wasn't moving anyway, I opened the window and asked one of the pedestrians what was going on. "Bombs!" he said. "Road's closed!" I resolved to inch forward to the next turnoff and go home. 

Now this is the interesting part.

You may recall a few weeks back I wrote an extraordinarily stupid tweet. And in response, my favorite nemesis WAMK published my name and work address. So I admit that my first thought when I heard "bomb" was to consider whether I'd brought this on the whole industrial park, and if it would be better if I just kept my mouth shut before someone gets hurt. As it turns out, the bombs (or empty pipes, no details yet) were located really far from my office and it's safe to say that it had nothing to do with me.

Still, when you boil down terrorism, it's about threatening violence so someone who is saying something you don't like will shut up.(If someone goes through with the violence it makes the papers, which means the terrorists have an ally). Threatening is  what I was doing with my tweet, and it's what WAMK did by publishing my work address. And thankfully, no one is going to shut up any time soon. So this time, the terrorists lose. But I gotta tell you, I'm really regretting that tweet right now. Free speech is best left in the hands of adults.

Loving America By Dismantling Her Proud Traditions

What's for dinner tomorrow? Turkey? TERRORIST!

In a little-known strike against freedom, yet again, we are being forced into consuming meat slaughtered by means of a torturous method: Islamic slaughter.

Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus, and the jugular vein, and letting the blood drain out while saying "Bismillah allahu akbar" -- in the name of Allah the greatest. Many people refuse to eat it on religious grounds. Many Christians, Hindus or Sikhs and Jews find it offensive to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual (although observant Jews are less likely to be exposed to such meat, because they eat kosher).

...Non-Muslims in America and Europe don't deserve to have halal turkey forced upon them in this way, without their knowledge or consent. So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom. Find a non-halal, non-Butterball turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. And write to Butterball and request, politely but firmly, that they stop selling only halal turkeys, and make non-halal turkeys available to Americans who still value our freedoms.

OMG, they're everywhere! Grow your own turkeys! And vegetables! Don't drink from public fountains! I have a friend whose friend ate some halal jerky and they totally started worshipping Allah.

I went to a number of Thanksgiving dinners where they said grace right in the room with me, and yet I'm still Atheist. Still, if she wants to open up a market for, let's say, ethnically pure turkeys with some kind of premium put on them, I suppose it won't be bad for business.

A Startling Glimpse Into The Afterlife

It's curious that they thought Quadaffi would hold onto his looks like that but hey, details.

Union Thugs Spouting Violent Rhetoric

Oh my mistake. It's community organizers. Still, since all Muslims are terrorists, who can blame them for hating those women and children?

You Can't Rely On Amateurs

Listen, you want a mosque blown up? Don't be passive/agressive and repeat a message like "boy, it sure would be good if that Mosque wasn't there in Dearborn. Yep, sure would be good." Because you're only going to attract talent like this.

A California man is in jail on a terrorism charge after he was arrested in Dearborn for allegedly trying to blow up the biggest mosque in metro Detroit, Dearborn officials said today.

The suspect was arrested in the parking lot of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn on Monday, while hundreds were inside the mosque that sits along Ford Road, police said. He came to the city because of its large Arab-American and Muslim population, police said.

Roger Stockham, 63, was arraigned Wednesday on one count on a threat of terrorism or false report and one count of explosive-possession of bombs with unlawful intent for possession of Class C fireworks, Dearborn Police said.

...Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly said the suspect "had a lot of high-end fireworks."

"It was the max you could buy legally."

They were not "conventional explosives," O'Reilly said. "But at that level, those things misused are terrific weapons."

No, they're TERRIBLE weapons. You can get much better for less money if you know what you're doing. But people who know what they're doing have tight schedules and can't just go out for a weekend on a lark to blow stuff up. They need a little cash up front.

Listen, don't be fooled by Al Queada. They get one thing right and everybody is terrified. But most of the time it's just a buncha idiots and they fail. Don't use that model, if you want to get anything done. Ailes needs to go with one of the classicists, like Hitler or at least Juan Peron. Half-measures don't accomplish nothin, Roger.

They May Have Been Wrong About All The Torture, and the Degregulation

Turns out the incompetent car-bomber was Muslim, probably related to a terrorist organization. Surprisingly cheerful lookin' fellah too! I don't know what to make of that. A lot of people say that the motivation was to punish Viacom for that South Park episode, but... well, I'm not going to try to climb inside the guy's mind but Comedy Central's offices are also in New York, and Viacom famously scrubbed the episode of all references to the prophet. Why not set up your pathetic non-bomb across town instead? No parking?

Anyway by all accounts Faisal Shahzad is singing like a canary, despite being read his Miranda Rights and no torture. All torture could add in this case is conferring martyrdom on a sad, confused individual. Whom we would then have to hold indefinitely because we could not effectively prosecute an American citizen who hadn't been read his rights.

Meanwhile even Sara Palin says don't trust the oil companies, via twitter:

Gulf: learn from Alaska's lesson w/foreign oil co's: don't naively trust- VERIFY. Livelihood affected by spill?Don't sign away remedy rights

Some might say that a way to streamline the individual negotiations among landowners and oil companies might be, I dunno, regulation by the government. 

Demand Racial Profiling Now! ***Update***

My friend Warner Todd Huston writes this in his blog yesterday:

I won’t go much into the failed car bomb that could have killed hundreds in times Square, New York last night. I have no new insight into the incident itself but it is obviously the work of al Qaeda-like terrorists.

I managed to keep out of the news cycle all weekend but this bomb scare has made it all the way to this morning, so it must have been big. And indeed the New York Times/WaPo talk in the streets suggests there was an Islamic threat.

The Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility in a video posted on YouTube. Kelly and federal investigators said no evidence had surfaced linking the group to the bomb.

A monitoring group reported a second video from the Pakistani Taliban – apparently dated early April – of their leader promising an attack on major U.S. cities "in some days or a month."

IntelCenter, which keeps track of militant media messages, said today in Islamabad that the nearly nine-minute video appears credible.

But they also say this:

Investigators poring over hundreds of hours of surveillance video identified a man Kelly described as white and in his 40s, who appeared to be acting suspiciously.

Given the "amateurish" nature of the failed attempt, one could conclude that the Taliban wasn't behind it at all. They're pretty well organized. More likely I think, this is another crazy local guy who believes everything that Glenn Beck says. If it makes you feel better, he could be a Democrat but I bet he's not affiliated with ANYONE. Like the Democrat who flew an airplane into a Texas IRS building. Or the Democrat who shot up that place with those people. If he didn't have a long beard, he ain't Taliban.

They've got video so it may not be long before they catch this guy. I can't wait to hear more.

***Update*** What I'm hearing is that God only knows who the hell tried this.

...And The Crowd Goes Wild

I don't care how Sean meant it... the important thing here is how the crowd perceived it.

This Oughtta Buy 'Em Some Votes

It's too early to tell anything, but I'm a blogger and we jump to conclusions here. I'm prepared to retract any mistakes as the facts come in.

So you have heard about this:



Guy crashed a small engine plane into a Texas building which housed several offices of the IRS. The Austin-American Statesman thinks it was flown by the guy who wrote this.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

You certainly can't tell from the letter if he's a rightwing or leftwing crazy, though there's a strong whiff of Glen Beck in his words. On the other hand, he's from Los Angeles.

Still, I hope that Steve Doocey of FOX AND FRIENDS won't try to peddle that "for the most part all the people who tried to blow airliners out of the sky pretty much look alike, look similar" line again. Because I'm betting that Joe Stack and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab share few identifying characteristics.

I'm anxious to hear whether this is incident is ignored or denounced at CPAC; and I'm hoping at least one of the Tea Party Boys says "well it's wrong what he did, but he did it for the right reasons." Going to be an interesting news cycle!

Narrative Problems

Short memory department - Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" also managed to get on a plane, was noticed by passengers (they complained of a smoke smell in the cabin) and subdued by them. And yet conservatives say that there were no incidents of terrorism during Bush's watch. These same people are complaining that the incident involving Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab over the weekend constituted a MASSIVE FAILURE of the Obama administration to keep us safe.

I think we should get Dana Perino in here to clarify.

An Airline Security Proposal that Ought To Please Everyone ***UPDATE***

Eureka!

Having given some thought to the statistic I quoted yesterday, about the likelihood of you being on a plane during a terrorist incident, I think I have found a way to improve the system. Some feel that security measures at airports are unnecessarily time-consuming and largely ineffective; others feel that they aren't draconian enough. Nobody is satisfied with them the way they are, even the people responsible for them.

I think the checkpoint is in the wrong place.

In most airports everybody passes through a massive bottleneck to get to the inner terminal, then they go on to their individual gates. The main checkpoint is run by the TSA.

Where the checkpoint should be is as close to the departure lounge as possible. And instead of one, there should be a lot of them. If possible one for each carrier. Virgin should have their own checkpoint, United should have theirs, and so on. And yes, the airlines should fund the whole thing and the government should get out of that business. The airlines can cooperate with the FBI or DHS but it should be their show.

What's to like about this? It allows the consumer to pick an airline that has the security level they're comfortable with. Maybe you're willing to pay more for a company that screens for shampoo, maybe you're not; in either event it's your choice and you're not a victim of some arcane policy decision. People like me who think there is little chance of hijackings and explosions would pay less and get on a plane where they just check your IDs and wave you through.

I'm not even sure it would add to the price of the ticket, but there would surely be a reduction in the federal debt. Maybe the lines would be shorter as well. And a free-market security solution would be more nimble and timely than one that relied on regulation.

What's not to like? Inconsistency I suppose; and worry about whether a terrorist would choose a difficult target because it represents a greater payoff in fear or an easier target because it's you know, easier. If you worry that the majority of airlines would opt for lighter measures because it's cheaper, then that's a problem but it means you also have less faith in free-market economics than you probably claim.

***UPDATE*** WAMK says he proposed this idea several years ago on his old Townhall Blog. I can't honestly say I remember, but I can say that he's probably right. He does an awful lot of travelling by air too, so he'd have an incentive to come up with this plan.

He also says I ridiculed him for it, and I can't wait to hear what I said!

Fox News Personalities Need To Be Shot

Who knew that this is how they felt about it? Fox News, Via Think Progress:



Meanwhile, O'Reilly says Gays aren't hurting anybody and should be allowed to do whatever they want.

How DARE You, DHS? ***Update***

Even Wonkette is telling us to not make too much of this.

A gunman armed with a shotgun walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington today and opened fire on a security guard before being shot and seriously wounded by two other guards, authorities said.

The security guard and the gunman were both transported to George Washington University Hospital with serious injuries, police said. A hospital spokesperson declined to release information on the condition of the two.

A third person sustained minor injuries in the shooting, according to police.

A law enforcement source identified the gunman as James W. von Brunn, who is known to authorities as a white supremacist.

To be fair, even though the guy is a prominent white supremacist, I haven't found anything that says he's Right Wing. So consider this a place marker until we learn otherwise. I promise as soon as I find out a political affiliation I'll post.

***Updated*** This doesn't prove he's right-wing. I mean, maybe he's a PUMA. In any event, he was on the "where's the birth certificate?" bandwagon.

*** Updated Again*** And there's this, signifying possible membership on a Ron Paul mailing list.

Great News For Terrorists

Not just terrorists, but anyone who is frustrated by that whole "rule of law" thing.

A long, difficult chapter in the struggle over legalized abortion came to an end today, when the family of slain physician George Tiller announced this morning that it would permanently close his Wichita abortion clinic, Women's Health Care Services.

Tiller, 67, was shot to death in the vestibule of his Lutheran church on May 31, where he served as an usher.

The shuttering of his clinic means there are no abortion providers left in the Wichita area, and only two other clinics in the country that perform late-term abortions, Tiller's specialty.

Los Angeles Times 6/9

I'm predicting here that no one is going to say it was right that Dr. Tiller was shot, but it's a good thing that the clinic closed down. A fortunate coincidence, if you will. And if the other two don't close down soon, maybe we can hope for more coincidence. And while we're at it, should we really just stand by and allow people to perform gay marriages?

The Point At Which This All Stops Being Funny ***Updated***

Look, most dissent is healthy. Government needs it for guidance, and our Government requires argument. It's built into our constitution. That's why laws are written by committee instead of the king.

Going up a step, a lot of Conservative dissent is not just healthy, but hilarious. Did you know that the National Organization for Marriage recently announced an initiative called 2m4m? What's funny about that? Check this out. This "Tea Bag" thing tomorrow? Doesn't anyone in the Republican party have a familiarity with the phrase "teabagging?" Not even Vitter?

But then there's this, and it's where I start to get scared. There is a 10 page document, purportedly from the Department of Homeland Security (okay, it probably is) which analyzes the threat posed by right-wing extremist groups. It is intended to be a guide to police officials: "LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION NOTICE: This product contains Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) information. No portion of the LES information should be released to the media, the general public, or over non-secure Internet servers. Release of this information could adversely affect or jeopardize investigative activities."

So first of all someone probably on the law enforcement side leaks this sensitive document, despite the fact that it tips off militias and crazies to DHS strategy, which is cavalier at best. More importantly, the blogosphere is rallying around this document as though it targeted the right.

It's specifically about extremists who are right-wing. But the whole right seems to be identifying with it.

That's what's scary to me now, that they root for the terrorists as long as they're terrorists who agree with them. Terrorism itself, that's not so bad. Sometimes it's necessary to blow up a mall to get the point across that higher taxes are bad. Sometimes you have to hijack a bus, otherwise the liberal media won't listen to the facts about Obama's citizenship. They wouldn't hijack the bus themselves, but like the Al-Quaeda sympathizers who fought us in Iraq, they wouldn't stop the hijackers.

I know I'm stepping over the line here and I welcome assurances that all terrorism is bad in the eyes of my readers. What do you two guys say?

***Update*** OMFG! The DHS wants to IMPRISION ME TOO!

A Guy I Can Use to Demonize the Republicans With

There is much about James G. Cummings for the right-wing base to admire. He's a millionaire, he hated Barack Obama, and he had the courage of his convictions. His only crime is that he went a little farther than most on a couple of things.

After local police attended the scene, the FBI moved in and sealed off the building. Men in protective suits descended on the home but police refused to comment about what they found. Mrs. Cummings was taken into custody.

Then on Jan 12 Wikileaks revealed a confidential FBI field intelligence report on the incident as part of a Presidential inauguration threat analysis.

According to the FBI report, Cummings had four lots of one gallon containers of bomb-grade hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium (also radioactive), lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium (radiation booster), boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon.

While the radiation levels from Cummings initial device would have not have been physically significant compared to its explosive and toxic effects, had Cummings set off the device in Washington DC, during Obama's Presidential inauguration, its psychogenic effect may have hospitalized thousands.

The FBI states it also seized literature on how to build “dirty bombs” and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60 and other radioactive materials.

There was also evidence linking Cummings to white supremacist groups, including Cummings' membership application to the US National Socialist (Nazi) party.

Local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home told Maine reporters that Cummings was an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with a swastika. Cummings claimed to have pieces of Hitler’s personal silverware and place settings.

See, it's wimpy to just "hope Obama fails." That's pretty weak sauce, dude. It takes the can-do spirit of an American Millionaire to try to assemble a dirty bomb and prevent the inauguration itself! And what stopped him? Wasteful government spending on Law Enforcement, that's what. Okay, and Amber Cummings, who admits to shooting him after years of so-called "domestic abuse."

By the way, I'm not going to call the late Mr. Cummings racist, because I know how sensitive you guys are about stuff like that. He just disagreed with Obama's policies, obviously.

Hey. aren't we supposed to invade America now? We were harboring a terrorist after all.

Not The Tiniest Bit Cynical

Yesterday the story came out that in July, George Bush secretly approved orders to allow US Special Forces to carry out ground assaults in Pakistan without informing the Pakistani government. This is a problematic bit of foreign policy, but then Pakistan is a problematic ally. On one hand, it's great to have their support because they're geographically well-positioned for our bases, being close to Afghanistan and Iraq and (shhhhh!) Iran. 

On the other hand, they fuckin' hate us. They hate us so much that they forced the one guy in the country who had a nice thing to say about George Bush out of public office. So this stunt isn't likely to make them like us any more. So do we still need their cooperation? Or is Bush kind of running a fire sale here?

I think it's the latter. I think Bush came to the conclusion that Musharraf was never going to give up Bin Laden and decided that he had to go in himself. (The extended commander-in-chief self, of course.) Still you wonder, why now? Why not, say, just AFTER an election? See where I'm going with this?

Bush is doing the party a favor by finally knuckling down and catching Bin Laden.  Ideally a couple of weeks before Halloween, to give McCain something to run on. If they already HAVE Bin Laden, I hope he has the smarts and bile to commit suicide while waiting to be presented to us.

It could also be timed this way as a desperate last-ditch attempt to salvage a troubled legacy, but given the way the terror alerts always spiked around elections (or when a distraction was needed) and the timing of Saddam Hussein's trial, this looks like the action of a man who can't be troubled to fight terror unless there are bonus points for Republicans in the deal.

My Love Affair With Press Releases - I'll Take The One In The Turban

Juicy selections from SALDEF, "the nation's oldest and largest Sikh American civil rights organization."

TSA Changes Head Covering Screening Procedure in Response to Concerns of Religious Profiling

Washington, DC - Oct 16, 2007 -- This afternoon the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced a new security screening policy that will go into effect at U.S. airports on October 27 and apply to all religious head coverings. The change is a direct result of collaboration between TSA, Department of Homeland security (DHS) officials, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) and other Sikh organizations in response to the concerns of the Sikh American community over a procedure implemented on August 4, 2007.

The August 2007 procedure disproportionately targeted Sikhs for secondary screening due to their turban, an article of faith, like the Jewish kippah (yarmulke) and Muslim hijab. The turban is an integral part of the Sikh faith and identity, and removal of the turban in public is akin to a strip search. The procedure resulted in Sikh travelers being forced to undergo an invasive pat-down or removal of the turban. The turban was the only religious article listed as potentially requiring additional screening. Furthermore, the procedure may have resulted in a misallocation of national security resources due to the heightened focus on Sikh passengers solely because of their religious practice of wearing a turban.

And here's the fun part:

Under the new procedure, a Sikh traveler's turban will be accommodated during the screening process by providing additional options to satisfy the security requirements. According to TSA, the revised procedure states: "TSA will now include the screening procedures for headwear within the overall category of bulky clothing and will not call it out as a separate category. Removal of all headwear is recommended but the rules accommodate those with religious, medical, or other reasons for whom removing items is not comfortable. Transportation security officers have several options for screening passengers who choose not to remove bulky clothing, including headwear."

The gains for Sikhs, to summaraize - you will still be profiled and unfairly singled out, but your turban will be called "bulky clothing" instead of "turban." Oh, and instead of making you remove it, they will x-ray your head. Progress!

Additionally, all 43,000 TSA screeners will undergo Sikh cultural awareness training before the Thanksgiving holiday travel season. The trainings will include two tools developed by SALDEF in collaboration with the US Department of Justice: 1. A training video: On Common Ground: Sikh American Cultural Awareness Training for Law Enforcement [watch video]; and 2. A poster called, Common Sikh American Head Coverings [view poster], that TSA is distributing to all 450 airports across the country.

These kinds of cultural awareness programs have done wonders with local law enforcement. Why the LAPD underwent such training after the Rodney King incident and there has been nary a problem since then.